"They said they were going to kill Raphael?" Terry asked again. Darius scowled, as he pressed an ice pack to his cheek that was slowly turning purple. "I told the king that Eliza's coven would be the most likely to strike first. Raphael should not have gone by himself." Darius said darkly. "Have you ever known Rafe to listen to anyone but himself?" Helena said sharply. "So, he's that stubborn with everyone, then?" Terry asked. "Yup. Since he was born." Cassie said, taking a bite of her apple. "Should we even be talking about this, right now?" Lauri asked uneasily. Dorian glanced at her, Lauri's eyes weren't on the conversation, but on Victor who was pacing by his throne side to side his hand, on his chin rubbing at his goatee. He'd been doing that ever since Simeon had told him was the three witches had said. Dorian noticed that Lauri herself was lightly rubbing the mark that symbolized her connection to Raphael. "Can you feel anything from the mark?" Dorian asked. Cassie turned, looking at Dorian and Lauri both. "Can the marks do that?" Cassie enquired. "Raphael said he felt that Lauri was in danger, in pain." Simeon said in answer to Cassie's question. "I can't feel anything, other than the pain from the torn flesh." Lauri said simply. "That mark might not even be valid anymore," Helena said, eyeing the patch that partly covered the sunburst design. "Zafira's bite couldn't broken the seal." Helena said.
Lauri narrowed her eyes. "You seem very knowledgeable of Marks." She said. Helena scowled. "You could say that." She said, raising one of her sleeves. In her pale forearm there stood in stark contrast a visible pawprint angrily red, that stood bright on her skin. Darius raised his arm, and in the exact place in his right arm stood an identical mark. "Wulf clan." Darius muttered. "Forever marked because of who our parents are." Helena said simply. "Born this way." Dorian muttered, raising his left arm a simple black triangle stood out in his skin. Simeon pushed his tunic away from his chest revealing a simple palm leaf on his skin. "Mage of Green." He said.
"Why did those witches call Eliza the true Mage?" Lauri asked, Simeon. "Because Eliza has a high opinion of herself." Simeon said. "Mage, just means one that studies magic. Eliza feels that she's above most other witch folk because she not only studied magic, but she has created new spells and has her own separate Grimoire."
"Grimoire?" Cassie asked, picking at the meat of her half-eaten apple. "Grimoire's are basically witches cook books."
"Except instead of Apple Pie, you get poison."
"Depends on what kind of witch your talking about."
"Or Warlock."
"Don't all witches and warlocks have high opinion of themselves?" Cassie said snidely. "Bite me." Simeon said half-heartedly. "What can we possibly do?" Simeon asked sighing. "The King isn't going to give up his evil brother in exchange for his son. No matter how much he loves Rafe." Cassie said. "He can't anyways. Nathaniel is already being punished for what he has done." Darius said. "I only came back to let Victor know for sure where his brother is. And I'm not telling anyone else what I said, no matter what torture those screwy witches can come up with." Darius said shortly.
"Something tells me that Raphael can deal with torture. But death?" Terry said. "Raphael is not going to die." Helena said. "I think I have a plan. But it's completely stupid, and reckless and will probably result in someone if not all of us being banished." Helena said her voice dropping.
"I am so in." Cassie said.
"Reckless, and stupid definitely sounds like my kind of plan." Darius said.
"Why is it whenever the two of you are involved we always end up doing something mind-numbingly reckless and stupid?" Dorian asked sighing.
"Does that mean, we're going to save Raphael?"
"That means we are going on a field trip." Terry said grinning widely.
The Plan
"Why does the South feel like the Louisiana Bayou?" Darius complained. "Will you shut up." Helena hissed. "Do they always fight like this?" Terry asked leaning against one of the trees. "Always." Simeon muttered beside him. "Can you remind me why you are here instead of Dorian?" Terry asked. "That's because Victor has always trusted Dorian. Since he was a child. Dorian is the best bet to make sure we will have enough time to save Raphael." Darius said. "This plan is asinine. These witches hate us more than anything." Helena said pointedly looking at Darius. "I have tragic luck when it comes to women, it's true." He said sighing. "And that's why I brought this." Simeon said pulling out a vial with what looked like an orange flame. "What is that going to do?" Terry asked looking at the vial uneasily. Even two years in Vemos, he was still wary about all the magic that Simeon possessed and used. "This vial will take away all of the witches' powers." Simeon said. "Thank god for that. These witches are scary with their magic." Darius said. "And even scarier without their magic." Helena added. "When the vial breaks it will release a dark fog for over forty minutes. That is the time we are going to have to take out as much witches as we can and find Raphael."
"So, break the vial." Terry said. "Not yet. We need to get closer."
"We still need to make sure that we can easily find Raphael. So, here's the plan. Darius and Terry, go left. You and I will go right." Simeon said pointing at Helena. "We'll meet in the middle." Simeon said, grabbing Helena and running off. Terry's eyes widened. "What middle?"
"What middle."
"He means the middle of the fighting and screaming that is sure to happen." Darius said tugging Terry along. "I'm starting to regret being volunteered for this."
"Don't worry Dorian will never let us down. Now let's go save your brother, from certain doom."
The Ballroom
"And what are you doing here all by yourself?" Dorian said, a playful smile on his lips. Lauri looked up at Dorian and felt her heart jump in her chest. Dorian looked happier than she had ever seen him. "What is that on your face?" She enquired, amused when she noticed his smile dropped slightly at her enquiry. "What?" he asked sauntering towards Lauri. "Do you have dimples?" she said waving her finger at the circular indents that lined his face with laugh lines that she had never seen before on a face that had only ever held seriousness when he looked at her. Dorian scowled. "In my defense, I haven't had a lot to smile about."
"We just got word that Raphael's been kidnapped by a gaggle of lunatic witches. Why is that anything to be happy about?" Lauri asked her eyes narrowing at Dorian's unapologetic face. "Raphael has made it clear since Terry has been here, that he doesn't approve of the young prince. So, you will excuse me if I'm not a little bit happy that Raphael is the one we now have to save. To make things even more interesting Darius, who Raphael despises possibly more than Terry is off to save him. And if that isn't a cause for celebration I don't know what is?" Dorian said grabbing the staff Lauri had been twirling. "So, are you going to tell me what your doing here?" Dorian continued, throwing the staff up in the air catching it deftly and twirling it behind his back before catching the staff in his other hand.
"Both my teachers have gone and left me." She said raising her eyebrows. Dorian smiled. "Just don't tell Victor that. As far as he knows, Terry and Helena are on a patrol, and Darius and Simeon are training you." He said, throwing the staff up higher once more this time the staff twirled in the air before it completely disappeared. Lauri gazed up at the dust motes that spun in the sun beams that escaped the tall rectangular window panes that made up the circular roof of the ballroom. Lauri felt Dorian hand slide into hers, and she turned to look at him when he twirled her in a tight circle, bringing her to a stop at his chest his other arm snaking around her waist.
"Won't everyone be in trouble if he finds out that you all lied to him." Lauri said ignoring the fact that she was in Dorian's arms for a moment. Ignoring the heat of his hand on her waist. Ignoring how right it felt to be dancing with him. Swaying to nothing but the beats of their hearts.
"This is the kind of thing that happens when Simeon, Darius, Helena and Cassie all end up in the same room together. They make these kind of crazy ideas, hopefully Victor won't find out they've gone until after we get Raphael back."
"What makes you think they will succeed?" Lauri asked, wondering at the certainty of Raphael coming back. "Raphael has always been a tough bastard, and Darius and Helena are two most dangerous cutthroat assassins that you've never seen. Your father used to call them the Bow and Arrow." Dorian said, twirling Lauri once more in his arms.
"Is there a particular reason we're dancing right now?" Lauri asked. Dorian smiled once more. "Besides the fact that we are in a Ballroom? That is what these rooms are actually used for, by the way." Dorian said.
"Isn't this how this whole thing started? With a dance? With you dancing with me the night before my wedding?" Lauri asked. "I couldn't help myself. Seeing you in the moonlight in that blue dress, you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You still are."
"Those are dangerous words."
"I seen incapable of doing anything it seems, then fall for girls that can never be mine." Dorian smiled sadly at Lauri. "The truth of the matter is that the first time I saw you in that pavilion I saw my sister Samara."
"I never knew that you had a sister. What was she like?"
"I've spent nearly twenty years not thinking about her. Samara died because of Nathaniel. He used her to prove a point to the rest of the council." Dorian said, his eyes looking up at the roof. Lauri blinked realizing that Dorian was close to tears.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay, she'd been banished and forced to endure seventeen years as a human. It was one of Nathaniel's favorite punishments at the time."
"What exactly did she do to be punished so severely?"
"She took the wrong person's side in Court. He made sure that Nathaniel felt that she needed to be punished severely. Half of it wasn't even her punishment, my father at the time had angered Nathaniel and I think he took half his anger out on her."
"Everything that I hear about my father sounds horrible."
"That's because he was. Horrible and brutal. The kind of King, that had the love of all the dark creatures that lives in Vemos. But not of the people in the court. The people he bullied, the people he thought wasn't good enough to be living in the castle side by side with the royals."
"People like you, you mean?"
"Nathaniel had a thing about my people. You know that I come from a family of Aristocratic servants. In our family all the males were given the responsibility of one of the royals when we hit maturity. I was given to Victor, around the same time my sister was given to a family in one of the courts. Nathaniel had some sort of issue with my father. I'm not really sure what the issue was exactly. But I do know that one day my sister was here in the castle living her life, and then she had been banished to live a human life. The thing was, my sister because of who she was and how her banishment ended up going down she forgot who she was. She started to live as a human. To fall in love. But she was my sister. Victor gave me permission to wake her up. She had a year left in her sentence. But she'd fallen in love. Which was an even bigger crime. And she knew it. I think she thought that if she took her life, it would somehow save my father and I." Dorian said shaking his head. "In any case, she jumped off a cliff, into rocks. She died on impact."
"Dorian I---"
The doors flew open and one of the royal guards ran in. "Dori. We have a problem." He said in a rush.
"What kind of problem? Is it Terry? Did something happen with the mission?"
"It's not about the south. We've heard news about an uprising in the East."
"The Vamps. Kieran."
"Who the hell is Kieran?"