Nestled under layers of coral blankets is Julius Castello, sweating in the dark and squinting at ancient symbols under the radius of his phone's flashlight.
Sneaking in his own home, what has his life come to...?
The crumpled paper has a square border with shapes aligned over each other, making an incomprehensible mess of squares, circles and one too many lines. They make him squint over and over, maybe if he was dizzy enough or closed his eyes and opens them just barely he'd see a word. or an answer.
Julius gives up on himself and opens the web browser.
"Fiore? Fairy? Fiona? Fire?" Julius words out random guesses while googling the symbols printed on the worn out page. He pulls at his scarlet hair, dwany eyes drooping in disappointment.
He should have paid attention at school when they were teaching Ancient Runes. Were they even runes?
"Fuck you Marlin. I did not seduce my brother's potential wife for three weeks just to read symbols drawn by a kindergartener," he seethes, scratching the blue ink over what he now thought to be a fire symbol.
The ink leaks through the age lines of the paper and stains it.
Julius regrets his past three weeks in a flash. He closes his eyes and the days flash before him— overbearing Estella with flowers in the morning, inserting herself in her personal life on purpose, spending lavishly on her, secretly making things difficult for her just so he could save her from them— doing everything by the 'Cocky CEO's Treasured Girl' playbook.
Julius opens his eyes to a dark reality. His quilts were thick, Julius realises.
He's hunched, like a rock, sitting smack in the middle of the bed, all covered like a high schooler trying crack for the first time— when the door bangs open.
He smelled his brother.
Julius panics, instantly shoving the paper in his underwear and kicking off the blankets to see his brother speed walking toward him.
Honestly the guards are so useless here.
Czar's scarlet eyes shine with malice and ill intent. His white dress shirt is spotless as always and so are his black dress pants. They're soon waiting to be red with Julius' blood. The redhead gulps. Czar's combat boots show hints of having been to muddy places.
Julius crawls towards his headrest, taking the blanket along.
"What are you doi—"
"JULIUS, HAVE YOU BEEN HANGING AROUND WITH DEAD PEOPLE AGAIN?!"
Sticky mud. Czar has been to the mainland. What drove him out of the forest? It cannot be anything but...
To say the red head's eyebrows kissed his hairline would be an understatement. There is no way his brother isn't having him stalked.
"I SWEAR BY MY SELENE IT WASN'T ME!! NECROMANCER PROMISED ME A NEW SCENT! HE CHASED ME!!" Julius panic confesses, pupils hastily avoiding Czar's eye contact. Brother or not, man was as dangerous as they come. Julius did not like taking chances. Julius plans his chances.
He's going to turn the conversation according to his benefits.
"Necro- Dear Goddess, Necromancer, Julius!" Czar gasps out, clearly frustrated as his jaw clenches and neck muscles visibly strain. He pulls Julius by his collar and drags him out of the bed.
Ain't no relative of his making deals with filthy little Necromancer.
"Wait, wait, Czar!" Julius tries to unhand himself from Czar's strong grip, fingers scratching Czar's wrist, whilst the older of the duo pushes him in to a bejewelled wall.
"Fuck," Julius hisses when his back hit an indent. Czar leans in, his tattooed hand firm against Julius' chest and fingers choking his throat.
"When I say, No. More. Partying. With. The. Dead. Or. You'll. Be. One. Of. Them. I mean it."
He chokes him harder by the word.
"Kinky, Brother," Julius smirks as Czar leans increasingly closer, seething. His face in a menacing grin. He looks possessed and he lives for it.
Thankfully he wasn't possessed enough to unleash his pheromones or anything.
"Oh I've got this brand new one where I feed my traitors to my Rosetta," Czar smiles lovingly while speaking his Panthers' name and it is the most concerning thing Julius has ever witnessed.
Czar's lips stretch as wide as his eyes but they hold an eerie hollow within. Handsome men with terrifying smiles.
Julius hastily looks around for the presence of that obnoxiously big pet panther. When he's satisfied of being alone, he continues.
"You know Necro's got the best parties, I can't help it! Dead people really know how to ride the night, you know?" Julius jokes, trying to push Czar off him.
It's a miracle, it really is, how Julius comes out unscathed through all their irrelevant spats— considering Czar's non-existent patience, that is.
"No I don't. Neither do I want to," Czar pushes Julius away, who falls over his bed like a martyr, and speed walks out of the room.
In that split second of victory Julius runs up to his gold embellished windows, pushes them open, looks down the unending castle walls and jumps.
Phew, Evaded.
All before Czar rages back inside with a clenched jaw, shouting, "I can't believe you diverted me from what I was going to say—" but as his eyes befall an empty room and an open window, he sucks in a breath.
There was not a person Selene blew breath into who was immune to Julius Castello's manipulations.
His beautiful raven locks sway as the wind blows, swiftly making it's way past him. Czar can hear his brother jump over roofs, pant and sigh. He hears the rustles of Julius' robes against bricked castle walls. He can smell his scent. It's spiked with adrenaline and a dash of fear.
Mingling with the Vampires and his brother dare show an inkling of fear?!
Unacceptable.
<3
The drowsiness is fading into consciousness. They are dragging her across the ground. She feels her wrists bound to something. She hasn't opened her eyes yet. Darkness consumes her being and gives her momentary comfort.
That is until her senses start registering everything. The darkness amplifies it.
The dragging of her toes against the cobbled path. Her shoes giving absolutely no cushion. That's why we should prefer quality over price, Edith realizes.
Synchronized footsteps sound on either side of her. Heavy boots. Her chains dangle, Edith concludes, because she can hear them clanking against each other.
She doesn't hear Pristine. Edith does not knows if it's a good sign or a bad one.
She does not get time enough to ponder over the situation because the pain kicks in. In a matter of seconds, she feels her hands numbing, toes scratching and bleeding. She feels cold, dragging against the wind, a mere human. Her heart beats slow, throbbing in her ears.
Cold sweat.
But before her brain can register it all and overwhelm her senses— A man falls from the sky. Or somewhere above. Over her.
She wasn't paying attention.
Edith knows it's a man because he groans in his ears like one. Because his pecs over her fingers feel like one. Because she is crushed like one would.
Her eyes blink open in shock. Her head had hit the cobblestone and it pounds as if the blood will gush out of her ears. She feels tingles in her brain, but they are shunned by the vision of a man lying on top of her.
Scarlet curls brushing against her cheeks, azure eyes staring right into hers. His lean body is pressed against hers— Edith's senses have yet to register the man's weight over her— and hands entrapping her skull.
The guards are freaking out around her but Edith is too dizzy to comprehend. All she can focus is on the man, leaning into her neck and nuzzling it.
At that moment, it would be safe to say that her goosebumps could be spotted by one of NASA's satellites.
Edith knows she has to work swiftly and swift she is when throwing her chained arms over his head and capturing him between the circle of her chains.
He yelps and tries to pull away. Edith's wrists hurt but she does not comply.
"Let me go!" the man exclaims to which Edith rolls her eyes. The guards lift the man gracefully whilst she was yanked along like an irrelevant washing advice tag on an expensive piece of clothing.
"Try for yourself," Edith smirks, trying to keep a calm face when she is freaking out on the inside.
WHY SO CLOSE TO MY FACE, BITCH?!
MY WRISTS HURT!! STOP PUSHING YOU DUMB READ BEAN HOE!
IT IS COLD, LET ME HAVE A JACKET!!
WHILE I'M HERE CAN YOU GIVE US FREE FOOD?!
Y'ALL OWE ME A PIZZA.
The man tries to push and pull out of the bind but no effort was worth it without Edith's cooperation. Regardless of being in a situation of absolute loss, Edith feels like a winner.
"Fuck..." he groans out, supporting himself on one of his hands and sliding the other inside his pants.
Edith's eyes widen as she second guess all of her life in a split second. The guard, who was going to shove a spear against Edith's nape stops dead in his tracks.
"Your Highness— not here!"
Edith freaks out. Did she really just capture a pervert?!
The man lets out a low growls and the servants bow their head in submission. Edith tries to get her chains over his head but she struggles without his cooperation.
They're stuck with absolutely no space in between. And he's exploring something inside his underwear and she can feel it! His hand on the inside, moving like a tickle against her thighs. Merlin have mercy.
"Get away from you fucking pervert!" Edith shouts while he's still struggling to angle his wrists. She feels his hand angle closer to her nether-regions. Fuck. She knees him in the balls.
The man falls behind, groaning in agony while having Edith topple over him. Finally, he pulls his hand out with a paper in it. He's pained but accomplished.
Edith is plain disgusted.
She pulls away as far as she could within constraints, not wanting to be pressed against him. "You're disgusting!" the blonde exclaims with a horrified expression on her face.
"Should have known better," The man makes a smug face.
The guards pull them up again, more gracefully this time. Edith almost feels like a person in this strange land. She keeps a distance from his hand, as much as she can, as one of the guards tries to break off the chains.
The man wiggles his 'indecent' hand and Edith almost pukes within distance.
"Its not that deep." He speaks, unknowing how to justify himself. "Don't you know me?" the man asks instead.
The guard works lousily at the chains, dragging the blade against the metal ever so softly. These people had no priorities.
"I don't concern myself with the business of people who shove their hands inside their pants on the very first meeting," Edith replies dryly to which he rolls his eyes.
"I'm Prince Julius and I was taking out a paper. It was almost piercing my testic—"
"How charismatic, Mister Charming."
"I prefer Daddy Charming, Princes—"
Edith bashed her head against his to shut him up. The impact was more fatal for Edith who nearly survived a concussion quite a minute ago. Her head throbbed like a stereo with no music and only bass.
"Shut up, I said."
The guard working on her chains backs away in an instant for the sudden action on Edith's part had unintentionally drove the blade across Julius' upper arm.
Julius does not even realizes it until the guard just drops.
"Your highness! I deserve death! Forgive me your highness! I deserve death!!" He retracts himself in a bow and begs pardon, wailing disgustingly so.
Edith scowls.
"It's quite alright, it's just a scratch, get up, oh my-" Julius rambles, in a state of, what one could say, embarrassment.
"I apologize, your highness, it was a mistake! I deserve death! I apologize!" the guard wails again and Julius presses his lips in a straight line. Frowning.
"Just kill him," Edith mumbles in Julius' ear, unintentionally pressing against his side. "Better relive him of his misery."
Julius turns to look at her, properly this time. She was delicate, dainty, small and...dare he conclude...beautiful. She smiled, yet there was a strange horror befalling within him.
The empty smile. It had a strange hollowness that could engulf a being. So beautiful and consuming. Beautiful faces with horrifying smiles.
"I don't kill my people. Get up Knight, you have an honor to keep," Julius declares much to Edith's displeasure. The guard stands on shaky legs and keeps a respectable distance from the royalty as well as his fellow guards who would punish him after they were done here.
Edith stares at the person standing almost pressed against her. He is not bad to look at, in all honesty. He has chippy red hair and freckled cheeks, the night is heavy over them but Edith is too close for that factor to stand relevant. His eyes hold the flutters of morning within them: You'd hate that they're there but also appreciate them because it's a new start. He gets a dimple on his chin when he talks. It's masculine and prominent, sharp yet soft.
"Who is she? Why has she been imprisoned?" Julius questions and because she is just at the height of his Adam's apple, Edith can see it bob and hear the grumble within. It's eerie, but not in a bad way. She is curious to know more but afraid to enter uncharted territories.
He's a kind perverted wimp, Edith concludes.
"She is one of the hostages form Toril Maely's home, Your Highness," one of the guards answer curtly.
This is the closest Edith has ever been to a guy for this long. The said guy shakes within his restrains. Shock evident on his disappearing eyebrows and hanging jaw.
"Who are you? What are you?! And why haven't I heard of you?!" Julius questions wildly, leaning in to sniff her scent or pick up anything that would disclose her identity. nothing. not even soap. or perfume. or a bad odour.
She was so simple, she might as well be a human.
Edith sucks in a breath as Julius' nose, unintentionally, caresses her neck. She could practically feel her heartbeat quicken and cold sweat break.
She's flustered. Julius can smell it. He smirks, ever-so-gently running his nose from her collarbones to her ear shell. It has her gulping. He breathes over her ear and its warm, almost comforting, against the cold Edith stands in.
He whispers in her, deep and raspy, "Why so silent, Princess?"
He.
Is.
A.
Pervert.
Edith.
Chambers.
Get.
Over.
It.
Her chin attacks his face away from her neck, as she replies vehemently, "And why the heck should you know all of that in the first place?!"
Julius scowls, moving his jaw left and right to make it feel better.
"She is Edith Aberdeen Chambers, 19 years in age, a human," one of the guards read out from a file folder. Edith spells a few sweet curses at him but he pays no heed and continues, "She was appointed as a babysitter for Pristine Maely two hours before Toril Maely's disappearance."
Julius nods to himself. So that's where Czar had been. He gulps, clutching the paper tighter in his hands.
"Mans disappeared?! With my money?! And left his daughter—! what the fuck?!" Edith exclaims, her legs giving up on her as she falls to the cobbled ground along with Julius (who grunts upon being involuntarily dragged). "I did not put up with this menace to come out with empty pockets!"
"She's severely irrelevant to us, why is she alive?" Julius huffs out, annoyed at Edith wailing in his ears.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, considers her of use," the man shrugs in reply.
"What an inconvenience," Julius grumbles only to earn a jab to his gut in return.
"You. It began with all of you!!" Edith counters bitterly. Julius stands up, Edith doesn't co-operate and they fall back again.
"Detain her in the basement, when we are done. Will you?" Julius seethes out, standing up sturdier and letting Edith flail and dangel. He walks ahead with determination whilst she drags behind.
"Why you little drumstick!!" Edith squeaks. She regains her stance, pressed against him, Edith rounds him and wraps her legs around his waist, now clinging to his back.
"Why you little— you, horrible- leech!" Julius struggles for a more appropriate word. His vocabulary wasn't the richest.
Edith sticks, unbothered to Julius' insults and they walk a little distance until...they are attacked.