An awkward silence developed between Elena and Queen Jessica. Elena looked at the maids who were tending to the garden. Some stole glances at her but neither looked happy. It must be difficult working under the queen.
"Rumors has it that you've not yet consummated your marriage," the queen said earning Elena's attention. She stared at her, her lips slightly parted in surprise.
As to the best of her knowledge, Elena knew only Jophiel had such information. How then...
"People talk when offered something they don't have. It's a manipulation technique every royalty should have. You need to learn that if you aspire to be queen one day. Drink!"
Elena held the steaming cup close to her lips, all the while avoiding the Queen's eyes.
"As the queen mother, it is my duty to see to it you've given Gabriel heirs."
This woman! Was there anyone less evil than her in this doomed vampire castle? Elena was no fool. She knew what the queen wanted to achieve. With Gabriel having a nameless breed as his heir, the throne would be just but a rumor to him.
"You're very clever, aren't you?" She asked. The queen locked eyes with her and lifted her lips into a smirk.
"I admire your thinking. You grasp thinks really fast for a human." She paused, staring longingly at Elena. "That's all for today."
Elena never felt better! She was quick to her feet, ready to be miles away from her scheming mother in law.
"Enjoy the rest of your day, Your Majesty," she curtsied and left the gardens.
*****
Seated in a corner of a tavern, a hooded figure spied on a group of knights who were enjoying themselves with rounds of fresh blood. His eyes particularly settled on the ginger one who had a whore seated on his lap.
"He walked past me, his teeth still intact that time. I looked him in the eye and said, 'Move you son of a whore'. You should have seen his face that time!" He made a funny face that earned laughter from the other knights.
"You should have seen him wriggle in the executioner's chair. The executioner carved his fangs out like butcher does to meat on a bone. And there, two fangs dropped. The end of the Bastard Gabriel Sinclair!"
His fellow knights burst into an uproar. "Fresh blood for the brave cunt!"
"I won't be having more of it. I'll take it from the source," he said eyeing the curvy human whore who sat on his lap.
The crowd cheered on him as he shoved his way upstairs to the pleasure house conjoined with the tavern.
Gabriel drowned his drink in one go and followed the knight closely. He followed the spiral stairway that led to the rooms. There were several rooms in the hallway. He caught the scent of the human and followed it. Moaning sounds were coming from every room he walked past until he halted in front of a slightly open door.
Gabriel gave the door a slight push, and there on the bed lay the vampire on top of the human whore, completely naked. He had sunk his fangs into the human's neck, or the source as he called it, while his genitals did the rest.
And as if he had sensed someone's presence in the room, he stopped sucking blood momentarily. "I said no one was to come in!"
The human girl shot her eyes open, Gabriel's presence jolting fear in her being. She pushed the vampire off her and cowered to the head of the bed.
"You bloody whore!" The vampire cursed but freezed when Gabriel stepped forward. He shifted his gaze at the stranger, trying to make his face in his dark hood.
"Who the hell are you?"
Gabriel smirked and closed the door behind him. "You're about to find out!"
The ginger made for his sword but Gabriel precisely aimed for his hand, sealing his flesh with the bed's headboard. The ginger, a vicious one, withdrew the knife from his hand and stood up bleeding all over the sheets. The human whore closed her eyes afraid she might see death with her own eyes.
The ginger attacked but Gabriel was fast. He had to admit he was proud of his new profound powers. The fresh set of fangs came with an added advantage. He was now twice as fast as a royalty vampire who were termed the strongest.
In what could be termed as a blur, he moved, his agility encompassing that of lightning. He effortlessly snatched the dagger from the ginger and slashed his joints forcing him into an involuntary kneeling position. He held his hands from the rear and dismembered his bones in a cracking sound.
"Hush now!" He said bending low to meet with the ginger's eyes. "You don't want to disrupt other people's pleasure, do you?"
The ginger held his pain like a child lectured by their parent. "Good boy!" Gabriel held his cheeks.
He lowered the hood revealing his face to the ginger whose eyes grew wide in surprise. "A familiar face, isn't it?"
"Your Highness!?" He managed to say the words.
"I know I'm handsome!" He said, a smirk dancing on his lips.
"Please forgive me!"
"I wish I had the chance to say those words to father before my execution. But you know I'm proud!" His face suddenly grew serious. "While you enjoy whoring, some of us find joy in little things. Little things like chopping heads off and seeing someone's guts hanging outside. Which do you prefer?"
"Your Highness?" The knight's face was clouded in fear, and when he tried to move, the pain came in a fresh spasm.
"Your Highness? Not a bad title for a bastard. Pity I had to hear it in... Well, a death situation," he said purring over his words. He leaned over, probably bored by the knight's attempts to ask for mercy.
He drove the knife through the ginger's belly which had him yelp in pain. He held his face and looked in his watery eyes.
"Bastard!" The ginger spat.
"Bastard? Those are your last words. Come on, you can do better than that!"
Gabriel twisted the knife in the ginger's guts before he split it, opening him up. He walked to his back and held his head. The knife ran through the ginger's neck dismembering every vein that connected his head to the rest parts of his body.
The head dropped on the once white carpet. Gabriel wiped his dagger with the ginger's bare shoulders before kicking the headless body on the floor.
"Pity you didn't get to choose one option." He raised his shoulders as if asking, 'Who am I to blame?'.
He was about to leave when he heard a soft cry from the girl curled at the far end of the bed. She was still naked, droplets of blood smeared on her side profile.
Gabriel walked close to where she sat. She was scared he could tell. "What's your name?"
The girl lifted her face slowly, as if looking too fast would lead her looking into the devil's orbs.
"Flashia," she said, her voice trembling.
"If anyone asks you what happened here, tell them the bastard came for the purebred." He reached for a coin in his pocket and placed it on the table adjacent to the bed. "For your troubles."