The Empress was standing still right in front of Nelly. She embodied both the roles of mother and Empress, disappointed and angry in both positions. Her gaze was icy, a silent anger burning under the surface of the stalwart face.
"Why did you swear a blood oath?" Mother asked, her every word dipped in venomous vampiric malice. Nelly sat on the floor in her own bedroom, Gideon's blood still on her fingers. She wished for nothing else, that her mother would just scream, not envelop her in this aura without the escape of pitting scream against scream. "I only taught of it to you, so you wouldn't swear one by accident."
"How are you so certain I didn't do it out of my own free will," Nelly said, in a voice that barely hung on with impossibly thin strings. Mother still perceived every word.
"I chose you to be my daughter. I am certain you were madly in love. Certain you are a fool, but not an idiot." Mother said, yet there was no pity mixed in to her voice. Nelly couldn't find any words to reply. There weren't any words that could explain anything she had done, none that could loosen the vise on her heart.
There was a knock at the door, sparing Nelly from further glares as the Empress bid the knocker in. It was Paco, leader of Nelly's personal guard, a comforting presence in his own right—but not nearly enough in this state of dread.
"Excuse me Empress, the Walsh head has arrived at the compound." Paco said, bowing his head slightly, fist over heart. The Empress listened to the words, gave a nod and turned to give Nelly the iciest glare till this point.
"Do not leave. I will dole out punishment after meeting with the Walsh head." Mother said and turned to leave with quick steps. Quick, but just a few percent above normal speed, but the trained eye of family knew that anger was brewing with every step. The door was left open behind her, and Paco closed door not too soon, not too late—a master of etiquette.
An uncomfortable silence settled on the room, just as Paco settled in his position. Nelly's body crumpled in a heap on the floor, spent. She sunk in to the soft carpet and envisioned every long strong would grow and assimilate her in to it. So she could become a carpet, uncaring yet soft.
Through her jet black hair she saw Paco lift his hand behind his ear, affirmed the message received and turned to glare at Nelly. Glaring was the normal way Paco looked at everyone, his oaken eyes stout as the man's trained body.
"Miss, Gideon has been declared to be in a stable condition." Paco said, and upon finishing his sentence turned his gaze in to nothingness, like he was the unmoving, unseeing oak itself—but a tree in the background.
With the news she sighed, and watched the long strands on the carpet move about in haste. For a moment there was some relief, her husband was alive. Him being alive was fantastic, but come the end of the day would he still wish to be one. How could she ever regain his trust and love. She was at a loss.
"What do I do now?" Nelly said not really expecting a concrete answer. Paco was the man who had been by her side ever since she joined the family. The one man she could trust to stay by her side till his retirement. For answers better than a brick wall—even though it was a fit and handsome wall, she would talk to someone else.
"Nothing miss, you are to stay here according to your mother's order." Paco said voice a step above in emotion from the Empress, but they both shared a similar sin. If Nelly wasn't so used to getting nothing out of this beautiful cold iron, she would have ripped her hair out.
"Sometimes I wish you would just not talk and just comfort me. You are lucky you are good at your job and handsome to a fault." Nelly muttered in to the soft carpet.
"Did you say something miss?"
"Something along the lines of shut up." Nelly said and grabbed a fistful of carpet as the dread surged again.
***
"Paco, am I supposed to be angry or sad?" Nelly asked a few hours later, only managing to crawl behind the bed to hide in all this time.
"I can not feel your feelings for you miss." Paco said matter of fact, not even giving Nelly's words second to linger in the air. Truly a perfect cog in the machine response. Now Nelly knew the emotion she wished to feel.
"I have decided to be angry." Nelly said, channeling his annoying replies into the anger biding in her depths. Anger at herself, the world and Lalage who had broken their trust. There was no reply—all the better to channel rage with.
Nelly rose up with quickness, glad vampirism cured the woozy you felt while standing up after laying down for a while. She grabbed her favorite pillow, regretting her actions even before enacting them. There was nowhere to go but down, so with an animal yell she ripped it in half. White down haphazardly flying everywhere.
She gazed at Paco expectantly, but he didn't react. Typical and expected, yet she had decided this was the time he should. With her favorite pillow gone, next to go was a small glass statuette of a lion. A satisfying heavy shatter resounded throughout the room, when the lion pieces spread all over. The lions impact left a crater in the wall, a permanent reminder of her anger and loss.
Heavily breathing she swiveled, looking for her next target. Her gaze stopped at what she witnessed in the mirror. Redness all over, eyes like raisins, streaks of dried tears and some jet black hair plastered on her face. The black lace dress was disheveled just like the painstakingly prepared hairdo. Classical ghoul vibes.
"How did it come to this. Who is responsible for this." Nelly said motioning at the monster in the mirror. For a second she imagined someone was behind her. A woman, a sister by sweat and toil—Lalage. Her face twisted and sinister. The words she said a few hours ago, whispered again in to her ears 'You don't deserve this'.
The Nelly in the mirror hissed, vampire teeth out, nails hardening and attacked itself. The frame shattered, shards of razor sharp mirror cutting her hands. Some viscous blood dropped on the floor, the rest clinging on, very keen on not dropping from its host. The pain in her eyes reminded her what Gideon had said at their wedding, the amount of sweet had nothing compared to the bitter she was experiencing.
"Nelly are you okay? I came as quick as I could." A familiar voice rang on the other side of the door. Nelly nodded to Paco, who in turn opened the door. A young woman with a blonde pixie cut entered with haste.
Lina Arbore, Nelly's youngest sister, froze for a second, before ordering one of the maids outside the door to bring a first aid kit. Nelly stood unmoving, shards of glass in her hand, more blood droops yielding to gravity.
"That wound doesn't seem to need as acute a healing as the other one." Lina said and squeezed Nelly into an uncomfortable hug. A hug that relied on force used, as much love packed in to each moment as possible. Lina's green dress now stained and uncared for, while Nelly did feel cared for—a small reassurance in this all. "Mom said it was and wasn't your fault. Explain." Lina continued with finality, not entertaining any attempts at refusal.
Nelly held out her hand when Lina started applied the first aid spray that was brought. Nelly didn't really know which emotions were rampaging at this moment. Maybe it was a perfect storm, where the only thing left was a pure calm. The eye of the storm.
"Out." Nelly said to Paco and the other servant who had brought the first aid. Paco corralled the servant out, saving a quarter of a second of their time. Efficient to a t. When the two had gone she continued. "Lalage, she…" Nelly searched for a better way to put it, but gave in. "Lalage that b…"
"-itch" Lina helpfully interjected.
"She betrayed me." Nelly said and Lina repeated the previous line she said. A split second of a smile appeared on Nelly's face, melted quickly to the sorrowful wailing of a broken heart. Nelly proceeded to explain the whole situation to Lina.
The pixie cut girl grabbed her phone out of her pocket. She activated the voice command with a simple touch.
"Magical sister girls emergency meeting!" Lina yelled out into it. Nelly was quickly yanked by her sixteen year old sister and led out of the room.
"Mother ordered I should stay…" Nelly said, but had no heart in her objection. She held her breath, wondering if her lovely sister would drop the same curse on their mother. Lina did.