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  My heart sank and pity was all I could feel for her. She clung to her lies all the way to the gates of hell. I couldn't blame her. Self preservation was a strong urge, even for a vampire. But why didn’t she run when she had the chance?

  "As did I," I said, "in both respects,"

  I set my jaw and listened for Victoria. I heard some muffled sounds from the room but before I could open it the door was opened by one of the Royal Guard. There was another of the Queen's Royal Guard stationed inside of the room. They were guarding her from the inside of the room. That was new.

  "Come in," called Victoria, her voice calm and commanding as usual.

  I swallowed hard, not prepared for what I knew would come next. And what I didn't expect at all happened. Lydia yanked her wrist from me. And I let her. We shared a glance in that moment. I desperately wanted her to run, her death more real now than ever before. With other guards there it wouldn't just fall on me. I could deny that I was the one that let her escape though there would still be some shame on my name. But she would be alive. Her eyes were defiant to the end and furious. She rubbed her wrist for a split second. A small part of me withered up as she walked past me, right into the Queen's chambers with her head held high. She walked straight into the den of the monster, our monster, as if she belonged. I wanted to scream at her to run. But I kept silent. I held my tongue.

  "Lydia dear," said the Queen, "What news do you bring me?"

  The Queen smiled at her and that made me extremely nervous. Things were not as they seemed. Something was up. The Queen was political but she had no reason to be polite with Lydia, never had. She had openly disliked her and I being together. Something had changed.

  Lydia went straight to the Queen and knelt in respect, head bent. I followed and stood behind Lydia as jailer. The fact that my captive came so willing had me baffled.

  "I failed," said Lydia gravely, "Sebastian prevented me from carrying out your order,"

  "I see," said the Queen.

  I couldn't believe my ears. I couldn't believe what I had just heard.

  "You ordered what?" I asked, "You-"

  "Silence!" said the Queen.

  Her hand was swift, it came inches within my face, palm flat and facing me as if to forcibly silence me without actually touching me.

  Lydia bent her head lower. I knelt beside her as quickly as I could. The Queen really had lost her mind. She had ordered me to protect Prussia and ordered Lydia to kill Prussia, giving me explicit orders to kill anyone that made an attempt on Prussia. The Queen had set us up to kill one another.

  I could feel the haughty 'I told you so' rolling off of Lydia in my direction in waves. I could see the slightest smirk on her face as she bent looking at her toes. I let my eyes drift sideways toward her and glared. She enjoyed this, not even caring that the Queen didn’t care that we could have killed each other. She only cared that she was right and I was wrong.

  "Prussia is alive?" the Queen asked.

  "Yes," Lydia and I said at the same time.

  "Yes," said someone behind Lydia and I.

  I caught a glimpse of a Royal uniform. It was one of the stealth operatives for the Royal Guard.

  "Was there any indication to Prussia that her life was in danger or that either of them was there?" asked the Queen.

  "No, your Majesty," said the guard, "We staked out the building as instructed and waited,"

  He went on to report the series of events as he had seen them. I hadn't noticed him at all, let alone more than one operative. The Queen hadn't trusted me to protect Prussia. It made sense. The life of a human to the vampire is the same as cattle are to humans.

  "Anything else?" asked the Queen as the Royal Guard wrapped up.

  He paused. I thought for certain he would mention that they were the same team that I had called to recover Lydia after she had escaped. They had been my team. It made it cut deeper that she had used my own team against me. I wanted to know which guard it was but movement would have drawn unwanted attention. And asking a guard to lie to the Queen could get me, and others, killed. I held my breath …and waited. What felt like an eternity must have only been a few seconds but it shredded my insides.

  "We did neutralize an additional threat that had tried to breach the perimeter during the altercation between Prince Sebastian and Lady Lydia." said the guard.

  "An additional threat?" I asked.

  I hadn't caught that either. I had been too busy dealing with Lydia. Though I would have if I hadn't been fending off Lydia. That is what Lydia was good at though, causing complications though put in motion by the Queen this time. Victoria had manipulated us both masterfully.

  "We were able to I.D. him," said the guard, "A vampire from a coven in Brazil,"

  "I want a full report on my desk this evening," said the Queen.

  The guard bowed and took his leave, the other guards closing the door behind him. She dismissed the two guards at their posts and they both removed themselves to the hallway. We were alone, the three of us. I breathed out. Relief that my greatest mistake had been left out overwhelmed me. He would not let me forget, if I could keep my head – literally.

  "Lydia," said the Queen, "Rise."

  Lydia stood up and I continued to kneel with my face pointed at the floor. I had been confused before but now I was just angry. I was angry at the Queen for what she had done to Lydia and I. It was unforgivable. No matter if she thought we were a poor match or not. She couldn't pit us against each other on a whim to have us fight to the death and certainly not over a human.

  "Shall I finish my mission, my Queen?" asked Lydia as she stood tall, ready to please.

  "No," said the Queen, "You played your part, Lydia. And for that you will have what you were promised. You are no longer banished. You will be given a title and you will be reinstated as a functioning part of the Royal Court."

  "Thank you, my Queen," said Lydia, bowing her head in gratitude, "You are kind and merciful,"

  "You will stay away from Prussia," said the Queen.

  "My Queen?" said Lydia.

  "You will not harm Prussia or make any attempts on her life. She is off limits. To disobey my order will not be banishment this time," said the Queen, "It will be eternal death,"

  Lydia was quiet. I could hear the slow opening and closing of her mouth. She wanted to say something but remained silent.

  "Sebastian, rise," said the Queen.

  I stood up, not pleased at all with what had happened.

  "Your orders still stand," said the Queen, "Should Lydia attack Prussia or attempt to harm her you will give her the eternal death. That is my order as Queen,"

  I bowed my head, looking sideways at Lydia so that she could see that I intended to take my orders as seriously as she had hers. Lydia closed her mouth and looked like she might cry.

  "My Queen, she is human," said Lydia, "Our laws-"

  "My laws," said the Queen, "They are my laws, Lydia, and if you remember that you might live at least as long as the one that created you,"

  The Queen's words hung heavily in the room. Lydia looked as if someone had just sucked all the oxygen out of her lungs.

  "You have no right-" Lydia began, her anger rumbling at the insult. Her creator had died to pay for Lydia's sins in the Royal Court to lessen Lydia’s punishment to banishment.

  "Lydia, shut up," I growled at her.

  For once she listened but I could see her lip quiver and shake. She bit it several times, tears threatening to spill. I could see her jaw set, she had found her anger. It’s how Lydia stayed strong – she stayed mad. She barely held it together. And I think she only managed because her self preservation told her she might not walk out of this room if she didn't bite her tongue.

  The Queen looked at me for a long moment. I wanted to reach out to Lydia, hold her hand, comfort her, but the Queen stood and kept us bound by duty and formality. We were not given leave to move, simply to stand stiff, tall and silent. The Queen waved her hand. Lydia turned and left as fast as she
could without running, her emotions threatening to give away her weakness her deceased creator.

  I went to follow but the Queen's hand went up and I stopped. She wasn't done with me. I went back to my straight and tall stance, waiting to see what she wanted. What else had I done wrong? What other games did she want to play with me?

  Once the door to her chamber closed again and we were alone she motioned her hand toward a chair. This wasn’t something she had offered me in years, not since before Lydia was banished. I had had to suffer the same formalities and rituals as all other court members due to my involvement with Lydia. I took a seat and tried not to look too relaxed. It had been a long night, a trying morning, and a terrible afternoon so far.

  She didn't say anything. The Queen poured a drink and came to sit in the adjacent chair. She swirled the amber colored liquid around, more than likely whiskey, in the tumbler. No ice, neat.

  "You had the Royal Guard standing by outside of Prussia's building?" I asked.

  "Absolutely," said the Queen, "I told them to kill Lydia first if she got anywhere near Prussia,"

  "First?" I asked.

  "Yes, First." said the Queen, swirling the liquid around in her glass and then taking a sip, "I can't have someone I don't trust on the Royal Guard, Prince or not,"

  I could believe that the Queen had ordered it. I couldn't believe I hadn't suspected. If I didn't love Lydia I would have killed her. I wouldn't have thought twice, I would have simply followed orders.

  "What if she had killed me?" I asked.

  "I can't have anyone weak on the Royal Guard, either," said the Queen.

  I had underestimated Victoria. She had always been cold and calculating. All of this business with Prussia, all the rumors about the Queen losing her mind, it was all a pretense, a facade. The Queen had a plan and whatever it was she had the whole Royal Court fooled.

  "Did I pass your test?" I asked.

  The Queen set her glass down on her desk and dipped a finger in her drink as if the conversation bored her.

  "I would have preferred if you had killed her, but..." she dragged her finger around the rim of her glass, "given your history with Lydia I am pleased that you did the next best thing, all things considered,"

  "Not with flying colors," I said.

  "No," said the Queen.

  She stopped dragging her finger around the rim of her glass and looked at me then. It was a serious gaze, a gaze full of thought and contemplation. Of what was the real question?

  "Sebastian, the Royal Court is in danger," said the Queen. She finished the liquid in the glass and set the glass down, "There are forces at work. I don't know who but I have my suspicions."

  "You think it's Lydia?" I asked.

  Lydia hadn't been a key player in the Royal Court in years, exiled even from conversing with the family for fear of death upon members of the court. She was outcast the moment the Queen handed out her sentence, a sentence that should have been mine also.

  The Queen waved a hand at me dismissively, "Of course not," said the Queen, "As much as I hate the little opportunist, she's not smart enough to assassinate a human let alone a Royal family member. Murder, yes, but not assassination. No. But I suspect it is someone in the court. It's someone that knows us well,"

  The silence hung in the air. Victoria's eyes glazed and I thought I saw her eyes mist for a moment. She turned away from me. I couldn’t see her face. She looked out the draped window.

  "Then who?" I asked.

  "That's what we need to find out," said the Queen, "I need your support here Sebastian. If the court is taken..."

  She didn't have to say it. It was laid out in her own history. It was exactly how she had acquired the throne thousands of years ago.

  "The Queen falls, we all fall," I murmured.

  "Yes," she said, still looking out the window into the garden beyond, "And what a fall it would be. Not just for us but for the species,"

  And just like that, the sentimental and unstable Queen surfaced. Victoria had been one of the first vampires on earth. She had seen it all, lived to see more than most of us could ever imagine. And no one knew for sure if it was possible for a vampire to become senile. Yet.

  That was the rumor from those concerned about the future of the Royal court. Not only would it mean being ruled by someone unfit but it meant we were not as immortal as we thought. It meant we lived with an illusion of escaping death, not actually succeeding for long.

  The longer you live, the more you want to cling to life. Even if it is a life spent in the shadows.

  CHAPTER TEN - Lydia

  I could feel the heat on my cheeks. My tears disappeared before they made it to my chin, held high. I stormed out of that castle and made a beeline for Sebastian's car. Sports cars have tiny trunks. He could have put me in the back seat and at least given me the chance to tear out his throat and escape. But no, I ended up with a Prince that actually had half a brain.

  The doorman Charles or something didn't let me slam the front door but I'll damn well slam the door to that pretty little sports car. And slam it I did.

  I shifted the luxury car into gear and spun rocks out from under the tires as I left. Pebbles bounced off the door of the castle. I wasn't a Princess but I should have been. And Sebastian wasn't making a move to stand up to his manipulative and crazy grandmother.

  I blasted the stereo. I had somewhere to be but if the Prince wanted to play then I could teach him how the game was played. He loved this car more than anything. If he didn't love me enough to disobey the Queen by now then he was useless to me and I would destroy what he loved most.

  I drove the rubber off the tires as I sped towards my rendezvous destination. I was late. And it wouldn't be appreciated though it could at least be explained. I was back in the Royal Court. I was Lady Lydia again and this time I would finish what I had started. This time I would be the one handing out the threats.

  I arrived to the meeting point by early evening. There was one other car there and the cemetery looked deserted as it should have. Why the Master would want to meet in such a depressing and obvious place was beyond me. But I followed orders. So long as it suited me.

  "You're late," she said, a cloak wrapped around her.

  "I'm sorry I'm late playing cloak and dagger," I said, adrenaline still running through me, "I was stuck in a trunk most of the day while the Prince chatted up some human girl,"

  "A trunk?" she asked, she pulled her hood down and I could see her features more plainly.

  I had called her master for years. It hadn't always been easy or worked out but she had yet to stab me in the back and that's where I tried to place my allegiances. The Queen didn't favor me and never would. I had no illusions about that.

  "Long story," I said, "The short of it is that I'm back in the Royal Court,"

  "Very good," she said, "Your timing is impeccable. It's not like you to show initiative. What made you move up your time line?"

  "Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said, annoyed, "I didn't move it up, actually. Victoria offered me a deal and I took it. It was out of the blue,"

  I recounted the night's events and the Master listened intently. She pursed her lips and ‘mmhmmed’ me as I recounted parts.

  "What's with the sudden fascination with the human?" asked the Master.

  "No clue, but her order for me to leave her alone still stands," I said, "And I live down the hall from the girl,"