Akeldama

The manor was eerily silent due to how he had lied and told the Council and his mother that upon reflection that he wanted to apologize for the way he had been acting in secret, of course. So, following tradition, they had sent out their underlings into the night. What they didn't know was at that moment, their charges were being put to the sword by the forces Giovani and Salvatore had put together. Who's blood was going to be used to forge the sigil to keep his mother, he hoped, from ever stepping foot on the property. Wrapping his arm around Mary's shoulders as the darkness of the hall engulfed him.

******

Helen was growing impatient. Her fingernail tapped on the armrest of her throne. Her chin rested on the palm of her left hand. Her eyes ran over the nobles who chatted excitedly at the prospect of Conner kissing their asses. As she looked more closely. There were a few missing, the few that voiced their opposition to the punishment that she had levied on her son. Which she found rather odd. She knew every noble got the message to gather in the Council chamber. She knew so because she had Lynn send the message out. Never once had they disregarded her summons.

"Do you think he's coming to his senses?" Lynn asked in a low tone as she stood beside her Queen.

"What do you mean?" Helen's eyes flickered over to her.

"I mean, obviously, Conner is taking his time so he could appear to save himself from some of the humiliation of having to ask for our forgiveness. I think whatever has been playing out in his head due to his years in confinement has finally worked its way out of his mind. Why else would he call us here?" Lynn stated with a smile on her lips. Knowing if that was the case, then it was only a matter of time before he grew tired of the woman that's been hanging around for far too much to her liking. Then she knew it wouldn't be long before she found herself right where she truly belonged; at his side and on the throne.

"Hmm... I don't know, Lynn," Helen muttered, growing uneasy for some reason. Feeling her skin crawling, unaware of those that surrounded the manor that were chanting into the night to forge the sigil to forever take away the one thing Helen truly loved.

Her eyes darted about as the shadows of the room grew, encircling them. A darkness that even her own eyes couldn't peer through, yet those yammering fools failed to see the danger that was creeping around them.

"Lynn..." Jumping from her throne when five dark shadowy tentacles penetrated Lynn's chest, lifting her off the floor as she screamed out in pain. Looking away as those tentacles ripped her body apart, sending her blood and juicy bits flying throughout the room, coating her and the Council members in Lynn's gore.

Her head snapped to the left as the Council, too, were impaled on those same tentacles. Her own arms and legs were in a whirl of motion to keep those tentacles from laying claim to her body. She was not going to go out like everyone else!

"Conner!" Helen roared in anger at the audacity that her son would rise up against her. Her own son! The boy she raised and taught for countless centuries. "Show yourself, you coward!" she yelled. All the while, that sensation that she had been feeling before grew into a burning sensation as if... "No, he couldn't have?! He wouldn't?!" Helen shook the thought from her mind.

"Coward?" Conner's pale blue eyes breached the darkness that shrouded his body and hid Mary from his mother's eyes. "I did tell you that they needed to be culled from the world, did I not?" Conner stated in a wicked tone; the paleness of his duel fangs were bright against that black backdrop as his menacing wide grin appeared on his lips. "I warned you, you took something from me that you had no right to. You murdered my wife because I wouldn't toe the line. Your line! That all ends today," Conner said darkly as he stepped out of the shadows. The glint of the light of the room played along the length of his naked blade in his hand as he stood poised to face off against his mother. "Did you think I was alone in that abyss you threw me into?" he asked, holding up the amulet that Giovani had given him when he found another before this all started. "Did you think I wouldn't learn of who you are, Lilith?"

Watching how his mother hissed at the amulet as it dangled from his left hand. How the image she has shown for so long faded away as it caused her to revert to her true form. His eyes ran down her twisted horns. His coat was ruffled by the beating of her bat-like wings. Her tail, lined with spikes, whipped behind her as she bared her fangs at the one item that was keeping her at bay for the moment. How long it would last, Conner didn't have a clue. He just hoped it would last until Giovani and Salvatore were finished.

"Foolish boy, that amulet won't protect you forever, soon it will crumble, and then I will kill you for the aggravation you have caused me," Lilith uttered in a demonic tone.

"Now there's the mother I remember," Conner shot back.

"Did you think that destroying my Council, forcing me to reveal myself, that you were going to kill me with a simple sword?!" Lilith belted out a laugh at the thought. She was a little annoyed that she couldn't rip her son to shreds due to the amulet keeping her at bay.

"No, mother, I might have gone mad in that coffin, but even I'm not so stupid to think I could kill an immortal. However, I can banish you and take from you what you value the most just as you have taken from me," Conner stated with an evil gleam in his eyes.

"No!" Lilith roared, her thunderous voice shaking the very foundations of the room.

"Yes!" Conner hissed evilly. "How does it feel knowing that the one that was supposed to love and cherish you turns on you, just like you did to me!" Flipping the amulet around his left hand and holding out his hand, his palm facing his mother. "Out Lilith! I adjure you in the Name of God, and in the names of the three angels sent after you, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Samengelof, to remember the vow you made that when you find their names you will cause no harm, neither you nor your cohorts; and in their names and in the names of the seals set down here, I adjure you, Queen of Demons, and all your multitudes, to cause no harm to a woman while she carries a child nor when she gives birth, nor to the children born to her, neither during the day nor during the night, neither through their food nor through their drink, neither in their heads nor in their hearts. By the strength of these names and seals I so adjure you, Lilith, and all your offspring, to obey this command!" Conner roared, repeating the incantation that Giovani had found. Listening to his mother's howls of pain as he repeated the incantation as many times as needed. His unnatural eyes noted a slight movement before that formless shadow darted across the room and whisked his mother away.

Conner just stood there dumbfounded as the dripping of the blood echoed in that silent room as it returned to its normal setting. His eyes darting about, looking for anything that might hold a clue on who saved his mother from his righteous wrath. That was until he peered down and saw the bare footprint in the blood that was pooling on the floor. "Sin." Was the only word that escaped his lips. He knew it had to be her, given how she was the only one of the seven that came to torment him that appeared to have a human form. If you discount the evil, sinister nature of the beast that his mother had spawned. Nevertheless, a sinful smile gradually formed on his lips when Giovani had sent word that the deed was done. That her capital was now his for as long as the sigil held.

His sword fell from his hand, clanging on the floor as he turned to look at Mary. Who leaped across the floor and into his arms. Holding her aloft as she buried her face into his neck when she wrapped her arms around it. Conner knew the war wasn't over; he and his forces had just won this battle. There was no telling when or if his mother would appear again, and that time he wouldn't have the element of surprise on his side. He knew she would come for him, maybe not tomorrow or the day after, or a century from now, but she would come for him. When that day came, he just hoped he had a means of killing her. Otherwise, he doubted he would see another sunrise.

******

Two days later...

Regan's brow was soaked in blood sweat as she grimaced against the pain. Her wails filled the manor as their child came into the world. Conner stood in the shadow of the corner of the room with Mary at his side, eagerly watching on as the vampire, who used to be a doctor that was cast aside by his maker who Giovani had saved and brought into his house, worked to ensure the birthing process went unhindered.

For two days Conner had worked tirelessly down in the underground chamber beneath his mother's former quarters, which now belong to him. To prepare one of the rooms for their child and Regan, so the two of them were never apart from one another.

"Conner?!" Regan cried out, her hand reaching out to him.

His body moved in a blink of an eye before he stood at her side. Her hand slipped into his, crushing it as her pain flared as she pushed. Seeing the happiness in her eyes that he was still with her and that all her friends, new and old, were still in the mortal world. Brushing his hand along her hair as Regan passed out after the final push. The screams of their child filled the room as the good doctor brought their daughter into the light. Her little duel fangs gleamed in the light as her tiny arms and legs flailed about as she wiggled in the man's hands.

"My King?!" Salvatore burst into the room, causing Conner, Mary, and the good doctor to turn their attention towards him.

"What is it, Salvatore?" Conner asked as Mary moved up to his side when the doctor cleaned their child of the blood that covered her body. Listening to her soft mewing as she peered loving down at their daughter.

"It's the Council...?!"

"Go, I'll watch over them until your return, like a good Queen should," Mary stated in a loving tone; the light glinted off the ring on her left finger, foretelling of the wedding that only transpired yesterday. "You best hurry back, or we're libel to have this little one already spoiled," Mary cooed down at the babe as she took her into her arms. "Isn't that right, Callidora?" Watching Callidora (meaning gift of beauty), staring up at her with a wide grin as she made silly faces down at her daughter. Mary lifted her gaze, feeling her cheeks heat when Conner peered back at her as he stood in the doorway. "Go, we'll be fine," Mary spoke; blowing him a kiss, she swayed Callidora in her arms.

Upon entering the cleaned and rearranged Council chamber with half of the nobles that sided with him sitting on the left of him and the rebels that joined his cause were to his right. With Patience, Giovani, Nico, and Salvatore taking his seat as head of his newly formed House.

"Gentlemen and Ladies, what seems to be the problem?" Conner asked as he took his throne.

The End.

Epilogue

Somewhere unknowable...

Screams filled the hot air as her hips swayed, her bare feet burned on the heated stone. Her soulless eyes held glee within them as she wandered her father's realm. Her fingers tapped rapidly against one another as she savored the torment she had brought to her half-brother. How she loved the rage she saw whenever she took delight in torturing him with his dead wife.

"Mother, you know I'll be very happy to go teach that upstart a thing or two on your behalf," Sin said as she approached her mother's throne. Noting how her mother has yet to stop peering at the mirror that hung to the left of her throne.

"Why would I want that? Conner is doing exactly what I want him to do," Lilith replied, laughing evilly as the image of Callidora graced her silver back mirror.

[1] Shalim - god of dusk in the Canaanite culture.

[2] In Greek mythology Erebus (/ ˈɛrɪbəs /; Ancient Greek: Ἔρεβος, romanized : Érebos, "deep darkness, shadow" or "covered"), or Erebos, is the personification of darkness and one of the primordial deities.

[3] Also known as a Chinese hopping vampire.