Shadows of Desire Ch. 09

Before Rowan could respond, Caroline walked back the way she had come, leaving Rowan alone in the dark, waiting, as the hours ticked by. The longer he sat there, the further into despair he fell. If Thaden were searching for him, Rowan feared he would find him too late as he was now mere hours from his death.

***

The Queen moved through the darkened halls as though the devil were at her feet, hurriedly navigating the corridors, pushing servants out of her way, and doing her best to avoid contact with everyone she saw. She couldn't allow them to see her in the state she was in. She couldn't show them her weaknesses. Finally she had made it to her chambers, rushing through the doors, she ordered her ladies to leave at once and once she was alone, she slammed the doors closed then leaned her back against them and let the tears that she had been holding back fall freely.

"Damn him!" She cried out into the empty room. "I should have killed the little bastard with my bare hands." She took a moment to compose herself then moved to sit on the edge of the bed, cursing herself for allowing Rowan's words to affect her so. The child knows nothing. She thought. He certainly doesn't know me, where I come from from, or what I've suffered through. She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dress, certain now that her face paint would be ruined but she didn't care. She didn't care about anything, or anyone. Rowan had been right about that. She only cared about herself. She had to. That was the only way she had survived this long. Caring for others hurt. Caring for another had almost destroyed her. Never would she allow that to happen again.

Caroline remembered the day she had learned that hard lesson. She wept and cried, clawing at the door, demanding she be set free but her husband, Baron Risteard Benneit, had ordered her locked in their chambers. Callum's screams had ceased and Caroline knew that could mean only one thing, he was dead. The one man that she had ever truly loved was dead. The pain of that day had never left her. Not really. She carried it with her, even after all these years. To lose it would be like losing him all over again. The Baron had never been kind to her. Though they seemed to have the perfect marriage on the outside, behind closed doors he was cruel and sadistic.

The first time he had taken her, when she was just a servant in his house, it had been by force. Caroline should have killed him that night. She'd thought about it, but then she thought about where that would leave her. Penniless, alone, and living on the streets. Or worse, if her crime was discovered, she'd be put to death. As much as she hated her life, she didn't want to die. Especially when she discovered that she was with child. Instead, she played the hand she been dealt, gaining her masters favor until he agreed to marry her. In the beginning she was content in her life as the lady of the manor. Despite her husbands cruelty and his lustful appetite, she remained the ever dutiful little wife.

It wasn't until he'd murdered her lover that she really grew to hate the man. That hatred festered and grew into something dark and evil. Every night she would fantasize about killing him and each time it was more gruesome than that last. But killing the man wasn't enough. She wanted to make him suffer. She wanted him to lose everything that he loved. She wanted him to know what it felt like to watch the ones he loved suffer, wither, and then die. That was when she devised her plan for revenge. First the children.

One by one they would be taken from him. Stricken ill and he would be made to watch them suffer. When the children were dead, she would turn her attention to him and oh how he would suffer then. Her cruelty knew no bounds. Perhaps he would be proud of her for that. After all, she learned it from him. Everything that she was now was thanks to him. His darkness had seeped into her very soul and corrupted her, creating the cold and calculating woman that she was now. She was a far cry from the innocent and frail young girl that had been sold into servitude so long ago. That girl had died with Callum. He had taken her heart with him leaving nothing behind but a hollow, gaping, hole in her chest. Perhaps she should thank the old Baron. She wouldn't be where she was now if not for him.

"You are a foul creature, Caroline."

The Queen sighed as she turned to look to the side where she caught of glimpse of Risteard, sitting calmly at her vanity. His flesh was pale and sickly, his eyes, sunken and dead. Oh, how she grew weary of these intrusions. Why could the dead not stay dead?

"If I am." She answered him, her voice sounding tired and cracked. "It is because you made me so."

"Now, now, my dear. Do not blame me for what you have become. I did not create the monster, I simply uncovered what was always there."

"Why are you here, Risteard?" She asked him. "What is it you want from me?"

"I want to see you fall." He rose from the vanity seat and walked towards her. The stench of death clung to him, filling the air with a noxious cloud of poison that assaulted her senses and burned her nose. "I want to see you destroyed, writhing on the floor, screaming and spitting as your own blood fills your mouth, choking the life out of you. I want to watch you die, miserable and alone. I want my revenge."

"If that is all." She laughed bitterly, "You'll have to wait your turn. You're not the only one who wants to see me suffer."

"No, I suppose not." Risteard said, stopping to stand beside her. "The castle is filled with the ghosts of those whom you have wronged. It seems as though your sins have come back to haunt you."

Caroline straightened herself, sitting rigidly on the side of the bed. Her muscles tensed and she worried her hands in her lap. The room became cold, despite the fire burning in the hearth. It was like all warmth had suddenly been sucked out of the room. If Caroline breathed, she was sure she would see a cloud of her breath forming before her.

"You feel it don't you?" The Baron whispered in his spectral voice. His voice, so unnatural, sent chills down the Queen's spine and she shivered. Her hands began to shake, her entire body trembled. "They're closing in on you, Caroline. All those souls whom you have sent to their deaths. They're coming for you."

"Shut your rotting mouth." Caroline hissed. She narrowed her eyes and glared at him, trying to appear strong and unaffected by his words but in truth, she was terrified. Her chambers, once warm and safe, felt like a crypt. A cold, damp, crypt. All around her was the scent of death. The mournful wails of the dead pierced her ears. They sounded distant at first but slowly, gradually, the sounds became louder, echoing throughout the halls just outside her chamber doors. "You don't frighten me." Caroline lied. "You have no power over me. You, nor any of your ghouls. You are not real."

"Oh, I'm real." The Baron told her. "And so are they." He pointed towards the doors and slowly, cautiously, Caroline turned her head to look. She gasped suddenly, moving her hand to her mouth to silence the scream she felt rising up her throat. Through the doors she saw the face's of three young children. The Barons children, whom she had poisoned long ago. The girls hair hung down, partcially concealing their hideous faces. Their eyes, too large and sunken into their skulls, glared menacingly at the Queen. The skin was drawn so tightly and so thinly over their faces that she could see the bone beneath.

Bony fingers reached through the door, next a foot, then another. A moment later they pulled themselves through, almost melting through the wood and appearing on the other side. Their tattered gowns dragged the floor as they moved towards her. Blood poured from their opened mouths. One of them tried to speak but the only sound that came was a soft gurgling and a sputtering of blood and saliva. It was the final sound they had made before death had taken them. Their last attempt at calling for help. Perhaps calling for their father. Caroline was the only one who heard their pleas though and she remained cold, and uncaring, as she watched them perish.

More ghoulish figures began to emerge all around her. Some coming through the walls, others rising from the floor beneath her. Some had the appearance of translucent specters with hair like cob webs and faces twisted in a mask of agony and rage. Others were like rotting corpses, bone and torn flesh showing through beneath torn and rotting robes. Caroline stared, her eyes wide with terror as the apparitions closed in on her. It was as though all of hell were rising, threatening to drag her down to the abyss with them.

"They want blood." The Baron told her. There was no hint of sympathy in his voice, no comforting tone. His words dripped with venom as he spoke. "They want your blood."

"H-how do I escape?" Caroline asked, through trembling lips. "How do I stop them?"

"There is no escape." He answered, "Only death."

"No." Caroline turned her face away from the Baron, hiding the fear on her face and the tears in her eyes. She refused to show her weakness, even in the face of death. "I won't die like this. I can not. I am the Queen! I refuse!"

"This is your only chance to escape your fate." The Baron told her as he pushed something cold, and hard into her hand. Caroline looked down and saw a silver bladed, gilded dagger. She wrapped her fingers tightly around it then looked up into the emptiness of the Baron's cold eyes. "Die by your own hand." He told her, his face void of emotion. "Thrust the blade into your chest. Pierce your heart. You'll die as the silver enters your blood and poisons you but at least you will die with your dignity in tact."

"Kill myself?" She sneered at the specter. "Did you honestly think I would give up so easily?" Caroline rose to her feet, her grip on the dagger tightened so much that the jewels lining the hilt cut into the palm of her hand. Blood dripped down the hilt and down her wrist as she held the dagger up and slashed through the air. The specter of her late husband vanished but his laughter echoed throughout the Queen's chambers. "Demon!" She screamed out into the room that was now filled with spectral faces. "If I die, I'll die fighting!"

The ghosts closed in on her. Skeletal hands reached for her. Their wails reverberated throughout the chambers, echoing in her head as she screamed at them to leave her alone. Again, she sliced through the air. The blade cut through the ghostly invaders as through cutting through mist and fog. Their forms dispersed, only to reform, again and again. The Queen fought her way through the crowd of spirits, slashing and striking with her blade but only cutting through air. How could she kill what was already dead? In a panic, she rushed through the cacophony of cries and moans, waving her arm and slicing through the air in frantic, frenzied movements.

She managed, somehow, to reach the door and quickly grabbed the handle with her free hand. She tore the doors open then froze. Standing before her was a corpse. Not a ghost like the others, but a corpse, rotting, with maggots falling from it's festering body. The corpse had the same ghost like pallor as the others, and the white, dead eyes Caroline had seen so many times before, that stared back at her every time she'd taken a life and, watched that life drain from her victim. This creature was no specter though. She could reach out and touch it if she wanted. She could smell the putrid stench of the grave wafting off the thing, and she could hear it's bones crack as it reached out for her.

"No!" Caroline screamed. She brought her arms up to her face to shield herself from her tormentor. The corpse opened it's mouth to speak and as it did Caroline could see the flesh around it's lips rip and pull apart, revealing the bones beneath. A patch of torn skin hung from it's jaw and, out of it's mouth came an ear shattering shriek that would bring the devil himself to his knees. "Please!" Caroline begged, her entire body trembled with fear. "Forgive me." She cried. "Show mercy, please, I beg of you." The lifeless eyes of the corpse showed no emotion as it continued to stare, it's mouth fixed, opened, as though frozen in place. Again it reached for Caroline, grabbing her by the shoulders and again came that terrible sound as it screamed at her, letting loose with an outcry of pain and rage.

In a desperate attempt to save herself, Caroline thrust her arm forward and plunged the dagger deep into the chest of the creature before her. The blade cut through the tattered rags it wore, through bone, and flesh, until the blade was buried to the hilt in it's decaying body. The corpse gave one last shriek as it looked down in disbelief at the dagger sticking out of it. It stumbled backwards, then crumbled to the ground in a heap of torn and broken limbs. It's face contorted into a mask of shock and pain. A strangled groan escaped it's parted lips and then, it fell, dead, on the stone floor beneath it.

Insane laughter filled the space as Caroline reveled in her triumph of destroying the thing that plagued her. "You see?" She exclaimed as she stared at the body on the floor. "I am Queen! Nothing, and no one, can touch me!" She wiped at her eyes, brushing her tears aside as she did her best to calm herself. The fog that had clouded her room began to clear and with it went the many faces of her victims. She looked back to the place outside her door, expecting the corpse to be gone as well but it wasn't. She closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, it still remained. Taking a step closer, she realized that what she was looking at was indeed a body but, not the mangled corpse that had attacked her.

This body was fresh and new. It was laying on it's side, it's hand still clutching the hilt of the dagger that it had tried so hard to remove from it's chest. Dark, red, blood pooled around it, seeping from the wound caused by the dagger. Looking over the body, Caroline could see that it was a woman. She was dressed in an emerald gown with gold embroidery on the hem and front of the skirts. A mess of dark hair covered it's face. "No." Caroline whispered as she stared in horror at the body before her. She took another step towards it then knelt down and, with a shaky hand, gently pushed the hair away from the face.

Her eyes went wide as her brain finally registered what it was she was looking at. Who it was, that she was looking at. "No!" She screamed in rage as she balled her hands into fists and beat them against her thighs. "No! Gods, please, no!" Her anguished cries shattered the deafening silence of the night. She reached out, scooping the lifeless body into her arms and drawing it close to her chest as she wept, shaking the body, calling out to her. "Please, Emilia, please!" Caroline pulled the dagger from her daughter's chest and tossed it aside. She pushed more hair from Emilia's face and looked down at her. Her eyes were opened, staring up at Caroline with an expression of absolute horror and confusion. Blood dripped from her ruby lips and trickled down the side of her pale, white, face.

"Please, my darling." She wept, rocking Emilia's body back and forth as though she were a small child and merely sleeping in her mother's arms. "It will be alright." Caroline whispered to her. "All will be fine, you'll see." She pulled Emilia's head to her breast and hugged her tight as she howled in rage and despair. "Everything will be fine, I promise. Mother will fix everything. Don't you worry. Mother will make it right."

Reunion

Red faced and out of breath, Elas raced forward, through the trees and to the Prince's tent. "Sire." He managed to get out through ragged breaths. "Two riders approach from the east." He all but shouted at the Prince in his eagerness to relay the message.

Prince Lierin looked up from where he was sitting, bent over a table studying maps of the surrounding area. His advisors sat beside him, all three of the men trying to map out the quickest, and safest route to their destination. "What do we know of these riders?" Lierin asked, a bit annoyed at the interruption. Surly, two riders weren't much of a threat. The guards posted around the perimeter of the camp could handle them if they were hostile.

Elas looked to the ground, shifting his feet as he worried his hands nervously, his face turning red as he stammered out his reply. "N-nothing yet, your Majesty. Just that they appear to be from one of the local villages."

"Fae?" Lierin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Elas nodded. "We believe so, Sire."

Lierin turned to glance at the two men who stood behind him and his advisors, who were still sitting at the table to his right and left. "Nasir, would you and Selanor please go and 'greet' these riders before they reach camp? I want to know who they are, and why they are here."

"That is ill-advised, Sire." Nasir argued. "It would be better to send two of the guard to investigate them."

"I am, sending two of the guard." Lierin pointed out.

Nasir sighed, cocking his head to the side as he watched the Prince carefully. "Two other members of the guard." He clarified.

"They're probably just scouts for a hunting party." Selanor interjected, earning the attention of both men.

"More than likely." Lierin agreed. "But, I would still like the two of you to go."

"Is there a particular reason that you are trying to get rid of me?" Nasir asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Other than your constant hovering makes me nervous, no."

Nasir gave a frustrated huff then bowed. "As you wish, your Majesty."

His obvious disapproval of his assignment earned him a stern look from the Prince which Nasir quickly returned.

Lierin sighed. "There are a hundred men just outside this tent alone, Nasir. They are more than capable of keeping me safe in the twenty minutes it will take you to ride out to two commoners on horse back."

"Let us hope so, your Majesty. Or every man in this camp will have me to deal with." Nasir clenched his jaw as he spoke then bowed once more before leaving the tent, Selanor close behind.

"What the hell was that all about?" Selanor asked as the two quickly mounted their horses.

"That, was our Prince not taking his security seriously. He thinks that since we're technically still on Lycan land that there is no threat of harm."

"And you disagree?" Selanor asked.

Nasir nodded. "There is always a threat of harm. Even within the walls of his own castle."

Nasir offered no more explanation than that and Selanor didn't ask him to elaborate. Ever since Prince Thaden had disappeared with the vampire, Rowan, the Palace had been on high alert. They feared that, at any moment, there might be word of the vampire army moving against them. Now, with news of King Desmond's murder and the Queen ordering all the Fae be rounded up and interrogated, the threat of war was starting to become a reality. The King himself believed his youngest to have been either captured, or killed by the vampires. Lierin didn't want to believe it but with no word from Thaden, and no demand for ransom, the fate of the youngest Eleven Prince was looking more and more grim as the days dragged on.

***

Thaden leaned over his mount, rubbing at his eyes. He had no idea what the time was but he knew it was close to midnight. The moon, full and radiant in all her luster, had nearly reached her zenith. It was the light of the moon that now guided them through the forest and towards their destination, to Rowan. They were in Lycan territory now and even though the wolves were their allies, they still had to remain vigilant. During a full moon, the Lycan clans could be unpredictable and dangerous, especially if two unannounced intruders happened upon one in full transformation. The beast within them might not distinguish friend from foe, or man from prey.