Fan Fiction ❯ Aranea ❯ Two ( Chapter 2 )

 

 

~Chapter Two~

 

Katharine cornered a male in one of the secluded areas. An escort for a woman, she guessed. She had not put too much effort in leading the male away from other guests, he was eager to follow any willing woman, as he was flirting with most women in the Cathedral. Katharine leaned in, as if to kiss him softly. What a fool he was for even coming to such an event when there was a chance that none would care for him as they were there for the prince. What an even bigger fool he was for following her.

 

As she expected, the man turned his head and bent it forward, to reach her better. He had her hips in his hands loosely, pulling Katharine closer. He was unexpecting. Too inexperienced to even try to probe Katharine's mind for secrets, or if her intentions were indeed as he belived them to be. What a fool.

 

Katharine, when she could feel his breath on her lips, took her hand and laid on the back of his head and turned his face away forcefully. She slowly slipped her teeth past the skin barrier to his blood. She let them sit, waiting before drinking in the crimson life that many thrived on. Katharine wanted the man to know that it isn't the teeth that cause victims to cry out, it's the lapping up their blood that does, the taking away their life just so the hunger would cease that causes the pain in the victim. After he relaxed, assuming she was just 'claiming' him, not about to use his blood to become stronger, she started the pain, pulling out the red liquid from inside him.

 

Katharine let the now dead vampyre drop to the floor. He had not screamed, she was pleased. Taken it like a true vampyre should. She felt stronger, with more knowledge, but not by much. Just a few facts she had not known and a portion of his strength.

 

Vampyre blood did that when drank by other vampyres. Most of what the vampyre knew and some of its strenth went on to whoever drank him. Or her. That was part of the reason she was as strong as she was. She rarely took from humans, the taste did not suit her, seeing as she could not forget the way she was turned. Only when she could not find a member of her own kind did she resort to doing so. Vampyres, however, she prefered. They stregthened her and increased her knowledge. Especially elders. She could take an elder's blood and feel stronger than she felt possible. But she had only had the blood of three elders before and they were amongst the weakest of elders. How powerful were the strongest? And the prince? Katharine was not sure if she wanted to find out or not.

 

She walked back into the main room of the addition to the Cathedral. Many were walking around, just conversing with others, grinning widely. The women were still shifting agitatedly, tired of waiting for the prince to make his arrival. He was, Katharine assumed, to walk down a large staircase from a balcony and walk to the front and raised area of the ballroom. She would be able to get a good look at the prince, if he walked down those stairs, and figure out what type of person he would be.

 

Katharine forced herself not to spin around or jump when a hand rested on her shoulder. She looked at the hand for a short second then turned around casually. She had to help herself from taking in a sharp breath when she took in who was before her. He looked almost exactly like Alexander. Brown hair, cut just a little past his ears, long bangs and dark blue eyes. Tall, also like Alexander but with stronger build but still slim. He had darker skin as well.

 

He bowed to her gracefully, smiling calmly and innocently. "May I have this dance?" he asked her, holding one hand out to her while the other was at his side. For a moment, Katharine did not respond. Alexander had never asked her to dance or anything that indicated he loved her. Never. Only a couple of times had she danced with anyone, both her human and vampyres lives together.

 

Katharine took his hand, smiling the best she could without looking disappointed that it wasn't Alexander. It was best to play it as if she was here to try her hand at the prince. Refusing to dance then walking around, as if looking for something would not bode well with her identity. She realized there was music playing for the first time, as he danced with her to a quiet beat.

 

"My name is Ray," he told her. They moved around the floor flowingly, with practiced ease from both of them. Ray, she could tell, was old, older than most of the elders she had heard of. His eyes, experienced, and his mind blocked strongly to where all she found was an empty mind, and by the way his hands were calloused deeply from working for many years.

 

"Katharine," she said back to him. Katharine looked at his skin, deeply tanned from before he was turned, obviously, and guessed he was originally from the center portion of the earth. Africa, most likely, from his dark brown hair.

 

"If you wish to know, just ask me, young one."

 

Katharine glanced back up to his eyes quickly, surprised. Had he been searching through her mind? "What?" she asked, unable to find anything else to say. "Ask you what?"

 

"My age and where I first lived."

 

Katharine narrowed her eyes. "Fine, then tell me."

 

Ray then grinned, amused. 'You have to ask me. I can't just tell you, that would be bragging."

 

Katharine glared at him now in annoyance. "Why? You already know what it is I wish to know. Why should I bother asking when it is pointless to?"

 

"It's polite to ask and besides, I am not going to tell you until you ask."

 

A few other dancers glanced at them, overhearing their hushed voices barely. "Just tell me." Gods, she felt like a flirting young woman again, pointlessly bantering back and forth in what would be called flirting by others.

 

"Just ask me." Ray, she could tell, was enjoying this. As if he had gone through the same fight many times, yet still never being bored by it. "It isn't that hard, is it?"

 

Katharine snarled at him and his eyes that were sparkling with amusement. "What is your age and where you first lived?" she asked almost in a mumble, not willing to let everyone hear her voice.

 

"Don't know. Egypt. I was there when the pyramids were built. Quite wonderful," Ray said clearly. "I do know I am over six-thousand years old. I saw all of the great pharoahs that ruled Egypt. The prince is just as old as I am, if not a few days or weeks older. I am, of course, counting our arrival to the world as young humans."

 

Katharine stopped breathing. She was standing in the presense of one of the three oldest vampyres that lived. She was dancing with him. Most likely, he was one of the prince's right-hand men. "Surely, you must be joking."

 

"No, I am not. You may even ask Taryn, my younger sister, if you do not believe me." Ray seemed delighted by the look of surprise on Katharine's face. "She's just as old. We were both turned on the same night by the same sire, but born as human's a year apart."

 

As if waiting for her name, a woman appeared next to them, a few inches shorter than Ray and a couple inches taller than Katharine. She had red hair, long, down the small of her back, in a braid, and dark brown eyes with a dark complexion like Ray's. She looked different but like him at the same time. She had a fiery and independant disposition at which Katharine could not help but softly smile. She loved independant women who did not need a man's help. Her eyes seemed to have hints of red in them, under the right light, eager for a challenge worthy of her.

 

"Bragging about our age and homeland again, brother?" she asked.

 

Katharine thought the obvious. 'Taryn.'

 

"No, just telling her what she asked," Ray smiled innocently, his pearl white fangs sharp and visible. He sighed almost defeatedly a moment later when she sent him a disbelieving glare. "Well, she was thinking it and it was obvious the way she was looking at me like she was trying to determine something about me."

 

Taryn ignored her brother. "Don't mind him. He does this to the woman he thinks is most beautiful at each gathering. He thinks by telling her his age and where he lived before he was turned, that the woman will take a liking to him and he can find someone he can love."

 

Katharine frowned and her brow furrowed. "And he thinks I am the most beautiful?" she said, sarcasm hidden in her voice barely.

 

Taryn laughed. She caught the sarcasm. "Yes, he does." She sent him a quick glare then looked back at Katharine. "He does not like the type that fancy themselves up, style their hair exotically and wear expensive dresses with countless layers of fabric and colors. He prefers women who come dressing like themselves, not like rich people, showing off their money."

 

Ray went up behind them, grinning. "That is correct. She knows me all too well, in my opinion."

 

Taryn rolled her eyes. She sighed in amusement when he set his arms around both hers and Katharine shoulders. "You have to admit he's a bit touchy-feely, though. He already has one woman he loves, though, and she does return the feelings. He is a bit of a womanizer."

 

The aura of the room changed suddenly, from light, cheerful and eager to powerful, fire and burning.

 

"All right, enough talking. The time has come." Ray's cheerful, flirting behavior a memory in Katharine's mind.

 

Taryn's face went from understanding and sympathetic to Katharine, to business. "The prince's time to arrive is near. He is almost upon us."

 

Katharine became confused. "Where is he coming out from?" she asked, looking as curious as she was, as well as innocent.

 

"He is not here, yet, dear child," Taryn informed her. "In a moment, he will be. Our prince has his ways."

 

Katharine didn't like the way they were talking cryptic to her. It was like they were telling her, but indirectly. She was about to ask, when the room turned cold quickly, the doors blowing open and letting in an even colder chill, the curtains and tapestries on the walls blowing wildly. It seems that she would get her answer soon enough. She looked up at the balcony, expecting to see the princes figure standing on it but saw only air.

 

"Not up there, child," Ray said behind her, a hint of knowing in his voice as well as amusement. "Over here."

 

Katharine turned around, eyes narrowed dangerously. What was going on, she didn't know and she didn't like not knowing. There, standing at the entrance to the room, was a shadowed figure. All she could see of him was the gleam in his eyes and his form.. Whoever it was, he was turned while he was young, in his early twenties at most. It was easily seen by his posture, he was stronger than most and not one to accept not getting his way.

 

Ray and Taryn glanced at her, Ray giving her a wicked smile, his abnormally long teeth, even for vampyres, glinting in what light there was, and Taryn, she still looked fiery through her stone-like demeanor that she had just put on. The two of them walked over to the figure, one on either side of him. They started to walk, the crowd parting early to let him through but a moment later, they were gone. They had moved in a blur, one by one, the prince first, then Taryn then Ray, all of them now standing atop the balcony.

 

Katharine could now see the prince clearly. He had brown eyes, only they looked more red, crimson. His hair, black, the lights giving them almost blue highlights and short, cut below the ears and his bangs messily low into his eyes. He was muscular, tall and definately not pampered, like most princes were those days. This prince took care of himself and fought for himself. He did not need anyone.

 

The prince looked around the room, scanning the clusters of his kind. He really hated the gatherings but it was for the best. If he did not find a queen soon, before his vigilante vampyres attacked, things would not be well. If he was killed in the attack, and he had not yet found a queen, chaos would ensue, with no one to rule.

 

Ray nudged the prince with his foot. "Come on, Kai, same as all the ones before. Just let loose and follow through."

 

Kai turned his head to look at Ray. His eyes were narrow, and uncaring except to Ray and Taryn. He had fought with Ray and Taryn all the way to the top of power. The previous prince, or King since he had forced a woman's hand to be his Queen, had raged wars against humans, killing them simply for the pleasure of it all. The three of them led a war against the King and won, after over a thousand years of fighting. It was not without a price though. They had all lost the ability to trust anyone besides themselves. And each had lost the one they loved in the war as well.

 

"Shut it, Ray," Kai snapped back.

 

"I am just saying," Ray grinned, his eyebrows raising amusedly. "Move a bit quicker. Many of these women have been here since before dawn yesterday."

 

"Then they can wait a little longer." Kai turned back to the ones below him, waiting for him to make his move, whatever it may be. He walked up the edge of the balcony, his hands resting on the banister. "Welcome to the seventh gathering I have held," he greeted, his voice not showing any enthusiam.

 

Low murmurings started in the crowd below him. Some were surprised at the number, only believing it to be the third or fourth, seeing as four gatherings equaled a total two-thousand years of his reign already. Seven gatherings meant he had been prince for over thirty-five hundred years. Longer than most vampires had been born.

 

"Quiet." The crowd became silent almost instantly. "Let the gathering begin."

 

The intrumentalists started their music once again, sounding lively, cheerful and loud.

 

Katharine had to move her way through the crowd before she was caught in the center of the masses. She made it to the wall of the room and laid her hand on the marble, looking over her shoulder with a look of distaste, her black eyes seemingly judging the ones before her.

 

It seemed that she was the only one who was dressed rather. . . commonly. The other women at the gathering wore diamonds necklaces and rings made of gold with ruby or some other rare jeweled earrings. Dresses of blues and reds and pinks wove around the floors, decorated with laces of different colors and styles. Hairs were curled perfectly to bounce with their every step and every spin and their faces were hidden behind layers of powder and make-up that Katharine did not have the likeness for.

 

She saw Riley walk into the ballroom, her eyes moving back and forth in a search. Katharine saw Ray come down from the balcony in a blur and wrap his arms around her from behind. What Taryn had said was true. Riley had dark blonde hair, wavy and the fronts pulled back behind her head. She wore a sleeveless dark fushia dress, the straps lined with white lace to add a hint of class. Riley, indeed was a natural girl. The only bit of make-up on her was eyeliner to accentuate the shape of her eyes. Katharine watched with a hint of pain as Ray turned Riley around and kissed her softly on the lips, dancing to the music. Riley smiled brightly and Ray grinned into the blonde's hair, laughing in delight from her presense in his arms.

 

She could not help but feel a bit of jealousy at their happiness and love. Ray reminded her of Alexander and Riley reminded her of herself. The only difference was that while Riley loved Ray... Ray loved her back.

 

Katharine looked up at the balcony, away from the two in front of her, where the prince was standing with his arms crossed, his gaze judging the ones below him, as her eyes had done a moment before. Only he seemed to be more strict and cold. Taryn stood by his side, conversing with him, a small smile on her face. The prince replied, his mouth quirked in the smallest of a smile. He still looked around the room, his eyes scanning for a woman deemed worthy of marriage to him. His eyes met hers.

 

She could not break her gaze from his. It was not in her will to do so. She would not back down as if she was inferior and if the prince did not like the insolence, it would not matter. What he thought of her did not affect how soon she was going to kill him. He gave her a small smile, his eyes narrowing amusedly and his head tilting slightly. Then he went on scouring the room.

 

Katharine did not know whether she been accepted and put on a list for the prince to look at or to eliminate as a disobiediant follower. She also did not know which she would have rather been. The prince looked like Alexander, not more than Ray did though, but close enough and the way he seemed to have an air authority and experience, Alexander came into her mind quickly.

 

Katharine looked back down at the ones dancing in front of her, showing off to the prince. Breasts enlarged by bindings and corsets, low collars and thin fabrics. Such ways were sickening to Katharine. How other women could demote themselves to flaunting and throwing themselves around like that, was beyond Katharine. She crossed her arms unconsciously, she was alone and had not a clue what she should do. Even when she was still living, she had not been very attractive, men always going after someone less independant and out-spoken. For someone who hung in a group, instead of straying off to be alone. For someone not like Katharine.

 

Katharine, before realizing it, had gazed off, becoming almost entirely unaware of her surroundings. Her arms were at her sides again, back leaned against the wall, head hung low, the prince in front of her. His hand slipped under her chin then lifted it to see her face. Katharine let him look at her face, his distraction would be an opportunity to kill him. She did not expect him to speak.

 

"How is it that your eyes have turned black?" he had asked her, his hand no longer under her chin but at his side. He was a good foot taller than she, quite an interesting sight, the two of them standing together.

 

"It is the way I was born. These eyes have not changed." How Katharine wished it were true.

 

He only smiled. Like Ray's, his teeth were abnormally long for even vampyres as well. "Somehow, I don't believe that." His voice was harsh, demanding and Katharine could not stop herself from letting a low growl emit from her throat. It was all he needed to have an excuse to lash out at her.

 

"Come on, Kai, let's dance and leave the young girl alone, hmm?" Taryn had come down and saved her from pain and torturous questions she did not want to answer. "Don't forget, each gathering you have to dance with me to one song."

 

Kai rolled his eyes but the way he had sighed amusedly, he wasn't angered at Taryn's interruption. "How can I forget, Taryn, you have black-mail on me and I prefer it to be kept a secret."

 

Kai? That was his name? Katharine watched as Taryn smiled wickedly at Kai. They are just friends, really good friends, Katharine realized. Taryn sent her a smile accompanied by a wink as she danced and Katharine looked away, as if to hide a blush. Katharine walked over to the table where many foods were spread across it. Apparently, many vampyres ate the human food for taste, but it held no nutrients of any kind. She saw Riley standing at the table, putting caviar onto a small china plate.

 

"Havin' fun, kid?" Riley greeted. "The gath'rins' a lotta fun, ain't it?"

 

"Joyous," Katharine replied, her voice not sounding excited at all.

 

"Don't seem to thrilled by it, do ya, hun?"

 

"I'm not. This isn't what I had expected it to be like," Katharine confessed. "I had expected it to be more... organized."

 

"Organized? Hun, this is organized. The lock back there, on the front gate? It had a charm on it that weeded out those younger than five hundred and had come across the gathering by chance. I was chosen to push those women I thought not worthy out, saying it was reserved for a private guests, not the prince." Riley snorted. "And the prince himself, he has a quick eye and misses nothing so that leaves very little room for un-organization."

 

"But what about those that may have come to kill him? What is to alert him that one is here, waiting for a chance to murder him?" Katharine asked, careful to keep her voice innocent and curious.

 

Riley laughed quite loudly, amused greatly. "No one can kill the prince, are ya kiddin' me, child? Not only does he have the two second strongest vampyres there are at his side and most trustful allies but he is the most powerful and oldest of them all! He is uttuerly indestructable, so to speak! If, by some chance, someone kills both Taryn and Ray, there is a slight chance they might best the prince, but I doubt it with all I have. The three of them brought our kind back from the brink of exinction."

 

"Is that so?" Katharine was now convinced that Riley knew more than her age let on.