Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Blood and Roses ❯ Secret Pastimes ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Author's Note: Woot, finally another chapter. Writer's block is a bitch... Now if only other people would update >.>

Warning: Brief lemons and bad dreams ahead

Disclaimer: All people and ideas in the story thus far belong solely to me. All people and ideas in the story after this point belong to me and Angel-kun.

An hour passed before the rain finally slowed to a drizzle. Katy was curled up against the base of a tree now, the sobbing replaced by silent tears. She was trapped inside the hazy depths of her mind.

//She was running. Running through a dark, stone hallway, dimly lit by an unseen source. It was hot, very hot, and the only sound in her ears was that of her own panting. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, as she couldn’t see it’s end. The walls began to grow larger, the hallway wider, and looking down at her feet she realized that she’d grown younger.

Up high from a ceiling hidden in darkness dropped a large, red ball. It bounced down the hallway in front of her, always the same height, always the same distance away. Katy chased it, her pale stubby arms reaching out for it. She wasn’t getting tired, and the ball wasn’t slowing it’s pace. On she ran down the huge, dark hallway, following the bouncing ball.

Suddenly a pair of lithe, pale hands appeared out of the darkness in front of her and caught the ball between them. They were no longer in a hallway, but in a room where the walls were hidden in darkness. Katy came to a halt immediately, and looking up she saw the figure of her mother as she’d always been. Tall, elegant, with long wispy black hair and kind, knowing eyes. Her smile was warm as she opened her arms to her daughter, the ball having disappeared.

“Mamma!” The child cried with tears in her eyes as she ran into her arms and hugged her mother tightly. Her nose filled the scent of books and old parchment; her mother spent a lot of time in the palace library. “Mamma....please, don’t leave me ever again...” Katy pleaded as she looked up at her mother with large, watery eyes. A sad smile crossed the woman’s face at the same time as the scent of burning flesh began to fill the girl’s nose.

“I will never leave you, even if you cannot see me. You must be strong, my child. Never give up.” Katy jumped backwards out of her arms as she saw the hole appearing in the middle of her abdomen. “It will not be easy. The life ahead of you is going to be cruel, and unfair, and I would easily die the same long death repeatedly for all eternity if it would stop those events from taking place, but nothing will change it. You have to be strong.”

“Mom, don’t go...!” Katy was her seventeen-year-old self again, tears running down her cheeks as she watched her mother burn away for the second time.

“You must live!” The woman cried, and in a flash her body turned to dust that fell to the ground. Katy was about to fall to her knees when a figure behind her grabbed her wrist and spun her around, hard. It was Rasuo, wearing an excited and smug look on his face.

“Don’t worry, I’m still here.” He grinned and yanked her to him, holding her against him. As her body pressed against his, Katy realized that she was naked. Rasuo’s lips roughly covered her own, his arms holding her firmly in place. She tried to push him off of her, but he wasn’t budging. She began to hit him with her fist but he grabbed it in his hand and squeezed, and she could hear the crunching of the bones as she winced in pain. Rasuo hooked his foot behind hers and gave her a shove, and she fell backwards onto the ground.

“I’ll always be here.”

Katy sat up with a gasp, her body covered in sweat that had soaked the sheets around her. She was inside a room that was, judging by the stone walls, inside the palace. It wasn’t familiar to her. Looking down, she saw that she was naked underneath a thin sheet on a humongous four-post bed. Looking around, she saw that she was alone.

There was a faint smell in the air, and sniffing at it she knew it to be Aiden’s. ‘So...this is Aiden’s bedroom. I’ve never been here before...’ Sliding her feet off of the side of the bed, Katy tried to stand but a rush of dizziness came over her and she sat back down. The second try being more successful, she took the opportunity to observe his room. All in all, it was fairly plain. There were weapons lying around, and a set of dark, thin-looking clothing with the royal emblem on them lay folded on a low table in the middle of the room...

Katy shivered. She was very cold, and she really didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t see her clothes lying around anywhere, so she decided to just find something of his to wear. ‘That’s what he gets for leaving me here by myself...’ She thought almost bitterly. She briefly considered putting on the outfit she’d seen on the table, but she knew better. Instead, she rummaged around in his dresser until she found a black button-up shirt and a pair of pants that had to be too small for him.

Stepping outside of the room, Katy was shocked to discover that while she was still in the palace, she was in an area that she’d never even seen before. Lit only by torches spaced ten feet apart, the hallways looked endless and confusing. She shivered again; this time it wasn’t because of the cold. Above anything else, she really didn’t want to be alone, so she chose the path to the left hoping that Aiden might be down that way.

Katy really wanted to know where she was. She’d always thought that she’d been everywhere in the palace, but this area was huge, and she didn’t recognize any of it. Walking on, she passed quite a few soldiers, men and women, in uniform and not. Maybe she was in the soldier’s wing? She glanced into doorways as she passed them, searching for familiar faces.


It was odd that the soldiers she passed would leer at her, but wouldn’t say or do anything. Well, that was all the better, Katy certainly didn’t want their company. She was starting to
become certain that she was in the soldier’s wing. A lot of the doors she’d passed had been closed, but out of the open ones there were more than a few bedrooms, a couple sitting rooms, and a very large room that looked a lot like a dining area. It was mostly empty, even though it was nighttime.

‘It must be either very late, or really early...’ Katy thought to herself warily. Either way, that time of night was the worst time to wander around alone, as there weren’t a whole lot of demons around. ‘No witnesses...’ She thought with another shiver.

All of a sudden she had to stop walking and cling to the wall as a powerful wave of dizziness came over her. She felt unbearably hot, and nauseous. She could hardly see when she leaned her head against the stone wall, trying to breathe deeply, to stay conscious. Then, there was a hand on her shoulder. It was very cold, and instead of being soothing, the cold hurt, but she couldn’t even flinch away from it.

“What’s wrong?” A man’s voice whispered into Katy’s ear, soft and dangerous. Like his hand, his breath was cold, and it bit sharply into her neck and ear. In a flash, he was in front of her, and she weakly opened her eyes to look at him. His eyes were yellow, like a cat’s. His hair was a very dark brown, messy, and there was a lot of it, and around his neck was a thin, black metal collar with the royal emblem etched into the front of it.

Those were the only things she had time to notice before he reached for her face and she couldn’t see anything as another bout of full-body nausea hit her and she nearly fell to the ground. Just before his hand touched her, the sound of someone clearing their throat came from directly behind her, and the hand withdrew.

Katy immediately felt much better, and she was able to see again when she opened her eyes. The man was still standing very close to her, but his eyes were fixed on something just over her shoulder. She stiffened when she felt a pair of strong arms encircle her waist from behind her.

“Shame on you, Serkan, using your aura to poison the princess. That’s punishable by death, you know.” Came the cool, low voice of Rasuo. Katy groaned. The blood drained from the one called Serkan’s face, who looked at her and took a step backwards, flustered. It seemed the further away he got, the better she felt, aside from the feeling of dread that always accompanied being near Rasuo.

Once Serkan had turned and disappeared from sight, Katy pulled herself out of Rasuo’s arms and turned to face him. The look on his face as he leaned his shoulder against the wall was very smug. His arms were crossed and he was just watching her, waiting for her to act or speak. She felt the blood rush back into her face as she realized he was waiting for an explanation as to why she’d been wandering around in the soldier’s wing at night, alone.

Why was she wandering around, again? Oh, she’d been looking for Aiden, because she didn’t want to be alone. Well, she wasn’t alone now, unfortunately. Why was he looking so smug? Maybe she’d broken some kind of rule or something, perhaps she wasn’t supposed to be there and now her father would be mad at her. Would he tell..? He wasn’t really the tattletale type. More like the blackmail you with it to get what he wants type... Katy sighed in defeat.

“Okay, Rasuo, what do you want?” She asked apprehensively. He laughed, but didn’t move.

“What, no thank you? Tut tut, such manners...I know that your not here having late night fun with some soldiers, disappointing though it is. You’re looking for Aiden, right? All alone at this hour, you know it’s a very good thing that I was here, you were almost taken away by one of the executioners...” He didn’t bother trying to keep his eyes on her face. Katy frowned.

“Fine, thank you. Now if you don’t mind, or even if you do, I’ve got better places to be, so if you’ll excuse me...” Katy turned to leave, hoping that he’d just let her go. Rasuo laughed again, the sound coming from right behind her.

“You don’t really think I could let you wander off alone again, do you? Besides...I know where Aiden is. Wouldn’t you like me to take you to him?” Katy turned and looked back at him, assessing. The look on his face was falsely innocent, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

Without waiting for her to answer, Rasuo took her by the arm and began to lead her down the hallway. He was uncomfortably close, but he wasn’t playing grabbies or anything, so she didn’t complain. Katy tried to remember the path that he was taking her on, but there were so many turns that she was soon hopelessly lost. It was only after they’d walked for so long that it occurred to her to ask him something.

“ If it’s so far away, how do you know for sure where Aiden is?” She watched his face carefully, but his expression never changed, and he didn’t even look at her.

“Because when he’s not babysitting you and he’s not on a mission, then he’s always there.”Rasuo said matter-of-factly. Katy bristled slightly at the insult.

“Where?” She asked, annoyed.

“Here.” They stopped just feet from a pair of huge, metal-gray doors. There were symbols that she didn’t recognize engraved around the handles. Rasuo was waiting, and Katy looked back at him when he didn’t move. Realizing he was waiting for her, she tentatively placed a hand on one of the handles and turned, pushing on the door with her other hand.

It swung open easily to reveal an incredibly large, high-ceilinged room. Red walls, with red silk and satin curtains, pillows, and sheets everywhere. There were even large sheets of see-through satin reaching down from the tall ceilings all the way to the floor. Katy gaped in shock.

It was a harem. Hundreds of beautiful women, and even a few men of all ages milled around. They laid lazily on large piles of pillows, sat at vanities primping themselves, sat at low tables on the right side of the room eating, and a few filed in and out of a separate room in the back. Seething bodies as far as the eye can see, and everywhere were the sounds of moans and screams. Men she recognized and men she didn’t all seemed to be making use of the...facilities.

Rasuo gave her a push from behind and pointed over her shoulder to a corner in the room to the far left. The door shut with a slam, and Katy’s heart was pounding loudly in her ears as she slowly weaved her way through the naked and semi-naked bodies towards that corner of the room. Several pairs of eyes watched her, some expectant, some curious, and others just bored.

As she approached, the corner was shrouded from her view by a pair of sheets of satin hanging down from the ceiling. The closer she got, the slower she moved, and the better she could see the moving bodies beyond the curtains. Katy took a deep breath, mentally berating herself for being so afraid, and she quickly closed the distance to the curtains.

Katy stopped short of the corner by just a couple feet. She could see pretty clearly what was on the other side of the curtain, and she could hear it just fine, too. She was captivated. It was Aiden all right, his discarded clothes in a pile near her feet. On her knees in front of Aiden was a young woman, the same age as Katy or maybe even younger. She was on her elbows and knees, her ass high in the air and her head on a pillow, her hands braced against the wall.

The young woman had pink eyes and black hair. She might of been a pure blood, except that she was a cat halfbreed, with black furred ears and a tail. Her moans were very quiet, breathy “aahhs” and her eyes looked like they were glazed over. Aiden was clutching at her hips tightly with both hands, pulling her to him at the same time as he thrust. His eyes were glazed over, too, and his mouth was parted just slightly.

Katy’s face felt hot, and she knew that she must of been bright red. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t tear her eyes off of the pair in front of her. She was angry, embarrassed, and entranced. Her hands were in fists at her sides, and she was emotionally torn between crying, and joining them.

Aiden panted, and he clenched his teeth as he began to thrust harder and faster, nearly lifting the young woman off of the ground. Both of their eyes closed tight when he thrust one final time. The woman let out a quiet moan, and Aiden let out a low groan as he rode them down.

In a panic, as he stood Katy realized that he’d turn around and she desperately didn’t want him to see her there all of a sudden. Turning quickly to bolt from the room, she ran right into a man and knocked him down, landing on top of him as he fell back on a pile of pillows. Briefly assessing his face, she realized that she knew him as a man who worked for her father and had dinner with him frequently. His name was Rience. Judging from his surprise, she knew that he recognized her as well.

“Shhh!” She whispered in his ear, burying her face into the nape of his neck as Aiden, fully dressed, walked past them. Katy watched him out of the corner of his eye as he exited the room, and once he was gone she sat up. “Thanks, sorry about that...” She grinned, running a hand through her hair sheepishly. He blinked.

“Sure, but what are you doing in here?” Rience asked curiously.

“You know....I really have no clue.” She laughed, and looked him over. He was tall with short silver hair and a jagged scar diagonally across his neck, and black eyes. He was pretty cute, and he looked like a nice guy. He gave her a playful grin.

“Well, since you’re already here, wanna have some fun?” Katy laughed, and realized that she was straddling his waist, his hands were on her hips, and her hand was propping herself up against his chest.

“No thanks, maybe some other time. I really have to find my way back to the main area of the palace, not that I have any idea how to get there from here...” She said as she climbed off of him and stood. He pushed himself up off of the pillows.

“I could lead you back there, if you said please.” Rience looked down at her teasingly.

“Pleeeaaaseee?” Katy asked, using a younger tone, looking up at him with wide eyes and sticking out her bottom lip.

“Okay, sure. That was pretty good.” He chucked as he pat her on the head. Katy grinned up at him.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, come on.” He grabbed her hand and began to lead her through the bodies towards the door. Katy cast a glance backwards towards the corner and saw the young woman had sat up and was watching them leave with those big eyes.

“Rience? Do you go there often?” Katy asked after they’d left the room. He coughed.

“Well, not /that/ often...”

“Do you see Aiden there a lot?” She asked tentatively, trying to seem uninterested but failing as he looked over at her quizzically.

“Every day. Sometimes two or three times a day.” He answered, steering her along the pathways.

“Oh...”

“It’s always with the same girl. Her name is Mikko. She’s, what, fifteen? And she’s been there for like, four years. Doesn’t talk much... At all, actually. A lot of girls in there had their voice boxes removed, or were put under spells or curses to keep them quiet, but not Mikko. She can talk, she just doesn’t. A lot of people think he only goes to her because she looks kind of like you. It’s probably true.” Katy was silent for a while after that, pondering.

In a way, she couldn’t understand it. Her chest hurt, and she just couldn’t get the sight or the sounds of the two of them together out of her head. Katy felt sick, and angry. She didn’t even realize that they were back in the main area until her eyes landed on Aiden, who was talking with a guard. Her heart clenched tightly, and she was very angry at him all of a sudden. Rience stopped walking, and she turned to face him just as Aiden caught sight of her.

“Well, here we are.” He said, grinning. Without thinking about it, Katy stood up on her tippy toes and pulled his head down to hers, kissing him deeply. After a couple of seconds, she pulled back, her face flushed and a puzzled expression on his face.

“Thanks, Rience.” She turned and walked away, heading towards her room. She glanced at Aiden as she passed, who was watching her go with an unreadable expression on his face.