Violent Delights and Ends

Chapter 14 - The Royal Vampires

While the crazy rescue mission with the wolves is going on Barry meets the royal vampires and must answer to their court.
 
Barry's POV

Most of the trip to Gotham, the city where the vampire Queen from the closest vampire territory lives, was very silent. I couldn't stop worrying about Iris and now Oliver too. My mind was filled with multiple nightmare scenarios until we eventually drove into vampire territory in Gotham.
  "Are you guys even allowed to be here?" I asked Oliver's sister and her boyfriend Roy, since I noticed the streets were filled with vampire cops and guards who probably kept an eye on any trespassing creatures.
  "Actually no not usually, but since Thea's one of the royal werewolves, they'll make an exception for her." Roy explained casually while slowly rolling down the cop-filled streets. I guess Thea's still angry with me for sleeping with her brother, and I can't blame her. I'm angry at me too for sleeping with that ridiculously handsome man that I can never have anyway. Karma is definitely a bitch because now Iris has been taken and I might lose them both.
  "Oh. That's good. Because I don't want to get you guys into more trouble." I said quietly while still staring out the window at the empty creepy streets. Everything looked abandoned and dark-gray.
  "Honestly, Oliver always gets us into trouble so this isn't much worse than anything we've experienced before." The more acceptive werewolf in the car said and Thea scoffed.
  "Yeah, but he never stooped this low before and we're talking about my brother, who used to flirt with every girl, and the occasional guy, he met before he settled down with Laurel." I didn't get to reply something salty in return to Thea's words because we seemed to have reached the castle, that looked more like a dark abandoned building with two gigantic towers. Two vampire guards dressed in black came up to the car and I got a big lump in my throat, but they simply looked us over in silence and allowed us to step out of the car.
  The werewolves were eyed up and down and checked for any weapons before the dark haired guard with a deep frown just scoffed. "You may enter." And we headed up the stairs outside the building and entered the grand lobby of the castle.
  We were instantly met by three royalties who were standing in front of a gigantic red stairwell. One of the female vampires wore a stunning red and black dress and had long red hair and red eyes that matched her hair and her dress. Next to her stood a blonde vampire, but her hair practically looked golden, and she wore a stunning blue sparkling dress and she appeared to be wearing blue contacts in the same color, probably just to match her beautiful gown. She glanced at me before looking at the man next to her who must be her husband. He was wearing a dark-blue suit that matched the golden-haired vampire's dress and his red eyes gave the wolves behind me a very suspicious look. He didn't look too fond of them.
  "So you're the young vampire who's been causing so much trouble." The vampire queen in red said while she eyed me suspiciously as she took a step towards me and I swallowed hard as I nodded carefully.
  "Yeah. I'm Barry Allen." I introduced myself and bowed slightly. Then the queen looked from me to the werewolves right behind me.
  "I thought your brother would accompany him. Based on what Queen Moira said." the vampire queen addressed Thea without really looking at her.
  "He was, but he's preoccupied elsewhere." Thea answered politely and once again I almost felt sick with worry. What if everyone had been killed by now? Because of me. I deserve any punishment I might get now.
  "Come with us." The vampire Queen said before she turned around and walked upstairs. The other vampire queen approached me and took my arm to lead me upstairs.
  "I'm Queen Kara Zorel, and this is my husband Mon-El." She explained with a fond nod to the man next to her who gave me a forced smile.
  "It's nice to meet you both." I replied politely as she steered me into a hallway upstairs that led to a gigantic golden courtroom of some sort.
  "And don't worry about Queen Kate, she likes to intimidate vampires into obedience." Kara explained with a nod to the red-haired queen who had seated herself upon a big black throne in the courtroom. "But we use a different tactic in the neighboring kingdom, Night City, where we've found a different balance to live in harmony with other creatures. Maybe because Mon-El and I came from two vampire covens who used to hate each other, but we managed to unite our kind and it inspired other creatures to get over old grudges too." She said and gave her husband a fond look before he sat down in the first row of bench's in the courtroom.
  When I was just about to sit down my eyes drifted to an elderly vampire in a Judge's stand on Queen Kate's right side. "Oh and that's Judge Eobard Thawne." Mon-El explained when he noticed who I looked at and I got the strange feeling that I had seen that vampire before, but I couldn't place him. Maybe when I was human or too young to remember?
  "You must be the Barry Allen, that we've heard so much about." The Judge said and his red eyes looked right at me with curiosity. I gulped quietly before taking my seat next to Queen Kara in the front row of the room. Thea and Roy seated themselves in the row behind us.
  "Let's jump right to the reason that you're here, Mr Allen. The werewolf Queen, Moira told us that you claim you've been held hostage for two years by a vampire known as Hunter Solomon." Judge Thawne said without taking his creepy red eyes from me.
  "Yes, your honor, that is unfortunately correct." I replied with a sigh. I had no idea how to speak in court. I used to be a lab assistant for the CCPD before I became a vampire, but I never really studied law in this sense and I was never involved in a court case before.
  "When you managed to escape you entered werewolf territory which would've been fine, but you healed a werewolf and according to the wolf Queen you even forced him to drink from you." Queen Kate appeared to be severely misinformed. My jaw nearly dropped.
  "No, Your Royal Highness, I didn't force the werewolf Prince to drink from me at all. I actually didn't even want to, but he insisted because I saved his life." Sorry Ollie. But it was the truth. I thought even though he couldn't hear my thoughts.
  "Your blood was in his veins, his judgment was clouded and he'd do anything for you at that point. And we've also been told that you control your victims with the venom in your fangs." Judge Thawne said with a cold voice that made me feel extremely guilty.
  "Sorry, Your Honor, but how can Barry have controlled someone before he drank from them?" Kara defended me which made me feel a bit more at ease around these intimidating vampires.
  "As I said, he healed the werewolf with his blood which lured him to come back for the poison." The vampire Judge said and I felt powerless against their accusations. I opened my mouth as if to speak but nothing came out. "And according to a secret source, you've even lured the married werewolf prince known as Oliver Queen into some sort of relationship with you." Those words were cold and casual and said with a grin. It felt like someone had betrayed me and I looked back at Thea and Roy behind me. But I could tell they weren't behind this because they looked just as surprised as I was.
  "You must know that relationships between vampires and werewolves are strictly forbidden, that includes affairs with married ones." Queen Kate said and I just wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment. Why did I have to find that stupid werewolf so irresistible that I got myself into this?
  "First of all it's not exactly a relationship. I know that he's married and all, but how did you guys know that... um..." I didn't know how to continue that sentence. I felt more embarrassed than I ever had in my life and I didn't even know vampires could feel this embarrassed and mortified. If I was human my face would be red as a tomato.
  "Yeah, how did you know that the vampire slept with my brother? Because it only just happened a few hours ago." Thea asked instead and I didn't even look back at her because the subject still made me uncomfortable. But it almost sounded like she was sticking up for me.
  "I'm a very old vampire so there's nothing wrong with my senses and I could smell the stench of werewolf on you as soon as you entered the room." Judge Thawne said and glared at me again. I sighed deeply while I pulled a hand across my face as I was reminded that I was even wearing Oliver's light-blue shirt and the jeans I had borrowed from him earlier.
  "I'm sorry. I really am and I didn't plan for it to happen and I can assure you that it's not going to happen again." I said too quickly because I was even more mortified. I didn't even think about how much the clothes would give us away.
  "No. It won't because if you want our protection from Hunter Solomon, you have to break any sort of connection to the werewolves." Kate's words almost made me want to cry even though I had a feeling I'd never get to see Oliver again after tonight. No matter the outcome. "And humans too for that matter. We can't start to bend or break the rules because then this world would have even more chaos than it already has." the red-haired vampire Queen continued and I glanced at the vampire couple next to me.
  "Didn't you say that in your kingdom creatures had found a balance to co-exist?" I asked with a hopeful voice and Kara gave me a sympathetic look. She almost looked human in those blue contacts aside from her very pale skin.
  "Yeah, we did, but it took a lot of time and effort and some kingdoms can't be as progressive." She explained and glanced at the other vampire queen who glared back at Kara with a vicious smirk on her face. They obviously had a past or something based on that look they shared.
  "Gotham, Starling and Central are all very different from Night City. Humans and witches aren't as tolerant around here, and the werewolves still hates us." Kate said. Jeez, wonder why? I thought before I ended up blurting out my thoughts.
  "Maybe they hate vampires because we've never shown them any other side than cruelty? What's so wrong with having empathy and compassion for anyone no matter what kind they are?" I asked and gained odd looks from everyone in the room. Even the guards that surrounded the throne and the Judge's booth changed confused looks or glared at me as if I was crazy. Someone drew a breath behind me, probably Thea or Roy.
  "I see that your attachment to that werewolf has clouded your judgement." The judge said with a scoff in disappointment and I got up from my seat, angrier than ever.
  "No. My judgement is not clouded. You're the ones with clouded judgements, who can't look past your ancient feud that will never end as long as we don't do something about it." I don't know where I got my courage from to spur everything out like this, but it felt really good to get it all of my chest.
  But to my surprise the Judge burst into a mocking laugh. "And do what exactly? Start sleeping with the enemy, like you did?" Thawne wondered with an evil amused smirk on his face just to rub my pain and regret in my face. I sighed deeply but didn't respond.
  "Excuse me, but if I may interrupt, I think I have an idea that's a bit similar to when Mon-El and I got married to unite our two warring vampire covens." Kara said and got up from her seat as well and stood up next to me. She made me feel calm despite being a cold vampire like me. "But instead a vampire and a werewolf could get married to secure the peace between our kind and theirs?" the golden-haired kinder vampire Queen continued and tossed a glance at the werewolves behind us.
  A chuckle coming from Queen Kate's throne brought my attention to her. "Who? I don't know any vampire who'd be willing to marry someone who could kill them at any point and I doubt there's a single werewolf who'd want to marry a bloodsucker." she said and gave me a cold stern look because she knew I wouldn't have a problem with it. As long as it's Oliver, but he's already married.
  A sudden gasp from Thea behind me almost made me jump. Everyone turned their attention to her and Roy, they both had fear and worry written all over their faces. "Oh my god. It's Laurel. She's dying, but they'll turn her into a vampire to save her." Thea's words didn't make sense to any of the vampires and all I could do was stare at her with a blank expression on my face and tears forming in my eyes. It's my fault Laurel died. She probably died to protect Iris and Oliver and it's all because I dragged them all into this. I could feel my hands shaking as Thea and Roy got up from their seats behind us.
  "We have to go." Thea said and they both hurried out of the courtroom while everyone stared after them. Two growling wolves could be heard as soon as they had left the room so they most likely turned into wolf-form before they left Gotham.
  "My my my, Queen Zorel do you still believe a union between a vampire and a werewolf would solve the ancient feud? Because I doubt it." Judge Thawne said with a scoff as he gestured to the door after the wolves had disappeared. "The only way for the feud to remain in control is if we kill this naive, young vampire before his love for our enemies causes a full-blown war." he continued and glared daggers at me and I gulped in fear.
  Thankfully Kara and her husband were on my side and they both stood up in front of me to protect me. "Let us take him to our kingdom, please. We can train him and make sure he's not controlling anyone without knowing it again." Kara said protectively as if we were already best friends. "My training have worked before." she said and nudged her husband's shoulder who smiled back at her.
  "Okay. Fine. I'll give you one week to prove that you can teach him our vampire rules." Queen Kate said with a sigh and waved the other Queen up which made her lit up and looked at me with a sweet beaming smile. I could only smile back at her in return because she was both beautiful and kind even though I didn't deserve her kindness. We turned around about to head for the exit.
  "I have a request too, since Mr Allen has broken the most fundamental vampire rules and it appears a future werewolf Queen has paid the prize for it." Judge Thawne said and I slowly turned around towards that cold voice and his creepy pale face again. I felt my hands shaking and tears welled up in my eyes. It's all Hunter's fault, deep down, not mine, but it's also my fault for bringing innocent werewolves and Iris into it. "Queen Zorel, if you're going to train this vampire, who seems hellbent on holding onto his human feelings, you have to make him forget all about the werewolf Prince to break the unnatural bond they've formed. Once the bond breaks from the vampire's side the werewolf will no longer be drawn to him and it might be enough to stop a war from breaking loose." Kara and I exchanged a worried look after Thawne had revealed his ultimatum. I didn't think vampires could get their heart broken because I'm already dead and my heart technically doesn't have to beat. Still, hearing those words and knowing I'd never get to see Oliver again, not even in my memories, caused my heart to shatter into pieces and I couldn't hold back my tears.
  I rushed out of the courtroom with tears streaming down my face. That's when the realization sank in for me, that I didn't want to forget Oliver...because I had, despite still loving Iris and holding onto her for two years, fallen in love with him.