Only Ice

Chapter 1

The darkness hung over me, like an engulfing black tarp that devoured everything it touched, concealing it from the world. Each day, I existed in anticipation, yearning for the moon and stars to cast their gentle glow upon me, so for a moment I could feel alive. Yet even their radiance paled compared to her vibrant spark, her fiery essence.

I couldn't bear to stand in her spot any longer. Well, our spot. No matter how hard she tried to distance herself, this field was saturated with our emotions, both the good and the bad, and they lingered in the air. Yes, this was our special place, and it pained me even more to stand here all alone.

Questions clung to the rain as each droplet relentlessly drenched me in the confusion I couldn't seem to avoid. It was only she who held the answers, yet she was nowhere in sight. The fact that my clothes were now soaked meant nothing to me. All that mattered was uncovering the truth.

I hated the dark. A new found hatred for something that I was once so accustomed to. And yet there was no escaping it.

I opened the door to the enormous brick house. My home. No... my prison. A place I was forced to stay at. The room remained engulfed in pitch black obscurity, so intense that not even the glow from the candles could illuminate it. To such an extent that I was oblivious to the vampires lurking in the corner, anticipating my arrival.

"Where were you?" Antonio said.

"Does it matter?"

I tried to move past them. Tried to escape up to my room. I was in no mood to deal with whatever provoking words he wanted to speak to me.

"It does when you are supposed to be here with your mate... prince." Antonio said, hissing out the last word when he did.

And there it was.

As much as he hated saying it, I hated hearing it more. I was not pure blood. This was an abomination to all clans, and everyone knew it.

"She can wait," I said and walked up the stairs.

I didn't have to see them to know the expressions that were forming across their faces. Cynthia would cry false tears as I rejected her again and Athena would comfort her with a fake caress. Antonio would jump up, filled with an uncontrollable rage, as always. None of them really cared if I was there or not. They only cared about pleasing their maker.

"Stop!" Antonio yelled. "Didn't you hear me? I told you to stop!"

"You can't make him do anything," Athena mumbled. Though it was a barely audible sentence, we all heard her.

"Shut up, you leech!" Antonio yelled at her as he sat back down.

Though she didn't deserve his wrath, there was a small satisfaction that I received when I knew they could not make me obey.

"Did she combust into a pile of ashes... prince?" Nox asked with a slight grin as I opened the door to my room.

I took off my wet shirt, wadded it into a ball, and lobbed it at his head, only for him to dodge it. The soggy lump landed with a sloshy smack against my wall and slid slowly to the floor. I didn't even bother to pick it up.

"Don't call me that," I told him as I laid down on my bed, placing my arms behind my head to lean against the ornate headrest.

"I didn't put that title on you," Nox said as he spun around in the chair in front of my computer.

He was right. He didn't. Our master did, or rather, their maker.

I arrived at this family's doorstep with nothing but a sack full of blood bags. The Master is aware of my unique 'condition', as are the rest of them. It seems that is why he selected me to become the next leader. However, I believe he made a mistake. With leadership comes certain rules and expectations, but I disagree with his choices.