Before Sunrise Strikes |Winner of Once_Upon's Dark Fairytale Contest|

Part Two

Part Two:

No one noticed Eleanora as she slipped through the gilded gates, keeping her eyes averted from the bloodless vampire heads lining the spiked fence that surrounded the palace of the Royal Wizarding Family. For all intents and purposes, the enchantment cast upon her by her stepmother held, making her look like just another young Wizarding lady, hiding her unnaturally pale skin and her lack of the glowing eyes that were a testament to wizards everywhere... And keeping her head from joining those perched atop the palisade.

She hoped the enchantment would hold. She had no wish to become a head on a stick or a pile of cinders in the middle of the palace ballroom because of the palace rune defenses.

Brushing past the ball-goers, Eleanora kept her own eyes averted from the forms of those coming from the ball. If she wished to escape from the palace alive, she couldn't draw attention to herself. The enchantment could only take her so far, she'd have to do the rest.

Ignoring the multiple pairs of glowing blue eyes that surrounded her as she hurried past their owners, Eleanora tried not to quake with fear as she passed under the marble archway leading into the palace. Carved into the stone with runes that told of fire and death were the same words that gave the palace defenses the power to smite any vampire who dared to step foot in its halls.

The runes were how her father died, her mother passed, and those runes would kill her if she didn't get out of the palace before the sun rose.

As she walked under them, the runes failed to flare up like the wizards who'd cast them a century ago had intended, and Eleanora let out a silent sigh of relief. Her stepmother was right. It was as if she was still human, not a being who required darkness and blood to survive.

Although the morning hours creeped steadily closer, the ball still went on at full swing, the crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling bathing the dancing couples in a warm glow that made Eleanora's head hurt. A number of the ornately dressed party-goers now sat at the edges of the ballroom or leaned up against pillars, trying to catch their breath or rest their no-doubt aching feet, yet it appeared the ball wouldn't burn out until the sun came to greet them.

Onyx eyes scanning the ballroom, Eleanora allowed herself to follow the movements of the crowd, not dancing of course, but just swaying as if she was just another starry-eyed girl enjoying herself. No, it was her eyes that did the dancing, sweeping a piercing search over the ballroom, not pausing even to look at the King and Queen more closely. She had no need to. She had no interest in them; they were murderous tyrants who killed blindly, not stopping to spare even those who were once their close friends.

Breaking free from the crowd, she gave into her instincts, although not her vampire ones-- those were too swamped with the scent and sounds of the moving bodies that surrounded her like fog. No, instead she listened to her other instincts, the same ones that allowed a mother to find a wandering child in a crowd, or the instincts that led a pair of lovers to find each other's gazes across a crowded room.

Turning her head, her blonde hair swinging about her shoulders, Eleanora watched as a tall, dark-haired figure clothed in white walked out to the doors she'd once entered through herself as a human. They were the doors to the balcony overlooking the rose garden and she knew the figure was him instantly. Even though the only hint provided was a clear outline of a crown amongst his tight curls, she knew the figure to be Prince Julius from the way he held himself.