Beast of the Damned #2

*Chapter Twenty-Five*

~ TRISTAN ~

The color of night follows my mother's every footstep, the woven lace of her slender cut dress clinging to her willow frame as it skims behind her as if it were floating atop the silver blood of the angels.She looks as she has since the day Thron ripped me from her womb—brittle and weak. Whenever I cast the other half of my soul into the Underworld, the last of my mother's powers she gifted me is all that returned.

Until my mother gained her strength, the Prince and my father would not let her leave the cellar.

The Council stands, all except Kalista. It's been five days since my mother woke, but it's been five thousand years since she last stood before The Council.

"My dear." The Prince of Darkness holds out his hand, dismissing the Vamperial guards flanking her sides ready and willing to put their lives on the line for their true Queen. It's in the way they mirror her movements. Each guard positioned as living armor, their formation linked tightly like impenetrable valderan chainmail.

My mother places her bony hand in the Prince's, a reserved smile tugging at her lips as he kisses her hand. "Radiant as always."

While Kalista's purple eyes match the petals of the rarest of Phantom Petunias, to look into my mother's eyes is to look upon a windstorm where galaxies of varying shades of violet clash against the night sky. The depth of colors speaks to her regal prowess, a one-of-a-kind hand painting by our Maker to distinguish her above all else.

Passing by a still seated Kalista, my mother forgoes her seat at the Dark Prince's right side. "Whom does this handsome young face belong to?" She reaches up, touching Zaidan's cheek.

"He is our son. The first vampire born after the rise of the Firstborn," Kalista answers, her scowl directed at the Prince. He pushed her down when she began to stand.

"It's like gazing upon the face of our first son. My Lucian was such a handsome creature. Strong features like his father but with a softness only a mother could recognize."

Zaidan takes my mother's hand and kisses the back of it. "My father has always spoken of you fondly, often praising how your beauty eclipses night itself."

"First son?" Kalista looks up to the Dark Prince. "What happened to him? Did he die during the Great War?" The shrill of Kalista's voice lessens like she has already envisioned Lucian's death and the pain it would bring her if Zaidan beheld the same fate.

"No." My mother steps back from Zaidan, regarding him one more time. "My Lucian died because he had a hard time accepting he was not destined for as much greatness as his younger brother."

"You and the Prince had another son?" Kalista shifts away from the Prince as if she expects son number two to materialize from the shadows and slaughter Zaidan and her upon sight.

The neat order The Council has crafted since the beginning of the vampirie race is cracking. We have two queens, a shortage of food, and an enemy that is as hard to find as a single grain of salt resting at the bottom of the Dead Sea.

Cutting the human population in half to forge the new order of the Dark Prince's reign is proving to be a decision that is coming back to bite us savagely in the jugular. The sacrifice of so many humans should have drenched these lands in too much blood for the Mother of the Heavens to send her white army. Instead, it appears to have fulfilled a prophecy in the Di'bhal.

"No, child. I would think the answer is obvious." My mother makes her way over to me. "What other vampire do you know that is destined for more greatness than the one who stands before me? Even before his awakening, the earth beneath him would bleed as if it knew the devastation he would bring."