The Monocle's Eye

Chapter 29

 "Mine?" Rosetta pulled back the sheets as I yawned, rubbing my eyes.

"I'm awake." I said, slipping out of bed. I walked to the table and picked up the stack of newspapers. Front page was the giant bold words "Dead Bride of Queen Mortemine, Rosetta Clementia, Seen Alive at Last Night's Ball." I turned the page and read the next, "Was She Killed or Was She Kept?" I laughed, throwing the newspaper to Rosetta.

"So they did see me." She said, flipping through the pages. I leaned over her and read the headlines as she flipped through. "Forgiven and Forgotten?" "A Royal Scam?" "Who Rose Our Queen's Lost Rose?"

"Doesn't it feel a little good to have the whole country speculating about you, and know that every single rumor is wrong?" I smirked. She blushed.

"I would have never imagined it would be, but I can't deny it." She replied. I plucked the news from her hands and threw it aside, leaning over her so that she was pressed against the bed.

"It feels good because we are the only two people, the only two in the whole world, who really understand what this moment accurately." I said, pressing a kiss to her lips. She leaned forward and kissed back, deepened it as she pressed against me, her lips open and eyes shut. I tilted my head to the side and nibbled her lip, pulling it back with me as I released. Her eyes looked like summer swimming pools, their blue color filled with want as I ran my hands up and down her sides. I took her breast in my hand and kneaded it over the silky thin fabric of her nightgown, hearing her take in a shaky breath as I did so.

"Mine, no you..." She began but stopped. I cease my movements and looked to her.

"What?" I asked.

"I told you I can't. I've lost to much and this isn't how I imagined this would be and I always thought..."

"Don't worry." I said calmly, taking her hand in mine. "Tell me one thing. Of all the people you've been with, was there a single one where you felt good?"

"No." She said, squeezing my hand as she spoke.

"Was there a single one where a moan you uttered came from truth?"

"No."

"Then I cannot see in you as possessing any less purity than a virgin." I said.

"But you're not new to this, you're."

"I'll tell you something I've never told anyone, no one in my life." I interrupted, hoisting myself up onto the bed. "I've never once, not once in my life, made love to someone who was not bound. I've never done this with anyone I loved. Never done this with anyone I trusted."

"You were married." She laughed, "That's got to be an exaggeration." But she silenced when she was the serious look upon my face.

"I'de tie him up. I didn't trust him. I didn't love him. Handcuffs, rope, chains, whatever, and I didn't do that for fun, I did it to see him squirm, to convince myself that I was more powerful than he. I didn't know I would, but I love you. I trust you. I don't know why, but I do." I said. She sat up and kissed me, pressing her lips to mine like it would bind us.

"You don't have to flatter me so much." She said, a blush on her cheeks.

"You don't have to worry so much." I replied, tracing my hand down her flat stomach, the silk of her nightgown was thin. She quivered beneath it, rolling her hips back as I leaned in to kiss her. She was so warm, her moans were intoxicating, as though each one made you chase the last high further up.

* * *

Ebony ran to the door, ushering mother and Mortemine in, last nights attire gone from them, now they looked more modest.

"The press is having a hay-day mother. Please tell me you're actually going to clear this one up soon. I want to go somewhere this week, without fighting the mob at the gate." Illy said, setting down her book on the coffee table. Mortemine laughed.

"I'm tempted, but I'll clear this one up. They do seem particularly entranced." She said.

"Of course they are, the Queen they've watched slump around for the past century randomly perked up, and a day later her dead ex-betrothed is seen alive in the palace. Even livestock would be confused." Illy replied. Mortemine slipped around the lounge and slid back the large windows to the balcony, leaning on the rail there, mother following.

"We'll be having guests shortly." Mother said.

"What?" Illy asked, "Did mother invite someone to my dorm again, because if I have to get blood out of this carpet one more time just because you didn't want to dirty one of your hundred drawing rooms, I swear I'll..."

"That Clementian boy." Mortemine said. "I was warned he was admitted this morning, I was going her anyway." She turned around, leaning back on the rail so the moonlight sparkled on her hair and black suit, a ruffled shirt under the tailored coat. "What was his name again?"

"I don't know, something annoying with a J, always wanted to be called Master Clementia, so I didn't object. I suppose he's pretty mad about being annexed, no chance for him now." Illy said, almost on cue, as it was that moment that he burst through the door, almost crushing Ebony behind it as he rushed forward. I thought for a moment I heard Mortemine snicker.

"Well?" He asked.

"No time for guessing games kid, get on with it." Illy said.

"So that girl's really brought back the dead, and you're alright with that, and that little snit is alright with you too." He laughed like he was crazy, a psychotic sort of laugh, high and intense, rolling like an uneven boulder. "Am I dreaming?"

"Why do you always have to turn someone insane?" Mother said, glaring at Mortemine.

"I don't do it intentionally, well, not recently." She said.

"Ignore me, like a bunny, leave me to die in the slaughter house like a pig, but pigs rise someday, rabbits can still bite." He sneered. "I might die, I might die. I will die, but, I won't do it like you want."

"How much?" I asked suddenly, an idea slipping into my head. I turned to Mortemine.

"Much for what?" She asked, "Not the kid's life you mean? That's not his, unfortinatly, belongs to the Clementia family. "

"I shall buy his life to save him if I must do so. He does not belong as another skeleton in the Clementian tombs, as all that reside there do so wrongly." I said. His face contorted into a grimacing furrow of angered lines.

"And live as a slave under you, I'de take death over such an insult to my pride." He said, hurdling himself over the railings before Illy could stop him. She ripped a bit of cloth from his coat as he fell, but he fell as the same, landing far below on the pointed black metal of the fence. I pulled back, wincing. Illy put her arm around my waist for comfort as I leaned forward, glancing over the edge to see the beaten body staked on the fence before pulling back again.

"I thought vampires turn to dust when they die." I said

"He's not old enough for that." Illy replied, turning around and walking me back inside. I felt a strange sadness about it, even if he was my enemy, it was not his own fault for acting as he had, but Illy seemed to read my thoughts. "Don't feel guilty, it wasn't you, he would have done it anyway, an egotist, bred to be that way, and don't ever think of raising him, he'd hate that debt far more than he'll hate death." She said. I nodded, turning to Mother and Mortemine, who both seemed wholly unshaken by the whole affair.

"Debt?" I asked, thinking to what she said.

"They say if you bring anyone back from the dead, since you've in some way created them, they are always indebted to you." Illy replied. My mother blushed, a laugh escaping from her mouth. I turned to her and looked at her new.

"Well, you created the body I live in, so I suppose my creating yours just makes us even." I laughed. Her eyes were moist, but she smiled softly. I don't think she every wanted us to be even, but she took it, knowing she could vouch for no more.