Blood on Their Fangs

Grave Importance

Raine followed Atticus through the now very Victorian house. She was rather frightened of the woman they were leaving behind, "A-Are you ok?" she asked the boy.

"Wha- oh. Yeah. That happens all the time around here. You um... I've gotten used to it. My mother... has a bit of a temper," he replied, keeping his eyes trained on the floor.

"That's no excuse to hit you though," Raine watched him with a worried expression.

The boy in front of her turned his sapphire eyes towards her, a sad, sympathetic smile gracing his features, "Look, you- you shouldn't feel sorry for me. I'm a monster. My kind lives off of other people's suffering."

"You don't seem like kind of person who could hurt someone," Raine said.

"I- Well I wish I weren't," Atticus looked back at the floor, "Come on, We're this way," he lead her down another corridor which had three doors, two on the left side. He gestured awkwardly to the first door on the left, "That's um, my room. Next one is yours, and then your friends are on the other side of the wall," he looked nervously down the hall, in both directions before saying rather loudly, but with entirely fake confidence, "Come along, mortal, I'm hungry and, you shall... give me a meal," the last part of his sentence was rushed, and Raine was almost certain she saw the boy blush as he quickly opened his door and pulled her inside, "That was terrible," he said in embarrassment, "Look, um. They probably weren't there but... I um, thought I should make sure. I'm gonna help you and your friends escape. I don't want you to get hurt, and the only way this can go if you stay is you getting hurt, so um, you can't um, stay... here."

"You have a plan?" Raine inquired quietly.

"Well um... n-not yet... exactly..." Atticus looked down, "I don't really know how I'll get your friends away from my brothers, and my mother, well... she's like a hawk when it comes to these things and she'd sooner kill us all than let you go..."

"Do you mind telling me what's going on? Maybe I can help," Raine suggested.

Atticus nodded, "S-sure. Here, um, won't you sit down?" He picked up a hard chair before looking down at it and setting it down, "Sorry, um, this is a really uncomfortable chair, I'll sit in it, you can take the bed. D-don't take that the wrong way or anything!" he stuttered.

Raine sat down at the foot of the bed, "Alright, so what's up with this throne business?"

Atticus swallowed nervously, still standing behind the chair, his hands tightly holding onto the top of the backrest, "Well you see, my brothers and I are potential heirs to the throne of an underground kingdom. Our father is the king. Oh um. The thing about kings and queens in... our kingdom... is that, since they're immortal and all, they only rule for one hundred years and then hand the throne down to one of their children. Um, There's always ten children, um, unless there's twins. That sometimes happens. Right, um. The ten children have to get a human to turn before the king steps down from the throne or they won't be considered. That's um, why you're here. I'm supposed to marry you and then turn you into a vampire because... purebred vampires can't... well we can't have children without a bitten vampire in the mix," The poor boy looked ashamed.

"And that woman, she's your mother?" Raine asked.

"Yes. She was bitten too if that's what you're asking. No, you didn't ask that. Sorry," he glanced up at her for a second, "Her name is Lydia, and she's the second wife of my father, King Pyrus. He has three. Elisa is his first, and he had three children with her, three with Lydia, and four with Minarra. Hopefully, you won't have to meet either of them. Minarra and Elisa are nice enough to most people, but they don't really like my mother..."

"And by association you too?" Raine suggested.

"Well... yeah. And the closer it gets to the crowning, the worse it's gonna get. They both think their kids deserve the throne more than the rest of us. I wouldn't put it past them to kill a human to keep one of us away from the throne," he looked down at the thought of that, his blue hair falling into his eyes.