The Dragomir Heir (Watty Award)

The Amendment

“Excellent”, exclaimed Valentina. Her inside was dancing as her plan was coming together in front of her eyes. Now she just has to play her part well and dramatically. “Shall we start with the betrothal conditions then?”

“Yes, we shall”, replied Lucius, then he smiled widely, “From now to the wedding and while you are my wife, if you are with Alek’s child, I have the honourable rights to kill the Tsar and the child the second it comes into this world. I will not have our kingdom fought over”.

Valentina laughed, “That is IF you can kill him, but yes, I agree to your conditions. Now here is mine: If you father children other than my own before the marriage, the betrothal decree will dissolve”.

“I won’t object to that”, laughed Lucius. “I don’t have any children; I will assure you of that”.

Mockingly, Valentina looked over to Anna and said in a concerned tone, “I don’t know… Lady Anna, Lady Katarina and Lady Iona were naked in the Jacuzzi with you at Lord Ramus’ birthday party…”

Shocked that Valentina would know these intimate details, Lucius looked over to Dante. Dante was red in the face as he glanced over to the twins, who were spotted with a disgusted look. Vera turned to Dante and sneered at him. Lucius suddenly became aware that Valentina had been spying on his social life even before she announced her presence. It was why she inclined so much towards the Tsar. Forcefully, Lucius repeated, “I assure you that I father no children at this moment and will not do so unless they are yours.”

Valentina merely smiled. “We will see. Onto the details of our marriage and rule then?” This part of the amendment is unnecessary in her plans but Valentina had to persuade Lucius that there will be a long marriage and an everlasting union. She need him to think that he had won.

“In our marriage, you will stay with me. You will not be holidaying alone without me there”, demanded Lucius. “I will not give the Tsar the chance to occasionally fuck my wife”. The people in the room gasped at Lucius’ profanity and they knew that he was losing his temper. Valentina was undisturbed inside, however, she wanted to stir him on and allow his anger to make him miss certain details in the agreement that might come in handy.

Pretending to be enraged, she stood up and said hotly, “Being married to you will be tedious enough, I would need plenty of holidays. In fact, I do not see why we need to see each other after the wedding. I will go back to my palace and you to yours. We will rule together equally. There, everyone will be happy”.

“I most definitely will not be happy”, shouted Lucius. “I demand your presence on our wedding night and the nights after that. How else will I get my heir? How else are you going to turn into a vampire?”

“Fine”, agreed Valentina. “But I think we only need one night to produce an heir. After you have your heir, we don’t need to see each other. The boy and I will spend time with you every special occasion, I promise you that. Alek can turn me on your behalf”.

“I beg your pardon”, exclaimed Lucius. He wondered why she was being so irrational and vulgar in her ideas. He hated the Tsar more than anything now and hated how Valentina preferred Alek’s fangs to her neck than his. “So Alekzander will turn you AND he will be looking after my son for most of the year then?” When Valentina did not respond, Lucius firmly said, “No, I’m turning you and you and my son will stay by my side. I will tie you to my bedpost if I have to”.

Disgusted, Valentina gave him her most damning glare and she was no longer pretending. “Try and you might accidently get staked…several times”, she warned. They death stared at each other for a while before Vladius suggested them to move on to the conditions involving their rule.

“If there are any bastard children from you”, said Valentina, “they will have no claim to the throne. In fact, I demand that you kill them and I will personally see to their mothers myself”. For the fun of it, she glared at Anna, who flinched, no doubt remembering the duel.

“I won’t have bastard children, so yes, I will agree to those terms”, said Lucius. “What of your wedding gift? You need to tell me as soon as possible if I’m going to give it to you at our wedding. And I won’t gift them if it involves Alek!”

“It won’t involve him”, replied Valentina, “and I don’t know what I want yet”. Wrong, she knew exactly what she wanted and she will supply it if the wedding went underway. “Is there anything else that we’ve missed?”

“I think everything is covered”, said Lucius menacingly.

“Finally, we can resume back to more important matters”, exclaimed Valentina. She turned to Lord Damien, commander general of her army and asked, “How is the hunt for that rebel, Marcus? I read the minutes from the last meeting and you produced a great plan to capture him. Obviously, he deserves death for stealing from my treasury”.

Lucius was amazed at Valentina. Read the minutes? Why? They were dull. “It didn’t work, your highness. He escaped and I can’t contemplate how. The planning for his capture was extensive”, explained Damien. Standing up, Valentina paced behind the Dragomir elders, while flipping her stake from one hand to the next. “It is strange”, she finally said. “It is almost like he had help from a traitor…”

Suddenly, she was behind a fat Dragomir elder, Rufus, clutching the back of his chair menacingly. “Wouldn’t you say, Rufus? Afterall, you told him about the plan”.

The fat man laugh, “I will not stupidly pretend that it wasn’t me”. He smirked and continued, “But we all know that you need me to find him. He is wiser and more cunning than you, little girl. I’ll bet you don’t know what he looks like. So I suggest that you listen to my conditions”.

Releasing Rufus’ chair and walking away, Lucius saw the man’s face break into a grin at his victory. At that moment, Lucius felt sorry for Valentina and wished she held onto her information before he had gather leads on Marcus himself. It was never good to look bad in front of your elders.

With her back to the people in the room, Valentina said, “You’re absolutely right…I do need your help and talent”. Then she turned to face Rufus with a smirk, “…because a man with brown hair, obese, a scar across his cheek and unfortunately dirtying my dungeon with his blood is very ‘hard’ to capture, torture and lock away”, she said sarcastically.

With a nod to her guards, the soldiers broke both of Rufus’ arms and removed him from the room. Then Valentina turned to the others and announced, “It is time for my council with the people… I solemnly request that all of you join me. It will be a magnificent show”.

Pushing the double doors open, she sauntered out of the room.