Melody of Blood and Night

Two

Inside the dimly lit room, beyond the sofas, on the raised platform, sat a bewitching beauty behind a mahogany desk. Her unbound hair fell to her waist in a tumble of lustrous sliver, complimenting her slender physique and captivating, crimson red eyes flecked with gold, cold and cruel. A vampyre's eyes. Ghislaine's eyes.

"Ghislaine." Caelan said in the way of a greeting. "Ah. Caelan. Aedlyn. She acknowledged them, without looking up. "Hemmingway is dead," Aedlyn said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "But you already know that." She added, crossing her arms. "Who bribed him?" Ghislaine questioned coolly as she pulled up two documents by the oil lamp on her desk. "It was-" Aedlyn began, but halted as something caught her eye. Her brows furrowed as she squinted, mouth slightly open, "Duke Williams..." She completed. Caelans cerulean eyes widened in surprise as he whipped her head towards her, but she was already moving, taking two steps at a time, she practically flew over the stairs leading to Ghislaines desk and snatched the papers from the Vampyress. Ghislaine sighed and looked up.

"This is Duke Williams signature. Approving the Bloodsbane Battalion to be dispatched to the Front!" Aedlyn stated incredulously, eyes jumping from document to the other. "And this....one also has his signature on the papers for sending the Silver Battalion to the Front instead of the Bloodsbane Battalion...?" Aedlyn read aloud, confused. Each word sounding more suspicious than the last. She looked at Ghislaine, who had, at some point, risen from behind the desk and was now standing beside Caelan.

Aedlyn saw him shudder as Ghislaine's finger traced the chiselled lines of his face, her head tilted upwards, gazing at him through her long lashes, her lips parted into a seductive smile. Aedlyn stifled the sudden urge to clip off Ghislaine's fingers as her grip on the papers tightened. She had always known that the Vamypress had wanted Caelan. He was the pretty little doll she couldn't have. He would have been been used to her hearts content and then tossed away after she got bored, had it not been for the profit he brought her. It hadn't even bothered her, up until a few months ago. She remembered it like it was yesterday, the moment that had changed everything.

She had bargged into his chamber, "How can you take so much time, Caelan? I swear if-" Aedlyn had forgotten what she had wanted to say as she beheld an extremely mortified, half-naked Caelan. She had felt the heat rising to her cheek, remembered thinking how the careless boy she had come to call her best friend, had grown up into man. A man with a toned torso and muscular arms. "Um yes, I um...am almost done." He had blurted out, trying to cover himself, beet-red and flustered. Aedlyn had spun on her heels and walked out the door, snapping her mouth close, cheeks flaming. Ever since, every time she looked at him, she found herself admiring the way his eyes caught the sunlight, felt her heart beat faster everytime he shot her one of his lazy, lopsided grins. He had become something more, more than a friend, and she couldn't understand what or why.

She shook her head, burying the memory and the feelings that surfaced with it, trying to focus on the matter at hand. "But how is this possible?" Aedlyn questioned, watching Caelan flinch as Ghislaine's fingernails slithered across his neck. She could sink her fangs into the his artery and suck him dry before either of them could blink. She laughed and replied, "Look carefully Aedlyn." So she did, trying not to think about what was going on behind her as she turned towards the desk, examining the papers once again. "I can almost taste the blood pumping beneath your skin." She heard the Vamypress whisper, loud enough for her to hear. Aedlyn ignored them, and the pang of fear that had hit her, honing her focus onto the puzzle in front of her. She couldn't understand what it was that she was looking for until her eyes fell on the Duke's signatures. There was something slightly different about the signature on the second document, hidden from the iddiferent eyes. But not hers. "The signatures..." Aedlyn said softly and turned to announce her discovery, only to find Caelan, standing alone, breathing heavily.

Her words still at the tip of her tongue, she whipped her head to her side just as a blur of silver followed by a gust of wind that blew her hair into her face, materialised into Ghislaine, standing behind. "Remember what I have taught you Aedlyn. Think." Ghislaine whispered into her ear, stepped in front of her, looking her dead in the eyes. A challenge gleaming in her crimson eyes. Aedlyn closed the gap between her and her mentor, looking down her nose at Ghislaine, eyes narrowed slightly. "The signature on the second document, approving the change in Battalions is not the Duke's." Aedlyn stated loudly, still looking down at Ghislaine, triumph shining in her eyes, a small smile playing on her lips, she continued, "A sign of the Royal Court cannot be replicated. All the members of the Royal Court are provided with special ink, one that cannot be erased, made by witches and it is used to write and sign all the Royal documents." "But Duke Williams was not a part of the Royal Court. He was just a Duke." Caelan asserted, clearly confused. "Exactly." Aedlyn agreed.

"So that means, that someone higher up is behind this. It would have taken at least a week for the matter to get to the Court, so the General must have gone to Duke Williams for approval, after all he owned the border land." Aedlyn said, more to herself then to them, as she frantically began searching the room, her eyes darting around the chamber, until they landed on something, atop the dinette placed between the two sofas. She flew down the stairs, rushed to it and picked up the jar of water and began to pour it over the documents. "Aedlyn what-" Caelan began, but Ghislaine held up her hand, her wine red lips stretched in an amused smile. Aedlyn's eyes darkened as the ink of one of the documents bled and the words blurred into each other.

She walked over to them and explained in a grave tone, "This document-" she held up the one that was no longer readable, "-Was the one that approved the Bloodsbane Battalion to fight on The Front." Approval and knowing twinkled in Ghislaines eyes while Caelans face portrayed confusion. "And this-" she continued, "-Is the document that authorised the swap in the Battalions which was allegedly approved by the Duke." She held up the other document. Caelan's slanting brows shot up, eyes growing wide, "That means..." He began.

"Yes," confirmed. "That means the swap was authorised by a member of the Royal Court,"

"But who? And why? The error was the reason the battle was lost!" Caelan exclaimed.

"It could only be someone of the Royal Court, who was present there at the time." She speculated.

"Who, out of the people present there, belonged to the Royal Court?" Aedlyn demanded the answer to the crucial question from Ghislaine.

"The Crown Prince, his brother and General Balthamore," Ghislaine answered, a bemused smile still playing on her lips.

Aedlyn paused, tilted her head and asked, "You knew all along, didn't you?" and received a shrug of confirmation from Ghislaine.

"Why didn't you tell us in the first place?" Caelan demanded.

"Then how would I have been able to enjoy.... this?" Ghislaine counter-questioned with feigned innocence while waving her finger between Caelan and Aedlyn, much to her exasperation.

"Just tell us who did it."

"And that, my dear assassins, brings us to our next client." Ghislaine finished just as the heavy doors of her room flung open, and a boy with a handsome face, dazzling emerald eyes and mahogany hair walked into the room.

"Hello, Ghislaine." He spoke with an air of authority about him, and judging by his mannerism, Aedlyn concluded that he was a Royal.

"You must be....." He began, narrowing his eyes.

"Aedlyn." She answered plainly.

"Your reputation precedes you, Miss Aedlyn." He remarked.

"This," Ghislaine began gestured towards the sophisticated stranger, "-Is Prince Kaius."

Caelan bowed his head, "Greetings Prince."

But Aedlyn remained standing, as did the Prince, never once looking away, "So who will we be murdering for you, Prince?"

The air in the room seemed to come to a standstill as the Prince sucked in a breath, sighigh deeply.

"My brother, Zaivian, The Crown Prince of Caestros."