The Fates

Part XXIII: The Aftermath

Benjamin had returned and told Marcus; Makayla would soon be home. With her leaving he could finally take care of another issue at hand...

"Bring forth Ms Bianchi," he said as he sat on his throne.

Demetri dragged her in and she screamed. Heidi smacked her and she stilled.

"Ms Bianchi, I asked for something simple from you and you blatantly ignored me, yet when my brother chased you off you obliged."

Benjamin, Demetri and Heidi were quiet. Marcus could see that to effect some change in the castle he had to make a statement starting with her...

He beckoned her forward. She tremored in her spot and Heidi dragged her forward staining her pale arm red and splitting her heels. She was strewn onto the floor.

"Well, at least you could still be of use to me in some way."

His smile was cold and sent her into almost epileptic shivers.

"No, please...I didn't know she was supposed to live. I just wanted to make a living!"

Demetri rolled his eyes. The woman was grabbing at toothpicks to try and futilely save herself. She had more than enough to go by. Marcus looked thoughtful.

"Did you present to my brother for assessment?"

Ms Bianchi looked nervously, where his eyes fell, on Demetri. He nodded subtly. Good, Marcus was excited for once, he felt her blood rush through her veins, and could taste the raw scent of fear.

It was beautiful in its stench. He stood unbearably slow. Her heart raced. He swept up his cloak and took a step. Her heart raced faster.

He took one step closer. Her heart leapt. Closer, closer and closer still until he bared down on her like Death itself. It was bleak and slow.

She whispered in a spineless quiver of her long tongue for mercy. Mercy he no longer wanted to give. All he wanted was to consume her as her bloodstream taunted him with its fast dance.

He moved phantomly until his hand stroked her face. She was an older woman, late forties who clung to youth like a vulture did to the skeletal prey.

"Goodbye, and think how this would have ended differently if you had the minutest sympathy for your own."

She venomously glared.

"You will rot in hell, devil."

She shakily shouted at him. Marcus had the gall to laugh at her.

"Oh, really now? Ok, tell Lucifer, Beelzebub or Hades, whichever, you prefer that I am waiting for him. He has never come for me."

He squeezed her neck and she choked; she could feel her airway collapsing. She clawed at marble arms and instead only tore fabric not skin. His sharp teeth clamped on her neck and he tore away skin, leaving a gashing, bleeding hole.

She wailed. His hunger pangs grew and with it a need to be quenched. He lapped the running blood before sucking her dry and he chucked her on the floor. Her gash now dry and pastey white.

The blood made the others hungrier, being around a human, living, and breathing sustenance always took its toll.

"Heidi, make preparations for a meal for the three of you. You all did well today. It should be adequate enough to sustain you three more weeks; bring me some as well."

Heidi bowed.

"I will prepare a feast worthy of the Masters."
His eyes pinched closed.

"None for the rest. Let them go hungry for a bit; it will teach them respect. But afford some for Renata."

Heidi's eyes were wide but by the mask Marcus now donned it was not to be fought.
"Right away Master."

She left. Benjamin was gestured nearer.
"I want you to tell me when she messages you how her travel was and if her package is in transit."

Benjamin bowed. He had of course got a beep that afternoon that she had the package and was at home.

But what Marcus did not know would not hurt him. He needed as little contact with her as possible if she were to survive. He stared at the woman's corpse.

"And have that corpse removed. It is ruining the atmosphere,” he said callously.
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Caius whispered to Aro: "Where is Marcus?"

He was leaning over the side of his wooden chair and his bleached hair folded over his neck, which was swaddled in a scarf.

Aro had his head curled into his palm. His normally cheery disposition had withered like a dry tomato plant. He sighed.

"He is in the library."

Caius breathed easier; he now avoided Marcus and only met with him during their trials. That was the new order. Marcus had been awakened after the arrival of that foolish girl into a different being.

He was now vehement and uncooperative. They could no longer manipulate him. Early on he had shown them that by depriving them for weeks on end of nourishment, social gathering and any form of entertainment.

He had even chosen favourites. Sure, they too, but now it was becoming a hindrance to their coexistence. Who were the guards and staff supposed to be on the good side of?

Caius and Aro took to hiding from their brother.

"Did he say he was coming?"

Aro felt weighed down and depressed. Why his dear Sulpicia couldn't comfort him. Neither could Corin who he had hesitantly resorted to using. Her talent of addictive happiness could not draw him from the river drowning him slowly, eternally.

"You are aware Marcus no longer consults me. He has taken to chatting with our visitors, as rare as they are."

Caius would never admit it, but he felt Marcus and Aro had exchanged personalities. Aro had become Marcus, with his constant airy sighs and gloom-laden eyes.

And Marcus was now not Aro but Aro. The unelected leader but he still never smiled. Those few smiles he had shown after millennia had gone to America with Makayla.

Aro was now a fixture of the dining hall. Caius missed his annoyingly cheerful moods. He stood and left a regretful Aro alone in the centre of his kingdom.