It happened in the middle of a training session with the junior soldiers.

They were running sprints around the lake, while I watched over a fight between Vanessa and one of the other soldiers, a twenty year old bear shapeshifter.

During my teaching sessions I had noticed on many occasions how Vanessa seemed always on edge. And not just when fighting or when she was exhausted. Always. She was close to two centuries old. For a vampire of her age, being constantly on edge meant bloodlust issues.

Today, she was beyond pissed off for some reason.

The cocky bear had just landed a blow on Vanessa's kidney and jumped away with an agility fit for a cat.

"Come on, Van," he chuckled when Vanessa groaned, crouching with her hands on her knees, "This is why you'll never make it to the seniors."

As soon as the words left his lips, Vanessa's head snapped up. Her beautiful brown eyes were nowhere to be seen behind the bright red covering her irises. A vicious snarl echoed around the woods. A hissing, growling sound that escaped her throat before she lunged at the shapeshifter with phenomenal speed, fangs flashing and venom dripping. The bear didn't stand a chance.

Fortunately, I was close enough and fast enough to intervene. Right as Vanessa's fangs grazed the boy's neck, I pulled her off by the back of her shirt, kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying back towards a tree.

"Get out of here!" I said to the shocked kid, keeping myself between him and Vanessa before she lunged again. She was focused on the bear, which made it easy for me to grab her by the throat and threw her on the ground. Her back hit the forest floor, and I immediately locked her wrists over her head with my hand and sat on her thighs to immobilize her lower half.

Her face, inches from mine, was crazed, crimson eyes and long fangs dripping with poison.

Vampire venom was dangerous to shapeshifters and witches, it could induce seizures or even paralysis for a limited amount of time.

Witches could be turned into vampires if the amount of venom was substantial, shapeshifters only suffered temporary physical effects until their bodies burned through the venom.

For the fae, however, injecting a certain amount of vampire venom in the bloodstream had lethal consequences. It made the fae go insane.

If they were not put down a day after the venom entered their bodies, the fae would start suffering a serious case of bloodlust. All reason and emotion lost.

The last recorded case of a vampire attack on a fae was centuries ago. The fae in question had gone crazy and slaughtered his entire family and half the town he lived in. Men, women, children of all ages, he attacked everyone and glutted himself on their blood.

That was the main reason why the fae were a very secular race. They only allowed a limited number of trusted vampires into their territory. Uncle Robert had been one of them.

There was no record of a fae coming back from the venom induced blood craze. Until about twenty six years ago.

Vanessa made a lunge for my throat, but my hold on her was firm. I heard the other juniors approach but kept my eyes on her.

"Van?" Corbin's voice asked, his tone full of fear.

"Corbin, take everyone and go." I had to deal with Vanessa, and their presence would only distract me.

"But-"

"Now. That was an order."

There was a pause, before everybody moved away. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw them all run deeper into the woods. Corbin hesitated a bit at the treeline, but eventually he, too, left. I breathed out in relief. I didn't want anyone harmed if Vanessa lost all reason.

"Vanessa. Focus," I said with as much authority as I could muster. She kept thrashing around, teeth bared, no sign of reason in her eyes. My muscles groaned under the effort it took to keep her immobilized. "The others are probably calling in Arthur right now, do you want him to see you this way?"

That had her freezing. She was breathing loudly, but her eyes finally focused on mine.

"Come on, girl. You're stronger than this."

Her eyes screwed tightly shut for a few seconds. They were still red when she opened them, but she looked in control.

"I-I..." she wheezed out, her voice raspy, as if her throat was parched.

"Vanessa, when was the last time you fed?" I asked. I knew quite a lot about vampires and bloodlust thanks to uncle Robert.

I knew I hit the nail spot on when Vanessa's eyes shifted away from mine. She licked her cracked lips, fangs still gleaming.

"Two weeks," she whispered.

I bit back a curse. Two weeks was too long for someone her age.

"Why?"

She didn't answer, her eyes averted. 

"Vanessa, why didn't you feed? You know it's dangerous."

"I can't control it, okay?!" she replied, her eyes suddenly filled with tears, "everytime I smell blood I get the urge to tear someone's throat out! I don't want to be this! I don't want to be a monster!"

She dropped her head back, eyes closed, her body losing all fight. Fat tears leaked from the corners of her eyes down her temples. With a deep sigh, I released her and sat beside her. Resting my elbows on my raised knees, I looked at the sparkling blue water of the lake. The weather was nice today.

"Does Arthur know about your bloodlust problem?"

Her laugh was dry. "Why do you think I haven't made senior soldier yet. I've been a junior for close to eight years now." Silence, then, "I didn't even want to be a vampire. Do you know what it feels like? To be forced to be something I didn't want to be? I'll have to spend an eternity with this curse, this stupid thirst that never goes away. I hate this. I hate this." A watery sound that made my heart break for her, "All I ever wanted was to have children and grow old with the person I loved, was it too much to ask?"

Her words drove home the fact that not all vampires were turned by choice. It's forbidden to turn a human without consent, there are long procedures before a human is even approved. But not everyone follows the rules, and people like Vanessa have to pay the price.

I couldn't pretend to understand the pain she was going through. But I did know how it felt like to not have a choice about the way you lived your life.

I turned to look at her. She had her arm over her eyes, her bottom lip trembling.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I know it doesn't help, but I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to lose control over how you live your life."

She said nothing. I looked back at the lake. A bird flew down until it touched the water then back up in a smooth manoeuvre. A creature free to do as it pleased.

"I won't say I understand what you're going through. But what I do know is that what's done is done. You can't undo the past, but you can decide your future."

"How can I do that if all I think about is how to survive the next day without ravaging someone's neck for blood?"

"Vanessa," I asked again, "does Arthur know how bad it is?"

Her body visibly tensed. She was silent for a long time before replying, "He knows it's not under total control. But I tried to keep how bad it is a secret."

"Why haven't you told him?" because while I personally thought he was arrogant and insufferable sometimes, I also saw how he treated his people. Arthur was fair. "He wouldn't blame you for something you can't control." At least, I hoped he wouldn't.

"I know, I'm just...embarrassed. Vampires my age are usually in control of their craving."

"It's not your fault, and you shouldn't be embarrassed. " I nudged her leg with my foot, "I used to know a vampire, he told me about how hard it was to fight off the blood lust. There's nothing wrong with asking for help."

"Did he do it?"

"Yep," I replied, remembering uncle Robert's stories about his struggle when he had just been turned. "It took him a couple of centuries, but he did manage to control it. He was the most disciplined person I know."

"A couple of centuries?" she asked, astonished.

"Yeah," I nodded, "and guess what? He was turned against his will, too."

I could almost hear her think. She didn't reply, so I nudged her leg again with a smile, "by the way, I know a thing or two about hunting down vampires. If you want, we can catch the sucker who turned you and make him pay."

She snorted, removing her arm and wiping down her cheeks before sitting up. Her eyes were normal once again and a faint smile lit up her face.

"Thanks, I may take you up on that offer."

"Anytime."

The back of my neck prickled. When I looked over my shoulder, Arthur broke through the thick cover of trees, followed by Jesse.

Vanessa spotted him a second later and sprang up to her feet, hands clasped behind her back, feet shoulder width apart, body stiff and head bowed.

Arthur's eyes flickered between Vanessa and I a few times before they settled on the female vampire. Instinctively, I shifted so that I was standing partially in front of her. Arthur's brow slightly lifted, but he didn't comment.

"How long?" Arthur asked as soon as they stopped in front of us.

"Two weeks," she replied in a strained voice, eyes still on the ground.

His face remained stoic as he nodded to Jesse, "make sure she feeds, then we will talk."

Jesse tipped his chin down, glanced at Vanessa and walked back to the woods. She followed.

"Elle," Arthur said when I made a move to join her, "stay."

Vanessa cast me a glance before she jogged to catch up with Jesse. I gritted my teeth and turned to the vampire.

"Do you think I'm a dog?" the words escaped before I could think. Arthur blinked.

"Elle, stay, come, sit," I said, "Ever heard of the word please?"

Arthur cocked his head to the side, "Are you not afraid of me?"

Oh, I was. I would be stupid not to be afraid of him. He just got on my nerves to the point of making me ignore all reason sometimes.

"Why? Do you want me to be afraid?" I crossed my arms over my chest. His eyes ran over my features slowly, went back to mine, then as only he had a way of doing, he changed the subject.

"Mhm. How's Vanessa been doing?"

I barely stopped myself from replying with a grumpy 'fine'. Because she wasn't fine, and Arthur had to know that if he was to help her in any way.

"She's been struggling more lately. But even with the bloodlust, her temper is pretty tame unless someone provokes her. That's what happened today. Otherwise, she would've gone another week or so without feeding." I looked at him, "she's good at hiding how bad she struggles, but it's only because she doesn't want you to think less of her. You're not going to punish her, are you?"

"That's my decision to make."

"You can't," my shoulders tensed, "it's not her fault, she just needs help."

"Allowing her hunger to become this bad is partially her fault." Well, he was kind of right, but that didn't mean I wanted to agree with him.

"You can't punish her."

"Why do you care?"

"Of course, I care!" my voice rose slightly in indignation, "She's my student. If you have to punish someone, it should be me."

He blinked, quietly staring at me for a long minute until I thought he wouldn't reply. Then he shook his head almost imperceptibly and sighed, "you should be careful. Come, since your lesson is already off, we might as well take advantage of it."

He sidestepped me and strode purposefully into the woods. I held back my scream of frustration by sheer power of will and followed after him because, what could I do? Work was work, and he was technically my boss. No matter how much that irked me.

"Where are we going?" I called after him.

"We need to update you on the politics in Europe."

Great! Time to be instructed about my family by outsiders.

***

"The vampire population in Europe is ruled by Venus," Amanda said, "except the ones who have pledged their loyalty to the fae and are living in Ireland."

"All the vampires living in Ireland must swear fealty to the fae?" I asked, because that was something uncle Robert hadn't told me.

"It hasn't always been this way," Harvey said, "the law is relatively new, established around two decades ago. All vampires who refused to take a pledge were escorted out of the territory."

So the attack on my mother twenty six years ago had consequences after all. Amanda continued speaking, unaware of the conflicted emotions brewing in my heart. Harvey looked down at the laptop screen in front of him.

Amanda, Harvey, Arthur and I were in the meeting room. Arthur and I sat on one side of the long table and Harvey and Amanda on the other.

The giant screen on the wall displayed the picture of a handsome man. His shoulder length hair was a light brown with streaks of blond, and his hazel green eyes were alight with mischief. Burak. Arthur's sibling. 

The only physical similarities I could see between the two were the straight bridge of their nose, the square jawline and the lone dimple on their left cheek. While Arthur usually looked impassive, Burak had a small, smug smile of a man who knew he was good looking and powerful, a lethal combination that did wonders to boost a man's arrogance.

"Burak rules over a large part of Asia, including the asian part of Russia. But he and Venus have always been fighting over the European part of Russia."

"Fighting?"

Amanda rolled her eyes, "a silly sibling's fight. Burak likes to ruffle Venus' fur."

Arthur made a dismissive sound, "Venus tolerates his attempts in teasing the boundaries of her territory, for now. If he persists in his folly, he will regret it."

"Anyway," Amanda said, "Burak, Venus, Idar and Leon will be there for this meeting, along with Arthur. This makes it the first event in a decade where the Five are all gathered in one place."

"That much power shouldn't be concentrated in one spot for too long," I mumbled. That was part of the reason why the Five were located as far from each other as possible. That much power would make fertile ground for magic users who liked to mess around in things they had no business proding.

The three vampires looked at me with different degrees of surprise and suspicion. I cleared my throat, "I know a bit...about immortals...just a little...."

"Right," Amanda said slowly, "anyway. These four will probably bring along a few people. Like you will." She told Arthur, then swiped her finger across the tablet's screen in front of her. Burak's photo was replaced by the photo of a group of around ten people standing with their hands behind their backs, the men dressed in black suits and the women in gowns of the same dark shade.

Amanda introduced them as the current High Council of Witchcraft, also attending the meeting. Next was the fifteen shapeshifters representatives. There was no picture of them all together, more than likely due to the fact that dominant shapeshifters rarely tolerated other dominant beings in their proximity. Their animal sides would be on edge, viewing the smallest unusual gesture as a challenge.

Amanda swiped to another picture, at its sight my blood went cold. My magic quivered inside of me. 

Uncle Robert only had dated black and white photographs of the fae's royal family, but later on I'd researched them on the internet and seen what they looked like.

The sight never failed to constrict my heart.

The picture was of the royal family. The current king. The king's brother, his consort and son. The king's great aunt, her immediate family and descendents. I purposely kept my eyes off one particular face.

"Now to the fae's royal family," Amanda sighed, "I don't know who exactly will be attending the meeting from their side. Usually, they send an envoy composed of their court's top ranking officials, but there are rumors that this year will be different."

"Different? How?" I asked, dreading the answer I knew I wouldn't like.

"Someone from the royal family will be present," Harvey said, his eyes on me were watchful, "either the king or his brother."

"I personally don't think either one of them will be there, they'll probably send one of their relatives and be done with it."

"Mhm, I don't know," Arthur said from next to me, his gaze searing my profile, "I think they'd like to see the fae who'd gotten away."

Meaning me. Right.

"I thought the king's brother was no longer involved in matters of the crown." I said, thankful my voice was steady.

The photograph of the royal family on the screen shifted, and one I couldn't handle seeing took its place. A blond man, his hair a silky curtain caressing his shoulders and eyes the color of green jewels. He was handsome, in a rugged masculine way that had nothing to do with his place in the royal line.

The previous king. 

He was dressed in a body armour reminiscent of ages ago, his hand over the hilt of the sword strapped at his hip. I barely took in his face before quickly looking away. This was pure torture.

"This is Rion," Amanda said, "he's the original heir to the throne. The eldest child. He has been the king until about two decades ago when he suddenly abdicated the throne to his brother, Ronan. He disappeared from the public eye, delegated all his duties to other people and vanished for five years before coming back and mating with one of the fae noblewomen."

Sharp emotions raged a storm in my heart as I continued listening to Amanda and Harvey retelling a story I knew better than they did.

"No one knows why he abdicated the throne," Harvey said, "or where he went during the five years he disappeared."

"But there are rumors there was a woman involved."

Harvey rolled his eyes at Amanda's conspiratorial, loud whisper. 

"There's always a woman involved."

"Hey," Amanda slapped him on his shoulder, and by Harvey's wince, it actually hurt, "I'll have you know, sir, women were the reason so many wars were waged."

Harvey rubbed his shoulder, "I don't know why you sound so proud that women have been the cause of so much death."

"Men are the ones who wage those wars," Amanda said in exasperation. I chuckled while they bickered back and forth, the rock on my heart slightly lifting.

Arthur was staring at the photograph of Rion on the screen with an intent expression, and I was suddenly thankful my features were those of my late mother.

It turned out I didn't have to worry about any physical similarities between the previous fae king and I, because later that day, Arthur received a call that would push all of my secrets out into the open. 

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