GISELLE

"I don't understand." Giselle said as Alacaris and Jelena began talking about the Monarchy amongst themselves. Octavia disappeared somewhere and the three of them were left in the room, getting ready for a get-together. Drinking wine and blood, that is.

"You don't know anything, do you?" Alacaris asked and Giselle shook her head. She could feel the wine kicking in, especially since she had never drunk anything in her life.

"Alright, quick history lesson, though I'm sure Dracul will make you read a lot of books on the subject." Alacaris poured some blood in her wine cup and leaned onto the pillows behind her. "Vampires are a society, half-functional, but a society. They call themselves Night-Children which is presumptuous and stuck-up, if you ask me."

"But nobody's asking us," Jelena jumped in, "because we're not members of one of the ten Houses." Giselle eyed them both, confusion in her growing bigger.

"The Monarchy is run by a King, or a Queen. He or she has to be elected by the Houses, receiving a majority vote." Alacaris said.

"That's not very monarchical." Giselle commented.

"Oh, well, what would you have the immortal creatures do? Rule until they die?" Alacaris waved with her wine cup.

"And the Monarchy did emerge in Athens." Jelena added.

"Alright, what are these Houses?" Giselle asked.

"Like royalty, they were there when the Monarchy became a thing, so now they have a say in whatever happens in the vampire world." Alacaris explained. Giselle simply stared at them waiting for them to name the Houses.

"Current Queen, Aksana Egorova, jurisdiction over Prague. House Bryce, London." Alacaris began.

"House Draculesti." Jelena gestured towards the ceiling of the castle they were in.

"De Noves, Cardona, which is Catalonia and Kingdom of Aragon. House Adamov, jurisdiction over Moscow..." Alacaris continued.

"Wait, wait, Adamov? My very much human husband's name is Adam Adamov." Giselle interrupted, her heart racing its beating a bit. Both Alacaris and Jelena laughed out loud.

"That's amazing, considering his very much vampire mother, Svetlana Adamova, ruled the Monarchy for a hundred years. Adam has every right to run for the throne." Alacaris said through the laughter.

"Wasn't there a rumour that he didn't want to be made because he wanted an heir?" Jelena asked and then added, looking at Giselle, "his mother supposedly had trouble conceiving him."

Giselle stared in awe as girls talked about House Adamov rumours. Adam was of vampire heritage and he didn't accept this right because he wanted an heir. And Giselle drank mercury for two years.

"Anyway," Alacaris interrupted Giselle's thoughts, "it's a good thing you escaped from that family. Overprotective mother, dead father and the brother he's not talking to."

"His younger brother, Maks Adamov, went rogue. Joined the 'other' vampires." Jelena added and Giselle simply looked at her, question marks all over her face.

"Monarchy has a few rules, one of them is that we aren't allowed to kill people we feed on. If we kill them all, we have nothing to eat so it's just safer to forbid it. Rogue vampires are those that weren't able to control their thirst, or those that committed some other crimes. For example, when Bryce was king, they threw almost everyone out, for minor crimes, usually just because Bryce didn't like them. We call them rogue vampires." Alacaris kept on talking and Giselle thought about what kind of a world she entered.

"They kill child vampires, you know?" Jelena added. "When a four year old becomes a vampire, he cannot control his thirst, ends up biting everything and everyone. The Monarchy kills them, it's the law. Do not turn children into vampires."

Giselle remembered Amalia's child and how she approached the cradle and dropped her filthy blood in its mouth. She also condemned a child to God only knows what kind of destiny.

"When you say throw them out...?" Giselle had to stop thinking about everything she's done.

"Over the Border." Alacaris smiled. "They aren't allowed to enter the Monarchy territory, which means every area that is under the jurisdiction of the Monarchy. There is literally a magical line stopping them. Well, it isn't stopping them, they can enter physically, but they would become a lot less strong. For example, a werewolf entering the Border probably wouldn't be able to transform in his wolf form. Every House can open the Border for whoever they please, but they usually don't, though."

"Tell me more about the Houses." Giselle said, not really wanting to think about how Jack O'Neal mentioned the Border and how whatever roamed beyond it, attacked them.

"Where was I? Adamov, Egorov..." Alacaris mumbled Houses she already mentioned.

"The Kalmar Union." Jelena said.

"The Kalmar Union!" Alacaris repeated and smiled.

"They change their names with every generation so we just call them Kalmar Union. A bunch of royal guys. We went there once to a ball, sweet, gorgeous fellas. It's cold up there, so they really appreciate body heat." Jelena winked.

"Let's see, House Capet, France and everything around. House Durov, almost all of his territory under Ottomans now. The Habsburgs, of course, nothing happens without House Habsburg." Alacaris counted on her fingers and then smiled broadly.

"And House Faliero, jurisdiction over Venice." Jelena smiled, too, but Giselle wasn't in on the joke.

"The king of the vampire underground." Alacaris chuckled. "Vampire underground is a place where all the royal vampires go when they want to get down and dirty."

"You can get anything you want there." Jelena added emphasizing 'anything.'

"Everything they'd throw you out of the Monarchy for. But underground lets you experience all of it, for a right price. You can get a person to kill, to torture, to rip apart if you want. Hell, they can even get you a child to kill, if you have the money for it. Human blood, vampire blood, wolf blood, anything you want." Alacaris leaned towards Giselle, a menacing smile on her face. Giselle wondered how many times they ordered something from the underground and she unwillingly shivered.

"Doesn't the Monarchy know about it?" Giselle asked.

"Of course they know. Half of that money goes to the Crown itself, it's an open secret. Faliero is the richest man alive." Alacaris answered and then abruptly got up. "But enough history, talking about Faliero reminded me we have a party to attend. Come on!"

Alacaris gathered wine and blood from the table and proceeded out of the room without bothering to ask Jelena and Giselle anything. Giselle quickly learned she simply seemed to be like that.

"Dracul will leave you alone until morning, so we have to make the most of it." Alacaris chirped while they walked down narrow hallways.

"I've heard him being called Voivode, why Dracul?" Giselle asked.

"He belongs to the Order of the Dragon, they're called Draculesti. I call him Dracul because that used to be his name. It's a name of a human line. Vlad is much older than that. He plays the part so he can manipulate human lands as well as vampire. Some vampires do that, they take on human identities so they can meddle with human affairs."

The girls walked up the stairs to the second floor. Here, halls were even more narrow and the light of the candles dimmed on their way up.

"Who is he, really?" Giselle asked.

"Nobody around here knows. We know he is old. How old? I've no clue." Alacaris stopped in front of a room.

She opened a door they stood next to and they entered a smoke-filled room. At first Giselle saw nothing, because her new eyes were busy catching parts of the smoke. When she adjusted, she saw lots of people around a table, playing a card game. One of the men approached them.

"You're bringing fresh blood, Ala." He said coming very close to Giselle. His hair was white, even whiter than Alacaris' and his eyes were bright red. Something dark was running through his face veins, leaving dark paths all over him. He was dressed in brown as well as everybody else. His face was round and it made him look like a child, but he didn't look at Giselle like a child. His gaze was predatory, like a lion noticing a gazelle.

"Oton, you're scaring her," Alacaris looked at Giselle, "He's pumped up on blood, that's why he's behaving this way. Blood is also what's running through his veins."

"Is that what we look like when we drink human blood?" Giselle asked instantly regretting it. She hasn't been to many small get-togethers, she doesn't really know how to start a conversation.

"Oh, no, youngling, I'm pumped up on vampire." Oton said, approaching Giselle even closer. He smelt good, of cloves and ginger. Alacaris laughed.

"Go torture somebody else, Oton, she's way too new for this," and then she turned to Giselle, "Unless you want to, Giselle, Oton will be more than happy to offer his services."

Oton offered Giselle his hand, which she took trying to be polite.

"My name is Oton, youngling, and I'll do to you whatever you want done." He leaned into her, his face right next to her neck. He was still holding her hand, not letting it go. His tooth caressed her neck and Giselle felt a tingle of pain in the next moment. And then some kind of a rush washed all over her. Alacaris pulled Giselle closer to her.

"She'll decide if she wants anything, Oton." Alacaris said and they've moved on to the next room. Giselle was still feeling that tingle on her neck, this desire to want to do things she had never done before.

"Don't mind him," said Ala, "when vamps drink a lot of vampire blood, they become a bit, violent."

"Do you do this often?" Giselle asked her.

"Oh, honey, we do things that are much worse than drinking each other's blood. Just wait 'til the wolf stuff gets here." Ala sat on a chair in a corner of a darkened room, filled with candles in all the corners, them being the only light there. Here, vampires were talking.

Groups weren't big, the biggest one being of four, sitting at a large table in the far end of the room. Couches were all around with small wooden tables next to them. Three exits were present as well, including the door they came through. Giselle sat next to Alacaris.

"The wolf stuff?"

"The werewolf blood, oh, God, that's a different sort of a high. It's expensive as hell, of course, but we treat ourselves from time to time." She explained.

"Where do you get it from?" Giselle asked, feeling stupid for not knowing anything.

"It's all from the vampire underground, as I mentioned before. Buying wolf blood in the underground is like getting a cake, nobody even cares."

A thought crept into Giselle's head, a thought that they might've lost their souls when they died, just like all the stories said. She remembered how Alacaris said that in the underground you can get a person to kill.

"Would you ever pay to kill?" Giselle asked as nonchalantly as possible, but fear in her voice was vivid, it was coloured.

"I don't like pain, Giselle, I like pleasure. Give some and get some, you know."

"Aren't you hurting a human if you drink their blood?"

"Did you feel hurt when Oton bit your neck?" She retorted. "It feels good, sensual, attractive. Nature always balances things out. We cannot kill them all, because without them we die. And our bite is a sensation to them."

Oton approached them again right in that moment. But this time, he didn't come near Giselle. Instead, he kissed Alacaris on the lips, letting Giselle see his teeth, his tongue.

"Some humans might even come during the bite." He said into Ala's lips and bit her hard a moment later. She moaned loudly, obviously not minding him or everybody else in the room. Giselle swallowed, not sure what to feel. Her blood was pumping through her veins, wanting to join, wanting to run.

"Vampires are a bit... different than other beings." Ala said, breaking the kiss. "We like to feel good, and we like to feel all different kinds of good."

"Here, drink some." Oton gave Giselle a cup of dark, red liquid. She listened and took the cup, not knowing what the hell was in it. It wasn't the same as human blood she drank earlier, this tasted sweet and sour in the same time. It was hard to swallow, because it tasted so good on the tongue.

"You two are special kinds of monsters, leave the girl alone." Jelena said, approaching suddenly. Giselle didn't even see her appear.

"Did you want to join or you came here just to preach?" Asked Oton, his hand was around Ala and he was lazily stroking her collar bone.

"Micchalo wants to talk to you, something about the blood batch." The moment Jelena said it, Oton was up on his feet.

"If that motherfucker sent less than I paid for again..." He murmured as he was walking away without a word. Then Ala's hand was around Giselle and she looked at Jelena.

"Did you want to join us?" She asked.

Giselle felt it then, how it hit her, the liquid, slowing everything down. Giselle watched Alacaris as she kissed Jelena, slowly and passionately, pulling her closer. Then she took Giselle's hand and she was up on her feet. They dragged Giselle through one of the three doors in the room and suddenly she was on her back, lying on something soft.

"I'm sorry, youngling, but we needed to christen you." Ala said as she leaned over Giselle, stroking her hair. Giselle was overwhelmed by fear, and desire, and anticipation. Alacaris kissed her. The simple touch of her lips made Giselle shiver in parts she didn't know existed.

"Look at her," Alacaris said to Jelena, "I can tell when somebody knows what to expect."

The two women kissed right in front of Giselle and she didn't know what else to do but to touch both of them, until the lips were on her. The mixture of tongue and teeth took Giselle someplace else and she wasn't completely aware of what was going on.

Giselle inhaled deeply and realised she had trouble breathing, the smoke and the scents in the air made her lungs close abruptly. She got up, surprising two women in the bed. This is wrong, Giselle thought. She stumbled out of bed.

"Hey, you're fine here." Alacaris said, realising Giselle's fear.

"I need to leave." Giselle mumbled, barely able to form a sentence.

"Let's go get some fresh air." Jelena said, getting up, too. Not knowing what to do, Giselle followed her, as did Alacaris. Something heavy sat on her soul as she was walking down the darkened hallways of the castle. Giselle's new eyes were adjusted to the dark, but they had a problem shifting from light to the darkness and every candle they ran into, hurt like hell. Others new the way and she simply followed. She had trouble concentrating on anything, her mind jumped from a thought to thought. The castle was on a cliff, unlike the castle Giselle grew up in. At first she thought they'd be going downwards, but as it turned out, they went to a highest balcony in the castle.

The view was nothing short of magical. The moon was lighting the trees and the mountains around them. It cooled down finally, the day was hot for the middle of October. A light breeze was caressing Giselle's face as she stood on the stone balcony. How did she get here? Halfway across the world. Giselle looked at Alacaris, her hands spread wide, swaying in the wind.

There were no houses to be seen from the top of the castle and Giselle wondered where all the people were. Everything was happening in some sort of a haze. Her mind was foggy, she tried to look at one point for a while, but she felt dizzy.

"Something's wrong." Giselle said, breathing heavily. She leaned onto the balcony fence, looking at the moon.

"You'll be fine, it's the drugs and vampirism mixed together." Oton shook it off. Giselle didn't even know he followed them.

"Here, drink this." Alacaris offered. Giselle took the wooden cup, a bit resistant. But with the first sip, she realised it's water. Oh, how grateful she was in that moment. The water tasted so familiar, Giselle recognised it from another lifetime. Her mind cleared a little bit with every sip.

"I'm sorry, we pushed you too far." Jelena apologized and sat on the floor, looking at the moon. Giselle nodded, not knowing what else to do. She wanted to impress them, but this was all too much. She needed to breathe. She needed to be reminded she still existed, that she didn't disappear in this weird transformation.

"Let's talk about something else. How come Dracul is so interested in you? He usually doesn't bother when new disciples arrive." Oton asked.

Giselle sighed, letting the calm breeze slow down her heart rate.

"My mother was Leona Solberg." She said and watched the eyes of her companions widen in surprise. Giselle didn't know anything about her mother and she simply assumed Alina and Vlad took her in because Leona was Alina's sister. But looking at the bunch sitting with her on the balcony, Giselle realised there's more to the story.

"Your mother was a trickster, a witch." Said Ala suddenly, Giselle choked on her water.

"How do you know that?" Giselle asked her.

"Everybody knows that," Jelena jumped it, "it's a common fact in this world. She was one of the Five."

Giselle didn't even bother asking.

"There are two known sources of magic in this world, black and white. The white witches can generate magic out of herbs, plants, basic elements, such as wind, air, water and earth, but they cannot create magic of their own. Black witches, or dark tricksters, however you prefer, are the source of their magic, they don't need anything else. Your mother was a dark trickster." Oton explained.

"There was a side effect of the dark arts usage, it twisted tricksters, the power changed them, made them go mad." Jelena continued. "Eventually, there was a war, called Black and White War. There isn't anyone alive from that time anymore, but it goes down in history as the only time vamps, witches and wolves worked together, to get rid of the dark tricksters. White witches were strong back then, but not strong enough to fight off the dark ones alone, so the wolves joined in. The story says that the wolves were granted immortality as a sign of gratitude."

"When was this?" Giselle asked.

"Nobody knows." Ala cut in before Giselle even finished the question.

"Written documents only go as far as The Monarchy and that isn't even half of our history." Said Jelena.

"After The War," continued Oton, emphasizing his words, "there wasn't many dark tricksters left. Until eventually, we were down to The Five. The only one known to the world being your mother, Leona Solberg."

"Where are the others?" Giselle asked.

"We don't know," Ala smiled, probably realising they really know nothing, "Some claim to have seen them, mostly The Tamer, she's the only one that for sure still exists."

"You're telling me my mother is one of the five most powerful witches that currently exist?"

"She was, she's dead now." Oton said abruptly, Giselle swallowed a sudden heartache.

"Some say she's gone mad just like all the others before her. All we ever managed to find out is that she's had some prophecy and doom-related ideas." Added Jelena and then, almost like she figured something important out, she asked: "Who made you? How did you become a vampire?"

"My mother drank vampire blood when she was pregnant with me." Giselle said, deciding that all of them already know too much, what's one more secret? They stared at her, bloodshot eyes, faces pale and Giselle wondered for a moment, is any of them going to remember any of this tomorrow?

"Before I died, I haven't drunk vampire blood," Giselle continued, "but my mother had, when she was pregnant with me, for nine months every day."

For some reason, Jelena gasped with what seemed a sudden realisation. She stared at Giselle, her mouth hanging open.

"They think you're a trickster. She thought she could keep you a trickster. She thought she could intertwine your blood with vampire blood. Giselle, you might be a trickster."

Silence fell, so strong that Giselle was able to hear the leaves from afar. But her heart was quiet, perhaps it was the tiredness or the deadness of her body, but Giselle couldn't hear her own heart. It scared her, more than anything that's happened today.

"Even if it is so, nobody would know. It has never happened before, a witch keeping her magic once she's been made." Oton said, finishing the rolled up herb he's been smoking. It smelt unfamiliar.

"I need to discuss something else." Giselle said. The bunch didn't seem like they minded the time spent on this balcony or the hour in the night. She cleared her throat. "When I left Carcassonne, I left with a man named Jack O'Neal, he wanted to take me to Cardona."

The balcony door opened and Octavia stepped under the light of the moon. Giselle wondered where she had gone.

"He wants to take you to our Madame The Queen." Her voice was spiteful, filled with malice. The sort of malice Giselle often heard from Amalia's mouth. The malice of a woman scorned.

"Oh, great, I can save my breath now, there's Octavia to shit all over this." Murmured Oton.

"I've been trying to find you. Jesus, that creep Petre was tailing me half a night. Somebody put him on spying duty." She said, sitting on the floor. She had two flagons in her hands, one dark and one light.

"I don't get why Dracul keeps him around, that guy is sick." Alacaris commented.

"Come on, you see a guy fucking a dead body once and everybody's sickened, yet nobody ever throws a glance at what they're doing." Oton said laughing and Giselle saw the girls frowning and whispering something under their breath.

"You are the one that's sick, you're just not old enough so it hasn't surfaced yet." Octavia spat her words at him, but Oton seemed to enjoy it all.

"Exactly, the guy's a thousand years old, at least he knows what he wants. If when I'm a thousand years old, I finally know that what I want is to fuck a corpse, oh, darling, I'm going to let the worms inside it tickle the meat of my cock." Oton got very near Octavia and the disgust in her eyes was apparent. The rawness of his voice left Giselle in awe and for a moment she thought about how far one can go, the disturbing and disgusting things that one can say. But Octavia was near slapping him, so Giselle jumped in.

"Jack O'Neal called her The Queen. Who is she? Whom are we talking about?" Giselle asked. All of these people, they made her feel weird inside. In the same time, she felt good, she could've said anything she wanted and nothing would've happened to her. They understood who she become. Yet, Giselle didn't even know who she was and before she learned that, she couldn't know who can accept her as who she is.

"It's Lerra De Noves." Jelena jumped in, avoiding Oton and Octavia glaring at each other, "She's the Madame of Cardona, and the representative of the House of De Noves. Besides that, she's just some girl that showed up right when the De Noves House was about to die."

"Yes, and spread her legs so her house wouldn't die." Added Octavia. Oton burst out laughing like a child that's been told a dirty joke.

"I hear she can take two in her ass. And what makes you special, Octavia?" He asked her, he was provoking, his red eyes almost leaving trays of colour in the air. Giselle noticed the flagon next to him and realised he's gotten himself drugged again.

"Perhaps the fact that I'm not sleeping with everyone I set my eye on." She replied quickly, shooting him with a deadly glare. But Oton didn't care.

"Not only can you not take two in your ass, you're also a liar."

"Jesus Christ, get him out of here." Alacaris ordered Jelena who simply nodded and lifted Oton off the floor.

"Come on, Oton." She told him as they left the balcony. Moon has been moving all night and by the position of it right now, I new it would soon disappear and the first light would come.

"I am not tired, at all." Giselle said, tracing the moon with her eyes.

"You're new, you probably won't sleep for days. When I was made, I haven't slept in two weeks straight." Ala brushed it off.

"Tell me about The so-called Queen."

Octavia handed over the flagon with the red liquid and Giselle took a sip. The simple touch of it on her lips revived her. She gulped almost half of it down greedily.

"She's not a queen," Octavia started, "I mean, Cardona's not even a kingdom. She's just a pathetic little girl, left all alone in the world, as the head of the House."

"She's been made a little less than a hundred and fifty years ago, barely managed to save the House." Alacaris added.

"Yes," Octavia jumped in, "after the plague hit in, almost everyone human died, Lerra somehow managed to survive. She went to Venice to beg for Cardona and there she's been made."

"Does Jack O'Neal person know who your mother was?" Asked Alacaris and Giselle nodded, remembering the uncomfortable conversation.

"Staying in Bran is your best option. You're safe here." Octavia took the flagon out of Giselle's hands. Giselle caught Ala's eyes and read the playfulness in them, the straight out need to not do the right thing. She coughed on a laugh and turned to Octavia.

"Actually, we are going to Cardona for a Winter Solstice Ball."

"What?" Giselle asked. Octavia's eyes darkened, something much deeper than anger roamed in those black pits.

"Oh, yeah, Vlad got the invitation. And we will be answering it." Alacaris simply smiled.

"How do you know this?" Octavia asked, genuinely perplexed.

"I play an occasional card game with Petre, he gets chatty when you show interest." Alacaris said.

Octavia appeared distressed and it was heard for Giselle to believe that such a woman is threatened by another. Even though nobody has explicitly said it, Giselle realised there was a hidden turmoil in the core of this thing. Octavia left a while later and soon Alacaris and Giselle were waiting for the sun to rise in the castle between the mountains.

"Why does she hate Lerra De Noves?" Giselle asked, deciding it was the easiest question to start a conversation with.

"Honestly, I think she stole her lover. Lerra is mostly known by her utter willingness to let things come between her legs." Said Alacaris, drinking heavily from a flagon. She looked nothing like a lady and opposing to what others may think, it made her even more attractive.

"When I was... travelling with Jack, it seemed as if he had respect for her, he had actually called her a queen." Giselle told her.

"She's probably sleeping with him." Alacaris shrugged her shoulders.

"I appreciate your help. And everything you did today." Giselle thanked her and in return, Alacaris looked at her meaningfully, and kept staring into her eyes for a while.

"Listen, I will tell you something, because I don't think others would," she started, shifting into a more comfortable position. "This world is all-consuming, the immortality, the high, the feeling of omnipotence."

"Considering I've seen your small get-together, I feel like I've figured that out." Giselle said, her memory foggy, but the context quite clear.

"You haven't seen anything yet, we are the babes of this world, young, untrained. It still hasn't reached our mind, you know, what it really feels like to never die." Her mouth formed a mocking smile, something like disgust hidden behind it. Giselle was quiet, letting Alacaris finish her thoughts, wherever they might take her. "It changes you, this world, makes you want things you shouldn't want, crave things that aren't normal, things that clear your path to hell."

"I've learned," Giselle's tongue twitched, she felt the weight of the words like a rock in her mouth, "That my path to hell has already been cleared and rounded with candles."

"That's where you're wrong. Because vampires want things God doesn't want to think about." Her smile was stiff.

"What are you telling me, exactly?"

"They are all very old and very bored, Giselle, that can make you do some wicked little things. Sometimes they lie just for the sake of lying, they steal because the face of the robbed man is precious, they will kill to test the spear, they will fuck your closed, fanged mouth until they bleed because pain is the only thing they can still feel."

Her words were chilling, a breeze in the bones. Her words cut deep, everything Giselle saw cut deep, but it didn't scare her away. Like looking at a forbidden toy, the thrill went through her body, knowing that she will get caught, but wanting it anyway. Alacaris noticed it, perhaps Giselle's eyes shone brighter than the cold morning sun. She looked at Giselle, this time her smile relaxed.

"Oh, we are going to have fun, aren't we?"