‘I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,’ I stammered. His eyes glazed over and he didn’t move. ‘Fabian?’
His head snapped up and the greyness in his eyes seemed to melt away, returning to their usual sky blue. His stiff body loosened and he ran a hand down the back of his head.
‘I’m sorry, but when you know someone that long … you …’ he trailed off. ‘I will tell you on the condition that you never speak a word of it to anyone but me.’
I didn’t hesitate. ‘I won’t say a thing.’
‘I will start from the very beginning. It’s a long story.’
I shifted a little, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible, never taking my eyes off his saddened face.
‘Vampires have been around for millions of years. We lived alongside nature without any conflict and drank the blood of any animal we could lay hands on. If the theory of evolution is indeed correct, then when humans appeared, the vampires first met their match. But we treated them like we did any other – we continued to hunt them and quickly developed a taste for their blood.’
‘How can you know this if it was so long ago?’ I asked.
‘I’ve already told you, the oldest vampire is, well, old,’ he answered. ‘As I was saying, the early humans eventually learned to fight back, and the vampires realized their mistake. The most powerful vampire family, the Varns, ordered all vampires to go into hiding. They were to try not to kill humans when they fed, and to hunt at night wherever possible. It was a drastic attempt to prevent the destruction of both species.’
I nodded. ‘But I don’t get what this has to do with the Queen?’
‘It will all make sense in a moment. Humanity was growing, and fast. Forced by the humans’ relentless fighting, the Varns and a few hundred others fled to Romania. They took advantage of the unsuspecting people of Eastern Europe, unaware of the threat living in their lands. Around the same time, it was discovered that humans could be turned and the Varns’ ancestors ordered a mass turning. Thousands became vampires in just one night. Stronger, more confident, they branched out.’
He paused for a breathy sigh, which I realized he hadn’t been taking.
‘But the old rules still stood and, unseen, the vampires were gradually forgotten, and stories told by fathers to sons turned into myths and legends. But there were always those who never forgot. These are the humans that became the hunters and the slayers, and they vowed to protect humanity. They succeeded somewhat, by driving the Varns from Transylvania about three hundred years ago.’
‘King Vladimir, the current king, has ruled for millennia now. But when he was just a Prince, he met a vampire who lived in what is now Spain. She was called Carmen Eztli. Over time, they fell in love and married a century later. The match was perfect and together they ruled for almost ten thousand years and had six children.’
He rested his chin in his hands. ‘She was the perfect antidote to the King’s pessimism and temper and, in turn, he tamed her sharp tongue. You don’t find love like that every day.’
I couldn’t help but notice that he kept using ‘was’, but it seemed as though he was about to explain that.
‘Just over three years ago, a new human government came to power. Outwardly, they seemed more sympathetic to our cause, so the Queen, seeing an opportunity, quickly sought the passing of a new treaty to update what had already been signed. The government agreed on the condition that their slayer allies, the Pierre clan, would also sign it.’
He didn’t seem to notice me slipping onto the coffee table as I tried to catch his hushed words, which were becoming quieter and quieter.
‘The Queen went on a state visit to Romania to open up discussions. She went to the Pierre’s ancestral home in Romania, and before she could even … they had leapt on her …’ He was choking up, sobs escaping his lips but no tears falling. ‘They leapt on her, and pushed a stake through her heart!’
My hands flew to my mouth and I took in a sharp breath. ‘She was murdered?’ I didn’t know what I had expected, but it wasn’t that. I felt something wet drop into my lap and, astonished, found tears falling from my own eyes. I glided to his side and hovered beside the arm of the chair, hardly knowing what I was doing.
‘I’m so sorry,’ I whispered. ‘I shouldn’t have brought it up.’ He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head against my stomach. I tensed at the sudden contact but he didn’t seem to notice how uncomfortable he was making me.
‘It’s okay,’ he murmured back, ‘You couldn’t have known. It was two-and-a-half years ago now but for us that feels like yesterday. It ruined us. She was so loved. Thousands went to her funeral.’ His sentences were disjointed and clipped, his pain at recounting what had happened clear. ‘It was the worst day of my life. So many people cried and, Violet, vampires don’t give up their tears easily. But they did. It was awful. I’m used to people dying, but this … this was different. It was like I had lost a part of me, like half my heart had died.’
I nodded, knowing the exact feeling.
‘Afterwards, everything changed. Nobody was ever the same. The King moved out of the main bedroom and Kaspar had it instead. He died along with his wife.’
His eyes filled with more remorse; more pain; more regret.
‘There were mass killings at that time. Did you ever notice that?’
My eyes went wide. The newspaper article had compared Trafalgar Square to the Kent Bloodsuckers incident, which had happened around that time.
‘And Kaspar?’ I prompted.
‘He took it hard. Harder than the rest of us. He was so close to his mother. But it wasn’t just that. Only fourth and seventh children can inherit the throne, and her death means there will never be a seventh child and he is indefinitely heir.’
His eyes flashed a black-grey once more and his hold around me became unbearably tight. I let out a little whine as my ribcage felt like it was being crushed. He loosened his grip, but his fists remained clenched.
‘His grief changed him. He isn’t the Kaspar I used to consider as good as a brother any more.’ He laughed hollowly. ‘Sure he was a womanizer even then, but that was nothing compared to now. Now he uses and abuses his power, bedding everything that walks, and he thinks nothing of taking a life …’ he trailed off, too traumatized to carry on.
Yes, I knew that Kaspar. But somehow, through my loathing, through everything he had done to me, I felt pity. I knew how he felt. I knew how grief shaped and remoulded your life. I knew how it could make you hate the ones you love with such a passion. I knew how you would do anything just to ease the pain for a single moment.