I told Caspar everything.
He listened quietly, never once interrupting me. Even when I got to the unpleasant details he managed to keep a straight face. I couldn’t imagine what was going on inside his head right now. He was finding out for the first time that he had a niece that was killed, and that Celia had lost her baby. And it was all because of Henrietta and her desire to systematically wipe out his bloodline to prevent another Tuta from being born.
When I finished the story, having recounted my recent conversation with Henrietta, he sighed, “This is so fucked up.”
“She’s an ancient with a vendetta against your family,” I paused and corrected myself, “I meant ‘our’ family.”
A smile flickered across his face. He liked that I’d acknowledged his family as my own. Getting up he walked over to the mudslide and pulled Casper out of it. He was still out cold.
Caspar dragged him across the room and laid him up against the wall. I walked over to Casper and examined him. Shit, he had taken quite the beating for me. The real damage was hard to see. The poor man was covered in putrid grave water and stinking soil.
“He’ll need a good bath when we get home,” I murmured.
Caspar laughed, “He’ll need more than one good bath to get that stink off of him.”
I watched as Caspar leaned down and gently repositioned his younger brother. He smiled up at me with sad eyes and said, “This might sound awful, but after hearing the truth, I feel happy.”
I scowled at him in confusion – how can anyone be happy after hearing that screwed up mess.
He read my confusion and quickly explained, “I’m not happy about the deaths that woman has caused. I’m happy because I know he’s innocent. He never touched Celia, it was all Henrietta.”
I smiled back at him, “I can understand that. After all, you did practically raise him.”
“I did. I never wanted him to experience the same loneliness that I felt as a child. I wanted him to be happy and surrounded by friends – that’s why I paired him up with Duke. Out of all of us, Casper was always the happiest… although I don’t know what he will be like now.”
I put a comforting hand on his shoulder and replied, “Well, from what I’ve seen of him, he’s pretty balanced. He copes well under pressure, is fiercely protective, whilst being kind and gentle-”
“I get the idea,” Caspar ground out, with a slight jealous tone. “I see that I have done an excellent job of raising him to be the perfect gentleman.”
I thought about teasing him about it, but I decided against it. It’s probably not a good idea to provoke him when he’s so close to the edge of sanity. I needed him to regain a little composure and zen before we went for Henrietta.
“I’m really happy for you, Caspar. You now know about Casper, Henrietta and me. We can all move forward together without the lies and the mistrust.”
He stands up, taking my hands in his and leads me away from Casper to one of the tombs. Confused I asked, “What are you doing?”
“I want to introduce you to my mother.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes,” he replied resting his hand on the stone lid of the tomb. “She made a choice to follow my father into the next world after he died – vampire mates often do that. She chose death by fire. Only a handful of her ashes are buried in this tomb… I wish you could’ve met her.”
“I wish I could’ve met her too, and your father.”
He smiled sadly at me. “It was my mother who first told me about mates. She used to tell me that there was a perfect someone out there in the world who was just for me. I used to dream of you, Hazel, long before I had ever met you. I used to imagine what your face might look like, and in my head, I’d picture the shape of your mouth, the colour of your eyes, and the sound of your voice. You became this beautiful fantasy that filled every dark lonely corner inside me with hope and light. And no matter how bad my life was, even after Casper was imprisoned, I clutched onto the dream, knowing that one day you would be here.”
“I must’ve been such a disappointment with my trust issues and natural talent for necromancy,” I replied through a half sad smile.
“No,” he breathed, framing my face in his hands. “You have never disappointed me, Hazel. Before I met you, I was so lonely. Casper was imprisoned, Louis became a ghost of his former self and both my parents were dead. I was so very lonely. You became an obsession and when I finally found you, I projected all my stupid childhood fantasies onto you.
“I expected too much, too soon. I see that now. I pushed you when I should’ve given you space. I dragged you into my world without even sparing so much as a thought about how it might affect you. I blind, foolish and arrogant, and for that, I am truly sorry, Hazel. You were the last person in the world, I ever wanted to hurt. Please forgive me. You are all I have ever wanted and all that I will ever need.”
My heart swells in my chest and I lean forward and tunnelling my fingers into his glorious dark messy hair, and kiss him hard. His arms wrap around me as we melt into one another. Suddenly I don’t know where I end and he begins. I’ve never felt so complete in my life before.
Hazel.
It’s an echo in the back of my head, soft and gentle like a caress. I pull back from him and open my eyes.
“Did you just say my name?” I asked.
He studies my expression for a moment, and then I feel him, inside my head. My eyes widen and a smile creeps across his face.
Finally, I can reach you. His voice echoes in my head.
“Our bond, it’s restored, but how?”
His thumb sweeps across my cheek and he says, “I don’t know, Hazel.”
He leans forward and kisses me again. Warmth and love invades my mind filling my head with nothing but him. I am part him, and he is a part of me, and in this moment I couldn’t find a single flicker of darkness within him. He pulls away from me and rests his forehead against mine. “When we are connected like this, the darkness inside me goes. You are my light, Hazel. You illuminate every single dark corner inside me with your beautiful sun. I love you. I will always love you, in this life and the next.”
I feel tears burning in my eyes. For the first time in so long, everything feels perfect…
“You fool!” a voice screams at me, tearing apart my moment of happiness.
Both Caspar and I look up and see Henrietta standing across the crypt, staring at us. Her normal delicate features were angry and twisted, into a face of absolute hate.
Her eyes fixed on me and she yelled, “Even after everything, you still run into his arms! You could’ve been great, Hazel. We could’ve been great, but you had to piss it up the wall for this psychopath.”
Caspar protectively pushed me behind him and said, “It’s over, Henrietta. You’ve lost.”
“It’s not over for me,” she bites back. “But for you two, it’s definitely over.”
She lifts up her hand and mutters some strange words under her breathe.
Suddenly, from up the stairs I hear the faint south of feet and hands dragging across the floor, followed by the soft and chilling echo of growling. My whole body freezes as I remembered reading the words in the old queen’s journal, BEWARE OF THE DEAD.
Shit. Henrietta was a necromancer and I had led her straight to a graveyard. She could summon an entire undead army to fight us!
Caspar’s fingers suddenly wrapped around my hand and in my head he whispered, It’s okay. We can do this together. She is no match for the both of us.
“But it’s not just us,” I said out loud, as an undead corpse appeared on the stairs.
Henrietta smirked at us and said, “You broke the wall, Caspar. The spell that was protecting this crypt is now undone, and nothing can save you, or her, from my undead hoard.”
I pulled Caspar backwards as more undead corpses began to descend the staircase and into the crypt. Henrietta watched in delight as the crypt slowly filled with a dozen or more of her monsters, each one stalking slowly towards us. Both Caspar and I moved towards the back wall, trying to think of a way out. One of these undead bastards was hard enough to kill by itself, but this was a whole hoard of them.
Henrietta smiled at us and said, “Once you’re both dead, I will make myself Queen.”
“The people will never follow you. You are too weak!” Caspar spat.
“I may not have many natural talents, but I will have an undead army to protect me.”
“You wouldn’t dare unleash these monsters on the court and Port Cressida.”
“I’d unleash these monsters on the whole world if I had to… But hopefully, it won’t come to that. The court will probably welcome me with open arms. I know they’re tired of being ruled by a Royal family full of weak minded fools. One day Port Cressida will thank me for destroying your fucked-up family.”
“The court will never bow down to anybody like you. You have no bloodline, no political alliances. You are nobody, Henrietta. No one will follow you. Stop this lunacy now and I will promise you a fair trial.”
Henrietta paused, her face turning red. She turns to her monsters and yells, “I’ve had enough of them. Tear them apart.”