Chapter Fourteen

Vampire Wedding

            More than a month went past me. On the day I finally finished the last ghost mission, I slouched into a chair in the library from fatigue. I had just completed a mission for a maid. However, to my surprise, she didn’t disappear to rest in peace. She just floated before me, watching me.

            “What is it?” I asked. “Don’t you want to rest in peace?”

            “Don’t you remember what day it is?” she quizzed.

            I thought of that for a moment. I was abruptly alert and screamed, “It’s the eighth of July!”

            Yoki jumped in shock. He was standing on one of the armrests of the chair. “Calm down, Idri!”

            “I’m sorry,” I cringed. “The wedding is tonight!”

            “Why don’t I take you there?” the maid suggested.

            “What?”

            “I can take you to Helerod Castle,” she offered. “You can’t reach there tonight by foot. I’ll fly you there.”

            “You can do that?” I excitedly questioned.

            “Yes.”

            “Can you take me now?”

            “I certainly can. Why don’t we head on outside?”

            Outside, in the castle courtyard, to my surprise, she gently picked me up.

            “I thought people went through ghosts,” I remarked. “I thought we were unable to touch one another.”

            “Usually, ghosts choose to be untouchable,” the maid explained. “However, there are times when we’ll allow ourselves to be able to touch.”

            The maid lifted me into the air; before I knew it, we were soaring over the castle wall and advancing into the sky. Yoki vivaciously flapped his wings by us. Below us, I saw tiny houses, all the size of ants. I gasped with fright and wrapped my arms around the maid. She chuckled.

            “Don’t worry,” she assured. “There’s nothing to fear. I won’t let you fall.”

            The blazing sun was starting to sink below the horizon, as though the earth was quicksand. Cool twilight air fluttered upon my cheeks and danced with strands of my hair. Soon, in the distance, a tall ornate blackened castle towered upon a hill. A long black bridge crossed a vast river to reach the entrance. There were stone gargoyles gracing the details of the castle. The maid came to a gentle landing in the rose garden. I stepped out of her arms. Yoki landed his small claws upon my right shoulder.

            “Thank you so much. I am honored by your service,” I thanked the maid gratefully.

            “You’re very welcome,” she responded, smiling. “Besides, you did free me.”

            Before my eyes, she disappeared to rest her soul. The moon was making its appearance in the beautifully dim sky.

            “Let’s go, Yoki,” I said. “We’ve got to get inside and find Sein.”

            Walking around, we found a glass door. I pulled it open and entered. Torches were lit, its flames dancing jubilantly in honor of the wedding. I heard the sound of wedding guests arriving. I excitedly hurried down the hall toward the sound of voices excitedly chattering. I came upon a sight of a queue of noble vampires entering the castle ballroom. The hallway was dim, with dark shadows cast upon everything. In the line, one vampire noble remarked, “I smell human blood.”

            I hid behind a black curtain. Yoki stood outside on the floor to guard me.

            “Human blood?” echoed the noble’s wife.

            “Yes. It smells delicious. There must be a human nearby.”

            “Oh, who cares about silly humans when we can see the bastard dhampir prince and that poor human girl wed? It’s exciting! Besides, there’ll be thousands of goblets of blood to drink from during the reception.”

            “Yes.” The noble licked his pale lips. “However, blood tastes so much better when it’s gushing out into your mouth from a human’s neck.”

            When the last vampire entered the ballroom, Yoki I scurried in there, hoping that no one would care about me. Vampires clustered at two sides of the vast room, forming a wide aisle of a long, blood red carpet. I stood amidst the crowd on one side of the room; a few vampires glanced at me, the short girl with a bat on her shoulder, and decided that I wasn’t much to look at. Yoki didn’t want to be noticed among a crowd of people, so he flew to the chandelier that hung from the ceiling and decided to watch from there.

            The ballroom wasn’t very different from what I remembered; the vampire holiday ornaments were gone, though. Just like I remembered, the ballroom ceiling, depicting elegant bats soaring in the night sky, seemed to be countless yards above my head. A gargantuan crystal chandelier dangled from it, providing golden light for the entire room. Bowls of red and black roses were set upon white columns in corners of the room. There were tall, narrow glass windows upon the walls, their cardinal-red curtains drawn apart to let us view the clear night sky. Against a wall was a black platform with an arch of plump red roses hovering over it. There was a circle of musicians off to the side of the platform. It consisted of four violinists, two cellists, and a pianist. There was a pair of glass doors that led out onto a marble balcony overlooking a rose garden.

            The noise of the crowd was cut off when the vampire musicians started to play. Their piece started off with a skilled violin solo, slow and mysterious. The three other violinists soon started to join in, blending with the soloist’s playing. The other musicians joined in, dramatically rising to a high, lingering note. Then, their playing became spirited. The violinists threw out their notes with quick strokes of their bows; the cellists calmly drew their large bows over the thick strings of the cellos. Their pianist’s fingers flew over the ivory and black keys. Entering the ballroom, following the path of the red carpet, were two coffins; one black, one white. The black coffin had a golden cross on its lid, while the white coffin bore a vermilion heart. Each coffin was carried by four strong vampires, who carried the coffins into the ballroom with great dignity. They seemed to be honored to carry the coffins. Behind them danced a dozen of dancers dressed in black. Six were male vampires, and the others were female vampires. Among one of them, I recognized Cassus. His dance partner was a rail-thin brunette with the grace of a cat. They leapt, twirled, and glided upon the carpet with hardly any scrap of effort at all, or so it seemed. They carried baskets of roses, throwing them into the crowd. Vampire children ecstatically scrabbled for the roses.

            The coffins were carried to the black platform, where a vampire priest proudly stood. His silky black hair was loosely tied back. His tall frame was clothed in a black robe with red embroideries of foliage along the hems. When the coffins were gingerly laid juxtaposed on the platform, the vampires who carried the coffins rapidly slid off the lids. Inside the black coffin lay Sein, while Nulena was in the white one. I gasped with shock, causing a couple of vampires to turn their heads and look at me with queer expressions. Was Sein dead?

            I received my answer in a swift moment. Both Sein and Nulena rose from their coffins, standing as straight and tall as pillars. The wedding guests jubilantly cheered, the combination of more than a hundred loud voices causing me to cover my ears. Sein was so enchantingly seductive in his silk black garments. A floor-length black cape flowed to the floor like a waterfall of the night sky. His long black hair reached his broad shoulders, framing his pale face, which was devoid of any emotions. His behavior was that of a stone statue. Next to him stood Nulena; she was like an exquisite porcelain doll. She wore a dress of white lace that reached her knobby knees. Puffed white sleeves barely covered her twig-like arms; her low neckline made her swan-like neck more noticeable, showing off a black velvet choker with a ruby brooch. A black sash encircled her cinched waist. Her golden hair framed her slender face, which bore an expression that showed that this marriage was against her will. But did anyone care? No.

            The vampire priest first turned to Sein. He put one long arm hidden by a wide black sleeve with a red hem around Sein’s shoulders. He gently pushed back Sein’s head. Sein’s eyes closed, appearing as lifeless as an expressionless corpse. The vampire priest leaned his head towards Sein’s pale neck, pulling back his nearly colorless to reveal pin-sharp fangs.

            “No!” I screamed. Sein! He can’t be turned into a vampire!

            Unfortunately, the moment my cry fled from my lips, I was drowned out by the jubilant cheers of the wedding guests. We all witnessed Sein’s transformation from a dhampir to a full-blooded vampire. The vampire priest drank up some of Sein’s blood, enough to turn him into a vampire. Blood trickled from Sein’s neck, splattering upon the platform, staining his clothes. In a matter of seconds, the bleeding stopped; however, Sein was frozen. I feared he was dead.

            His body was placed into the coffin again, but no one bothered to place the lid over him. The vampires who carried his coffin to the platform held it up. The crowd eagerly rushed towards the platform. Sein’s coffin was thrown into the crowd; the audience caught it, ecstatically carrying it around as they dance; about a dozen of vampires held the coffin at a time and took turns with other dozens of vampires to twirl around with it. They also tossed red roses into the coffin. I didn’t participate in any of this; I only stared in awe. A vampire wedding was so different from the type of wedding I was accustomed to!

            The black coffin was returned to the platform and calmly laid down. Sein rose from the coffin. I was shocked to see how pale he was now; if I thought he was pale as a dhampir, his skin tone as a vampire made me light-headed with daze. He was paler than death, whiter than fresh snow. I didn’t know such paleness existed.

            Sein stood facing Nulena, who stood by her white coffin, looking greatly displeased. With the same expressionless face he wore in his final few minutes as a dhampir, Sein gently put one arm around Nulena’s pair of scrawny shoulders. She closed her eyes, appearing as a true sleeping beauty. Sein leaned towards her long neck, biting into it. He drank up some of her blood, letting the drops he didn’t ingest to splash on the floor. Her body became limp. Then, she was meticulously placed back into her coffin. She, inside the coffin, was now thrown into the crowd, and caught by the wedding guests. They danced around, carrying her white coffin. Again, I only watched them. I was like a frozen ice sculpture, watching the scene. Suddenly, the celebration didn’t seem so loud, and the movements of the rejoicing vampires didn’t seem so rapid. Inside, I felt as though every bits and pieces of me within cracked, their little, jagged shards threatening to rain into a pit of blackness. I gazed upon Sein, mentally beginning him to see me.

            Sein, it’s me, Idri! It’s been a while since you’ve seen me! Sein, look at me! Please look at me! I’m sorry for everything I’ve done! Sein? Can you forgive me? Sein?

            He only stared into the oblivion, his blank face finally tinged with one emotion: sorrow.

            I felt tears exiting my eyes, struggling to make their way down my cheeks. Sein! Why can’t you look at me? Can’t you see me? Don’t you love me? Or have you forgotten everything? You haven’t forgotten me, have you?

            Nulena’s coffin was replaced onto the platform. When she sat up and stepped out of it, I viewed one of the most horrific images I’ve ever met: Sein and Nulena leaned towards each other, their lips meeting the other. They didn’t embrace, but all I could focus on was their kiss; a kiss that Sein should have given me! Not Nulena! But it was too late. They were now a wedded vampire couple.

            I couldn’t hear or feel the happiness of the crowd. All I could heart was my soft crying; all I could feel was my shattering heart. Inside, I felt as though a dark shadow had come over me, to stay there forever. My sobs substituted my quiet breaths. Why…Why couldn’t I stop the wedding? Why couldn’t I have rushed to the platform and shake Sein before the vampire priest changed him? Shake him and make him wake up from that expressionless face? Let him know that I’m here? Doesn’t Sein love me? Wasn’t I the most precious person to him in the world?

            I sought out Cassus, who was flirting with his dance partner. She was smiling and nodding at everything he said, her eyes fixed on him as though he was the only thing she could ever look at. I had to push through the crowd of vampires to get to him.

            “Cassus.”

            Nulena’s twin brother turned at the sound of my voice; his dance partner seemed irritated that another female was speaking to him. She glared and scrutinized me like a cat guarding its territory.

            “Ah, Idri.” Cassus smiled slowly and idly. “What brings you here to the wedding? You weren’t on the guest list. You’re quite bold to make your appearance here without letting anyone know.”

            “I need to talk to you,” I told him icily, my voice quiet.

            Cassus nodded. “Very well, Idri.” He stood up and turned to the brunette vampire. “I’ll look for you again, my dear.” He stroked her rosy cheek and placed a light kiss on here lips.

            Hurry up, Cassus! I thought.

            Cassus followed me out onto the marble balcony outside. I looked up at the moon. This would be my last night to bask in her silvery light, to feel the cool night air on a warm summer night.

            “So, Idri, what do you want?”

            I turned to face Cassus, his green eyes identical to Nulena’s. However, Nulena’s eyes always gave me a cold, arrogant glare, while Cassus’s eyes looked upon me with nonchalant haughtiness.

            I began to speak. “Cassus, was my blood the sweetest you’ve ever taken?”

            “Yes.” He licked his lips, a smile beginning to grow on his face. “I’d love to drink it again, if I could.”

            “Well, I can grant your wish.” I breathed deeply, mustering up as much courage as I could. “Cassus…I want you to drink my blood.” My expression was serious. “Drink every last drop of it and let me die as your feast.”

            Cassus’s eyes widened. He seemed pleased I made this offer, but he also suspected I wasn’t sincere.

            “Cassus, I’m sure of this,” I firmly told him. “I want to die at your hands.”

            He nodded. A smile widened on his face, and he ran his tongue over the top row of his teeth. I could see his dagger-sharp fangs glisten in the moonlight. He wrapped one arm around my body in a cold embrace. I didn’t care about what happens to me now. He gently pushed back my head, holding me against him. I felt his warm, eager breath upon my skin. His tongue ran over a spot on my bare neck. Then came the moment I was prepared for: Cassus’s dagger-sharp fangs sank into my neck. I gasped out in sudden pain. I gritted my teeth; the pain swiftly went by. I relaxed in Cassus’s arms. I could feel him eagerly drinking me dry of my blood, like a child happily sucking on a piece of candy. My breathing gradually grew slower. Death was soon coming to claim me as his latest victim.

            “Idri?”

            It was voice I’d thought I’d never hear again. It was the voice of a beautiful angel, who I regretted betraying.

            “Cassus!” the angelic voice cried, alarmed and panicked.

            The owner of the voice rushed towards Cassus and me. Cassus was shoved away from me, and I landed into another pair of strong arms. I was now gazing up at a face whiter than death, eyes darker than the blackest ink, and long black hair with their ends gently stroking my face. He had the most enchanting face I’ve ever known.

            “Sein.” My voice was quiet with death nearby. I was bleeding and bleeding until I would be gone. My hand reached up to touch his black hair and stroke his marble-white cheeks. It was not the warmth I knew of from the dhampir I loved. My beloved dhampir prince was gone. I was just in the arms of a pure-blooded vampire, who was married to Nulena.

            “Cassus, what have you done?” Sein growled viciously at the cousin he hated.

            Cassus carelessly shrugged. “She ordered me to kill her.”

            Sein looked down at me. His face was a stew of sadness and panic. “Idri, don’t die!”

            “It’s too late,” Cassus told him in an as-a-matter-of-fact voice. “I drank enough blood to have her killed. She’s dying as we speak.”

            “I’m sorry, Sein,” I uttered in a chocked voice. “I…I can’t bear to know you’re like this now…A vampire…Nulena’s husband…I’m sorry for everything. I…I love…”

            “You’re a vampire now, Sein,” Cassus interrupted. He smiled wickedly. “Can you smell her blood? How delicious it is? Can you feel it tempting you? Doesn’t it just call for you to--”

            “Shut up!” Sein was furious with Cassus. He was battling the bloodlust that was trying to force him to drink my blood. His fangs, longer and sharper as vampire teeth than dhampir teeth, gritted as he fought.

            My weakness was heavily washing over me. I suppose that dying was best when you’re in the arms of the one you love. I could feel my neck continuing to bleed…I breathe, breathe…Breathe…Breathe…At last, the darkness of death enveloped me, and I breathe no more.