Queen of Darkness

Chapter 14 - Control

I woke In Robert’s bed once again, Bandaged up. I was alone in the room which I found rather odd because Robert has never left my side when I got injured before.

I got up and made my way to my room, I needed to get clothed before I could do anything else. Luckily Helen was coming up the stairs just as I reached my room. She quickly arranged for the bathers to come and for food to be sent up to my room.

As soon as I was bathed, fed and dressed The General was at my door to accompany me downstairs. He didn’t speak a word until we were alone walking through the gardens. Apparently I needed fresh air after being unconscious for two days.

The General: “Are you still you or are you really Vamparic”

Me: “How would I be able to know how to answer such a question?”

The General: “If you could ask me but one question, at this moment, what would it be?”

I answered without even thinking “Where is Robert, why was he not with me when I woke?”

The General: “Than it’s true, you’re Vamparic...Trophy won, on to the next conquest... Now you will only see Robert when he has use for you... And I’ve lost you forever”

I could have told him that I was still me.... to some extent, the reason I asked about Robert was more out of curiosity not because I longed for him. I felt bad hurting The Generals feelings but if this was what I needed to do to get away from Robert than call me Vamparic, but it did somewhat hurt my feelings that he referred to me as a conquest, a trophy that has been won and now not worth much. For once in my miserable life I felt wanted and important, guess I was wrong.

The days that followed I fell back into a routine of sorts. Wake up, wash up, get dress, eat breakfast, spent time in the library or time practicing Magick, lunch, and attend meetings with Robert, dinner, bath, sleep. Once a week I would spend a day at Abigail, practicing Magick and Every so often Robert would request me to sleep in his room where he would feed off me and make love to me, I would be all loving and happy to be with him so he never bothered to look into my memories. I was the perfect Vamparic.

I didn’t see much of the General anymore either, he kept his distance except when he had to accompany me somewhere away from the Châteaux.

Sometimes I was requested to attend or host parties or some get-together alongside Robert and had to act like the jealous woman by his side while he flirted with others, thing was It did upset me to see him flirting with them, I hated it when he used his seduction on other woman and they were all over him.

He especially loved to torture me by making me watch while he bit them and made love to some of them, but luckily he spared me from watching him with other men, I doubt I would be able to keep up with appearances if I had to endure that.

The routine quickly turned to months, and I was starting to get annoyed with keeping up the charade, I needed to start thinking of another plan.

It was only my days spend with Abigail that I could be myself. No vampires around so I didn’t have to keep up the act.

Me: “How long have you been friends with Robert?”

Abigail: “My whole life. Robert knew my mother, and when my mother got ill he promised her he would take care of me.”

Me: “Take care of you?... So why are you not living at his Châteaux, and why are you not Vamparic”

Abigail smiled uncomfortably, were good friends too and she knew she could be open with me. “Well, my mother was a witch for Robert, part of his security. He took care of my family financially, in exchange for protection and an alliance with the witches. Vampires and Witches don’t mix, they don’t even get along and we stay clear of vampires and vampires stay clear of witches.

Robert has always been different, he has always ensured he has an alliance with the witches, going against the councils wishes but they’ve never tried to stop him. He cannot turn a witch into a Vamparic because that would interfere with the alliance between witches and him. He may not enslave a witch and take away her free will”

Me:” That explained Anastasia’s reaction when I used magick to protect Robert”

Abigail:“Ohhh you used Magick to protect Robert, in front of a council member? That’s not good”

Me: “Now they will expect the witches to end their alliance with Robert, won’t they?”

Abigail: “Yes especially seeing how everyone thinks your Vamparic, I don’t know how you’ve been keeping it up for so long”

Me: “What!... How did you know?!”

Abigail: “OH Please, are you really going to underestimate your best friend? You forget Robert and I are friends too, he tells me things, and when he or The General is around, you act completely different... Look I know your history and I know you’re unhappy but you can’t go through your entire life pretending to be something you’re not, you’re going to have to get a way out of this lie before it’s too late”

Me: “Are you going to tell Robert?”

Abigail: “No, it’s not my secret to tell, but I won’t lie to Robert if he should ask me directly, I won’t be the one to mess up the alliance with Robert by lying to him so I suggest you fix this...sooner rather than later”

Abigail was right, I couldn’t go on like this, I was miserable. Telling the truth was not going to make things better for me either. I didn’t want to belong to Robert, I didn’t want to belong to anyone, and I never wanted to be a slave again. I wanted to be free.

Me: “Abigail, is there a way to keep Robert from seeing my memories when he bites me?... I have a plan to fix all of this but I can’t let him see my plans before they are in action”

Abigail: “I don’t think this is a good idea... I don’t want a part of it”

Me: “Please Abigail, You can just tell me how and I will do the rest on my own”

Abigail: “I only know that some Vampires can keep their memories secret if their will power is strong enough to block everything out, I’ve never heard of a Vamparic or human that could do this...the vampire I’ve heard off said that you have to stay in control of your thoughts the entire time, remembering only what you want to be seen and not focusing or even thinking of that what you don’t. If you focus on your own memories, the vampire can only see those memories, instead of a free for all pool of memories. You are basically blocking the vampire to move around in your head and they see only what you want them to see.... Like I said impossible for humans or a vamparic because once bitten you lose all Control. ”

Me:” Yes impossible... Guess I need to practice control”

In the days that followed I made a point of it to try and focus on a specific memory when I was with Robert, after he had his way I would Continue to be all loving and affectionate and asked him questions like did he really care for me, did he enjoy being with me...

The usual needy responses he would expect a vamparic to ask, but in between I would throw In things like, how does my blood taste, what memories does he see when he is in my head.

I couldn’t ask the same questions every time so I would ask and then not ask for two or three times before I asked again. And the first couple of times it didn’t work at all.

But with practice and time what I was focusing on was included in what he saw, so I practiced more and tried harder until what I was focusing on was all he saw, nothing else.

It was now the time to start on my plan, I have been thinking of planning something but as soon as the thought entered my mind I would force myself to push the idea aside, for fear that Robert will see it, but now that I was able to block him from certain memories, he wouldn’t be able to see any of it.

I thought about various options, even insane ones like murdering Robert, but I wasn’t a killer I wouldn’t be able to kill him, and besides Robert was no fool and he was stronger than most and then he also had the protection of the General, but what worried me most about this idea was that I was a bit Vamparic, I saved his life once before out of instinct, I doubt I could harm him let alone kill him...

I needed another plan and all I could come up with is to run away.

The thought of running away became more and more appealing, But I wouldn’t just have to run away, Robert would find me or worse someone who would know I was a slave and I would be killed. If I had to run, it needed to be to a different continent, somewhere where slavery was not enforced, to do that I would need a lot of money, I would need to travel by ship so I would need a disguise. Woman was not frequently allowed on ships due to the superstitious believe that it was bad luck, I would have to become a man and I would need the papers to back that up.

The plan was near impossible... But do-able. It however wouldn’t be a quick plan, this was something that needed time.

First I waited for a day that Robert and The General went to a business meeting, where my presence wasn’t required. I waited for all the staff to be engaged with their chores so that I could move around without being caught. I looked through all of the spare guest rooms knowing one of the rooms would have what I was searching for.

I was about to give up when I found one, a wooden trunk at the foot of the bed where extra bedding was stored, it fortunately only held one blanket which I also needed. I dragged the trunk out the room and down the hallway, carried it down the stairs and through the garden. Having to rest every now and again as it was rather heavy and I couldn’t keep dragging it without leaving a trail.

I made sure I wasn’t seen and took the trunk to the old stables, my hide-out. There was one stable that still had a partial roof intact and a heap of hay underneath the area of roof was proof that this little corner was rain and wind resistant. I hid the trunk away under the hay.

This was only step one. Every day I would sneak another item into the trunk. Soon the trunk was filled with men’s clothes that fitted me thanks to The General’s closet. A pair of men’s shoes and a hat which I stole on separate occasions, when I was in town, sneaking it Into my large bag covering it with items I needed to get for the kitchen on those specific days.

I assisted with Robert’s books and his money, that was one of the things he thought me from the start, which now put me in a position where I changed the figures to my advantage, I stole money from Robert, just a little on each transaction, so little In fact that he wouldn’t notice but I did it daily. I hit the coins in a sock, at the bottom of the trunk. I was not proud of my actions, not in the least but I did it to set myself free.

Months passed and I had enough money saved up to run, but it was not enough to make a new start if I got to wherever I was going.

Once or twice a week I went to Abigail’s to practice Magick as per the norm. The General accompanied me but once I entered her place, he would leave to run errands for Robert, only to return in three hours’ time to collect me.

Once I set my plan in motion, I insisted my visits to Abigail be twice a week. Once a week I would meet Abigail and practice Magick so no one got suspicious but the second visit I would enter and hide just around the corner for the General to leave, than I set out on my own. Abigail never saw me and didn’t know I was there.

I needed to make acquaintances.... Dodgy acquaintances, people who knew people who could assist me. A lot of my saved up, stolen money went towards paying for bribes, paying for information and paying for services like fake papers, one set of papers under a man’s name for when I traveled. And one for when I got to a new destination, so I could start over.... I just didn’t know where that destination was.

Robert often went on trips to France, Greece, Italy and Romania so I knew I was staying far away from there.

Keeping up the charade all while planning my escape was draining, and it was starting to take its toll on me ... I started losing weight, I struggled to sleep and had dark rings under my eyes, I was worried and felt weak all the time. It was seven months of preparation and planning and I knew I had to put my plan into action soon before I would get too sick to pull it off.

I just needed to stay in control until I had the perfect opportunity to run and soon enough the perfect opportunity arose.

Robert planned a spring dance to celebrate the beginning of the spring season. He invited business associates and prominent community members as well as some vampires and council members.