Sins Among Royals

Everything fell silent as those gathered at the entrance of the prison were stunned into quietness. Indie felt her throat grow thick with a threatening sob.

She was saddened for her mate but wanted to throttle him at the same time. Finding a happy median was near impossible.

“Why did you do that?!” She demanded as Noah turned to her quickly as she began sobbing. Indie cried for all the lives lost. Not just Medea’s.

“She took three lives, she deserved to die.” His words were full of spite and full of malice but as he cast a careful glance around those gathered he saw the same emotion reflected in their faces. None of them were too pleased with him. None of them agreed with what he had just done. He had shown no mercy, no emotion, no understanding and a nagging feeling deep in the pit of his stomach lead him to believe that he would not be let off lightly.

“Send a team in. Inform the families of those lost,” he sighed heavily with what he was about to do. “I must go and inform my father that his mate has just been killed.” He stalked off quickly. His heart racing, his head spinning. He was having a lot of trouble coming to terms with what had just happened, as they all were.

There were only a voucher of days left before the massive mating ceremony and only a couple of days before Indie was reunited with her family. Noah just couldn’t wait for it all to be over so he could go back to living a normal life.

The group stood silently as they watched their master and King stalk off into the castle. “Well,” Andrew began. “I guess I should get started.”

Indie looked at him as she wiped her tears away, “Why do you have to do it?” She couldn’t help but ask, why should the innocent have to clean the blood spilled by their King?

Andrew chuckled softly, “Vampire,” he replied baring his bright, white teeth. “Blood is what I do,” he replied as those around him scoffed and snorted. “Have someone bring body bags.” He demanded lightly of Wade. “This won’t take me long at all.”

Wade too disappeared into the castle closely followed by Amber, Indie found it strange that they be going anywhere together.

She stayed with Fletcher and the replacement guards as Andrew carefully pulled open the heavy, metal bars and gently moved Medea’s lifeless body to the side. Indie noticed that he took great care with her, something she hadn’t been expecting at all. He soon found cleaning supplies and set about cleaning the first chamber before he moved on to his chamber where much of the mess had been made. Indie watched as Andrews blurred figure moved at the speed of light. He stopped to discard his blazer, then to roll up his sleeves. She watched as he picked body parts up, sniffed them then put them back down.

By the time Wade and Amber returned Andrew had two neat piles of body parts and much of the blood bad been cleaned. Indie watched as he glanced down at Grace and made some sort of gesture with his hands. He knelt gently and picked her head up with both hands. Walking to the far end of the prison wing he reunited head with body and almost seemed to pray over her. As Indie strained her human ears she heard him muttering something in a foreign language.

He then stood and began cleaning again. As soon as they could, all the guards gathered entered the chambers and it looked as though some held their breath. The stench of death seemed too much for some.

Indie took a step inside before Andrew and Wade barked at her.

“Stay there.”

“Don’t come in,” they warned as she froze mid step.

Freezing on the spot she stood, motionless, just watching as the horrendous mess disappeared as quickly as the bodies had.

The sky began lightening as the first of the tram carried Medea away and up the steps. One of them called to Andrew, “Vampire!” his deep voice bellowed. “The sun is rising, you’d better seek cover.”

Indie felt nothing but sorrow for Andrew. He had to live in a chamber where death had just visited.

“Don’t feel bad miss Indie,” she heard his voice call quickly. “I have another chamber deep under the castle where the men are kept.” A small smile danced across his lips at the thought. “It is my favourite place to be,” he reassured her with a wink that barely drew a grin from Indies lips.

He was a strange man indeed.

The next pair of guards carried their comrades out and as they reached the top of the stairs they heard a sharp, precise call. “King Victor approaches.”

Indie couldn’t help but hold her breath and stare at the ground. She didn’t want to see the pain, anger or loss she knew she would if she had of looked at him.

Victor stopped momentarily and stared down at Indie expecting some kind of acknowledgement. When she didn’t move he stormed passed her and into the far wing. At the sight of Grace’s body, half loaded into a bag he fell to his knees. Noah strode in not long after him, he completely ignored everyone as Indie turned from the scene and headed back up the stairs.

She sat near the top, the damp grass saturating her pants. Before long a cheerful Leo stepped out of the castle and waved at Indie. He obviously hadn’t been told of what had happened and when his eyes fell upon the heavy, black body bags his smile was quickly replaced with a deep frown as he rushed towards Indie. “What’s happened?” His hand on her shoulder was comforting. She didn’t realise that was all she wanted. Comfort.

“Grace is dead,” she muttered as Leo’s eyes grew wide with shock.

He was about to ask her another question when a loud howl rang through the early morning air rattling their bones. Leo frowned and assured Indie he would return as he disappeared off down the stairs and into the chamber.

What was she to do in a situation like this? She had never really experienced death before and to know that four people had lost their lives so quickly was more than a little shocking. Wailing followed the howl as she listened.

Indie sat and waited. She gave Noah and his father all the time they needed and when they finally emerged carrying the last of the body bags the sun was peeking over the horizon. “Andrew, take cover!” Noah yelled back as a muffled response filtered through the air. The words were lost to Indie as she stood from her grassy patch and waited.

Dropping her head she heard a loud sob. When she looked up Victor stood before her with a gentle smile on his face, tears streaming down his cheeks. “It is I who should bow to you Indie, Queen of the wolves.”

His words completely shellshocked Indie and left her speechless. She wasn’t expecting Victor to even acknowledge her presence but there he stood proclaiming her as queen.

What game was he playing at? He had just lost his wife, his mate and he managed a smile? Had she missed something?

She said nothing as Victor quickly moved passed her followed by the rest of the team. She peered down the stairs and saw two security guards close the metal gate, they assumed their new roles quickly and as she turned to leave she was left with a sour impression. Four lives had been lost but now that they had been gathered for the mortuary it almost felt as if nothing had happened.

Everyone disappeared and left Indie alone. She wandered back into the castle at her own pace. All the lights were on and it was warm, where exactly was she going?

Turning down corridors she had never seen before she soon came upon a couple of servants who directed her to the kitchen. She needed comfort and because Noah was so preoccupied she needed and craved ice cream. Remembering back to nights in front of the television with Poppy and their tubs of peppermint chocolate chip ice cream; she couldn’t help but smile.

Entering the kitchens quickly she soon realised it was far different to what she had expected. There was a whole team of chefs cooking up a storm. They glanced at Indie oddly as she requested ice cream. “Wouldn’t you prefer something more substantial miss Indie?” one of the women present questioned her quickly. “You’ll end up with a bellyache if you eat too much ice cream.”

None of them knew what had just happened and Indie wasn’t too sure she was ready to say anything as she smiled and took a spoon from a tray sitting atop one of many benches. She sunk the metal scoop into the pale green ice cream before scooping it into her mouth.

The frozen, creamy texture coupled with the sharp peppermint taste immediately calmed her, the melting chocolate gave her the sugary sweetness she desired.

Indie sat for a while and devoured as much as she could, “if you keep eating like that you’ll get fat. No one wants a fat mate,” she had wholly expected the words to come from Noah or Poppy but when she turned her head to the taunting voice she spied Felix.

The smug smile on his face drew a deep, rumbling growl from Indie.

“And your feral too, master Noah won’t like that!” He shook his head as he paced about with his hands behind his back.

“What the hell do you want!” She demanded quickly as the kitchen staff kept an eye on the man. No one much liked Felix but he didn’t seem to understand that at all.

“You see,” he began slowly as he took the seat next to Indie. “You may not be good enough for Noah but I would gladly take you as a wife.” He then reached out and seized Indie by the forearm. He squeezed tightly and wouldn’t let go.

Felix noted how still Indie had become and put it down to fear. Fear of him and all that he would do to her. She was weak and inexperienced but he had been dreaming of her inexperience since he’d first seen her at Willow’s party. Like many others present he wanted her for himself.

“You will be my wife. I will take you with me.” He stood from his seat and attempted to pull her up but she wouldn’t budge. “Come Indie.” He demanded quickly but still she wouldn’t budge.

He tugged her and attempted to get her to move but when he heard a growl unlike any he had heard before be stopped. “Let go of me,” the voice was Indies but it didn’t sound like her. It sounded almost like a washing machine and demon had a child. The unworldly voice made Felix tumble backwards as he was met with a fierce gaze. Her eyes glowed like fire and her canines began elongating. “If you ever touch me again I will rip your arms from your body and beat you with them.”

Felix immediately regretted his decision as he backed away from Indie. He was absolutely petrified. “I-I’m s-s-sorry!” He turned and ran from the kitchen and soon from the castle. Blackwood was a strange place and after what he had just seen he didn’t want any part of it.

As soon as Felix left the room Indie calmed down again. She looked up from her melting tub of ice cream and saw the terror in the faces around her. She smiled, shrugged her shoulders and returned to shovelling ice cream into her mouth. Many of the staff present made mental notes to never come between Indie and her ice cream.