Daughter of Death -Chapter 24 (Patreon)

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CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

‘I will not die here’ Reina thought to herself over and over again as she struggled to take each new breath in feeling weaker and weaker by the second. She had lost a lot of blood and if she didn’t do something, she would pass unconscious and descend into death.

But Reina was a ‘daughter of Death’; she could not and would not succumb to meeting her end here on the forest floor like the dying commoner beside her. Oh no, she would leave here. She was more than being slaughtered like an animal; her station in life and her new abilities dictated so.

Inhaling deeply she figured out the source of her salvation: Errol’s blood.

As her step-mother cried nearby, Reina rolled over once more and pulling out the weapon in his chest and discarding it pressed her face to Errol embracing his tiny, damaged body in an unholy kiss. Her mouth passed over more than one spot where their previous struggle had left him gaping open until finally her lips found his and she took from him his last breath as she sucked the blood she found coughed up there.

Edeline screamed when she realized what Reina had done. The girl looked up at the sound with eyes big and round with fervor and satisfaction.

“Come closer,” the demon bid the woman who turned her gaze just in time not to be trapped in the command.

For a split second Reina thought her demand had worked for the peasant woman moved towards them only to flee right past the two and snatch up the dagger that had already done so much damage. She threw herself at the princess intent on ending the girl’s life.

But Reina managed to stop Edeline from piercing her with a fatal wound and staving off her attacker attempting to wrestle the girl in a deadly dance, Reina finally met the woman’s eyes and got the opportunity to end this all.

“Stop!” she commanded. “You will stop your attempts on my life and instead take these bonds off of me for they hurt me so!”

Edeline had no choice but to follow the vampir’s commands. Soon, the girl was standing face to face with her and neither realized the other was trembling.

“Who are you? Come for I am still weak and must recover my strength,” Reina muttered with a mouth stained with the innocent’s blood. She stepped closer and pulled back the woman’s cowl with some difficulty. But she would not drink the blood of this peasant for in that instant she recognized her foe,

“Edeline?”

“That is right, Reina,” she confirmed now avoiding the girl’s eyes in order not to be trapped any further into submission with this creature.

“You? It is you who have come here to kill me?”

“I understand your surprise but you are an unholy demon and I must do my duty to send you back to hell.”

Recognizing the danger Reina cleverly knocked the blade from Edeline’s hand and catching The Dowager off-guard then pushed her backwards causing her to stumble but not quite fall to the forest floor.

The two women struggled with one another wrestling for dominance and trying to get the upper hand as they cried out for their efforts. Reina only managed her victory by making eye contact with her step-mother once more and commanding her to stop.

Panting, realization came over Reina. “You sent a man to kill me but I was banished here instead to save my life and now it is you who have twice come again for my life!” She growled in anger. “Come here so I may drain you and kill you in return for your disgusting attempts on my life!”

“I think you will find your satisfaction tainted!” Edeline responded breathily, “You may kill me but my blood may very well kill you, Your Highness. Go on then—”

“What do you mean?” Reina snapped impatiently.

“D-do you not recall your last attempts upon me?” Edeline breathed heavily, “My blood contains that which poisons your kind. You will not find me such...such a feast.”

Reina hissed in anger looking in that second like the demon Edeline saw within.

The Dowager turned her head from the sight as it frightened her a little and beheld Errol’s motionless body. She let out a sob and her nerves were steeled not to let her guard down now.

“I do not have to drink of you to kill you,” Reina hissed with a newly found passion.

Edeline had momentary panic at this threat but she retained her calm after a second or so, “Perhaps not. But though you can erase the thoughts of this man from his limited existence here a missing queen will not go so easily unnoticed.”

Reina exhaled in frustration at the sense of this. Her eyes flickered back onto her step-mother so pathetically disguised in commoner’s clothing and she created a new plan,

“Then go back to your palace. Go and live there and keep my throne warm for I will return to it,” she told her, “And then when I am Queen you shall be nothing.”

“As you wish, Highness,” Edeline bowed mockingly to the princess. “But I will take this poor man with me. He did not deserve as you dealt him.”

“On the contrary he betrayed me!” Reina snapped, “I should have done more; should have tortured him. But at least now his blood is what has given me the life you tried to take from me. I will take satisfaction that his corpse will be savaged by wild beasts while I sit warm and happy tonight thinking of my throne.”

Edeline took a breath and strode towards Errol trying not to let the words of this demon enter her heart and make her soul afraid. God was with her. She was on the side of God. This creature could not take that from her.

Edeline’s stubbornness annoyed Reina and she lunged forward and pulled the woman’s shoulder causing the two to make eye contact again, “You will leave his body,” she demanded in a low hiss, “And you will return to your palace with no knowledge of what happened here today. You will not remember knowing that I am here in the forest and you shall recall that I died in this forest murdered by wild beasts and never found. You will remove your stained clothing before anyone else beholds you so that you are not questioned and you will sit in my father’s palace passing the time not knowing that one day I will return to claim my throne and take your life for this treason you have done against me! Now go!”

Edeline stared momentarily back at the young woman before nodding and moving towards her cart again. She got up into the driver’s seat and turned to look at the girl one last time before departing.

What she saw was the fulfillment of the girl’s mother the late Queen Imogene’s pact: ‘One day your lovely daughter will have lips stained red as a rose, hair as dark as night and skin as pale and as pure as this snow.’  

And it was terrifying. 

But Edeline would soon forget. She’d soon forget...