[Anthony, our Legendary Love Spot!]
Anthony sat on a couch between two women, an agitated, beautiful alabaster-skinned vampire, her large bat wings covering her gothic gown like a cloak, and a sickly-looking noble girl with a raspy, teasing voice.
“…Am I being too touchy, Lady Harper?” Kastilla Melchiott snickered, tracing the veins on the back of his hand with a teasing leer at the frowning daughter of the House of Blood. “You do realize who you are speaking to, and was it not I who came in and spotted you worming your wing around his back? Scandalous!”
In truth, Anthony was kind of glad a daughter from the House of Mists had decided to cock-block. Harper had been getting a tad too feely for his liking, and it had not been a part of the discussion he’d had with Elizabeth and Rachel. All he could do was keep his mouth shut and let the proud bat and raggedy cat fight until the right moment came for him to strike.
Harper’s eye twitched. “Just because you are the heir to the House of Melchiott does not mean your bony, evaporated-milk ass can float into another barony’s chambers and lather your filth all over my face!”
Kastilla doubled over, pulling Anthony’s uncomfortable hand up to her chest as she shook with laughter. “Our parents can speak nicely of each other when near, despite their hatred, yet you are entirely incapable of decorum. What would your uncle say?”
Anthony gulped as a rush of air hit him in the face, Harper’s wing overshadowing him as the barbed point hovered over Kastilla’s heart—where his hand happened to be.
“Watch your tongue, whore!”
“Such language from the so-called House of Beauty,” Kastilla cackled.
Internally, he mumbled to the Lightning Lord connected to his soul. This is getting out of hand, Tintreach! Why is she even here? None of this was planned in the meeting, but people are already about to light the fuse. I have to defend Harper, though.
“Patience,” Tintreach’s booming voice replied, resonating within his mind. “Now that I am confined to this lower dimension with you, my grasp on outer events is severely limited, but…there is a party manipulating larger events behind the scenes. Careful, Anthony. We are not the only ones after Audrey’s heart.”
I figured, but I just didn’t expect to be forced to feel up some vampire woman’s chest—not that there’s a lot there… Amelia, forgive me! He tried not to show his relief as Harper’s clawed wing hooked around his palm and pulled it away from Kastilla’s breast. Oh, thank God! Wait, wait!
He slipped the wing and sat back, frowning as he buried his hands in his lap before Harper could guide it to her chest. “I’m…getting the impression you two have a history? I’m interested in how the nobility and territories work. I’d like to compare it to my own world’s nobility standards.”
Kastilla’s entertained smirk vanished as her gaze shifted to the door, mists gathering around its edges. “Hmm. I would love to become more intimately acquainted, my handsome man, but my mother calls for me.”
“Don’t slip and stab your heart on the way out!” Harper chimed, Kastilla mirroring her innocent smile before turning and leaving.
“If I were to slip, it would be to stab your heart, dear. Enjoy your pleasures where you can get them, I suppose.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Harper’s small nose twisted with displeasure, her highlighted neon-red hair illuminated. The girl’s black lips peeled back to reveal her thin fangs. “I am not desperate!”
Her thighs tensed against Anthony’s as her mother snarled, “Quiet down, girls… And have a little decorum, Harper.”
The current matriarch of the House of Blood was hardly paying attention to them as she stood in front of the giant bloody mirror. Below, Rachel and Nia fought off an army of fodder vampires, only for some intestine woman to start pressing Rachel. Aurora acted as a distraction…only on the wrong side.
Around them, Harper’s three elder brothers and sole little sister chatted in private to one another, glancing their way; something told him Harper wasn’t the most well-respected in her household, and from what he’d seen, family was a rather loose term used in this society.
Kastilla gave them a backward wink before dispersing into the mist. “My apologies, Baroness. Good luck, Harper. His blood does smell nice. Maybe I’ll steal a nibble later. Remember, silence is golden.”
Her lingering giggles left Harper with a scowl. The girl’s glowing locks radiated light, and her button nose creased with displeasure as her wings folded in again, closing herself off.
Anthony cleared his throat, shifting to a more comfortable distance, crossing his legs, and spreading out his arms along the armrest and back of the sofa. “Wow. Leave it to the Melchiott Family to ruin a mood, right? For being a family that prides itself on silence, they talk a lot.”
Harper’s wings unfolded a tad, allowing her to brush back her shoulder-length bangs behind her ears. “To be fair, it’s mostly Kastilla. She is a sore spot on my neck—not that she’s ever had a taste,” she quickly defended, glancing away with a grimace. “Poor choice of words. Mmgm.”
Anthony’s chest shook as he shook his head. “No, I think it’s cute that you speak your mind. Go on, I’d like to know more about your world and family, but…mainly, I want to learn more about you. Who is Lady Harper Morgan? Oh…what is with the pink hair?”
“H-Huh?!” Harper’s eyes and highlights flashed a rosy color that instantly snatched her siblings’ attention.
“Harper!” her second eldest brother snickered. “Is that her first blush, Shelly?”
Her little sister smirked, batting her smaller wings to hover a little as she hovered over. “I think it is! I thought she was incapable of having a crush. Go ahead, nibble away. The Baroness gave him to you, after all.”
“We’re leaving!” Harper promptly stood up, grabbed his hand with surprising strength, and pulled him toward the door.
“Harper, no,” her little sister laughed. “I want to see the color. Your father was right; you do have the most beautiful layers and hue.“
“Just because I was adopted doesn’t mean you all have the right to poke fun at me!” the vampire shot back, storming out with him. “I’m going to watch the activities live—”
“No, you will not.”
Anthony’s chest tightened as Audrey’s cold voice halted their progress. He felt something threatening in the baroness’ voice, and Tintreach whispered, “Careful. That’s the tone of a snake ready to bite.”
“Mother, I can’t stand them! Not once—”
“Enough!”
Without a sideward glance, Audrey’s fingernail pointed at her daughter like a spear, twisted and curled, motioning for her to her side. Abruptly, the girl’s tongue lodged in her throat, and an invisible force yanked her out of Anthony’s grip to float in front of her mother.
Harper didn’t seem to even be able to struggle as her wings were slowly pulled out to their full length, the girl gagging while her limbs were being stretched to their maximum distance. Her siblings chuckled and watched as if it were their favorite show.
Anthony curled his fingers at his back, wondering if he should summon his spear to draw attention off Harper. He might not survive the encounter, though. Then again, this could be the chance he needed to land the critical blow. Elizabeth said she’d manipulated their emotions so that all he needed to do was look for the right opportunity to attack when Audrey was distracted, and then the countess’ hidden blade would strike true. He glanced at the walls for any sign that the Countess of Blood’s trap was waiting in ambush, yet saw nothing.
Audrey rubbed between her eyes, agitation and stress in her voice. “You could be so very beautiful, Harper. The potential is there to match your siblings, yet you refuse to rid yourself of the street vermin you grew up around, skulking around gutters. I suppose it is your lowly outcast of a mother’s wild side in you… The bastard daughter of the God Emperor’s exiled daughter and my smitten brother.”
She turned to stare at her adopted daughter, bloody tears gathering in the girl’s eyes as her wings began to tremble from the stress being put on them. “I have given you an opportunity to show your beauty, and maybe—just maybe—you could rise above being the mistake of my brother and the foolishness of a woman who was born with the world in her hands. Yet…you continue to disappoint me!”
“I’m…not a mistake,” Harper whispered through her teeth.
“The arrogance!” her sister growled. “Not only does she disrespect you by not calling you by your title, Baroness, but she dares to question your evaluation of her soiled lineage? She is a stain upon our family that the other Houses laugh at. Do you agree, Kassis?”
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Kassis sipped at his blood, not reflecting his little sister’s rage. “Careful not to question the Baroness’ decision to adopt her into our coven, Sarren.”
“Of course… It is of no fault of The Baroness that this prettily wrapped trash cannot help but fall back to the wild nature of her insane mother.”
Anthony had about heard enough. In these vampires’ eyes, he had all but disappeared, entirely focused on Harper’s place in their family. Blocking out the outer world, he calmed his breathing, not letting his pulse rise or emotion give away his decision to act. He was merely the instrument to enact the will of protection; Tintreach would be his guide.
[Limit Break: Divine Retribution - Flash Bolt: Activated]
Time came to a crawl as a spark lit within his spirit inside his inner world, mentally visualizing the whole room and where everyone was at that exact moment. This was his strongest attack and something he hadn’t used on anyone yet other than practicing inside this imaginary world he could retreat to—no one else required this kind of strike.
[Full Body Reinforcement: Activated]
[Guided Strike: Activated]
Taking in every angle, he instantly saw the best path, silver electricity dancing through his veins. On the outside, it would register in a fraction of a second, and he had to be deadly accurate since he couldn’t control his momentum once the attack was launched. After using all of his Active Feats in one all-out assault, he would only get one shot.
[Argent Guardian: Activated]
[Hero’s Willpower: Activated]
He funneled his desire to protect Harper from the horrific situation she was in into his weapon, amplifying its Penetration and Power affixes. It ended in his need to return to Amelia’s side. If he could take out Audrey, then the shock of it should be enough for him to escape and rejoin Rachel. He might be able to take out one more in the chaos that ensued, but that was if he was lucky. Right now, his sole target was the stunning and regal baroness.
The outside world came back into focus as the final stage of his Level 10 Feats fully came into focus, and Tintreach synced with him.
“Your odds aren’t great, Anthony. Although she may look lovely on the outside, as Rachel said, your opponents here are comparable to a lava dragon. There is still time to call it off and wait for another moment.”
Calm as a gentle stream, Anthony let himself be taken over by the designed attack. The world was utterly still and calm in the flash-time he’d entered, electricity sparking out from his chest to encircle his body. Taking a single step back and lifting his hand, the energized spear flashed into existence.
If this doesn’t work, I doubt anything else I try will… And despite being a potentially genocidal vampire, I’ve heard enough about Harper to make me want to save her.
“How…idiotically romantic of you,” Tintreach sighed. “I’m sure Amelia would approve, yet…these vampires seem to grow up in a society shrouded in playing politics. What if all of that was an act?”
Then I deal with it. If I question the feeling I have right now, then I would be failing to live up to the kind of man Amelia loves.
Harper came into focus, the veins on her wings beginning to bulge as she whimpered as the blood in her body surged with her adopted mother’s manipulations. Anthony’s gaze moved away from the pair to the bloody mirrors throughout the room, and the spear left his fingers like a bolt of lightning.
[Reflective Shot: Activated]
The flash of light bounced off the reflective surface, showing Rachel’s flower clone army being slaughtered by Baron Hrisu’s family. The spear found its mark, melting through Audrey’s back and penetrating through her breast, Harper’s left wing, and passing right by Anthony’s head to ping-ponging around until ending at Sarren’s head.
As time sped up, Sarren’s blood erupted in all directions, and Anthony shot back, ready to run to the door to join Rachel. He’d done it!
“Not…so fast.”
Blood snaked between his feet, collecting in front of the door in an instant, and Anthony’s heart sank as Audrey materialized, the blackened hole in her chest still smoking and giving him a full view of the door she now blocked. Her children joined her in a pool of blood—at least, her boys did.
Sarren writhed on the ground, clutching at her chest as her head instantly reformed, choking up blood. “B-Baroness—Mother, please, I… Ahhhh!”
Anthony watched in horror as the girl began to desiccate, her blood being pulled out of her body to crawl up her mother’s legs, healing the damage he’d just done.
“Shit.”
Audrey cupped her chin, no longer looking annoyed as she appraised him like a prized horse for sale; he couldn’t do that attack twice. “Bold…and waiting for me to be distracted. You really do belong in the House of Blood. You could learn a thing or two from your toy, Harper. He used you to get to me…beautiful! It is too bad you aimed for my life. You only get one attempt. Those are the rules. Harper…”
Harper’s wings sagged against the floor as she shakily pushed herself up. “I…I’m here, Mother.” Her ashen face didn’t show sweat, but stress and pain were etched in her frightful eyes as she glanced to her right, where her little sister lay in a shriveled heap. “Sarren…”
“Up. Up you go. Ah-ah-ah!” Anthony summoned his spear, only for the baroness’ blood to coil up from underneath the floor, drilling through the glistening tiles to suspend him in the air. “That is it… Harper. You failed to properly break the toy I gave you. You know what you must do. It is a shame; he had such handsome features.”
Anthony breathed out a long stream of air, testing the resistance of his bonds as Harper’s brothers laughed, not caring in the slightest for their little sister’s death.
Well, damn. No way I’m getting out of this; she’s a monster, alright. I guess I jumped the gun. How was I supposed to know she’d absorb her own daughter to heal? Cold. I should have suspected something more. A little warning would have been nice, Elizabeth, but I guess this is it… Sorry, Amelia. Sorry, Ciara, I couldn’t keep my promise. Rachel will help Amelia, right? Wow. All I seem to do is bring heartache, no matter how hard I try.
“He’s not begging,” the eldest laughed. “We can fix that…”
“No,” his mother curtly replied, twisting him around to face Harper as she cradled her burned wing. It wasn’t healing as swiftly as her sister had from his attack. “This is a good experience for Harper. My brother was too soft on you for being a bastard. Make him suffer for your mother’s entertainment.”
Anthony strained a smile as the panting girl came into view, his gaze drifting to her damaged wing. “I’m not going to beg, but I will say sorry for hurting you, Harper; I didn’t want to, but it was the only angle I could get at your sister. So…sorry!”
He flashed his teeth, ready to enter whatever hell was to come for his folly.
Harper looked away, her highlights turning a shimmering pink again. “You…are the first man to have treated me as…more than just a tool to be used. Foolish. Very foolish.”
Stepping forward, she spread her wings out while floating into the air; her rosy irises lingered on his face, moving from his eyes to his lips. “I would kiss you as our potential farewell…but I can tell your heart is already taken by another. I suppose I am a fool, as well, for believing in forbidden stories hidden away in my father’s library. So…I will settle for this.”
Eyes closing, she leaned in to place her lips below his left eye, kissing his beauty mark before her fangs moved to his neck; her touch was cool, her lips hot, and her fangs fire that sank into his jugular vein. Yet, instead of weakness, strength filled his soul with an exhilarating rush of power.
Her barbed wings closed around him, striking, and Anthony tensed, but no pain came as she pulled away and whispered, “I leave everything else to you…my human hero.”
She fell as the shackles caging him broke like brittle sand. He caught her before she hit the ground, an unusual aura of pink light surrounding him. Behind him, Harper’s brothers turned to dust, the girl’s clawed, limp wings dislodging from their chests as Aurdey took a step back, her face filled with bewilderment.
“How—she gave you her blood… My brother wasn’t lying? She is the God Emperor’s grandchild… She gave a human the God Emperor’s Gift?! Blasphemy!”
She lurched forward, the whole room liquifying to encase them, yet words not his own left his lips—a woman’s voice—and the whole world froze. “That is quite enough.”
Anthony blinked, and suddenly, the room was back to normal. Harper lay on the sofa, resting. Any damage done to the girl was gone, and the trembling baroness was groveling before him. Audrey stammered a single name as his mind cleared, somewhat floating in a dream.
“G…God Emperor!”
The woman’s words were calm and final. “You mistake me for my father. There is a reason why my father exiled me…took my heart, and robbed me of my power. Not even he could slay me. Though I am sealed away, I am far from powerless when my daughter calls my name… When I use the power I hid within her. Enjoy your punishment for the harm you have done to my daughter, Baroness.”
Audrey screamed as she melted before his eyes, the blood soaking into the blood crystal tiles to become a part of its foundation for all eternity—to be trodden underfoot for as long as it stood.
Vision returning to the resting girl, the exiled daughter of the God Emperor spoke her final words to him. “Protect my daughter from what I sense is to come. Comfort her. But do not mention me or how you vanquished the nightmare she’s been living. Now, she is the sole heir to the Barony, and Elizabeth will guide her.”
He blinked, and the rose aura faded away with the power infusing him. Dropping to his butt, he forced a laugh. “Well, I’ll be damned. Rachel, I’m going to have to buy you a drink when this is done because your misfortune had to have had an effect on this bullshit—wait…you’re underage. Damn. You there, Tintreach?”
“I had a lovely chat with the girl’s mother… A decent, puzzling woman who has the potential to transcend this world, wrapped in controversy.”
Laughing, he settled in and tried to puzzle out everything he’d just gone through.
“I’m glad someone is having fun. Hey, we did it; the witch is dead!”
“I thought she was a vampire.”
“You’re hilarious! Haaa. Ugh. I’m going to get such a stink-eye from Selvaria. Everyone is going to think the worst of me. Damn you, Rachel!”
His humor fell as the door opened, revealing a cloaked man—a hunter. The man’s eyes quickly swept the damaged space, smirking before tipping his hat to him. “It seems I’m late to the party. Why not chat with some Irish whiskey? I’d like to hear the tale and confirm a few things,” he said, brandishing a bottle.
“You really expect me to believe a Hunter is going to have a casual chat when she’s like this?” Anthony asked, his vision narrowing. He stood to move between the unconscious vampire girl who had saved him. “What’s your angle?”
The man simply brandished the bottle and moved to a seat far away from the vampire. “I’ve killed plenty of vampires, kid. I don’t care about this world, and the good girl Elizabeth is actually on my side of things, believe it or not. Well, she will be after tonight. I go after bigger prey,” he laughed, kicking up his boots onto the table.
“Can I have a name?” Anthony moved a chair to face him, directly in the path of Harper. “I like to know who I’m drinking with.”
“Fair enough! The name’s Helsing…Abraham Van Helsing,” he muttered, tipping his hat with a grin. Anthony noted a pungent garlic scent underneath his strong alcohol smell. “But you can call me Abe, not to be confused with Honest Abe—different guy. Now, what can you tell me about our lovely Ms. Aurora?”
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