The Vampire Queen's Resurrection

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: BREAKING THE RULE

“This is the only way we can be together! Don’t you see?” Emir was shouting piercingly inside her head, and Aaliyah tried to get him to lower his tone. His loud baritone wasn’t helping her headache at all.

“Don’t be silly, Em!” she retorted back on the same tone. “We’re not getting into this argument again. I am not turning you into a vampire. I told you so many times that I don’t do this anymore. I don’t turn people into vampires anymore!”

“I don’t care! If this is what it takes for us to be together, then I don’t f*cking care. You do it or I will get some other vampire to do it. How about I get your dad to turn me?” he threatened.

That was a low blow. She growled savagely at him. How did end up every night into the same fight over and over again? It seemed like after he’d confessed his love two weeks ago for her, her resolved had weakened. Pathetic.

But she drew a line when it came to making him a vampire just for them to be together. That was his own logical conclusion. If the fact that he was a human and she a vampire the only bone of contention between them, then Emir was ready to sacrifice himself for their sake. Aaliyah would prefer dying before she gave in.

“No way! No way! I have sent the warning to my dad that if something happens to you, I am not sparing his life. He wouldn’t risk locking horns with me. Not even for the satisfaction of seeing you defeated.”

The argument died without any proper conclusion as the previous times. The call from the vampire association came two days later where Aaliyah found herself for the first time being the one summoned instead of the contrary. The only difference was that she was in Indiana of her own free will.

There was a hall in the Stone castle which was reserved especially for the vampire’s reunion which had vampires lurking around every pillar, as their accusing eyes pierced her soul.

There were different classes, she could sense each one of them indelibly liked to her. The ones she’d created were called the August, a name she’d given to her direct descendants because the word meant impressive. Then there was the vampires who had been sired by the August, which were known as the Supreme. They were as strong as the highborn except for a slight difference in speed and force, and they also didn’t have the ability to compel humans.

After that there would be lesser hierarchies created by the Supreme which were categorized as Blackjack, Spider and Chiro. They were mostly classified according to the random powers they would inherit from their makers. But irrespective of hierarchy, the newly turned vampires were known as Jejune.

“Aaliyah Stoneheart,” Clegane announced in a hard voice, and she was stunned to find him sitting on the seat she usually occupied. It was laughable to think that they had enough power to put her on trial. The reason why she was humoring them was only because she was trying to protect Emir. “You’ve been found guilty of treason. You have been frolicking around with a human which threatens to put our species in limelight.”

Her eyes squinted dangerously in direction of the man who called himself her father. How pathetic of him to use her actions to demean Aaliyah in front of everyone.

“It’s Queen Aaliyah,” she reminded them with an arrogant raise of her chin.

It would take her mere seconds to snap the head of all the traitors sitting in her place. They would love to see her gone or defeated just to take the reign from her hands. Every member of her family who’d once begged her to transform them was now looking down at her like she was some kind of trash.

“Whatever,” her father responded insolently. “You cannot trespass the laws that you have implemented yourself. It wouldn’t be fair to the others. No one has the right to crossbreed, and neither can you.”

Aaliyah knew he was right, but she hated the fact that her own parent was using the argument against her. “I know. I will turn him into a vampire soon.”

White eyebrows skyrocketed to his hairline as her father’s lip turned into a mocking sneer. “Sure you will,” he said sarcastically. “After you’ve sworn not to create any more vampires again.”

She bristled with annoyance but didn’t let go of her regal stature. “That’s my call. I get to decide whether I want to make more vampires or not. It’s definitely none of your business. You weren’t against it when it suited you.”

“How about the cravings of a Jejune?” Caspian asked with a predatory glint in his eyes as he knelt forward with elbow placed on his knee. “We all know that a recently turned vampire will not survive without fresh human blood. And you’ve specifically prevented us from killing more humans. Is the law going to be different for your new protégé?”

There was no mistake of the contempt behind the words, but what saddened her was the unanimous grunt of approval which resonated in the room.

“I have distributed the sun elixir amongst you so that you can now stroll during the broad daylight without any problem. I also promise to produce another elixir which will control your hunger for the human blood,” she announced boldly to the room. “I understand your pain and how hard id it to control your hunger, but I promise that I will come up with the solution.”

Clegane scoffed in derision. “Another of your empty promises.”

“When has our queen ever make empty promises?” a familiar voice intervened, and Aaliyah was grateful to see that there was at least her sister Sloane jumping to her defense.

“Thank you Sloane,” Aaliyah replied with feeling. “It’s true. I have always delivered what I promised. I told you I will provide an elixir which would help you break the sunlight.”

“Yah but it took many years,” Everlee was keen to point out. “I am not sure we can wait for another century to have our blood thirst kept under wraps. Preying on human is our nature, hunting is our instincts. What kind of vampire would we be if you continue to oppress us like this?”

Although her little sister had a point, Aaliyah wished she would land a hand in the research instead of ranting about what she was supposed to do. However, Aaliyah didn’t want to make the other vampires feel targeted with her comment about them slacking around, so she reigned in her temper with great difficulty.

Everlee only one year smaller than her had always been jealous of the fact that the kidnappers had chosen Aaliyah and had transformed her into the strongest vampire. But even before that, there had been that crisp tension which existed between sisters, especially since her relationship with her other siblings fared much better than Everlee had with them.

“It won’t be an oppression if I find the solution, would it?” she asked and whooshed herself towards the dais where her seat was situated. A pointed look towards her father got the man to leap from the seat without a single word. With deliberate slowness, she resumed her place and announced.

“I promise that Emir will become one of ours soon. As for preventing you from killing more humans to feed yourself, there is no selfish motive behind this. We cannot continue to create havoc wherever we go. This is what will put our species in danger. I will provide the elixir which will alleviate your pain.”

With great satisfaction, she inhaled the change of atmosphere as most of the antagonisms melted away from her promise. A promise which she worked her ar*e off in order to deliver during the following months. With the help of Emir. It turned out that he was a much better chemist than she was, and together the Blood elixir was produced.

With the help of her beloved, she’d achieved the impossible – she’d managed to appease the anger of her people.

“We did it! We did it Emir!” she shouted gleefully, clapping her hands together as one of her subjects stopped snarling after being administered a dose of the newly produced blood elixir. “We need to check for how long it can last,” she peered inside the screen to watch the cells alteration when the powder dissolved.

“Look, the pills are actually absorbing the blood crave vessels. I wasn’t sure it was going to work but it seems to be working just fine. I just mixed the chemical solution with lots of salt which will absorb the blood hormones that the vampire body releases to enhance the thirst.”

“You’re a genius Al. A f*cking genius!” Emir exclaimed with a laugh. “Do you know what this means?”

“Of course,” she echoed his happiness with an exclamation of her own. “Of course I know what this means. This means that my people won’t be suffering anymore. That they will have at least a relief for their pain. Everlee was right, you know. Hunting is part of a vampire’s nature, and I shouldn’t have…”

“No!” Emir interrupted with a snarl. “No, that’s not it! Well,” he corrected with an obvious move of his head. “Of course that’s also it. But on top of that, I get to be a vampire too. Without you breaching your own laws. If I am turned into a vampire and I take the pills, this means that I don’t kill humans!”

Aaliyah stopped short in her track at the statement. It’s been weeks since Emir had mentioned about being a vampire. Aaliyah had thought that he’d given up on the idea, but she was so mistaken. The only reason he’d been helping her was to get her to turn him into a monster too. He’d only been using he. Just like the others.

“Oh no!” he protested as he guessed her line of thought. “No, no no no. You’re totally misunderstanding this. I was helping you because I believe in your mission…I…, Alright, you know what. Why don’t you read my mind?”

She did. She’d been too hurt in the past to leave it to trust.

There was nothing suspicious in his intentions, all she could picture was his undying love for her. Something she hadn’t known was possible. But she was so not keen on making him into a monster. A jejune, if not properly fed could even die.

“Emir, I regret to announce you that I am not turning you into…w…what are you doing?” she stammered as a noise sounded in her head, and a pungent smell caught her nose. “No!” she exclaimed in horror as she saw what he’d done. “No, what have you done, you i***t!”

He'd pierced his hand with a knife, blood was oozing from him causing her hunger to trigger. A familiar constricted feeling caught up with her and her hand flew to her throat automatically as she fought for control. It wasn’t usually such an ordeal to resist humans, but not someone she was craving.

Her hands trembled to a point where she could no longer contain herself, and her fangs appeared as the thirst became unbearable. “No, no! I can’t,” she tried one last time to fight the rising insatiable thirst. “You don’t know what you’ve done! You don’t know what you’ve done!”

When her vampire took over, she lost total power over her human side, and like an animal she flung herself over Emir’s body. Her teeth sinking deep into his neck, she sucked in a large amount of blood, the liquid flowing into her system like a panacea. It felt so good to let go of her inhibitions and drink to her content.

She’d been depriving herself of human blood for so long, and the taste of her fad was so good that she found herself gorging in the drink. It was hard to stop. So hard. She could already feel her powers being restored as not drinking human blood was having certain limitations in her abilities.

When she moved up her head, it was one bare second before she balanced to the other side. To the side where she knew she would never be able to come back. With bloodshot eyes, she looked at the man who stood in front of her with bloodied neck and the connection between them intensified.

They were now linked by the pact of blood.

“It’s going to be okay,” she promised when Emir’s huge body fell to the ground in a lump.