The Vampire Queen's Resurrection

CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE PLEDGE OF DEATH

“I killed her? I killed my own child?” Aaliyah whispered as atrocious agony gripped the region of her heart, constricting it to the point of suffocating her.

“Oh Al!” was all that Emir said in a rush of breath, but it was enough. It contained so much pain that her tears streamed down her cheeks unchecked. He brought her in his arms to hug her close. “I was really wishing that you didn’t remember this part!”

But unfortunately she did. She recalled the incredulous shock that she’d experienced when holding her baby in her hands. A monster, the doctor had labeled her. A terrible natural disaster, the sages had announced with a conspicuous lack of sadness. A shame to the vampire community, Clegane Stoneheart had maliciously proclaimed to the clan when the latter had learnt the news.

Of course that damned man called her upon the stupid pledge she’d made nine months ago, and Aaliyah didn’t have the strength to fulfil the promise. One which Emir only discovered on the day his child was born, and which totally threw him off the handle.

“How could you take such a pledge, Aaliyah?” he shouted right into the room uncaring of whether they were surrounded by human doctors. With a stare, Aaliyah forced them out of the room, misery taking over at how naïve she’d been. She’d been so sure of her theory, of the belief that the mixture which had been responsible of the disfiguration in her first son.

Now faced with the proof of the contrary, she could not react accordingly. She could only stare at the little infant whose face was so scrunched that one could not even make a single trait from it. A monster, they were all calling that sweet little innocent.

A rush of fierce pride and protection overtook Aaliyah as she stared at her daughter – the only daughter she would ever produce. “I’ll call her Skylar. Skylar Royal,” she said in a firmly assertive voice.

The breath oozed out of Emir’s lung in a heavy puff. “You’re thinking of keeping her? You can’t be serious!”

She flashed angry eyes at him. “You want me to kill her then?” she asked bitterly.

A violent outraged cry came out of his mouth. “Do you seriously think I care about what they think? Or the ways they’re trying to get back at you for the throne? Do you really think that I care about all this? All I care about is you and our baby! Look at her. Just look at her!”

With horrified reluctance, her gaze wandered back to the little innocent child again, her heart so heavy that she thought it would burst. Emir was right. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought. All that counted was the life she was holding in her arms right now.

“She’s beautiful,” Aaliyah whispered defiantly. Flawed or not, she was a mother to that defenseless baby, and she refused to give up on her.

“Great,” Emi replied in a stoic voice. “The doc’s saying she’s in pain. Nobody is able to give a proper diagnosis of the reason. There is no scientific cure. So unless you have another of your elixir to cure my daughter, I suggest you think very carefully of what you’re going to say to me.”

She didn’t have any response to that. Misery and self-hatred filled her. Aaliyah despised herself for being so selfish, for that foolish arrogance in believing that everything would work out fine. That she would have her happy ending.

With deep anguished regret, she watched Emir leave the room and closed her eyes to allow the tears to fall. What had she done? What had she done? Almost involuntarily, she connected her mind to the baby, and winced when all she could experience was a terrible non-ending ache that wouldn’t go away.

In desperation, she tried to switch places with the baby, but there was nothing she could so. The pain was so loud that her temples started to burn, and she had to break from the mind reading. When she opened her eyes, there was blood streaming from them, and her hands were shaking uncontrollably.

That was when she took the decision. During the night, left alone with the baby, it took her a mere twist of her hand to end her miserable life. Emir had been beyond consolation in the morning, blaming her and hating her.

In her own sorrow, Aaliyah had drowned all the noises from the outside world. She didn’t even hear her father congratulating her for doing the right thing, or her sisters’ consolation her for her loss. Even Caspian’s malevolence fell to deaf ears.

Along with her baby, something inside her had died.

After that, she was no longer interested in playing the fair queen leader to a bunch of ungrateful losers. Any vampire not falling in line with the discipline was brutally murdered or severely punished. It came to the point where everybody feared her, but for real this time.

She dropped the blood elixir and allowed everyone, including herself to feed at their full. Vampires became strong enough to start triggering wars with witches, warlocks, werewolves and Lycans. It became a pandemonium, and she gorged in the failures of her own peers. It served them right for not listening to her in the first place.

Emir didn’t speak to her for a long time after Skylar’s death, and she didn’t even care. Their relationship was broken beyond repairing, or so she’d thought. Now as she stared at the tears in the eyes of the man she loved, she howled in misery. She’d done this to him. To them.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Em!” she managed in a croaked voice.

“No wonder you hate me so much!” she exclaimed, wiping the fat tears from her cheeks, annoyed when they were replaced by fresh ones. “Now, I understand why you’re so reluctant to start over with me. I did the unforgiven and I cannot even expect us to be together again.”

“Hush,” Emir was saying in a husky tone, dropping a kiss to her forehead. “I’ve always loved you Aaliyah. For the better or for the worse. The problem is that the wound that you inflicted was too deep for me to overcome. I would have done anything for you…Anything….”

He let the word trail filled with regrets and sorrow.

She asked the question she’d never dared ask before. “Where have you buried her?”

“You never asked before,” Emir replied almost broodingly. “I thought you didn’t care enough. Now, I see how wrong I was. Sky’s death created such a huge wedge between us that it eventually became unsurmountable.” He paused and sighed. “But to answer your question, I buried her in the Stone Castle. Right next to your mother.”

Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as she accepted with great shame that she would have seen Skylar’s grave had she visited her mother’s grave after losing her child.

“W…Was that why I left you? Five years ago? Was it because of what happened with our daughter?”

Emir let out a dry laughter. “You left earlier than that. When you decided to have a child on your own without my consent. But I tolerated whatever you wanted because I was too blind to see what you were becoming. When you were pregnant, I was over the moon and so damned proud of you.”

Aaliyah gasped in shocked pain at his words of praise. How she wished she could undo the past.

“Hell, I would even have accepted a handicapped child. I know that her malformation wasn’t your fault. It was okay. I would have loved her anyway!” the outcry was so deeply anguished that it tore at Aaliyah’s heart.

“Oh Emir! I didn’t kill her for the others,” she said quietly, clutching her chest in an attempt to ease the ache. “I didn’t kill her for the throne or because she was ugly or because of my stupid pledge!”

“Then why?” he roared, the question coming from the very depth of him. “Why did you kill our baby, Al?”

Her whole face was damp now from the crying as she could no longer hold back her misery. There was no point anyway. That was a man with whom she should have shared her pain in the first place. Not talking to him after Skylar’s death had been a colossal mistake.

“Because I went inside her mind,” she admitted in a small voice. “I tried to seek a place where she could be at peace so that I could compel her to rest there for some time.” There was a dramatic pause during which she took a deep breath. “There was none!”

“Ohhhhhhh,” Emir howled as he fell on his knees to the ground, with his hand over his chest just like her. “Oh dear!”

Aaliyah was shaking her head in sheer desperation as she tried to make him see her point of view. “There was no cure for her, Em. Nothing at all. Not even the tiniest little hope. If I had known anything about the cure, I would have moved Heaven and Earth to dig her from wherever she was hiding.”

She took another wobbly breath. “I would never have harmed my child on purpose. You knew how much she meant to me. How many years I spent looking for a way to sire her. I just wished that somebody would have supported me in that quest.”

He glanced at her with a quizzical expression, and she got the message. He was asking whether that would have changed anything.

“I would have felt less compelled to end her miserable life,” she admitted slowly. “I felt so guilty for having given birth to a baby who was constantly in pain. I was so afraid that she would also be unloved like I was. Just because she was my daughter and she had bigger challenges to face.”

Even in her ramblings, she knew she wasn’t making sense. In abject defeat, she placed a hand over her face. “I don’t know Emir. I really thought I was doing the best for her. For us. But this baby is a shocker. You told me vampires couldn’t procreate so I didn’t pay much attention to the basic things. I swear this time’s not my doing. I would never…”

“Shhhh,” Emir placed a finger over her lips to stop the influx of words. “You don’t have to explain yourself. I have lived with you for more than a hundred years, and if there’s anything I know about you is that you would never lie to me.”

That comment boosted her confidence. At that moment, she had the feeling that if Emir was on her side, they could work anything out. Anything.

“I am not sure how this will turn out this time. But I promise you we’ll do it together,” she grabbed his hand desperately trying to make his see that she was no longer that infuriated and frustrated Aaliyah who wanted a child at any cost. Even at the expense of her marriage. “I promise.”

Emir growled savagely, and Aaliyah felt her heart break into two as she was certain he would refuse her bequest. But his eyes narrowed to almost horizontal slits, taking on a yellow color as she held his hand, and she gulped.

Wasn’t that the signal of a vampire being triggered? What did it mean?

Had he suddenly turned thirsty and was craving for her blood? Would he turn her into a vampire now? Her heart skipped a beat as she looked for a way to escape. However, it seemed that she was unable to defend herself as she felt her body being easily lifted and placed inside the large wardrobe in her room.

“W..?” She didn’t get any further. Emir’s hands covered her mouth, his eyes glowing in warning as he placed his free hand over his lips in a signal for her to remain quiet.

“Someone’s here,” he whispered so quietly that she had to strain her ears to hear him. “Cover your scent with something and stay here until I come out for you. Do you get me?”

Terrified, Aaliyah could only nod.