Page 22 of The Time Of Queens (An Afterlife Story #2)

22

SECRETS TO SPILL

LUCIUS

W ell, attending Witley Court certainly just got more interesting, that was for sure. For I didn’t recall ever seeing my King so changeable nor so unsure in his manner ever before. Of course, it was often remarked upon that I was the one known as being calmly collective and unmoveable in my wits. As for the King, this was abundantly less so, for he was known for his unpredictable temper.

But what I hadn’t ever witnessed before was how one little lady’s maid could affect him so. And one he foolishly claimed not to be his Chosen, for even I could see it was her after only but a day. I didn’t care what he said about this mysterious woman he had encountered in his room nights ago. For she was not the one with the power to affect him so.

Of course, it had to be noted that indeed she was a beautiful little mortal, and even made my fangs ache to emerge for a single taste. For it also had to be said that her scent was certainly enticing. But we had lived on this mortal plane for more than one millennia and encountered a world of beauties in our time. But none before her had ever held such power over the King of Kings.

It was of little wonder that Vincent believed she had bewitched him. Something he still spoke of now, as he had decided to accompany me in my search at the inn. For he seemed far more intent on finding this mysterious girl than his brother did.

“My brother’s mind is not sound, for I have never seen him this way, Luc,” Vincent told me, prompting me to irritate him further with logic.

“Then perhaps I should remind you, ‘If thou rememb'rest not the slightest folly that ever love did make thee run into’.”

“You’re now quoting Shakespeare?” he remarked dubiously, making me smirk.

“What would you prefer, something from the Song of Solomon?” I asked, making him scoff a laugh.

“If that be the case, how about, ‘I have found the one whom my soul loves’.”

He raised a sceptical brow at me, making me shrug my shoulders and remind him,

“You asked my friend.”

“You can’t honestly believe that this maid and my brother are meant to be?” he asked, the disbelief easy to hear in his tone.

“I tend to believe what my eyes see.”

“Lucius, do not jest,” he assumed, and I suddenly felt like punching some sense into him, for was he really that blind to his brother’s actions?

“I do not. Think on it, Vincent, and ask yourself, have you ever seen your brother act this way about a woman? For I have not and unlike you, I only have two thousand years to go by.”

“Only,” he muttered, like this was but a drop in the ocean of time.

“You have much more than that, my friend, and despite the pity I extend you for such a sentence…” He laughed, knowing I did jest this time as I continued. “…Open your eyes for you too will see the truth.”

He shook his head at this and told me,

“I already did. I saw my brother’s reaction to finding his fated and I tell you now, Lucius, for it was not the maid.”

I shrugged, for I didn’t see the point in arguing my point further.

“Then if that be the case, let us prove such, starting with the use of the innkeeper’s mind,” I told him as we stepped up to the door and pushed it open.

Like most inns, the downstairs was an open room with low beamed ceilings and was used as a space for travellers to get a hot meal and a drink of ale during their stay.

We made our way through the multiple empty tables and chairs towards the lone man working behind a bar. He was what one would call a gundiguts, as he was a large fat fellow with pitted red skin and rotting teeth. Not a sight I could image would make many want to eat here. For even if he were to slit a vein right here and now, I wouldn’t have dropped my fangs for such a sight.

“Drinking time is over and if it’s a room you want, we are full.”

“And yet your door was open,” I pointed out, making him bluster. Because I knew what he was saying, for clearly he had a problem with being on the bottom of the social food chain. Which meant unless we had a coin to press into his palm, he wasn’t interested in aiding any gentlemen.

Lucky for me, I didn’t need any coin to get what I wanted.

“I was just getting round to locking that,” he replied in a gruff tone.

“Now is that any kind of welcome for one of the respectable landowners of this village? For Lord Draven is a busy man indeed,” I stated, leaning my weight against the wall as I casually looked at my fingers, already missing the stain of blood there from the last mortal I had to dispatch.

“Lord Draven… my mistake, sir, for I didn’t recognise you.”

The blundering response wasn’t surprising seeing as they owned the land his inn was on, and therefore that made him their tenant. But at this Vincent brushed off the offence with an impatient motion of his hand.

“We seek information,” Vincent told him, and the moment blood rushed to his face, I knew of the lies that would soon follow.

“Ah well, I am afraid I can’t help you fellows, as like I told the last man I spoke to on the matter, there has been no girl that has…”

I pushed from the wall faster than his eyes could track, grabbing his thick neck and yanked him closer.

“Who said anything about asking?” I said, the sadist in me relishing the way his fearful eyes bulged. I slapped a hand over his face and forced his eyes to roll back, then they started to flicker from side to side as I started to rape him of his memories.

“Ah now, this is something you failed to mention, along with the bribe you took,” I said when I reached in deep and flickered through his memories, focusing on the one I was looking for. However, what had me narrowing my gaze, was the unexpected complication. Making me soon question what Pip and Adam were doing paying off the innkeeper?

It didn’t make sense… unless…

“Lucius?” Vincent spoke my name as I suddenly let go of the innkeeper, making him fall back and land on the floor, now unconscious from the whole experience. One he would wake from with no memory of the encounter.

Without explanation, I walked from the inn and rounded the corner of the building. For what had the young girl said…? That she had found Dominic’s cloak with a bundle of clothing in an alleyway.

“Lucius, what are you doing?” Vincent asked, following me, as I scanned the area until I came upon an unused coal shed.

“I am working on a hunch,” I said, before finding what I was looking for and knowing I was free to do so, I travelled at supernatural speed to get to it. Then I picked up the discarded bundle of clothes I found tossed under the shed. One that thankfully offered shelter enough that the clothes had remained untouched against the elements. Otherwise, I would not have been able to detect the scent I did when I lifted it to my nose to inhale. And the second I did, I couldn’t help but grin.

Fuck the Gods above but it felt good always being right.

“What is it?”

I turned back to my friend and tossed him the strange clothes, telling him,

“Smell like anyone we know?”

He too lifted it to his face and took in a deep breath before his eyes widened in surprise.

“Tut tut, little maid,” I said, still smirking as I took in the rest of the area in hopes of finding more.

“I don’t understand, why would this be here? Why would it smell of her?” Vincent asked, still unwilling to believe what I already knew to be true.

“I believe someone has some explaining to do, for there was more here before it was taken,” I told him, giving him cause to raise a brow in question. And despite the enjoyment gained from toying with other, he was a friend enough that I spared him that by telling him,

“Your brother’s cloak.”

His eyes widened at that, as his mind started to piece together the clues left for us to follow.

“It… it can’t be… could it?”

“I follow the evidence, my friend,” I told him, before leaving the alleyway and seeing if there were any others I could rid of their memories. For I was not yet ready to expose those I held dear to me and the part they obviously played in this. Now, for just how long I could keep their involvement out of this, I didn’t know.

“But how? My brother would know if it was the maid, he would have felt it,” Vincent reminded me, once again, following me towards my horse.

“Perhaps you weren’t wrong in believing in some spell being cast, it just wasn’t the one you thought it was,” I surmised, making him recoil enough in his shock.

“You think the maid is masking who she is to my brother?” he asked, making me shrug my shoulders.

“It was like you said, you have never seen him acting this way. Perhaps her spell isn’t as strong as she hoped it would be,” I guessed, for I still had plenty of her secrets to spill.

“But to what gain? If she is his Chosen One, then why would she hide the fact? It makes little sense,” he argued in return and, well, he wasn’t wrong to do so, hence why I told him,

“That is the right question to ask, and one I intend on discovering before the night is over.”

“And just how do you intend to do that?” he asked, making me grin.

“Where I get most of my information from when hunting…”

“And that is?”

“Village drunkards… come on,” I told him with a smirk, remounting my steed and prompting Vincent to do the same. After this, we rode to the nearest public house, which was the next village over in a place called Abberley Common. There we would find the Manor at Abberley alehouse. One that, even at this late hour, I was sure would still offer us something to go by. For the local drunks were usually the last men standing.

It was also usually where most stayed when the Hundred House was full, like the innkeeper claimed it to be. As for Vincent, he kept up, after first tucking the evidence we had found of the maid being involved into a satchel attached to his saddle. No doubt his mind was trying to make sense of all I had presented him with. After all, he had been against such a match from the start. And from what I had seen so far, he had given the poor beauty a hard time, despite such venom invoking his brother’s irk.

Of course, I had listened in to their conversation once they left the office, lingering below long enough to hear of the disagreement between them. He had been the one to advise him to let the little maid go and, no doubt, was berating himself now for such a mistake in doing so. And despite my job being first and foremost to protect my King, I couldn’t help the dark and malevolent pleasure I gained from knowing the brothers had butted heads like rams. For it was usually Sophia and her brothers’ shared Demonic nature that clashed. But that was one of the benefits from being a silent bystander by choice. I watched everything and everyone. I missed nothing, where others allowed emotion to cloud the truth playing out right in front of them.

Just like with the little maid.

For it wasn’t just her true identity she was hiding.

No, for she had a secret far greater than that of being Dominic’s Fated. And I did so like having secrets to break apart and expose at their core. For she may not be an intended bloody victim of mine to play with, but she would be my victim all the same.

And strangely… it was like she knew this.

No, not just that.

It was like she knew… me.

A short time later and we arrived at the public house, giving me cause to dismount and tether my horse to the hitching rail located near the entrance. Vincent joined me and swiftly did the same. His expression was pinched, for he was ill at ease with the advice he had given his brother, no doubt already trying to plan on how to rectify such.

As for me, I just wanted to crack her open and watch as all her secrets came spilling out, revelling in the satisfaction that I was right. Yes, I was that type of smug bastard, and it was a title I wore proudly.

Now as for cracking things open, it was time to play with the little mortal minds of village simpletons. Although there was still one that I couldn’t say such about, for the maid’s mind had been completely closed off to me. Something that had been astounding to discover, as it was utterly frustrating. For I was undoubtably the strongest when it came to forcing the minds of others. My control on them was usually absolute.

But not hers.

Why?

Perhaps that was the root of my fascination with her. Why I wanted so badly to break her. Why I had masked my frustration with charm and arrogance at the dining table. When in reality all I had wanted to do was tear at the walls of her mind like some wild beast until there was nothing left of her stronghold. She was my greatest adversary, for not even the King of Kings could deny me if I so wished to take possession of his mind.

It was maddening, and not something I was readily willing to admit to. Needless to say, I was thankful that Dominic had not yet asked it of me. But then, he didn’t yet have much cause to do so, seeing as he believed the story of her origins.

But I knew better.

So, in my irritation, I did what I did best and stepped through the threshold, taking control of all under its roof as one.

“Gods, Lucius,” I heard Vincent mutter in surprise when he saw what I had done to everyone.

A wave of unconsciousness overtook everyone in the room. Heads fell to tables and knees gave way to the floor. It took barely any concentration at all, for they were all so weak. Even more so in their drunken state. So, I skimmed their minds until I found exactly what I was looking for.

A memory of the pretty blonde maid.

“There you are,” I commented aloud as I saw her through the messenger’s mind.

His memory of her left him charmed enough that his thoughts of her had turned sexually explicit. Now why did that anger me? Why did I care? And what’s more, why was I now storming my way towards the unconscious man ready to break his bones for even thinking of her like that?

It made little sense.

Unless… no, could it be? Could she be somehow fated to my own future and therefore it was engrained within me to protect her? I had no answers, only that I found the man’s neck in my hold before I slammed him roughly against the nearest wall. He screamed in his unconscious state as I infected him with enough horrific thoughts that he would see me in his nightmares for the rest of his life.

I reached into his jacket pocket and ripped out the letter I knew he had stashed there. Then before I was tempted to tear into his throat and feed, I dropped him, and without a backward glance I left.

“Lucius, wait for all the Gods in Heaven!” Vincent said, rushing out after me, no doubt wondering, just like I was, what had taken hold of me. For I didn’t understand it myself. But I ripped the seal from the letter all the same and pulled out the secret I knew would expose her. However, what I did read I could barely believe. For after scanning its entirety, I handed it to Vincent and told him,

“There is your proof.”

He took it from me and read it at length, his expression changing with every word he took in.

“Gods then it is true… she really is…”

“His Fated Electus.”