Chapter 19

He hurried into his chambers, walked briskly to his trunk by the window and threw the lid open forcefully. He rummaged through it and pulled out the old black cloak he was looking for, he dusted it and laid it on the bed before taking off his robe and putting it on.

Suddenly a knock came at the door and before he could respond a maid walked in with her head bowed slightly. She approached him cautiously.

“What do you want?” Octavius demanded.

“My lord, the queen has sent me to keep you company and to see to it that I provide you with anything you may need”

“I don’t need your company. Go”

“She is worried you might put yourself in danger.”

“Go!”

The maid raised her head and with a raise of her brows and a coy smile moved closer undeterred by the murderous look Octavius had on his face. Angus and some other lecherous guards were the cause of this sort of boldness from the palace maids. They always did things like this when they thought no one was watching, smiling coquettishly and forcefully swaying their hips. He curled his lips in distaste as the maid kept approaching him, he recognized her as Sutra, she did everything to gain his attention since he was 14 and hadn’t stopped even after he married Emilia.

“Leave.” He said in a single commanding tone.

She reached her hand to the pinned strap of her tunic and slipped it down her shoulder. Unexcited and unamused Octavius approached her in short strides, replaced the strap back on her shoulder and pulled her in the direction of the door viciously.

“Let me go,” she said through clenched teeth struggling against his strong hold.

“Just as soon as I throw you out you whore! You’ve had Angus, half the guards in this palace and now me?”

“Would have had you first if you had given accepted my advances,” she countered shamelessly.

Octavius paid her no attention and paid no heed to her struggling against him. As he neared the door reaching his hand to open it, she pulled her hand away from his tight grip and as she did his nails tore into the flesh on her arm leaving a trail of blood as her flesh opened.

She cursed under her breath and sucked part of the injury into her mouth looking up at Octavius with accusing eyes. She closed her eyes at the pain that ripped through her arm.

Octavius trembled where he stood, his eyes fixated on the dark red liquid that dripped from her hand falling on her dress and his carpet. He took a deep breath and held himself still as sudden pangs of hunger tore through his belly. He just could not understand how it was possible that he reacted to the sight of her blood the way he knew did years before the war. The smell of her blood passed his nostrils bringing his senses at high alert, making him tremble even more.

Sutra looked up and paused at the frightening sight in front of her. White as sheet, Octavius stared at her in the most frightening way that caused her heartbeat to accelerate. He was no longer the handsome prince of Camelorn, the blue of his eyes was suddenly a vibrant red that stood out against the stark white of his eyes, the veins on his neck were popping out in all kinds of color; purple, green, red, the most terrifying was his parted lips that revealed fangs at both corners of his mouth. His complexion was stark white against the dull color of his cloak.

“The gods have mercy on me,” she whispered in a shaky voice. Trembling to the tip of her toes she sidled away from Octavius who followed her with his mysterious red eyes, she tried to get past him to reach for the door and he blocked her way with a feral animalistic growl.

She shrieked, all thoughts if her injury forgotten she searched frantically for an escape from the monster that stood in front of her blocking her way. She moved deeper into the room, her eyes darting around looking for something to protect herself with, her heart pounded heavily in her chest removing all rational thought from her mind. All she could think about was immediate escape if she survived she would pause to wonder what demon had taken possession of her prince.

As her eyes fell on a dagger by beside the dresser she dived for it and just as her fingers would have closed around the gilded hilt she felt the squeezed of Octavius’s fingers around her wrist and she flinched grabbing her hand away from him to her chest. His touch was scorching hot and it had singed her flesh. She backed away from him and opened her mouth in a silent scream as he approached her in a stalking gait, his red eyes fixed on her still bleeding cut.

“I am so sorry, my lord, I shouldn’t have come at all,” she whimpered.

Octavius grinned exposing his fangs even more. In one single lunge he pounced on her holding her with her back against him, his hands pinning her to his chest. Sutra gasped and choked on the tears that was born of fear and the scathing heat of his skin against her naked arm. Her fear increased when he took hold of her neck with one of his hand, bending her neck slightly and exposing it to his gaze. An old folklore she knew as a child came to her mind, one of the night monster who prowled around looking for young virgins to feed from. He would bare their necks to his gaze and sink his fangs into their necks, draining out the blood from till they became lifeless.

But she was no virgin and Octavius was no monster he just wasn’t the same prince she had always served.

Octavius paused at the sight of her vein pulsing as blood ran under her skin. His mouth watered and his stomach growled loudly and before he could help himself he bent and sank his fangs into her neck. As soon as the red hot liquid from her touched his tongue he became mindless to her weak attempts to escape, her whimpers and the sound of her choking on her own blood and when she opened her mouth to scream he clamped on hand firmly around her mouth and drank from her throat feeling an intense feeling of satisfaction run over him. He felt her go limp in his hand and only when he had completely drained her did her pull back running his tongue over his lips.

Sutra had gone limp in his hands, her eyes lifeless and her mouth opened in a scream that would never be heard. As he came back to his sense Octavius suddenly realized what he had just done, as he looked down at Sutra’s neck and the mark of his teeth on her neck- the two shallow holes he had made in her neck- his suspicions were confirmed. His body felt different, his sight was stronger and his other senses were sharper than ever and even though he didn’t feel completely satisfied he couldn’t help but notice he was changed somehow. Even though he couldn’t see it his eyes were back to their normal blue with the thin red rings around his iris.

With confusing calm he pulled Sutra’s lifeless body up in his arms and carried her to the washroom where he knew no one would enter if they noticed he wasn’t around, he wiped his mouth clean on one of the towels hanging on the rack on the wall and covered Sutra’s body with it.

Hoping no one would indeed come in he left the washroom and went into his chambers where his eyes fell on the dagger that had slipped from his hand while he fed from her. He quickly grabbed it and slipped it into a pocket in his cloak, pulled the cowl on this head and slipped out of his room.

He knew the hidden passages in the castle so he used them until they led him out of the castle into the backstreet of the palace where the villagers lived.

He knew his destination so doing his best to cover his face he went in the direction of the temple of the war goddess. He turned a corner of the temple arena and used the dank alley to get to the back of Ashterah’s temple which was blissfully empty. It was evening so the priests were in their homes having their meals.

Octavius navigated his way in the dark with his hands on the wall and walked until he came to the main open space of the temple were Ashterah’s statue stood, on her face was an expression of victory and she looked nothing like the deceitful bitch she was. Octavius approached the statue grateful that the front doors were closed, his expression of rage mirrored the rage in his heart.

He eyed the statue with distaste and ground his teeth to keep from crushing the statue to dust. Without performing the necessary rituals to invoke the goddess he went to the foot of the statue and cried out.

“Ashterah!”

No response. No wave of heat or sudden cold to indicate the presence of the conniving goddess.

“Ashterah!” he shouted louder kicking a lamp standing by the statue towards the wall in anger. Still he got no response.

“Ash..!” His words were cut off when a strong gush of wind lifted him off his feet slamming his back against the wall, driving his breath out in a rush. His back hurting he slid to the floor and landed in a wounded heap.

“How dare you shout my name with such disrespect?!”

Octavius looked up from where he lay on the floor and found the goddess standing a few feet from him. He cursed under his breath. She wore a short red tunic like the one on her statue and her lips were a very dark red that was deceptively seductive and even in his pain he couldn’t deny that she was as beautiful as she was evil. He laughed and winced as pain shot through his ribs.

Ashterah’s expression softened. Using her powers she picked him up and teleported the both of them to her temple on Mount Kpamos and dropped him softly on bed. He groaned as he sank into the softness of the strange thing under him.

“It’s called a mattress. Something from another time, pluses of being a goddess,” Ashterah provided.

She approached him and sat beside him on the bed gently removing the hair on his face with her hand. His skin was hot and white. She chuckled under her breath.

“What have you done to me?” Octavius asked weakly.

“What you have done to me,” she replied. She laid her hand on his chest and healed him.

He sat up with hands on his chest, moving as far away from her as he could.

“I didn’t curse your father with a strange sickness neither did I curse you to want for blood like a monster,” he said in a small voice.

“You have finally figured out why you can never be satisfied with anything? The same way I can never be satisfied with anyone but you.” She slid closer to him and laid her hand on his, he withdrew. “I have nothing to do with your father’s illness that should be Fate. He is a bitch in his own right and your father must have offended him greatly but you, my love, I have indeed cursed you. When I gave you some of my powers for the war,” she waited for him to understand where she was headed “I took your will and replaced it with that of a daemon.”

The information sank in. Octavius lunged at her with bared teeth but was hit by a force so hard he landed hard against the golden floor. Ashterah stood over him and laid her feet on his chest none too gently.

“You ungrateful fool! I gave you a gift”

“A curse! Your foolish obsession has done this to me!” he cried in outrage.

“You will never be satisfied with any other blood but mine,” she said without remorse. She watched as that information sank in and his eyes filled with tears.

“You thought about everything you deceitful bitch,” he said in a small voice as he came to that realization. He had refused her and she had used to excuse of helping him win the war to punish him.

Ashterah knelt before him and cradled his face in her hand, caressing his handsome face. “You won’t blame me, my love. I love you.”

“You know nothing of love.”

Ashterah averted her gaze at his broken figure. She pulled him to a sitting position and cradled his face to her chest. “I will give you this one thing, I will let you feed from me but I will not forgive you until you become mine. Now do you want to feed?”

Burning with shame Octavius nodded. Ashterah pulled the neck of her cloth down and exposed her neck to him. At the sight of her neck, Octavius’s felt his fangs grow and jut through his parted lips, he leaned forward and bit through her neck and at once her blood filled his mouth.

The both of them moaned at the same time. Octavius felt the liquid pour into his throat and felt a sense of satisfaction he had never felt before, his body jerked in pleasure as he drank from her and his hands moved of their own accord to the her throat to hold her still.

When he had drank for a long time Ashterah pushed him away gently and looked into his eyes that had now turned blue without the red rings, she kissed him softly on the lips and pulled back.

“Be warned Octavius," she said firmly " if you refuse to be mine you will never have a child of your own with your wife.”