Chapter 8

"Mother." Vinyl called out angrily, her face red, watching with disgust as a succubus dressed as a pawn bonked another dressed up pawn on the head with an elaborate, faux sword the hit pawn walked off the larger than life chess board.

"Yes darling." She replied indulgently, her face furrowed in concentration as she gave orders to another chess piece.

  "Why am I a bloody chess piece?" She asked in exasperation, just about done with everything. Her crown was skewered from all the tantrums she had been throwing.

"Because it makes me happy." The Queen smiled patiently at her pissed off offspring.

"Besides it's so much fun." Mist tittered, bonking another piece, he was dressed up as the white Queen while Azure was one of the white knights.

  "To you bird brain." She grumbled, whacking one of her own black pieces that inched too close to her, her black gown whirling. "Plus the powder on this stupid wig is getting in my ears."

  "Suck it up Vi." Azure chuckled, "You're just pissed off that we're winning."

"Oh no. You aren't." She fumed, pointing at their player, Mocha who sat on the opposite side of the painted field. "That dingbat doesn't even know diddly squat about the game." She accused.

  "On the contrary Mocha is one of the best players in the kingdom, besides myself of course." The Queen demurred, ordering Vinyl forward. "Don't stomp so much child you'll break off the heel of your shoes."

  She grudgingly moved to the spot that her mother sent her, whacking a white Bishop harder than necessary she turned to her mother. "I don't give a hoot about the bloody shoes." She reiterated, stomping back to her position to prove her point.

   "Announcing His Royal Majesty!" A powdered butler introduced stiffly, opening a door that led to the outdoor garden. "King Tempest of Arxon and his wife, His Royal Highness! Queen Crescent!" They both stepped in.

  Queen Nirvana choked on a steaming black cup of something and sprayed it on the server standing beside her. The entire game halted, pieces running off the board as the Queen's shocked expression turned into a murderous one.

  Azure walked over to his parents, hugging his mother in bliss. "I had no idea you guys were coming over." He turned to face a livid Nirvana. "This is a really wonderful surprise, ten out of ten." He appreciated, making a hand sign. "I have to tell you, you've gone up a couple notches on my 'like' post."

  Vinyl walked over with Mist and and bowed happily, more than pleased at her mother's displeasure. "Pleased to meet you, Your Highnesses." She greeted with glee.

  "Where is the Head of Internal Affairs?" The Queen bellowed.

  "On a permitted vacation in my country. It's good to see you again Nirvana." Tempest chuckled.

  "Well I'm not thrilled to see you again, I would have sworn I told Hayden to inform me if you would be coming over." She trilled, stepping down from her outside throne.

  "Hello to you too Nirvana." Crescent said dryly from the confines of his son's arms.

"Crescent." She acknowledged, walking up to them to pull Crescent into a very stiff double cheeked kiss.

"What was the poor darling supposed to do, if he told you, he'd be in trouble because you couldn't possibly refuse us and if he didn't, he'd still be in trouble." Crescent placated, looking very contented as his son gave him his full attention once again.

"I'm still going to lop off his head when he gets back." She announced in satisfaction.

"How very Red Queen of you." Rhea stepped in, pure exhilaration on her face.

  "You brought your entire Court." Nirvana accused, her maroon eyes darkening.

"It's just us your highness." Sol affirmed, visibly struggling with someone outside the door before he stepped in. "Could you tell your Court to keep their hands off me." He shuddered, his face pale.

  "Might as well say it since the entire family is here, go say hi to daddy, baby." The Cubi Queen told Vinyl, pointing at Tempest.

  Everyone went slack jawed.

Nirvana erupted in laughter, hitting her thighs. "I got you all good."

   Mocha finally got to them and greetings went round.

"He's giving me the evil eye, Rhea." Sol muttered to her, trying to hide behind her.

Rhea glanced at the Incubus. "Damn! He's ripped off all your clothes already with his eyes." She hooted silently.

   "That's not helping, you two faced bitch." He whispered wretchedly.

"Well we might as well go inside then." Nirvana invited, obviously unhappy with the decision. "How long do you plan on staying?" She asked as indifferently as she could, wasn't fooling anyone though.

  The rest followed her in, the way was led to a private lounging room filled with decadent themed cushions.

"As long as we're welcome." Tempest replied vaguely, visibly struggling with Azure over custody of the Hound Queen.

  "Indeed." Crescent agreed, separating himself from his annoying son and husband to seat in between Sol and Vinyl. "We wouldn't want to overstep our boundaries."

  Queen Nirvana froze in place, making Rhea bump into her. She realized she wasn't ever getting rid of The Hellhounds until they very well wanted to leave. This was going to ruin all her plans. "What about your Kingdom? Who's going to run your Kingdom while you're gone?" She recovered.

   Tempest simply waved a hand, "We aren't staying forever." He dismissed. "It's nothing my officials and Council can't handle."

  Nirvana choked, paling visibly. "I-I guess you're right." She stuttered weakly, earning a look from the Cubus in the room.

  Vinyl and Mist shared a look. "I swear I'm missing something here." The princess murmured to her best friend.

  "I thought it was only me." Mist smiled deviously.

"Lord Mist and I will take our leave now." The Princess announced, bowing low. "To let the Prince get reacquainted with his parents. Of course we'll be at dinner, there's just a little bitty thing we have to attend to." She concluded, her maroon eyes gleaming wickedly.

  They swept out, hearing the Queen make the same excuse and escape as well with Mocha.

  "Want to make a bet." Mist asked evilly, dark roots showing beneath his lavender hair.

"Aww!" Vinyl groaned, falling on her wide bed. "You always win."

"And you're a sore loser." He pronounced, seating on a plush cushion in an over sized under shirt and skin tight slacks.

  "Whatever. What's the bet?" She asked indifferently.

"That Mocha won't be walking for a couple of days. You have to give me a massage if you lose." He grinned, throwing a leg over another.

"That's wrong, mother will be too conscious of her visitors to incapacitate her Concubine." Vinyl said haughtily, playing with the tiny braids in her hair.

"So is it a bet?" He asked, smiling contently.

   "I feel like I'm going to regret this." She face palmed.

"Oh come on, it's just you massaging me, what could possibly go wrong?"

She directed a look at him, "You squirm harder than an eel, last time I massaged you, you dislocated my bloody jaw." She accused.

He avoided her eyes, "that was the last time, I'm all grown up now, I can handle indecent touches on my body."

  "It was last week." She said in exasperation.

"As I said, I'm older now." He insisted.

"Why can't you just get a massage at the spa or tell some servant to do it for you." She wondered out loud, discreetly wondering if anyone would miss the annoying Incubus for a couple months.

  "I don't remember forcing you into the bet, besides there's the possibility that you might win." He said sourly, toying with his bangles. "You don't have to lock me up in your dungeon.

"I never said I would." She sat up from the bed.

"You didn't have to." He grumbled.

"Whatever. Do you know if there's anything between my mom and Azure's dad?" She asked, finally touching the topic they had been skillfully avoiding.

   "I might have heard a thing or two, it caused the last war so it's all shut up." He answered vaguely.

"More reason to make it more suspicious, they never hide causes of a war." She mused.

"Well they're hiding this one," he pulled on his hair. "Do you think I should re-color my hair, I sort of miss the tawny gold."

  "The what now?" Vinyl stared at him, like he spoke gibberish. "You mean that hideous shade of brown."

"You're just jealous because your hair is colorless." He said blissfully, stretching out his long limbs on the huge cushion like a cat.

   "It's not colorless you idiot," she glared at him. "It's white."

"To-ma-to, to-mah-to." He waved a small hand. "Your mom wasn't excited about their visit though." He said suddenly, all his nonchalance nothing but a ruse. "I think it's going to ruin her plans big time. Whatever they are." He added as an after thought.

   "I wonder what it is." Vinyl mused, "The next days, months or even years are going to be very interesting that's for sure."

   "If you say so." Mist murmured, yawning.