Chapter 5

It was fresh and flooded her senses. It was overwhelming, and she swayed slightly, but Drake maintained his hold on her. Blood. Lots of blood. Too much blood. It replaced the sweet scent of perfume and alcohol, the stale stench of sweat, and the wafting aroma of delicacies.

The shattering of windows replaced the band, while screams replaced the laughter and chatter that had filled the ballroom just moments ago. Then, someone shoved Drake.

He stumbled a bit, but he loosened his hold on Alexandra enough for her to raise her face and see past him to see what had caused the sudden chaos.

That was when she saw a Werewolf had buried its fangs into a guest Alexandra had spoken to just earlier that evening. Amarille Zinran. The horrified expression on her face as the Werewolf tore through her burned into Alexandra’s mind, and she froze.

“Alex!”

Alexandra’s eyes snapped back to Drake’s. She saw the urgency in his expression, and that caused her stomach to drop, “Drake.”

“I need you to listen to me, okay?” Drake pleaded over the screams. “I need you to run, all right? Get to the bunker and stay there until I come and get you, okay?”

Alexandra nodded, “Ri-right. The bunker.”

“Yes.” Drake nodded, “Go. Take Shaun and Erik with you. Go!”

One second, Drake was in front of her; the next, he wasn’t. Everything moved faster than Alexandra’s brain could process, but she was running with the crowd before she knew it. She found Erik and Shaun tucked to the side and out of the stampede’s path, and she pulled them along with her. They’d nearly made it to the staircase when a Werewolf came barreling through a set of opened doors and crashed into Alexandra.

She tumbled against the floor before hitting a pillar on the opposite end of the room. She cried out in pain, then screamed as the Werewolf sunk its teeth into her shoulder. She scratched at its face and muzzle, and it released her once she dragged her nails across its eye.

“Now, now,” someone chortled, “you know better than that. I told you she was mine.”

Alexandra placed her hand on her shoulder and winched at the burning sensation that coursed through her. She gritted her teeth as runes poured from her hands and covered the wound, and she watched as the blood slowly retreated back into her shoulder.

She could feel something warm beneath her bottom, and she didn’t dare look to see whose blood she was sitting in. But the Werewolf who had just sunk their teeth into her didn’t try to approach her again. Instead, it just stood there staring at her.

They became a nonfactor; however, once she saw the second Werewolf approach. They were considerably larger than most of the Werewolves who’d come in, but that wasn’t what shocked her.

“Carl?” Alexandra felt like the wind was knocked out of her at the sight of him.

The second Werewolf snickered and confirmed it, “I’m surprised you recognized me in this form.”

Alexandra couldn’t breathe. Carl Pierce had been one of Alexandra’s earliest friends, one of Orion’s nephews, and she’d been there when he died. Supposedly died. Like the many summers before that one when the Bliss and Pierce would go off for a week to avoid their trepid responsibilities as monarchs, the children would go hiking in the mountains near their joint estates.

Octavian, Orion’s eldest, had found an old cave far away from the trail they typically took and suggested they explore it that day, and not knowing any better, they did. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but like tonight, one second, things were fine, and the next, they weren’t.

The cave had collapsed and separated the lot of them. When Carl fell, Alexandra was with him, Octavian, and Octavian’s sister Gabriella. The floor had given out beneath them, and Carl was gone before they could do anything about it. Three days passed before they were all rescued from the cave and another week before Carl’s body washed up in the reservoir several miles away from the estate.

She remembered the shrill cry of his mother when Orion had found him. Alexandra remembered her own screams at the discovery and her anguish at his funeral. She had mourned him. They all had, and she still put flowers at his grave.

But now he was standing in front of her, several years older and perfectly healthy.

“I don’t understand,” Alexandra breathed.

“It’s not for you to understand,” Carl said. He whistled, and the Werewolves stopped their assault on her guests, “Nice party. I would’ve loved an invitation, though. Certainly would’ve saved me the trouble of needing to crash it.”

Alexandra looked around the room. Her nose stung with the onslaught of blood. There was too much blood in the room. Her heart pounded violently against her chest as she tried to locate anyone in her family amongst the carnage, but Carl clicked his tongue, and her eyes were back on him.

“Focus, Alex, or things are going to get a whole lot messier,” Carl warned. “Got it?”

“So it’s me you want?” Alexandra asked.

“More or less.” Carl merely shrugged before shifting back into his Human Form. He was taller now, nearly Drake’s height, and resembled his father. He had amber eyes like his mother, but that seemed all he inherited from her. His usually unruly and matted black hair was combed and slicked back, and he had the audacity to wear a suit with the Pierce Family crest pinned to his blazer. “I clean up nice, huh?”

“Carl!” Osiris bellowed from across the room as he shoved past his guards that surrounded him. He was cut off by a set of Werewolves that bore their fangs at him, but he didn’t flinch.

“Oh, Uncle Osiris!” Carl laughed. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Good, I’m glad you’ll be able to witness this next part.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Osiris asked. “Your crimes here tonight will not go unpunished. You have hurt dozens and killed dozens more.”

Carl scoffed, “Please. Their lives are insignificant to what I’m about to do. In fact, you’ll praise me for it. I promise.”

Alexandra couldn’t believe this was the same Carl she’d grown up with. The Carl she knew wouldn’t hurt a fly. He couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried, and always went out of his way to help a spider out a window when they were caught inside. This person before her now was someone she didn’t recognize.

“Praise you?” Osiris’ scoff mimicked Carl’s, “Murdering a Princess of Vampires will set Werewolves back hundreds of years, boy. Do you think you’ll gain praise for that?”

“A Vampire?” Carl wore a genuine look of confusion, “So you really don’t know?”

“Know what?” Osiris sneered.

Carl looked around the room before settling on one corner. Alexandra followed his gaze and saw Carl staring straight at Orion Pierce. In all her years, she’s always known Orion to keep a level head and keep himself composed, even in the most stressful of situations, but he looked worried. The pit in her stomach seemed to get deeper at the sight of him.

“Uncle Orion,” Carl casually began to stroll across the bloodstained floors, “why don’t you tell Uncle Osiris about your dirty little secret you’ve been keeping for the last fifteen years?

“Or,” Carl turned on his heel and found Alexandra’s father in the crowd, “would you like to tell them, James?”

Alexandra saw sweat beading on her father’s forehead while Cassandra clung desperately to his arm. The look of sheer panic on her mother’s face filled her with dread, and she didn’t want to know what they were hiding. She just wanted the nightmare to end.

“Come on, James,” Carl taunted. “I’m sure we would all love to be in on the big secret. I know Aiden would especially love to hear about what you’ve been hiding from him all this time.”

Near James stood his younger brother and the Head of the Celestial Council. Despite everyone else’s pure panic, he seemed to be one of the few people who was still calm. However, his face was beginning to show irritation at Carl’s taunting. One could only wonder what two kings were hiding that would intrigue with Celestial Council. The only possible answer would be that a cardinal rule had been broken, and Alexandra couldn’t begin to imagine which one it was.

“Dad,” Alexandra could barely speak, “what is he talking about?”

Carl glanced over his shoulder at Alexandra with an obnoxious grin, “Curious, aren’t you?”

“Alexandra, don’t listen to him!” Cassandra pleaded.

Carl practically skipped over to Alexandra and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, “You, my dear friend, are a Hybrid.”

The silence that struck the room at Carl’s declaration was heavier than the chaos that’d erupted just a few minutes ago. If anything, this was far worse.

Alexandra hadn’t noticed, but she’d sunk to her knees as the weight of Carl’s words bore down on her. Then, her parents’ earlier conversation in her father’s study finally made sense. Her heart pounded violently in her ears as she tried to make sense of the situation, but nothing made sense.

“Alex!”

“Allison, no!”

Alexandra looked up just in time to see Allison slip out of a relative’s grasp and through their guards. She ran towards Alexandra as she’d done a hundred times before, but she was crying now. One of the Werewolves who’d been wandering the room bounded towards Allison.

Alexandra tried to stand but fell back to her knees. All her strength had left her the minute Carl spoke, and tears filled her eyes. She wouldn’t be able to reach Allison in time. But, to Alexandra’s surprise, another Werewolf intercepted the one inches from Allison. It buried its teeth into its neck and quickly threw it to the ground before tearing outs its throat.

As Allison ran into Alexandra’s arms, Alexandra hugged Allison tighter than she had before. She wasn’t entirely sure why one of Carl’s Werewolves had attacked, but then she noticed the lack of shock on Carl’s face. Instead, he was smiling.

“And there goes the other Hybrid,” Carl cooed. “I didn’t think you’d risk revealing yourself. How noble of you, Shaun.”

“Shaun?” Alexandra looked at Carl and then at the Werewolf in the center of the room. Its fur was a sandy brown color with large patches of color sprinkled across its body. Then she saw their light brown eyes, “No.”

“What’s the meaning of this?” Aiden spoke all too calmly, and it unsettled Alexandra.

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your brother failed to uphold his duties as king and didn’t uphold the Claret Codes,” Carl snickered. “I’ll admit I was shocked to hear that Alexandra had been a Hybrid for a while, but knowing how hypocritical royals can be, I wasn’t shocked very long. They’re always bending the rules for themselves.”

“How’d this go undetected for so long?” Osiris sneered.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Carl waved his hand, “it’s not in the way that you’re thinking. Cassandra is still her mother, and James is still her father. She’s what you’d call an Artificial Hybrid. She’s been modified on a genetic level through ancient Blood Arts. It’s quite complicated stuff, though not really.

“Not Shaun, though. She’s a naturally born Hybrid,” Carl shared. “Vampire mother and a Werewolf father. They’re gone now, though.”

“Speak plainly and quickly,” demanded Aiden.

“Aiden, please,” James tried to plead, “you have to listen to us.”

Aiden side-eyed his brother, and had Aiden wanted to, he would’ve cut James in half with his look alone. That was communication enough for James to cease and for Carl to continue. All anyone could do now was to listen.

Carl nodded. “Thank you, Councilman Aiden. Now, before I was so rudely interrupted,” he cleared his throat and began to stroll around the room, “King James and King Orion have been keeping quiet about the existence of the Artificial Hybrid. With the assistance of a powerful Mage, possibly a Magicis, they were able to wipe her memory of an attack that evening of the Golden Sun almost twelve years ago. Erik’s too. Oh, but he’s not a Hybrid. He’s still a Pure Blood.”

Now Alexandra knew why her parents, Orion and Raven, had mentioned Lady Sol. Unfortunately, Sol had left over an hour ago. But now Alexandra wondered how Carl knew any of this at all.

“As I mentioned, ancient Blood Arts were used to make this happen,” Carl continued. “It was likely a Vampire who cast the spell since very few people can use Black Magic today, but I can’t say for certain. I don’t have specifics on who cast the spell, but whoever did it was successful with their ‘experiment’ for lack of a better term.

“The only reason they were able to make this happen was that there was an assassination attempt made on the lives of Alexandra and Erik that evening. I suppose some Werewolves figured they’d have better luck on the eve of our people’s Celestial Celebration, but they obviously failed. They got close, though. Alexandra and Erik had managed to slip their guards as they’ve done many times before, but they were attacked here in this ballroom.

“Alexandra here, being the budding combatant she was at the time, managed to protect her brother and herself and kill the assassins. It’s how she got that scar on her shoulder and how Erik has the one on his back,” Carl noted.

Carl stepped over to a particular place on the ballroom floor and tapped the one individual tile newer than the rest. It was brighter than the rest despite hours and hours of buffering to get it to match the rest of the tiles around it, “It was around here that the Werewolves lay bleeding out with two barely conscious Vampire monarchs near. One of them had enchanted blood, and it seeped into her wounds; thus, the ‘experiment’ succeeded. From there, the details are fuzzy. I know jack shit about Blood Arts and Dark Arts, but I know enough to tell you that that’s what happened.”

Alexandra couldn’t argue and saw that James and Orion wouldn’t protest. The expressions on their faces were enough to let her know that what Carl was saying was true, and her shoulder began to throb while her head felt like it was starting to split in two.

“You okay there, Alex?” Carl snickered. “You look like you’re about to be sick. I don’t blame you. This is a lot of information to take in all at once. One day you’re going about your life like a Pure Blood, but then you discover you’re a Mixed Blood. It’s quite rattling stuff.”

Alexandra couldn’t breathe.

“Don’t go passing out on me yet,” he teased as he put a hand on her cheek. “I need you awake because I don’t want you to miss anything.”

Carl grabbed a fistful of Alexandra’s hand and dragged her to the center of the room, “After she’d been attacked, James sought help from Uncle Orion over there to see who the Werewolves belonged to. Coincidentally, Shaun over there had been attempting to rob the place. She didn’t know any better; she was a street mutt just trying to score so she could eat.

“Rashad was the one who caught her that night. He was bringing her to James when he saw Alexandra and Erik were injured, and they threw Shaun into the dungeons for later. However, she could tell before any of them that Alexandra had been changed. She smelled it. Ain’t that right, Shaun?”

Shaun didn’t respond.

“By the time the rest of them figured it out, it was too late,” Carl shared as he dropped Alexandra and stepped on her back. “Alexandra had been changed into a Hybrid through magic, and they didn’t know how to reverse it. They’ve been trying to do it for the last twelve years, but they’re running out of time quickly.”

“Take your foot off of her before I tear it off,” Shaun warned.

“I’d like to see you try,” Carl laughed.

Shaun’s fur began to rise up as a low growl escaped the back of her throat. Then, a high-pitched whistle rang through the late-night air and pierced their ears. It pained everyone present, and once it stopped, Carl groaned.

“It seems that that’s that,” Carl grumbled. “Well, I’ll leave you all to pick up the pieces. Oh, and happy birthday, Alex.”

The Werewolves left much quieter than they arrived, and those left standing were stuck. Many were trying to recover from nearly being massacred. Others shook at the thought of being in the presence of Hybrids. Alexandra wasn’t exactly sure how much time had passed before someone moved, but it didn’t calm her nerves when they did.

Mainly because it was Aiden and the Celestial Council that moved.