Chapter 14

Colbie was still getting used to her hair and trying to get over her trauma when her mother finally lost her temper. Bursting through the doors like a one woman firework show, there were almost literal sparks shooting out of her ears as she stomped into the room on her perfectly polished heels.

“Colbie, get up.”

The lump on the bed refused to move, burrowing her head further under the pillow instead. She was aware that she and her mother had an audience. Since the ordeal in her bathroom just twenty four hours earlier, the young woman had not been left unattended for a moment. It was like they expected her to either go diving off of the deep end into a pool of insanity, or they expected her to be unlucky enough to be pulled into the psychopath’s basement once more.

Unintelligible muttering came from the girl under the pillow so Eleanor Carrington pursed her lips and grasped the corner of the blanket and yanked. The cosy warmth that had been surrounding Colbie only moments before was quickly replaced by the sharp coldness that licked over the exposed areas of her skin. Cussing loudly, Colbie tried to ball herself up as small as she could as a shiver ran up the length of her spine.

“Get up Colbie, or do you need a bucket of cold water to go with it.”

The steel in her mother’s tone told the young woman that there would be no lay-ins or pity parties for her. Drawing her head from under the pillow, Colbie gave her mother a half-hearted glare as she pushed herself up into the sitting position. She even folded her arms across her chest to show her displeasure.

The Queen rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly at her daughter as she tossed a dressing robe in her direction.

“Put this on, no arguments. We have a lot to do.”

Expecting her daughter to obey, the woman headed to the door and slammed it behind her as she left.

Threading one arms through the rose coloured robe Colbie met the gaze of strong and silent Talon. Out of all of the black brothers, she found she minded his company the least. He gave her a semblance of privacy while the others made it blatantly obvious that they were watching her – making sure that she did not do something stupid.

In that moment, Talon made no attempts to hide that he had been party to her rude awakening. He offered her what was supposed to be a smile but fell short by a long while. Offer of solidarity and pity completed, the man turned his head and returned his attention to the sprawling lands outside of the window.

Sliding off of the edge of her four poster white wood bed, Colbie wriggled her toes into her carpet. Her father had insisted on relaying the entire floor after a few specs of blood and clumps of hair had been walked through the old one thanks to the large number of people in her bedroom and the young woman’s solo trip into a mad man’s world. It was all a big fuss over nothing.

At least she had thought it was for nothing but after receiving one too many incredulous looks from his daughter, the man had looked down his nose at her and offered her a patronising twitch of the lips that one would bestow upon a child.

“You are about to become the ultimate hunter – the ultimate predator. You will become faster, stronger, and your senses will go into overdrive. You are aware of the cons of course.”

When she continued to look at him with that blank expression, her father had sighed and patted her on the shoulder.

“Your nose will become more sensitive and with your new - appetite – the scent of blood will drive you crazy. And it could be quite literal in your case due to the circumstances surrounding the shedding of blood.”

And then with a clap of the hands, he had ordered her from the room while several busybodies had bustled into the room and set about removing any signs of her waking nightmares.

Colbie shook her head and trailed to the bathroom. She knew that in a few short hours she would be someone different. There wasn’t long until the coronation and she would have to adjust to being different, being something other than human, mere days before she would be handed the responsibility for thousands upon thousands of vampires.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door to the bathroom and walked to the sink. She busied her hands, turning on the taps, picking up her toothbrush and applying the paste.  But when she could put it off no longer, she lifted her gaze to the mirror. She almost reeled away in shock. She had not been able to look at herself in the mirror since the entire ordeal started but now she felt like she was looking at a stranger.

It wasn’t just her hair. That was a drastic change in itself. Her hair was now styled in a pixie cut, the long tendrils now burnt in a fire and cleansed of the blood that had stained them. She tried not to let her hand tremble as she ran her fingers through the short locks.

But it was the eyes that were the most startling change. They looked empty and almost lifeless as she stared back at herself, a frown forming as she tried to see past it all and see herself. She couldn’t. With a sigh the young woman let her gaze fall back to her hands. Her life had been completely taken out of her hands and now she was about to become something different. Something Colbie wasn’t sure she had ever wanted to be.

Gulping, she bent at the waist so that she could splash her face with water. Her hands trembled. It caused water to splash all over the countertops. The young woman felt her heart racing as if she had run a marathon and her eyes stared at nothing as once again another highlight reel of the previous night’s vision flashed through her mind. It was still as horrifying and terrifying as the first go around.

A knock on a door had the brunette blinking and turning off the taps. She looked up and didn’t even bother to invite the person in because as predicted only a few seconds had passed before the door swung open revealing her mother. She had a tray of fruits and cereal balanced on one hand while the other hand was burned by a dress bag. If she knew her mother’s tastes well enough, the dress would be designer. Vampire designer considering the even the outfit was for.

“Here we go sweetheart, breakfast and a divine dress from Madame Hershey. She does wonders with gold thread. Just you wait and see.” The older woman deposited down onto the strategically placed chaise longue her treasures while she sent a cheeky wink at her daughter. “Now, let’s have a look at this mess you’ve made. Oh your beautiful hair. No one had hair as lovely as you did. Not that this is a bad look. You actually have the features for it. Not very queenly of course but your hair will always grow back.”

The woman continued to mutter as she stood in the bathroom as she pulled open the garment back and pulled out Colbie’s most hated contraption – a corset. She could already feel the protests forming on her lips but the sharp look from her mother had the words running away with their tail between their legs. It would never bode well to make the matriarch of the Carrington’s angry and the woman was already highly strung as it was.

From years of practice, Colbie did not blush as she whipped off most of her clothes leaving her standing there in only a thin cotton shift. She stepped up to her mother’s side of the room but she quickly closed the bag before she could glimpse the offending garment.

“No, not yet.” She chastised, nudging her towards the shower stall. “Get showered first. You must be perfect for today.”

Colbie frowned at her mum.

“Why? I’ve heard that the change is pretty disgusting. It’s one of the reasons why I can’t understand why you brought me breakfast. I’m just going to bring it all back up again.”

There was a question behind the words but her mother just ignored her and continued on her own merry way, humming under her breath as she laid out make-up and hair accessories.

Shaking her head at her back, Colbie did as asked, and climbed under the hot sprays of the shower. She let the warmth of the water soothe the tension from her body before asking her mother the question that everyone had been afraid to tell her.

“Mother, what killed Byron?”

 Silence followed, even the ruffling and clinking had stopped like her mother had completely frozen in whatever she was doing.

“What was that?”

The tightness to her voice made it clear that had mother really didn’t want to answer the question.

“I asked what killed Byron,” Colbie started, rubbing shampoo its her hair. She closed her eyes against the spray to prevent any from getting into her eyes. “Everyone keeps trying to brush me off. They even tried to glamour me. Which is another question – why couldn’t they?”

Dropping her arms to her side, Colbie ducked her head outside of the shower and met the wide eyes older woman. Her mouth had dropped open in somewhere between shock and something else. The heiress couldn’t quite figure out what the emotion was though.

“Do you know what killed him? The more people tell me to forget about it the more I want to know about it.”

Eleanor Carrington bit her lip, looking towards the closed bathroom door before realising a sigh. Her face had gone three shades paler and had taken on a green tinge but as she always did, the old vampire kept her head held high as she stared back at her daughter through the mirror.

“It was werewolves.”

For a moment Colbie was more than a little dumbstruck. Out of all the answers that her mother could have given her, werewolves was definitely not one of them.

“But I thought we had a treaty with them?”

“You are thinking of shifters. Supernaturally gifted humans who change shape at will. They are our allies because they are just as threatened by the presence of evil and with their extended lifespans they cannot just duck their heads in the sands and hope that things will go well.” The agitation that welled up within the woman drew a questioning look from her daughter.

She snorted and laughed waving for her daughter to get back into the shower.

“The werewolves who attacked your brother are a completely different species. They are the beings that feed the legends. They can only transform if compelled by strong magic so full moons, solstices. They need that strong magic energy for their warped human forms to be able to generate enough magic to complete the change. Unfortunately, the only way to become one is to be infected by the curse. A bite is the usual way but if you get on the wrong side of a sorceress then you could easily find yourself howling at the moon and attacking anything that moves.”

“Oh.”

Colbie didn’t know how else to respond to that. It’s not every day that you get told that your brother was killed by a werewolf. They had only been creatures from stories, thought to be almost completely extinct as the last shifter had been seen over three hundred years ago. But then again, Colbie thought as she stood numbly under the shower spray, a shifter wasn’t a werewolf. They were totally different.

Shaking her head to loosen the bitter thoughts, Colbie allowed herself to breathe in deeply through her nose and exhale through her mouth trying to calm the bitterness in her heart.

Scrubbing at her skin until it became red and sore. It she scrubbed any harder the skin would probably split and her blood would pour. The young woman didn’t particularly care but she knew her mother would probably start another screaming match like she had when her mother had seen her new shorter hair do.

Colbie forced herself from the shower. She wrapped a warm towel around her body and then stared expectantly at her mother. The woman ignored her for a few moments and then waved her over with an absent hand. Her attention was firmly on the items now laid out of the chaise longue but the stiff movements of her body told the younger woman that her mother’s mind was away – far away. She didn’t comment. Something within her felt that it would be sinfully wrong to interrupt her mother’s thoughts like this.

Stepped to her mother’s side, Colbie rested her warm damp hand on her mother’s cold ones. They were cold as ice and they trembled fiercely as she attempted to unknot a length of ribbon. The young watched her mother’s hands shake for a few more seconds before she begrudgingly lifted her gaze to meet her mother’s eyes.

They were gleaming. A tear dripped down over the woman’s lashes and then left a trail down the smooth skin of her cheek leaving damp trails behind. Colbie squeezed the hand in hers before resting her head on her mother’s damp shoulder. Immediately she was surrounded by the scent of roses that came from the moisturiser that her mother used daily and the softer sweeter scent of something else. Colbie in all her years had never been able to figure out what it was but she guessed it was just her mother’s natural scent. Either way it reminded her of home.

“It’s okay you know.”

“No,” Eleanor Carrington whispered back. “No its not. My son is dead and now I am watching my daughter throw away her own free will and choices. If Byron had not have died, you would never have chosen our life. I know it and so does your father. You have always been a quiet, gentle soul – a solitary person. You had never wanted to play with any of the other children even as a toddler. You would just sit in the corner with your books.”

Eleanor tilted her head awkwardly, bringing up a hand so that she could caress her daughter’s cheek with the tips of her fingers.

“My Beautiful little miracle, you are so delicate like a blossoming flower. And now you are going to be the figurehead for a war. One with live lives lost and souls broken. Though it all you will have to be strong, standing tall and never showing your weaknesses. It is the only way that you will be able to continue on without them all staring at you and waiting for you to fall. Because honey, if you falter for a second – just one – they will eat you alive.”

The firmness in her mother’s voice told the soon to be queen that the words were the truth – pure truth. Her own hands trembled for a second before she managed to get her own fears under control.

“Do not worry, your father and I will be here for you, to help you learn your way. For now, let’s concentrate on the easy part. The turning.”

The young woman smiled but it fell away as quickly as it came. From the stories that she had heard, the transformation into immortal was so much more painful than choosing the human route. It was because gifts did not come without a price. The pain was from the complete deconstruction of the molecular structure where it jumbled around, added a few extra bits in and then put your all back together again. And it all happened while conscious. Something about the magic would not let a person choose the sweet bliss of nothingness. Most believed to be a test, to prove that every vampire is worthy – is strong enough – to carry the burden of immortality.

She let loose a slightly hysterical laugh and then nodded her head. It was only when her mother stroked her cheeks that she had been crying too. Something about the bonding moment within her mother had set off her own emotional weakness.

Sniffling Colbie gestured at the items laid out before her.

“I guess we should stock crying like babies and get ready huh?”

Eleanor dried her own face before smiling and patting her daughter’s cheek. She didn’t answer the question. The old vampire just looked down at her and allowed her lips to twitch up for a moment. But the moment did not last and as soon as the emotions had dissipated, the queen went into a flurry of action.

Dressing didn’t take long. After the little crying session, how important was it that she could breathe? Her mother had done an amazing job at lacing her into the corset and then helping her step into the dress so that she didn’t ruin the flawless make up she had applied.

The dress was simple, it was grey, the fabric almost utilitarian if it wasn’t for the silver threading which was woven through the light material so that it shimmered in the light. There was no extra detail, no fussy patterns. It was a just a plain dress that fit Colbie’s form well. Her fingers stroked the fabric, revelling in its softness.

“It’s made by white witches. It’s infused with magic to help ease you through the transition.” Eleanor stretched out a hand to her daughter but drew it back before she could actually make contact. “I can tell you that it probably won’t make the slightest bit of difference. The transition will be like going to hell and back. You must find the strength within you and push past it all.”

Colbie nodded her head and clicked her teeth together as she set her jaw.

“Okay,” she said calmly, wiggling her toes into the matching flip flops. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”