"Rise, and face your sire, child of mine!"

Gillian obeyed the tone of command in her father's voice, accepting his power over her as her sire and master.

"What brought you here, knowing what I could do to you if I so wish?" he commanded, and she stared at him.

Would he close his mind to her?

"I am a detective with the human police force, and we had a couple of odd killings. I thought it was a vampire the first time but ignored my instincts. The second time was too public and too obvious. There will be more of those soon, and I cannot stop them."

It was not what they expected her to say, and she decided to press on before they gathered their outrage.

"I did some research last night and discovered many similar kills in many places, but something changed, and I believe my presence with the human authorities is to blame. Before he exacted his revenge, taunting the police a little and moved on. I assume he thought humans were too stupid to catch him, but now I fear he's flaunting his kills for my benefit—he's challenging me, sire."

It came out all wrong despite the hours she spent rehearsing it in her head—she sounded like a child reading flashcards written in a foreign language.

"Why didn't you just move on?" Gabriel demanded, and she tried to avoid his gaze but could not.

"I fear that if I do, he'll kill the humans I work with or underestimate the human threat and expose us as he gets bolder. I worry that his ultimate agenda is something unforeseen, and I sense a threat from him I cannot explain, Your Highness." Telling them the truth exposed more of herself and her other fears than she liked, but she dared do nothing else.

"He murdered a human industrialist's son with ties to the white house and aims to kill the son of a senator who stands to be the next vice president and the son of a man in the senator's inner circle. All it would take from there—" Her voice trailed off as her father sat up straighter, and his gaze intensified but strayed to his council.

"You are dismissed," he told them. "I will see to this matter myself. Radnor, Ersha, you remain and come closer." The two council members were the eldest and most versed in the laws of the three kingdoms.

"What is the least sentence I can allow for my daughter's disobedience of my will?" Gabriel asked, and their glances strayed from him to Gideon and then to her.

"Since His Highness never officially disavowed her or lodged a formal case against her, this is a matter of personal pride. On the other hand, she is the daughter of a king, and by disobeying you, she committed treason." Radnor said, but Ersha interrupted, a frown tugging at her dark brows.

"Then again, if we reason that way, we would have no royal family. Excuse me for saying so, Sire, but you know as well as I do that you are all very impetuous. You all ran away at some time or the other, and in the end, you all came back, even our High King Maximus."

Ersha worked with Gabriel since he was a boy, and he tolerated her ways with a particular fondness.

"I'd say twenty lashes from her own father in public would do well for a start, my King," Radnor suggested.

"She has to pledge her blood oath to serve you. Admit that you are her father, sire, and king, and do her duty as your daughter when it is required, Sire," Ersha added, and all eyes went to Grand Master Gideon since his would be the deciding voice here.

"I agree, but you must add her to your guard and make her one of your soldiers to add ultimate obedience to that list. That way, she can be appropriately punished if she disobeys your orders again."

Gideon leaned back in his seat, and Gabriel frowned ever so slightly.

"You make soldiers out of all my daughters. How am I supposed to have grandchildren?" Gabriel asked, and Gideon smirked.

Could that really be a teasing note in her father's voice? What was going wrong in her world?

"If a man cannot handle a woman such as this, then he isn't really a man, is he?" Gideon asked with a twinkle in his eyes, and Gillian wanted to shake her head. Was she dreaming all of this?

"Fine, bring a sword," Gabriel commanded before she had a chance to turn tail and run from these strangers she had known all her life.

***

Gabriel took her hand firmly in his, drawing the blade across her palm until he drew blood. She went on one knee with a pounding heart and offered her hand up to her father.

"I offer you my allegiance, my oath, and my... obedience. My Father, my Sire, and my King," Gillian repeated the words after Gideon.

Gabriel took her hand and bit into it. It hurt, but she made no sound. The wound sealed shut within seconds, and he pulled her to her feet.

"Your punishment will be delivered at midnight, under the full moon, in the garden arena for all of my court to see," he concluded, and she nodded.

Raw fear chewed at her gut. She was whipped twice before, but those were one or two blows, not twenty. Her father unexpectedly took her chin between his fingers and lifted her head.

"You will be strong." It wasn't an order or even a demand but encouragement.

It felt so odd to have her father touch her—something he hadn't done since she was little. She nodded, not sharing his certainty, and he did another thing she never expected.

Gabriel hugged her to him for the longest moment before leaving her alone with Gideon, the one man she didn't know how to face.

***

Gillian slowly turned to face Gideon, whose expression held an odd emotion she did not recognize. He took her hand and started walking away from the others until they were alone in the lower gardens.

"You are your mother's daughter, and I wanted you to be more like the me I am now, but I forgot the me I was before. It is why your mother turned out the way she did." Gideon chuckled, and Gillian blinked.

Had they gone insane while she was gone?′

"I didn't realize that in my anger at the loss of my only child, I was too harsh on you, and I drove you away, too. Your grandmother would never forgive me if she were alive. She always warned me, but I never listened," Gideon turned to her.

"You are his daughter, too. You would never have come back if you had a choice, but in the end, you put your people first. You ranked the threat to us above your pride and life, and that is the actions of a princess." His expression softened.

"Yes, your humans had a good role in that, but with or without them, you would bring this to us. No matter the consequences to yourself." He nodded to her, took her hand, turned it, and kissed the small scar on her palm that would never go away.

"Stand proud, take your punishment and show them what we are made of." He turned away from her, and she stood alone, staring down at the lake for a long time. At the edge of which she could see the garden and the place of her punishment.

Although she had been spared the death she fully expected, twenty lashes was a severe punishment. She would suffer greatly and dreaded shaming her family, father, and grandfather.

Their people held the royal families to a higher standard than anyone else, and although the whip has made many a grown man scream, cry, and plead, she dared not give in to such weakness.