CONTENT WARNING: DV (off page), neck-snapping

Evangeline's screams were the only thing he heard when he walked through the door of the manor.

Konstantin Lang Montgomery had just returned from talking to a local lord about a deal he knew he was close to closing and had decided to come home to tell everyone about it. Instead, when he walked through the door, the first thing he heard was Evangeline's screams and his blood brother screaming at her. Before he could ask why, he looked down to see a very dead high elf, his neck torn out and was now bleeding on the floor. He didn't need to know who did it—he could tell by another one of Evangeline's screams bouncing off the walls, and the four ladies that were sitting around the living room acting like nothing was going on, that it was his blood brother, Trevor Valois.

"Can someone explain to me what is going on?" Konstantin asked calmly as he took off his coat.

One of the ladies, a raven-haired high elf, looked up from looking at her fingernails and looked at the dead body, the curve of her mouth turning into a smile as she thought about it. "Our dearest Evie brought a boy home," she answered. "She planned to run away with him without Trevor's permission. So, he showed her what happened when her plans didn't go the way she wanted when she started to leave with him."

Konstantin looked at her, trying to remember which one she was until the name came to him—this was Vallene, the second wife Trevor created after they went to that party in Sakandris. Vallene was an opera singer who could do an amazing aria, and when their eyes met, Trevor took her into his arms and made her his wife, and had been with them ever since. "And you didn't move to stop him from beating her again, Vallene?" he asked coldly, his brown eyes narrowing on her.

Konstantin was very protective of the young Evangeline after Trevor saw her one day and decided that he wanted a daughter. Against his wishes, Trevor went to the Kingsleigh manor one night, when they were celebrating Evangeline's brother's birthday. He slaughtered the whole family except the brother, and after giving her a day to spend with him, he turned Evangeline into a vampire against her will and forced her to kill her own brother. Konstantin still remembered that day when she sat in the living room of the Valois manor, wearing that green dress and crying, and Trevor proudly introduced her as their daughter.

"Ma cher, this is your father, Konstantin. He's my blood brother and he will teach you everything there is to know to be like us."

"Like us?"

"Vampires, pet. You are a vampire now. And you're going to be the most powerful vampire to ever exist."

"Well, she should've listened to us," another voice said, chiming in. Konstantin turned to the new voice and nearly bit his tongue after he saw who answered. It was wife number four, the latest addition to the Valois family. She had blonde hair and only wore a fluffy pink housecoat, which showed off her shapely legs, which were currently crossed. Her name was Dominika, and she was a sorceress, until...well, Trevor happened. She was still a vampire, but somehow she still had all her magic. "Then the boy would still be alive and she wouldn't be getting a spanking from Trevor dearest."

It was not like he hated Dominika, but he really hated Dominika so, so much. Mostly because she was a bitch and was always in Trevor's ear, telling him every little thing she knows about anyone and everything.

Konstantin tried not to flinch when he heard a bone breaking and Evangeline's screams getting louder. He hated it when Trevor's anger got the best of him and he took it out on Evangeline and not one of his four wives-hell, Konstantin doesn't even have one wife and yet all he wanted to do was leave and take her with him, to show her that she can have and do whatever she wanted.

Vallene's chuckle was soft when she heard the bone breaking and smiled, showing a hint of fang. "He broke her leg," she said, making Konstantin growl and start to walk up the stairs. "Oh come now, Konstantin, what are you going to do this time, hm?"

"He's going to kill her, Vallene!" he shouted. "Don't you even care about Evangeline's well-being after this? After he kills her lover—"

"Husband," Dominika cut in, arching a very manicured eyebrow. "She secretly married him and was about to turn him so she could be with him forever." Then she laughed. "Though where would she go in Avaloria where Trevor dearest wouldn't find them and do what's he doing now?"

"She wants to be her own damned person, not someone under—" But before Konstantin could finish his statement, the door was thrown open, and his blood brother came down the stairs, breathing hard and his hands bloody. It had just gotten silent now, and the only thing he could hear upstairs was Evangeline's quiet cries, and the guilt came crashing down on him once more.

Trevor Valois didn't even look up as he fixed his cuffs. He was a slim, muscular man, with blue eyes and blonde hair that were currently messed up. His mouth was covered in blood, and by the smell and scent of it, it was a combination of the elf's blood and Evangeline's.

"Well, I think she learned her lesson about leaving," he said once he stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He looked up and noticed that Konstantin was standing next to him, eyes closed and gripping the stairwell. "Oh, hello brother. I see you made it home. How was the meeting?"

A tick ran through the other vampire's jaw as he let the guilt crash down even more, and it took him a moment before he spoke. "Lord Brandon accepted the deal," Konstantin answered, "as he said he was going to do. Then I come home and you're beating Evangeline again after I told you multiple times not to do!"

A lift of his shoulders was the only answer Trevor gave him. "Come now, brother. She was going to leave me and live her life with a man she hardly knew. If someone finds out that she was like us, well, they will hunt her down and kill her, then him. I was just helping her see that before she made her decision."

"What decision!" Konstantin hissed. "Every time she makes one about herself, you take it away from her!"

"She's still a child, she'll learn soon enough."

"She's a grown woman with the same passions and minds as your wives, and yet you won't let her act on them because you think she'll leave and never come back! You don't even know what she wants to do with her vampiric life, do you?"

Trevor just snorted. "She wants to be a wife and a mother-two things she cannot do now that she's one of us. She's a Valois now, she should act accordingly."

"Act accordingly, brother?"

"Yes. When she hungers, she must feed. When she wants something, she can take it. If she feels any other emotion, she should cast it aside and never feel it again, like love, sadness, or frustration. Our Evie needs to be ruthless, violent, and powerful." At those words, a little smile tugged his lips as he went over to Dominika and sat on the edge of the seat. "Instead, she sneaks around and tries to be a good vampire, falls in love with mortals, and plans on running away and never returning. Well, after tonight she won't be doing none of that anymore."

The words sounded ominous when he said them. "What are you planning, Trevor?"

"I'm going to throw her to the wolves and see if she can survive them."

Anger tore through Konstantin when he answered with that. Snapping the banister in half, he tore off the wooden edge and shoved it deep into Trevor's stomach, making him laugh as he slammed him against the wall. His eyes were a deep crimson color and his fangs started to form in his mouth, and all he wanted to do was tear Trevor's head off. "Evangeline's not some toy you can throw away somewhere and play with something else!" he roared. "She's a person, and I refuse to watch you treat her like that!"

"She's going whether you like it or not, Konstantin," Trevor told him with a smirk. "If she can come back acting right, then I'll welcome her back with open arms, and promise to never lay a hand on her ever again."

Konstantin knew that he was lying—that was something Trevor was good at. Lying. He didn't believe a word that came out of his disgusting mouth. But before he could say a word, his neck was snapped viciously, and darkness overtook him as he dropped to the ground.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Evangeline lay there on the ground, staring at the sparkling, golden ring that Nathion gave her when they got secretly married tonight, and she knew he was the perfect person to marry, even when she brought him back to the manor so she could change him and they can live forever. Instead, Vallene caught them together, and then Trevor killed him by draining Nathion's blood and dragging her upstairs to give her a beating so bad, she couldn't move.

She could hear Konstantin defending her once again, and she knew it fell on deaf ears, especially if Vallene and Dominika were on Trevor's side.

As they always were when it came to her.

Evangeline gasped when she felt her arm snap back together, and she knew her hand was numb, but she wanted Nathion's ring so she could put it in her collection of the many rings she had received from the many men she tried to marry, only for them to die by Trevor's hands. "Please..." she whispered to the ring as if some force could hear her and roll the ring towards her. "I want...I want his ring...please..."

She stared at it, concentrating on it as much as she could, to bring the ring towards her. But nothing could move it, even as she tried to. A fresh tear fell down her cheek as she realized that it wasn't going to happen, and she started to cry again, quietly so she wouldn't alert Trevor so he would come back and torture her some more.

Evangeline thought of her Nathion when he was alive; beautiful like all the elves in Avaloria, with dark silver hair, molten golden eyes, and a scar down his left eye. Nathion was an assassin, working for the local lord in Kallistar and always wearing black. But somehow he'd always find time for her, spending time with her while Trevor was pursuing Dominika. She was so happy to finally find someone to spend time with, that when he proposed, she said yes.

They made love that night—her first time, shockingly, since by this time, Trevor would've killed the men she was going to marry before they could even reach the altar or make love—and she promised that she would turn him into a vampire, and the two would be together forever. Instead, tonight turned worse when Vallene caught them, and then Trevor killed him and dragged her upstairs for her beating.

Shutting her eyes, she waited for her next punishment as she wished that Nathion was alive and turned into a vampire---they would've left Kallistar and gone towards Barvoria, so she could finally meet Strahd von Zavorich and pledge her allegiance to—

Now why do you want to go there, my dear? A voice whispered in her ear, making her flinch. Strahd von Zavorich is dead. Castle Strahd is no longer. You can gain your freedom so no one you love will die by Trevor's hand.

"What?" she whispered before the door was thrown open and Trevor came in again, this time with Dominika and another one of Trevor's wives coming in behind her. Evangeline didn't have the strength to turn her head or say anything as Trevor's hand wrapped around her neck and hauled her up and passed her to the other wife—Corvina, her name was. "What's going-?" but before she could say a word, Trevor's hand slammed down her mouth, covering it and nearly squeezing it.

"It's time for your punishment, girl," Dominika snapped. "Don't worry—the wolves won't hurt you much."

Before she could ask what she meant, Trevor's wrist twisted a bit, snapping her neck. Evangeline's world turned dark, and she never heard the voice ever again as she grew limp and was carried out of the room, Nathion's ring still lying on the other side.