DoL Part Five

chapter five

After that, I vowed to rid the world of the monstrous creatures that had been released upon it. I vowed to punish, eternally, the fool who ruined my beautiful realm. I was given this plane to protect and love and watch grow and name and that fool woman ruined it! I guarantee mother and father dealt with the idols so foolish enough to be enrage and envious of that one woman's beauty, so much so to destroy something so wonderful and innocent. It was my turn to do the same.
I gathered all the strength I had to call upon my parents and demanded the ability to blend into humanity. I demanded a way to mingle with them, and speak with them, and learn all that I could not through simple distanced observation. The old blind woman had found me, unconscious and naked, laying in her fields. She'd woken me and wrapped me in her coarse cloak. My parents had answered my demands, in the entirely wrong way.
The woman was kind, and I knew she was not the one I sought, so I did not harm her. Instead I followed her, and helped her, and learned from her what I needed to know in order to live as she did. She called me her child. Many people in the world she lived in, a village they called it, called me beautiful. They claimed that my raven hair and cerulean eyes were unlike any they had seen before and my face was perfect, as was the rest of me. Not even the females hated me. It was strange, to be among such... monsters, such creatures so ignorant of their surroundings they must destroy it.
I grew to love the village, but I missed my body and the ability to travel freely. I missed the communication with other creatures whose tongues could not form my new words and whose ears could not stand my new voice. I missed the moon and the stars guiding me wherever I wanted to go. I missed the wind as it rushed through my fur, my silky black body. I dreamed, and longed to return to my body even before I had filled my vow to get revenge, that is what it called itself. This new thorn that stuck to me so viciously with teeth of a tick and the viciousness of a leech.
- - - From the Pages of the Diary of Life

I woke, with a terrible start, body aching still from the wounds. I stretch yawning and drop from the bed, the only way I could remove the sheets from my body and my body from that deliciously warm bed. I was sitting on the floor when my father stormed into the room with a pair of vampires at his flanks. Fear and hatred burned through me. The former for the vampires, the later for all three of them.

My lip curled in a silent snarl answered by my father's curled lip as we glared at each other. He crouched to attack me and I shifted to sit on the balls of my feet my hands loose with one in front of me and one behind. The vampires interrupted smoothly positioning themselves between us. My father seemed to calm with the vampire blocking his vision, I however did not. The blood sucking monster was staring right at me and I felt oddly uncomfortable.

I hadn't realized that my clothes were missing, probably too ruined to remain upon my body from the fighting earlier, how much earlier? How long had I been unconscious? My hair fell over the important bits of my body, but I was still naked, and I was still a tantalizing tidbit. I narrow my eyes further watching the vampire in silence, letting my aura rise around me in answer to his.  Mine, unlike his, was a challenge. I was giving him a warning to stay back. He was unwelcome in my world. He seemed to accept the warning and backed aside bowing his head.

"You, you dishonor my family! You run rampant with equine shifters and flirt with my enemy! You toss your life to the wind!" My father roars angrily, well the diplomat in him was gone. He must be horribly pissed off at me to have lost his diplomatic persona, to be unable to speak! I considered giving a low amazed whistle and stopped, how pissed can a Righ become before he kills his only successor?

"I dishonor no one, father. There was a battle over my life, my destiny, I simply put my two cents in." I sigh heavily and lean back against the bed closing my eyes. Yes, I was completely at home in my birthday suit, I was even good enough to ignore the hunger stares from the two fools my father had dragged along with him. "If you're going to disown me, then do it father, because I apologize for nothing I have done and will not change my ways." I don't open my eyes, why should I? I saw it all in my minds eye, it's the same thing all the time.

This time... this time was different though. The air was thicker, but not with tension and hatred it was filled with sadness and pain. His voice wavered for a second as he spoke. "Azraella, you are my only heir, I cannot disown you... I cannot remove you from the clan."

"Oh very carefully you can." I answer and he was there, his face inches from mine, his hand around my narrow neck. I open my eyes and stare into his calm, I was exuding such calm. He snarls at me. "You know, father, you know why I cannot. You can sense it, taste it. It was the same with you and mother. You know, I'm also the sole inheritor of a combined vampire clan? Mother gave it to me." His grip tightened and he stared at me.

"Azraella Payne, banprionnsa, princess and inheritor of the pack of souls, I as your father Righ Azriel Storm king of the clan of death and leader of the pack of souls disown and disinherit you." He snarls spit spraying over my face as he spoke. I don't move, my breathing never changes and my heart beat remains the constant marching band cadence it always was. His hand tightened around my neck challenging me.

"I Azraella Payne, no longer bear the title banprionsa princess and inheritor of the pack of souls. I no longer bear connections to the clan of death. I am a loner, and choose the life I will lead as I wish to lead it. I will hold no more contact with the clan and pack than they will hold with me." I say calmly accepting the 'dishonor' without so much as a blink of emotion. Tension had bled into the room from the vampires and my father. Shock was born upon the faces of the porcelain twins at the door as my father stands and turns to walk out of the door.

"Should I catch you commuting with any pack or clan, Azraella, I will kill you. You have picked your life, I gave you a choice." He disappears out the door and a breath I hadn't known I'd held once he'd released me burned from my lungs. I stand and drag on some clothes someone had kindly left nearby for me. Carlisle walks into the room bristling with rage. He was hunched and his fists clenched, his jaw was clenched so tight that the muscles bulged against his neck and you could see every vein perfectly against his tanned leather skin.

"I'm not leaving you on your own, princess." He snarls. I raise a brow.

"I am no longer princess. Call me Azraella, as of this moment I am now a free woman." I turn from him and drag on the black halter top over the skin toned strapless bra.

"I don't care, I'm remaining with you, Azraella, even disowned you are a princess and the minute he dies the clan and pack with hunt you down to lead them again." I turn to him eyes narrowed.
"I have waited for this day for years, Carlisle, I don't care if the pack looses ten Azriels, I'm not coming back." I snap and step out of the room to find Damien waiting for us with a big proud grin on his face. "Oh no." I moan. "What did you do?" I demand glaring at him.

"I left the pack, just the same as Carlisle and you. I want in on this game too! I want to see what it's like to live without the constant threat of a beating looming over me for too much curiosity." Lord help me he's young and naïve!

"Fine. I'm going into the city, can you tolerate that place?"

"I can tolerate anything if I can stay with you two and survive." Damien bounces happily, like the pup he was.

"If my princess requires it, I can tolerate it."

"I'm not a princess, Carlisle."

"To me, you will always be princess, Azraella and eventually queen."



"Something's different about you! Other then being a free woman! You smell... different, like you're bonded! Are you? Who with? Carlisle!?" Damien started in on his questions the minute we stepped outside the castle of the clan of life and pack of light. Carlisle snarls and glares at me. I raise my shoulders hiding in myself, I hadn't seen Samuel all morning, I had even hunted for him to tell him I was leaving.

Beelzebub, Samuels father, told me he was in the forest patrolling his borders and asked why I needed him. I told him that I wanted to thank him for helping us though it was against everything our packs and clans stood for. He assured me he'd let Samuel know. It bothered me to not be able to find Samuel and let him know, to see for myself that we really were bound. Of course, all I had to do was reach out and see if we really had a connection between us. Damien's whiny nasally voice was joined with Carlisle's low dark tones demanding what was going on.

"I'm not telling either of you anything that you don't need to know." I snap and climb into the car Beelzebub was letting us borrow. The drive smiled at me and winked into the mirror. Why the father was being so kind to me, I don't know. Maybe this clan was more tolerant of bonds? Maybe Samuel had told? I stare at the driver a moment, bothered by his kindness, and grimaced as Damien and Carlisle climbed in. There wasn't enough room in the back and I was the lightest, of course we all know what happened...

I ended up sitting in both their laps, leaning against the door as the driver took us into the city to top quality apartments, suites, in a fancy neighborhood too expensive for the three of us to rent. "I think this is the wrong place..." I murmur and stare at the paper Beelzebub had handed me. No... it read correctly.

"No ma'am, this is the place. It's the clan's condo. You're things are in your suite already." He climbs out after parking the car and opens the door helping me out. Wow, what was going on? Why was... "You're no longer a member of that clan or pack, you are no longer an enemy. That makes you a friend. Beelzebub respects you for your bravery and strength. He wants to help you survive; he says that Azriel will not let you go so simply."

Wait a minute, I know that voice! I look up and snatch the cap off of the driver's head to reveal his face and gorgeous hair. Black silk framed his gorgeous angular face. Dark green-black eyes smile at me mischievously as he took my hand and led me inside. A deep red blush covered my face, and I knew this because my skin was suddenly really warm, as Carlisle snarled and Damien giggled like a school girl behind us. "What's going on?" I whisper to Samuel once we were in the elevator, there wasn't enough 'room' for Carlisle and Damien, which made Carlisle bristle with rage and Damien... well Damien just grinned like a knowing idiot.

"You can speak normally, they'll be walking up too irate to wait for the next lift." He smiles and pats my arm gently. "I told you, I promised you." I stare at him for the longest time, just stared at him, before resting my head against his shoulder with a soft content sigh.

"I trust you, I believe you Samuel." I whisper twining my fingers with his. I had withdrawn my hand earlier, when the doors had shut, to stare at him but now I was content to twine my fingers in his... he seemed satisfied with this too. "But why is your father helping me?" I ask suddenly, remembering what Beelzebub had been doing and saying.

"Because, he is my father and wants to see me succeed him, not toss the throne aside. He trusts my judgment. He's never had a soul mate, did you know that? He doesn't want me to lose mine." Samuel tensed a little, as though uncomfortable with this particular subject.

"What's wrong?" I ask looking up at him.

"Beelzebub is not my father, per say. He adopted me. I'm his brothers son... I'm as close to an heir and a true son as he's gonna get. My parents were killed a long time ago in a war with... with the clan of Souls." He had to catch himself, I knew what he was going to say. 'your clan.'
"My parents were king and queen of our clan and pack. Beelzebub only took the throne because I was too young to succeed them properly and others were complaining about having a green pup in charge. It's no big deal." He says as the elevator stopped.

"My mom died too, just before that war. She died giving birth to me. My siblings were never born and my father has hated me ever since..."

"Your mother was not his soul mate, he stole her from another land all together because of her beauty. He wanted that to himself rather then letting her be with who she was supposed to be with. Now the one who was supposed to be bound to her suffers eternally and the one who stole her is crazed..."

"So where does that leave me?" His tone angered me, I stiffed and pulled away from him as the door opened. "What am I in all of that mess?"

"A tragedy. It's unfortunate that you were trapped in the middle of it... I wish you weren't, I wish you were okay and not so trodden on... Your father was supposed to be... well never mind. I'll let him tell you if he wants to, if you must know." He steps out of the elevator and joins me in the hall, walking to the room. Thirteenth floor, room thirteen! Wow, well at least it wasn't the 666th floor and the 666th room... that'd be bad...

"You listen here, Samuel-" I cut off as Carlisle and Damien tumble out of the stair well snarling at each other and pumping fists trying to slam the other into the wall. "Cut it out both of you!" I snap at them before ducking into the sweet tense and ready for a fight. All of that fell away at the sight of the enormous room. There were like for bedrooms here, good deal, and it was all decorated in black with amethyst and red curtains and silk. The windows were hidden behind the black red and amethyst silks.

"Wow." I whisper dropping the small black bag I had clutched to my side. It had some things in it that I never came into society without. "This is... Samuel..." I turn to see his grinning face.

"Look around and tell me what'cha think... should I bring the colt here?" He asks. I nod before walking through each room. Each one had the same colors, but... different organization. One was amethyst based with red and black decorations. One was Red base with amethyst and black decorations. Then there was one that was black and amethyst only, one that was red and black only and one that was amethyst and red only. It was amazing!

"Samuel! This is-" I turn and dash back into the main room to tell Samuel what I thought and hug him but he was already gone. My heart sank by about that much.