Howl by Brieanna Boyce (chrome ebook reader txt) 📖

a set of stairs and platform which raises a good 3 feet off the ground. There lies a large thrown, which like the stairs is made of a fine black wood with demons carved intricately throughout it. The room was filled with vampires all sitting along the platform, their white glistening skin and fangs glittering in the candle light. The woman all had dark hues of gowns and dresses, all the men had on tuxedos. They all stared their eyes glistening with excitement and amusement watching me as if I were a mouse and they were a cat in this instance I suppose I was.

Than a figure walked through, her grace was unparalleled power shown through every graceful movement. Her posture was impeccable; her tall lengthy frame mixed with how skinny she was would make any model green with envy. She sat at the thrown a gold crown with a large ruby at the center was placed onto her head; her gown was also a piercing bright red than clung to her pale perfect body. Her movements were fluid her hair, a snow white much like her skin waved softly like a banner over her shoulder, her eyes were a piercing light blue which reminded one of ice. Her smile stretched tightly over her place, seeming more like a grimace, her red dress against her pale features reminded me of blood over fresh snow.

“Hello,” her voice purred serenely.

I violently shook away Virgil’s grip and bared my teeth to the queen, “Where is my brother?!” I yelled at her, “Where is he?!”

The queen smiled, “He is safe… for now, he’s much more safe than you are at any rate, all be it a bit shaken up,” she looked me over, “he’s in much finer condition than you are, Virgil what happened to my pet?”

Virgil spoke up, “she gave the guards a very hard time, she tried to escape, and she’s a menace why do you want her?”

The queen looked at me smiling coolly, “You are so fascinating, hardly anyone seems to know of your existence, you disappear and reappear, yet you can kill some of the best vampires there are… but I know so much more than that… why do you think all this happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” I said narrowing my eye skeptically.

The queen laughed, the other vampires echoing her laughter which was magnified by the room. She stood up and circled me like a bird of prey her blue eyes piercing through me, her dark laughter and smirk sending a shiver up my spine. “Do you think that this is all random coincidence? That you weren’t intentionally changed into a vampire? That it was coincidence your mother was killed, that your brother just luckily ended up being there?”

She chuckled, “There are no “accidents,” no “coincidences” in life. I’ve known about you Skylar Dubrinsky, for a long time. I’ve known about your mother too, you are the spitting image of her… you also seem to behave much like her as well.”

I growled, “Leave my mother out of this, it has nothing to do with my family.”

The queen laughed sharply, clearly amused her smile seemed to stretch thinly over her face distorting it, her eyes blue and intelligent seemed to grow an even lighter blue resembling cold ice even more so than I previously believed. “Oh?” She said circling me again, “On the contrary it has everything to do with your family. You see your mother she is not who you thought she was.”

I growled my nails growing into sharp daggers than I reached out and clawed at her. However she had moved aside quickly and easily. She cackled in amusement but the other vampires jumped and hissed in my direction, she waved her hand regally to signal them to quiet down. She smiled at me, “I find you quite charming, your bravery your naivety.”

I stared at her quietly, hate seething from every pore. She was mocking me, endangering my life, and more importantly my brother’s life, but I realized that I would get nowhere this way, let her speak, let her feel big I would get nowhere with my rebellion, it would have to wait for a more opportune time.

The queen walked back towards her throne, her red dress flowing and dancing a graceful waltz as she did so. She perched herself on her throne, her subjects sitting on their knees next to her, she reached over and pet one girl’s head as if the vampire girl was no more than a toy. “Your mother as I’d attempted to say before wasn’t the innocent, selfless, caring person you remember her as. She had her own legacy and vampires were not as unreal to her as you may have thought up until now.” She sighed, “You see many centuries ago, especially in the dark ages clans of people began popping up grouping together and claiming the existence of vampires and trying to find a way to destroy us.” She chuckled at this, “It is unbelievable they thought they could ever win this, but they tried, the clans informed their family and trained their children according to tradition. Your mother was in the last remaining family, she was a vampire hunter, part of the strongest family and she did live up to those expectations. However she ended up meeting your father a simple human man and running away with him, she tried to escape this life, but her parents had condemned her to her fate, she would have died no matter what.”

My head was reeling I couldn’t absorb it all, my mother… no my mother couldn’t muster up the courage to kill a spider, let alone a vampire. My mother would never have hurt anything, she was a beautiful woman with a heart of gold, and she wouldn’t endanger us, my father, my brother and I. Never.

The queen smiled, “A vampire dear to me discovered your mothers whereabouts and killed her. He said you were there watching dumbly, come now I know you remember… you are not a dumb girl that’s why we hadn’t yet caught you till now.”

The brief flashes of me being in a trance-like state while Blake, killed my mother, it was not the surprising or instant death that I had thought. I fell to my knees, tears spilling over and rolling down my cheeks. My mother I had watched her die, it was not a dream it was a memory which means the rest of what the queen said was true. The shock of it all was overwhelming, the fact that my mother had been keeping her secret life from me.

The queen said in a factual tone with no real emphasis of emotion, “Than I heard of you and your brother and soon had them after you as well, your brother however does not nearly have the skill that you had, to dodge 3 vampires after you were bitten and smashed in the head and managing not only to evade them but to also protect your brother whom I’d just seen and is still human.”

The other vampires raised their eyebrows, but the queen looked calm and composed. She grinned, “and even still you do not know everything, however there is but one thing I feel that’s missing.”

I did not answer her, tears just began drying onto my cheeks and I still could not manage to truly comprehend what she was saying, she had destroyed everything, she was the cruelest kind of person.

“How could you kill and injure so many vampires that were so beyond your age and skill level, I have yet to comprehend…”

I shrugged, “you said that I showed the skills and attributes of a vampire hunter, maybe that makes me stronger.”

“Perhaps a little but not that much, you must have had help, Tell me who was it? What was your strategy?”

I have none,” I retorted.

“Oh no dear, there had to be some kind of way you could defeat them.”

I looked into her soulless eyes and narrowed my own, “I could just be better than they are.”

Her impatience was clear on her face, her façade was wearing fast and she did not want her followers to see her so affected by anything especially her own prisoner. Her eyes blazed with hatred, it was only for a moment but that one moment was enough and I smiled. She may have ripped me wide open in front of her whole court but now I had something on her.

The queen’s smile was twitching and struggling. “There has to be more to it! You couldn’t have killed two vampires while you were still human the night you were changed. Tell me.”

“What? So you can still torture my brother and me? I don’t think so. I’ll tell you, if there is anything to tell once my brother and I are given freedom.”

The queen growled loudly “Everyone out! I will talk to our little prisoner by myself!”

Everyone looked at each other hesitantly, but the vampires got up surprised and left, it was obvious that most people were unable to get under the queen’s skin quite like I could. Good. I hope she suffered and felt exposed as I had.
“This is my court,” the queen hissed darkly, “these are my people my rules, and you have no right to even attempt to give me orders.”

I shrugged, “This may be your court but you’re the one interfering with my life. So until you return my brother and me home, I’m not cooperating you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.”

The queen growled viciously, “I don’t make deals, do what I say or I’ll kill your brother.”

I smiled and circled her viciously, “What will you have on me than? The only reason you can even force my compliance is because he’s alive.”

She circled me as well; we were both spinning in a violent cruel dance, our surroundings fell away until the world consisted of just us and our dares. It was likely that the queen would win over me. She had years on me, centuries in fact, she also seemed to be quite powerful, it was her subtle rippling power in the most simple of mannerisms and gestures that gave this away to me. She also had power and the support of her followers, I had no one to help me now, I had just myself and I wasn’t sure if I was enough to manage the safe escape of my brother and I. No matter how pointless this was, no matter how impossible the situation, I would try and stop trying only when I was dead and even than it wasn’t a guarantee. I couldn’t lose; this new world had taken everything, my mother, my family, my old life, now they wanted to end my brother? No. They were in for the fight of their life; I’d kill the queen if I had to.


The queen screamed frustrated, “Guards! GUARDS!”

Two men in shining silver armor, not the kind of armor on mid evil soldiers, it was light built to the contour of the large men’s bodies, both were beautiful as all vampires are but their expressions held absolutely nothing their faces were expressionless masks.

“What do you need your majesty?” One guard asked sweeping into a surprisingly graceful bow, due to his large size.

The queen huffed, “take this captive to the dungeon; I want her on the bleeding cross.”

The guards looked at me, each other quickly, and then their queen, “I’m not sure that’s necessary…”

“ARE YOU QUESTIONING