3. Julian #2
The iron railings are cold and thin when I grab them, making the climb harder than it looked.
It takes ages too, but I grit teeth and push forward, all the way until I am at the top, trying to avoid the sharp ends of the spikes.
I glance back down and my head immediately spins.
It’s way taller than the fifteen feet I estimated. Who the hell needs a fence this high?
Balancing myself with stomach-churning precariousness, I lift one leg over the spikes. Making sure to take my time, I repeat the same movement for my other leg.
And that’s when I see it. On the other side of the fence, hidden right under the zigzagging branches and thorns, is a deep trench full of deadly stakes ready to skewer me.
Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
My grip tenses. I look down again and shudder. Why the hell is there a fucking deathtrap here?
There are only a few ways to kill a vampire.
Silver hurting us is a myth, and we also don’t suffer damage from the sun.
I suppose that, technically, you could burn us alive, but that happens rarely.
All in all, we are tough cookies to kill, but of course it’s my luck that I might get to experience the most excruciating way to die.
I swallow. I need to focus, I got this. Freedom is right there, just past this fence, a couple feet away.
I just need to get over this deadly trench in one piece.
I adjust my footing. My track pants catch, and everything happens all at once.
My sleeve rips, and I lose my thread-light balance, diving headfirst into the brambles.
A scream rips out of me, ugly and desperate.
I’m flying right toward sure death. I will impale myself and Mary Eli on those pikes any moment now.
I squeeze my eyes shut, I can’t watch my own death.
It will be slow and painful, like what it must have been for my father’s lieutenant when that mercenary for hire killed him at a construction site all those years ago. Fuuuck, I don’t want to die!
My arms make contact with the brambles first, cuts immediately forming and healing and then forming again. Mary Eli flaps inside my bag, no doubt sensing the freefall. I’m sorry. This was not supposed to happen.
“Fuck you, Isidoro!” I scream, my life flashing in front of me, awfully short.
My head jerks forward suddenly as arms wrap around my torso. “You absolute, aggravating fool.”
Isidoro’s words bite into me. I feel his black claws extending more than I see them, digging into my flesh for a better grip.
They are strong, sure, effortless as they suspend me mid-fall.
Merciless. Both a punishment and a lifeline.
It hurts in the worst way, in the I can’t believe this asshole just saved me way.
I should have died ten seconds ago. Except that I didn’t.
Oh my god. I’m alive. I didn’t get ripped to shreds by those stakes.
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my galloping heart. Fuuuuuck. I’m alive and relieved, and compared to dying, that’s kind of worse.
“I did not reclaim my crown to watch this level of spectacular incompetence.” A dramatic pause, followed by a deep sigh. “I confess I expected better. Perhaps, I shouldn’t have.”
I grind my teeth so hard my jaw hurts. “Fuck you.”
Isidoro lets me dangle in the air a bit more, not bothering to lift me away from the brambles. They can’t do any lasting damage, but it still hurts when their sharp thorns prickle me.
“In all my centuries of existence, I have never, not once, met anyone so aggressively determined to be a problem.” He punctuates that with another overly dramatic exhale.
I puff my cheeks out and glare at the trench with the stakes. “Ever consider that you are the one who started this? You had me kidnapped and then exiled, on my own, for two whole fucking months, you sick fuck.”
Isidoro clicks his tongue and sighs. Finally, he seems to decide I’ve had enough of hanging upside down as he hops off the fence where he’s balancing on the tip of one of those sharp ends. Once he’s on the ground, he lets go of me, snatching the backpack with Mary Eli.
“Should I behead you for dragging Mary Elisabeth the Second into this? We can make it a public matter alongside the coronation,” he ponders deadpan, fussing over my duck friend.
I sprawl on the grass, breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly as I stare at the star-riddled sky. When I can’t find the moon, I roll to my side, away from his displeased gaze.
“My father should’ve killed you when he had the chance,” I mutter to myself, imagining where my life might be now had Isidoro not been around.
In one instant I am looking at the hedge, and in the next, I am in the air again, being pressed into the iron fence as Isidoro’s hand lifts me and squeezes my neck. His eyes burn with fire as he hisses at me, showing off his sharp incisors.
“The only reason you are alive is because I let you live,” he growls, the red around his dark pupils intensifying. “Never, ever forget that.”
The moon appears from behind the clouds, encasing him in its silver-white haze.
His long burgundy hair sways in the soft breeze like a fiery halo surrounding his head.
I swallow my tongue, the biting remark I had ready no longer there.
He’s beautiful. In an elegant, ancient, royal way that my father could never pull off.
Isidoro Altamirano is a true king, a vampire that’s a cut above the rest. His presence, even now, is both intimidating and awe-inspiring, bigger than me.
My breath catches a little. He’s a deadly predator, an enemy to me, but he’s also undeniably magnetic. Hard to look away from, even when I tell myself I should.
“Funny. If I remember correctly, I’m alive because you can’t kill me.
You need me. If you ever hope to find my father, that is.
He’s lurking out there somewhere as we speak, planning, waiting for the right moment to snatch away your crown once again.
” I try to bite him but can’t reach. “How’s the investigation going, by the way? Hit another dead end yet?”
Even if he hasn’t, he will. It’s inevitable, just like how the sun rises every day from the east.
“I warned you, Julian. My patience has its limits.” His upper lip twitches as if wanting to curl, but he doesn’t let it. “Tell me where your father is, or I will kill you. Now. I am done playing games.”