(INA)
"This is her?" a blonde woman with a pointy nose asks, her raised finger barely sharper than her beak. "This is the fucking breeder?"
I take a deep breath, not wanting any trouble. I am obviously outnumbered, and while I have no problem kicking Lysandra's ass and her friends' asses, I have a feeling I can't take Prince Theo and Prince Rowan. Not at the same time anyway. I imagine they've both got some sort of warrior training.
"Good morning, Princess Lysandra," I say, tipping my head down. "Prince Theo, Prince Rowan… ladies."
"Don't you know you're supposed to stand and curtsy when you're in the presence of your superiors?" Lysandra says, kicking me in the leg with her shoe. It's not hard enough to hurt, but it doesn't feel good.
"Oh, but don't you recall, sister dear," Rowan says, pulling her back by her arm. "She's a princess, too, remember?"
That gets a laugh out of most of them, though when I look at Theo, he's not laughing. In fact, he looks a bit concerned, like this is going to go south soon, and he'll be blamed for it.
"That's right!" Lysandra says. "She's not just a princess. She's a queen! She's Queen of the Bitches!" Another laugh surrounds me, and I begin to wonder how fast I need to run to get away from them.
If I were able to shift, I could leap over the rose bushes better than they could. Or if I could mind-link to Brennan or Nellie, perhaps I could get help. The maid herself wouldn't be able to save me, but she could bring guards or something.
At the moment, I am trapped here, though, and I honestly hope that Nellie doesn't hurry back. She could get caught up in this. I imagine that King Solan has rules against harassing the staff, but I don't know if this mob of brats would care about them.
"All right, let's go, " Prince Theo says. "You guys were going to show me where you were thinking of putting the ice sculpture." He tugs lightly on Lysandra's hand, and she lets her finger linger there in a way that seems a bit too familiar for a soon-to-be sister-in-law.
But she doesn't budge. "Theo!" she says. "Don't drag me away from the fun just yet! Oh, I know what we should do! We should get her to shift!"
"What a wonderful idea!" a dark-haired girl whose eyes are too close together for her to be considered classically beautiful declares.
"Why in the world would you want that?" Rowan asks as I try to slide my foot out of my broken shoe, still thinking of escape. "Filthy, mangy dogs. They're disgusting. Drooling everywhere. They smell like shit."
"She already smells like shit!" Lysandra declares, and the women actually bounce up and down with laughter.
I get my broken shoe off, but now I will have an uneven surface with each step, so I need to figure out how to get the other one off.
"Have you seen a werewolf in real life, then?" This girl has red hair but it's more orange than red like mine. "Prince Rowan? Were you frightened?"
"Of course, I've seen them, hundreds of them," he says, scoffing at her. "I served in the war, you know?" I don't know which war he's talking about. Perhaps he fought against my own pack. I have no idea. He is allegedly King Solan's ally, after all. "I've killed hundreds of them, for that matter. Sliced them open, ripped out their entrails." He looks at me, his gaze narrow, and I know he's trying to intimidate me, but I'm barely listening as I try to get my foot free. The shoe slips slightly. Perhaps I can get it off.
"Shift, stupid bitch!" Lysandra says, kicking me again, this time in the shin, harder.
Her foot is like a piece of stone, and I wince as I feel myself instantly bruising. I may have to run with one shoe on and hope that it falls off. Maybe I can use this shifting bit to my advantage.
"It's against the king's law for a wolf shifter to change into their wolf form in the castle or on its grounds," Theo reminds them. "You know that."
Lysandra waves one hand at him. "Please! I am the king's fiancée, the queen-to-be. If I give her permission to shift, she can do so. It's fine!"
I don't want them to know that I'm unable to shift, in case that secret becomes valuable someday. But if I could shift, I would've done so by now, king's law or not. I would have shifted and leapt right over their heads, racing back to the castle over the tops of the highest bushes.
But I can't shift, and telling them that might just sign my death warrant. "Shift!" Lysandra shouts again, kicking me in the same place as before. My leg burns, pain radiating up and down my shin.
"Fine!" I shout back at her. "Let me take off my shoes." I reach down to unbuckle the one I still have on as she whines about why I need to do that. "They're new," I explain to her. So is the dress, but if I were to shift, it would be shredded.
"Well, they're hideous," beak-nose says. "You may as well ruin them!" They all laugh, except for Theo. He looks worried.
I get up, my leg screaming at me, and step around them so that I am closer to the castle than they are, my shoes still in my hand.
"Wait!" Lysandra says. "How does it work? You can control it, right?"
"No, not really," I tell her. "I mean… not at first. You probably ought to step back."
Theo tips his head to the side and studies me as Rowan says, "What do you mean you can't control it? Of course, you can!"
"Not me," I tell him. "I'm new at this and… messed up. It's, uh, inbreeding." I nod, and he seems to buy it.
"That makes sense," the brunette with the strange eyes says. "It's no wonder she's so ugly."
They back up about ten feet, Rowan folding his arms in protest that he's budged at all, and Theo watching me carefully. He steps a bit in front of Rowan, and I have to think there's a reason for that.
"All right," I say. "I will have to leap into the air, and that's when I shift.
Stay back. I don't want to hurt you!"
"Just get on with it!" Lysandra demands, but she seems scared. She steps behind her brother and grabs his arm.
With a deep breath, I bound up into the air, thrusting myself backwards, not forward. At the same time, I let my shoes fly, aiming for Lysandra's face and hoping one of them misses Theo and hits Rowan. I throw them as hard as I can, as I simultaneously spin around and take off running down the path toward the castle.
I can't look back to see what's happening, but Lysandra screams, "Ouch! You fucking bitch!" and then I hear what sounds like a platter hitting the ground in an empty dining hall.
I turn to see that nearly every single one of them has landed on the ground, their stone-like bodies ricocheting off the cobblestone to make that sound. The only one still on his feet is Theo, and if I'm not mistaken, his leg is protruding in front of the rest of them, Rowan and Lysandra anyway. He is shaking his head at me, but it won't take long before the others are up, so I turn back around and run as fast as I can.
"Get back here, fucking bitch breeder!" Lysandra is shouting, and I can feel the reverberation of their footsteps off the sidewalk as they fly toward me.
I am fast. I am not that fast.
I see the castle in front of me and know it will take me a moment to get up the steps and through that door. Even then… I'm not sure what I will do.
A second later, I see the door open. Nellie is standing there, but she isn't holding my new shoes, and she looks mad, not confused.
Still, she has to know this isn't safe. "Run!" I shout at her. "Run!" She isn't, though. She's just holding the door open.
I turn my head to look behind me. The vampires are coming fast. They are just blurs, except for Theo, who is running after them but at a much slower pace. I am about to die, and Nellie is going down with me.
I turn back around, hoping to have reached the steps so I can navigate them as quickly as possible, but I slam into what feels like a brick wall, and it is only the fact that the wall has hands that dart out and surround me that keeps me from bouncing back several feet.
"Get inside," Brennan tells me, shuffling me off to Nellie, who is beside him now, and I hear the other vampires come to a halt in front of the king's best friend. "What the actual fuck are you doing?" he shouts.
Nellie is pulling me up the steps and into the castle as a mass of guards comes flying down the hallway. I don't have time to think about the pain in my head or whether or not Brennan can hold them all off while the guards arrive. I just have to keep moving.
We reach my room, and Helga is there, waiting for us with the door open. Nellie moves me to the bed and lays me down. "Get some ice, Helga," she says, and it's then that I realize, despite Helga's harshness, Nellie is her senior. She's probably even much older than Helga in reality.
"Where are you hurt?" Nellie asks me, and I'm not even sure. My leg hurts the worse, that and my head. I ran right into Brennan, head first, after all.
She assesses the damage. "Your left shin, your forehead, and your shoulder," she says. "I'll get you some medicine." She moves to the bathroom, and I struggle to catch my breath. I almost died. Those bitches would've torn me apart….
Helga is back with ice, and Nellie is telling me to swallow some pills, but the room is spinning, and as the adrenaline leaves my bloodstream, I can't hold back the tears. I need to thank Brennan. I need to thank Theo. I hope he doesn't get in trouble for this. I don't know why he helped me….
"How did you know?" I whisper to Nellie.
"I was on my way back with your shoes, and I heard them. I knew Brennan would know what to do, and he came himself." She smiles and pats my cheek lovingly. I see a new pair of sandals in her apron now. "You're safe now."
I nod, but I'm still crying, and I don't feel safe. "You should rest." Even Helga looks concerned.
I know they are right, but how can I sleep when I can't stop the shuddering that wracks my body?
I turn onto my side, balancing the ice on my head and my leg, and close my eyes, but a few moments after, I start to calm down. I hear a familiar voice say, "Leave us," and my breath catches again.
What is he doing here?