4. The Garden

Same morning as this entry


The sun shines brightly in the courtyard lighting up the dark stone of the castle walls. I remember when I was very little, coming out to the courtyard after my lessons was a treat. Lord Henry would bring me to let me play in the sun shine on the hot dark stones of the courtyard. Then one day he surprised me by having a small garden planted. They were the only plants inside the courtyard. The only other plants I had seen before then were the forest plants that I could see from my room widow on the third floor.


I bend down to closer inspect the flowers. They bloom so brightly that bugs from all over are attracted to them and seek refuge in their petals. I have often wondered what kind of life the bugs see outside. How do the other humans live who are not under the watchful eye of their vampire lords? What do they do when he must feast? Do they give up loved ones? Do they give up the poor? Maybe they simply give him the people they don't like.



Today, he wants to speak. There is space for me to sit on the bench beside him, and so I do. I can feel the stolen warmth of his forearm near mine. When I was a little girl, I never knew. There would be times he would be warmer than others, and in my ignorance I would crawl into his lap like a cat seeking the warmth of a sunbeam. I know now that those times would be just after he had fed, when the hot blood of his victim ran through his veins renewing his own life and strengthening his body.

I try to smile, but I can see he is still scowling over the merman.

"Barbaric!" He speaks in a low voice, but the word spits from his mouth. "A cart full of young maidens. Does he think he is dealing with the werewolves?"


I try to sit quietly, staring ahead of me as if I were looking at my flowers. He is one to talk. Is he more refined simply because he uses young women like my mother and my grandmother, breeding them for his own amusement and fame? I suppose he's more refined because he has raised me and, instead of killing me, parades me me around when other vampire lords visit?

"Are the werewolves bad?" I ask as I try to channel the young girl I used to be. Though Lord Henry has said enough to make me understand that he does not approve of the werewolves, he has never said specifically what is bad about them. We share a border with one of the werewolf kingdoms, yet we have never had a visit from any of the werewolves.


He turns to me in a rare form. His teeth are plainly visible as he angrily tells me, "Very. I want you no where near a werewolf, do you understand? Even your magic would not be enough of a defense against them."

"Are they immune too? Like the vampires?"

"No, but they will not give you time to cast a spell once they have caught your scent." He looks away from me towards the flowers, deep in his own thoughts.

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Why yes, that is a vampire hanging out in the day. (Just so you know you're not imagining things.) XD