"Well at least one of them has turned, though it would have been better if it had not happened out in the middle of the forest on the blood moon," Queen Ambrosia said flatly.
She and her two sons Grayson and Rayth were having their breakfasts in the royal dining room the morning after all of the events had unfolded. Grayson had been the one to inform her of what occurred the night before when Zane took Dr. Wright's advice and ingested blood in an attempt to speed up the process of his transition.
Apparently the blood worked quite marvelously and Zane's heart arrested shortly after, much like Ambrosia and Dr. Wright had suspected, but for some reason the child had decided to take it from the river in the middle of a Gray Vale blood moon ritual. It was remarkably stupid of him. He quite literally could not have picked a worse time.
Zane and his sister could have easily been killed, and then the royals would have lost the one advantage that they now had over immortality. It was a tremendous amount of power that Penelope and Zagan's daughter offered Ambrosia and her sons in particular, and she was not willing to lose it so easily.
"Would it have been better if it happened at home with his family, mother?" Grayson asked, an amused smile on his face as he sat next to her. "At least he was able to gorge himself at the river."
"None of this is amusing to me," she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why was no one watching them at the time? We have had guards on them nonstop for three years. Why were they not watching them last night?"
"It was the ritual," Rayth offered without taking his eyes from the newspaper spread out next to him on the table.
He had little interest in the siblings that his mother was so protective of. He would prefer if they perished last night simply so he would not have to hear about them anymore. It was taking a tremendous amount of their security detail just to watch the family.
Sure, the female could end immortality for whatever individuals the royal family wished to eliminate. But why was that better than torture?
Ambrosia always argued that the day may come when any one of them wished to actually die and this… Cora… could provide them that ability. But Rayth did not believe that day would come. Vampires were meant to be immortal. That is the way it had always been.
Regardless of how much power the gift of death afforded them in the form of this Cora, in his opinion it was not worth the cost. Their rivals may bow down before them in order to be allowed the use of Cora's power, but he preferred to keep things the way they were. And no one could convince him otherwise, not even his mother.
Ambrosia sighed. "The guards left them to observe the blood moon. I see. We should have anticipated that."
"No one would have thought those two would have dared leave their home during that time," Grayson chuckled to himself. Regardless of what his mother said, he found it incredibly amusing.
"And the boy has been safely contained for now until he gets his cravings under control?" Ambrosia asked, lifting a small piece of raw meat to her lips with the gold fork in her hand.
"Yes, of course," Grayson said. "I still have yet to inform his mother and sister about what happened."
Ambrosia set the fork next to her plate a little too forcefully, her black eyes narrowing at her son once again. "Why have you not done it? Do you know how dramatic their emotions can be? They are probably besides themselves with worry. Why do we even bother teaching about human emotions when everyone remains so clueless when the time comes to put the knowledge into practice? Even my own son."
"Such little time has gone by," he frowned. "It has been barely a blink of the eye."
"For them, it has been an eternity," she said coldly.
Rayth chuckled on the other side of her, shaking his head. Humans were ridiculous. An eternity? They had no concept of the term. How did they even manage to continue existing with emotions that swung so quickly and dramatically in such short time? No wonder their lives were so brief.
"It is true, Rayth," she said.
"I am not denying your truth, mother," he responded without looking at her. "I simply despise them."
"Well you will need to change that perspective or at least learn how to mask it. Cora and her mother will need to be moved into the palace after last night, and I will need you to get close to her."
"Why?" He hissed, glaring at her now.
"She left a green trail of life in the forest that did not escape several people's attention. I am not sure how safe they are anymore," she said, eyebrows arching a reprimand to his venomous tone and glare.
"So she is stupid, but why must I get close to her?" His lip curled back over his fangs. He could not think of anything worse than that.
Grayson's brow furrowed at whatever plan Ambrosia was hatching in her mind. Rayth was not the one to use. He hated the presence of Cora and her family, and while Grayson did not consider himself particularly fond of them either, he didn't want to see the girl harmed. There was something… innocent about her.
Whenever she was around, Grayson struggled with the confusion she brought him. In fact, he often froze, attempting to sort through it. It was like there was a bloom of life trying to wiggle forth and gain access, penetrating his dense, immortal shell. Was she aware of it? Was she doing it on purpose?
"Mother, with all due respect…" he began only to be cut off with the weight of another glare from her.
"You will go inform them of the boy's status. They must know immediately," she said, refusing to hear anything else from him until it was done. "Rayth, I will speak with you privately."