Opulent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) (30 page)

I
t was all over in only a minute’s time. My eyes opened and I saw my body in his arms. I was just like a spirit ready to be reincarnated, but I was not so quick to reincarnate myself. I stood, waited and watched to see what would come of Pete and his disposition. Versailles came out of nowhere, the pastel ribbons flying behind her as she ran for him, too late. Beside her was Phantilla, who let out a scream so loud even I could hear it.

“You upset the balance of all things good!”

              Versailles shot forward, pointed her horn at him and backed away, realizing she was too late. Phantilla, now outraged, flapped her heavy wings and began to attack him. Her golden beak struck his neck as the unicorn kept the wolves at bay.

“How do
you
like it? How do
you
like it?” The star screamed, her golden beak poking him even harder.

              He did not fight back, but simply let the swan do her worst, and stayed defenseless. After the star attacked him, he carried my body away, left the bridge, and disappeared. Wherever he had gone did not look familiar to me. I would have gone to look around the place, but I could only go so far from my body. 

“Oh Chenille what have I done to you?”

              I sat down beside my body and listened to him.

“I know you can hear me,” he said. “It was for your own good. I can’t have you running off…I know I’m not good enough for you. I know you hate me…and I know Fitzray and Lucian…even that other immortal were better than I would ever be. But I can change…I will.”

“
No you won’t.
”
I whispered ghostly. I knew he could hear me.

“I will, I will. You have to trust me.”

“I never did. I won’t trust you now, after all you’ve done.”

“You have to reconsider. You have to reincarnate yourself.”

“I have a choice?”

“Yes, it’s up to you if you want to be reincarnated or not. If you don’t, Catastrophe will suffer, like Phantilla said. The balance is broken. I can’t rule without you.”

“
You should have thought of that before.
”

“I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t even myself.”

“
What if I don’t come back?
”

“Chenille you have to...
you have to
.”

“
You would be all alone, wouldn’t you? You would rule alone and things would never be the same.
”

“
Chenille please, what do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do so you can come back?”

“
You don’t really know what you have until it’s gone.
”

“What about your friends? What about your child?”

“
I know he is safe with Taj’ and Pearl.
”

“What about me? You don’t think I could get him, and raise him as my own?”

“
You could, but remember it is I who makes the decision to come back or not. If you leave this room, I will too.
”

“What about your horse and your dragon?”

“
Set them all free.
”

“And what about your family?”

“
They got what they wanted. If I came back, it would only make matters worse. Why should I come back? I don’t need you. What have you ever done for me? You turned me into the creature I am today. You gave me no free will. You created me and caged me only for me to become Queen and serve as your slave. Perhaps today you have finally given me what I want - freedom. I couldn’t have given that to myself even if I tried. It needed to be from you, and you finally set me free. This is an opportunity Pete, one I will either take advantage of or throw away for later regret.
”

“No, you won’t regret. I will live up to my promises.”

“
I am still waiting from when you said that the first time.
”

“You have to give me a chance.”

“
I have given you one too many.
”

“
So you are just going to leave? You are going to give up all the power I worked so hard to get?
”

“
How was being Queen any different for me? You can keep your power.
”

  “You are making a mistake. You are making…a mistake.”

             
He lowered his head now, in defeat, with nothing else left to say. He could persuade me no more and simply stayed quiet, breathing shakily over my body and holding it as if I was still there occupying it.

             
There was a noise. The door opened and a golden light flooded in.  The door slammed shut without a trace of what could have entered, but there were screams coming from behind the door, like what nightmares and creatures of the imagination sounded like. There was a flash of gold and light slowly began to shroud the room, slowly from the door, spilling over to the corners and making its way inward to the center of the room. Pete lifted his head, disregarding the spilling gold light that now crept up the walls. There was a figure there I could see, holding a golden sword in his hands. I could not see his face. Pete rose at sight of the figure, backed away from my body, and slowly sank to his knees in surrender.

“Annabel.” The voice said darkly.

              I knew who it was now. The golden sword rose in the air and came down on Pete. He was useless without motivation or anger to fight anything. He stumbled back to one of the patches of darkness, a black stream of either blood or poison, I could not tell, formed at the corners of his mouth. He was defeated, unable to reincarnate, but simply remained deprived of power, now left weakened without a queen - without an Eternal Mate.

              I drifted down to Pete, tried to get close to him and called his name, but I could only go so far from my body. The gold light too was keeping me in the center of the room, preventing escape. The figure came up to my body, one hand still holding the golden sword, the other shaking me. The figure did not understand that the body that rested on the bed would not wake, would not breathe. I drifted away from the golden sword, but the gold light was rushing in from the sword and the room was losing its darkness. I could see my body becoming very tense as though it reflected the way I was feeling. And I could feel an unbearable pain on my shoulders from the figure shaking me so hard, and the gold light became more intense, so much I lost my sight. I could only see darkness now.

“I will free you Chenille.” There was a low groan from Pete and I could not hear his voice after that. I could not hear anything after that. I was screaming.

“
I don’t want to be the Queen of Catastrophe! I don’t want to be the Queen of Catastrophe!
”

              I was the only one that could not hear the smack of an open door. Pete opened the door and screams filled the small room. The gold light vanished, the darkness took its shape over everything, and my mind went blank.

I
opened my eyes, saw Pete there before me, and let out a yelp, backing away before he could get near.

“Catastrophe…I don’t want to be the Queen of Catastrophe!”

              I shook my head, trying to rid the long painful nightmare from my mind and my family who had come to spell my death.

“You were asleep. You must have had a bad dream, but you are all right now. I am here.”

              I backed up against the willow tree’s trunk in disgust. “How could you say that?”

“Relax, what’s gotten you so shaken?”

“Stay back…I…I know your secret! You’re a vampire!”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“That means I am your Eternal Mate.” My head began to spin recalling all of the detail from the nightmare. “There was a phoenix and a unicorn…and I was queen of it all! And I became a vampire and had to go across the Bridge of Secrecy to my brother only to find out that my family was a bunch of werewolves. And it was all because of you…all because you bit me.”

“Let me guess, were there dragons too?”

              I sat against the tree confused.   

              Pete shook his head and neared my ear. “What a vivid imagination one must have to have such a dream as that. You know I love you and I would never hurt you.” There was almost an edge of sarcasm to his tone.

“But that’s what happened, I swear!”

“I wouldn’t doubt it for a minute.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“About an hour…or two.” He said.

“You left me here didn’t you? And you came back.”

              I sighed somewhat disappointed the whole dream was not real, even though it felt so.

              He put a hand gently to my shoulder, a wonderful scent wafted around him and he came so close as to be only a breath’s distance away.

“Wait. How old am I?”

              I heard a deep chuckle begin to form at the back of his throat. “Let me think. You are eighteen. Any more questions?”

“How old are you?”

“I am nineteen.” I felt his fingers lightly press against my shoulder and I flinched from a pain in my neck.

              He smiled, neared closer and kissed me. I waited to taste poison, waited for it to come, but there wasn’t any at all. There was nothing strange like sickening black poison or thick black blood. It was ordinary as though it was a kiss from a mortal. Just then, as he broke away, there was a trace of something on my lips. I could taste it faintly and as I licked my lips, I almost doubted it. No, it wasn’t poison, not poison at all. It was blood.

“Y
ou did this. You are a vampire.”

“No I’m not,” he replied calmly. “What’s wrong?”

“I just thought-,” I began, quickly shaking my head. My lips were so badly chapped, they bled, and at once, my hand flew to my mouth.

“You thought wrong. I am no monster.” He put a reassuring hand to my shoulder. “Vampires don’t exist. At least not now,” I heard him say beneath his breath.

              I looked around, feeling the chill of the night come over me. The moon was full tonight and cast a beam of white light over the willow tree. Something was shining in the distance. I turned to Pete and pointed at the object. At once, he stood and gathered it in his hands to bring it back to me. It was a large piece of silver carved out to form two dragons.

“What is that?”

“A necklace.”

              Just then, Pete’s cousin Louie came over. He noticed the necklace and took it in his hands to examine it.

“Will you look at this? What a piece of art this is.” He rolled it repeatedly in his hands and smiled, handing it back to me. “Something like that is known to hold amazing powers.  If you wear it, it might grant you wealth and good fortune.”

“You seem to know a lot about it.”

              Louie shrugged his shoulders in response.

“Put it on Chenille.”

“Let’s go back inside. Dinner is about to begin.”

              I followed them back into my house to where everyone had gathered around the dining table. As I took my seat, everyone looked at the large silver dragon necklace. Louie sat next to me, lowering his voice.

“It once belonged to a princess.” I looked at him surprised.   “Pete planned on giving it to you earlier but I suppose he dropped it when he saw you asleep against the old willow.” He paused to glance at the necklace. “Some say it is a gift to symbolize the friendship of two people, hence the two silver dragons. The crescent moon made of diamond behind them represents the tranquility and peace between them.” He paused to run his hands over the silver dragons. “When Pete saw you sound asleep near the willow he came and got me. You know how he can be sometimes, he always thinks of the worst. With that wild dog running around the neighborhood, he was frantic. You should have seen him.”                       

              I looked over to Pete who had heard what Louie said and smiled.

“He’s glad you’re ok. We all are.” He looked to the family.

“It is a beautiful piece isn’t it?” I chimed showing it to my family.

              They all seemed to agree that it was remarkable and looked over at Pete who had clearly impressed them with his gift to me. I felt a ping of joy as I clutched the necklace.

“Don’t flatter yourself
Queen of Catastrophe
,” Louie whispered, his lips brushing against my ear. “You have no idea what you just got yourself into.”