CURSE OF THE ENCHANTED STONE

Blood slipped out of Lenora’s body filling the ground with the fluid that she had carried for an eternal, immortal life. Tainting the white gown that she wore with the blood that could be said to be hers. Her beautiful long and black hair had come loose and cascaded her face while her crown was at the other edge of the room. Tears freely and wholly fell down her cheeks as life slipped out of her and what could be said to be a heart died over and over and over again. Not just for the mate that had died right before her, but for the love she had for the man who held the other end of the sword that took her life.

And she had no one else to blame but her proud and foolish self. As a queen who was the sovereign ruler over the great and mighty Bogaria, she was invincible and had ultimate power by her side. For 300 years, the kingdom had prospered under her and she had ruled with an iron fist and a good heart. She was kind, she was beautifully ruthless yet a good ruler, powerful, yet peaceful. And as a woman, she had always been perceived as weak and many people had attempted siege, murder, kidnap and assault on her. Only then did they truly realise how cruel, ruthless and powerful she was.

The fear of queen Lenora and the respect given to her, could be said to be the beginning of a prosperous future for Bogaria. Her people loved and hated her but she ruled nonetheless. Taking the throne, holding it, keeping it as her own and no one else could take it away from her. Not when it was hers from the beginning of time.

As a decade turned to a century and a century to more centuries, the kingdom prospered, grew and civilization slowly crept in. The humans started to rebel and hated the fact that they had to bow to a vampire queen and the vampires wanted someone chosen and decided by them. Their attacks on her were coming more often and each time, she put them to shame with a simple smile on her face and amusement in her eyes. She was untouchable and she remained that way. If the vampires couldn’t dethrone her, definitely, humans could not. Why fight to own something that was never yours in the beginning?

Lenora had been the one to take a simple town into her wings and brought the cohabitation of humans and vampire together. She brought development, peace, and the rise. She took the reins of leadership, because she wanted peace, unity, joy and power. No one deserved it more than her and no one had the right to take it from her.

Lenora smiled at the sweet irony of her life. The untouchable queen wasn’t so invincible after all and after so many years, they had succeeded in taking her down. Vampires might have an immortal life, but they were not immortal. They may live for centuries and rule the world being at the top of the food chain, but just like humans, when the vile thing called death comes, it does so without mercy.

She felt the life slip out of her as her nose itched at the strong smell of her own blood that had dampened her dress and stained the queenly attire she had worn specially for the banquet that was held to celebrate her and her newly found mate. Decades had run into decades and Lenora lived a lonely life all those years. Bearing the weight of the crown like none ever could till she found her mate. She finally no longer had to be lonely but the world had another plan for her and they showed it in ways that no one could have ever understood. While everyone arrived at the banquet in happy moods, beautiful dresses and a cheerful spirit, she was inside her chambers, that had been tumbled upside down and was dying right beside her mate.

The pain of the venom that roamed her body, ate up her life and spread to her chest became bearable. She turned to where her mate was and started crawling towards his lifeless and still body while she coughed out blood. The tears that ran out from her eyes and the cries that filled the room was not of the death she faced. Maybe it was punishment for all the terrible things that she had done to survive in such a miserable, lonely and powerful life. One of the first vampires to ever step foot in the human world, she had to do a lot of things to keep her power and gain more power while she ruled. She had of course lived long enough. There were only a few of the first who were left in the realm and there would be one more less if she died.

Long time ago, vampires had a different world, a realm where only vampires lived and ruled by themselves. Their hunger for blood had been quenched and they did pretty good with the animal blood they got. It was all they knew. They had lived for such a long time, they had overcome their thirst for blood, somewhat. No one went crazy over blood or hunger and they had no trouble living by themselves. They lived by themselves in their world and enjoyed the life given till a breach to their realm brought a human girl into their den. No one knew how she got in, since they had never thought about a way to get out of such a world that they were content in. One they simply knew.

The human girl was young, beautiful and confused when she first came. Vampires had gone on a rampage at the smell of human blood and had almost lost their sanity over her very presence. But she was just not any girl nor was she simply food for a few. She was the mate of one of the vampires and he did not let anything get close to her. That had brought about great trouble. People had rebelled, children had cried and things went chaotic. Stubborn vampires, tainted with ruthless behaviour had wanted her blood nonetheless and in order to get her, a war had begun. Vampires started fighting themselves, some to take the girl and others to protect her.

The wrong side won that fight. Their lustful spirit infected a lot more people and their numbers increased by the day. She was a mate to one of their kind, a rare thing to happen since she was human and was from a different realm but no one cared. At the end, they won and took away the mate of one of their own to fulfil their desires.

That battle had been small compared to battles of the past, but the after effect of it was more than most major wars that took place.

After everything seemed to have quieted down, many others who had not found their mate began wondering if their mate was human too. Soon enough, they sorted out a way to breach the realm and go down to the human world to find their own mate. Her brother had been one of the people who was ready to leave everything behind for his mate who he believed to be a human too. Lenora had no one else at home, no parents and nothing to hold on to, so she followed him and many others in their quest. They had been successful and had found the breach between their world and the next and had gone in readily, with a lot of excitement and anticipation.

In a world where only humans existed, most believed their mate had to be one of them. While a lot of them saw nothing but free food. The smell of the humans was so intoxicating, it was hard to not lust after them. And in horrific ways, they had a piece of each human they wanted. Lenora of course was kept away from all this. She wanted a piece as well, but her brother had been more controlled and had taken her away from all the blood, forcing her to control herself. She learnt how to see them like people and not food. Humans started to fight back when the killing didn’t stop and made to kill them or send them away. But her brother was adamant about leaving. That was because he had perceived his mate and was willing to bet his life on her. The confrontation only cost more blood lust and humans became scared for their lives. Her brother left for his mate immediately after and she was left alone with vampires who were driven mad by human blood.

News soon reached their realm that they had found a blood bank and more of their kind instantly started breaching their world to come down to the human world, abandoning the little world left for them. Things became uglier and uglier and the blood and dead bodies of humans filled the streets. They were like a virus to this world and humans hated and feared them. Lenora tried her best to calm her very impulsive kind and soon started a revolution with a few vampires who were not so impulsive. From a tiny group of annoying vampires always preaching to other vampires on respect and control, to a community fighting against vampires who saw humans as simply food to something even bigger and stronger. Many other humans started turning too and a new change came about. Humans who hated vampires would not hate their children who had been bitten and turned. Slowly, the animosity died down and they decided to come to a decision to live together without so much bloodshed with Lenora being the chief of such a movement. Not all vampires liked it but she grew stronger, bolder, fiercer and pulled crowds as she moved. Humans hated the idea but vampires were strong and they refused to leave their home, there was nothing to be done about it. With that, they started living as one and their world started growing. But the dispute never disappeared, nor did the death of humans and vampires alike. Each faction wanted to be at the top of the food chain and they went all out for it. Lenora had started making moves to keep peace and keep them together. She went through great lengths to do that and together her new world grew.

Soon enough, she became more than a chief to vampires but a town head. She had power and with power comes great responsibility. And with each growth, civilization and more came more responsibility and a bigger title. She became queen and had a dynasty on her own. She had done everything to maintain that peace. Only, humans were no longer satisfied and still thought vampires were not supposed to be at the top of the food chain. Other vampires were also involved, she grew enemies with every breath that she breathed but she got used to their attempts on her life. As said before, she was powerful and invincible, nothing could touch her.

All those years, she knew nothing but wealth, bloodshed, power and class. It was never a loss for her, the eternal years of wealth, power, supremacy and long life was not a loss to her. Her only loss was the man lying a few distance away from her. What mattered was the man who laid lifeless and still away from her. His heart had been plucked out from his chest and he was bleeding all over. Blood oozed out from his mouth, his eyes, his nose and his chest. His beautiful hair had lost all the life within it and his eyes looked like it was falling out from his sockets. His hair, which had always been as bright as the sun had turned into a shadowy grey, caused by his death. His bright fair skin had also become dark white and dead.

“No…” she shook her head, refusing to believe that he was dead. A human he was and his innocence was like the morning star, bright and alluring. He had not been tainted with the blood thirst, the eternal wicked life of a vampire and had been the purest thing she had ever seen in all her years of living. She loved him that way, she loved him too much and even when he asked to be turned, she had refused him right away. Many times, she would tell him to wait and he would wait.

Alec Carrick was aggrieved that he was different from the woman he loved and his people, the humans hated him for loving an enemy while vampires hated him for being human. He wanted to be accepted by one party and knew that the human’s hatred for vampires would never die. It was simple, it was either he chose to leave the only woman he had ever loved or become a vampire and be with her. He would never live without her and had chosen to forsake his people for the sake of his love. But when she bluntly rejected the idea that he turned, he had been hurt by her rejection and greatly aggrieved. But he loved her nonetheless and listened to her.

But now that she was staring at his body, she realised that it had been the greatest mistake she had ever made. He had died without a single fight, because he was weak. He was not even poisoned like she was and a vampire had ended him like that. She had denied him a chance to fight, to fight for them, for himself, for his life simply because she was selfish. With teary eyes, she pushed herself towards him and closed her hand around him. Pain beyond this world engulfed her, pushing her to her own death way faster than the poison that was killing her.

“You must be ashamed of yourself right now, aren't you?” Cassius, the voice of the man she saw as her brother boomed from behind her. He had left her in search of his mate and had stayed away for centuries only to return with so much hate and greed. The throne was his aim and he would take it no matter what. He had even made an agreement with the humans to achieve his aim and he was succeeding.

“I curse you, brother….” She pushed out within her sobs, expressing the bitterness of her heart. He laughed at her foolishness and started towards her with slow, threatening, stiff steps.

“You are not a witch, Lenora…such things do not exist…” he mocked and stood right beside her. Stepping on the pool of blood that had been created by her human mate and her blood mixed together.

“Oh, I’m no witch,” she smiled and thought back to the stone of her essence. She had been blessed to rule and she had met a witch a long time ago.

“But life isn’t ending just like that, you know,” she turned her body from the dead mate and turned to her brother. The tears in her eyes had dried off and the pain that engulfed her had grown numb within seconds. Something else replaced what she felt, hate, anger, revenge and a burning need to be back.

“Oh! Don’t be delusional, dear sister…” Cassius smiled, revealing an evil glint behind his eyes. It made her wonder what had happened to the brother that would not let her spill blood.

“What do you mean by life isn’t ending…...you will die here and now,”

“Do you think you have some kind of magical power to make things right all over again?” he bent down to her level and held her chin with an amused look on his face. He always hated that she was the best at everything. And while he roamed the new realm, they found themselves in for centuries, she made a home for herself, a great home while she became ruler over all. He hated that she was so strong, so bold, so favoured. What kind of blessing or favour had she acquired from the gods to have been favoured to such great extent? What had she done that he had not? She became queen, found her mate and he had nothing.

A sly and wicked smile tucked the corner of her lips and her dark eyes shone with evil intent.

“Oh, you will see, dear brother.” She hinted. Her bold words only angered him more and without further delay, he plunged his claws into her chest and seized her heart with his bare hands. The pain sent tremor down her spine, the fill of his grip on her life was more prominent but she would never give him the satisfaction of seeing her pain ever again. Her lips curved into a deadly smile and her eyes shone with power, boldness, the making of a queen to never bow before any man.

She stared straight into his eyes, a smile still on her lips even as he seized the life she had out of her. His eyes widened when she showed no sign of pain or misery. It made him tremble for a second when her gaze swept cold down his spine. Her eyes were like that of a ghost, ready, willing, able to haunt him till the end of his life. It sent fear into his heart and told him to be wary and nervous of the woman who was in front of him. But again, he was reminded that she was dying, there was nothing that she could do. With that, he tightened his grip on her heart as it pounded against his hand steadily and peacefully.

Before he could pull it out, she slashed her claws through his chest, surprising him and hurting him at once. He groaned when her cut tore through his jacket and through his skin and his blood spilled on her body and a bit of it on the ground where the pull of her blood and that of her mate was already gathered. He glared at the woman and with his other hand, he clawed her face and pulled out her heart from her chest. She fell back into the body of her dead lover and slipped into darkness. But a smile remained on her lips, for his blood, the blood of her lover and hers were mixed into one. They would meet again. surely.

Lenora understood nothing but only the fact that she was falling, falling deep, falling fast, falling for what looked like eternity, eternity without an end. It was neither dark or white, it was neither cold or hot, it was neither hell or heaven, nor was it life or death. It was somewhat in-between, pulling at her, pushing her to take a side, but her fate had already been sealed. She had been betrayed before, it wasn’t a new thing, neither was she so hurt by them. That was the world they lived in but when her brother had done it to her, no she simply wouldn’t take it. To her, her fate had been sealed, sealed together with that of her brother and lover. Nothing would change what would happen next, she knew where she was going. It was neither hell or heaven, it was not the afterlife for humans or vampires. But she was going to where her brother would be, where she would take back what was lost, another chance, she had been given, another chance she would get. Three fates had been tied