Chapter 6 - The Executioner

Lucas POV

I have been stuck in this hell for 10 years now. My father making sure to create me in his image. Any joy or happiness that I once felt was soon whipped out of me. Generally with the back of my fathers hand, but on occasion I was left in the cells to rot with the rest of the creatures that my father deemed as enemies.

They call me the Prince of Darkness. And they are not wrong, after all my father is Lucifer, the devil himself, God of death, King of the shadows and the first fallen angel.

He made me his executioner and right hand man after his last one disappointed him. Its no surprise really, it doesn’t take much to disappoint Lucifer. My only redeeming quality is that I am his last remaining heir. He needs me alive to hold his thrown from those who would look to take it from him.

I stalk down the cold narrow corridors towards the dungeons. Its nothing new, I know these corridors and halls very well, most of my time is spent roaming them. Lucifer has many enemies, and those that weren’t enemies when they first arrive, certainly would be when they left, if they left. Let’s face it you don’t get the title of the devil by letting people escape with their lives. No most of the souls in these cells are fated to rot for all eternity or to end there lives as the snivelling wretches they are, caked in their own excrement.

The halls were lined with blazing torches mounted to the solid stone walls. Father didn’t believe in electricity, it being the design of mortals. He preferred to keep things simple.

My shadow dances off of the walls as I walk, my foot fall bouncing around me.

I come to a cell in the middle of the row. I look down taking in the miserable form of a young female creature, I look down at the poor soul who would be my next unwitting victim. A vampire. The thing about vampires is that they are immortal. No matter how diluted the blood gets from the “original" vampire, their immortality remains the same. For those that are free I can see the attraction to eternal life. After all that is my curse as well, but For a vampire it comes at a great cost.

To live they must consume blood, unlike myself who can live perfectly well from normal food. When a vampire stops consuming blood, after the first few decades of starvation, the body goes into a sort of hibernation. It shuts off and crusting over in a sort of self preservation like state. From what I have been told its quite excruciating. The starvation is agony, but the last stage of preservation is next to having concrete injected into your blood stream. There are ways of speeding up the preservation process, its a skill I have learnt to hone in my time as executioner. You have to “bleed" the vampire. The more blood you take, that with cutting off their food source so they cannot replenish, the quicker the body shuts down. Its all rather fascinating to watch.

I looked down at the girl with indifference. This isn’t my first rodeo, I learnt a long time ago humanity does not come into my line of work. In fact the less you feel, the easier the job becomes.

“Bring her.” I bark at the nearest guard, turning on my heels I head to the closed interrogation room.

The room in plain, just like the rest of this wing, the air is cold and damp. A single torch hangs in the corner. In the centre of the room sits an iron chair, with chains and iron cuffs to strap the prisoners into. It looks like a medieval torturing device. In fact, it most likely is a medieval touring device.

I watch as the guard drags the girl in by her hair and drops her into the chair. She doesn’t even call out in pain. She hasn’t been down here for long, barley enough time to feel the full effects of blood starvation but long enough to not be able fight back.

He straps her arms to each arm rest with the iron cuffs and wraps the chains around her chest. The girl is pale, she hardly looks old enough to have be out of school age, let alone to be turned.

She looks up at me, pleading eyes. This one won’t be hard to break. I can smell the weakness radiating off of her in waves. I pull a flask off of my belt and unscrew the top. The sickly metallic smell of blood fills the room. It doesn’t take long before the smell reached the girls nose. Her eyes turn blood red and she begins trashing about in the chair, fangs appearing from her open mouth.

My mouth turns my in a smirk as I watch her. Her hunger is taking over. Taking a firm grip of her forehead I pull her head back painfully and run the neck of the bottle under her nose to make sure I had her full attention.

“You want this girl?” I ask her, my voice calm but laced with an unspoken threat. “You will answer my questions.”

The girls gaze never left my face as I spoke, she did not respond but gave a small nod. I smirk again, she honestly believed that I would give her what she wanted, if only she knew that she would not be leaving this room alive tonight.

“Very well, let us begin.” I let go of her head and take a step back. “Who is your master?”

“Lord Tyrell.” She replied promptly, her voice quivering slightly. I was not surprised Tyrell had been a thorn in my side for months now, he had tried several times to infiltrate the castle, but no-one knew why or what he was hoping to gain if her were to get in.

“Tell me what your master is planning.” I ask propping myself up against a rickety old table in the corner of the room.

“I, I, I have no idea.” She stammered, struggling to keep the blood lust under control. “I am told nothing my lord.”

“You mean to tell me, a young fledging like you, who would not be able to stray far from your master side for at least the next decade has not heard one detail about his plans?” I tried to keep my voice even, not wanted to scare the girl too early, at the moment she was cooperating for now.

“No, my lord. He doesn’t speak of anything important in front of me.” Her eyes flickered hungrily down to the bottle in my hand before returning to me.

“He has not breathed one single word in you hearing?” I was starting to loose my patience with this girl.

“No my lord I swear.”

“Very well, I have no further use for you.” With that I take a stake out of my waist belt and in one swift motion bring it down towards her chest.

“WAIT, WAIT, please!” she calls out. My hand stops mere millimetres from her chest, all it would take is a small flick of my wrist and the stake would be embedded into her heart. “I did hear one thing, its not of his plans but it may be of use to you. Just please don’t kill me.” She begs.

“You had better spit it out girl, before I decide your not worth my time.” My eyes flashed to black angrily.

“He was talking about a girl. Her name was unusual” scrunches her eyes together in concentration , Evelyn, No Avalon. Yes, that’s it Avalon!” she opens her eyes a look of relief coming over her features, “He said that she is to come of age in the next few days. Meaning she will be of age to take her place as her families matriarch. He said that they could not allow that to happen. Especially because of the blood vow that surrounds her. He also said that he had heard whisperings of the fire within her was awakening.” I still at the girls words. I look deep into her eyes and pull her hair sharply back so her face is pointing towards the torch light, trying to confirm if she is speaking the truth. I see nothing there to say she is lying.

“Did your master mention where she was or why he believed that she had a blood vow on her?” I question, the malice no longer evident in my voice.

“No my lord, that was all I heard.” She seems to perk up having given me the information. She thought it would save her. Before she could say anything more I drove the stake into her heart, not bothering to look back at her shocked expression, I left the room, instructing the guard to “clean it up.” Before I exited to room and paced the dark corridor.

Avalon was alive? How is that possible, she was believed to have perished along with her mother the same night I was taken. I certainly hadn’t felt any bond since that night. The bond that once held us together strong was now just a piece of string flying in the wind, there was no anchor. It cannot be the same girl, but then it couldn’t just be coincidence that I girl with the same name and blood vow over her should appear now, at the same age as my Avalon would have been. No it must be her. Avalon survived. But why could I not feel her. I had to be sure of the girls words. Be sure that the girl that she spoke of was in fact his Avalon. I would dispatch someone who I could trust to make enquires.

I paused by an open window and press my head to the cool glass gazing out into the black abyss that was the underworld. “Oh Lonnie. Please let it be you.” I whisper to myself. For the first time in a long time hope flared in my heart. A feeling I was not used to now. There were some that would argue that I did not have a heart at all. I rub my chest absentmindedly and continue on my way. One thing was certain, my father could not hear of this.

Before leaving the dungeons, I made sure to dispatch the guard who had witnessed the girls interrogation before heading back to my quarters.