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GOSSIP IN THE PALACE WALLS

Author: Maranatha
last update Last Updated: 2025-03-16 00:06:09
The kitchens always smelled of woodsmoke and yeast, the scent clinging to the very stones. It should have been comforting, but tonight it wasn’t. The servants huddled close after their evening chores, as though warmth could shield them from what their whispers carried.

“I tell you, I saw the guards come in myself,” Mara insisted, eyes wide. “Their armor was ripped clean through. Ripped, as though by claws.”

Ansel frowned, skeptical. “Claws? Come off it. A blade could do the same.”

“Blades leave edges,” Mara said sharply. “These were tears. Rents in the metal, like teeth had worried it. And the blood—”

“Enough,” Cook Hilda snapped, pounding dough against the counter. “You’ll scare the girl.”

Sophia, standing by the doorway with a basket of folded cloths, stiffened. They thought she wasn’t listening, but every word slipped under her skin.

Claws. Teeth. Wolves.

Her brow furrowed. Wolves? That was nonsense. Wolves were stories told by firelight to frighten children into obedi
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  • The Vampires innocent Prey    A CROWN FOR HER REVENGE

    The fire crackled softly in the hearth, casting long, flickering shadows across the stone walls. He sat still, his eyes fixed on the flames but seeing something far more distant. Thoughts twisted around each other like smoke, dense and suffocating. Marriage. Charlotte. His jaw clenched. Charlotte would make the perfect wife—on paper. Her bloodline was pure, her demeanor graceful, and her blood… potent. Rare. Curing. He could already feel the instinctive pull in his veins, the hunger that flared whenever she was near. She was the solution to everything: the council’s pressure, his thirst, the ever-growing whispers about his instability. All of it could end with her. And yet… He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, staring deeper into the fire as though it could burn the truth out of him. She didn’t move him. She didn’t make his pulse quicken or his mind spiral into obsession. Being near her was like being submerged in ice: still, numbing, suffocating in it

  • The Vampires innocent Prey    EVERYONE WANTS SOMETHING

    Azriel continued to walk, leaving her to trail behind him, his long strides echoing off the stone pathway. Charlotte struggled to keep up, the crunch of gravel beneath her boots the only sound bridging the growing distance between them. This time, they walked in silence—neither willing to break it first. Each was consumed by a storm of thoughts, though theirs raged in very different skies. The estate was already prepared when they arrived. A large, sprawling manor perched on the edge of a lake, its stone face cloaked in ivy and pride. Servants had vanished discreetly, and the only sound now was the occasional whisper of wind through the trees. “I don’t know what my mother wants us to do here,” Azriel muttered, more to the air than to her, his voice carrying a detached indifference. Charlotte glanced at him from the corner of her eye, noting how effortlessly regal he looked in the fading sunlight. “Well,” she began cautiously, “we should find something to do. So time passes faster.

  • The Vampires innocent Prey    UNEASE

    The dining hall gleamed with cold morning light, pouring through tall arched windows and casting pale gold across the long table. Silverware glinted, polished to perfection, while bowls of fruit and steaming platters of bread were set out by silent servants who moved like shadows at the edges of the room. At the head of the table sat the King, his broad shoulders squared beneath a robe of deep crimson. He tore a piece of bread with deliberate calm, but his eyes—storm-dark and heavy—were fixed not on the meal before him, but on the figures gathered. The Queen sat opposite him, serene in posture but sharp in gaze. Her goblet of watered wine remained untouched, fingers resting lightly on its rim. A single glance from her could quiet an entire hall, and this morning was no different. Azriel, the Prince, occupied the place to his father’s right. His dark hair caught the light when he shifted, but his expression was carved from stone, unreadable as always. He moved with quiet precision

  • The Vampires innocent Prey    THE WEIGHT OF HIS GAZE

    The clang of the morning bell pulled Sophia from a restless sleep. Her body ached as though she hadn’t truly rested at all, and when her eyes opened, the faint light of dawn was already filtering through the narrow slit of a window in the servants’ quarters. Around her, the other maids stirred, some already tying their aprons, others rushing to pull on stockings before the overseer’s sharp voice came hunting. Sophia sat up slowly, clutching the thin blanket to her chest. The memory of last night clung like a chill—the shadow that hadn’t belonged, the sense of being watched. She swallowed it down, reminding herself where she was. Dreams, perhaps. Nothing more. “Hurry, girl,” one of the older maids hissed as she passed. “The kitchens don’t wait for stragglers.” Sophia mumbled a soft apology and dressed quickly, fingers fumbling with the ties of her apron. The coarse fabric itched against her skin, a stark reminder that she was no longer free to wander or choose. Here, everything ha

  • The Vampires innocent Prey    MARKED AS HIS

    Azriel closed the heavy doors of his chamber behind him, the hollow clang echoing in the dark. The air inside was cool, still, touched faintly by the lingering scent of old wood and iron. This was his haven, a place carved for silence, where the world’s noise and weakness could not reach him. Normally, it would settle him, draw his thoughts back into the precision he demanded of himself. But tonight, silence did not soothe. Tonight, silence mocked him. He crossed to the tall window where the night pressed its black face against the glass. Beyond, the courtyard lay drowned in shadow, the torches already guttering low. The moon struggled behind a drift of cloud, light pale and fractured. His reflection bled faintly into the glass—hard eyes, a face that gave nothing away. And yet beneath that mask, his mind was not obedient. It wandered. To her. Sophia. Azriel exhaled slowly, fingers curling against the sill as if gripping the cold stone would anchor him. The memory returned unb

  • The Vampires innocent Prey     THE FEAR THAT LINGERS

    Sophia’s steps quickened, though she tried not to let them sound like running. The corridors stretched endlessly, the glow of the torches flickering over the polished stone as if mocking her fear. She pressed her lips together, whispering to herself that it was only gossip, only foolish stories. Wolves, beasts—creatures like that didn’t exist. They couldn’t. But the memory of the servants’ voices clung stubbornly. Something older. Something that doesn’t belong to our world. Her chest tightened. She turned the corner leading toward the main stairwell—then stopped dead. For a heartbeat, the shadows didn’t look right. The torchlight caught against the wall, yet there was a shape moving where no flame reached. Tall, impossibly still, and darker than the shadows around it. Sophia blinked, her hand clutching the stone of the wall for balance. When her eyes adjusted, the shape was gone, as though it had melted back into the dark. Her breath came ragged. She told herself it must have

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