The Shadow on the Throne

You felt your body falling as if a trapdoor into shallow water opened beneath your feet. You fell screaming, twisting and turning down the icy slide, until you smashed into the hard deck, with the warmth of the sunny skies lingering above.

Getting up slowly, you saw Morgan standing before you, disapproval and regret painted on her mature beauty "You shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?" You growled "Tried to reach out to the mother who I thought dead!?"

"This is not a place for petulance, Charlie. Ghosts of the present we may be, but the combined power of Nevermore and the Lake is strong. Toying with the past is one of the great taboos which could unwind the world from the veil which protects us from the Realms beyond. You must exercise self-control, or the cost will be colossal." Morgan warned.

You sat back, closing your eyes "That's a shame, petulance is my speciality."

"You may jest your way through this as much as you wish. But do not think that I cannot sense your confusion. You're the son of royalty, Charlie, the heir to the house of Drake, and the throne of ****. Doesn't it stir you, even a little?" Morgan asked, as innocent as she was curious.

Deep down, somewhere inside, you'd always known you were different. Everyone else felt it too, Jane was drawn to it, Victoria and the others were perplexed by it and that scared them, but for you, the dreams of scaling the night sky and mounting the moon with a mantle of darkness would forever mark you as a son of the shadows. "It doesn't matter what stirs me. I have Rose and Diana, Rudy and Belle, I have the Nox, the Drakes, the girls who stare at me with awe and the boys with envy. **** has tried to claim me twice already, but here I am still kicking. They need to survive, whatever is coming, that is the only dog barking at my door."

Morgan seemed doubtful of your dismissal, she was right to be. The image of your mother Elizabeta, haunted your mind, and the lingering ghosts of your former memory pressed upon your mind.

It was with this raging current of thought, which drove you and Morgan onward on the celestial waves of insight as you took the helm of the white ship once again.

Mercy - Sloth

The ship docked in a cold and cruel feeling place. As you and Morgan stepped from the plank, the air was icy, derelict of life. So saturated with **** and darkness was this place that not even specs of dust or the subtle sounds of insects buzzing in the back of your powerful ears could be heard.

Only the persistence of a bottomless silence.

"Does it frighten you?" There it was again, you at once recognized the voice of your mother within the pitch black.

"Of course it does, How can you face the head of the snake when you've spent your entire life in the shadow of its rattle?" Your father, Roman once again.

Seeing, in this desolate place was difficult, but their shadowy figures in the black chamber lingered on what you realised was an illustrious four-poster bed.

Elizabeta lay in Roman's arms, her face tucked into his scarred neck, her mane of maroon hair splayed across his chest "You need not fear, not when I am with you. No harm may come to a mortal ushered in of my will."

"By the others maybe, but not him." Roman refuted, his lean form half exposed from under the red velvet duvet. He was leaner than you were, lighter with less muscle but his peachy skin was littered with hundreds of scars from countless battles.

Elizabeta cradled her Lover's cheek and gazed at him with more adoration than you'd ever seen "I would rather die my final **** than live a life without you. Do you disagree?" She asked, her tone soft as flowing molasses filling the room.

He ran his fingers through her dark red hair and shook his head "Better to die together than to live apart."

She threw a leg over him, mounting him gracefully revealing her polished white skin and flawlessly smooth back. "Then perhaps another attempt at our little experiment is required?"

His fingers touched her full hips, digging into the soft skin "Good thing, you're good-looking. You've got all the charm of a text-to-speech program. Yes, I'm sure a little bit of research would be of benefit"

She chuckled, biting her lips, arching her back as she lowered down to feel between his legs "Then do not waste our precious time with talk, we have sacrificed so much. If we are to ever leave this place alive, then the time must be now. Please, give me what you promised, I beg of you."

A rolling growl of lust escaped Roman's lips as he pushed up between Liz's pale thighs, finding the warmth to which she guided him. Her moans were light as she sunk his length into the tight wetness of her pussy, but her hands tensed with muscle around the thick headboard as she rode him in slow, deliberate pumps of her sultry hips.

With each plunge downwards on your father's cock, the huge bed rocked violently with her inhuman strength. The thunderclap of skin on skin, made Morgan wince, but you were almost hypnotized by the hammering rhythm and the synthonic coos that your mother emitted as Roman matched her passionate ferocity.

"Don't... break this time... You promised..." She murmured softly as she picked up to an almost inhuman pace. But Roman merely smiled, despite the overwhelming backbreaking pain that Liz's thrusts wrought.

In fact, he shot up, twisting Liz around and burning her face into the soft pillows. Her eyes blazed crimson against the black satin sheets as he pulled her full rump back into his length. With a cry; almost warlike he broke the silence with a responding word.

"Overdrive!"

Your father erupted with power, the heat streaming from his pores as he unleashed a rampant jackhammering **** between Liz's dripping walls. Screaming and yelping in delight, she dug her claws into the mattress as Roman's rapid face grew with every merciless piston inside of her.

The drumroll of your father's coital pace struck more than just the air, it struck you as well, align with the thump of your heart and mind where you felt all converge upon you, making you grasp your head and sink down to the cold floor.

"Charlie?" Morgan called worried, moving to help you.

But her voice was drowned out by your Mother's pleading cries "That's it, right there, don't stop my love. Give me what you promised! give me a son, give Diana a Brother, fill me up, fuck me raw! yes! YES!"

Their climax shook the dreamscape as they cried in unison, and you jolted feeling the prism of life itself burn within you. As his cum chased down into the flood of her cunt, you knew that one of many would find its mark.

Thousands of possibilities stretched in a web of the universe as the tiny cells fought for dominance, each with the potential to birth the Heir of a god into the world.

But in the end, it would be yours to claim victory, in the supercharged egg within Elizabeta's Womb.

Morgan helped you to your feet, her face twisted with a revelation "This is... we just watched your..."

You nodded silently. This was the spearhead of your birth, but what was this place, where were they and why was it so deathly and dark? It was a question, soon answered.

A blast of splinters erupted from the edge of the room, the heavy doors sliding across the cobbled floor as light bathed the room. Before either Your mother or father could react, a blur of hands and fingers enclosed their necks and faces dragging each away in a boom of otherworldly speed.

You and Morgan whirled, as if shaken around in a bottle, pulled along in an instant; tethered to Roman as He was suddenly thrown violently into a wall. You felt his ribs crack, his kneck-cap split and his head ring as a hand snatched up a handful of his black hair in an iron grip, smashing his forehead down into the floor.

Spitting blood and seeing stars, you watched from Roman's limited perspective as he was hoisted up on his shattered knees. Although clearly transported a great distance at bone-breaking speeds, you were sure that he wasn't removed from the strangely warped environment which he had been in before.

However, this chamber was huge and sprawling, with kaleidoscopic glass windows lingering high above, which stained the moonlight above in hues of Gold, violet and crimson.

Above in the circular pavilions around them, were many figures who gazed down with soulless eyes, fixing Roman with a nigh indescribable hatred.

"Kasz, Stritztat?"

The voice that spoke sounded so odd that your scrunched up your eyes and rubbed your ears, but as more voices spoke in that inhuman tongue, the more you thought you could pick out meanful words.

"Aieest, Karst-vun Nist-tat, Volun-tari, coom here, oof his own volition. Aaand she brought him here, this cannot stand." Yes, that was English, you could understand them? it sounded like nails being hammered in a coffin like dirt being slammed into a grave, it sounded like **** put to words... words that you understood.

It was the figure who **** your father's blood face up with a tight fist that was speaking. She was whiter than white, paler than Morgan and Liz combined, her silver garb gleaming so bright that it was near blinding. Her voice was like cold steel as she manhandled your father as if he were an ant beneath her boot "She brought this pathetic little mortal here and actually mated with him within our very walls. Such a thing should be punishable by ****, Your Majesty..."

Goosebumps flushed across your skin, looking up the long flight of stairs breaching the pavilions where the Upir stood, was a cloaked man shrouded in the shade. You narrowed your eyes, trying to see him clearly, but it was as if the light fled him in fear, he wore the darkness like a mantle and only his piercing orbs of fluorescent scarlet could be seen as he peered down at Roman, in apparent boredom.

You quickly realised, Morgan's absence, "Morgan?" You called, looking for her but unable to find your Wiccan companion at your side.

"How dare you touch him, how dare you harm him when I had forbidden it!" You turned to see your mother, held by a woman cast in illustrious armour of polished black iron. She only held Elizabeta with a single hand tightened around her wrist, but the grip was so unbreakable, that not even your Mother could escape as she roared in anger at Roman's bloody face.

"You were warned, against bringing your pets here, Princess Elizabeta." One of the Upir from the stands above called, an older man with a single greying braid, adorned in robes of crimson and gold.

"Silence, Gabriel, Grand Inquisitor or no, you will not speak to me this way. I am Princess Superior of this High Court, Heir to the throne of ****. Do you think that I returned to this accursed place by accident? I will speak to my father and my father alone."

Despite her bondage at the Iron-Knights mercy, those who had heard your Mother's demands obeyed instantly.

In this quiet minute, you noticed the chained creatures bellow the stands, prostrated on the onyx marble, a slithering, a hissing beast at their head with a great steel muzzle affixed to its head.

"Look at her, tainted by filth, wrought in mortal emotions no doubt. Such a disjointed creature cannot ever be allowed to Rule, Your Majesty." The Red-robbed man, Gabriel proclaimed.

"Respectfully, Lord Inquisitor, that is not up to you." Your head snapped up to the stands, as you recognized the tone that followed. Stood beside Gabriel, in a similar robe of red and silver was the beauty of a pale girl, with spiralling curls of red hair and sapphire blue eyes.

"Rose?" You muttered.

"Rosaria..." Elizabeta whispered "It... has been so long."

Rose's face was frozen and unfeeling, inquisitive and watching "It has." that was all that she said to Liz, before looking above "She has tainted our sacred home, that much is doubtless, Father, but the Blood of Dracul runs thick, We have already lost Valerica to her madness. We cannot lose another."

The Shadow on the Throne, lent forward, his eyes flickering from Elizabeta to Roman, staring long and hard into his swollen golden eyes.

"I-I... I never thought-" Roman's words were cut off when the Silver Upir holding him, pressed her thump into the back of his head, the pressure making him shake and his eyes roll back.

"STOP, MARIA, STOP, PLEASE! FATHER, IF HE DIES THEN I WILL DIE TOO, AND YOUR LEGACY WILL END!" Elizabeta yowled.

The Shadow on the throne moved for the first time, a slow raising of his hand; a halting gesture. The Silver Upir stopped at once and Roman lowered his head, huffing out breaths of relief.

The Court was silent as they all gaze up at the Shadow on the Throne, as He spoke a single word in a cool but withered voice.

"Speak."

"Talk, Mortal. The King of the Dead, demands it." The Silver Upir hissed in English so that he could understand.

Roman caught his breath and actually smiled "Good old... fashioned... English. Good good. I ur, was just gonna say, I never thought I'd see you in the flesh. We all grew up with the stories, but to be honest, I was never sure that you actually existed...." Your father admitted to the Shadow above, who seemed almost amused by the puny mortal's gumption.

He gestured again as if giving his blessing for Roman to continue.

"Princess Elizabeta, speaks the truth, Your Majesty." Roman said in a respectful tone "We came for a reason, despite my worries. You know that my family defeated the Moores, we ended what could have been the end to the Grand Charade. We may be separated by thousands of years, but our blood and our goal remain united."

"I bare this man no ill will, but the little rat compares himself to the Dragon. Perhaps Lady Maria is right, He should perish for such insolence." Called the Iron Knight who held, Liz in place.

"I deserve to die a thousand times for the things I've done, and for the things I plan to do. But Elizabeta is right, if You kill me, she'll only kill herself, and then your legacy ends." Roman said, grinning coyly.

The Shadow on the Throne's amusement clearly came to its end, as it craned it's neck down at him.

"Explain."

"We have done what no undead or Descendant has done, since the days of Old Dracula Himself. We have defied the Blood God, who I know for a fact troubles you just as it troubles us. Elizabeta will bare my son into this world."

Shock, disgust and even laughter filled the throneroom, but the Shadow above silenced them, filling the space with a serious air.

"You know it's true, Father. We have already made sacrifices to ensure conception, and once a Descendant's seed is sewn, it can never be undone. I will have this child, and he will be your grandson." Elizabeta spoke, as she touched her bare navel where the begining's of your life nestled within.

The Shadow let the moment drag as He contemplated their words and as if the pressure had been snatched away, all became suddenly calm.

The Iron Knight, let Elizabeta go and The Silver Upir released her grip from Roman, letting the man shamble to the ground where Liz quickly caught him, embracing him close.

"Leave us." The Shadow commanded, and in the blink of an eye, only Elizabeta and Roman remained as all others had vanished "Not. you."

Rose reappeared and knelt low at the Shadow's side. Standing, Rose walked down the long stairway to the throne "It is His Majesty's desire that you be banished from this sacred place while tainted with the Mortal Babe. You will be disgraced in the eyes of the Dracul forevermore, however, once the child is born and you are released from the bonds of this filthy mortal path you have chosen, You will return here at once and assume your rightful place as Dowager Queen to the King of ****, as is your fate.

This Mercy has been granted only because of his Majesty's acknowledgement of this Mortal Drake's bravery in confronting him and because this matter means little in the great current of causality. Any further provocation of the High Court, will result in the complete extermination of the House of Drake.

So he hath spoken."

Elizabeta paused, mixed with relief and grief but spoke out "And what of our son, He will be unharmed?"

But the Shadow on the Throne merely sat back, lazily and Rose repeated "So. he. hath. Spoken."

And with that final word, you felt the Abyssal stream, drag you away into the shadow away from your mother and your father, and the Shadow who loomed above them all.