Lady Dhampir
Chapter 307

Milena felt someone lift her, with incredible ease. She didn't fight, she was conscious she was too vul all gone, some in horrible circumstances, so ravaged she could barely recognize those who had stood The pain was going numb in her shoulder, thankfully. Her medicine was taking effect, although it woul strength to resist him, but on top of that, that person seemed to be carrying her effortlessly. Was that a knight she knew... Who the hell was he? She glimpsed to the side, but everything seemed dark, and Milena was moved to the next room, the one she had been trying to reach all along. To her surprise th open on such a high level floor? She shivered, her body already cold from the blood loss. She saw the the losses she had endured that day. She could only hope that the only deaths were those she was av "I've seen you wearing better colors," chuckled the voice.

Milena was suddenly placed on a chair. She witnessed, powerless, as he tied her legs and wrists to it. from it all... She tried to look around. The King's Tower? It was meant to be an observation deck for th out of place. The pieces of furniture didn't match, as if they had been taken from different rooms and "Now," he said. "It looks like we do have some time ahead of us, Grand Princess..."

Milena f****d her eyes to go back to the silhouette. The man was standing at the edge of the tower, rig glared.

"The... Head Priest," she groaned.

"Of course," he chuckled. "Although, that's just one identity among many... I do think this is my favorit This confirmed her thoughts. It wasn't the Head Priest, it was the White One they had been searching while... Whoever had taken on the High Priest' identity had been pulling the strings for a very, very lor She heard him chuckle, and he turned around. This time, there was no doubt. The expression in those

and weak to risk engaging in a fight now. She was carried over, floating above the lake of blood in the room, and the bodies of her men left there. They were just minutes before. mporary. She tried to make sense of what was happening. Who was carrying her? His presence felt familiar, but not in a good way. She didn't even have the er? She tried to focus the best she could. She could definitely feel some toned muscles under his clothes. Yes. He was male, and trained for combat. It wasn't color was just dark, too common. The way she was carried like a sack made her want to throw up, but she tried to hold it in. At least, she wasn't dead yet... things were much different from how she remembered them. First, there was this cold wind that hit her face. Who was mad enough to keep the windows wide il following them, and the hall they had just left, still in the dark, only the silhouettes of dead bodies visible in the darkness. Her heart hurt again from all .. and that her allies would come here soon. Milena was a poor judge of her own state, but it wasn't a foolish bet to say it wasn't good.

maced and groaned in horrible pain when he moved her right arm, the pain radiating again throughout her whole body. The painkiller couldn't protect her Family, but it had been seldom used in recent years. Milena herself hadn't been there much, once again, but she knew most of the things in this room were ed here last minute. The tower itself was dusty, she could see the grey veil on some of the drawers.

ront of the railing, looking down at the battles. He was turning his back on Milena, but now that she was seated, she could think a bit more clearly. She

gh. I've used this body the most."

along. It also was one of Raelius' siblings, most likely. A vain feeling of satisfaction brought Milena a bit of confidence back. So she had been right for a

was not the one of a young priest, it was the being who had been masquerading in this body all along. The body itself didn't matter, Milena guessed it was already dead. What mattered was the being inside. Someone old, confident and used to working in thows. With a theatrical sigh, he moved back to her, and sat down. Only then did Milena realize she and her opponent were separated by a table, with a game of chess on it. He smiled, and moved the pieces back to their position for a new game.

"If my information is right... You should be a decent player, aren't you, Princess?" "I didn't come to chat."

Every sentence was hard to push past her lips. Her vision was so narrow, she could only focus on one thing at a time. Still, Milena was trying to retain her clarity. She had to make this man talk, as much as possible. She had to find how his power worked, how they could get rid of him for good. If he had survived using bodies all this time, there had to be one way to finally end him... She glanced down at the Chess Game; She hadn't played in so long... but if there was one thing she had learned, it was that one game could reveal a lot about her opponent, without words.

He smiled.

"You're tenacious, Princess. That's quite remarkable, for a woman... But we both have some time to spare, I believe. Your husband is still in the Castle's courtyard, and the rebels downtown are in quite some trouble as well. Neither your furry friend nor my annoying brother are back here yet, so I'm merely offering for the two of us to have a simple game. You could probably use some time, couldn't you? After all, those painkillers are only buying you a bit of relief, and if you use that capsule of poison in your mouth, well... I’U have another free body to borrow. Wouldn't that be too foolish of a death, for the Grand Princess De Crescent?"

Milena's heart sunk in her chest. So he already knew. Her hands gripped on the armchair, annoyed....It made sense all noble families had known about those old strategies, and he was probably more than familiar with those. She had taken that capsule as a precaution, but indeed, if she used it now, it would be for nothing. Milena hesitated. She wanted to think his words were genuine, but that was her trying to guess the mind of a genius of betrayals. There was no point. She could only go by what she could see and

hear. He chuckled.

"So doubtful! I will be honest, the De Crescent Family was always quite annoying. Too righteous, and self-centered. I never really liked their pride, as if they were this Kingdom's masters. I guess you're their righteous descendant... Well, since you've already consumed an antidote as well, would you like some wine?"

"...I would much rather have blood, Your Majesty."

He froze. A smirk appeared on Milena's lips. Sure, he knew about the little tricks she had used, but she wouldn't let herself be impressed. She was no impressionable cub, she was an experienced wolf.

After a second of surprise, he slowly walked to a little bar, and took out a bottle of blood.

"... How did you know?" He asked. "I was sure you would all have thought I was Sleverin, or that useless little brother of ours, Rolin."

"I did think that at first," She said. "The mad scientist... It would have been a perfect match with the nonsense left in our History Books, after all. However, I changed my mind after learning more about the White Ones, and talking with the Sevira sisters... but I was only really sure after meeting with Raelius." "He's always been a pest," he groaned. "Now and then..."

"... Why?" Milena frowned. "I don't understand. Just... why? You were a vampire, just like him. All you've done so far has been... against vampires, for humans. It doesn't make sense."

He slowly turned back to her. He was holding a large glass of blood, a wry smile on his lips. Like this, he did look a bit like Raelius, and... like Rayan, his own descendant. He slowly put the glass to his lip, and drank it all slowly. Then, he walked up to the Chess Table, and put down the empty glass.

"Black or White?"

"You supported the humans, prevented the Vampires from ever getting too powerful," Milena continued, annoyed, her mind a bit clearer. "You created White Ones and Wendigos, antagonized your own kind!"

"...The black ones it is, then."

He turned the game around, and moved forward one first white pawn.

"This is a game, Princess Milena," he said. "The side you choose matters little. Your turn."

Milena glared back. The anger in her head was starting to overrun the pain, giving her the fuel and fire she needed to not just stay awake, but alert and ready for another battle. She needed answers, and she was tired of games. But this was the archetype of a manipulative male, overconfident and trying to make her play by his rules. She tried to tame the raging fire inside, forcing herself to think of Rayan. He was on the way, they were all on their way here. The King wasn't the goal, this man had been the goal all along, and she had him facing her.

It was all coming down to her to make him speak, to make him spill his secrets, his weaknesses and give her the tools for his defeat. He smiled.

"That's right... You're a smart woman, Princess De Crescent. Even the best fighters don't always draw swords to settle a dispute. I am being considerate of your state... Shouldn't you take this chance?"

There it was, again. That arrogance in his words. He was tricking her, trying to tease her into playing his little game, using her anger to manipulate her. Milena tried to calm down her breath, thinking of what her great-grandmother would have said. You might not always choose the game, the time and the opponent, but you can always beat them regardless. As long as you can face them, you'll find where to bite.

Her eyes went down on the chess board. She had played this game so many times... It wasn't about winning this. It was about winning the mind game behind it. She took a deep breath, ignoring her opponent's grin. "...Pawn in D5," she muttered.

"There we go," he chuckled, moving her pawn in her stead, right where she had asked. "See? We can still have a polite, civilized exchange, my Lady. Let's leave the b****y fighting to our friends outside. We have a little while before they get here, enough for a match or two." "This will be the only one," she retorted.

He moved one of his knights forward.

"We shall see. We both still have all of our best pieces in the game. You and I are strategists, Lady De Crescent. We know how to use them, manipulate them to do our work. I've quite literally watched you grow from afar. You're one of the brightest minds of your generation, hence why I'm f****d to witness a war going on in my Castle today..."

"Pawn in E6. You may think they are just pawns, Your Majesty. Those are my friends fighting while we're playing a game here."

He moved the same pawn opposed to hers.

"Of course. I may have grown quite insensitive over the years, but I still value human life, unlike what you may think." "Pawn in C5. Like all those dhampir children you chose to sacrifice?"

His hands froze on the pawns. He sighed. Then, he moved her pawn, and another of his own right against it, before answering.

"Some were necessary, sadly... Sleverin was mad and an insufferable idiot, but he definitely had quite the talent for his own art. The bastard also did quite a good job of hiding them from me. I wouldn't have been able to achieve the creation of new Wendigos and White Ones without those sacrifices, Grand Princess. It was tragic, but a necessary sacrifice for some greater ambition." "You killed my mother for this, you dirty bastard," she hissed.

"...She wasn't meant to die. Your move?"

"You killed her yourself, didn't you? ...They never found the assassin who did it. Only a shape-shifting bastard could have killed a Duchess inside the Royal Castle and gotten away with a child. But you failed. You failed because whatever appearance you wore at the time, you couldn't get away, and the Oracle got to me first. With her power, she would have understood everything, wouldn't she? She was the Queen's confidant, and a more powerful White One than you anticipated, she was dangerous for you. She was the first one that tried to stop you. Knight in C6."

"That woman was my creation to begin with," he hissed, moving her knight then his, in the mirror position. "She was a thorn in my side, and way too hard to manipulate. She got what she deserved."

"So all your pawns weren't as obedient as you wanted after all," scoffed Milena. "The White Ones were hard to manipulate, weren't they? I've noticed. You created them for your own power, but now, most of them are my allies. So what is it? You struggled for decades to recreate what Sleverin had achieved, but when you managed to create them, you realized the White Ones wouldn't be as easy to manipulate as you thought. You placed Ora by the Queen's side, hoping to control her better, but in the end, the Oracle betrayed you first."

"If Lyriana had remained obedient, she would have spared her sons a lot of trouble," he hissed. "The De Boreal Family was so blind for power, after years of being in the other Duchy's shadows, I thought this stupid woman would be the best way to manipulate the next generation to my will. All I needed was a human Prince, but instead, she had to give birth to twins, and that pathetic excuse of a King decided both his sons deserved a chance!"

"...You burned Rayan as a warning," Milena muttered. "To his mother. Ellias had to be the one on the throne, or something would happen to her vampire son. Lyriana raised Ellias to believe he had to be the King at any cost. Let me guess. If a vampire had been born first, you would have simply gotten rid of him. But because they were twins, you didn't want to risk yourself with a murder, so manipulating the Queen was easier."

"That bitch was terrified," he hissed. "All she could think of was obeying me, but the Oracle had to come up with another one of her stupid prophecies. Those two women decided to resist me, so I took one stone, and killed two birds at once... or, more precisely, I killed one to warn the other."

"My mother's death was her last warning. Her best friend was dead, but you left Rayan alive, as a last warning. No... If you had killed him, there would have been nothing holding Lyriana back. You wouldn't have touched Ellias, whom you needed on the throne. Knight in F6."

He sighed, and moved her knight. His eyes went down on the chessboard, amused. Their pieces were now mirroring each other, as Milena had taken the exact symmetrical position on the other side. It was the opening of the game, but both players were at a high level. This was just the beginning. He moved his pawn, taking hers and facing her knight. He removed the first lost piece of the game, her dark pawn. The game was just starting. It was him testing her again. She didn't flinch.

"Mistakes and sacrifices are always made, Princess De Crescent. You're young. It's almost too sad you weren't born as a vampire. I would have been delighted to see such a bright woman by that fool's side. I do like a challenge, and women are sure getting smarter these days. See, peace was never an option. To be exact, it is nothing but a fleeting state. And the only way to keep that fragile balance between both kinds is fear. It always was fear. Humans need to fear the vampires, vampires need to fear humans. It's like a string. If you pull hard enough, it stays straight and strong. If you pull too hard, it snaps, and if you leave it free, it gets weak. I am the hands pulling each side, making sure neither kind bests the other. It's that tension, that fear that pushes men forward. Young people like you have... Idealistic ideas, but I have seen war, I have seen the worst of those people outside. Unless you tame them by fear, they rise, and they turn into monsters."

"You created the monsters."

He chuckled.

"You need to learn to see the bigger picture, child. You may do your best, but you could never win if you keep going by textbook moves and trying to protect all your pawns."

Milena scoffed.

"Bishop in C5."

He looked down, confused. She had just taken his pawn.

"You'll learn that I am not a textbook kind of woman, King Silvius."

He raised his eyes. She was glaring at him from her chair, looking fiercer than ever despite her white complexion, and all the blood covering her cheek, neck and face. Dripping down under her chair. It was as if the more she was cornered, the harder that woman would bite back.

"Your turn," she hissed.