Bambi and the Duke

*A few weeks ago*

In the time of the ungodly hour of midnight when men, women, and children slept in their houses peacefully, the moon shone brightly in the sky, the golden tint of luminous spilling on the land of the South as a girl in a hood walked through the narrow path of the passages.

Footsteps quiet as a cat, the girl drifted like a ghost, passing through a couple of houses and leaving them behind to walk to the edge of the forest where men stood talking to each other in a hushed tone. The group contained four males. An old man, two middle-aged men, and a young man.

”You’re late, Ester,” the old man who smoked the rolled leaves of tobacco threw it on the ground, stamping on it to exhaust the little buds flame. Though he was old with a head full of grey hair, his eyes didn’t lose the fire that had been ignited since a young age.

”Always so impatient, Edward,” the girl spoke with her velvet like voice which was nothing less to silk over the skin. Blonde long hairs peeked through the corners of her hood, her blue eyes were bright even with scarce light on her face.

”Unlike you, we don’t have time to wait. Time has never been on our side. It was only given to the vampires and witches,” Edward answered, the cold biting into his withered skin as they had been waiting here for more than an hour now.

The girl who had arrived was a black witch, a witch of deceitful character who was finding it hard to step into the Mythweald’s highest household so that she could infiltrate the people and other connections it had to give way to the black witches into the town. Due to the hate, the vampires and humans held against the black witches, the girl wanted to destroy it so that her fellow sisters and she could rule the four lands.

Providing the greedy humans with temporary wealth, she had lured them in. Picking the humans who would be most suitable for the job, humans who hated vampires. They were the humans who had lost their family due to the vampire killings. Once the work was done, she would discard the humans aside.

”Patience grasshopper,” the girl chuckled, looking at the men who had gathered around to meet at her word, ”You lack patience but your boy. Your boy is doing seemingly good I take? How has your time been with the vampiress?” she asked the young man who was a few years older to her age as she looked not a day older to sixteen.

”It’s been well,” the young man answered with little to no interest in her chitchat.

The black witch smiled schemingly, ”Remember to be careful, Rory. We don’t want any mishaps to take place. As gullible women are in the art of love you have to be careful as she isn’t a normal girl but a pureblooded vampire. She is the key piece of our plan.”

The young man smiled, one of his brows raising, ”You don’t have to worry about that. She is blindly in love with me, one word and she’ll come with me. All I have to do is manoeuvre my way in there soon.”

”Excellent work. I have a few others already lined up who are going to corrupt the cores, all we need to do is find the right time when the pureblooded vampires gather along with the other vampires,” the black witch stated her plan, not giving in full details but keeping it to the minimum, she pulled out little bottles from her stash and handed each of them with one which contained liquid like water which only looked thicker.

”What’s this?” asked the old man, bringing up to his face so that he could look at it closer.

”This gentleman is the liquid I spoke about last time we met. Add this to a vampire’s food so that they can consume it and you will what effect it brings up. They will kill each other until the council decides to put a leash on their neck. I cannot create them anymore as the ingredients have been exhausted and it will take more than three to four months to get them together. So use them wisely,” she advised with a smile.

”How many drops is required?” questioned the old man.

”The entire bottle needs to be emptied. Unfortunately,” the black witch clicked her teeth together, ”I haven’t perfected it yet. I need a dark witch’s blood to get it right for it to be enough with a single drop.”

”Dark Witch? Do you mean your kind?” another man who had come along asked to receive a smile from her.

”If it was my kind I would have completed the potion by now. There is a third kind of Witch apart from the black and white, a witch who is much powerful than us and they aren’t easy to find. Remember to use it entirely,” warned the black witch, the smile falling off her lips as she glared at them with her blue eyes, ”Use the entire bottle, the last time I gave the person the bottle, she used half of it thinking that would be sufficient.”

Rory who was still looking down at the little bottler, asked, ”What would happen if only half of its contents were used?”

”It won’t work. It won’t have enough power to corrupt the heart of a vampire,” the first time Ester had tried the liquid in Valeria, picking another pureblooded family. Sadly she never achieved the result. The maid she had threatened to get the work done had done a terrible job at it. Not only had she poured half of the liquid but had also wasted the rest by losing it in the process.

It seemed that the family was unaffected. The Harlows.

When the men left the place to go back to their houses as if they were sleeping all this while, the black witch stood under the large tree full of leaves. Her unmoving eyes on her beautiful face ready to fill the world in chaos so that they could take the lands from the kind who wanted the black witches dead.

Rory waited for the vampiress to come to the village, a few days passing by which made him agitated. He had lost his aunt to a vampire’s thirst for blood right in front of him. His family had gone through horrors because of the nightly creatures. He had befriended the pureblooded vampiress, making her fall in love with him so that he got annihilate as many pureblooded vampires as he could. The girl was naive and innocent.

”Rory!” he heard the girl from a far distance who smiled innocently.

”Charlotte,” when she hugged him with her arms around him, he did the same though with not the same sentiments, ”I missed you,” he said, putting up a smile as they pulled back.

”I did too. I couldn’t wait to get back here to see you,” she leaned closer to his hand which he had placed on her cheek.

”Same,” he answered.