Chapter 3 The Curse

As the dawn drew nearer,the castle slowly became quiet as everyone who came to participate in the sale had gotten their bounty and set off with the resounding click clack of horse hooves on the cobblestone outside.

Sebastian found it very noisy and as such, he didn't sleep well. Vampires don't necessarily sleep but that doesn't mean they won't sleep or rest if needed.

"Hello,mother", Sofiya greeted. She was Sebastian's elder sister. She had her long black hair tied up in a ponytail and she wore a long black cape over her leather trousers, tank top and boots.

"Morning, Sofiya", her mother greeted as she sat by the window sipping on a blood tea,"when did you arrive?", Serephine asked. "I think by midnight, I didn't check what time it was", Sofiya replied and turned to the maid who stood by the table,"get me a cup of blood" and the maid hurried away with her head down.

"Father says the council is meeting again today and he's not interested in going there", Sofiya said as she looked at Serephine sitting by the window,"you know your father, he'll attend the meeting whether he likes it or not". She paused and drank the remaining blood in her cup before strutting away. She stood by the stairs and added,"he is the king" before disappearing.

"Dramatic as always", came a voice from the top of the stairs.

Sofiya turned her head immediately to to find Sebastian coming down the stairs, "she has always been that way", Sofiya retorted. The maid who left earlier arrived with two glasses of blood tea for the siblings.

"How is Amcottes?", Sebastian asked as he slid into his seat. Sofiya rolled her eyes at him and snorted," it hasn't been bad and I'm glad I have to spend just a few weeks there, I was slowly going crazy. Also, I didn't intend to miss the sales...", "but you did anyway and I won't say it was fun", Sebastian cut in before she could make a complete sentence.

"That's because you're not of age yet to buy a pet", Sofiya retorted.

"I might never get one", Sebastian said and suavely sat on the arm of the chair his sister sat on and gingerly sipped from his goblet.

"I asked Markoff to keep a slave for me, so I have one now",she had a smirk on her face,"he tastes really good",she licked her lips earning a snort from Sebastian. "I can't believe you're a century older than I am, you act like a child, Sofiya".

The two siblings sat and talked about everything they needed each other to catch on before Sebastian stood up and left to his room. He stood by his window and stared at the shore where he had tried to save someone last night, he wondered why the person washed up on the beach tied in a bag. He stood for a while before he decided to not think about it and retired to bed.

Sebastian,you should join the council, the witches are stirring if you haven't noticed there has been a new wave of rogue vampires invading the different parts of Bloodice and also...","Father, I don't have any business with joining the council, I want to be free from all the scraggly royalty and government burden,you will de...", Sebastian's voice boomed across the throne room before he got intercepted by a woman's voice,"you are talking to the king,you imbecile!",she yelled.

Magisend Hayes. She was the new queen of Bloodice and also Sebastian's and Sofiya's stepmother, even though, Lucius despised her with everything in him. Her daughter was Ophelia.

"I never knew strangers have a say in this household,father", Sebastian said with a smirk as he stared at Magisend,"she is your mother","stepmother, if I must correct you", Sebastian said before he stood up from the dining table, leaving Magisend and Ophelia staring at him with venom in their eyes. Grimbald could only shake his head and continue eating his breakfast of raw meat.

"I'll leave now", Sofiya said as she hurriedly stood up from her seat which ended up making an annoying sound as it fell backwards. She bent down and picked the chair up and then pushed it used the table before leaving the dining area.

Sebastian stood beside the window staring at the large expanse of land where the Bloodice Castle stood, he still had nightmares from the night the family Banshee had cried. It was the most horrible sound he had ever heard, he recalled how windy it was that night, he recalled how crazed his mother looked as she tore open the guts of so many servants in her craze for blood.

He knew why she was acting that way. She had come in contact with the wrath of alcove. The witches called that time,The Purge. The Purge started with the fallen;the vampires as a result of The Torment. It was a disease created by dark witches who attempted to wipe the vampires off, they claimed with the vampires existence, the witches couldn't reach their full potential as they believed that 100 years before The Great Purge.

They had forced the Witches of the First Order to seal in the dark magic from the abyss. That wasn't the truth of the matter, the dark witches of Argon had summoned and created necromancers from souls that were not successfully taken to the Great Beyond after death by the Soul Transporters and were souls in anguish, anger, peril and bitterness.

They had used the books on dark magic written by The Alcove Lady, she was a sorcerer and dark witch who had tried creating a mutated form of the witches that had both zombie and witch qualities. After The Alcove Lady was hunted down and killed, her magic remains were scattered and her spirit hovered around a huge area of land.

The Great white witches formed an alliance with The Council of Brenton ; the highest deciding vampire body which included all purebred and pure blood vampires of the first and second generation and sacrificed their life to seal the books she had written on necromantic sorcery in the now forsaken library of Alexandria and her spilt magic powers and spirit were trapped and suppressed in a magic circle which was created by the sacrifice of the Great Witches.

The dark witches somehow managed to create a similar potion that could create a disease that would wipe off the entire vampire race but it ended up killing most of the second and third generation vampires, the rogue vampires were turned to half witches.

The disease was called The Wrath of Alcove, it was named after the Alcove Lady and once a vampire had come in contact with it, there was a crazy hunger for blood, extreme foaming at the mouth, the eyes would roll to the back of the head showing just the white portion of the eye, the first and second generation vampires which most were of royal blood had deep red eyes and very sharp body features and their eyes turning completely black and their fangs fell off even their tongue would become rough and even if they had any extraordinary ability, it would disappear. Thereafter, the heart would be rejected by the body and burst leading to instant death.

He shuddered as he remembered how she ripped Grigor, the head butler's head off his neck and left him bleeding uncontrollably as she couldn't completely drink his blood and went off after others in the house. He recalled how he had held his mother's neck so tight and used his hand to rip her heart out of her chest.

He heaved a sigh and rubbed his hand over his neck, he wondered if his father loved his mother so much then why did he remarry?. He ran his hand through his long black hair before he turned around and walked away.