072

072
Draco.
The Butcher’s screeches continued as Draco fed his beast until it was sated. He let go of his father, and he tumbled on the floor, blood gushing from his neck.
He shook, clasping a weak, shaky hand over the wound. He looked weakly at Draco, panting half-heartedly.
He watched his son walk back and forth in the enclosed space, frustrated.
People assumed the Butcher was dead after stoning him to death at Veilsgrove, the house of the seven sages where judgment was passed onto his father, but he wasn’t dead.
Draco had taken him away and kept him here to live the rest of his miserable days until he took his last breath.
He guessed bad people don’t die easily, given his father still breathed even though he was generally weak.
Draco kept him here as punishment. He never bothered to find a healer to treat his wounds all these years.
When his curse first manifested, Draco had been here, letting his father see what his actions caused him to turn into. Draco swore that as long as the Butcher still breathed, he’d be his feeder.
“It was all your fault! You made me this…!” Draco growled, tears escaping his eyes as he pointed at himself. “You made me a monster that no one can love. A monster that cannot be with the woman I want! It was all because of you, Cormac!”
As he griped, his father blinked, tears slipping from his eyes as he shook his head.
He struggled to speak, to say anything, but it wasn’t working. Forever he’d be mute.
The sages cut his father’s tongue before the judgment day as pre-judgment punishment.
“Why!!!!!?” Draco wept in rage, he panted. All his mind replayed was Isolde’s rejection.
She didn’t want him because he was a monster.
“Why did you do what you did? Why kill my mate? The females!? Speak up!!!” He roared into his father’s face, uncaring about the putrid odor that wafted from him. He nabbed the collar of his worn, stinking tunic and barked into his face. “Do you know the depression I face every day because of this?”
“I’m not me anymore. I’m only a bloodsucker. A beast who can never be with a woman. Do you know how painful it is to love someone but you can’t touch her?”
A string of garbled sounds vibrated from his father’s throat as heavy tears cascaded down his eyes.
“I will hate you until the day you die, father. I will hate you even in your grave. Even in the next life.”
He shook his father again, hissing. He stood up, looking down at his frail father.
“I guess your death won’t be soon after all. Every single day you’re alive should remind you of the lives you took. The kingdom you destroyed. Until it’s over.”
More garbled sounds spilled across the room, coming from his father, but Draco ignored it all as he exited the room, shifting back into his beast and flew into the air.
___
Isolde.
Abbator was bustling with nightlife as usual while Isolde sat on her balcony, looking at the raven in the golden cage.
Draco had given Logren to her as an acceptance gift.
She was melting at how thoughtful Draco was to her. She wasn’t expecting it at all.
Had the lord truly changed so much that he could go to such lengths for her?
The note in her hand grasped her attention again, and Isolde looked back down at it.
“His name is Logren. Cherish him, Isolde.” She read the note, sighing again.
Logren cawed, flapping his wings.
“I’m so sorry, Logren, but I don’t understand why he did it…” She said to the raven who grasped her attention. “I don’t think I can take care of you.”
Logren cawed at her, speaking in Isolde’s mind.
Logren’s words melted Isolde’s heart more about Draco. He told her Draco had always kept him back at the tavern because he figured no one could take care of him like his owner once did.
His owner who had a soft heart just like Isolde. Maybe the lord saw that too and decided to give him to Isolde.
“But I can’t…” Isolde began, but Logren halted her, making her screech. “What? No, I don’t hate you, I swear it. Fine,” she huffed. “I accept you as mine,”
Logren’s wings flapped in joy as he cawed. Isolde’s heart bloated with several emotions as she stood up and looked out into the city. Her eyes zeroing over the night sky, and then, she saw it.
The creature hovering over the sky. The huge scary creature Isolde had never seen before.
And it had the same feather like the one she once saw on her bed.
With wide eyes, she ran into her room and opened the drawer where she kept the feather. Isolde ran back into the balcony and examined the feather and the creature.
“It’s the same.” She said in a breathless whisper, heart heaving. “How did that thing come into my room? What did it want?” She locked her lips, thinking. Then. “I’ve to find out what it wanted. What… the creature is.”
Without missing a beat, Isolde began to run away from her chambers, skidding down the stairs, two steps at a time.
She had to see the creature. The creature that came into her room.
She ran through the halls of the tower, whooshing past Alfos who stopped walking and stared at her.
“What’s going on?” He shouted after her, but Isolde didn’t pause to respond.
Alfos’s curiosity piqued as he began to run after Isolde out of the tower. Her steps squashed through the cobblestone in haste, her heart thundering.
She was barely aware that Alfos was following her.
As the two ran through the streets, Alfos called out to her, but Isolde didn’t yield.
She ran miles until she got into the woods, but Alfos didn’t relent, especially when he realized where she was heading to after seeing Draco soaring in the night sky.
No, Alfos needed to do something. Isolde was going to find out it was Draco, and he couldn’t let that happen.
Only the gods knew what would happen if Draco’s beast saw her. Alfos was scared a bit, not for himself but for her.
Isolde’s scampering feet made it to the meadow where Draco’s beast hovered around, clearly in rage.
She paused, looking up at the sky as she roared, “You!!!!”
That sound drew the attention of the beast, it stilled in the air, turning around to stare down at Isolde.
Her heart melted into the pit of her stomach in fear as the beast bared its teeth at her.
Isolde began to backtrack as the vicious beast flew towards her. Its eyes dark and full of malice.
“No.” She yelped, lips parted as it dove down toward her direction, screeching. “Stay away!!!”
The malice wasn’t what she expected. It wanted to harm her, why?
But why didn’t it harm her back in her room?
Something wasn’t adding up. Something was truly bothering the beast.
As the wraithling loomed closer, Isolde’s roaming hands latched onto a log of wood just as the beast landed before her, screeching into her face as it scented her to find out who she was.
However, Isolde raised the wood in fear and pointed it at the beast, still crawling away.
“Stay away…!” She fiercely barked, riling the beast up.
The beast stepped closer, its heavy feet pounding over the ground with a heavy thud, crushing the grass.
Seeing the beast wasn’t ready to relent, Isolde struck out with the wood just as Alfos shoved out into the clearing and shouted.
“No!! Don’t attack him!”
But it was already too late.
The beast growled, raised its paw-hand, and smacked her away, sending Isolde flying against the tree. The sickening crush of her body against the bark echoed as she tumbled over the ground, losing consciousness.
“NO!!!!” Alfos roared, rushed to the beast, and yelled. “Go away, Draco! You’ve hurt her,” His angry voice shook the air.
As if realizing what he’d done now, the beast rumbled, flicking a sad look at Isolde’s direction before it flew away.
Alfos hastened toward her and lifted her into his arms, blood dripping from her mouth.
“Isolde don’t die. Please stay with me,” He cried, hurrying away as he lifted Isolde in a bridal style.
It was like in the past all over again when Alfos was carrying his sister away from the Viper’s Mouth, blood dripping from her body.
Just as he reached the castle, Draco was already there with the healers, his heart gaping with sorrow.
They placed Isolde on the bed with Draco rattling out orders to the healers.
“Please don’t let her die! Do whatever you must to keep her awake,”
The healers quickly got to work, attending to Isolde.
Draco stepped close to Alfos where the male stood silently, watching the healers bustle around Isolde.
“I messed up, Alfos. I messed up,” He yipped, regret brimming his gaze as Alfos spared him a silent look. “She knows, right?” Draco asked, looking at Alfos as his heart galloped.
TBC.