Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away, there lived a

Vampyer Princess called Azure, now if you want to read this

and understand what happened between her and Shiro – then
there is a few things you should know about real Vampyers.
They are deathly pale and angelically beautiful, they
dwell in the Underworld – or hell as some people call it - they
are also amazingly fast and their senses are much better than
our dulled down Mortal ones. They don't melt or glitter in the
sunlight; the sunlight doesn’t really affect them anymore
except for a little bit of pain whenever they are caught in the
pure glow of the sun. But it would be rare for anyone to see a
Vampyer in the daytime anyway, because that is when they
sleep – during the hours of Sunlight (but not in coffins –
unless that was their particular desire) and they do have to
drink Mortal blood since Mortal blood is the only blood which
carries enough oxygen – because although Vampyer blood
heals all wounds rapidly – carrying oxygen isn’t something
Vampyer does particularly well. So without the correct
amount of Mortal blood inside them, all their muscles would
seize up, and not enough oxygen would get to their brain –
which is the only way to kill a Vampyer really. That and a
wooden stake through the heart, but we’ll get to that later.
Time to get on with the story. . .

I fiddled with my long flame red hair as my father paced

around the huge, white Marble dome room, yelling at various
people about various things, none of which I was paying the
slightest bit attention to – I was rather happy in my own dream
world fantasizing about going out with my friends later, that was
until he was right up in my face of course – that did jerk me to my
senses slightly. Apparently – so I am told – I was meant to be
agreeing with him.
‘Well Azure?’ he demanded, his eyes popping slightly as he
got right into my face. ‘Well?’
I looked over my father’s – the King of North of the
Underworld’s – shoulder to see my older brother Ororon nodding
over enthusiastically, apparently I was meant to agree with
whatever my father was saying - so obediently I nodded and
smiled a fake smile which was passable as a real smile, which lit
up my otherwise pale and gloomy face.
He evidently brought that I meant what I was saying because
he walked of mumbling something along the lines of – I-wish-you-
was-a-boy-just-like-Ororon-and-Orthello. Like I’d never heard that
before.
‘Little sister cant you at least try to take care of yourself?’
Ororon asked me softly as he walked over to me, his arms full of
old pieces of parchment covered in words and symbols which I
didn’t understand.
‘I’m alive aren’t I?
‘Barely.’
‘Only in your opinion,’ I smiled at him and stuck my tongue
out, making Ororon chuckle at me. Neither of us heard Orthello
walk over behind us.
‘Sup Pretty boy and Witch girl?’ Orthello asked us with an
evil smile playing across his lips.
Ororon did his best to ignore him, I wondered idly if I was the
only one who noticed the tension which was filling up the room.
‘I’m not a witch Orthello, if you had half a brain you’d notice
that.’ I snarled, pushing my hair back behind my ears and
unleashing the full force of my eyes smoky blue eyes, which had
black circles surrounding the pupil and a smaller circle on the
outside of the iris, on him, making him cringe back slightly in fear.
‘You’re eyes say something else Witchy,’ he said arrogantly. I
narrowed my eyes and made a move to storm past him, but he
grabbed my upper arm, and whispered threateningly in her ear,
’you need to make sure that you don’t do anything stupid.’
I frowned and Ororon stiffened, but we otherwise ignored
him, I just walked past, leaving Ororon and Orthello to argue
about which parchment is best to use and so forth.
‘Princess Azure,’ Blaise winked at me, as she bowed down,
her short black hair flopping into her eyes.
‘Blaise,’ I whispered, raising her eyebrows and looking at
Ororon significantly before grabbing Blaise’s upper arm and
dragging her behind the thick red curtain. ’What are you doing
here?’ I hissed, a note of panic leaking into my voice.
‘Oh don’t worry about the whole nice to see you B, how’s it
going? That’s why you’ve always been my best mate Azure-
straight to the juicy gossip.’ She smiled casually, leaning back on
one of the pure gold pillars with ease.
‘Blaise now isn’t the time for this, you know what will happen
if he sees you.’
‘But I am in an disguise,’ she smiled smugly, swaying her
hips slightly, drawing my attention to the outfit she was wearing.
She was wearing the usual daemonic black guard outfit,
covered in daggers and one long samurai sword draped across
her back. Wearing this she was invisible, unless anyone knew her,
noticed.
‘Orthello might still recognize you though,’ I muttered half
heartedly to Blaise who was busy peering around the curtain. She
took a step forward, but I grabbed her arm and dragged her
backwards again.
‘Blaise no,’ I hissed, I could feel my eyes widening and I was
shaking my head slightly.
‘Why,’ she smiled, ‘I just wanna see Ororon get some paper
then leave. And probably see Ororon. Again.’
I smiled back for the first time and allowed Blaise to go and
walked talk to Ororon.
I paled and leaned back, closing my eyes and sighed, if I’m
not to careful she’d fall asleep…
The next thing I heard was Blaise screaming and a few things
smashing onto the ground, then more screaming.
My eyes flew open and I dashed around the curtain and my
mind was thrown into a state of disarray. I saw Ororon freeze, his
face expressionless, while Orthello was laughing silently, my
father looked furious, while Blaise was kicking and screaming
against the strong arms which were dragging her out of the room.

***

I rolled over and my stomach growled loudly, I muttered

something under my breath as I quickly sat up ignoring the wave
of nausea which hit me.
I noticed that the guy in the cell next to me had finally fallen
asleep, I could hear the mans heavy breathing through the thick
walls and relaxed.
‘Hey, you wanna get your hands off me!’ I could hear some
girl yell, she was obviously kicking and screaming, using up all of
her energy now.
‘Silly little girl,’ I thought to himself as I laid back down and
wrapped the thin and tatty grey blanket around me, not because
of the cold, I was used to that, just because I didn’t feel like
having a conversation with the mad and lonely prison guard. ‘If
only she’d calm down, and save her energy after the trial, then
she could escape with me.’
I shook my head slightly as I noticed that the girl stopped
screaming, I’m not allowed to care about other people, I reminded
myself. That’s why I was here. Trying to help out Lucy, was what
got me in this mess.
I froze as the metal cell doors opened.
‘Maybe, Just maybe,’ I thought to myself as one of the
guards stood in the doorway, ‘for once they have decided to be
nice and let me go…’ But that small train of hope and happiness I
had managed to scrape up, was squashed abruptly as the guard
shot out and before I could even realise what was happening I
was being roughly yanked out of bed, and both my arms were
pinned to my back to tight that they felt like they were about to
fall off. If measures of security were kept up like this, I’d have no
chance to escape, which would mean… The ultimate ending. The
last page. It annoyed me though - that I was caught doing good
for once, and this proved my point perfectly, the world was full of
scum, and anything and everything above scum was prosecuted
for making the lower scum feel bad.

***

‘When’s the show starting?’ Orthello asked, almost over

excitedly, I looked over at Ororon worriedly, as if he might
suddenly just give over to the darker side of his thoughts and kill
Orthello.
‘He’d deserve it though, when Blaise dies Ororon will too,
and so will the only two things which have ever made the world a
good place for me. I hope he dies too,’ I thought darkly and with a
shudder, I realised that I had never wished pain of death on
anyone before, and when I did I felt a sudden shiver go down my
spine. I froze, and noticed that I didn’t have the usual bad gut
feelings that I had which made me want to curl up and die a few
seconds before the trial started, but a shiver of anticipation and
longing, something I had never felt before during time like this. I
sighed and wondered if I was turning into my father or something
as I smoothed down the purple silk bodice of my long gown and
sat down on my own tacky throne, near the back, beside Ororon,
who normally would turn around and check I was okay (my heart
was too big, he’d often say) but today he was in a world of his
own, his eyes locked on the door where Blaise was dragged out,
hatred and passion was etched in his eyes.
That’s when I knew, that’s when I knew that Ororon would
kill Orthello. Not because of the fire which was burning in his eyes,
it was the fact that you could nearly feel the heat radiating from
them, which was a danger sign - it was because he was letting his
usual calm and reasonable façade shatter, and you didn’t let your
emotions out around Orthello, not at any cost.
My father snapped his fingers impatiently as the doors
opened and Orthello leaned forwards in his seat resting his chin
on his hands, I was in half the mind to stand up and wipe the
smug and conceited grin from his face.
The accused was a pitiful state. There was Blaise sanding
there as bold as brass, smiling half-heartedly, tapping her feet
impatiently on the cold marble floor, a sign she was nervous, she
seemed paler than usual, but that was nothing new.
Beside her was what seemed a crazy man, he was in his late
hundreds maybe, and covered in filth, his hands were cupped
over his ears, and his eyes were wide with horror and he was
rocking ever so slightly back and forth.
The next person in the line of doom, was obviously a fallen
angel, or a snatched one. She had huge, great, dirty, ruffled
feathery wings sticking out her once white gown, her hair was
dirty and lank, sticking to her hair and hanging in curtains down
her face. Her eyes were closed slightly, like she praying for help.
I looked past the fallen angel and my mouth nearly dropped
open. Next to the fallen angel there stood a boy, not much older
than me, so about one hundred, he had pure white skin, flawless
in every detail, misty yellow cat eyes, which scanned everything
in the room in about half a second. He had messy shoulder length
black hair which suited him perfectly.
When my father spoke it seemed like it was coming from a
mile away, I tried to concentrate and shift my gaze away from the
mystery guy, only it felt like a magnetic pull, every time I shifted
my gaze away from him, my heart felt like it would break, and at
the thought of him dying, I felt physically sick.
The King looked at Blaise pleasantly and she stared back
defiantly. ‘Blaise Evergreen. Guilty, sentenced to death.’
Ororon tensed, but didn’t move, Blaise didn’t either she was
still smiling at Ororon.
Then he looked at the mad man, ‘Christen Lewis. Guilty,
sentenced to death.’ I felt physically sick, he was next - after the
angel, even at the thought of him being near death made me
want to kill whoever threatened him.
He didn’t even glance at the fallen angel, he sentenced her
smiling happily, ‘Faith Lockwood. Guilty, sentenced to death.’
My stomach squirmed slightly and I fidgeted and attempted
to sit on my hands again, to stop myself from jumping forwards
and throwing herself into his arms.

***

I knew what my sentence was going to be before the fat guy

even opened his mouth, and he thought he’d be terrified, but I
didn’t even seem to hear him, I was too busy staring at Princess
Azure. Of course I knew who she was, one of the most shockingly
beautiful girls in the world, she was pale and had a slightly blue
tint to her cheeks (like all royalty) her flame red hair framed her
face immaculately, making her shocking smoky blue eyes stand
out, making her look like some exotic princess, even thinking
about her made my pulse quicken.
‘You can’t,’ I heard her mutter, her voice sent a shudder
down my spine. ‘You can’t,’ she repeated louder.
‘What do you mean Azure?’ Orthello asked sharply, looking
at me then at her. Azure, a perfect name for her. I could see now
what people meant when they were on about love at first sight.
Seeing her I believed in it. Nothing could ever ruin this moment.
Ever.
‘Nothing!’ Ororon spoke over whatever Azure was about to
say, ‘she meant nothing.’
Azure opened her mouth again, but this time Orthello
himself cut over her. Speaking directly to his father. The king.

***

My insides were squirming around as Father and Orthello

talked to each other, discussing what they were to do with me,
and Shiro. From what I could gather they put him back into his
cell. I could break him out. I would.
Ororon and I stood still each of us devising our own little plan
in our heads, until we were excused. After that we both ran to the
cells - I won - of course. And we waited. That was the worst part,
just waiting for a few seconds for the guard to walk into the other
room. The underground cells, where all prisoners are held, has a
confusing, but the single guard on duty has to pace around the
entire underground floor, making sure everything’s right. It takes
about twenty minutes for a single guard to do a round. Twenty
minutes for me to get Shiro out and twenty minutes for Ororon to
get Blaise out. We could to it.
Ororon rushed off to get Blaise out, and flew to the first
door I saw, throwing myself on tip toes, peering through the hard
metal bars, I could see his messy hair sticking up in odd angles on
the dirty once white pillow.
‘Shiro,’ I hissed. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, I didn’t even
know him - yet I loved him. This wasn’t right. But how could
something so completely stupid feel so clever, like the best thing
ever.
He sat up as soon as I called out to him, his startled face
turning into happiness when he saw it was me.
He ran straight to the bars his face inches away from me.
‘What are you doing here? You could get caught.’
‘I don’t care.’
‘You should, they’ll kill you.’
‘I still don’t care. I love you Shiro, no matter what.’ I assured
him, my heart beating on my ribcage so hard I thought it was
going to break, it felt like I needed for him to say those four words
for me to live.
‘I love you too,’ he smiled at me, ‘but its too dangerous.’
‘I still don’t care. Help me get you out,’ I muttered, my mind
whirling ferociously, there had to be something - I had about
seven minutes. That was when someone knocked me out. When
the blackness took over.

***

When I regained consciousness I was lying in the middle of a

field of corpses, I could see the head of the fallen angel a few feet
away, a few scattered remains of the mad guy and a few other
body pieces strewn all over the place. I quickly got up to my feet
and looked around the room wearily, I saw Prince Orthello, I saw
the King a few soldiers and I saw Azure, her arms strapped behind
her back, like the way they held me earlier, dragging me to this
hell hole - and it hurt.
‘Get your filthy hands off her,’ I yelled furiously, loosing my
temper already.
The King smiled lazily, ‘Of course Shiro Hellwise. I take it
from everything that you want to spend the rest of my life, but as
you see as royalty we only let the best in. So some poor penniless
man from the streets must get himself in on bravery alone. So I
want you to go to the centre of Dead Mans creek and get the
treasure which you love the most in life. And me being a noble
gentleman will let my daughter help you. She has a rare mind you
know…’ and with a small gesture of his hand the guards realised
their hold on Azure and she ran over the bodies carefree without
even looking down, without a speck of sadness in her eyes, right
into my arms, angling her head back for a kiss.
That’s when I pushed her away from me sharply, she slipped
back on the bloody floor and smashed her head on the floor,
making an horrible cracking sound.
‘Where’s Azure?’ I asked, my voice reasonably calm
considering.
‘That was Azure.’
‘No it wasn’t. She would run straight to me, she’d stay there,
trying to make you believe the opposite to what was happening -
that she doesn’t love me. And if she did rush to my side, she
would tread around the dead respectfully, not run all over them.’
He smiled. ‘Well done. You proved you have a sharp mind.
And I lied about something else. If you want to see Azure ever
again you will have to complete another two tasks - that one was
the first. Well done, run along.’