Leather boots thudded rhythmically down the stairs, their steps confident and aligned, as if the slender, feminine body being carried by them was making sure every step was charged with her electrifying presence.

This was something she needed to focus on during those times where her rule was being challenged—commanding with her presence. It was never a challenge for the Queen to do that; her aura was naturally governing, so everywhere she went, every eye in the room followed her. This was true even before her grandfather gave her the crown, and her supremacy only added on to her weightily assertive attitude.

But in those times, when a war was brimming on the horizon and threatening to bubble over at any given moment, she needed to be especially on-guard and especially authoritative in order to protect her kingdom from the civil uprising that her cousin was fatefully leading.

Nevertheless, her feet may have sauntered diligently down the corridor, but a goofy smile rest on her face, her head tilted a bit sideways as her brain replayed the glorious malefaction that she and that golden-haired girl had committed moments before. Of course, her superior senses were still on guard to any threats that could have been near, but that left leisure to her mind that chose to dwell on the way the blonde had felt nakedly, desperately, gloriously arching up against her as she—

"Get that disgusting smirk off your face, you vile animal," Holden, who had jumped out from his office right as she was walking upon it, muttered to his Queen as he saw the dazed look on her face. "We've got a war to figure out."

"Don't be so crude, Holdie," the Queen lilted, her lips spreading into a dazzling smile that was too joyous for Holden to be comfortable with, and his discomfort was only propelled by that vomit-inducing nickname she only ever used to patronize him.

Rolling his eyes, he flew back into his office, the tall woman coolly walking in after him. "I believe you reign supreme in the act of crudity, Your Majesty, considering I let you sleep in this morning since you nearly died in my hands last night, yet I walked in to find you and Lily going at it like rabbits." He sighed stressfully, walking behind his desk and foraging through the layers of papers scattered atop it.

The Queen leaned against his doorway, crossing her arms and smirking at the guard whose brain was obviously riddled by whatever paper he was looking for. "When's the last time you got some, Holdie?" She broke out into a grin, crossing one leg over the other and tilting her head mischievously. "I can hook you up, you know."

"Your devil-may-care attitude is making me sweat, Your Majesty," Holden snipped as he held a paper up to his face, pretending to read it to hide the blush that formed at her words. "Especially when our castle is on the verge of getting ransacked by idiotic anarchists." He put the paper down and murmured something about that not being the right one, brushing his curls out of his eyes as he continued, "Stupid fucking capitalists."

Sighing, Queen Rose uncrossed her arms and walked to his littered desk, picking up a paper that was sitting on the very edge and bringing it to her face. "Is this the one you're looking for?"

Glancing up, Holden's eyes brightened as he grinned victoriously. "Yes, that's it!" He snatched the paper out of her hands, looking at it excitedly while the Queen eyed him curiously, her hand that was holding the paper still raised in the air. "It's from Lady Landau. She writes that she is aware of the—"

"I am literate, you imbecile," the Queen quipped and plucked the paper back out of his hands, glaring at him before turning her head to read it herself.

Chuckling nervously, Holden went back to the other papers on his desk. "There's several royals swearing their allegiance, Your Majesty." He slid his hand across the letters. "Lords, Ladies, Dukes, Duchesses. There are many who are informing you that they are still on your side."

Pursing her lips, Rose tossed the paper back down on the desk. "I trust Lady Landau. She's always been a close friend." Sighing, she took a few thoughtless steps forward, pacing in front of the desk as she usually did when her mind was boggled with troubles. She then walked over behind the desk next to Holden, reaching down and picking up a few of the letters that said similar things to Lady Landau. "But my common sense tells me it would be easy for someone working with the rebels to send me a letter about their supposed allegiance." She let the letters fall back to the desk.

Holden chewed his lip, his excitement about so many royals dedicating their loyalty deflating as he realized she was right. Letters could not be trusted. "Lady Patrice sent one," he quietly said as his eye caught her letter peeking out from under others. He picked it up and held it in front of both him and the Queen. "She's always been a friend, hasn't she?"

"I suppose she has." The Queen placed her hand on the desk and leaned forward against it, her eyes falling to a blank space of the wooden surface as if mapping out a plan on it. "But she's a weasel. She's not sturdy, and she's easily persuaded by popular demands and trending gossips." Her jaw clenched as she sighed through her nose. "We need to filter out who is strong enough and loyal enough to fight with us and to send their local armies to fight with ours."

"Can't you just demand everyone send their armies? You're the Queen, you don't have to have permission," the guard said, his eyes trained on his ruler, trying to figure out where her mind was at.

"If I were to bring armies full of rebels into my castle, they would turn against us. I need to figure out who our true allies are first, then request their soldiers." She straightened herself, walking back around the desk and continuing to pace. "Letters aren't a reliable source of communication."

"You need to see them in person, so you can sense who is being honest or not," Holden added onto her thought. Their minds, after so many years of being somewhat of a duo, seemed to be on the same wavelength.

"Yes," she murmured, stroking her chin with her fingers and scratching her lower lip as she felt an idea evolve in her mind. "A conference of some sort."

"We could hold one here," he added, "Invite only the royals you feel are loyal."

She nodded her head slowly, picturing it in her mind. Even though it was a solid idea, she couldn't help but feel stuck. She felt idiotic for having William live right under her nose but never sensing his betrayal, and it made her worry that her senses were faulty and would misguide her. She hadn't even sensed that he had hurt her mate; what kind of reliable Queen was she?

Running her hands through her hair and tugging hard, enjoying the pain it brought her, she ground her teeth and tried to think clearly and rationally. She had been wrong about William because he was her cousin and she was stupid enough to be biased towards him because of it. He was her only family member left, and they had been close for years. And it just so happened to be right around the time of his treachery that Lily came into her life like a whirlwind and mixed her all up. It was common for vampires to feel a bit dismantled upon first meeting their mate, especially since it was literally two souls tangling together. Perhaps Lily's youthful, humanly recklessness had infected her a little too much.

"It is a good idea," Holden added, practically being able to see the mental quarrel the Queen was having with herself. He, too, was shocked to hear that William was leading the rebels; he had never trusted the prick, but it was something nobody had seen coming. "Your instincts will guide us in the right direction, I know it," he added a bit more desperately, leaning forward a bit. "William betrayed us all, but now is our moment to tighten the ropes that we let slip."

The Queen turned her vivid eyes to him, easing a bit at his words. Sighing, she nodded and flexed her jaw. "You're right." Taking her hands away from her hair, she straightened her posture and lifted her chin. "We will hold a conference, we will pick our allies, and we will go to war with the rebels. But most importantly," she paused, her fists balling her at her side as her voice lowered grimly, "we will win."

✞

Her mind was riddled as she walked up the stairs. She couldn't stop thinking about William, and Lily, and the war, and Lily, and the rebels, and Lily, and William, and also Lily. Her mind was swirling with so many things. Hearing of William's betrayal had hooked her in the chest so hard that even the silver bullets that had pierced through her did not hurt as bad. She was concerned about Lily, about being mated to a human while she was going to war with her own kind over the concern of humans. She couldn't keep Lily hidden away in the castle like Rapunzel. Soon, word would get out, and she wasn't sure she would have very many allies once they heard their Queen was in love with a human.

As reluctant as she felt to the thought, she needed to be upfront with her people, especially the royals, so that she would know who would truly stick with her through everything. She decided she needed to take Lily to the conference with her, for that would be the true test of allegiance.

Her thoughts were distracted as she reached her corridor by the sound of music lilting from her bedroom. Tilting her head curiously, she slowly approached the door of her room, the music much clearer now. Pressing her ear against the surface, she could hear soft humming along with the music, a beautiful voice that she recognized as Lily's.

"When I look out my window, many sights to see. And when I look in my window, so many different people to be," the girl's gentle voice hummed quietly along to the words, the sound of pages turning interrupting her gentle caressing of the words. "That it's strange, so strange."

As Lily continued humming, Rose gently pushed the door open as quietly as possible, the crack allowing her to see the small girl laying on her stomach on the large bed, feet swinging in the air as she turned the pages of a large book she was looking through. She noticed that the girl's hair was damp, signaling she had helped herself to a shower in Rose's en suite bathroom. She was also wearing one of the vampire's black sweaters, wearing nothing else except her own white panties. This left her legs deliciously exposed, her tender muscles flexing as she loosely swayed her feet in the air behind her. She looked quite heavenly wearing black instead of the sheer white she usually wore.

A small smile crept upon Rose's lips as she watched the girl carelessly turn over onto her back, bringing the book up and holding it above her head as she bent her knees up, her bare toes scrunching the wrinkled sheets under them. "You've got to pick up every stitch," she continued singing a bit louder, her darkened blonde hair sprawled out around her, "Oh no, must be the season of the witch!"

The lurking vampire opened the door wider, smirking as she strolled into the large and luxurious bedroom, glancing down to the record player sitting on her desk that was spinning the record.

The girl, oblivious to her company, was now singing the words much louder, "Must be the season of the witch!" Her pitch was completely fucked, but it was nonetheless endearing to hear her sing her little human heart out. Plus, the lyrics were a bit ironic considering the vampire was standing right behind her head at the foot of the bed, and one of her many nicknames from humans, especially centuries before, was "blood witch."

"How fitting," she blurted playfully, her sudden voice right above the girl's head causing her to shriek and drop the thick book she was holding up right onto her face.

Pushing the book off her now throbbing face and sitting up sharply on her haunches, Lily quickly turned around and looked at the smirking vampire in fearful surprise, her anxiety melting away when she saw it was only Rose. "Why are you so creepy sometimes?" she breathlessly asked, feeling suddenly timid to be just in her shirt and underwear.

"I'm a vampire. It's my thing. Why are you so jumpy?" Rose asked with a chuckle, seeing that the girl's bottom lip was beginning to swell from the heavy book being dropped on it. She reached her hand out, stroking her thumb across the reddened section beginning to bulge out. "Your lip is already swelling." Her eyes then shifted to the fresh hickeys on her neck, looking like rosy symbols of passionate possession that made her smirk.

Lily blushed at the contact and at the way the vampire eye's were focused on her neck. She didn't know why she felt so shy all of a sudden, especially since only an hour before the vampire's head had been between her legs and her fingers inside her.

Rose's chartreuse eyes flickered up to her sky blue ones upon sensing her bashfulness, and she could feel the heat from her rosy cheeks fanning onto her hand. She smirked, bringing her hand away and letting her eyes trail to the book laying face-down on the bed. Her perfectly arched, brunette eyebrow perked up. "Art history?"

The girl glanced to the rather old book which she had to wipe the dust off of before reading. "Y-Yea." She fiddled with her hands. "My mother had a lot of history books and art ones, too. So I've always liked learning about stuff like that." She smiled nostalgically, remembering always crawling underneath her mother's cot in their cabin where she kept her stacks of books. She had nearly thirty of them, and Lily had read each one over and over for eight years. It was refreshing to read something new.

Rose watched the girl carefully, the way her eyes seemed wistful as she spoke about her mother. She then glanced over to her bookshelf where she immediately located the empty slot of the art book, the rest of the formerly neat books having all tilted over because of its absence. Little messes like that usually aggravated her, but she only smiled softly and turned back to the girl. "Your mother liked to read?"

Pushing a strand of her wavy blonde hair behind her ear, the girl nodded. "Mother was a reader, father was a musician."

The corners of the vampire's lips frowned downwards slightly. "Was?"

Lily's smile also faded, her eyes dampening from the sadness filling her chest like heavy ocean waves. She only sat down off her haunches and crossed her legs, picking up the weighty book with her small hand. "I don't want to pretend they're alive when I have no clue if they are or not."

Staring down at the girl, Rose felt something tug in her heart so hard that she felt like her entire body might have just flung right down to the floor in a pathetic heap. She was all too familiar with the emotions she was sensing from the girl whose throat ached from the lump forming in it. Rose knew what it was like to lose one's parents, to lose the people who loved you and protected you and guided you. She was much younger than Lily when she had lost them, but the feelings were still the same.

She felt her brain knot up even more. How could she be Lily's lover when she was the reason the most important people in her life might be dead? How could she take care of her and make her happy like she was spiritually meant to do when her throne represented every cruelty inflicted on Lily and her kind? Why would the gods above mate her to a human, the species that her own thrived off of?

A thought trickled across her brain, a thought so outlandish and so implausible that she nearly laughed. But it was not funny, and it was a serious inclination. What if the reason her mate was a human was because she had did everything wrong? What if, eight years ago, she made a mistake in the timeline of history by invading the human race? What if she ripped the pages of the vampires and humans' fate?

As she watched Lily gaze upon a painting pictured in the book she held in her lap, her brain soaking up the words beneath it, she wondered why anyone would consider her "lesser than" simply because it was human blood running through her veins. Sure, she was physically inferior, but that was no cause for her life to be considered less precious. She had a soul, a mind, a heart, emotions, opinions, likes, dislikes, personality, and spirit. The only thing that made her different from the vampire standing before her was the amount of physical strength parceled out to her at birth.

But how could two species possibly co-exist when one depends on the blood of another? It was a question she found herself troubling over, her eyes trained downwards on the book in a blank stare. When she heard Lily yell, "Rose?!" after saying her name three times, she snapped out of it, her eyes flickering up to the girl.

Lily's eyebrows sewed together as she reached up and took Rose's hands in hers. "Are you alright?" She had never seen the vampire space out like that, her eyes looking so distant and faded, like she had receded so far inside herself she was nearly lost.

She felt the need to keep everything a secret from Lily, to spare her the enormous turmoil brewing in her mind, but there was nothing from her that she ever wanted to keep. So she sat down in front of her on the edge of the bed, bending her knees as she held her small, cold hand in both of hers.

Lily felt Rose's hands rise in temperature in attempt to warm her own. She smiled softly, although concern still traced her features at the somberness on her lover's face. "You can talk to me," she quietly offered.

"I know," Rose murmured, smiling tightly in return. "I'm just worried."

"About?"

"Us. You. Me. My kingdom." Her jaw clenched as she averted her eyes to the black duvet. "The fact that I'm mated to a person who belongs to the species that my own capitalizes on."

Lily joined Rose's averted gaze, seeming to physically deflate. "I feel the same way," she mumbled. "I feel like I'm betraying my own kind, my mother and father and all my friends at camp. I'm literally sleeping with the enemy."

A minuscule smile shone across the troubled vampire's face, a glint of light that shone into Lily's eyes and lifted her spirits just a bit. "I want to say I could offer the idea of cohabitation to the royals, but what kind of Queen would I look like if I invaded the world only to say eight years later that I want to redo it all."

The words that left Rose's mouth shocked her. Staring up at the pensive Queen with admiration shimmering behind her irises, she stroked her hand and said, "It shouldn't be about how it will make you look. It is about what you feel is right." She chewed on her lip for a moment before adding, "Although I'm not sure how humans and vampires living freely together would even work." She thought about how nearly every vampire she met had absolutely no restraint in thirsting after humans. She couldn't see how vampires could be around humans without killing them.

"It would take years of discipline and enforcement," Rose replied, glancing to her and letting the girl's innocent beauty ease her a bit. "But I don't see any of the royals vouching for it. Plus, war is coming and I need allies."

"Maybe you're getting too ahead of yourself," Lily softly spoke. "You should focus on dealing with the rebels first, then you can consider this later."

Rose shook her head and pursed her lips. "No. Introducing an insane idea like that right after war would only bring about a second wave of rebellion. If I'm going to attempt at giving humans rights of any kind, I need to do it now. Make this war about defending humans, not just