Sanguini castle III

A day after Dorne and his followers had left the Sanguini clan.

The head of the Sanguini clan, Lucien was sitting on a throne, the very same one that his father had sat in not so long ago. There were a few differences, however – Lucien ordered the remaining family heads to remain in the throne room with him at all times, so that he could keep an eye on them.

In front of him was a maid from one of the lesser families. She was down on her hands and knees, held in that position by Lucien's most loyal subordinates.

Lucien's mouth was in a deep scowl and his eyebrows were knitted together. He even thought about giving her a reward for remaining mostly loyal to the family, seeing her in that position, but it wouldn't really go well with a punishment. It was best to punish her first and reward her after she'd contributed to the family, and what better reward was there for a woman than getting a taste of his magnificence?

He said: "For the crime of stealing a blood pack, you are to be taken into solitary confinement for two months, without food, water or blood. It's best you all learn that I am the head of the clan now, and I won't allow any disobedience."

'That fucking bastard Dorne! I only wanted to teach him some manners and what does he do? He takes mother and almost half the clan and runs away! He even managed to get somebody past the guards I had posted around that house! I will not allow such disobedience again! I will stomp the treasonous thoughts out of their heads before they can even come up with them.'

The maid broke into tears, but she knew better than to argue – she had heard that those who resisted their punishment would be beheaded immediately as traitors. Those that attempted to resist even that would instead be impaled on a stake and left out in the morning.

A faint and somewhat trembling voice of a family head said from the side: "Sire, we don't have enough cells in the solitary confinement area."

Lucien's glare landed on the one that had enough courage to speak up. "How dare you disturb my thoughts? Your family will build three hundred more solitary cells. The lives of your family will be forfeit should any of the prisoners ever escape."

The man's face had turned from pale to ashen grey as he replied in a high-pitched voice: "Yes, Sire. We will put our utmost effort into constructing those cells."

As the elderly vampire left, Lucien continued his train of thought:

'I heard that recently, there was a war between Greyback and some sort of armored Werewolves and humans and both sides had heavy casualties. It must be the army who fought for that slut Amanda. It's really too bad she's now ruined by that brat. Her family was financially ruined even before they were killed off, she couldn't have had anything but her body to pay with for everything she would need to build a new clan.'

I would've loved to break her myself, in front of everyone to show how much her promises are worth. Of course, I can still do it, it just won't be as satisfying. Ah, maybe I should thank her first, for getting rid of father. I feel so much better without him breathing down my neck.'

Lucien glared at another one of the family heads and hissed: "Has there been any word from our spies?"

"No, Sire. Their blood crystals have all gone out. I suspect they have been slain."

Lucien harrumphed venomously and asked: "Is there anyone among the turned that knows of the Blood Compass ritual?"

The same family head felt it was up to him to respond as Lucien's gaze hadn't left him, so he spoke: "I don't know yet, Sire. I will ask around."

Lucien's face darkened and his breathing quickened, but he calmed down a moment later and said: "If there's none in the clan, you can seek out somebody from the wizardkind. I'm a progressive leader, unlike father was.

Should you succeed with your task, mother will be yours to do with as you wish. She's proven to be a rather good breeding stock as far as improving our clan's ability is concerned. Just keep her away from any children, lest they be corrupted like that piece of trash Dorne."

The elderly vampire turned to leave before he grinned and said: "I won't disappoint you, Sire!"

Suddenly, the throne room's door was thrown open and one of the staff rushed in. He shouted: "His Royal Highness, fourth prince Reigel Dracula has arrived!"

Lucien's face became a tone paler and he immediately sat straighter on the throne. "Bring a fresh virgin blood slave. The most beautiful one.

Tell Mary and Davi to come into the throne room."

A few moments later a young woman that couldn't be older than seventeen was escorted in by one of the service staff. She walked next to the servant, repeating each one of their movements precisely.

A moment later, Davi was followed into the room by Mary who still had a few blood stains on her dress.

"Brother, is it true?", Mary asked, shooting her words out with almost no pause between them. "Is a prince of the royal family coming?"

"Yes, he should be here any moment.", Lucien replied while adjusting his attire, making sure there were no creases or loose hair on it.

Suddenly, measured and leisurely footsteps could be heard.

Two of the servants rushed to the door and opened it wide.

In the corridor, there was a single person approaching the door. He was six feet tall, had black shoulder-length hair and a slender build. His eyes were blood-red, as if he was constantly using the charm ability, except there was no glow.

Mary rushed forward with her hand held out and gushed: "It's so lovely to see you here, prince Edward. Please come right in, an unblemished refreshment is already prepared for you. Virgin and quite beautiful."

The newcomer completely ignored Mary's outstretched hand and walked past her, as if she was air. He only stopped in front of Lucien that had taken a knee in front of him.

"Prince Reigel, I, Lucien Sanguini, head of the Sanguini clan greet you in my castle."

Reigel's face remained expressionless as he said: "Arise, Lucien Sanguini. I have been informed that you've been unable to appear in the royal castle due to your house needing to be put in order. The family has decided to send me out as an envoy to attend to the formalities."

Lucien avoided Reigel's gaze as he said pointing to the blood slave that hadn't fulfilled her purpose even once so far: "I understand. If you would, I had refreshments prepared for you."

Reigel spared barely a glance at the blood slave and replied: "One of our family's principles is to never accept blood from strangers."

Lucien winced a little and waved for the servant to take the slave away, then said: "I understand. My apologies. Would you like a seat?"

"No. I won't take long."

"I see. What would you like to discuss?"

Reigel took a few moments to organize what he needed to clear up and spoke: "First of all, I don't see Dorne or Brigitte here. It is my understanding that only Vincent fell in the attack on your house."

Cold sweat dripped down Lucien's back as he said: "Unfortunately, your royal highness chose to visit us unannounced. Dorne decided to go on a tour to immerse himself in a different culture and mother decided to accompany him for security reasons."

'An academic tour then? I've heard that Dorne was always quite studious. He must've given up his position as the successor to advance his knowledge. Truly admirable of him to pursue his passion disregarding anything else. Lucien doesn't seem too bad of a replacement either.'

Finally, Reigel asked the only question that really mattered during his visit, even using his charm skill to get a straight answer: "Lucien Sanguini, have you been appointed as the head of the Sanguini clan in accordance with the law?"

Lucien couldn't resist at all and replied: "I was appointed by the clan council's majority vote."

Reigel spoke in a solemn tone: "I, Reigel Dracula, fourth son of Dorian Dracula, hereby affirm you as the lawful head of the Sanguini clan.", he then added in an expressionless tone: "I hope that a situation that requires our presence outside the royal castle doesn't arise again anytime soon from your clan."

As soon as Reigel had left, Lucien said: "Mary, please accompany me to my room. There are a few things we need to discuss."

#AN: turns volume to 11 to drown out the strange sounds and occasional shouts of 'Who's bitch are you?' coming from Lucien's room, plays 'Sweet Home Alabama' (no offense to any Alabamans)#

On the next morning, Mary preferred to stand or walk (rather awkwardly) instead of sitting and she seemed to have difficulty swallowing, as if she had caught a very bad case of the common cold, something that shouldn't happen to Vampires.

She would've been cured by a few gulps of blood, but she had been completely cut off by Lucien.

--- ### following section, until end of chapter contains somewhat gory scenes, but nothing too bad###

Days passed and Lucien's throne room went through a change – all the remaining family members of the traitors had been caught and hung from the ceiling on meat hooks. They were given just enough blood that they wouldn't die, which caused the hooks to slowly grow into their flesh.

At first, they had struggled and screamed, but now they were almost completely still, their eyes lifeless.

Mary was sitting on the throne that should've belonged to the clan head's wife. She was wearing a revealing red dress and a new accessory had appeared on her neck – a wide chocker with a link to attach a leash. She pointed at one of the guards and shouted: "You there! Poke them with your spear! They've become boring, I didn't have them put up there so they could sleep!"

The guard immediately complied, eliciting groans of pain and active attempts to avoid the spear from the vampires.

The family heads, minus the one that had been sent to construct more solitary confinement cells winced, averting their eyes from the sight. None of them dared to even think about rebelling, fearing that what they had seen so far was only a small taste of what would happen to them.

Lucien was sitting on the head's throne and tapping his foot. His right hand was caressing Mary's back and the left was holding onto the arm of one of the blood slaves that was chained between the two of them. He was currently passing his time by snacking on the very blood slave that the prince had refused.

There was a knock on the throne room's door.

Lucien freed his mouth and shouted: "Enter!"

A vampire came in, his waist bent at a right angle, not looking at Lucien at all. Atop his outstretched arms, there was a device that resembled a compass, the needle was locked in one direction, except that direction wasn't quite North.

Lucien, seeing it happen said: "You have the compass? Good. Dahke, it seems you've just earned your right to have mother to yourself."

Lucien then pointed at one of the guards and said: "You will take the compass and find the bitch, the traitors should be with her. Move out at sundown and let me know the instant you've found them."

"Yes, Sire.", the guard shouted and left the throne room as he now had a plausible excuse. Relief was visible on his face the moment he was out of the door – nobody with a sane mind would volunteer to be in a room like that.

On the evening, the guard, or more precisely, Alexander, set out to follow the compass. He Flooed to various properties of the Sanguini clan and quickly noticed that when comparing the Blood Compass to a regular magnetic compass that the direction didn't change all that much.

'It seems she's either in Northern England or even Scotland. I should catch a train or bus, maybe even get a Muggle to drive me.'

---

On the next morning, Alexander returned to Lucien's throne room and bowed deeply in front of the clan head. It fulfilled two purposes: one, he didn't have to look at the horror show that was hanging from the ceiling – Mary had come up with the idea of sewing the intestines of the 'decorations' together – and he could also maintain the feeling of ignorance about what was going on between the clan head and his sister.

Alexander feared he would be severely punished the moment he dared to grimace at either of them. At least Davi had been low-key, only asking the guards to deliver either maidservants or blood slaves to him.

Suddenly, Alexander heard Lucien's voice that was harsh like a lightning strike: "Speak!"

"Sire, I have found the place where the Lestoat clan head resides. It is a human army base. I have already secured a Floo address nearby."