Mikey's P.O.V

I was woken by a soft sigh in my ear and the feeling of skin and someone’s hair brushing against me. I looked over to see Frank’s small, pale body stirring, his head resting against my chest and the sheets draped around his hips, his arm loosely curled around me. My own arms were circling him, holding him close to me and our legs tangled together.

I blinked, staring at the way the shadows fell across his face, the way his body slightly moved as he breathed, the tiniest dried bit of blood on his parted lips and the delicate way his long eyelashes were layered over his skin beneath his eyes.

I leant forwards and kissed his head softly out of instinct before shifting as carefully as I could and slipping out of bed, watching as he made a quiet noise in the back of his throat and his arms clutched a pillow in my absence, a small frown now fixed upon his sleeping face.

I headed towards the door, shutting it softly behind me. I walked down the corridor and turned left
at the end, going towards Gerard’s room. When I reached the door, I paused before knocking.

“Who is it?”

I sighed and opened the door, stepping in and closing it.

One of the nurses must have moved him because he was now sat in a chair facing the window, staring blankly at the dark cloudy sky. He looked around at me and his face dropped, turning into an expression of pure hatred.

“What do you want?” he hissed angrily, glaring at me.

I shrugged and walked forwards to stand next him, staring out at the night. “Came to see how you were.”

“Oh really,” he muttered bitterly. “Are you sure you’re not in here to gloat?”

I sighed heavily again. “He wanted to see you.”

Gerard closed his eyes. “I don’t think I can.”

“He’s upset Gerard. He was hysterical. He…” I trailed off, not wanting to tell Gerard about what had happened.”

“He what?” Gerard asked immediately, looking up at me sharply.

“We might have… you know…” I mumbled. “He was upset Gerard, and I just… it wasn’t… God, it just happened, alright?”

He was looking at me in disbelief. “I really don’t want to believe you. Tell me you’re lying Mikey. It’s not funny, just tell me you’re lying!”

“I’m not,” I spat, gritting my teeth. “We had sex Gerard, OK? Get the fuck over it!”

And then, just out of spite, I added with a smirk: “Anyway. Weren’t we always brought up to share our toys?”

His face fell in complete shock. “You don’t have a fucking clue what I’d do to you right know if I could move.”

“Just as well you can’t then because I’d break every single bone in your body,” I snarled at him. “This is your own fault Gerard! If you hadn’t just freaked out on him like that-”

“Shut up! Just shut up Mikey! You have no idea how much I didn’t want him to be like us and you, you just went and bit him as if it was nothing and turned him into this, into a monster! I loved him because he wasn’t like every other sadistic, heartless piece of shit I know! He was perfect and human! And he’ll never be the same again Mikey and the worst thing about it is that it was you! It’s your fault he’s like this now, that he’s fucking cursed for the rest of his life! I can’t ever have what I used to have with him Mikey because now you two have some sort of fucked up bond and I can’t do anything about it! You don’t realise it, but you’ve taken away from me the only person I’ve ever loved!”

He lapsed into silence, breathing heavily, his skin pale and drained and his fists clenched tightly. I stared at him in silence, not knowing what to say.

When I found the words, I was hesitant to say them. But I did.

“I don’t care Gerard. And I’m not sorry,” I said quietly, not letting any emotion get into my voice.

With that I turned and left. As soon as I shut the door, muffled sobs erupted from inside the room. I felt my own eyes stinging with tears before I blinked furiously and walked back towards my bedroom and to Frank.

(Gerard’s P.O.V)

After an hour of pathetically sobbing into my hands, I must have fallen asleep because I jerked awake at the sound of a heavy knocking on my door. I was still propped up by dozens of pillows in the huge arm chair in front of the window but the sky was darker now and the night was deeper. There was another knock at the door, impatient this time.

“Come in,” I mumbled.

I turned around to see my father stood in the doorway. He stood there awkwardly under my gaze before clearing his throat and entering the room. He walked slowly towards me, the dim lights making his skin seem shallow and a sickly pale colour, his dark eyes shining. My father was a tall man with broad shoulders and defined muscles. His face was pale-as were all vampires’ faces-and had strong and angular features and deep set eyes. His hair was thick and a rich brown colour and he walked with a heavy air of importance and power.

He didn’t look at me as he stood by my side, observing the shadowy gardens beneath us. I looked up at him, waiting for him to speak. The seconds ticked by and still he stood in silence, his eyes still flickering over the scene below him. I turned my head to follow his stare and the air grew thick with uncomfortable silence.

“I’m sorry Gerard,” he said quietly, startling me at the sudden communication.

“What?”

“I’m sorry for what happened the night of the fire. I was… I don’t know. But I can’t forgive myself,” he murmured.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, not having the energy or patience to wait for him to elaborate.

He exhaled a deep sigh and closed his eyes. “The night of the fire, when you ran back into the palace. I told the firemen to not send anyone in after you.”

I stared at him.

“I thought you were dead Gerard,” he confessed in a guilt drowned whisper. “You’d been in there too long for you to still be alive by the time I found out it was you that had gone back inside. I told them not to send anyone in after you because I thought it would be pointless. I didn’t want any more deaths that night and I wasn’t going to send more people in on a pointless rescue mission. You have to understand Gerard, I wasn’t thinking straight and I… you have to know I didn’t mean it.”

I swallowed heavily. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

He finally turned his head to look at me with sad eyes. “Don’t say anything then. I just wanted you to know how sorry I am. It’s my fault that this happened to you.”

I clenched my jaw and looked away when he said. “I don’t regret what happened. I would’ve given my life if it meant that those people got out alive. I’m lucky this is all that happened.”

I was expecting him to start an argument with me, but he didn’t. He just sighed.

“Gerard, I gave up long ago on trying to understand you. It’s easier to just let you parade around trying to force your ideas down everyone’s throat instead of trying to reason with you. There’s no point. You’re completely fixed on your deluded opinions and even though we’ve tried our best, we’ve given up on you.”

I whipped my head around to glare at him. “My deluded ideas? You are unbelievable, you know that? Why can’t see what you really are?”

“I know exactly what I am Gerard and I know exactly what humans are. It’s not my fault that I happen to be the King of a superior race, is it?” he said through gritted teeth. “Do you really just expect me to throw away thousands of years of tradition and belief for nothing? You don’t see the bigger picture Gerard. You only see what you want to. You’re practically blind as to what’s going on around you.”

“Blind?! I’m far from blind! I’m the only one who sees what’s happening and nobody listens! No one else sees it as torture or slavery or cruelty because it doesn’t suit them, because it would mean changing everything for themselves! We could all live in peace if you just gave everyone eq-”

“Like I said, I’m not arguing with you,” he cut me off flatly, still not meeting my eyes. “Gerard, it’s your birthday soon. You know what’s going to happen.”

My heart sank. “So this is why you wanted to see me. You don’t care at all. You just wanted to talk about yourself.”

“I think you forget that I’m not just your father Gerard,” he spat sourly. “I’m also your King.”

“Not for long,” I muttered, looking away from his steely gaze.

“Gerard, I need to talk to you about this. I can’t put it off any longer. If you don’t stop acting like this soon, I’m going to have to do something about it.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to give you one chance Gerard. If you don’t drop this stupid behaviour and marry Eliza, I’m going to have to lay all my hopes on your brother and make him King instead.”

“What?! But you can’t do that! Mikey’s not in line for the throne, you know that!”

“He is if you’re declared clinically insane,” my father retorted straight away.

“Clinically insane?! You would lie about me like that?!”

“Yes Gerard, I would! I would make up whatever lie I needed to as long as it meant I had fulfilled my duty and given my people a King who I trusted! I can’t let you become King if you’re going to change everything, if you’re going to destroy everything we stand for!”

“Why would you do that to me?!”

“Because making you King whilst you’re still fixed on your stupid little ideas would the biggest mistake I ever made! Do you think I’m stupid? I know exactly what you’re going to do Gerard! You’re going to free the humans and make them equal to us!” he spat, completely disgusted. “I know all about your plans to join with our enemy Gerard! You were going to make three other Kings and set the humans free! What were you thinking?! A human King? And as if that’s not bad enough, a werewolf too! Maybe you really are clinically insane!”

“How do you know about that?! Nobody knew apart from me and…” I trailed off at the end, feeling horror swamp my mind. “No.”

“Mikey told me what you did. He told me about how you went to them and made plans with them.”

“Did he mention how he found out?!” I demanded through gritted teeth.

“Yes,” my father said icily. “The human. Frank.”

“He’s not human anymore,” I whispered. “He’s one of us now.”

“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” my father snapped. “He told me how he convinced Frank to tell him everything with the promise of turning him.”

Frank. Mikey had lied to Frank and it was my fault.

“What’s going to happen now?” I asked in a terrified whisper.

“What’s going to happen is you’re going to start doing this my way or Mikey’s going to take your place,” he answered coldly.

“What if I don’t care if you say I’m mad? Everyone thinks that anyway,” I retorted.

“If you don’t do this Gerard, you’ll pay with Frank’s life,” he answered immediately. “I don’t want to do it Gerard, but if I have to, I’ll have Frank disposed of if you refuse to do as I say.”

I sat there in silence and he stalked towards the door, throwing it open.

“You’re even more of a monster than I ever thought you were,” I whispered.

“Well it looks like you were right the whole time then, weren’t you?” he snarled before slamming the door shut.