Lady Dhampir
Chapter 160

Milena opened her eyes all of a sudden.

The first sensation that hit her was a horrible nausea, and a terrible taste in her mouth. She grimaced and rolled over, bending over the edge of the bed to puke. She would have never allowed herself that if she hadn't felt so sick. She just couldn't stand it...

"My Lady! Are you alright? Someone call the doctor!"

Dinah's voice, and the gentle taps of a tissue against her lips managed to wake her up. Milena was feeling terribly sick, but most importantly, she was disoriented. She couldn't recognize the room she was in, or remember when she had gone to bed either. What had happened to her?

Dinah helped her sit up, but Milena couldn't shake off that feeling of emergency that was coming over her. She looked around, trying to put things back in order.

"What am I doing here? What happened?"

She felt like she had forgotten something important, and her heart was beating crazily, echoing her chaotic mind. This room... it was one of the Royal Guest Rooms, she could tell. Why would she be there instead of her own bed? "M-my Lady, you should stay still. You were healed, but they said you should lie down until you feel better..."

"Dinah, what happened!"

Her angry voice made her maid jump, and Blanche suddenly appeared too, hopping on the bed.

It was obvious Dinah was scared. Not of Milena, but about what she had to tell her. She took a deep breath, and bowed very respectfully.

"There was an attack during the King's Funeral, my Lady. A group of assassins barged inside the Chapel while most of the guests were gone. You, Prince Rayan, and Prince Ellias did your best to fight them off. Duchess Rachel arrived with reinforcements, and with the Royal Guards' help, most of the assailants were either killed or arrested, although some managed to flee."

The memories were coming back to Milena, about as fast as Dinah could explain. Everything was coming back to Milena, filling in the blanks. The Chapel, the Funeral, the priests and their prayers. The candle in her hands, and the annoying sobs that lasted for too long. Milena's breathing accelerated. She remembered some of the fight. The black hoods on those people...

"You were stabbed by... The Marquess Alban De Carseus, my Lady. Duchess Rachel shot him down to try and save you, but it was too late."

Alban.

His face barged into Milena's mind, as vividly as if he was right in front of her. Right. The Marquess was among the attackers, but she wasn't the target. Philomenie was. And right before he had stabbed her, his... apology. His words echoed in Milena's head, like an enigma. He had stabbed her on purpose. She wasn't his target, but...

Milena glanced down, pushing the covers away. She was perfectly fine. Even as she lifted her clothes, there wasn't a single trace of a wound to be seen. Yet, she could vividly remember the pain that had stabbed her. "Who healed me?"

"P-Princess Philomenie asked the Saint to save you, my Lady. His power apparently resides in his blood, so he... made you drink it. He did predict you'd be sick once you... woke up."

So that was that horrible taste in her mouth. Milena felt terribly nauseous, just remembering it. She couldn't even understand how she had been able to swallow that. It was disgusting, nothing like human blood. Milena couldn't even begin to think of a comparison, other than something like mud, something rotten or extremely bitter medicine. However, she could clearly witness the incredible results... Her body was completely fine, other than that hellish nausea. She felt like puking again, but she was sure there wasn't anything left in her body to take out.

"I want to... freshen myself up. Get me some water..."

"Yes, your Highness!"

Calling some Royal Maids to help, Dinah quickly brought Milena what she needed to take that taste out of her mouth, wash her face and drink something much more bearable. Still, she couldn't shake off that feeling of restlessness that was hovering over her. Something was still missing. "How is my husband?"

"His Highness is fine, my Lady; He was with you until just a couple of hours ago..."

Milena nodded. Rayan surely had gone to sleep or work, but...

Suddenly, it hit her.

"Dinah, what day is it? When is the Council?"

Her maid's expression fell, and she immediately lowered her head again;

"I-it began o-over an hour ago..."

Milena's heart sank. An hour!

"Dinah!" She roared. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner!"

She almost jumped out of the bed, and was immediately hit by a vertigo. Dinah ran to her side, almost in tears.

"My Lady, you weren't asleep but unconscious, how could we wake you up! Plus, you shouldn't even be standing, you lost so much blood!"

"Dinah, replace me a dress and help me get dressed. Right away."

All the Royal Maids, hesitant, turned to Dinah, who was going white.

"My Lady, you can't be serious..."

"If I can stand, I can attend that Council, Dinah, so help me dress up before I walk there in this outfit!"

Dinah's lip twitched, but she knew Milena too well. Her mistress wouldn't fire her, but she certainly could make her regret disobeying for a very, very long time. Truthfully, the young maid cared less about that Council than her Lady's health, but she had no choice. With a pain in her heart, she ordered the other maids, and picked a dress for Milena.

Still, she didn't want to silently accept this. While she and other maids quickly moved around Milena to help her get ready as quickly as possible, she voiced her opinion in every way she could think of.

"His Highness did mention you should stay in bed," she said. "Maybe you'll be too late for that meeting anyway, and you will have just exhausted yourself for nothing! Plus, if you just..." "Dinah, shut up."

The maid bit her tongue, but once again, she had no choice. She knew very well Milena would die for her duty if she had to, and there was no stopping her now... She could only hope the Princess would stay still at that damn Council, or her husband would say something.

With so many hands working around her, Milena was prepared and ready in a matter of minutes. She had no need to look perfect right now; she only needed to make it in time before she missed the chance of a lifetime. The truth was, Dinah was right, and this was a bad idea for her body. Milena could still feel the horrible effects of the Saint's blood in her system, making her want to throw up again. She had only drunk water for that very reason, she'd worry about eating later. Once she was ready, she stormed out of the guest room, in a dark dress, Blanche running ahead of her.

Milena's heart was in horrible turmoil. How much had she missed? Had she been too late for the votes? What of the assassination attempts, what had been decided? Would they settle it this very morning as well?

She felt so sick in the corridors, she had to stop a couple of times to catch her breath and try to stop that horrible nausea that kept coming up. Still, she didn't want to stop. There were only a few stairs and more corridors. Milena made it a few minutes later and only stopped right before the door, to calm herself down and catch her breath. There was already a lot of noise inside... Really a lot of noise. What the hell was going on? She could hear people yelling at each other. It wasn't uncommon in the Council, but it did sound more agitated than usual.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the doors wide, banging them on purpose.

Her arrival sent a silence through the ranks. The Princess' burning stare took every person present by surprise. The silence that then installed itself was just as impressive as the ruckus before. A few of the senators opened their eyes wide, in utter shock from her appearance.

No one reacted faster than Rayan though. The Prince almost jumped off his throne to go and meet her.

"Milena!" He exclaimed, ignoring all protocol. "What are you... How..."

"My apologies," she coldly replied, just enough for most to hear. "I seem to be... a bit late."

It was hard to maintain a front where she probably wasn't looking as good as she hoped to be, and she still felt like throwing up. However, the pressure of about a hundred stares on her kept Milena standing straight. She looked into Rayan's eyes, the two of them reaching an understanding quickly.

Still, her husband seemed upset. He offered his arm, and escorted her to her seat with a bitter expression. If his sourness reflected how bad she ought to look at this moment, this was probably going to be more difficult than planned...

Because of the Princess' arrival, all the Senators' bantering had been put to a brutal end, they all bowed and sat back, a bit ashamed. A lot were obviously shocked to see her though.

Milena glanced to the side and, to her surprise, Ellias was alone. Where was Philomenie? It didn't make sense that the Princess would be absent from this meeting, but Milena couldn't ask now, when she had just come herself. Instead, she turned her head to Rayan, speaking loud enough.

"Your Highnesses, my apologies for my tardiness. May I ask, what did I miss?"

"You're arriving at a good moment, your Highness!" Exclaimed a vampire Senator. "Because of this vile attack, several Vampire Families have been arrested, without any basis! We are asking for them to be released right away!"

They were still at that point in the Council? Milena was surprised. What was taking so long? Even if they had explained all of the events, it shouldn't have taken that long...

That's when she realized. A lot of seats were empty! She tried to count roughly, but at least twelve Senators were absent, and more worrying, all of the empty spots should have been filled with vampires. This didn't look good, not at all. In the first rank, Rachael had an extremely upset expression too, clearly glaring at Ellias with her arms crossed.

"We are simply keeping them under surveillance until we can continue interrogating them", said Ellias, very calm. "Princess Milena, you unfortunately missed a good chunk of the events. As soon as we were able to uncover the identities of those criminals who dared to attack us, the Royal Family, the Royal Guard was sent to arrest their next of kin, pending further questioning."

"Your Majesty, you can't possibly hold such an important vote when so many people are absent from the Council!" Protested a Senator, followed by many others.

"What are you suggesting then?" Asked Ellias. "People who have conspired against the Royal Family should be able to decide on the next King?"

"They haven't been proven guilty yet," hissed Rayan.

Milena got even more nervous as she realized how furious her husband already was. For Rayan to be so visibly upset, the first half she had missed of the Council must have been terrible. Had they used all that time to go over all the people arrested? It was too unbelievable that so many families had been arrested! Milena was trying to fight her sickness to count, but she could tell. Alexis De Carseus, who would have been one of her greatest supports, wasn't there; The Count De Zinnia's seat was empty, and even the old Count de Narcissus, Verona's father, was very pale.

Ellias sighed.

"Unfortunately, Brother, I don't think anyone implicated will be proven innocent any time soon. Some of the documents found by the Royal Guard are quite worrying. There are several mentions, in the houses that underwent investigation, that all the people who attacked us were part of a very secret organization meant to harm the Royal Family. If this were found at their main domain, I'm afraid we have no choice but to consider all the residents implicated. Don't we all know all families have to stand together, as much as possible, in their decisions? The chances for the whole family of each of those traitors to be implicated is too high. I fear this cannot be overlooked so easily." Rayan clenched his fist.

"Ellias, we cannot call for a vote when so much of the Council is absent!"

"So much? Isn't it not even... a fifth, is it? As long as there's a majority, any vote can be held, Brother, don't you know this just as well as I do? Moreover, we are talking about choosing the future Crown Prince, but more importantly, about the War we have already pushed too many times. I feel extremely sorry my wife's state has obligated us to push this issue back once already; however, you know as well as I do, we cannot buy any more time. A decision must and will be taken today." Milena's anger was coming like a storm ready to take down the roof.

Ellias had helped himself too well with the situation. He had used this attack to take down as many vampire families as he could, and, at the same time, get a lot of Rayan's and her allies out of the Council Room. On the side, a Royal Secretary brought to Milena the full list of the people who had been arrested or killed. The list of names wasn't even that long, but Milena had to admit, all of those were vampire nobles. None were in the direct line of their family, or an heir. It was always a cousin, an uncle or a relative of the direct line. Just like Alban De Carseus had only been Lady Alexis' cousin. Milena felt her heart sink when she understood who those people were.

Thankfully, no one among her close friends or family was involved, but she could already tell where Ellias was going to head with this. It certainly justified Rayan and Rachael's anger.

"They called themselves the Society of Vampires," announced Ellias loudly. "Senators, I'd like to hear your opinion on the fact that such a large and powerful group of vampires tried to assassinate the Royal Family! During my Father's funeral, no less!" Milena's throat was going drier and drier every second, although she did her best to show nothing of it. The situation was even worse than she'd have imagined.

Ellias was going to use the Society of Vampires to drag not just his brother, but all of the Vampires down. Milena exchanged a glance with Rachael. The Duchess was boiling too. This Council was very different from what she had imagined, and what she had prepared herself for. This wasn't just going to be about putting her husband on the throne now, but maybe about saving an entire race. Milena took a deep breath, regaining her composure. This was going to be a long, long battle. "Prince Ellias."

Milena's calm and composed voice surprised the human Prince, who almost glared at her. Ellias knew that expression in Milena's eyes, when she was like a cat ready to hunt. "P-Princess?"

"I'd like us to go over those accusations you're making in detail. How is this Society of Vampires linked to the attack? The claims our attackers made, and why do you think so many people aren't worthy to attend this Council?" Ellias' expression slowly sunk.

"Princess Milena, I fear you may have missed a lot. After all, this attack almost killed us!"

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm alive," she retorted. "So, I'd like to make the most of the chance I was given to outlive the people who tried to murder me, and almost succeeded. You wouldn't refuse me the right to get to the bottom of this, surely?" "The Council has to..."

"The Council certainly will agree that although we may have to pick our future Crown Prince today, that is certainly an important issue we can dedicate several hours to. Am I wrong?"

Her amethyst eyes circled the audience, taking all the Senators presence as her hostage. At this very moment, Princess Milena De Crescent had an expression that certainly had a strong and shocking resemblance to that of her Father, the Duke Anton De Crescent himself.

A long silence gave her all she needed to hear, and for a few seconds, nothing was heard but the chuckle of Lady De Nova.

"Princess Milena is right, Your Highness," said the Duchess. "After all, she was the first victim, wasn't she?"

Milena's determination didn't waver a single second, no matter how much Ellias' green eyes stared.

She now knew exactly why she had been stabbed; Alban De Carseus had given her an extra guarantee, and Milena now was the one in the best position to oppose Ellias. Certainly, she wasn't going to let him win this round easily.