The Ice Queen's Hidden Ace

“We are doomed. Our entire race will be vanquished if Dominic Vanhuesan were to take the throne”, General Rodriguez spat out at venom at a frightened, terror faced King Andrew, the vampire who ruled over all the ancient vampire clans.

“He is the most pure-blood vampire in this world. He is the direct descendant of Count Dracula. If he lays a claim on the throne, no one will be able to challenge him.”, Natasha, the Queen Mother declared dryly.

The entire room shushed as they took in the weight of her words.

The stone palace suddenly felt ice cold and gloomy instead of mysterious and beautiful. They were currently in the hidden, underground, chamber room in the palace.

“All of you seem to be forgetting a vampire who has blue blood too and has an irrefutable claim to the throne”, Melissa Langdon, the former Vampire Queen declared haughtily.

Natasha narrowed her eyes dangerously at the former Queen and tried to stare her down, but to no avail. The former Queen was not an easy woman to mess with. After all, she was known as the Ice Queen for a reason.

“She swore never to come back.”, Demetri, the general’s right-hand man said, huffing out his shoulders in frustration.

“And she has good reason not to, after the way she was treated in the palace.”, the General spat with venom in his voice, his eyes glaring daggers at the current Queen Mother.

“But she is the only one who stands a chance against Vanhuesan”, King Andrew muttered nervously.

Natasha immediately shut her son up with a deadly glare.

“But we have no means of contacting her. She just vanished. No one knows where she is right now. I have been trying to trace her with my powers too, but she has become more powerful, powerful enough to hide her entire presence from a tracker”, Demetri said simply, feeling a tad bit bit proud that she was able to over power even him.

Melissa Langdon was gleeful that at last these male chauvinistic vampires had seen her daughter’s competence and power. Even the current ruler, King Andrew had resignedly agreed that he was inferior to her daughter.

“She won’t come back….She hates the palace…she wants nothing to do with us”, General Rodriguez repeated again with conviction. He was sure that his foster daughter would never set foot in the palace again. She had completely gone rogue and left their clan without even saying goodbye.

It still hurt him deeply that he had failed the little girl, who he had raised as his own when the former Queen had abandoned her.

“She will for me…..”, Melissa Langdon replied calmly.

The General looked at her dubiously before he replied stoically, “I mean no offence, Your Highness, but though she is your daughter, your relationship with her has always been very strained. She doesn't even acknowledge you as her mother. To her, you will always be the woman who abandoned her at birth.”

The Ice Queen stared down the General as she replied in an icy tone, “That’s exactly why she will come back if I ask her too. She loathes me and can’t stand me but she owes me a favor. For a vampire as proud as her, owing a favor to a person who you loathe the most is unbearable and she will take any opportunity to cut me off permanently because as long as she owes me, her essence is still connected to mine.”

“She owes you? For what?”, General Rodriguez asked curiously. His foster daughter was a very independent vampire who wouldn’t even come to him for help when she got in trouble. So, he was more than curious to know what kind of situation made his daughter so helpless that she had to get help from her birth mother who she hates the most in this world.

“That’s between a mother and her daughter.”, she replied haughtily.

The General bit his lip, and stopped himself from answering back. His loyalties lied with Queen Melissa because of the sole reason that she was the lesser of two evils. She was not a good mother but she had been a good Queen until the King’s second wife, Natasha had been declared the Queen Mother when her son King Andrew ascended to the throne.

For ages, no one could challenge Queen Melissa because she was the one who had the royal blood and not the late King. Because the emperor had no other off springs other than Melissa, he had declared that his daughter’s husband as the King since no female vampire could be the empress.

Though Andrew, the son of the late King’s concubine had succeeded the throne, he was unsuccessful in gaining the allegiance of the North and West Kingdoms because he had no royal blood, which made it impossible for him to ascend the Emperor’s throne.

“But how can we contact her? She has vanished off the face of the earth.”

“She is in North Carolina. Though the exact location is still clouded.”, Melissa said to Demetri who immediately started working his powers again, this time focusing on the vampire scents in North Carolina.

“How did you?”, The General started, taken aback, then stopped mid-sentence as his expression turned into one of pure fury.

“There is only one way you could trace her essence when even our strongest tracer couldn’t. You are connected with her. This favor she owes you, what is so important that she was willing to do a blood oath with a woman she absolutely loathes?”, The General asked furiously, completely aghast by the new turn of events.

He was boiling inside. Didn’t his foster daughter trust him at all? Why would she make a blood oath with the Ice Queen? His fatherly protective instincts were starting to crawl over and he regretted being busy with his army and not spending enough time with his daughter.

He had to take a few seconds to calm himself down so that he could concentrate on the matter at hand.

"In return for the favor I did, she swore a blood oath that she would be at my service when I needed her the most", Melissa said sighing.

“Still nothing….She has become way too powerful…Even after fully concentrating my power on North Carolina only, I still can’t see even an ounce of her essence”, Demetri said stiffly.

He was miffed and embarrassed that even after using his full powers he still couldn’t find her.

The General looked taken aback that a skilled vampire, with a natural born power to trace could not trace out his daughter.

He raised an eyebrow at Demetri and asked him, “Are you able to trace where Dominic Vanhuesan is?”

Demetri closed his eyes again as he concentrated on his task. After a few seconds he declared proudly, “He is in the East Kingdom, trying to gain allegiance from them”

The General let out a laugh in delight.

“You know what this means? You were able to read the mighty Vanhuesan’s location after only a few seconds but you took the past couple of weeks trying to trace out my daughter and still couldn’t. It is clear as day, who is the most powerful of two. Dominic may have his legions of armies and beasts but we have one thing that he never will have that puts the odds in our favor….Selena….”

“We will stand a chance against him only if she stands with us”, Melissa nodded, agreeing with the General.

“It’s been fifty years since she left. Though it is not much in vampire years, it is still half a century. It would be quite shameless of us to turn to her as a last resort and expect her to fight our battles for us when we spend half a century ignoring her”, Demetri said simply, his head bowed with regret.

Just then a red-haired male vampire, who looked middle aged but was in fact thousands of centuries old who was the spy they had placed in Dominic's territory, entered the cellar hastily and shouted in a panicked voice, “General, they are planning to unleash the chakra in North Carolina and Italy”

Everyone in the room went still for a moment as what he had just said sunk in.

The chakra was a celestial weapon which was powerful enough to wipe out an entire continent along with its residents into dust within a few seconds. Using of celestial weapons had been banned since the middle ages and the ancient vampires had gone through many pains to ensure that the three heavenly celestial weapons doesn’t fall into the hands of anyone. If Dominic Vanhuesan is indeed in possession of a celestial weapon, it put him at a big advantage. Unleashing the chakra in Italy made sense. Most of their allies were based on Italy. It would be cutting them off at the root with just one move.

“Wait a second. Why North Carolina?”, Demetri asked dumbfounded then froze as it dawned on him.

“No..No…They can’t have found out the location of Selena, can they?”

“Selena’s essence is deeply hidden. We only found out about her location only because the former Queen has a blood oath connection with her. They can’t have found that out unless they have a scryer, who they were using to spy on us.”, The General said as he stared into blankness.

Melissa swore out loud. This wasn’t good news. A scryer is dangerous in the hands of an enemy. Dominic could make use of him to scry any time and learn the plans of his enemies. Which means, Selena’s location was safe from him, but they themselves have given that information to Dominic in a silver platter.

“We have to warn her to get out”, Melissa said anxiously.

“Sire, according to the informant the chakra is going to be released within the next few minutes. You have to make the decision fast”, Demetri said stoically, his eyes softening as he looked at his master with pity.

General looked confusedly at Demetri before it hit him with full force…Italy….Where his only son was…..

His shoulders slumped with the weight of this new information. They didn’t have time to warn both places simultaneously. If they chose Selena, they would lose the big legion of allies, which they have in Italy and his one and only son, but if they chose Italy, they lose Selena, the only person who can challenge Dominic’ claim to the throne. This was not an easy decision to make and the General, for the first time in his life hesitated to make a decision. He had to choose between his foster daughter and his only son.

What is more important to win a war? An army or a great ruler? If he chose Selena, he would lose half of his army and if he chose his army, they never will have a chance to fight in the first place.

The General was dejected at the choice he had to make, but was sure it was the right one.

“Warn North Carolina…..”, he ordered Demetri, his face contorted with raw anguish. He was going to lose his son, who was the outcome of numerous prayers of his wife.

Demetri conveyed the messaged to a vampire, who immediately set off to convey the order.

Melissa patted his shoulders softly, showing her condolence.

They were busy consoling the General that they didn’t see the Queen Mother and King Andrew sneak out.

The entire sky suddenly erupted into bolts of lightning. The chakra was being unleashed. And they felt the chills of it being unleashed even though they were underground. The statues of their predecessors trembled and shook violently as its aftermath hit.

The General fell to the ground, feeling helpless and grieved for his son.

The former Queen closed her eyes and bowed her head down for the allies they had just lost.

And just like that, within two seconds, the sky cleared up. The chakra had done its job. The chakra can only be used once and though it destroyed half of the royal army, Dominic won’t be able to use it again so they don’t have it live in fear anymore. The worst was past them, or so they believed.

Demetri sprang up abruptly, his ear pricked up and frowned.

“Just a moment Sire”, he said as he ran out of the cellar.

It was only then the former Queen realized that the Queen Mother and the King were missing.

She frowned at their abrupt disappearance but paid no second thought to it, for it was obvious that the Queen Mother was not happy of their plan of bringing Selena back as that would jeopardize the position of her dear son.

Demetri entered the room again, an alarmed look on his face.

The Ice Queen merely raised an eyebrow at him in nonchalance, while he blurted out petrified, “The Queen mother interfered with the council. And all of them voted to save Italy instead of North Carolina. The Council elders were persuaded by the Queen Mother’s arguments. They deemed it proper to save their allies instead of a girl who had taken great lengths to hide from this world. She may not be even in one of the Vampire clans of North Carolina, she may be living among humans. So, they decided to warn their allies who had a sure chance of survival instead of a vampire who they may or may not find.”

The General got up in a second, but felt his knee wobble slightly. His hands grabbed onto the ivory table to steady himself. Though a part of his heart was glad that his son would still be alive, he still felt the blow of loosing a loved one, as he had raised Selena as his own offspring.

The former Queen let out a deafening shriek, which could be heard all through the palace.

She had already lost her other daughter, Mia Langdon, Selena’s twin. She had lost her whole family; Selena was all she had left.

Just then, the Queen Mother entered the chamber, hearing Melissa’s shrieks. She had finally succeeded in taking everything away from her…..her family…her throne…her whole kingdom…..her man….and now her daughter…..

The Queen Mother was beyond gleeful that she had succeeded in persuading the council. She had spent centuries being scorned for being the concubine and even when she had finally become the Queen overthrowing Melissa, the clans still treated Melissa as their rightful Queen instead of her.

She smiled smugly at Melissa and declared in a pompous tone, “It was for the greater good, Melissa.”

Melissa’s serene face contorted into one of pure rage and grief as she closed the distance between them in a split off a second, her icy hands firmly wrapped around the Queen Mother, Natasha’s neck. Her fangs were out and her eyes bloodshot. The loss of her last kin had made her go berserk.

“You again! As if you haven’t done enough. You idiot! Now you won’t even have a throne left for your son to rule over.”, Melissa spat at her, with venom in her voice. She then let go off Natasha and slumped to the ground, wailing out loud the dismissal of her daughter.

The General was furious with himself. He should have seen the Queen Mother’s move. He should have stopped it or at least been there when the council was making its decision but he was busy grieving his son that he let down his kingdom. He bowed his head in shame as he realized that the one personal moment he took caused the kingdom its last chance to fend off Dominic Vanhuesan.