Chapter 11
Although he hasn’t revealed our destination, I’ve known from the start of our adventure where Lucius is taking me. And yet the utter blackness before me – the tall, narrow hole like a slit into the side of the mountain, a perhaps bottomless wound – makes me pull back a little.

Lucius doesn’t hesitate, though. Without a word, he steps inside first, and because our hands are linked – and because I want to follow – I allow him to guide me into the constricted passage, so small that Lucius has to walk ahead, slightly bent, his arm stretched behind himself to reach me. We move at a snail’s pace, feeling our way along, because there’s no hope of our eyes adjusting in such a complete, subterranean void.

I want to ask him why we couldn’t have brought a flashlight or a candle, even, but something tells me not to talk.

I’m scared… Scared of being in a tight space underground, in darkness that almost certainly harbors creatures that would make my skin crawl if I were to see them in the light of day. And I have irrational fears, too, like that the ground might drop away just ahead of us and our next step send us tumbling into empty space. But I’m also excited, and know that Lucius is familiar with the path.

As if on cue, he bends lower and turns – not easy in the cramped space – and places his free hand gently on my head, protecting it as he guides me past a turn where the rock juts down from above. “Careful here,” he whispers. “The rock is sharp.”

Yes, it’s quite obvious that Lucius has been here many times…

As I round the bend in passageway, my back still bent, too, I see in the distance a faint glow, and my anticipation grows – along with a new confusion.

The light – it flickers like flame.

Is someone else already here?

Are we meeting someone?

If Lucius is surprised, he doesn’t voice it. He just continues to draw us down the gently curving corridor and toward that light, and my eyes finally begin to pick out details around us. The passageway is actually very dry and smooth, not as scary as I’d thought in the dark. The walls appear almost cared for. I glance down and see that the dirt floor seems swept clean, too, so there’s nothing to stumble over. And the air, though musty, smells like spice… maybe some kind of incense. I take a deep breath, thinking the smell is vaguely reminiscent of the unusual cologne that I first began to associate with Lucius back in America.

I walk close on his heels, venturing to draw the fingertips of my free hand along the wall at my side, wondering if Lucius chose that cologne because it reminded him of this spot.

The light grows stronger and my heart begins to pound. I am about to see what is probably – no, definitely – the most significant place in my life…

The ceiling rises higher and the walls widen as we get closer, so even Lucius can stand upright, and at the last moment – just as we pass beneath a crude wooden support that separates the passage from the chamber that lies at the end, he draws me to his side and then steps aside, allowing me to walk through first, and telling me, voice hushed with reverence, “This, Antanasia, is where our parents promised us to one another.”

As I step into that hidden cavern, lit by a small row of simple candles arranged on a wooden table, almost like an altar… That honestly is the first time it really strikes me that I have been here before. That the infant I sometimes picture being offered up at a subterranean betrothal ceremony was actually ME.

That child… She always seemed like a stranger… No more real than a doll…

But of course that baby was… me. Flesh and blood. My eyes have witnessed all of this before. Perhaps I was placed on that table…

And Lucius…

I turn slowly to face him, and see that he looks both happy and suitably solemn as – clearly understanding what is running through my mind – he says, “Yes, Antanasia… This – THIS place – is where you and I REALLY first met.”

He stays near the entrance, giving me time to take everything in. Both to look with my eyes and feel all of the emotions that course through me as I stand in a place that is, as Lucius promised, sacred to the vampire clans.

The cave is not large, but like the passage, it is clean and obviously maintained. Along with the table, there are wooden benches, crude like the support at the entrance and arranged in rows, almost like a classroom or a church.

“This is where our ancestors made all of their most important decisions,” Lucius explains, obviously seeing how my gaze lingers on the seats. “The Elders and senior vampires would gather here to debate. Still do gather, for the most crucial, clandestine meetings.”

I look to him and see that his gaze is traveling around the space, as if he’s seeing it anew, too.

“And they sought refuge here, too, right?” I ask. “When vampires were being purged…?” A chill runs through me – and not because the cave is cool. Our parents were destroyed in the last purge. Will there be others…?

“Yes,” Lucius confirms, stepping into the chamber, lacing his hands behind his back and pacing, head bent, the way that he always does when he grows pensive, thoughtful. “This has always been a safe haven. Its location is highly guarded.” He raises his eyes to meet mine and adds, “Destruction awaits the vampire who reveals THIS spot to a human. That is the penalty, with no hope of clemency. No mercy.”

I watch Lucius coolly stating this fact, and although I know that he is prepared to rule, I am a little bit in awe – and slightly unnerved – to think that the vampire who kisses me so tenderly, and who just protected my head with a gentle hand, wouldn’t hesitate to carry out that kind of justice.

Uncertainty grips me. Will I, as a princess, be responsible for handing down such a sentence? Am I responsible for doing it NOW, if a Dragomir breaks the code of secrecy?

I stare hard into Lucius’s eyes. Has he already served as judge, issued a sentence like that?

I start to ask him – but change my mind. Maybe I don’t want to know… not right then. So I ask another question that is bothering me. “If this is a safe haven, why didn’t our parents…?”

But Lucius is already shaking his head. “Rulers do not ‘hide,’ Antanasia,” he reminds me. “Especially not leaders such as our parents were. Such as WE will be. Kings and queens do not cower in caves, even to save their lives.”

I swallow thickly, a queer feeling in the pit of my stomach, and not just because I doubt my courage in the face of destruction. Lucius has also just elevated us to “king and queen.” But he and I are barely a prince and princess. At least, I am barely a princess. And to rise up to be queen – that only happens if we… if Lucius and I… ever marry and have a CHILD. An heir to the throne, who would complete the last part of the pact uniting our clans…

I watch the handsome, powerful vampire who stands before me, not sure if that feeling in my stomach is pure excitement, because I do want that future with him, or if I am experiencing a twinge of anxiety, too…

“Don’t look so alarmed, Antanasia,” he says, mouth curving into a smile as he steps closer to me. He takes my hands in his and bends to rest his forehead against mine, his fingers caressing mine. “All that in due time, yes?” he asks quietly, obviously guessing at what I’m thinking. “I didn’t mean to frighten you!”

As we stand together in the quiet cave, in the circle of candlelight, the concern that I did feel vanishes. I would accept any future – mete out harsh justice, face destruction… anything – just to stand like this with Lucius for a few moments, even. “I’m not scared,” I promise him.

“Are you sure?” he asks, clasping my hands together and pressing them against his chest, so I can feel his heartbeat.

After a few seconds, I realize that Lucius’s heart beats a little more quickly than usual. Just slightly faster and harder than its familiar slow, almost imperceptible pace, and I raise my face to his, wondering what could cause Lucius Vladescu’s heart to speed up its rhythm.

I see, then, that there’s something different in his eyes, too. A flicker that tells me something is happening. Something more than just Lucius showing me the cave where generations of Romanian vampires have come to seal pacts and forge treaties and sometimes hide from persecution by humans.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of the candles flickering, too, and I have my second revelation of the evening.

Not only have I really been here before, but Lucius has prepared this spot for us this night.

The footsteps scrambling down the mountain… That was almost certainly one of his two trustedguards, returning after completing the task of readying the cave for our arrival…

And the fact that we’ve made this journey in the dark, when it would have been so much easier in daylight…

I study Lucius’s black eyes, wishing more than ever that I could read his thoughts as well as he seems able to read mine, still feeling his heart beat in its new rhythm, and asking him, “Lucius… Why are we really here tonight?”

And his answer… It isn’t what I expect at all.

Continue to Chapter 12...