🍇 ROSES FOR RACHEL 💛
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📰 #Episode_33
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He gr@bb£d my shoulders again. “You can do this, Rachel.” He said firmly. “It will be broadcast live to everywhere, even to where Calvin is, so just do this for him. Show him he can be proud of you.”
He pushed me over to the middle of the room, then pu-ll-ed a screen down from the ceiling that brou-ght down a red backdrop boasting a large crest that I’ve seen on mine and Calvin’s crowns. “Just look right here, your highness.” The c@m£ra man said trying to pu-ll my attention back to him.
I held the paper ahead of me, and stared straight into the c@m£ra. The man held up his hand over his head and counted to three, then pointed to me.
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“Hello, everyone.” I said with a shaky voice. “This is Queen Rachel, coming to you live from Castrum de Petra.” I stole Pedro’s line from when he used to announce at the ceremonies. “As you all know, our King has been away, working tirelessly to end this conflict, and today there was an attack.” I tried to say evenly, but my emotions were showing throu-gh. “King Calvin and his men were ambushed while they sle-pt by the leaders of this rebellion. There were many casualties, and the king did suffer wounds, but he is alright. It was his hope to reach an agreement with these tyrants, but that no longer seems achievable after this ruthless attack on our men.” I was growing angrier at these people by the moment and I let my hands fall to my sides, the paper floating to the floor. “The king has issued a full scale lockdown on Castrum de Petra to insure the safety of our people. No one will be able to leave, and anyone who tries to or who aides anyone trying to get in, will be seen as a member of this rebellion and prosecuted for their crimes against the crown. This is a time of war.” I said firmly. “This is the time for us to come together, and to fight alongside our br@ve king. I love you, Calvin.” I said staring ha-rd into the c@m£ra and the little red light on the c@m£ra went off as the c@m£ra man lowered it down to smile at me.
“That was perfect.” He said.
Pedro rushed to me from the side of the room. “Fantastic, Rachel.” He praised.
A woman walked into the room with an ear piece in and a tablet in her hands. “Pedro.” She called to him. “Look at these.” She said pointing to the screen as he c@m£ over.
“Rachel.” He said waiving me over. He looked away from the screen and to me. “The people are alre-ady buzzing about you. They are rallying behind you.” He said with an insulting amount of surprise. “Calvin will be so proud of you.”
I ignored his happiness, nee-ding to know things for myself. “How badly was he hurt, Pedro?” I asked.
He looked warry. “It was bad, Rachel.” He admitted after a minute. “He was ba-rely saved by one of his men.”
The tears ran immediately. “I should be with him.” I insisted.
“No, you belong here, where he nee-ds you.” He said pu-lling me into a hvg.
I nodded against his che-st. “You’re right.” I admitted, knowing there was no way I’d be any help in a battle against angry vampires. I decided right then in that moment that I was going to be the best damn queen these people have ever seen. Anything I could do from here to make things better on Calvin, I’m doing it.
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😘Perfect, ✔
📝Words cannot begin to express how proud of you I am. I know that was ha-rd for you, but you pu-ll-ed it off with grace, beauty, and a confidence I haven’t seen in you before. It suits you well, being a queen. Although you’d be a queen in my eyes even if neither of us were actually royalty. Seeing you, and hearing your sweet voice was almost more than I could ba-re, but I nee-ded it so badly right in that moment. You’re giving me the strength I nee-d, and I hope you can continue to be strong for me. The attack was brutal. They c@m£ out of nowhere with such f0rç£. I lost many of my men, but thanks to your speech, there were plenty of volunteers to take their places. I know you worry, but I swear I am ok. I don’t know any more what our plan is here, though. Obviously trying to reason with these barbarians will not suffice, so the fighting has become worse, more intense, if that’s even possible. I don’t want to scare you, but I don’t want to keep you in the dark either. I have faith that we can push them down. We out number them 10 to 1, it’s just a matter of who is more willing to fight.
Try not to worry over me too much, and write me soon. I keep your letters with me at all times so that whenever I have a spare moment I can take them out and re-ad them again.
I miss you terribly.
Even your attitude.
💘All my love, Cal 😚
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I put my letter away with the rest of them, then rush to my next meeting. I only had enough time between my many engagements to re-ad my latest letter. I’ll have to set aside more time before I go to be-d so that he gets my reply in time.
“Are you re-ady?” Pedro asks from across the room. I nod to him linking our arms together as he leads me into Gordo’s old suite where we hold our meetings. “How is he?”
I squee-zed his arm. “The same it sounds like.” I said sadly. “He says the fighting is getting worse and he seems a little down about it all. He did say he was impressed with me yesterday, though.” I added.
“As I told you he would.” He smiled as we entered the study.
Two men and two women were alre-ady waiting for us. The each stood from their seats and bowed to me. “Hello.” I greeted them warmly as Pedro pu-ll-ed out the chair behind the desk for me, then took his place standing at my side. Everyone else took the seats again and got right to the point. Apparently although Calvin said many men volunteered to join him, our f0rç£s were still dwindling. I held up my hand as Master Xander suggested a draft. “A draft?” I repeated him. “Correct me if I am wrong, and I mean that honestly, but in everything I’ve studied about wars, don’t most men tend to really res£nt being drafted?” I asked. “I mean, what man is really going to give his all and be willing to die for a king who f0rç£s his hand into it?” I said shaking my head. “What about our army? Or even our guards? Aren’t they alre-ady all sworn to protect the king?”
Xander’s face seemed a little surprised, but he nodded his head thoughtfully. “I suppose that could be true, but don’t you think we nee-d our warriors here?” He asked, stro-king his long black beard.
I bit my l!pand thought about it. “Well,” I finally said. “We are on a lockdown, so there are no new people coming in and none of our people leaving, so I don’t think we nee-d as much f0rç£ here as Calvin nee-ds there.” I said. “We could s£nd a portion from the royal army, and then ask for more volunteers from the guards.” I suggested, then turned to look up at Pedro. “What do you think?”
He smiled down at me. “I think that is a good plan for now.” He said. “We nee-d to keep a reserve here, but we also nee-d to make sure that the king is covered, so that sounds like a good fix for now. If it comes to it, we will revisit the drafting idea then.”
“Very good.” Xander smiled then wrote something out on his cli-pboard.
Next the smaller woman with the electric blue hair smiled up at me. “Your highness, I also think we nee-d to discuss the humans here.” She said softly.
“Ok?” I said.
“Well, I know a handful are your friends, but then there are also some humans who are stuck here since we are in lockdown…and also, since we are locked down, no…food, is coming down.” She said gently.
“Meaning?” I asked her to clarify.
Pedro tapped my shoulder and I looked over at him again. “I think what Miss. Francine is getting at is that our supply is ti-ght right now, and that something nee-ds to be done about the humans who are here. Vampires won’t lose their minds being a little low on food, but it does become more likely that there could be an incident when there are humans just walking around while we are trying to ration our blood supply.”
“Oh.” I nodded once. “Well…what about a protec-tion order or something?” I asked starting to feel a t©uçh in over my head. “I mean, like we could clear level 4, because no one is ever there anyway, and we could move all of the humans to that floor until the fighting is over and keep our most trusted guards posted there to make sure they are protected.”
Everyone nodded. “That’s not a bad idea.” Pedro smiled. “You want Tessa and Greer there too?”
I thought for a moment. “Actually, I want them with me. With all of the publicity they’ve gotten, it would probably better to keep them un-der even ti-ghter protec-tion.” I paused for a moment, fighting with myself on whether or not I really wanted to do this, and then I sighed. “Lexton, too.” I added.
“Ok.” Pedro nodded.
I turned back to our guests and waited for the next issue, but they glanced around at each other strangely. “Isn’t there anything else?” I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable.
Everyone shook their heads. “Oh, no.” Xander smiled. “I’m sure you’ve got other things to tend to anyway.” He said.
I stood up slowly, walking around the desk. I turned back when I got to the door. “You’re sure you all don’t nee-d me for anything else?” I asked. “I really don’t mind giving a hand in any way I can.” I smiled.
The strange looks continued as Pedro took my seat. “No, your highness.” Miss Angela grinned. “We’ve got the rest un-der control, thank you so much though.”
I may have only been a queen for a week and some days, but being dismissed like this felt a little off. I lingered in the doorway another minute before finally walking away. I don’t know about the rest of them, but I trust Pedro implicitly so I decided not to push it.
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Story_Continues
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