The family, mostly the council members, were gathered around all involved in the heated conversations around me, but my thoughts lingered to Mary. My dear Mary who is so young. The Draconians were a real threat, and unlike Earth where our anonymity keeps us from all out open war, Sosaria’s knowledge of our existence is going to appeal to them as a catalyst for open war. I cannot remember the last time I’ve had an all out open battle… not in centuries. Would it come to this here in these lands?
We have so much at stake here. Here is where we have most of our younger vampires, where they are safer in a sense from the deadly rays of the Earth’s sun. Malas’ sun is weak and allows us a certain freedom within it. We also have our mortals here… the majority of them… like my daughter, Brelynn and my grandchildren, Rose and Antonio Romanus. So much to protect, but in my heart… my immediate worry is my Mary. She is not going to want to leave us in this time of need, but its so much safer for her to be back on Earth. I know her, I know what she will say, she will be adamant about staying by my side, by Pandora’s side. She will be afraid of loosing us, of loosing Lestat and Louis… who undoubtedly want to stay and fight with us (and frankly I’ll need them, especially Lestat). But I cannot keep my head in the game, keep my mind clear, if I am constantly worrying about Mary.
So I approached Va’lis and Armand at the Brew not too long ago, alongside Pandora, to tell them of the danger the Draconians pose for us. I had seen that Va’lis had already encountered one of them, the one they call Danielle… David’s biological sister. They now knew that Sosaria had its own brand of vampire. Their curiosity would be piqued. As much as I rump and recoil about having to “deal” with Va’lis, and Pandora can tell you this, I love him like a father loves his son. I do. I had gotten used to him being part of my family and much like a rebellious teenager, you might gripe and moan over their stupid decisions, but you love them anyways. The fact that he had been hurt by this… this… Danielle… infuriated me to no end. I simply will not stand for it. No one shall hurt MY family. I shall defend them with my dying breath!
But to protect those that wouldn’t stand a chance against these ancients, I turned to the one I knew would know how to run, know how to lay low, know how to avoid detection — Armand. My boy had always been astute in that way. I looked to him and I said, “If things go south Armand, you take Merida, Brelynn, Isonu, Venora, Yukina, and the kids and you run.” He looked to me, thought this over for a hot minute for he knew that if it came to that that his sire, a sire he loves dearly, would be at the edge of perish. He nodded. “I will, Marius.” he said. Va’lis not only agreed with me, but questioned if it would be best to do that now. “I may have been a shitty sire father, but I swear if anything happens to my grandchildren, I will tear Sosaria apart in my quest for revenge,” he said. Pandora looked at him, like a mother looks at her son as she realizes that he’s growing up. “I would stand with you.” She told him, Va’lis smiled wrapping an arm around her waist; she sat on his lap. “You always have been.” He acknowledged this fact of her dedication to him. Armand of course worried that Merida would not agree to any of it, knowing her hot-headedness and her desire to stand with her father. Va’lis said he would command her to do so. Armand chuckled. “Right, because she listens so well.” He said, knowing his wife too well.
I told Va’lis that I would need to meet Astra. That her being of roughly the same age as Pandora and I would be a huge assistance to our cause. Without hesitation he agreed, and also thought that perhaps she could influence Ashiok, his sire-brother, to help us as well. I felt a need to tell him our deepest, darkest secret — to educate him on the origin of Earthen vampires — about our Divine Parents. So I proceeded to tell him that Akasha was the originator of our kind, at least on Earth, and that Enkil was the originator of our powers and together they gave birth to our entire race. I told him that Akasha herself had created Davido Draconis, who is the Coven Leader of the Draconians. That while Akasha and Enkil slumber now, that occasionally they rise and spend time wrecking havoc on the world. That it is our family’s most sacred responsibility to keep them calm and keep them in their inactive state. That this keeps the balance of the world. Afterall, Akasha was solely responsible for World War I and II back on Earth. I also told him that Akasha and Enkil are often times kept in the vault area of the Catacombs. He seemed shocked that we could build such an area right under our feet but to be honest such Earthly constructions in a Sosarian world would shock anyone.
We departed from the Brew, and I told Pandora I am going to speak to Mary. And as soon as I walked into the apartment that I had so lovingly made for my beloved, she turned to me and started screaming at me in anger. She ran at me, tears in her eyes, pounding at my chest. She had just told Jace that she couldn’t be with the boy, and the boy had taken the news very hard. He packed up his things and left, destination unknown. Her anger permeated from her like red heat. I just stood there and took it. I let her unleash on me. She said she hated me, she didn’t. She said she wanted me gone, she doesn’t. She said she wished she didn’t love me, she does.
Suddenly as she started to calm down, tears rolling down her face, plopping down on her couch she looked up to me… she said, “For a man that fears nothing…. you look… scared?” The fear on my face couldn’t be hidden. “I am a man that fears little… not nothing.” Her face suddenly softened and my fear seemed to be contagious as her face now showed signs of it, “What is it Marius?!?” I looked down at her, I couldn’t speak. The thought of not having her, not being with her, was absolutely killing me. She stood up, eyes locked on me, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand. “Marius?!?” My own eyes started to well up as I looked at my angel, my muse. She started to sign in almost a whisper. And then she just kissed me. We lost ourselves in each other. I spent the night with her, holding her, making love to her. And I told her everything that had transpired. She understood me, as I her. I asked her again if she’d be my wife. It would be a shame for me to die, after all these thousands of years, without having her as my wife. I am selfish like that. I want them both: Pandora and Mary.