By moonlight's shadow

Chapter 45

Raphael did not understand how he was supposed to control and deal with his anger. He had this conversation with Snow last night itself that Rebecca was here under false pretences and there was something sinister about her way and mode of behavior. He wanted to strangle himself just because of his stupidity!!! He did not know how could he have been taken blind by the idea that witches can be anything but liars and crooks. He had forgotten the last time when he had found witches to be not guilty of they had been accused. True, that there had been actions on the sorceresses for being the ones who had magic and could do holy and unholy things together at the same time but that did not mean that they were not guilty in reality.

Snow White, the young girl of eleven that he had rescued from that mass of raging fire in the middle of the pack of the largest community of wolves in the entire world, the Blood Moon Pack. The eldest daughter of the Alpha, born under strange circumstances with the recessive gene of the vampire of the only daughter of Elizabeth Snow, which was not supposed to come out until she ingested the blood of an albino. Strangely, the Alpha had another younger child born after five years to him and his wife. Albino!! The Fates had planned this well, thought Raphael as he remembered the magic that had been borrowed from the witches with the blessing of the Fae Folk in order to make this happen.

The babe was born in the womb of a wolf mother from a wolf father, who was one of the strongest and toughest ever created. The one who had been the direct descendant of the Guardians of Fae Folk. They were called the Wolf of God. A gene from Elizabeth’s dead daughter had been implanted in this babe when she was being carried by her wolf mother and then it was blessed by the magic of Fae and the witches had placed the magic in the veins of the mother which would steadily trickle down to the child through the placenta. It was not until long later that it was revealed that she would be carrying the traits of all the three races. She was the marvel of science and magic. Snow White was the proof that anything could happen with the proper co-ordination. She was the living ideal that the wolves and the vampires and the witches, the Unholy Trinity of the Supernatural Folks were actually physically possible and she would rise in the world to make this come true.

And Raphael King like the stupid cad he was, had jeopardized every single thing. It was only natural that she did not remember anything from the night that she had massacred her family and burnt everything with her power. Raphael had thought that it was an accident, the fire was. But last night after seeing that in pain Snow still could start emitting fire he understood that she had done that in her rage not being able to control any of her powers.

It was not her time to come out. For she did not know yet who she was. Snow White, the Wolf of God, the Princess of Vampires and the one holding the magic blessed on her by Mother nature herself was their salvation from the impending doom that was supposed to come some time or the other.

Snow knew that she was a vampire and that she was beginning to show traits of a sorceress and it was very difficult to keep everything under wraps, the way it was progressing. Thankfully, it was still a few years that the Blood moon would rise and Snow would make her first transformation to a wolf that day. Raphael could not even imagine what he was supposed to do when things got out of hand in this way. He had not gone directly to the cabin of Rebecca, the one that he had assigned her at the top of the castle with her own room and her kitchen so that she could make her own food since no one in this Academy survived on anything other than a strictly liquid diet. He realized that if he had gone to see Rebecca the moment he had come out of Snow’s room then he would have straight gone to her throat and sucked her dry even though it was supposed to be poison to them. But Raphael King was no ordinary Vampire after all, was he?

But he also knew that he could jeopardize every single move that he had been making all these years in order to ensure the safety and protection of his soul-mate. His Snow White. And he could not do that under any circumstances. He opened his cupboard which he kept under lock and key lest his prized possession of the world’s finest and oldest scotch and whiskey be stolen and took out his bottle. He poured two fingers of the amber liquid in the tumbler and then gulped it down in a single go. The liquid burnt his throat for a brief moment before settling in the pit of his stomach. It was a strange aberration with their race, they could not get drunk or intoxicated through anything unless the intoxicant was in the blood stream of the victim on whom they fed.

To his good luck Rebecca herself knocked the door to his office and Raphael immediately clicked the switch which turned his office rotating it 360 degrees. There were a lot of things in his office about which only he knew and Snow did to some extent but he was not going to give anyone else any kind of ammunition against him or his Academy. He opened the door with a huge smile on his face and found Rebecca standing there with a big casserole in her hand.

“Ahhh!! Rebecca!! I was thinking about you just now!!! What a pleasant surprise!!” said Raphael with the expression of genuine happiness on his face and in his eyes. Rebecca smiled at him like she was not expecting to hear this, it was the expression of satisfaction of a woman at receiving some kind of unexpected pleasure.

“Were you now? Then I must have read it correctly,” said Rebecca with a smile as Raphael stepped back and allowed her to enter his cabin.

“What did you read exactly?” asked Raphael as he locked the door behind him and Rebecca took in the sight of the bottle of scotch on his table and the tumbler kept beside it.

“Nothing much…that even though you should be resting for a few more hours you are up and about pining for someone. And with the looks of this it seems that I was not wrong. I was cooking for myself and I thought that I would bring you some to taste. I know you don’t like to eat and then regurgitate it out, so you can just have a taste,” said Rebecca as she opened the covers of the casserole which she was carrying. It was pasta made in red sauce, but the odour was not the one like Italians made. It was the usual coppery pungent odour of the blood they drank from the bags and masked with the smell of the herbs and spices.

“Looks like you put in a lot of effort in making this just for me Rebecca!! Are you sure that you didn’t cook this only for me? I mean….you aren’t definitely going to eat this, are you?” asked Raphael as he smiled at her with his brows raised. He was consciously flirting with a creature whom he wanted to strangle dead. And he wanted to torture her for hours to hear the screams just to feel the satisfaction of putting Snow through the pains of getting terrified by some nightly creature. By some monster. He knew that it was not the dark Lord, for they were the creatures of night and were originally the children of The Devil.

“Guilty as charged!!” smiled Rebecca as Raphael laughed out loud and then he deeply inhaled the aroma of the pasta and smiled. He could understand that she had applied some kind of potion in the food and then used blood to make the sauce so as to ensnare his senses and he would not notice the potion. He could not distinguish what potion it was but it was more than enough warning for him to stay away from the food. Heaven knew what effect it was supposed to have on him. However he planned to test it later on someone else.

He took the casserole from her and then placed it inside his cupboard putting the covers. Raphael’s office was in a state of half organized clutter, mahogany desk with three drawers on the right hand side, swivel chair, mac book pro, several stacks of paperwork, pens in a tin, floor to ceiling bookshelf, books leaning against one another different directions, , filling cabinet with paper work stacked on top, water dispenser with no cups. But that was only for the ones who would visit his office.

“So tell me Rebecca, are you comfortable in the quarters that has been provided to you? Or you want me to shift you somewhere else?” asked Raphael in a concerned manner.

“Oh no no dear!! I am absolutely comfortable. And the pigeons in the turrets of the castle provide me with handsome company...but you seem so tense always now Raphael…even a decade earlier you were not like this…stuck up and weary of anything and everything,” said Rebecca as she came forward and touched his arm softly.

Raphael had never been more disgusted by anything else in this life like he was repulsed by her touch. If you come near me you'll see my sneer. I saw what you did, I saw it. No detail misses my eye, ever, and you knew I would beat you in the end. You could have turned over a new leaf at any time, yet you did not. The sight of you makes me sick from the ends of my hair to the nails on my toes. I don't come to hate easily, but I know evil when I see it. I know. It breaks me to give up on you more than you will ever know. Yet to save what is good, I need no permission from any man and I never did. You all have said always that I am the monster, the race of ours is a monsters for we have been known to have more qualities and capabilities than the normal human beings. You have always proved yourself to be victims but were you ever victims? I mean ever?

“You do understand Rebecca, that I have the responsibility of so many children on me. And they are not the usual human children with their usual antics. Here, if anything happens then people die in an instant. You do know, that Snow White has sent Serena Patrick and Sebastian Patrick both to the infirmary within a matter of twenty-four hours. It is really difficult to keep a check on everything and then assure the parents and the council at the same time that everything was perfectly alright…” said Raphael with a sigh.

“It is really difficult to be alone and then have so much on your shoulders. It is like that you have no life of your own,” said Rebecca with a soft smile as she inched closer towards him.