The Love Risk [boyxboy]

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten (Alexander)

I let Vladimir sit down, his back resting against the wall as he sat on the floor after he'd pulled on a pair of leather pants. He looked like he was having trouble trying to begin an explanation and I wanted to help him along without sounding impatient. I sat across the bathroom from him, my back against the shower case, dressed in my pajama pants and blue tank top. I watched Vladimir think for a while before I spoke.

"How did you meet?" I asked gently. Vladimir looked up at me for a moment, then seemed to think it too hard as he looked away, drawing up one knee to rest his elbow on, running his hand through his hair as he sighed.

"It was an arranged marriage. My potentional was already showing and my father wanted me to take his place in the Court. I'd already sat through a good amount of their meetings. They discussed falling back from the humans. They were excelling and gaining knowledge. They were creating things we'd never imagined. And the Court saw it as a threat. All these tracking devices that were being made, the upgrade in military. They wanted to pull away from this world, so it was easier to hide from the humans." He paused to let that sink in before he made a face, smiling at me faintly.

"Of course, that's not what we're discussing here, is it? No," He averted his eyes, "Elizabeth was at the meetings as well. My parents knew her very well and decided she would be a perfect match for me. We were both intelligent and powerful. They arranged a meeting between us and Elizabeth seemed interested in my ideas. I expressed my concern for the Court's decision to pull away from the modern world and she agreed that something had to be done. I was surprised. Elizabeth was older than me by a good twenty years. I didn't think she'd be interested in my decisions."

"Nonetheless," He continued, trying to look nonchalant, "We married a few months after our first meeting. I was fit to take over my father's position and with it, I tried to convince the Court that they were driving us back in time. They accused me of being childish, too childish to make the right decisions and asked Elizabeth her opinions. She sided with me on the matter, but still didn't manage to convince the Court. We were growing impatient and the Court was unrelenting. The majority voted against my plans. The Drakon Clan seemed willing to try, but they only did what was best for their clan. Always. Your parents, the Gray Clan, were neutral on the subject. They always stayed out of conflicts."

"Elizabeth said we needed to use force to get our point across. I agreed. We threatened the Court and it gained us the vote of both the Drakon and the Gray. The other clans refused to be threatened and tried to argue with my parents. Elizabeth was warning me to do something and I did. I killed the members of the Court that disagreed with us. I killed my parents when they tried to retaliate. We were gaining control quickly through these actions, but there were clans angered by the death of their chosen leaders. They came after us and our allies did their best to protect us. By this time, Elizabeth was pregnant with Storm. She was getting paranoid and ordering me to kill off allies who she saw as a threat."

"Even members of the Drakon Clan." I put in and Vladimir nodded, sighing as he tilted his head against the wall behind him.

"I didn't really want to. I knew that we were angering other clans, but Elizabeth insisted. I didn't want to make her angry because she was just as powerful as I was. I obeyed and killed off as many as I could that were a threat to us. Elizabeth finally had Storm and we were even more paranoid. Elizabeth began to get the idea that my existence alone was a threat to our son. I suppose it made sense. I had pretty much become a dictator by then. I had death threats coming into my office every day, but I kept ignoring them and did everything I could to protect Elizabeth and Storm. We even moved Storm's crib into our room, so he would be closer, but it wasn't enough for Elizabeth."