Hi angels,

I've written a long update for you this week. I just want to take a moment to ask people to be polite when posting comments on the message board. I've recently had a small handful of comments which have been not very nice (to put it mildly). It's really crappy when people write rude or mean posts about me or the story. I'm always open and welcoming of constructive feedback, but what I don't want is people being mean. So to all my haters, in the immortal words of Miranda Sings - back off.

I also want to say a big thank you to all the people who support me. This week we hit 59k followers, which is crazy. Thank you so much for all your support, especially this past month when I have been unwell. You guys are so amazing and I love you all so much ^.^

And one last thing, as a child of the 80s I grew up listening many other 80s singers and bands. Prince was one of my favorite singers, I was so sad to hear of his passing yesterday. He was an amazing artist, and I know some of you are a little too young to know who he is but you should definitely go andcheck him out. I've linked one of fav songs of his 'When Doves Cry' to this chapter. RIP Prince

This week's dream cast is brought to you by @wowcupcakes01- ! This cast is a lovely cast so be sure to check out the pintrest board I made for it (see pinned notice on my profile comment board for link).

- Chace Crawford

- Nina Dobrev

- Matthew Daddario

- Justin Baldoni

- Leighton Meester

- Adam Brody

- Zac Efron

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Please hit that star or heart button to vote :D

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A necromancer?

How could I be a necromancer?

I didn't even know what a necromancer was! Well, I had a vague idea which was more or less an educated guess. Necro came from the Greek 'nekros' which means corpse, and 'mancer' derives from the Greek 'mantèia' meaning 'divination'. I could understand the divination part, I did speak to the dead after all, but when it came to the corpse part I struggled to see how I filled those shoes.

I shook my head. "I'm not like you - I'm not a necromancer."

"You are, Mia. You just haven't realised the full extent of your powers. Speaking to the dead is just the tip of the iceberg. With a little training, you could reanimate corpses, trap and manipulate spirits to do your will."

"Manipulate spirits?"

That resonated with me for some reason... The spirit of Laura had once told me that she and the other spirits couldn't pass on. Something or someone had stopped them. Had Henrietta been controlling them? Both Celia and the burning lady had struggled to communicate with me and Laura. And even Laura struggled to remember certain details of her passing like who had killed her...

That thought stuck in my head. Casper had been accused of killing Laura, but it wasn't him which could only mean...

"Oh God," I breathed. "You killed Laura too."

Henrietta sighed irritably like I was getting off topic. "I had to silence her. She saw Celia in the bathroom for god's sake! She was ranting and raving about it to anyone who would listen. And Nico ordered some guards to go down to the hospital and interrogate her about what had happened that night in your bedroom. If she had told them the truth then you might have been implicated for necromancy. So I killed her to protect and then I took out her heart so I could control her spirit."

The image of Laura's spirit in her hospital gown with the gaping hole in her chest burned in the forefront of my mind. It made me sick to think that Henrietta could have done such a thing to Laura.

"Why would you do that! It's so fucked up!"

"I did it to save you, Mia!"

"How? You resurrected Louis and that nurse to attack me! How is that protecting me?"

"Both those incidents were purely accidental. The nurse was meant to take out Nico. I never expected you to leave the safety of the apartment and run into her. And as for my darling Louis, he was meant to kill Luc. You would have been perfectly safe if you hadn't opened the apartment door."

"But I wasn't perfectly safe and they did attack me!"

"Well, necromancy isn't an exact science. I can't tell them who to kill and who not to kill. I don't have that kind of power. I'm not a natural like you. I have to harvest an organ and use blood magic to raise a corpse... But you on the other hand with a little training could raise a corpse with a single thought."

"Not in a million years. I could never disrespect another person's body like that."

"Then I have been labouring on a lost cause by keeping you alive," she snapped. "You could be great, Mia. I could make you great. But if you insist on protecting Luc in spite of everything I have told you about him then we can no longer be friends. But I want to be your friend, Mia. I am the only person in the world who can truly understand and accept you for who you are. Luc could never do that. I'm sure he would love you in his own messed up way, but he would never be able to accept your true abilities. He would force you to live a lie! Is that what you want for your future?"

"I don't know what I want," I replied dryly. "I used to believe that I wanted a career, a happy marriage and a couple of pugs. But that was before all the vampire crap happened to me and before I met Luc. And now when I think about the future, I think of him and only him. Even now my thoughts are transfixed on when I will next see him. I can't help it, it's like he is a part of me. So when you ask me what I want from my future, the answer is him. It will always be him, even if he can't deal with my true nature, I'll never stop wanting him."

"You're a fool, Mia. It would take a miracle for him to accept you."

"Then I'll hope for a miracle."

"Fine. I thought I would at least try to change your mind but I see now that you are blinded by love for that monster. His family's darkness killed my children and I will be damned to let it continue. My only regret now is that I couldn't save you."

"Henrietta, please you don't have to do this. You can stop all of this-"

"No, you can stop all of this!" she shouted. "We could end his line tonight and save everyone! I will only ask you one more time to join me, Mia. Please, join me."

"No," I said backing away from her. "You're mad."

She stared at me, her eyes filled with anger and disappointment and said, "Very well, have it your way."

She backed slowly into the shadows, never once breaking eye contact with me and backed into the wall. The wall swung open revealing a hidden passageway and she quickly backed into it. I lunged after her, but the wall swung shut and she was gone.

I took a few steps back.

Finally, I had the truth about everything. I knew who she was and why she had killed all those people, and I thought having that truth would somehow make hate her even more but it didn't. I could understand her twisted logic for wanting Luc and his family dead. Their ancestor had killed her family and she feared this unpleasant family history might repeat itself with Luc. Academically it was a possibility but in my heart, I didn't believe he was capable of such an atrocity and perhaps on that point Henrietta was right. Maybe it was naive and blind of me...

I had doubts, to be sure. But I also had hope. Hope that Luc would not be the monster his great uncle was, and hope that the bond between him and his younger brother would be restored, and hope that he wouldn't reject me for the person I am. It felt like I was banking a tremendous amount of hope and expectation on Luc... I just prayer he won't end up letting me down.

He would be here soon and all the truth would finally come tumbling out, but before he came I wanted to do one thing. I wanted to reunite Celia with her baby.

I walked over to the stone coffins standing in the middle of the crypt. Each coffin had a single plaque detailing the birth and death of each of its occupants. The nearest empty coffin belonged to Louis while the one next it belonged to his mother. The one after that belonged to the old King and lastly, the last coffin belonged to Celia.

I stood next to the coffin and pushed the stone cover slightly ajar. I didn't want to open the coffin all the way. I didn't want to see the corpse of decade old vampire princess staring up at me. I reached into my pocket and found the bones that belonged to Celia's baby. Taking it out carefully I placed it inside the dark coffin and shut the lid. Finally, mother and baby had been reunited.

I heard the trapdoor of the crypt burst open and from the far side of the crypt and saw a flurry of snow drift down the stairs. I let out a gasp of surprise as Luc suddenly appeared in front of me in nothing but a black t-shirt and a ripped pair of jeans.

His hair was damp from the melted snow and he was panting hard like he had just run a marathon. My heart started to swell inside my chest and instinctively I reached out and touched his forearm. I expected him to be frozen solid from running through a blizzard in summer clothes, but he wasn't. In fact, he was burning hot like he had some kind of fever. Instantly I pressed my hand against his forehead and holy cow he was on fire.

"Luc, you are burning hot. Is something wrong with you, are you sick? And what the hell are you doing running about in those clothes? There is a blizzard outside for goodness-"

He didn't even let me finish my sentence. With one arm he reached out grabbed me, yanking me into his chest. I yelped in surprise but was quickly silenced when his mouth claimed mine with a deep hungry kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck and anchored myself to him. His kiss was so greedy and intense it felt like he was trying to steal the air from my lungs.

I pulled away from him, needing to come back up for air but he didn't want to let me go. Raggedly he breathed against my lips, "I thought I had lost you. I found the corpse of my brother and I thought.."

"I know, I had to jump out the window but I'm okay," I said caressing his jawline.

He rested his forehead against mine and whispered, "I really thought you were gone - the pain was so awful."

As he spoke the ground beneath us suddenly began to rumble. I froze and looked up into Luc's eyes and saw that they were almost black. His grip on me tightened and he continued, "I kept thinking over and over that he had taken you from me, and that I would find you dead, just like Celia."

I shushed him softly and pressed my lips lightly against the corner of his mouth. "I'm fine, Luc. Try to calm down a little."

"I can't. I thought he had taken you. You had no idea what I went through. I wanted to tear the city apart brick by brick. I thought about burning it to the ground just to find you-"

"Okay," I said slapping my hand over his mouth. "I don't ever want to hear you talking about tearing the city down or burning it, or doing anything else bad to it - do you understand?"

He gently prised my fingers from his mouth and said, "You left me."

"I didn't leave you," I replied flatly. "I had to jump out the window to escape your undead brother."

"Then why didn't you wait for me in the gardens?"

"I wanted to but something came up, or rather someone."

"What do you mean 'someone'?"

"Luc, I need to tell you some things which you are going to be difficult to hear, but I need you to keep in control your temper. This ground shaking and spontaneous combustion stuff needs to stop. I can't tell you what's happened if you are going to freak out."

"Okay, I'll try," he said loosening his grip on me. "I'll try and keep calm."

Nervousness began to swell up inside me. This was it, I was finally going to tell him and see how he would react.

I was so scared my hands were starting to tremble...

I took a deep breathe in and began. "Luc, the reason why I shut you out of my head was because a couple of weeks ago I started to see the ghost of your sister-in-law, Celia. I didn't tell you at the time because Henrietta told me not to, she said you would reject me."

I looked at him expectantly for a denial or at least some comforting words for me but his had gone blank. He stared at me and shook his head softly. "No, no, no, no - that can't be right. You can't be like that."

"But I am like that. I can see spirits and they talk to me. Celia reached out to me because she was upset. She was the one in the bathroom that night, who slammed the door shut on Laura's arm. She's been following me and trying to communicate with me. There has been a terrible injustice-"

"Stop it, Mia," he snapped, cutting me off mid-sentence. "You must never talk of this again. Do you understand?"

"What?" I breathed. "Don't you believe me, Luc?"

He raked a hand through his hair and said, "I don't know what to believe, but I can't believe that."

"Why?"

"Mia, I can't have a necromancer for a queen. It would be impossible. If anyone ever found out the people of the city would go mad. I'll always love you, Mia, but is better that you take whatever secrets you have with to you to the grave than ever speak of them to me again," Luc said.

I could literally feel the tiny cracks splintering across my heart as he spoke every word. Henrietta was right. He would deny me. I stepped away from him, but he grabbed my hands and held onto me. "I still love you, Mia. I just can't have you telling people what you can do. It would be political suicide to marry a necromancer, even if she was my mate."

I tried pulling my hands out of his and shouted, "You are supposed to love me for who I am, Luc! I've come to accept you and your darkness so why can't you accept me."

"Mia, it's not the same!"

"Like hell it is! Let me go, Luc!"

"Never. I will never let you leave me again!"

"I thought you would love me no matter what."

"I do love you, Mia."

I fought to get out of his hold, twisting and turning like a frenzied wild thing in his arms.

Across the room, there was a bang followed by loud footsteps. Both of us paused and looked across the room to the source of the sound. A blur suddenly flew down the staircase and into the crypt. Surprised Luc pulled me back a few steps until the blur stopped a few feet in front of us. Luc stiffened and the walls around us seem to tremble.

Casper was standing in front of us with a dark expression. Squaring up to his older brother he growled, "Let her go, now."