@pleinsdemuses

[A/N: Several months have passed since the battle between Roy, Bella, Clark, Lakelyn and Alderan. For context, Alderan has been slain and Royce has been given a new moniker, Royce the Usurper, as he has taken Alderan's place among the ancients. Bella is still adjusting to her new form as a hybrid.]

The blood dried to Royce's chin, not from killing innocents but from drinking those who were killed in his name... those who deserved it.

Coming home to Bella, he wished he could say, felt better than the bloodlust. But with Bella's new hybrid form forcing that same desire, that insatiable urge to drink, was weighing on even him.

Watching her struggle, still new to the condition of being dead and undead all at once, had drudged up memories of his first killings. After his family, the bodies had piled up in his wake.

Stepping through the front door of his grandiose mansion, he called out for Bella, "My love." The house should be empty save for her. Clark had been gone for months now, and Lakelyn hardly ever came around. He'd seen more of her in their council meetings than he had outside of them.