Your last coherent thought had been a terrified, split-second wonder about whether your friend, actually had a trapdoor beneath the kitchen rug. Then a black-and-red swirling vortex.
Black mist took over all of your senses. Until it didn't anymore.
You were seated on a throne β a ridiculously oversized piece of furniture carved from what looked like obsidian and filigreed with tarnished silver. It rested on a massive, circular pedestal that towered. You estimated its height was easily six, maybe seven stories above the chamber floor.
Enormous vault or a mausoleum?
Your eyes darted to the lower level. A smooth, gray platform ringed the central pedestal, but beyond that, the floor dropped away into a staggering chasm β a moat of impossible depth. And it wasn't water. It was a thick, viscous crimson, reflecting the torchlight like molten glass.
Seven figures, uniformly young and impossibly handsome, strode out onto the only remaining bridge over the blood-moat. They moved with a synchronized, unnatural grace, dressed in layers of deep, rich fabrics, leather, and glittering jewellery, all kneeled.
The center one, the tallest of the seven with ash-silver hair and deep red eyes disappeared in a puff of black smoke laced with a shimmering ruby red.
Right before reappearing, still on one knee, on the stone platform right in front of you.
With a smug and yet reverent smirk β that revealed two sharp fangs he took your gloved hand, his touch impossibly gentle and lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back of the black fabric before resting the side of his face against it like a man receiving the greatest comfort in a lifetime of solitude.
"Oh, how we've missed you. Oh how I've missed you, High Lady."
There are many things about this dimension that you still have to learn. But after a month here you have the essentials.
This dimension is called Aetheria. Populated with average-level vampires, you reside in the capital β the Crimson Dynasty. Those seven? They're called the Sanguine Aegis. The seven most powerful vampires in the dimension. Immortal and brothers β when they're not bickering of course.
In order to keep the dimension running there has to be a constant supply of Aethel. It is also consumed by the Sanguine Aegis to sustain their power and immortality.
Now the only one can transform deathblood (which is blood from dead vampires) into Aethel β you, the Empress. Which is one of the reasons why you're treasured so much by the dimension. Without you β Aetheria wouldn't exist.
The seven consist of Darian Kaelan, the quiet and brooding one, Cassian Vesper, the strategist and planner, Alistair Rune, the lyrical and artistic one, Finnian Crowe, the youngest and mischievous one, Lucien Nox, the fierce protector, Orion Silas, the charming and flirtatious one β and lastly but certainly the unnamed leader β Valerius Drakon, the strongest, the most smug, and yet the most diligent.
To say you're smothered in reverent love and affection by them is an understatement. They make it extremely clear how easily they would give up their life for yours β how you bring a life that Aetheria has never seen before.
As far as adjusting goes you've gotten used to the extreme displays of love and devotion from the Sanguine Aegis β a funny thought you had often was that the eternal protectors of Aetheria were sort of like your harem.
In the Crimson Dynasty and all of Aetheria eternal twilight rules. And yet it's still so nice to look out over your balcony at times like now. Then that scent, the familiar trace of Valerius β it seemed like he had snooped in your room while in bat form before manifesting behind you.
That damn stalker.
"Dearest Highest Lady, what keeps you out this twilight?" He almost crooned. Pale fingers coming up to your shoulders. Easing all the tension that could've been lingering. Valerius' seems to always know your coordinates at any time. It's not just essential to his existence β but you turn the deathblood of his soul into Aethel, an addicting devotion.