Chapter 6 A Royal Privilege

Every day he spent with Adrienne Mallory, Alaric Emrick could say that his icy personality had warmed. The fire-witch had brought him to see the other side of his personality that he hadn’t known much before he met her.

He could say that the witch was getting on his nerves. In a good and a bad way. He controlled the wide smile on his face as he saw his first-in-command general Emrin Gustav looking at him and hiding his smile looking away from him.

They were in his study while he simply watched Adrienne sitting by the bench on the outside ground of the castle through the glass-grilled window of his study.

“You can join her, your highness,” suggested Emrin when he caught Alaric looking at the window again while seated behind his desk. Emrin sitting across from him on one of the two chairs across the wooden study table. “We can finish this later if you wish.”

Alaric flicked one last look at the woman outside the window before returning his attention to Emrin. They were going over details of gruesome murders of witches and vampires alike in the outskirt city of Emrick along the borders of Alnwick and Bancroft, the neighboring cities. They were investigating who was behind these rampant murders.

“This is an important matter, Emrin. We need to find who is beyond these hidden crimes that have been going on for a year.”

“But you seemed occupied with another matter of the moment, your highness,” Emrin said while he also looked beyond the window. Adrienne has risen from her seat and was taking a stroll along the grounds enjoying the sights of roses in the hedges.

“It doesn’t matter,” argued Alaric although his sight was once again stolen by the oblivious witch outside. “She’s a sight to behold, isn’t she?”

“If you are into redheads, your highness.” Emrin, answered then courageously asked. “Your majesty, are you in love with Adrienne Mallory?”

“I adore her,” he replied with a gentleness that surprised Emrin but Emrin gradually has gotten used to the new behavior that the ruthless king showed over the past few weeks.

“What made you change your opinion of the fire-witch, my lord?”

“She’s a caring and brave soul, Emrin. You do remember how she was willing to do anything for her friend Mary Crossborough. She stepped in with courage to fight for her life. I’ve never seen yet a witch so strong to take a vampire in her stead.”

“Everyone shrinks before you, your highness. Everyone except Lady Thana Allison,” said Emrin mentioning the vampiress of the noble family of the Allisons. 

Thana Celeste Allison is the vampiress officially engaged to Alaric Emrick. They had been betrothed to each other since they were children. Their families had known each other for centuries. It was only fitting that an Emrick marries an Allison. Their awaited union would be the most prestigious and once again a close union of two of the oldest and wealthiest vampire families in Europe.

Alaric Emrick cleared his throat.

“Now that you mentioned that, Emrin,” said Alaric in his usual cold voice. “I would like you to go to the Allison Castle to especially deliver the news of my cancellation to my engagement with Thana Allison.”

“She would be furious if I were to deliver your news of canceling engagement to her.”

Emrin said his calm face now replaced with lines of worry. 

“You only need to deliver that news. I’m sending her a letter of my explanation why I must cancel our betrothal," he added with candid thought but without care of how Thana Allison would react to his sudden change of mind.

“If you wish, your majesty.” 

“You wouldn’t be surprised why I’m canceling engagement to Thana Allison, right? For two years we have never seen each other. We don’t even communicate with each other. It’s about time that selfish woman grows up from her ludicrous infatuation on me,” he said with disdain.

To be honest, Thana Celeste Allison is the female equivalent of Alaric Acheron Lorcan Emrick in ruthlessness, coldness, and high disdain of the witches and vampires. She was a woman highly respected and regarded in the circles of the vampire community. Thana Allison is seen as the queen of the vampires.

“But she sees herself as your Queen, Lord Emrick,” argued Emrin fearing the consequences of Alaric Emrick’s change of heart. 

“I’ve already found my Queen of this castle,” said Alaric once more looking out at the window.

“Your decision to break the engagement might start a war among the witches and the vampires. It would be a bloody fight, your highness.”

“It’s time I make a change in the course of the history of the vampires. I may be my parents’ blood but I’m not like them, Emrin,” said Alaric with opposition. “Why must I stick to the old rules of the Emrick's vampire society? They don’t hold my head nor control my heart. They have no say to how I would wish to live my life.”

“As you wish, your majesty. I will deliver your letter right away,” said Emrin looking at the serious face of Alaric. 

“Thank you, Emrin.” He said with a smile on his face. “You are my most loyal subject.”

He took a letter from the wooden drawer and gave it to him.

“Then, I must be off, Lord Emrick for I will not delay to sending this matter of urgency.”

“Be of haste, Emrin. Make sure you return in three days for you will attend my union with Adrienne Mallory.”

“I’ll do my best to be present at your auspicious day, my lord.” He rose from his seat. “Then, I must be off, your highness.”

“Take care of yourself along the way, Emrin.”

Emrin nodded to Alaric and he walked out of his study.

Alaric rose from his seat and walked to the wine cabinet and took a bottle of wine and a flute. He chilled the bottle with his hand and poured it on the glass. While drinking wine, he stood by the glass window and once again watched Adrienne Mallory sitting by the bench simply enjoying her solitude under the shade of the tree looking at the green lawn shining brightly under the golden sunshine.

One could say that Alaric Emrick has finally found happiness in his life. 

Alaric wouldn’t have cared about marrying Adrienne Mallory had she not shown undying loyalty to her friend Mary Crossborough but it had caught the bored interest of the vampire. Lately, he had been strung by the politics that went with vampires. Almost everyone around the vampire community wanted to hold power and reigned it in their hands. Especially Thana Allison who had been showing clingy tendencies towards him. He hadn’t heard from her for two years due to the distance that separated them. She lived in another country. But that morning he found Adrienne Mallory kneeling before his dead cousin, a few hours earlier before he met her, Alaric just read a letter from Thana Allison inquiring about the status of their relationship and was already asking for the date of their marriage. It annoyed him greatly that she could be so insistent on pursuing the engagement to marriage just because she was brought up to be his fiancée. As cruel as he was to the lesser citizens who didn’t bore royal vampire blood and such, Thana Allison equaled his match and was a matter worse to his conclusion. It couldn’t be thwarted that Thana Allison was his perfect match. She was just as cruel as he was. He could already see their future like the next winter era of the vampires where their future only belongs to them and no lesser vampire or nonvampire would ever set among the most upper society of the world of the darkest vampires. 

Alaric tasked his cousin Athan Silos to find the redhead witch named Adrienne Mallory for she had been a pain in the neck in the Emrick family for the past few months insisting to pursue the investigation of the death of her father and the disappearance of her mother where vampires were involved. Adrienne Mallory despite recently communicating with the vampires about her tragedy didn’t hold high views of them and worst, she wasn’t very social among the witches either. She simply lived her quiet life away from society except for her persistent desire to know what happened to her mother.

When Alaric found her knelt before his cousin whom he found dead by accident, he was prepared to kill the witches. It was simply unbelievable to him to find his own bubbly and always full of life's dear cousin dead on the ground. He could partly blame Athan, too, for being a free wandering soul despite being a dhampir without so much fear to his own life.

But meeting and seeing Adrienne fighting relentlessly boldly and holding her ground against him to keep her friend alive and be spared from death under his fingers irritated him. He had never seen a woman, especially a witch going against him. They always cowered at his presence. Fear was his second name. Wasn’t he known as the devil incarnate? Everyone lost their ground when he was around. Death and life were always his judgment to persecute.

Adrienne Mallory felt that fear, too, at first, when she saw him but still, she fought. No one fights a vampire, especially a witch. It was an unspoken code less they want to lose their life. They don’t mix either. That’s why for hundreds of years codes, laws, and treatises were always renewed to update about the interactions of the witches and the vampires. Even the pesky werewolves, Alaric thought grimly.

Adrienne Mallory rose from her seat once more and went to go back among the rose hedges.

Her presence intrigued him. He wanted to own the witch to know just how far she would go. She looked ordinary at first but after their fiery encounter, Alaric found a solution on how to disregard his already ancient bond with the Allisons. To be quite honest, as cruel as he was as a vampire, he wasn’t that greedy with power. Unlike the Allisons. He was just born that privileged to be an Emrick. He was already scoffing off the traditions of their clan that a young master, a king, especially must only bear a progeny to the highest noblewoman with vampire blood. He didn’t believe that. He’s a modern-day vampire that no longer believed in the clutches of the ancient texts, norms, and traditions that went with being a vampire. To hell with society rules and be damned with the norms.

He found the perfect solution in meeting Adrienne Mallory. The elusive red witch who needed nothing from him and his society. She was his perfect answer from freeing himself from the old bonds of the royal seal of their family that have long weighed him down since he was born. 

He just needed to be free from that. A pureblood vampire is a free soul. Not a chained one, a prisoner of his lineage and tradition.

She was like his lucky charm.

From the window, Alaric could see that Adrienne bent her knees and crouched in front of the hedges, stretching her arms inside the rose bushes. After a short while, he saw that she was pulling what appeared to be a giant black wolf. An unconscious one.

“Dammit.”

He suddenly cursed holding the glass of wine with more pressure. He felt a crack on its stem.

She must be his ill-luck, after all.