Chapter 1

2003

Remind me why I am in the dark like a criminal in an amusement park with my mom, sister and the guards?

Aaah I remember... We are here because my mom feels we should have fun like kids. I was born in 1993, but that doesn’t make me a kid. I’ve seen what many kids shouldn’t see so I don’t perceive why I am here, in the dark if I must add.

My little sister giggled from the swing, demanding that my mom push her higher. I watched my mom smile at her, pretending that the stretching of her cheeks is real.. Pretending that all is okay when she knows nothing is fine.

Because I’m here without a daylight ring proves as much.…

That she waits for my father to leave to handle his business before taking us out to have fun proves as much...

That she has a scarf round her neck even though the air isn’t chilly proves as much...

And because Dominic is looking at my mother with longing in his eyes proves as much... And if you are wondering how a ten year old can tell, remember that there is nothing young about me.

Hell if I am going to stand here and watch everybody pretend, everybody expect my sister, of course.

I moved elsewhere from the park, daring one man guarding us to say a word. As I was walking away from the giggles and laughers, I saw a figure sitting on the swing far from the one my sister is riding; I approached her for reasons unknown to me; I didn’t want to scare her.

“What are you doing out here alone, little girl?”

She peered at me with tear-stained eyes. “What are you doing out here alone little boy?”

I chortled. She should know that there was nothing little about me.

She tried rubbing her nose with her cloth, but I offered her a handkerchief instead. She looked at it before staring at me with those large green eyes as if it was strange that I am offering her something. “It’s a handkerchief little girl, it doesn’t bite”

Taking it, she murmured a thank you. Just as I was about to ask her what’s she’s doing all alone here, I heard it. My father spoke at the entrance of the park after I heard a car stop. I turned my gaze to the little girl, if my father sees her here, he is going to take her hostage and train her to be an ‘Iska’ that is what the little girls who were kidnapped and then primed into adults just for them to be a stable supplier of blood to the family and I don’t want this green-eyed girl being an Iska.

I seized her hand and dragged her out of the swing, before she could resist; we were in our way out of the park with an extraordinary velocity. Convinced that I’ve taken her far away from the park and from my father, I halted and released her.

She gawked at me with large eyes. "How you do that? You were vury fast,”

I shook my head at her English...I forgot I am dealing with a child. “Didn’t your parents lecture you never to wander alone into the dark human?”

Looking around as if noticing for the first time that it was dark, she tried to say something but I held her eyes and impelled her. "You will forget everything that happened this night and you will run home like a good little girl”

She nodded her head in understanding and I picked up a sniff of rone. Turning, I returned to my previous location and as predicted, I met it unoccupied with little trails of blood.

2005

I should be afraid of darkness but am not. I find solace in it, and it’s like my safe coven.

I can hear them shout but I can’t see them. She’s beseeching him to stick around instead of taking off. I loathe it here, I detest being with her, I wish she was the one in that truck and not him. Thus maybe I wouldn’t have to hide away in the dark. I recall that day just like yesterday, when my old man found out that my mum was sleeping around just to have access to cocaine. He left, and he planned on taking me along. The plan was to wait for him to come back the following morning but he never showed up. Rather, men in blue suits appeared and informed my mom that my dad got involved in a car accident and he didn’t make it.

She cried that day, she cried as if she cared, she cried and those men in blue suits consoled her as if she needed it. I wanted to tell them she was the reason he’s no more. I wanted to tell them to go through our kitchen cabinets but I couldn’t because even though I don’t want to about it, she’s all I have left.

“Let go of me, bitch!!!... I don’t have any coke to give to you.”

I was brought back to realism by the man’s stern tone and my mother’s pleading voice

“That is not our deal Josh... You...You...vowed to offer me some today. "

“I’m telling you I don’t have it!!! No cunt is worth this squabble...your daughter didn’t even allow us to have a good time and you are demanding for extra coke!!! You know what Angela!!! Don’t fucking call me again!”

“Josh please don’t do this... I need this... I need... it to get through. "

The sound of the door banging shut confirmed that Josh, as she called him, paid her no listening ears. The entire house became quiet and I know what next is going to happen because it happens anytime she loses one of her suppliers.

“Lucy!!!! Lucy!!! You fucking rotten luck where are you....I should throw you off the fucking roof for your bad luck...I grieve ever giving birth to you... If only the heaven heard my prayers and made you get in that truck with that worthless father of yours then I wouldn’t have to suffer all these loses!!!”

I gripped the handkerchief in my pocket, the strange handkerchief that I don’t know how it got to my custody, but one fact I know is that it provides me peace and strength to go through all afflictions from my mother. While gripping the personalized handkerchief harder, I traced my finger through the letters engraved into the handkerchief. CARDIN.

2007

I still see her in my dreams, I still see that little girl from the park, those green wide eyes peering up at me. That is why I return to this park even after that ugly incident. Even after swearing that I will never be close to any park but here I am, sitting in that same spot, I found her, lingering and wishing that she will find her way back to this place. I guess those green eyes remind me of the green eyes I lost, those green eyes I failed to protect.

“What are we doing here, Cardin? Your father will lose his shit if he finds out you returned here,” Baron, my best friend, asked whilst looking around.

“What is he going to do that he hasn’t done before?” I asked, not alarmed by the fact that my father might have men prowling around in the shadows.

“Beheading me is something new Cardin. "

I spared him a glance to see if he’s serious. "My father maybe a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. Killing a beta’s son is like seeking for war. "

“A war your father is more than enthusiastic to start and finish... That man is a fucking dictator” “

Looking up to the sky, I took in the weather. "We should get going, the sun is going to come up soon. "

Baron eyed me. "We’ve been coming here for over two weeks Cardin. Do you care to clarify why we keep coming here? "

“I keep coming here to check on a little girl that looked lost. "

“What little girl?”

“The little girl that keeps drawing me here. "

“You keep going round in circles Cardin, no wonder you drive your mother crazy. "

I overlooked him on the remark about my mother. If anyone is driving anybody crazy, it’s my mother. She’s the one driving me crazy with her constantly creeping around with Dominic.

“Are we going to use the car? We can tell the driver to leave you know... I need to feel the air and wind around me. "

"We are using the car Baron, you need the air, I don’t... So move it"

Baron grunted under his breath, “what’s the peck of being a vampire if you can’t use the supernatural powers?"

Ignoring him, I reflected on my existence as a vampire

My name is Cardin Velvet and I am a vampire as you presume. We live among the mortals, establishing remarkable positions than them. In our own race, we live by rank_ King, beta, chief soldiers, chief maids, maids, Iska etc and I fall into the princewood rank.

When I refer to Mr. Vincent Velvet as my father, I don’t mean he gave birth to me. Vampires are referred to as cold creatures, dead creatures, so we can’t reproduce. Every King, Kings before my father, did it too. They pick little kids who are orphans, who have nobody to notice that they are missing. They are held and tormented. The one who survives becomes the crown prince, so that is how I became an unfortunate creature and a prince that I have no interest in.

Living with a tyrant father and a mother who he beats all the time isn’t something I look forward to. I don’t blame my mother for falling for Dominic.

Everybody despises my father, everybody, including me