chapter 16

Robert was in his way out of his mansion when his driver Mike came in, Robert wondered how fast he had dropped Salma.

"Did you ensure that she arrived safely? Robert asked.

"Sorry boss but I've been waiting for her since you called but I haven't seen her, so I thought maybe she still back here that's why I decided to go check," Mike replied.

"What do you mean you haven't seen her, it's almost two hours ago that she left, why didn't you inform me immediately about this," Robert said pacing about the house, he had a bad feeling about all these. If Salma left two hours ago but hasn't been spotted by Mike it only meant that someone had intercepted her.

Robert immediately stormed out of his house making his way to the palace, humans were at a huge risk roaming around the palace at such an hour. Though the few humans who had known about their existence never thought it a big deal since the vampires could not feast on them directly there were always stray vampires who could do the unthinkable, or even harvest blood from them.

Inside the palace Robert stormed past the guards not sparing them even a glance. The culprit he had in mind would be his father the king, on a few occasions he had caught him drinking human blood directly and sucking them dry. He always cautioned him against trying this since the repercussions would be deadly. Robert himself wasn't interested much in human blood directly.

Gomez was seated on the throne when he noticed his son marching towards him, as though he had a battle with him,

"What is it son, why are you in such a hurry? It's been long since you decided to go see me, so what do I owe this pleasurable visit?" Gomez asked as he stood up from his seat to go and hug his son. The day he announced that he would be relinquishing his throne his days had been so lonely, his sons engaged in fearless battles with each other that they could not spare him even a second, more so because he refused to share his secret with any of his sons. Now that one of them had come he felt happy that at least he would spend time with them before they killed each other.

"I'm not here to exchange pleasantries with you father, I'll go straight to the point, where is she?" Robert asked trying to calm his anger from busting out. Never before had he raised his voice against his father but today it came out without a struggle. His heart was already bleeding with the possibility that Salma could already be sucked dry, but it was his prayer that she stayed alive. No woman had made him feel the same way in the years he had lived.

"What do you mean by that? Who are you talking about and why ask me of all the people?" Gomez asked filled with disbelief. He stopped on the stairs before reaching his son as he could tell the anger that showed on his face.

“Don’t even think of lying to me about this, I just let my human girlfriend leave hours ago but now she can't be found, my driver waited for her but she never left this compound. I've caught you many times sucking humans dry, just bring her to me alive and I’ll pretend as though nothing happened." Robert said as he looked straight into his father's eyes.

"I really had nothing to do with that son, I've been in here since morning, you can confirm from the guards yourself. I haven't seen any woman today nor even summoned one here." Gomez replied. He now understood the reason for that hatred he saw in Robert's eyes, this saddened him more. If his sons had known what he had done before just because of the throne then they won't forgive him. But on this matter he was totally clueless.

"Aren't the guards your lapdogs and would say whatever you ordered them to, just give me the girl and I'm out of here." Robert said his voice turning into desperation.

"I promise you son that I had nothing to do with this, you can check the whole palace and you won't find any trace of any girl," Gomez said. He noticed that his son had been worried about a woman for the first time in his life, on the many occasions he caught him sucking up those women he never cared and never spared them any more glances. He could only use them to satisfy

himself then forget about them. This must be a really special woman to him.

"Just pray that I find her," Robert said as he stormed out if the throne room. He made his way into the palace rooms in a bid to search for Salma.

Gomez was left with his mouth opened, he wanted to inform him where the girl could possibly be at, but he decided not to, this he had to find out by himself. Gomez had known about his son Logan having insatiable appetite for fresh human blood, he could not reproach him since he had been like that before he became king, even worse after he had become the king. Gomez could already tell who would take the throne after him. But what he wanted to happen in his sons last days could not be realized

.

Gomez had learnt about the battle between Thomas and Roman but decided not to interfere with their affairs. There was nothing he could do about the rule that had been laid down in their kingdom after the Great War between the witches and Vampires. His only consolation was that he would definitely find his son Roman no matter how many years passed by since he didn't battle it out for kingship. With this he decided to hold his farewell party which the whole kingdom would attend. Vampire clans all over the world would always attend such ceremonies that would bring them together after so many decades.

Robert moved room to room in the vast palace but could not have a trace of Salma, it was as though she had disappeared into thin air. However Robert never tried to search for her. He just remembered that he hadn't asked Tessa where she had taken her.' What was I thinking, I could have spared myself such agony' Robert complained to himself as he dialed Tessa's number.

" You finally remembered to call, so how was my surprise for you?" Tessa asked immediately she received the call. Her voice was lively over the phone and Robert finally breathed a sigh of relief, maybe she had Salma with her.

"It was perfect, thanks so much Tessa, I don't know how I could repay you for this," Robert answered.

"You can always pay this later, but I just hope you accompanied her home after such an awesome experience. I've been coaching her for months just for you, so you have to know how important she is to me." Tessa said. She waited for a while for Robert to talk to him but nothing came on the phone.

"Robert...as you still there? Robert." Tessa said as she began to panic, did something happen to Salma?

"I'm here Tessa, I just hoped that after Salma had left she came to you. I've been looking for her for more than two hours now but there is no trace of her, Robert explained in a desperate voice.

"Do you want to tell me that you left her all alone, Tessa said as she got up from her bed.

"Tell me where you are, l'm headed there right now." Tessa said.

It took Tessa less than a minute to get to Robert, though she lived far from the palace, she turned into her vampire body and rushed over.

"Please tell me that you are joking about this, Tessa said immediately she reached where Robert had stood waiting for her.

"I'm serious Tessa, the driver I called to take her home just came to report to me that he hadn't seen her after two hours, I went to my father to confront him but he denied seeing her, I even turned the palace upside down but couldn't find her. That was when I decided to call you ‚maybe she came to you,’ Robert explained. Tessa could see desperation in his voice, he was definitely telling the truth.

"Let's try and look for her more, I'm sure we might find her if she's still within this compound." Tessa said. In her heart she knew that girl is probably dead by the time they find her. An idea however stuck Tessa's mind, she had witnessed Logan sucking a human before.

"Did you check inside Logan's mansion?" Tessa suddenly asked Robert.

"No, why would you think she would be in my brother's mansion?" Robert asked, that thought had never crossed his mind.

"Don't you think she might have gone to his place since his mansion is just next to yours, if the driver did not find her it means she didn't go too far from your house" Tessa said. This made sense to Robert.

"Let's go and check out at his place," Robert said and the two made their way into Logan's mansion.