Chapter 7

Kaleen’s eyes never left the beast that slowly stalked towards their direction. 

“It always hungered on the blood of the one that summoned it here. Your grandfather.” Marcus said in much fascination glittered on his eyes.

“You…you brought me here for this purpose.” Kaleen spat with a low growl on her throat. She didn’t hesitate to snatch her sword back from him.

Marcus let it go at once with a devilish smirk on his face. His gray eyes now replaced with deep scarlet, as if flood of blood pooled on those.

“If your goal is to free it through me, you are utterly mistaken. Only the summoner can break the spell that bound it.”

Marcus only stared at her without saying anything. None of the vampires ever moved did. 

Kaleen’s eyes went to the Manik’s direction, a creature so foul and huge that its exposed skin stretched from its elongated face down to its four legs. It could be likened into a werewolf but viler…and deadlier.

Its whitened eyes stared directly at her, hungered for the blood that coursed through her. 

“Now, run, princess.” Marcus said in amusement as the beast charged at her direction. As his eyes didn’t leave her, he saw no fear on her eyes. Instead, her expression shifted quickly into what appeared to be her battle-face. The one she always wore when she fought with creatures much stronger than any humans.

Kaleen glared at Marcus, cursing him inside her mind before she started running away from the Manik.

No. It wasn’t out of fear. Marcus knew that though his bride may looked fragile, she got good head on her shoulder. He saw it many times how she almost got him when she hunted for him along with the other warriors in Vel. 

A good strategist.

As the Manik dashed by them, in pursuit of the woman with the grand king’s blood, its stench lingered through the air, like a flesh left to rot.

The cracking of a tree branch followed by a loud thud on the ground filled the air. A century old tree was torn down by one swift claw of the Manik’s stretched hand. It growls grew when it missed its target.

Kaleen stood up from the ground, her dress an obvious obstruction to her movements but it didn’t hamper her from darting her sword to the beast on its upper shoulder. She used the advantage of height of the tree she climbed on, launching down directly when the tree fell down.

As expected, the beast was unfeeling of the buried metal at its shoulder, slamming down to the tiny frame of the princess.

Kaleen barely escaped but her eyes a fire of survivor, dodging every massive attacks of the beast with swiftness. Her eyes directed to her sword protruding on the beast’s shoulder. 

Manik was twice taller than she was and getting her weapon off of it will be almost impossible. Climbing the tree to kill it was the only thing she could do. She can’t keep on climbing one. Not that she felt sorry for the possible trees that the monster will destroy. 

But she can’t repeat such trick in closed proximity with the enemy. She rolled to the left when another attack was incoming. She was inside the forest, shifting a little far away from the road where the vampires were probably waiting in escitement for her scream of fright.

She won’t give them the satisfaction. If she would die fleeing from the cursed beast, at least she won’t go away in a pitifully.

The air was filled with heavy growling again when she managed to escaped away from the beast again. Instead of being a fool of facing it weaponless, Kaleen resorted into full running in opposite direction.

The beast was trapped inside a barrier. Even humans of ordinary blood can’t get in as stated in a blood contract done by the grand king himself. So, all she must do was to get out from there. 

If running could save her, she must sprint fast strategically or the beast which was jumping from tree to tree could easily overtake her.

A dead tree was on her way and she jumped from it. Instead of a graceful landing, she was face down the ground. When she looked back, the hem of her dress got stuck on a protruding branch. Cursing out loudly, Kaleen tug her dress until it tore, leaving a garments on the branch. She pushed herself up, whipped her head to the tree where she heard the beast landed.

Her eyes widened at the crouching animal just above her. She forcibly pushed herself up again, seeing that the invisible barrier was just a few meters ahead of her. If she would be caught by its stretching hands, her flesh will be likened into a jelly.

Her feet obviously received the blow of that poor landing that she was limping. Her heart raced hard on her ribcage, her breathing unnaturally fast. She was panicking. Probably because the rotting smell was closer behind her. That means death was only an inch distance behind her.

And true to her suspicion, the death reaper was closer than she could runaway from. An excruciating pain registered on her right shoulder, spinning her in maddening whirl. She felt like a crisp leaf in suspended, played by the wind before landing again to the hard ground.

This time, her nose received a blow that she didn’t want to speculate anymore whether it got disfigured by the rock it came in contact. No. Having an impaired face won’t matter anymore if the animal chose to dismember her with the claws that just tore the flesh on her shoulder.

Kaleen realized that salvation was only feet away ahead of her. She could see where the beast couldn’t possibly follow her. However, when she felt its feet landed on her back, burying its claws there, a scream escaping her mouth might be her last cry before she’d be gone.

She tasted blood on her mouth, her body screaming for freedom from the pain of the venomous sharp and slender curved nails on her back. Then her vision blurred when tears began to obstruct her eyes. With a gritted teeth, she closed her eyes firmly. 

She thought, that way, it would be less painful. Maybe there might be unimaginable agony, but she’d be freed. With a shaking frame, she stayed still, literally holding her breath, waiting for the final struck of death.

Her ears heard the loud wail of the beast followed by the reduce of the load that weighed her back. Though the pain was still there, certainly, the claws that caused it was gone. Barely lifting her head, she slowly looked behind her and with her vague vision, saw a man wielding her sword against the beast.

It only take merely seconds before he got rid of the Manik in one swift motion. The beast fell to the ground, divided in two. Its blood spilled the ground, almost flooding the area with its stench.

“You disappoint me, princess. What happen to the decorated hunter of Vel?” Came a mocking remark from Marcus when he got where she was still down on her stomach.

Kaleen didn’t have enough strength for a comeback nor even speculate on how the hell a king of vampire was able to rid of the Manik, a creature summoned by the grand king, her grandfather, from the underworld in order to prevent the vampires from entering Vel.

“Human,” was the last thing that Kaleen heard before darkness claimed her. It was even insane to imagine Marcus’ shaking his head in disgust when beholding her in her slow death.

Kaleen was lost now on vague audios of her surrounding. Shuffling on the ground, voices of command from someone in high rank, then she felt like floating. If death could be this wonderful. Perhaps, no people would be fleeing from it. It felt being drugged and the pain was ebbing slowly.

A paradise. 

Might not be a bad exchange after everything she had done to Vel. A sacrifice in which left her dying in such a state where the Manik could cover her soon-to-be rotting body.

At the very least, she won’t be married to that despicable king of those bloodsuckers.