Prologue

Kaleen gulped her own nervousness as her feet led her inside the wide hall of the king of the land. No human had entered this castle but her. She had no idea if she can get what she wants or if she'll be the dinner for the night.

When she entered the large hall, it was as if there was no single soul in there when in fact, there were hundreds of cold-blooded vampires' eyes directed at her. She won't even want to guess anymore if these people in fancy robes and dresses ever had souls in them.

Now walking towards the king's throne, she stopped the shaking of her fingers, clamping them tightly to each other.

"Who do we have here?" A voice from the throne made her looked up and she met those eyes of the king of the vampire who was said to rule for hundreds of years already. The one whom her family had been hunting into extinction without any success at all.

Looking at his handsome face and the smirk that painted his lips, she realized he didn't age at all. For he looked the same as the one she saw in the painting in their castle which was said to be a couple of hundreds of years.

With the existing vendetta between the race of vampires and humans, she knew coming in there was outrageous. However, with her lands in the devastation of the unceasing attack of another race, the hybrid wolves, people in her land became desolated and hunted. Many are dying every day as if the humans are those wolves' crops to harvest whenever they got hungry. They tried fighting back, but it was useless. For they were terribly strong and almost matchless. With her father, the 30^th king, on the brink of giving up, she came into this crazy idea after reading old folklore in the library. Hybrid wolves and Vampires had been in unresolved fights dated centuries ago until the present day.

So maybe, coming in there won't be such a bad idea even though the people in the kingdom think so. However, with her people at stake for the endless attack, she should do something. She didn’t know if the king of vampires would agree to fight for them at all. She didn’t know but she must try.

She bowed in courtesy before the king even though there was mockery in the way he looked at her.

"Who should I give the honor to have the princess of the land Vel visits me?" the king asked in pleasured voice but it didn't match the way his eyes looked in intensity at all.

"I'm here to ask for help." she finally said.

"Careless of you to come here...alone." as if there was a warning in his voice.

"I'm not scared of you." she lied.

"Of course. After all, you're the next in line to hunt for me, right?" the king said. "And to ask for my help is somehow ambitious of you, don't you think?"

He was right. It had been long since her family had been hunting the king of the vampire to end his reign. Even she, the princess of Vel, has already been prepared to hunt this demon after the devastation he made to the people years ago.

One town was left with no soul as he fed to thousands of people in there. It was one dreadful thing that went down to history and had been written into books to pass through generations, to show how cruel the king of vampires was and his kind was meant to be hunted.

However, the sudden appearance of the hybrid Crawlers came unforeseen of them that when they appeared, it predicated the smell of blood from the people killed.

The demons must be stopped by another demon.

This fanged demon and his concourses of fanged devils.

"Help us." she dared to speak. "People are dying in the hands of the crawlers and I know you're the only who can stop them."

The king raised his brows and though he stared at her, there was only soullessness in his crimson eyes and something else she won’t want to uncover.

"If I get this right, you're here to get some teeth to bar against the werewolves for you, humans." the king said.

"We tried fighting them off but we can't contain them."

"So?" he asked. "Why should I be interested in saving the people who relentlessly hunted my kind? We're not for hire, princess."

Hearing that, her stomach clenched in disappointment. For it only meant doom to her people and the kingdom of Vel. Even though they had been fighting these kinds of creatures, the crawlers, and the vampires, humans were still humans and have limitations. In strength, in endurance, and in hoping that everything will get better if they fight for another day or two. But it never came at all.

She wanted to leave, at least while her dignity was still intact or until these vampires didn't want her blood yet. She should go to another adjoining kingdom and beg for help.

Beg.

A princess should not beg at all. But a princess must do what she can for the people's welfare. It was what was expected from her even though she was the least desired princess among her other sisters who had been always too beautiful compared to her. Even Dahlia, her twin looked rather more pleasing and desirable compared to her who spent most of her time in training camp, honing her skills in the sword. Maybe if one of them ever came here to beg the vampire king, it might move him. But they didn't really care at all if the kingdom fell as they fled to far lands to hide. It was only she who had been left alone in the palace along with the king and the remaining armies to fight the last defense that they had.

"Fight for us," she said once again although she didn't have as much as hope. She fell down on her knees, looking straight at the king on the throne.

There was only silence again and none of the king's subjects dared break it when their leader kept his eyes on her. His head tilted a little to the left and his finger tapped gently on the armrest of the red settee he was sitting on.

"What's in it for me?" he asked.

"You can have all of my inheritance on the west. It's wide and-" her other words were cut off when the king scoffed.

"You should understand that I'm very far from desiring any inheritance, princess."

"Name your price then." she dared to say, preparing herself into having a one-on-one monologue with her father. If this vampire king wanted power or the kingdom, she'd convince her father to do it. For there won’t be any kingdom at all if the crawlers would reach the mainland and decide to desolate it too with bodies on the street. Maybe it took too long for the vampire king to respond that she spoke again. "We can give you the power and possess half of our kingdom-"

"It seems that you didn't get me, princess." he cut her off once again. "I want an heir. Though there isn’t any scarcity of the willing maiden to bear me one. It might be fun having an heir coming from you, my hunter."

Words left her completely after he said that. Even his subjects reacted to his words though they didn't come violently in comparison to their own defiance.

She blinked at him, not even realizing that she was still on her knees.

"So?"  he raised which made her brought back to the reality of why she was even begging for. Of course, it was given that she must be a sacrifice if it was even needed to save her people. Without thinking for more, she stood up and met his blazing eyes.

"Done." she agreed which made him grin widely at her, eyes so sinful that it seemed windows to hell.