Chapter 4

Miaka’s P.O.V

“Hydrogen Cyanide.” The healer informed me when I went to check up on the boy. “A very diluted amount but lethal at such a young age. If you hadn’t gotten to him on time, he would have died within an hour at most.”

I sighed, rubbing my hands down my face. “How long will he take to recover?”

“His body has shut down, making him go into a temporary coma so he can regain his strength. He should be better in a week or even less, but I have something to show you.” Katherine Sanders, the prime healer mage and my best friend, took me to the room where the boy was being treated and it struck me anew how cruel the humans had been to a child. We came to a stand in front of the boy and Kathy lifted up one of his arms and turned it towards the light.

Tiny fang marks dotted his wrist, as if someone had tried to drink his blood. “He’s a vampire. Who could have drunk from him?” I asked.

“He did it to himself.” Katherine told me. “We matched the marks to his fang length and they are a perfect match. He’d been starved before they’d injected cyanide into him. It was mainly the drawing out of his blood that was the real cause of his condition, or his blood would have neutralized the poison.”

“Any lasting damages?” I asked her. He was no doubt an immortal, but he had to endure a lot of hardships at such a young age. His immortality hasn’t set in yet, so there’s a chance there might be scars that could become permanent as he grew older. I knew because I spoke from experience.

“None that can be predicted yet. Once the cyanide is completely out of his system, we’ll have final results.”  She reassured me.

“Okay.” I looked down at the boy’s sleeping form and couldn’t help but weave my fingers through his soft white blonde hair, trying to provide comfort. He looked far better than when I’d first found him five hours ago. He had been cleaned up and fitted into the hospital attire and had also been given a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, the blood we’d recovered had traces of cyanide in them so we couldn’t use it any longer and finding the right kind of vampiric blood had taken some time. But the good news was, he was in safe hands and would soon recover.

I bent down to place a soft kiss onto his forehead, before turning back to Katherine. “And what about the rest of them?” I asked about the other immortals we’d rescued.

“Some of them a quite severe and might have to stay here for a couple months, but most of the captives were only undernourished or needed a blood transfusion. Some of them can be discharged as early as tomorrow morning.” She said. “I’ll ask Rain to arrange for a place to stay.”

“Kathy!” I stopped her before she could leave. “Thank you so much for helping me.”

“Always.” She smiled back at me. “I know my best friend would always risk her life to help others. But, good luck explaining that to your uncles.”

“I’m not explaining anything to anyone. Not anymore.” I told her firmly, crossing my arms across my chest. “I’m an adult!”

“Not until midnight, honey.” Kathy gave me a smirk. “I heard the party is going to be grand.”

“Ugh!” I rubbed my fingers to my temples. “I feel like I’ve been an adult for ages even though I’m officially turning eighteen tonight! Did you get an invite?”

“A month ago.” Kathy pointed towards the desk at the corner of her room with a shrug of her shoulders. “I’ve already selected a dress and everything so don’t you dare bail on me!”

I rolled my eyes at her dramatics. “And where am I supposed to go? It’s my eighteenth. I’m pretty sure the entire planet will be in attendance and everyone in my family will have their eyes on me.”

“So…selected a date yet?” Kathy asked with a grin as she followed me out of the facility to where my car was waiting for me. “Someone hot and sophisticated? One of the nobles, perhaps?”

Kathy wiggled her eyebrows at me creepily while I scrunched up my face in disgust. “Nope. Absolutely not!”

But even as I got rid of the images of the power-hungry nobles out of my mind, another face popped in out of the blue.

Eyes swirling with blue, grey and amethyst and a face that was ruggedly handsome and yet beautiful at the same time. There was a sense of age to him even though he looked about twenty years old…like he had been forced to grow up way too soon. I’d seen him only once; known him hardly a few minutes, and yet it felt like there was a connection between us.

The piece of paper with his number on it felt like a heavy weight inside my pocket and I wanted to call him just to hear his voice, but I knew it was an absurd thought. What was I supposed to say to him? ‘Hi, this is the Demon King and I called because I found your eyes captivating!’

Hell no!

If our genders were reversed, it would be a total creep move to make. So I’ll wait to call him, at least until my grand birthday party was over with.

“Sooo…has he been invited tonight?” Kathy asked a bit hesitantly and I instantly knew who she was referring to.

“As a member of the Dark Council, we don’t have a choice but to invite him.” I sighed. “Honestly, I’m dreading him showing up today. I’ve spoken to my uncles about what he told me, but even they were speechless.”

 “Obviously,” Kathy threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “The dude’s older than your grandfather and he thinks he can marry you! What kind of paedophilia is that?”

“We don’t perceive age the way humans do, Kathy.” I reminded her. “You and I are considered the same age according to maturity level but we both know that you’re seventy years older than me.”

“I guess you’re right.” She sighed and gave me a helpless look. “What are you going to do now? There’s a lot at stake here, you know that right? No one can know who you really are.”

“Or maybe…it’s time for people to know exactly who I am.”