Chapter 1

White... Red...

Silence...

That’s all I can hear...

Blood, but whose blood? Someone, please, someone wake me up, I can’t, what’s all this? Where am I?

It’s nighttime, the forest coated in snow, and it’s too cold. There’s a trail of blood right in front of me, but whose blood? Suddenly I hear a scream. Is someone asking for help? I run, trying to find the source. But it’s too dark for me to see someone who needs my help.

         

Intro

I wake up to a knocking at the door. I didn’t get enough sleep again. I’m feeling restless, and I’m sweating a lot. The dream I just had felt so vivid.

As I laid back down, I started removing the strands of hair sticking in my forehead and looking at my room ceiling, which has some clouds and birds drawn on it. I hear the grandfather clock shows it’s eight in the morning. My room is quite a mess. Clothes are scattered everywhere, weapons on my vanity table, and blood. My dinner from last night that I didn’t have, I had forgotten again.

The dreams have been making it hard for me to eat. Every time I have a dream, I wake up scared, sweaty, restless; it’s that awful, sick feeling. And for the last two weeks, I’ve been having those dreams of someone asking for help.

They remind me of my experience and him, that person which I don’t want to remember but miss at the same time.

A knock at my door distracts me from my thoughts.

“Your majesty?” someone said.

Honestly, I just want to continue sleeping. I’m too tired and last night’s training took a toll on me. I’ve been starving, and when I do that, it makes my healing slower. I’m full of bruises from last night’s training.

I look like a Dalmatian with spots. My pale skin is gone.

As I got up from bed, someone came in and said, “Good morning, your majesty.”

“What do you want, Antonia?” I asked.

Antonia is my grandfather’s assistant. She’s redheaded, short, and chubby.

She can be annoying and ungrateful. Usually, I would keep my distance from her.

This woman can be hideous.

“Sorry, but your grandfather is waiting for you in the dining room to have breakfast,” Antonia said.

“Fine, get out. I’ll get ready,” I said.

◼◼◼

Ten minutes later, I’m ready. I put on a simple shirt with some sweatpants on, socks, and did a messy bun. My hair looks a mess, but I couldn’t care less.

I was walking down the hall where the dining room is. I see two maids working in their daily routine. Some are cleaning, moving furniture, and others washing the windows. There are at least eighteen maids in the palace. Which sometimes, I think it’s too little for this place.

The palace is where my grandfather, my brother Caspian, and I live. We have some guards that live on the palace grounds. But inside the castle is just the three of us. We are a small family.

Even though we are vampires that live in the twenty-first century, our homes are primarily castles and palaces. We keep certain things the old fashion way, or better said, we keep it traditional.

The palace has a Victorian style to it. Giant chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, colossal crystal windows like prisms reflect unique colors, and most of the furniture is vintage. I’ve been in charge of redecorating the palace time by time.

It also has nineteen bedrooms, three living rooms; one on each floor, three dining rooms; which most of the time get used. We have a vast bathhouse that’s connected with Caspian’s and my room. There’s a library where I spend most of the time reading, a theater, a giant lab for testing weapons. We have a gym and training grounds, mainly for guards and assassin training and purposes. We have two kitchens, one for the royal family and one for the guards. There’s an inner garden that I use, the throne room, and lastly, a Grand Hall for events like balls.

The palace is way too big for us, but we enjoy this place; it’s our home.

As the guards open the doors to the dining room, there at the head of the table sits my grandfather, Elder Cornelius.

“How long are you going to make me wait, Amilia?” my grandfather said.

“Good Morning to you to grandfather,” I said, taking a seat.

“Enough, just sit down. We need to talk about the Grand Ball,” My grandfather said.

The Grand Ball? I hope he doesn’t ask me to assist this year again because I’m not planning on going again. The Grand Ball is a celebration for not mated vampires, and every year I find an excuse not to go.

“Amilia, this year, you’re going to the ball,” my grandfather said as he studies my face.

“I can’t go,” I said, lying.

Honestly, I don’t wish to go, and I don’t need to. I already had a mate, but my grandfather and my brother don’t know about it. There’s no need; he’s already dead.

“Enough!!” My grandfather said, shouting. “You’re going, and that’s the end Amilia, you’re going even if you don’t want to. Caspian will join you, as you know he’s not mated so that he will be your partner.”

“What? Caspian!! Hell no, I’m not planning on going to the damn ball and especially with my brother, so no, thank you,” I said, getting up and leaving.

I’m so annoyed. My grandfather thinks he can force a mate on me, but he can’t, and no one won’t. I won’t allow it… never.

I’m Amilia Vlad, and I’m a Pureblood Vampire; I’m twenty-eight years old, and I’m Princess of the Kingdom of Constanta, and I’m not planning on finding my mate because my mate is dead already. I’m Princess of the Sapphire eyes, and I hold tragic secrets that no one has to find, even if it means I have to kill everyone.