(Kate) “I GOT YOU. Don’t be afraid,” Zachary told me as he gently pulled me up from the bench. He grabbed my waist in one hand and pulled me closer to his body in a protective manner. Captain Tau had already compelled the humans in the park to vacate the area. When I followed where Zachary was looking at, I saw Maximo along with some of the senior Hunters. They looked stupefied upon seeing Zachary. And I knew exactly why. They didn’t come here to hunt the Vampires. It seems like the Hunters were not expecting to see them either since they only had one goal in coming here. And it was to hunt me. If I don’t do something, same day next year will be my death anniversary. If Maximo were to expose my secret-which I was sure he would do judging by the way he was looking at me with those ravenous eyes-both sides would compete to kill me. “Zachary, do you still remember inviting me out on a date earlier?” I asked him when the Hunters began firing. “Why ask about it now? Do you still rememb
I EXPECTED only two things. It was either Zachary would say yes after giving me a smirk or he would decline and still go somewhere else. And no matter how I think of it, the latter was the most likely outcome.But when it had been a few seconds already and I heard nothing at all, I opened my eyes and prepared myself to be rejected. However, I was surprised to see his face red.Am I seeing it right? Is His Majesty… blushing right now? Him of all people? Really?When he caught me staring, he instantly covered half of his face with his hand and looked away.“Goddamn it, Kate,” I heard him say.Zachary was doing all these things he had never done before. He invaded my neighborhood so early in the morning and approached me under the guise of ‘coincidence’. He had the lamest excuse of all but I could not even laugh because he uttered those words so confidently that if I didn’t know him any better, I might have been tempted to believe that our encounter this morning was truly a coincidence.
I’D BEEN told many times that every woman needed a man in their life. The old couples in my neighborhood said that life was different with a man. They said it’ll be warm, that it’ll be safe.They also said it’ll be chaotic, but they guaranteed that it was a beautiful kind of chaos. I didn’t believe ‘chaos’ could ever be beautiful. I had lived with men all my life and so far, all they brought to me was pure chaos. There was no beauty, just total agony and destruction.Except for my brother, I considered every man a red flag.And so was Zachary. His very existence screamed red flag for a woman like me.But today, as this king looked at me with emotions so raw and so real, as he held me as if I was a glass that could break anytime, as I feel the heat in his body, I think that I’m beginning to slowly understand the warmth some women were bragging about. They said men were rocks and women could depend on those rocks.I totally and wholeheartedly disagree. I didn’t need another rock. I was
ZACHARY cannot be a king and a warrior at the same time. Eventually, he would have to choose between the two. If he was an ordinary warrior, maybe I could give myself the chance to see where these strange feelings of ours could lead us.If he was a warrior, maybe he could find it in his heart to understand why I did what I did. Maybe then I could take a leap like any other ordinary woman would do. Maybe I wouldn’t have to lie to Mira. Our daughter wouldn’t have to live thinking that her father was dead. She wouldn’t have to look up at the sky at night wondering whether her father could see her or hear her from up above. She wouldn’t have to spend the rest of her life missing him.We could have been a normal family. I wanted that because I never had that. Maybe it would be nice to try having one for once in my life. But all these would remain as ‘maybes.’Because I was not an ordinary woman. Zachary was not an ordinary man either. We were born to be enemies. He had a major responsibili
“WHY are the Hunters targeting you? Why do they seem to know you? And why does it seem like you know them as well, Miss Morelli? If you evade my question one more time, you will be the next person who will fall on the floor.” I know I pledged to keep the lady safe, but before that, I must know who I was trying to protect here. She neither blink nor waver as she took the lives of the Hunters and as blood spattered on the floor. I knew that look on her face. I had seen it many times in the battlefield. That was the same expression His Majesty wore as he led the war against the Rogues and Hunters: cold and unyielding, ready to slay whoever would stand in his way. She seemed used to giving commands as well. For a brief moment there, I thought I just saw a female version of His Majesty. Even now, with the gun pointed on her forehead, she did not look terrified at all as if she had been in the same situation many times before. She looked straight into my eyes as if she was looking at deat
IN this world, only the bravest gets to rule. Vampires believed in courage and willpower more than strength. That was the number one requirement when it came to sitting on the throne. Many were strong, but when things go wrong, they cower. They hide behind their subordinates. Worse, when war comes, they will be the first to run away. It just so happened that Zachary Collins possessed both bravery and strength at the same time. And it was not only because of his hell fire. Regardless of his temper, the knights followed him and admired him. I was one of them. I didn’t think I had met anyone braver and stronger until Kate Morelli appeared. Tau flew and hit his back against the wall when Mira pushed him away. Upon seeing it, the little girl stared at her hands with disbelief. “Princess-‘ “Get away from me!” she screeched. The noise must have awoken Kate. She weakly pushed Jonathan’s palm away. “I am not a Vampire. Why do you insist on making me drink your blood?” “Your condition is
WHEN I saw how pain flashed through Kate’s eyes, I wanted to take back what I said but I stopped myself. Tau and Jonathan were both cursing me with their eyes.‘What a way to pour salt on her wound. Great job, Damon,’ Tau said sarcastically through his head.‘What do you want me to do? Sugarcoat things to make her feel better? That is not who I am, Tau. I would rather hurt her with the truth than to comfort her with lies,’ I shot back. ‘We owe her the truth.’We were still arguing when Kate calmly turned to Jonathan. “You brought ‘that’ bag with you when you took Mira and her things from my apartment, didn’t you?”“I did.”“What bag?” Tau and I asked.“The bag contained syringes with Katerina’s blood in them,” Jonathan explained.“If she is going to end up drinking blood, then I want her to drink only my blood, Jonathan. I don’t want any human to get hurt because of us. If my daughter gets thirsty again, you know what to do. I can’t be with Mira right now. And it’s not because I’m afr
WAS it because of the rage in Zachary’s eyes? The worry in his voice? Or was it the agitation in my heart or the increasing pain in my shoulder? Oh, I really couldn’t tell which one was the cause. All I know was that the second he held me, my tears started to fall.It had been so long since I last had someone who would get angry for me whenever I would get hurt.“Who the fuck did this to you?” he yelled as he quickly bit his palm. “Drink,” he commanded afterwards.Pride will never save my life; I thought as I closed my eyes and grabbed his palm to drink his blood. He cussed for the second time when the bite mark did not disappear although the pain became bearable somehow.“Why is it not healing? Damn it!”I could feel His Majesty’s temper simmering. After a few seconds, I stopped drinking from his palm. In a blink of an eye, he was able to grab the knight’s sword and pointed it at his general.“What have you done, Damon? I remember telling you that you will lose your head if something