“My name is Ignis,” he continued. A creature like him in a city apartment, her blood ran cold. Demons were the worst of all races, they came straight from hell and most of the world considered them evil. While she was gawking, he spread his arms wide to recite something inaudible. “What are you doing? Stop!” she cried at the same time when Marcus and Loyd stood at her side.She shot him, knowing there was no bullet that could hurt a demon in the magazine. The other two did the same. Marc swore. While his bullets were supposed to kill demons, they did nothing. Archdemons were much more powerful than regular demons, none of them had prepared for one to show up.“Please, you don’t need to shoot me. I’m not your enemy,” groaned Ignis, “That was a mere protection spell.”“Why are you here?” she asked. “What was that spell for?”“State your business and get the fuck out,” her friend pitched in. His voice was high-pitched, she knew he was as worried as she was. Loyd started suggesting fi
Ignis adjusted his tie, pausing. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed his forehead. His demeanor vaguely reminded her of Reign. Although they had similarities, the latter had grace she didn’t want to admit after what she had just seen.“What? What occurred?” Marc strode over. “Stop stalling. Tell me what happened.”“I have no knowledge of what exactly happened. I can’t reverse the memory he wiped off. Only he can do that, I’m afraid. By him, I mean the vampire you just saw over there.”She heard Loyd assuring him he looked perfectly fine when they first met. She was dying to know something else.“How old is he, actually? You said he is not 150 years old.”Ignis snickered. “He is much older than that. A thousand years is closer to his actual age. He is ancient, older than me.”The declaration quieted the conversation beside her. She felt almost lightheaded. “H—how is that possible? He’s the son of the current vampire monarch. Every vampire knows how old he is.”“No. He i
Addiction is a vise clutching one’s arteries, venules, and veins, all the blood vessels. Even if they are filled with sinful cells, composed of nutrition from humans. His blood was as red as a human’s because in appearance they didn’t look different. Only he knew how black it was in levels indiscernible to the sharpest eyes, of his own kind, of vampires.Reign was shocked when he learned he was addicted to penetrating into her thoughts. Tasting her mind was like what humans would be to cigarettes. Or worse. He was ashamed of himself for that knowledge. How revolting he was. He cut it off as his promise to her. He ended his desire to know what she might be thinking.He took off his coat and draped it over a recliner before undoing a few top buttons of his shirt. It occurred to him to summon Mr. Hacke. Yet, he must be asleep at this hour. Along the long hallway, his shoes tapped the carpeted floor quietly. The lights were dim the way he liked. The soft glow spread across the creamy surf
“I accept your offer.”The four words that changed everything.“Dani, no!” “Excellent,” uttered the archdemon. “Your word is binding.”She would help Ignis imprison Reign, Fragor, whatever name he went by, for eternity. That was what he deserved for all his sins; she could already imagine his face when he realized he had never seen his doom coming from her. He was a pursuer; he was a predator; not a victim, she knew that much. Nerves went taut inside her body, at her verbal acceptance, though the archdemon was doing visibly nothing. The room erupted into chaos for the second time since he had shown up. As he whispered an incantation, she noticed Marc reaching for her arm. She didn’t feel his finger touching her as she suddenly found herself in near darkness, alone with the archdemon. The living room was gone.“What did you do to my friends?! I swear I’ll kill–”“I simply removed the distractions.”“Explain more or I’ll shoot you.”“I don’t care about your little bullets,” Ignis sig
At first, Reign thought he was mistaken. His mistake had nothing to do with him being a thousand-year-old. Vampires’ senses were duller during the daytime and he had been far away from the front yard. Her scent was faint, through the onyx walls, which were made to erase all the distractions from the outside. Imagine his surprise when he was upstairs and saw her jumping out of the garden. Like a cute bunny hopping around, she crossed the street back and forth, unbeknownst to Mr. Hacke who thought she arrived just then. She must have been sneaking around the entire afternoon. He did not need to read her mind to know she was nervous as he watched her, through the narrow gap between the drapes. Spying on him when he finally decided to leave her alone. In fact, he was nearly planning to end his long trip among humans. Her brain must be working full force underneath her pretty shell.Interesting, he thought, when her forest green eyes jumped between the mansion and the butler’s face. Sti
“That’s okay. Make yourself at home,” she said out loud.But, that was not okay. Not okay at all! Like the monster he was, he prowled in her tiny apartment like it was some sort of hunting ground. That was how she felt as she walked to her wardrobe, turning her back on him and swallowing down her fear.Still, she was confident, compared to just a moment before. He had no idea she could now block him out of her mind. She pulled up her bathrobe as she was about to choose an outfit. Damn, everything was in plain sight here, she thought as she eyed her clothes. She should have warned him that she was about to get dressed.Tucking her wet strand of hair behind her ear awkwardly, she turned around to look at him and her breath hitched.No. He was not standing behind her nor even looking at her. He was simply lounging on her faded couch, his eyes set straight. It was how he looked, and the way he carried himself, there was something different about everything he did. In his black clothes th
Danica was experiencing what she had thought to be impossible. No time to react. That was everything that shrouded him, wasn’t that? Impossibility. That was his entire existence itself.After a few minutes of a colorful void, she found herself in a stylish, vintage hall, which she had little time to pay attention to. She was ashamed to admit she slumped down on the floor like a doll despite being a hunter. She was trying not to hurl her guts out onto the thick carpet. Dry-heaving on the floor, she looked up from his polished leather shoes to the strands of his raven hair which fell over his forehead, the most disordered state she had ever seen him in. He towered over her, making her feel like she was kneeling down in front of a king.Like she was worshiping him. He looked dignified and…and wrathful. “Where is this?! What—” she wheezed. “What did you just do? Did you tel-teleport? Could you do that?! Im-impossible.”“Teleportation?” his lips curved up slightly before his face fell fl
Never had she felt this captured in a male’s hand. Emotionally. Physically. And, mentally. Sure, she had only ever been with Dave, even a kiss. But, Dave might as well be a naïve boy compared to Reign, or Fragor. The way he possessed her lips, this time was different from the first time he had kissed her at the night of his party.She should be so ashamed of herself for comparing Dave to the one who was responsible for his death. How utterly shameless, even if it was a mere instinctive thought. Guilt took over her while she let Reign do as he wished.“Oh…” she whimpered and her lips cracked open with a press of his pointy fangs. It was not painful, but he had used slight force to let his tongue intrude into her mouth. He explored it like her mouth was no longer hers anymore. Like it belonged to him.And it might as well be, since she had become a shell filled only with guilty desire. He would not have to force a thing but she could not match his aggressiveness. Her mouth could barely
When he led her down the stairs, she eyed Marie, who was biting her lips and giving her a conspiratory look. An hour later, she was in his mansion, having lost the crowd at last. Marc and Loyd arrived with Marie, Both whining they would have come sooner if they had known. In the garden, they sat down for dinner, five of them. Reign asked Mr. Hacke to join and the old man cried before he took a seat at the table. “You’re coming with me back to the kingdom, my darling,” he announced, in the middle of their noisy chats.“Am I? Why?” she set down her fork. “Are you…giving me orders? Already?”He tilted his head, candle lights half-shadowing his face. “If you’d love to stay behind, of course you can. I’m not giving you an order. Chaos could break out soon without me or you with the remnants of…” he halted as though searching for words, “my enemy. I simply thought you’d agree with me to come along.”She looked down at her plate.“I’m sorry I brought this up at our engagement dinner.” He k
“Cut!” the director’s voice boomed. Nova slumped her shoulders and dared a peek at his direction. This was the 51st take of one single scene and the sunlight was burning her in her voluptuous Snow White costume. This was how a vampire would feel under the sun, she thought sarcastically. “Snow White’s supposed to be sad thinking about her late mother.” he shook his head. “You looked freaked the hell out. This is her birthday. She is ‘lonely’. Again!” Her jaws felt so stiff, almost paralyzed with trying to get into that sad smile the director wanted for hours straight. Before she was ready, the director shouted, “Action!” She looked at the giant birthday cake and sighed. “Happy 16th Birthday, Princess,” said the co-actress. She smiled wryly, or tried to. Thankfully, it worked! “Cut.” Director Clark rose from the chair. “Good job, everyone.” She exhaled in relief, before slumping down into a nearby chair. For today’s scenes which started at six am in the morning, she had to wake
“Wait, Your Highness! Your outfit! How silly of me.”The woman gestured to her assistants, who gingerly carried what she was going to wear for this evening over to her. She stared at her dress in a daze; it was easily the most beautiful gown she had ever seen. The sleeveless, low-cut dress was neither black nor silver, or both perhaps. It shone whenever it moved in their hands. Delicate forest green laces were sprinkled with…diamonds.She swallowed the urge to refuse it, biting down on her lips not to slip that it was too expensive and she couldn’t accept it. Unlike the other dresses she had received from him, this felt so different. This gorgeous dress was full of his adoration for her; she looked away, blushing at her thought.After she put that on with their help, she stood before the mirror they had removed from her wall. Her lips were a few shades darker than her red hair; her cheeks appeared naturally flushed; and her eyes looked glittering, just like all the jewels over her bod
“What is it?” she questioned, pretending to be angry. “You have nothing to be jealous of, do you?”“I wouldn’t dare, Your Royal Highness,” Marc joked. “It’s just, you guys were not even kissing, but the tension was so high. We were afraid you guys might burn down the building.”“Yep. Yep,” Marie agreed vehemently.“You guys trust him now?” interrupted Sage. “Stop, Sage,” protested Marc, but the other one continued, “And you, you don’t care about her. Why are you even here?”Danica was worried Reign would do something to him and prepared to stand between them.But, he merely responded, “I am starting to regret that I healed you. I probably should’ve let you crippled for your entire life.”She spun around and faced him. “You healed him?!”“Yes, my darling,” he smiled, lighting up the entire apartment, or the entire building perhaps.“The vampire prince—sorry—king could smile?” Loyd remarked, sounding dumbstruck.“I’ve seen him smile,” retorted Marc.“I’ve seen it on the net too. But, i
Patrons went back to their noisy selves although several were still staring at her. “Who cares if you’re someone’s fiancee or not?” he grinned. “By the way, did he tell you? That I saved his life.”“Yeah, Marc is a hero,” said Loyd, looking at him fondly. “He saved the vampire king’s life.”She took the glass Marie was handing her. “Now that I think about it, yeah, he almost told me about you. I think he was saying, “Your friend...” when I started screaming about going back.”“You shouted at him. Now you’re a hero,” Loyd pitched in. She noticed some tables went silent around her. She ignored them and swallowed. The scene in the throne-room from five months ago replayed in her mind.“Thank you, Marc,” she said seriously. “What did you do?”“It’s nothing,” he sighed. “Compared to what he had suffered. I’ve never met someone like… your boyfriend. He’s your boyfriend, right? Excluding Loyd obviously; he is the most amazing. Anyway, I was at the palace gate when the evil vampire king was
After a long, frustrating flight and drive, Danica was finally back in Brickland, Umbre. Along the way, she had yet to meet a single person who did not recognize her as an alleged-criminal-turned-princess. Some stared at her, whispering between one another, and others–especially teenage girls–would surround her and try to take photographs with her, and of her.“I don’t want you to take my pictures. Please. Please!”Nobody gave a damn. They would press their faces next to hers and would take selfies while her face ended up grimacing or contorting. A few would caption their photos and upload them to their social media accounts, right under her eyes.Their hashtags, #withcc, #ccandme #atairport, #milestonemoment, etc., etc. CC meant Cinderella Convict, apparently to someone who practically shouted that to her face. One group of teenage boys even asked her, “Are you hungry now? Do you want to bite me?”“No. I don’t have bloodlusts.”“Really?”They looked disappointed while some girls gav
In the wind, his sentinel cloak was flapping. It tickled her calves below her nightdress. The garden below was in pandemonium just like in the tower. She registered all those noises vaguely while she was too aware of the single presence, the male holding her.“We’re going back in,” he warned.In one swift movement, he lifted both of them back into the tower. Once their feet touched the bathroom floor, he stood face to face with her and leaned down gently, cornering her against the half-broken window. Along the ragged window frame, he placed his hands, seemingly unaware the sun was hurting them.She stared when he spoke, unable to take her eyes off of him.“I shouldn’t have let you out of my sight. It was my fault,” he murmu
That did not surprise her. All of Fragor’s followers hardly consider her a princess anymore since they realized what she was for their king: a device. This sentinel must think the same. He must not feel the need to grace her with a response.She left the chair and went to the wardrobes where she had found the blanket, all along feeling a hawk-like gaze on her back. It seemed her remaining few days would be even more suffocating than her previous days. While Eirene hadn’t given a damn about her well-being, she had kept her good company most days.This new person… she sighed, placing the blanket in the far corner where she had found it. She went to the bed and sat down in the middle. There was no scenery to look out. No sunlight. She had wondered how the sun would feel against her skin since the seal on her arm was gone and she was a hybrid. Hours must have passed while she was sitting on the bed and the person at the door had yet to move at all. She got down from the bed to take a bath
Danica did not blink at the word, ‘the ritual’. She did not care what he was going to do with her. Footsteps retreated and footsteps entered while she did not bother getting up from the floor. Pulling up her hood, her new attendant stopped by the bedside; she did not look like an attendant at all.“You know…” said Eirene. “I came here to kill you.”“I know,” she mumbled. “How do you know?!” her eyes widened.Danica got up, holding onto the edge of the bed to support herself. Her limbs felt heavy after days of no movement. “I saw you in the crowd the other day.”“You couldn’t have possibly known my—”“Here…” she looked at her in his glowing eyes. “I’ve been a hunter for years. I could at least spot someone who wants to kill me. You probably thought I was a dumb bitch, didn’t you? How convenient you want to kill me. Do it now.”Eirene showed her fangs. “No. I changed my mind. You deserve to live suffering.”“Oh…” she breathed, disappointed. “Your father let me in even though he knew I