‘No. No. No. No,’ she thought anxiously as she rose from the floor. She called his phone, and it went straight to the voice message again. Her hand reached for the pistol.Picking locks was not her specialty. She hoped he wouldn’t mind what she was going to do. Her gun clutched in both hands, Danica took a few steps back. She sprinted to the door and shouldered it open. It broke with a bam.Immediately she pointed her gun behind the wall, in case somebody was hiding there. It was empty.Before her was a slightly messy apartment, with a few things lying about. That was strange, because unlike her, he was quite particular about how things should be in the exact same places. That she knew within three years they became friends. Right after she had broken up with Dave, she went to a bar, with a fake ID. Three hours later, she was awfully drunk, but dragged herself out before throwing up on the sidewalk. By that time, she was barely conscious anymore, holding onto something: probably a tr
Her eyes stung after long hours of staring at her laptop screen. Too tired. In baggy pajamas, she slumped face-down at the edge of the bed, not even crawling to the pillow. Her eyelids fluttered shut instantly.These walls were thin. When everything went quiet, she would hear passing conversations and sometimes footsteps from the corridor. Her consciousness was drifting away before faint sounds wrestled into her sleep-addled brain.There was somebody outside her door. Somebody was walking about, which itself would be typical. Something about it, however, was strange. The footsteps were slow and steady; someone was taking a stroll right along the narrow corridor before her apartment as though it was a fun place. It had been quite some time since he or she was pacing. Besides, they sounded intentional like they were meant for somebody to hear them: in this case, her.Danica reached across her bed for the gun. Perhaps it was a harmless weirdo, like the ones who talked to themselves in
“What do you want?” she glowered at him. Both her voice and body trembled, as she was straining every part of her nerves to move, uselessly. His smile stopped, and for a while, there was no answer.“You are so ignorant, and willful,” he remarked quietly.“What is that supposed to mean?! You’re just another bloodthirsty parasite, aren’t you?” she rambled on, trying to hide the fear inside. “That’s why you’re here. You want my blood. You bloodsuc—,” Suddenly he stood right in front of her, having crossed the distance between them in a blink of an eye. She tried to attack him, forgetting she couldn’t move. “So impudent. I don’t like mouthy females,” he spat out. “Or males, for that matter.”‘What the hell? He insulted her first.’His height towered over her, standing too close. She couldn’t and didn’t need to look up to know if he was angry. He was. And that made her even angrier than him. Who was he to invade her home and treat her this way? She didn’t care why he was here anymore.
It was a brief conversation. Sage claimed he didn’t even know about the case and he wasn’t lying. He had never lied to her before and she could think of no reason he should start now. “Did you hear anyone talking about the case at least?” She was clutching at straws.“This is a big station, Dani, and with my rank, I don’t have enough clearance to know half of the cases. And…,” he turned to look into her eyes. “… some cases we simply aren’t aware of.” That’s true. He was only an officer, partly because ranks went up slower in ORP than in the ordinary police. However, what came out of his mouth next caught her off-guard.“But maybe I could dig around and tell you what I found over dinner? What do you think?” In the car, Danica looked at Sage as if she had never seen him before. He was not unattractive; he was, with his prominent cheekbones and deep grey eyes. It was that she wasn’t attracted to him, and he had even struck as he disliked her by his avoidance—not that she could blame h
And yet, after a half-an-hour wait, Danica was still alone. The whispers had stopped for a long while. For her age, ‘she’ might need more time to prepare. With that thought, she tried to relax, but couldn’t with all the worries. She stared at the colorful shapes on the table and the carpet near her feet, trying to calm herself. Through the stained glass of the windows, near the ceilings, the sunlight had transformed into red, yellow, and blue patterns. After staring at them for an unbeknownst amount of time, she shook her head and headed out of the study room to ask if everything was alright. She couldn’t go back empty-handed. Marc’s life was in danger. Steve was nowhere to be found; neither in the entrance hall nor in the kitchen. e living room was the same. She approached the stair to take a glance upstairs or call out, perhaps. As she stood at the foot, she heard people talking: two, most likely Steve and Ms. Donna. This time was a lot more than mumbles. “Why didn’t she bring t
“You…” she uttered in amazement. Her mind was on her weapons beneath her dress. If she threw a dagger into his heart, he would likely avoid it. He was too fast.“Be careful,” he warned behind her. The simple two words sounded like a threat, just like the little pet name he uttered earlier. Was that intentional or an accident?For a few seconds, he stood right behind her. He put his hands on the back of her seat briefly. ‘What was he trying to do?’ she wondered in frustration. ‘This was ‘him’! It must be!’When she was about to jump up and face him, he strolled past her, towards the other end of the table. The suit as pale as bones hadn’t made the person appear softer. It just made him colder, and out of place despite the environment with the similar shade.The words caught in Danica’s throat as he, none other than the vampire prince, sat down opposite her. He was a beautiful bastard, and she now despised it. How could everything be an accident?Her eyes trailed his movements. The devi
The table was stained dark red. The wine glasses were overturned by the swish of air he had caused. The heady liquid had dripped down and dampened the hemline of her dress. Since she had not taken a sip of her glass, it seemed to soak everything. Danica looked up at his fiery eyes as he towered over her. The pigments of deep scarlet had taken over the irises, which sometimes appeared to be drained any color. With his jaw set and his eyes burned, he might set her soul on fire if he could. “Ugh,” she gasped, from the dull pain in her right hand. His long fingers were around her wrist, to wrestle away the gun. He was almost twisting it. Hate filled her heart. “I’ll kill you,” she declared.“Do it,” he enunciated. “Kill me.”She jerked her knee towards his most sensitive parts. He avoided it, but doing so, he dropped her arm. She took that opportunity to slide out the wooden dagger. He stopped it, and his hand ended up on her thigh. She felt his fingers brush her inner thigh briefly.
A few of them glanced in her direction, from talking by their vehicles, one of which was slightly different from the other two. Four in uniforms and two in suits—a man and a woman. In a heartbeat, their gaze changed from curiosity to animosity. A couple too many people for a simple patrol; this was serious.“Danica Galant?” the man in the suit strode forward, in front of the headlights. Behind him, all of them drew their guns.Likewise, her hand reached for hers before she reminded herself that being armed in front of the uniformed people was not the wisest decision.“I am her. What happened?” she asked calmly.“Put your hands up where I can see them,” he raised his voice. “Why?” “Stop. Walking,” he spat out, raising his gun. The others did the same. “Stop right there. Not another step!” “Okay.” she halted in her tracks, puzzled by their aggressive stances. “I said. Put your hands up,” he repeated, his tone thoroughly hostile.From one of their cars, indistinguishable voices rang
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