Erick
“Erick! Brother!”
I turned to face the duo I had least expected to show up at my wedding.
“Lancelin! Acelin! I’m so glad you guys made it.” I gave them both a hug and motioned for a waiter offering champagne flutes.
“No dates?” I asked the brothers. Well, half -brothers actually. Ace and Lance both had the same mother.
“We’ve fed before arriving,” was Lance’s curt answer.
By fed, he didn’t mean blood. It had more to do with the body. Ace and Lance are incubi, sex demons who feed on the life force of the opposite sex. I knew it was their source of nutrition, but Lance could be a bit too blunt sometimes.
“Don’t mind the prince,” Acelin cut in with his usual refined cheerfulness. “He seems to have left his good humour back home.”
“Like I keep saying,” Lancelin retor
AlinaIn the golden and red hues of the twilight, the Constantium looked like a magnificent giant with its high towers and angel statues. The mountain now had an opening. Its doors which were in the shape of a cave were open for the ceremony.Athena, now in a gorgeous ankle length lavender lace dress encrusted with diamonds and paired up with sapphire drop earrings, came to stand on my right while Selene, in an ankle length maroon dress with full sleeves and diamond embroidery, stood on my left. The queen wore a floor-length red dress with golden embroidery along with her crown and gold earrings. Another girl who looked like a female version of Erick, only smaller, stood next to her with a green embroidered dress. That must be Susan, Erick’s second elder sister. In fact, everyone around me was glittering in some of the best designer dresses I had ever laid eyes on. I couldn’t even get started on Miaka. She wor
Alina“Papa?” I looked at Erick, visibly stunned. “B-But... how?”“Humans are not allowed inside the Constantium unless you’re the bride.” He tapped my nose with his index finger. “But no one said he can’t come to the castle.”I turned around and threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you!” I gasped out.You have no idea what this means to me!Anything for my lovely wife.He chuckled.It struck me anew that we were married now, something I had never thought possible right from the beginning and an idea I had always thought repulsive, especially after that incident. Now, here I am, married to the Vampire Prince on my own accord. I had no idea when I had come to trust him and to like him. But I knew now that I would never leave him, just like I knew that he would never leave me.I broke away from hi
MiakaIt was three hours after Erick and his new bride teleported out that I heard it— the distinctive noise of an unknown footstep in the hallway.My senses were growing more acute with each passing day. Soon enough, I would be able to blend into the shadows so perfectly that I won’t cause any sound. Soon, I would be as still as the darkness itself. I was beginning to grow faster than anyone had expected. Today, it was that underdeveloped ability that caused me to slow down several times as I followed the intruder.Almost everyone had gone to bed, except for a few who stayed behind at the bar or were simply strolling around the castle grounds. Their footsteps were continuous enough that I’d made out their pattern. Well, it was that or counting imaginary sheep jumping over my bed. But this one was new. It sounded like whoever it was had a purpose, but I couldn’t really tell. So I followed be
Alina“You’re transitioning into a vampire.”I didn’t think the words had sunk in yet.Erick was currently on the phone, talking a mile a minute and in languages that didn’t quite exist in the Earthly vocabulary, while I sat on our bed, staring at my hands as if I’d magically found the answers to what happened tonight written on them.This was a first for me. I was never the person to stay this quiet in the eye of the storm. Usually, I would just faint, but today, I felt a strange sense of calmness that was so unlike myself that I kept on wondering exactly how long it’ll take for the words to sink in or if it ever would.“You’re transitioning into a vampire.”“Alina?” Erick’s voice was gentle and careful as if approaching a panicked wild animal that was outwardly calm but could turn into a hissing mo
Erick“Where is he?” I barged into the throne room without knocking, Kendrick in tow. My father was in the midst of a conversation with his general, Vishal.“In the dungeons. We were just heading there for the questioning,” Father spoke in an even tone, but I knew he was seething inside. Emiel and his goons had taken out ten of our finest guards.“The soldiers?” Kendrick asked Vishal.“Disabled,” was Vishal’s curt reply. “They were of little use after the possession faded. We plan on sacrificing them to our Lord tonight.”Sacrificing to the Lord meant they would be slain in the Constantium. Their blood will be offered to Hades as an offering. That was a good idea. They were no better than rotting vegetables now that they had been possessed. Weaker vampires couldn’t handle possession by an Ancient, but a strong vampire like Emiel was a whole differ
AlinaGasping in deep breaths, I woke up with a start. I felt like my lungs were on fire, and my body felt even worse. It felt like I have been running for hours. Now, everything hurt to the point that I saw black spots cloud my vision. No! Closing my eyes, I let the pain wash over with teeth gritting strength. It took a long time to subside, but I didn’t give in to unconsciousness.I moaned in pain as my body cramped, and my hands flew to my chest to makes sure my rib cage was whole. It still was. I was having a nightmare. It had to be. There was no way Erick would try to hurt me. It had to be a nightmare.I felt the pulse of the mating bond in my head and felt relief flood me from the inside. Erick was near me. He had to be.I opened my eyes again, blinking rapidly, only to find everything extremely hazy. I panicked. Flailing my hands around, I tried to get a grasp of where I was. They said that when one sen
Erick“Why didn’t you warn me before, damn it! Why didn’t you tell me?” The table in front of me cracked in the middle, its contents falling to the floor. Glass shattered to a million multi-coloured pieces.“That’s because you have this vexatious anger with anything that has to do with Emiel that blinds you to the truth. You just don’t listen to any other recourse!” This was the first time Ken had ever raised his voice at me, but I was too blinded by anger to care.“He took Alina, Kendrick!” I gritted out. “My bond to her is gone. It just shut down, and I have no other way of contacting her. She might be hurt, Ken! Why didn’t you warn me the second that piece of trash uttered a single word?”“Are you even listening to yourself, Erick? That piece of trash is your brother, and he risked his own life to try to warn me!” Ken snapped back. &
AlinaI watched in horror as the thing sitting on the throne moved its head to look down at me. Just like in my dreams, this monster was made up of only flesh and bones, but his condition seemed far worse.Maggots crawled out of the hollow spaces that were the eyes, staring out of a skeletal face. Muscles and skin hung loose on the exposed parts of his body. There was blood dripping onto the floor in a constant rhythm, and his clothes were drenched in it. But the most horrifying fact was the number of bodies that were scattered all around him. I tried and failed to keep the bile down my throat and ended up retching at the sight of half-rotten corpses of hundreds of men and women that lay scattered by the monster’s feet with their hollow chests. Their rib cage wastorn open like egg shells to expose their heartless bodies.“Your assumption’s correct, my lovely granddaughter.” Aaron ca