CHAPTER FOUR: LYCAN VAMPRESS

“You can run but I promise to find and put you back in your place every time.”

You can run but you can’t escape.

“Giovanni…” I whispered. “I can’t.”

He scooped me slowly and held my chin up, his head looking down at me. “You don’t have to do anything. Just… stay still,” his lips are just inches away from mine and I tried not to look so hypnotized by his luscious red lips and seductive whisper. How can a man be so harsh yet so gentle?

In the midst of the crowds, I stared at him and let ourselves fall in-depth into each other’s eyes.

He moved closer and closer and gave me a swift peck on the lips. It was so light that my mind is debating if it really happened or if I am just hallucinating.

“Make me your husband and I’ll give you everything you need.”

“EVERLEIGH! THADDAEUS!”

I can’t help but shout at them when I saw them laughing and enjoying street food they seem to have bought in the market. These two!

“We were looking all over for you two—”

“Hey! You should try this.”

Giovanni was not able to finish what his saying when Thaddaeus shove the piece of bread in his mouth. He received a death glare for that but Thaddaeus didn’t seem to care. “Delizioso, no?” [Delicious, no?] and then he teased him with a playful smirk.

 “Pft,” I tried to suppress my laugh but I didn’t succeed. Next thing I know the death glare is already pointed at me.

I coughed the nervousness away and tuned to Everleigh instead, “Everleigh, I didn’t know you’re into mortal foods.”

She eyed me with her innocent eyes and answered, “These are mortal foods? What are immortal foods, then?”

“Meat!” I said with certainty and rolled my eyes.

“Hm!”

Thaddaeus’ sudden violent reaction made our heads turn to him. “Are you suggesting that we should get some meat, mi Luna?“

My head turned sideways in confusion at what he said. Everleigh seems to feel the same when I saw her forehead crease, but Giovanni is different. His eyes are glaring aright ahead at Thad as if the words he just heard are plain stupid and warning him not to say whatever he is going to say next. 

“Thaddaeus, don’t—”

“Then I suggest we go hunting!”

The confused look on Everleigh’s face and mine quickly turned into an excited one. Hunting is a hobby when we were such youngsters. We would compete on how many forest animals we can catch, how many laps we can run, and the tallest trees we can climb. The loser will have to be the winner’s servant for a month. Suddenly, I felt a pinch of pity for myself for feeling this excited over a simple hobby. For years, I only have my father who is always busy doing things, and I am alone in an empty castle all by myself. With no company. No friends.

“We can’t. We have to go back immediately to the castle.”

The three of us groaned in annoyance at Giovanni’s cold attitude. Some things never really change, a boring person will always be a boring person.

And a feisty person will always be a feisty person.

Laughing our hearts off, we ran so fast before Giovanni can even say what he has to. Leaving him behind so he can’t do anything anymore. It’s a good thing that the abandoned forest is just nearby. The moment we reached it, we acted like animals who have been escaped from their cages.

This. These are the things you missed when you left, Luna. This is how a vampire should live.

“This is so fun!”

Everleigh and I continued running wild along with the winds, still laughing at what we have just done. I looked over at Thaddaeus that is happily jumping over the tallest trees like it was just a piece of cake for him. He caught me looking and then he smirked as if challenging me to do the same. I smirked back, taking the challenge wholeheartedly. Carelessly, I stepped over a large rock and made an incredibly high jump over it. I heard Everleigh hiss in worry and Thad’s laughter at a distance.

Before I can even do a triumphant smirk, I unconsciously stepped on a piece of leaf. Causing me to slip and fall over. “Ah!” This is the largest tree in the whole forest and to land with my feet would be impossible. I closed my eyes and readied myself for a harsh fall on the ground.

But it never came.

"Talis puer es.” [You are such a child.]

Giovanni caught me before I can even touch the ground. He scooped me with one arm only and looked at me with his serious eyes. I stared back and rolled my eyes. I want to reward myself when I actually managed to hide the weird feeling I get every time his hands are all over me.

“And you’re really are Everleigh’s brother.” It’s the same remark she would say in this situation.

“Thaddaeus!”

A loud bang caught our ears then Everleigh’s hysterical shout came after. I jumped quickly from Giovanni’s cradle and ran over them. Only to see Thaddaeus lying down, with an arrow stabbed in his right leg.

“Argh…” he groaned in pain. Everleigh and I immediately tend to him, I wrecked a piece of cloth from his cloak and used it as a bandage to stop the wound from bleeding. It was a pain really, the sight and smell of blood are making me dizzy but I swallowed the urge to let my vampire self take over.

“There’s poison…” Everleigh said in horror.

“Are you sure?” I’m starting to get nervous too, but I didn’t let it surface. Especially since Thaddaeus is not in his strongest state now.  I saw how his face turns pale every second passing by. “Bene eris, Thaddaeus...” [You’ll be fine, Thaddaeus…]

 I looked over at Giovanni to somehow ask for some help and I caught his crimson-red eyes carefully examining the place. I followed his gaze and I saw it stopped on a corner not far away, where a man suddenly showed up.

“Ah! Me Paenitemus! [My apologies!] I was hunting and I mistook your friend for an eagle.”

A man with the same color as our eyes, hair in hues of beige with a playful and provoking smirk on his lips stood in front of us. In his hands are a pair of bows and arrows, and he literally looks like a skilled archer. I clenched my hand in pure hatred and disgust. He must be kidding. How can he mistake him for an eagle? 

“I can see your archer skills are getting old, Lucius.”

So he knows him. Giovanni walked over to him in a slow manner. Fire in his eyes, venom in his voice.

“You know better than anyone that my eyes are sharper than any arrows there are.”

Their words sounded so simple yet you can feel that every bit of it has a deep-rooted feeling that only each of them can understand. The next thing that happened escaped my eyes so quickly. All of a sudden, Lucius is already pinned in the tree behind him, with Giovanni’s hand encircled on his neck. He did that in a second, with that distance.

“Sharper than my fangs?” It looks like Lucius was also shocked by his extraordinary speed but it was quickly replaced by his teasing smirk. Though it made him really speechless and out of words.

“You wouldn’t want to do that, dear Giovanni.”

Another voice from a woman coming from our behind.

“Everleigh…”

In just a second, a red-haired lady caught Everleigh’s neck with a small knife. Like Lucius, it’s wearing a wide, provoking grin that will drive anyone crazy by just looking.

“Release him, Giovanni. Or I’ll make your little sister scream in pain.”

Giovanni stopped but he didn’t move. It seems like he’s still calculating what to do next. Though calm, you can easily feel the thunderous rage he’s been keeping. In a swift move, he changed his position with Lucius, holding him in the neck with a small sword. Now, they're facing each other with the same intensity with their eyes.

And it only says one thing; to kill.

“Long time, no see.” Her fangs are lethal, and her voice is unexplainably spine-chilling.   

“Missed me?” And Giovanni is here to play.

“Not really.” Slowly, she made a slit along Everleigh’s throat, making the latter scream in pain. “But I did miss your sister…”

“Everleigh!”

Giovanni lost his focus and Lucius did not waste the time to release himself and knocked Giovanni down. But he quickly regained his composure and the next I saw are all preludes of fangs, nails, and blood.

My head is haywire. Hands trembling from the overflowing rage. I feel like going crazy watching over Thaddaeus beside me, lying down and unconscious with only a minute for the poison to circulate all over his body. Giovanni with his own battle and Everleigh is held hostage by an insane woman. Obviously, they have some deep-rooted thing going on with Giovanni but to show up in nowhere and just hurt my friends who have nothing to do with that is really infuriating.

“Luna.”

I think I heard Giovanni call my name before I go crazy and really lost it. I clutched the arrow, flew mid-way, jumped landing on the woman’s behind, and stabbed her in the eye, tasting their own medicine and poison.

“Lucinda!” Lucius' voice thundered and Giovanni took advantage of his shock to knock him down and lose consciousness.

Lucinda shouted in great pain and rolled over to the ground but my eyes stayed dead and soulless, not showing any remorse. Yet I’m still not satisfied. I went on top of her and held her chin for her to look at me.

“You messed with the wrong family.”

I saw her face turn horrified after she saw my face and I don’t think it was because of what I said. Her hands are trembling and so are her lips.

“Tu es…” [“You are…”]

Before she can even finish what she is saying, a strong force threw me away from her. I screamed aloud when I hit the ground so hard. I even felt some of my bones cracking and my eyes became sleepy all of a sudden.

“That is enough, children.”

My vision is blurry, but I can still see a bit of the man standing in front of us. His voice sounds like a growl like it came from six deep in the ground. In his arms are the unconscious bodies of both Lucinda and Lucius.

Giovanni, on the other hand, held me in his arms once again. I also saw Everleigh tend to Thaddaeus.

“Better hide them well,” He said with coldness yet warmth went all over my ears. “We’ll get back to you some other time.”

“Agnosco consilium, mi Giovanni” [I appreciate the advice, dear Giovanni.]

He is talking to Giovanni but his eyes remained on me.

“Scimus melius quam pulmentum cum Lycan Vampress.”

———————————————

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The Characters and Events mentioned in this book are purely fictional and are not to be construed as even remotely inspired by persons and events known and unknown to the author.