Prince Darrius

Chapter 60

"For the thousandth time," Darrius growls, "What happened to you?"

"I was enlightened," Johnathan says with a cold smile, laughing.

"What happened here?" I ask, stepping forward – coming towards Darrius. Johnathan's eyes snap to mine and he starts snarling uncontrollably.

"Let me go!" He screams at the King, yanking on his chains, "She needs to die – her blood is the death of all supernatural creatures!"

"He has been out of his mind since we found him," Darrius tells me, putting an arm around my waist.

"Someone fetch Jaime and Rafael," The King orders, "We need to get to the bottom of what my son is saying."

"Let me go! She must die," Johnathan is staring straight at me – eyes alight with fury. All traces of the gentle vampire I once knew are all gone.

"Where is Claudia?" I ask him point-blank. Hoping he gets some sense into him when I say her name.

"Claudia is dead to me."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I ask, hurt.

"Eddrick has changed him, we need to change him back," Darrius explains.

"How did you find him?" I ask both Darrius and the King.

"It wasn't hard finding him massacring humans in the middle of the city, body parts being found strewn over the streets" The King explains, and I can hear the confusion and shock in his tone as he says this, "Johnathan has lost control of his blood lust. We don't know why."

"But where is Claudia?" I ask once more.

"We don't know," Darrius holds me tighter, "No one knows what is going on."

At that moment Jaime and Rafael enter the main hall, heading straight for the king.

Jaime and Rafael break through the crowd and come to a stop when they see Johnathan chained down to the chair.

"Your highness," Rafael greets the King, "What do you need from my slave? What happened here?"

"She is my queen now!" Johnathan states, his eyes focusing on Jaime, "You are my queen – my saviour!"

"What the heck?" Jaime mutters, looking from Rafael to the King, "I swear I have no idea what's going on."

"I know what's going on!" Everyone turns to see the girl standing at the entrance, perfectly intact and alive.

Claudia!

"Where have you been?" Leah growls at Claudia.

"I escaped and it took me awhile to find my way back," Claudia comes forward. All the vampires look on with suspicion.

"Maybe you would care to explain then," the King asks, giving her an odd look as she walks through the crowd. I grin at Darrius, only to see him also staring at her with an odd expression on his face.

"We were both kidnapped by Eddrick," Claudia says, coming up to the King and steering clear of Johnathan, "The undead witch both forced us to drink two different potions of blood. Hers," Claudia points at Jaime, and then looks at me, "And Jennifer's blood."

I smile at Claudia and she also smiles back at me.

"Go on," The King says slowly. The room is tense now – all the vampires look confused. I'm not sure why, Claudia seemed the exact same to me.

What was the problem?

"Jaime's blood, mixed with Eddrick's, turned my boyfriend into a monster – he won't be able to resist the call of bloodlust," Claudia looks at Johnathan but he just stares back at her with cold eyes, "He is programmed to follow the one that made him like this – Jaime."

"How do you know all this?" The King asks.

"We turned at the same time, and I overhead everything Eddrick said as he welcomes Johnathan back to life. I escaped while he was feeding Johnathan human sacrifices he had lined up. He forgot about me while obsessing over Johnathan and I escaped," Claudia goes a bit quiet, "Barely..."

"Where did he take you?" I ask, curious, "Why weren't you turned into a crazy monster?"

"He took us to the middle of nowhere in the Evergreen Forest," Claudia suddenly can't hold back the tears, and she starts to cry, "I was... I was powerless to save him, I'm sorry –"

"Don't apologise," Darrius growls, walking up to her and embracing her in a tight hug.

Claudia lets him hug her, but he oddly sniffs her hair and then holds her back at arms length, staring at her with wide eyes.

"Impossible," Darrius mutters.

"You can thank Jennifer's blood mixed with Eddrick's for that," Claudia says with a smile, wiping away her tears.

"What's impossible?" I ask. All the vampires were in on it by the look of awe and bewilderment on their faces. The King shakes his head in disbelief.

Claudia walks away from Darrius and up to me, wrapping me in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Jennifer," she whispers in my ear, "Your blood works as a miracle."

It finally sinks in as I see her smile at me once more.

Close up.

Claudia's fangs were gone.

"You're... human."

END OF PART 1

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