His Queen

22. Wishes and Desires

A snicker was heard from beside me, it was another guard who seemed to be amused by the encounter. I recognized him as Anthony; I wasn't familiar with the ranks of the royal guards but I knew he was one of the main ones who was always with the king. He ended up receiving a glare from the soldier in front of me, "Something funny, Anthony?"

"As of now, no. But your reaction to the king's reaction to your reaction to Aliya would be a thrill to watch," Anthony said, and I noticed he called me by my name and not by some human, like the rest of the vampires tend to do.

His tongue twisted words somehow managed to make perfect sense, so I turned back to the rude person in front of me and said, "I'm sure he's actually on his way right now, seeing as we made it back to the castle together."

Astounded, this time he was the one who took a step back, away from me. Fear shot in his eyes as he tried his hardest to hide it from me and looked over to the other men, "let's go, boys."

"Leaving so soon? It's rude to leave a conversation hanging," I knew I was testing my luck, but I didn't seem to care.

I was sick and tired of being tossed around by everyone.

Anthony came to my side, "yes, let us wait for the king to join us, at least?"

"I am sure he would be delighted to see you cowardly picking on someone half your size," I added.

There was a fire inside me which was growing by the second, lighted by the king himself at the restaurant. It was getting out of my control, I could almost feel it burning at the tip of my tongue, forcing the words out.

But before I could get speak another word, the soldier and his two buddies turned back and disappeared down the hall.

Using Damien's name appeared to be the deadliest of weapons around here. Nobody wanted to get on his rough side; and honestly, what was stopping me from using that to my advantage? Even if I didn't have any powers of my own, being associated with the vampire king put me in a far superior position than I realized.

He didn't bow down to anyone.

Yes Aliya, because he is the freaking king, I told myself.

But I was the queen of my own destiny; me coming to terms with that was long overdue. It was time when I started to act like it. I couldn't always depend on others to protect me, and frankly I did not want anyone's protection.

I survived years worth of torture and neglect on my own, and I was capable of surviving so much more.

"Thank you," I smiled at Anthony, for having my back even though we barely knew each other.

I started to make my way towards my destination but then I noticed him following my actions.

"May I walk you back to the king's tower?" he asked me.

Surprised by his kind gesture and politeness, I nodded. Damien must have gotten busy with something, which would be the only explanation as to why he did not follow me into the castle.

"Sorry about Louise, he can be somewhat of a..."

"Bully?" I asked.