The Blood Prince's Curiosity

Prologue

                  Roaring fires engulfed the Ludvikas Estate as its residents' shrieks pierced through the night air. One after another, the sound of bodies dropping to the ground could be heard from beyond Nicolae's chamber and the hysterical cries were silencing to an eerie stillness. Gray clouds of smoke was beginning to fill every room, the inferno clawing its way to the second floor and spreading from one room to another.

                   Fear gripped the small child, anchoring him under his bed in a fetal position with his hands on his blond scalp. The sound of sharp metal slicing through flesh was ringing through his ears. His keen senses giving away at the terror behind his door. He could picture it in his mind. All his servants and brothers and sisters may have already fallen to the assailants' blade.

                  Nicolae couldn't move, he couldn't think, couldn't acknowledge the danger he was in staying in his smoke-filled room. The only words that kept replaying in his mind were pleads of mercy for his own life. Tears had streamed down his closed eyes, streaking his pale cheeks with gray lines.

                  Then, a small click resounded from the door that barricaded him from the danger that awaited him from the outside. His bright amber eyes cracked open, seeing nothing, but the dense gray that enveloped his small form. Please .... Please, don't find me, his breathing hitched in his throat and he quickly placed both of his tiny hands on his mouth. His sobs threatening to break through his thin fingers.

                  A towering figure stood over the canopy bed, its crimson eyes in a frantic search for the boy's presence. A low growl emanated from its chest as it released a dark aura that spread throughout the room in a dense fog, overpowering the smoke and pushing it out with an overwhelming force. Nicolae felt the familiar aura as he heard his windows shatter with the smoke being forcibly expelled from his room.

                 "Nicolae!" its voice rung out, the panic dripping in its tone. Relief came flooding in the boy's chest and he scrambled out from underneath his bed sobbing. The apprehension diminishing for only a slight moment from his lungs.

                "Father!" he cried, lunging himself into the imposing figure covered in soot and gashes. Dragomir was almost in tears seeing his youngest safe in his arms, but his heart was too heavy with the chaos surrounding them. This was the doing of Zemphire. Gritting his teeth, he snatched his son off the wooden floor and flew out to the corridor.

                  "Close your eyes, my boy, this will be over soon," he whispered to the trembling child in his arms. Nicolae obeyed his father's command, nuzzling his head into the crook of his neck with his eyes tightly shut. His tears falling onto Dragomir's pale soot-covered skin. Good, he praised his son's obedience for what laid behind them were blood splattered bodies that were torn and mutilated from beyond recognition of its original form.

                    Servants and cloaked men littered the carpeted corridor caked in blood and entrails. He managed to kill each and every one of the assailants that invaded his home. Managed to rescue all his children before they shared the same fate as their servants. However, his wife ....

                   Rage boiled inside of Dragomir, but he had to control his wrath for the sake of his kin. Breaking through a glass balcony, he leapt down from the second story, landing gracefully on the grassy floor of the courtyard. The cool night air whipped against his tattered dress shirt, freeing the toxic clouds from his lungs and allowing the oxygen to return to him. He'd endured Zemphire's past transgressions against him because he refused to fight the 'war' that he started with the human race.

                  It wasn't 'war' that he truly wanted though; it was the complete eradication of them which was spurred from the anger of his own kin's death from a mortal. Dragomir couldn't blame the Elfin King for his hatred, but what he did to his family, his servants, his estate, it was unforgivable. He was never fond of the mortal beings that shared the land he stood on; however, he wanted revenge.

                  His wife perished before his own eyes from cloaked puppets that Zemphire sent to do his bidding while he watched from afar in the comfort of his own palace. What he did today, it was a grave mistake on his end. A very grave mistake.

                   Dragomir was the King of Mardelle, a neighboring country that was half the size of the continent of Rosavall, which was split into four territories and ruled over by four monarchs. His estate, now burnt to its skeleton, resided in the water territory of Rosavall, Akaris. If I expected a house fire at this scale, it'd be in my estate at Ignitus, he thought bitterly.

                  He had business here with the royal family at the city capital about the trade with manufactured products coming from his country. The days he spent in Akaris with his family were uneventful at most, despite being amidst a war. He was far too lenient for being a vampire at his caliber to not expect a threat such as this one to occur.

                    "I just didn't think he'd have the balls to do it," Dragomir hissed, coming to a halt as a carriage pulled over at his side. The royalty entered it quickly with his son still cradled in his arms. Nicolae had fallen asleep by the time they both were inside the carriage. The coachman cracked the reins upon the horses as the remainder of the royal family settled in. Most of his children had fled already on a different carriage to the closest port city on the south.

                     If Zemphire wanted war, then he's got it coming. The vampire king scowled, he didn't like the thought of working with humans, but this was for the death of Sorina, his beloved. He was going to make sure that he died a painful death by his hands, tearing him limb from limb, until all that's left of him are shredded entrails.

                      As he stroked the soot-stained face of his son, a warm stream of tears had begun to swim in his vision, sliding down his cheeks, and falling lightly on Nicolae's ash smeared nightshirt. For now, he needed to be with his children. Safety is their first priority and as of today, they will never be brought on this sinful land again.