Should Have Walked Away | Aarmau Vampire AU

𝔱 𝔴 𝔢 𝔫 𝔱 𝔶

Past the door was a long table with tall chairs that sat the royal family, high advisers and guards, and a few business owners.

Guards lined the walls in their blinding silver armor and I found that a skylight in the ceiling was blacked out. Our source of light was solely torching on the walls and candles on the table.

There was no conversation, no noise at all as I entered and the guard guided us to two seats close to the King. Everyone stood in welcome except for Melissa.

His Highness sat opposite me with Aaron's mother, and Aaron to my left with his sister swinging her legs in the high chair at the end of the table. She had the teddy bear I remembered in her lap, but her dress was clean with the kingdom's colors.

She waved, smiling up at me to which I waved back. Her mother clearly held back from hiding her daughter away from me.

In slow movements, I took my cloak off in a sign of surrender.

I laid the coat on the back of the chair, sitting with everyone when they moved in unison.

"First of all, I would like to apologize to Aphmau here for the encounter in the sunlight."

Simply shrugging, I crossed my shins under the table, "Nothing to apologize for, I would have done the same in your position. You were only looking out for your people," I added with a small smile.

His shoulders eased in the very slightest so that I barely caught it. "Well, now that that has been said. We would like to know more about you if you'll be staying."

There was an unspoken threat in the words, but not in the way he spoke.

Just as I'd done before, I explained pieces of my life story. Growing up in harsh conditions, leaving home early, and I even explained what happened when I was ten after a moment of hesitation.

"That will never happen again, though," I quickly explained, "I swore I would never hurt anyone like that anew for as long as I live."

The King nodded, and everyone at the table seemed enraptured by our conversation. In the beginning, I'd tried to speak to everyone as a whole but gave up when the royal family was the only ones to make any movement or confirmation that I was heard.

"What about your skills?"

I chose my words carefully. "As I said, I'm self-taught. I was trained for only three years in my hometown before I left, but even young I knew surviving alone in the wilderness would be difficult without being able to defend myself.

"I've traveled around most of Ru'an and I've picked up different techniques from different places, but I also use my own ways to mix it up. You might have seen some of that last week," my neck warmed and I hated that everyone could see. I was embarrassed that everyone had seen me kill.

"You said you'd never kill," the secondhand general piped up. He was a tall, built man, with black hair to match his eyes and cocoa-stained skin. By my estimate and his thick accent, he was from a lower region of Tu'la or an island off the coast of Enki. "Yet, you killed that man and woman."

I shook my head sadly. "They weren't people, not anymore. They were hybrids and once you're turned that way, there's no going back. Their lives before becoming like that were disgraced and dishonored the longer they lived that way — if you want to call that living.