Sapphire Princess

I

HOPE

Four days. It's been four days since I was forced from the palace. Four days since I had to leave my entire life and future behind. Only four days have passed and it feels like a lifetime.

The abandoned Appleton household has started to grow lonely. If not for the blood supply they kept in the basement, I would've had to leave to feed. Luckily, this has turned out to be the perfect hideout.

The TVs installed still work and I've left them turned on, waiting to hear any announcements from the royal family. None have come and I am extremely grateful. Maybe Alexander has decided to keep what happened to himself. I have no doubt that eventually he'll be forced to admit what happened to his bride. I can only hope this will all be fixed before that day comes.

Despite knowing that our connection has been severed, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't tried to reach the prince. Each day that passes, I become angrier and more desperate. How could he think that I would ever be capable of any of this? If anything, he's the guilty one here. He cast me away without giving me a second of his time to explain the truth. Even if he did come back, he would have to grovel. After everything that's happened, I won't go running back so easily.

Starting my fourth day alone, I wonder the now familiar house to turn on each TV. The normal city news plays, still no word of a royal announcement. Once the televised voices fill the otherwise empty building, I make my way towards the bedroom I have discovered.

At first, I wasn't sure it belonged to John. However, two days ago, I found a small journal tucked under the mattress. The pages are old and yellowed, the handwriting faded. But there was no missing the name engraved into the leather cover. Jonathan Casper. The man who took everything from me.

Sitting on the dusty bed, I ignore the mess of the room. Between the palace guards who ransacked the house the first time and the second round I completed, the whole place is turned upside down. Instead, I focus on the words contained in these pages.

John has been alive much longer than I originally thought. Hundreds of years he's had to explore the world, and yet he still came back to destroy my life. It sends shivers to my body to think about how old he really was when he met my mom. Creep.

I can't help but let my mind wonder back to the palace. What could be happening right now? I wonder if Eli believes Alexander's story or if he knows something must be wrong. He has to know- Eli and I are close enough that he should trust I'd never do that. Then again, I had thought the same of Alexander. And how wrong I was about that.

I'm ripped from my thoughts when a sound blares across the TVs in the house, signaling the beginning of a royal announcement. Racing to the living room, I stand in front of the screen and wait anxiously.

My heart skips a beat when I see Alexander step onto the stage in front of the palace. Despite everything that has happened, my body still yearns for him in some creepy supernatural way.

He looks tired, that much is obvious. Despite being a vampire, he still has bags under his eyes and he walks more slouched than usual. Eli stands to his right and Robert to his left. The younger brother has lost any trace of his usual, carefree self. He stands straight up, face solemn. I've never seen him like this before.

Robert, on the other hand, just looks sad. All of this makes me question what story Alexander has concocted about me. I guess I'm about to find out.

When my fiance, if I can still call him that, steps up to the podium, his voice sends shivers down my spine. Even though his appearance may be off putting, his voice is not. It demands attention and radiates power.