The more I slowly backed away from Chris, the more annoyed he became.
I was beginning to think of running past him and sliding back into the ballroom, I had literally planned my getaway from this situation in my mind until I realised...
Running wouldn't help.
I learnt that in Icilia.
Running only made vampires angrier. Especially the hungry ones.
I tend to forget that.
I used to always forget in Icilia and that just made me an easier target.
When in a situation like this, you just have to take the pain, let it seem like you aren't scared at all and are used to the feeling of agony.
Personally, unless it was Fredrick, the more a vampire would bite and drink from me back in Icilia, the more it became quite pleasurable and the more willing I was when a vampire wanted to drink from me.
Well, that's just me but I feel like my blood does something to make it satisfying to be drunk from because others would definitely say different.
It was known. No human liked the pain, no human or slave would ever live for long especially surrounded by more than one vampire, yet, here I am.
Living.
Breathing.
Still human.
On that thought, when Chris' eyes had gone into a complete velvet red ocean, I stopped backing up and instead followed my instinct to move towards him instead of running.
Chris stole his opportunity to tightly grasp onto my waist until it hurt so bad that I was certain there would be red marking.
At the same time, his fangs lengthened in front of my eyes as I lifted my hand and placed it behind his head in order to bring him down to my neck.
Chris was surprised but impressed by the fearless action, I saw it through the devilish smirk that had grown on his face.
"So I guess this is permission for me to hurt you," Chris attractively mumbled, letting his breath hit my neck whilst his nose brushed against my skin.
Due to the nose brushing, I felt my skin start to feel tingly.
I didn't allow myself to tremble or show hesitation in my voice when I replied in a whisper into his ear, "I guess it is... But... Only if you help me with something after this bite."
I wasn't letting him taste my blood without doing me a favour in exchange.
A favour such as introducing me to Richard Harris and showing me to his room so I could find clues leading to who murdered my parents and burnt down my village.
Chris didn't take a second to respond, "I'd be happy to help with anything, my love."
My love?
Before I could think through his choice of addressing me, the pain struck me like an arrow hitting the bullseye in archery.
It was almost like the intensity of it all had been injected into my bloodstream.
If the pain had a name, it would be Bitch.
Chris was surprisingly gentle, however, at the same time brutal.
The gentle part was the fact his arms were wrapped around my small but curved waist, keeping me secure and locked against his front.
The brutal bit was the tearing of my neck, the burning and torturous ache which was spreading throughout my entire body because of his thirst.
But... something was slow about the way Chris was drinking from me, it was like he was struggling to swallow my blood quickly.
And Chris was also groaning and hissing ever so quietly as the blood rolled down his throat.
It was like my blood was acid burning him but it was similar to a drug, so addicting he couldn't stop.
"Hurts so bad, but tastes so good..." Chris enthused, taking a break for a moment to allow my blood to drip from his mouth and back onto my skin where it then trickled down my skin.
I stood there, faint but also yearning for more pain to rush through me once again.
"Your blood is extraordinary, it makes you ten times sexier," Chris brought one of his hand to hold my chin and tilt it up so he could stare darkly into my eyes.
I watched him in anticipation, waiting to see what his next move would be and also hoping that no one would walk out of the ballroom to see this all taking place.
"Do you want to kiss me?" I asked, my voice so quiet even I could barely hear it myself.
What was I saying anyway? Why do I feel compelled to kiss him right now?
Why am I having dirty thoughts?
"So bad," Chris' mouth was practically a wet red canvas as he bit his bottom lip and lustfully stared from my eyes to my lips.
I was getting so impatient waiting for the contact, "then do it, kiss me... I want you to-"
Suddenly a group of elderly voices cut me off and I snapped out of my trance, jumping away for Chris in a heartbeat.
"Uhm- I-... I think I- I got caught up in the moment, you should probably wipe your mouth, people are beginning to suspect..." I stuttered and then pointed at Chris' face whilst trying not to blush my ass off.
Meanwhile, Chris was in paradise, he was grinning in amusement but took my words in consideration and began wiping his mouth.
He then rolled up his tailcoat sleeve, bit into his arm and shoved it into my mouth where I automatically drank his blood to heal.
It was satisfying.
"Seriously we should finish this some other time, preferably in my bedroom." Chris flirtatiously winked as I stopped sucking on his wrist.
Keeping my cool, I disgustedly coughed out, "preferably never."
Brushing past Chris, I turned around after being a good five steps away from him.
"By the way, you owe me one. I want you to introduce me to Richard Harris now and show me to his guest room. P.S don't ask why just do it."
Chris shrugged, "like I said, anything for you-"
"-DON'T EVEN call me your "love", it is too intimate," I shook in a way to give off that I was cringing bad.
"Suit yourself, little girl."
Hell Nah, I am not even little, I am nearly as tall as him.
Just a tiny bit shorter.
"Nevermind, I prefer the other one," I crossed my arms and puffed out a breath.
"Thought you would love," Chris said in a cool manner before it was his turn to brush past me and walk back into the ballroom.
Meanwhile...
[9:15 pm]
Cathryn's POV~
Holding onto my wine glass of a mixture of alcohol and blood, I rolled my eyes in annoyance as I followed both my brothers Zac and Xander to go greet Richard Harris, the man my father had been great friends with for many many years.
Richard was the ultimate man. Besides my family and I, you could say he was the richest man with the wealthiest family in Asten.
He had the best job that my father could give someone in our big world, the King my dad had given Richard Harris control over what news was shared with the rest of the world.
AND...
Control over who would become a fighter.
Okay, so I'm going to explain much better than that.
There are fighters and there are guards. There are some guards who are both like Alaric, Derek and Roger and some who are just normal castle doorman guards like Thomas.
Richard is the best swordsman who has ever lived says many so he was in charge of who fought for Asten.
Believe it or not but other kingdoms existed excluding ours and that meant we had people who wanted to try to take Asten away from us since it was the biggest.
But the sad bit is, we are so powerful no one ever succeeds when going against us.
Richard trains and picks from thousands of aspiring young and old males who has the strength and right minds to be fighters.
With help of course.
It was always an insult to a man, not to be classed as a fighter or breadwinner.
Both my brothers were fighters and so were all their friends, so they had access to all kinds of resources and could kill anyone they thought was a threat to us or Asten.
Our last war my father says was the one between vampires, witches and every other inhuman thing in the seven realms I knew existed.
He said the vampires won, which is why only one witch stands and why vampires have full control over everything currently.
The only witches I know who live beside the black witch are the ones in the kingdom far from us, a realm called Hellstone.
A realm I'd never think of ever visiting, royalty or not.
"My greetings, Prince Zac, Princess Cathryn and my favourite fighter Xander," Richard bowed his head, picking my hand up to lay a kiss upon it.
I tightly smiled at him like I genuinely wanted to be here right now, interacting with him.
"Greetings to you too, Ser Harris... And who is the lady?" Xander charmingly responded for both me and Zac who just wanted to get back to the fun and drink till we couldn't think straight.
Don't get me wrong, it was always a pleasure to speak to Richard but not right now.
Beside Richard stood a tall, tan lady with dark hair, an hourglass figure and who wore a red skintight dress which was absolutely jaw-dropping.
She was gorgeous.
"This is my wife Maria, you have never had the chance to meet her," Ser Harris motioned to his wife with the proudest smile I had ever seen.
Zac and Xander were clearly taken aback by Maria's appearance because they had to immediately compose themselves when she opened her arms to embrace each of us in her arms.
"An honour to meet you all, finally. Richard was right, you are three of the most attractive siblings I've ever seen. By the way, your highness, that dance with the human girl blew me away," The kind lady made a good impression of herself with a not too posh accent.
Zac sent her a small smile and before he could reply, Richard spoke straight after. "Yes the human girl, she is something. I didn't think you were as good a dancer as you are a fighter."
"Well, I just love surprising people. The human has a name. Natalya Ascelyn. I guess she's your favourite in the competition huh," Zac said with a humorous tone laced in his voice.
I smiled at this.
Maria nodded instantly, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.
"I admit she is my favourite followed by the blonde, Rose Clarke. I don't think Richard will admit it since he just seems to despise humans that much but, Natalya is definitely his favourite..." Maria rolled her eyes when Richard shook his head and hands at the same time.
"No no no, the other brunette is the true winner in my eyes, the human girl... she is just too perfect," Richard bit his lip thinking hard for a long while.
I couldn't let him put weird ideas in Zac's head, I'm like Natalya's number one supporter so this ain't happening on my watch.
"Well your wife is too perfect, yet she is still your wife, very hypocritical don't you think?" I sipped on my bloody wine with a slightly amused and slightly pissed off smirk.
Xander then backed me up by defending Natalya too, "Richard, as the "human girl's" mentor, I think you need to meet the girl to understand why my brother has taken a liking to her."
"Speaking of the human girl, I think Chris may have taken a bite too early, the girl looks pale and she's coming this way," Richard nodded his head between our heads and we all turned to see Chris approaching with Natalya.
Chris slid past the three of us in an unusually good mood, yep, he definitely drank from Natalya.
"Don't mind me, the girl insisted on meeting the Richard Harris..." Chris pulled Natalya in front of Richard and his wife plastering a smirk of accomplishment on his incredibly sexy face.
Back to Natalya's POV~
As soon as I was pulled in front of the Richard Harris which Lord Hilbert told me to look upon earlier, Chris was dragged somewhere else both by Xander and Zac.
I don't know why he was taken away so sudden, was he in trouble?
I mean Zac didn't look very happy when we got here and now I think about it, Xander looked annoyed too.
Meanwhile, Cathryn rubbed my shoulder before going her own way.
"Heyyy... I am a big fan... " I drawled out, trying not to seem too awkward.
Richard was a bearded man with brown hair which was pretty long so had to be tied back into a not-too-tight but small man bun.
His eyes were a clear, chestnutty hazel. They were so bright and pretty like if I could picture the perfect werewolf he was it, I forgot what war it was where many werewolves were killed that my parents once told me about, but besides the lack of werewolf population, I could seriously mistake Richard for one.
Mmm, it's almost uncanny how much of a perfect wolf he would make.
Squinting my eyes briefly, I started to overthink what the name of the war in which most of those troublemaking wolves were slaughtered could' ve possibly been.
"Natalya Ascelyn, wow, close up you look very familiar. Have we met before?" Richard questioned as he leant closer down to my face and observed.
Now I think about it, I did think Richard's name was familiar when Lord Hilbert mentioned it to me.
I forgot where it was that I had seen him before, "I don't recall ever meeting you before, maybe we crossed paths but never thought much of it..."
"Yeah that must be the case, usually I would remember a face like yours..." Richard scratched his chin and shrugged.
The lady in red beside him, well the gorgeous lady in red decided to join the conversation, "I know you!!" The lady clapped her hands in realisation.
"We met you, one time, at Lord and Lady Redwell's house. You were hanging around with one of their sons. Was it Fredrick or the other-"
Wait wait wait.
Harrison?
How could I forget!!!!
I KNEW THEM ALREADY!
He was the father of a girl who practically broke me one time, Anastasia Harris.
The girl on my list of people I want to but can't destroy. Even though I have already wiped Lord McLaren and Jamie Hayes off that list. (A/N: List from chapter three]
Oh my God, yes I remember now!
It was one of the many times I went and visited Harrison at his place even though I knew the consequences of Fredrick being around.
I remember being shocked when Richard and Maria told me they had a daughter named Anastasia who they had fortunately not brought with them that day and had left back in Weimos.
Anastasia-White Harris, the whore who beat me up constantly until she moved to Weimos with her PARENTS!!
Gosh, I would never forgive that girl, I hated her and always will. She abused me all the time and the fact she had all the riches meant she could get away with anything.
Plus, I am a human and she is a vampire. She would always get away with anything anyway.
The human was always wrong, people would say every time.
Most humans were slaves to vampires in this world, I was lucky that I wasn't. I had never heard or seen a really rich human before, it was not normal for a wealthy human to exist.
Life wasn't fair.
I see why Kace Titan, Aeliana and the rest of the twelve wanted to restore Asten back into its old self, where all was equal and the world didn't favour vampires.
Kace, Aeliana and the twelve wanted to merge back all the kingdoms into one like it used to be. Asten used to be the realm for everyone but all the wars made it so that it was just the realm for vampires.
"It was Harrison, but yeah it is coming back to me. You are Maria Harris and of course Richard Harris, I know you. Yeah, I know your daughter Anastasia too." I replied with a fake smile that was once genuine.
I don't think the two could tell my fake smile from my genuine one.
"I knew I had seen you before, well done for making it this far, this is an accomplishment of its own. And you are almost as good as my wife at dancing, almost because no one beats my wife at dancing..." Richard laughed and fixated his arm around Maria before kissing her on the cheek.
Maria happily smiled down at me, "Anastasia is here somewhere, I am sure she would love to talk to you about being a girl competing in IMPRESS."
"Yeah, we will most likely bump into each other one way or another, nice to meet you again and I hope to catch up with you another time but right now, I have to get back to my guides," I pointed over my shoulder with an innocent and apologetic smile on my face.
Richard shook his head and smiled politely, "no worries, we don't want to keep you from having fun, it was good speaking to you again, Lady Ascelyn. Vampire or not, I think you may be the one Zac needs beside him whilst he rules,"
After receiving a wink of luck from Ser Harris and hugging Maria Harris, I spun around to go look for the troublemaker boy that was Chris.
Shimmying my way through all the bodies of the crazy drunks, wild youngsters, talkative adults, slow elderlies, jealous girls and perverted boys, I peered every direction until I found Chris with his hand raised at me, at the entrance of the ballroom.
The hand he had raised slowly went down to his mouth, where he then put just his index finger against his lips and arched his eyebrow towards Zac and Xander who were having a nice time talking to a really pretty red-head.
He was silently telling me not to make it obvious that I was leaving the celebration to go somewhere alone with him.
Clearly, Zac and Xander had a short serious chat with him about messing with "Alaric's little sister."
I appreciate that they care about Alaric but can they stop worrying about me all the time. I can handle boys like Chris, Xavier, Dario, Terrence, Aaron and Douglas.
Believe it or not, I have been through a lot so I have thick skin.
It is impossible to break me completely anymore, I have already been broken too many times, I have been left empty multiple times that the feeling is not foreign.
Fast walking without drawing attention to myself, I groaned when my path towards Chris was blocked by Ella unexpectedly.
"Natalya, I seriously need to speak to you," Ella said pretty urgently but I was more focused on getting my mission over and done with.
I had to be quick to go check if Richard had any documents connected to my parents' death in his guest room before he and his wife decide to have an early night.
"Errrrm, I'm in a rush right now Ella. Can we talk tomorrow morning, my room?" I made eye contact with Chris over Ella's shoulder, letting him know I wouldn't be long.
Ella sighed crossing her arms unhappily, "fine, okay. I guess you have someone else more important than your own blood waiting for you."
Rolling my eyes, "Ell, you know that isn't true... You know that thing I told you the other time when you were worried that I was trying to steal your dream, well I need to go sort something out with Alaric about it." I lied.
She seemed to fall for the lie because her mouth morphed into an O and she nodded her head instantly, "oh yeah sorry, that is understandable. Be careful, I'll speak to you tomorrow."
Ella gave me a hug before dancing her way back to her mentors and friends.
I wonder if Aunt Roslin, Todd and Marcus will come watch Ella in one of the stages?
***
"Thanks for this Chris, as if you have the key to every guest room in the castle..." I was very surprised and thankful that he could easily get me access to Richard Harris' room.
Chris laughed, "well being a torturer has its advantages. Please don't get caught and PLEASE lock the door from the inside once you are in."
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Trust me."
I went in to hug Chris and he stopped me, "I don't think we should touch each other, Zac and Xander were not happy when they noticed you were looking pale after being alone with me. They told me to "restrain" myself."
"Well, they aren't wrong," I stated light-heartedly with a pout.
Chris' eyes glimpsed when he was staring at me chuckling and although I noticed it, I didn't call him out.
"I'll catch up with you later, Ascelyn."
Whilst Chris walked away, I didn't wait and watch him leave instead I acted fast and entered the guest room Ser Harris was staying in.
After locking the door, I scanned the room and just as I thought, there was a desk filled with important papers and cases packed with even more papers.
Where to start?
Biting my lip, I decided to start with papers on the desk. I don't know why but I was a little anxious, what if I didn't find anything connected to my parents?
I didn't have much time to find the person or people responsible, what if I died in one of the event stages. Which is unlikely but still...
The competition is only getting harder.
My eyes wandered over the sheets of paper titled with different events in Asten.
Beginning Of A New Era.
The IMPRESS event.
Slavery Case. x4
Poison Problem In Agriassi.
Burning Poverty.
My eyebrows raised at the last article and notes which had some red ribbon pinned onto them. That sounds familiar to the village fire in my home village Icilia, where only the poor side suffered.
I picked up the papers, folded them up and slipped them into my bra.
Crouching down, I searched through a pile of pointless files that I had no interest in and some that sounded both very depressing and intriguing.
New Slaves Wanted.
Law Creation.
Over-Population Of Humans.
Uhm, that's worrying. I am getting a bad feeling that every other human in Asten but me, is suffering. And the fact Richard Harris has all these articles and notes on recent events is making me nauseous.
I feel like I should do something soon, something that could possibly end human slavery. Although, I know that might be impossible, I just want to see if the humans being bought as slaves are being taken care of.
I have never had to go through that experience and I am very thankful.
There was a time my family and I were so poor and that was when Alaric decided to take up his job here and if it wasn't for him and his income, I could have been asked and taken to be a slave seeing as my parents wouldn't have been able to pay taxes.
I owe Alaric my life, my brother took one for the team.
Life is hard being human.
Even some vampires are victims of slavery, only the very unfortunate ones with no high roles in this society.
I decided to take and fold up the New Slaves Wanted article, maybe I could pay a visit to these slave owners and this auction. Maybe even, burn it to pieces?
That sounds tempting.
Flicking through the last pile sat on the floor beside Ser Harris' briefcase, I found an entire file with the name Isabelle written on the label stuck to it.
Wait.
Isabelle was my mother's name, yes! This is the file I am looking for!!!!! This could lead me straight to the bitch or prick who killed my parents, some loved ones in my village and our homes.
As I picked the file up, behind me I heard the door handle to the room begin to rattle. My heart almost dropped and I began to panic.
Holy Cowww.
Shit.
Shit.
I really should have thought this through.
Where can I hide?
I don't even have enough time.
If Richard Harris catches me in here, I would be in deep trouble.
Punishable by death kind of trouble.
Chris told me Richard was good friends with the King too.
What am I going to do- What can I-
I- I don't-
I am screwed...
Just before I could even think and move to where it was possible to hide...
the door opened.
Fuck.
My.
Life.
My body froze... everything within me, ice cold. It was as if I was numb all over, like the world around me was still moving but I couldn't keep up with it.
Like I hadn't just been here, snooping around.
It felt like I was nothing.
A statue or just a bunch of particles floating in the air.
I couldn't feel anything.
My arms
My legs.
My face...
It was like I was walking on thin air.
"Smells like really good human blood in here, my favourite scent," Richard muttered to his wife who was facing away from him and locking the door.
With my breath held, I furrowed my eyebrows.
Why is he not mentioning the fact that I am stood right in front of him?
I am the human that he is smelling!!
I am right in front of him? Why is he staring straight at me and not saying anything?
It was as if he was looking right through me.
Confused, I felt my necklace vibrate and looked down to see it light up to its usual vibrant green and slowly turn an enchanting Nixon purple, which it had never gone before.
Waiiiiiiiiiiit.
Cautiously shuffling to the right with the file I had picked up last in hand, I found the guest room mirror and what I saw reflected back at me, was mindblowing.
Where was I?
Why was I not appearing?
Oh my God.
How is this possible, I can already control fire? Plus, I had "hypnotising beauty" so how was it possible that I had another ability?
"It's a lovely smell, makes me want to go down to the dungeon and grab a bite," Maria strutted towards Ser Harris, held his collar and spoke seductively into her lover's face. Moving closer, in order to purr into his ear.
Oh damnnnn, I guess I did have a third ability.
Which so just happened to kick in at the right time...
.
.
I can't believe it.
.
.
I am invisible.
-------
And that is part three of the summer special doneeeee!!!
I hope you enjoyed this three-part special of Natalya discovering her third ability. What do you think about her power of invisibility? Do you think it will come in handy?
Q: Are you suspecting anyone to have been the reason for the village fire yet or not? And are you worried for Natalya, her abusive childhood bully is roaming the castle?
Vote, comment and add to your reading lists!!!
Thank you & I love you ! <3
- Natasha xx