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*Chapter Thirteen*
*Azura's POV*
The plane stood in the middle of the runway waiting for us. We both walked towards it at a slow pace. I shifted my weight uncomfortably and cast a glance over my shoulder. There was no one.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I replied and turned my attention back to Lyorin, shrugging my feeling off.
The ride was in silence, and as the ride continued, I simply couldn’t hold it anymore.
“By the way, who's the Princess?”
He shot me a strange look and turned away from me to gaze at the clouds passing us by. I sighed and thought he wouldn’t answer when he surprised me.
“Back then, she was the oldest and strongest pureblood. At the moment, she's nothing but a conscious without a body sealed somewhere in the castle,” Lyorin explained with a bored look on his face.
“Sealed?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“She's different than other pureblood.”
“Different?”
“Are you a parrot?” he turned towards me with an annoyed look on his face.
“No.”
His gaze lingered on me for a minute before he gave up and started to explain.
“Her body is someone in this world untouched, but her conscious - her soul - is sealed somewhere in the castle.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Well she did that.”
“Why?”
“You're stupid,” he deadpanned, “and annoying.”
“Well, sorry for knowing nothing about -”
The door clicked open, and I immediately shut up. The stewardess walked in, her oblivious smile led me to believe that this was indeed some kind of coincidence.
What a perfect timing.
“Do you want anything?” Lyorin spoke none too politely.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “The plane will land in a few minutes. Please fasten your seatbelt, My Lord and Milady.”
The wheels of the plane touched the ground, and I clenched my teeth from the noise. The plane soon came to a stop, and we descended the ladder.
“Lord Evan asked for the two of your presence,” a servant came up and informed us.
He was already here? That was fast.
I followed after Lyorin, and we made our way up the stairs. If I had a choice, I would never want to live in such a big house. Lyorin knocked on the door and opened it. I followed in after him and saw his father sitting in front of the fireplace with his back to us.
“Father,” Lyorin spoke, “we're here.”
There was no reply.
“Father?”
He was still. I felt my body move on its own accord. Before I knew it, I was already moving towards the fireplace. I just had the time to take in the King's wide opened eyes and the pool of blood by his feet before I felt something heavy collided against me. I twisted my head and saw two things.
First, Lyorin had thrown himself on top of me. Second, right above him, a deadly sharp arrow zipped past him. The next thing I knew, we were both sprayed with a sand-like substance.
Lyorin had managed to not put any of his weight on me. Just as he stood up, the door burst open.
“Lord Evan -”
There was a moment of silence. I quickly got up only to see Klyre standing by the door. Her eyes went from Lyorin to the ashes by his feet then back to Lyorin.
“Klyre! I told you not to -”
Kaiden stopped his sentence and followed Klyre's gaze. Just like Klyre, his eyes drifted from Lyorin to the ashes then back to Lyorin.
Realizing how misunderstanding this whole thing looked, I quickly stood up.
“We didn't kill -”
“Then why do you have Father's blood on him.”
“Kaiden, -”
Kaiden didn't wait for Lyorin to finish his sentence. Klyre let out a scream as Kaiden lunged at Lyorin. The two of them tumbled to the floor and rolled across the room. I caught sight of a startled maid by the door just behind Klyre. Before I could do anything, she had ran off. My gaze then returned to the two figures on the floor. I had to do something.
I grabbed the nearest object, a wooden chair, and aimed it at the two on the floor. I took advantage of the moment of shock and pried them apart. Kaiden had a bruised left eye, but Lyorin was almost unscathed.
“Lyorin, you have to leave -”
A shrill alarm sounded from the corridor.
“- now.”
His silver eyes were passive as he gazed at my desperate blue ones. I had to repay him in some way for saving my life moments ago. He hesitated for a second.
“Lyorin, you're not going anywhere,” Kaiden growled from behind me.
I pulled out the blade and threw it at Kaiden. Thanks to the fact that Kaiden's attention was solely focused on Lyorin, the blade managed to sink itself just under Kaiden's throat. I just hope that the paralyzing effect would last till we get out.
“Go!” I urged him.
Klyre suddenly appeared in front of us, blocking us from the door. She had a determined look on her face as she held the long blade in her hand. It was one of the blades Evan laid hanging around the room as a part of his sword collection.
“I can't let you leave, Lyorin,” she said almost apologetically.
“If you honestly knew him,” I said and stormed past Lyorin towards Klyre, “you would know that he didn't kill Evan.”
A brief flicker of shock passed through her eyes before her grip on the sword tightened. My eyes flickered to her hand.
“You won't let us go?”
“No.”
Her eyes widened, and she dropped to the floor with a thud. The petite maid stood behind her. Her hand was shaking.
“I told the guards I saw you two running towards the other direction,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully.
“I'll be fine,” she assured me with a smile after noticing my hesitance.
I grabbed Lyorin's hand and quickly dragged him out of the room.
“What did you do to her?” Lyorin asked as we raced down the corridor.
“I just treated her like a normal vampire, not as a slave like you purebloods do,” I replied coldly.
“There!” I heard one of the guards yell.
“Follow me,” Lyorin spoke from behind me, and he took a turn.
A group of four guards appeared in front of us. They looked torn as to whether to attack or not as Lyorin and I went towards them. Lyorin grabbed one of their neck and threw him against another approaching guard. The other two guards charged at him, and he ducked both of their attack while twisting around to knock both of them out. It was all within two seconds. I blinked.
“No time to stare,” he said with a smirk.
“I was not,” I denied but quickly followed him.
We turned around the corner and came to a stop in front of a window. It was a bit lower than the window I had jumped out, but there was no sign of any vines around.
“Jump,” he instructed and ran towards the window.
I winced at the pieces of glass shards around him and looked back. It was a mistake. I felt sharp pain shot up my thigh, and I stumbled a bit. My feet missed the ledge of the window, and I fell forward. Gravity took its effect, pulling me towards the ground. I knew that I would break something with the position I was falling. I shut my eyes and braced for it. To my surprise, something way softer than hard concrete caught me. I felt wind zip past me, and my eyes snapped open. Lyorin's eyes had a dark look in them.
“Put me down.”
“No.”
Before I could argue more, I heard a car door being opened before I was roughly thrown in. The door shut behind me, and Lyorin yanked open the driver's seat. The engine of the car purred, and the car was suddenly on reverse. I don't know a thing about car since I've seen less than ten cars in my entire life. All I know was that this particular one looked extremely expensive and fast.
“Put the seat belt on,” he said.
My guess was proved right when the bright red needle suddenly pointed to somewhere between hundred thirty and hundred forty.
We were currently driving peacefully on a road. I threw the third piece of soaked cloth that I'd ripped off from my dress by my feet and ripped another strip using my teeth. The bleeding wasn't getting better, and the pain was just worsening. I couldn't even feel my leg. Lyorin reached into the small refrigerator and took out two packets of donated blood.
“These probably won't help that much, but it'll just have to do for now.”
I ripped opened the package with my teeth and downed the first packet within minutes. Even though it wasn't fresh blood, it was still better than nothing.
I saw Lyorin's knuckles turn white on the steering wheel, and his eyes darken with the need for blood.
“Have the second one,” I told him.
“You need it more than me,” he mumbled.
Taken aback by his thoughtfulness, I stared at him.
“I can't have you bleed to death,” he retorted, guessing what I was thinking.
“Really?” I hid a grin.
“Yes,” he growled.
“You sure?”
“Yes, now shut up.”
I rolled my eyes and ripped open the second package.
“Don't regret this,” I told him and drank the content.
The ride was in silence, and gradually, I felt my eyelids closing.
“Get up, we're here.”
My eyes fluttered open. The sun was setting, and I could see a pale silhouette of a silver moon at the far corner of the sky. I opened the door and tried my best to put all my weight on just one leg. A surprised yelp left my mouth when I felt myself being carried. He kicked the car door close. I clenched my teeth in annoyance, and I saw him smirk.
He placed me down and pressed the doorbell. Not a second later, a familiar looking girl in her late twenties appeared. Without a doubt, she was a pureblood. She had straight blonde hair with pink highlights and big, jade green eyes.
“Lyo!” she practically screamed and threw herself onto Lyorin, almost knocking him over.
“Hi to you too,” he replied.
I would've laughed at his enthusiasm if the girl didn't give me a bone-crushing hug as well. Almost immediately, she was grabbed back by Lyorin.
“She's wounded.”
Her eyes flew to my thigh, and she quickly ushered us into her house.
“I'm so sorry!” she apologized once we were in the house. She took another look at my wound, all trace of humor gone from her face. “What did you do, Lyorin?” she turned an accusing eyes to him. “I have no problem with you going after vampire sluts, but since when did you start -”
“You're misunderstanding -”
“She doesn't seem like those spoilt princesses you usually go after, and neither does she seem like the sluts you screw.”
“Flora, for god's sake, she's been bleeding for quite a while.”
I glanced between the pair of them in amusement. I could tell that they were quite close. Flora grumbled something and left the room. Lyorin let out a sigh of relief.
“I forgot how annoying she can be,” he said to himself.
“You have interesting friends,” I commented.
“Friend?” he snorted just as she came back in the room with a small first aid box.
“Sit down,” she instructed me.
Lyorin had to support almost my whole weight as we made our way towards the couches. She ripped the dress up until where the bullet pierced me. Deep in the gaping hole, I could see a trace of something black. More blood poured out from the wound, and I felt her cold, soothing hand on my leg.
“I’m going to put you to sleep,” she told me just as she injected a yellow liquid into me. Almost instantaneously, I felt a drowsiness settle within me. My eyelids felt heavier with each passing second. The last thing I was aware of was that a pair of strong arms had caught me before I could fall over the couch.
I woke up to the incessant hooting of a few owls. Reaching a hand up to my pounding head, I suppressed a groan. Sensing that this wasn’t the room I was used to, I quickly scanned the room in alarm. There was a wooden dressing table with a few jewelries placed neatly next to each other. The window was wide opened, which explained the loud animal noises I heard. Memories came crashing down, and I immediately shoved the duvet off me. I was wearing a new black dress that stopped a few inches above my knees if I were to stand up. My thigh was bandaged, and I could feel a throbbing pain shooting up my leg whenever I tried putting weight on my right thigh. I sincerely hoped that it was Flora who changed my dress.
The vial of blood.
My eyes shot around the room until they landed on the crimson bundle of silk next to the bedside table. Hopping on my left leg, I made my way towards it. My heart calmed down when I realized that the vial of blood Josephine gave me was untouched. I made a mental note of disposing it as soon as I can. It wasn’t that I’m throwing it away because I was no longer in the castle but because I wouldn’t want to hurt someone who’d saved my life.
I heard soft footsteps coming my way, and I hastily dived for the bed placed and stuffed the vial under the bed sheet. The door opened, and the blonde poked her head through the door. She looked relieved to see me awake.
“Hey, how’re you feeling?”
“Thanks for healing me,” I told her gratefully. “I’m fine now.”
She beamed happily at me, showing her impeccably white teeth.
“I’m glad to heal Lyo’s friend,” she told me with a grin. “It’s nice to see him genuinely care for someone,” she said almost reminiscently.
“Where’s Lyorin?” I asked.
“He went off for a hunt,” she replied.
“Oh,” I said.
I was already surprised that he had held back his thirst for that long.
“You’re pretty close to Lyorin,” I observed.
“I’m not boasting or anything, but I do know that I was the person he trusted most back when I was in the castle.”
“What happened? If you don’t mind me asking,” I added quickly.
“Not at all,” she waved my worry away. “I’m Lyorin’s elder sister,” she said and watched in amusement at the dumbfounded expression I wore.
“No wonder you look like Kaiden,” I muttered to myself then added. “I’m sorry about your father.”
“I was never close to him anyways,” she said and started to fidget with a red ribbon on her shirt. “I refused to marry to the pureblood he wanted me to. He locked me up in the underground dungeon for disobeying him and making a fool of out of our family. I owe Lyo that much. If it weren’t for him, I would still be locked up in the dungeon. I’ve been living here ever since then,” she said with a small smile. “I heard from Lyo that you grew up with humans.”
Surprised that Lyorin would mention me, I could only nod in reply. Since Lyorin trusted her, it was only normal that I could trust her with the secret.
“I was raised by hunters. All my life, I’ve been hunting vampires.”
Her jade eyes lit up in excitement.
“Cool, you know how to fight.”
“Yeah,” I answered, slightly stunned.
“Most female purebloods were raised to become ladies. It’s rare for a girl in a noble family to know how to fight. I only know the basic, and that’s only because Kaiden and Lyorin would teach me a bit of what they know in secret. Frankly, I actually envy girls who can fight,” she said with genuine amazement.
Just as I was about to answer her, I heard an unfamiliar ringing sound. Glancing around, I finally spotted the source. I felt my heartbeat quicken when I realized that it had come from the pocket in my dress. Hopping on my left feet, I reached out for the phone.
I reproached myself for not destroying the thing as soon as I can. My eyes dashed around, and I longed to just thrust the object out of the window.
“Call me when you’re done, Azura.”
Flora’s soft voice snapped me out of my reverie. She was already at the door, and I watched her as she closed the door behind her. I took a deep breath and flicked opened the phone like Phaecy had taught me many times. I gingerly reached for the phone from her and placed it next to my ear.
“Hello, Azura.”
I was afraid to answer just in case I heard the voice wrong. My breath got caught in my throat, and I waited for the person to talk again.
“Don’t tell me you already forgot about me,” his deep masculine voice drifted over through the speaker in a confidant and lazy tone.
“J-Josephine?”
“Yeah, where are you?”
“Are you stupid?” I blurted out.
He chuckled lightly.
“Don’t tell me if you don’t want to. I just wanted you to know that I have your ‘friend’.”
I felt the phone slip from my fingers, and I quickly caught it before it could make contact with the hard wooden floor.
“I don’t believe you.”
As much as I tried, my voice still shook a little as I uttered the words of denial.
I did believe him.
I just didn’t want to admit it.
“Talk to her,” his said calmly to someone next to him. I heard nothing but a few muffled strangle. My hand was now shaking, and I felt my legs gave away. I collapsed soundlessly onto the bed and gripped the phone tightly in both my hands.
“Phaecy?”
Whoever it was, the person refused to talk.
“Bitch, I said talk to her,” he said coldly.
An ear-shattering scream that was no doubt Phaecy’s voice came from the other side of the device. Loud breathless panting followed the scream.
“Don’t you dare to come!” she screamed. “Damien’s not here, but I know he will try to come here. Don’t let him -”
Phaecy’s voice was cut off, and I had the distinct feeling that they had knocked her unconscious. I was gripping the phone so tightly that it was only a matter of seconds before I decide to squash the device into pieces.
“Our deal still stands,” he told me. “I want Lyorin dead before he succeeds the throne.”
“He won’t,” I said stonily, all trace of emotion gone from my voice. “He killed his father, remember?”
“Ah, but I’m quite sure he still will. If you want to know the reason, why don’t you ask your dear fiancé?”
“Why did you choose me?”
“I already told you,” he said tiredly. “He would only lower his guard around you.”
“I don’t get it. I’m sure there are much more experienced vampires you can ask.”
“I will tell you all I know once you kill him,” he said in a teasing tone, “that includes your past. All in all, same deal I offered you the first time.”
My mind turned. I couldn’t – it’s not possible for me to abandon Phaecy. No matter what, she was still the same Phaecy I had grown up with. It doesn’t matter that she hated my guts right now. At the same moment, another piercing scream came from somewhere behind me.
“Josephine,” I said and was proud to hear my voice steady and strong, “I will hunt you down till the end of the world if you hurt her.”
He snorted in reply.
“Sure, whatever,” he replied nonchalantly. “I just want Lyorin dead before he succeeds as the next head of the family, get it?”
“Yeah.”
“Perfect,” he said with a smirk evident in his voice, “see you.”
The line went dead.
***
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