Chapter 87: The Power To Bend Others
Her heartbeat quickened at his response, and she asked again to confirm, "So...you are okay with me disclosing our relationship to the entire world?"
"Eve...I am not ashamed to be with you. Are you?" he questioned back.
"No! I am not ashamed." She looked into his eyes and added, "I just...don’t know what kind of questions they will ask me about us. I mean, you are the crown prince of this kingdom, and I’ll be standing in a court full of vampires, a lumen princess who is in a relationship with their prince. Won’t they...have an issue with it? What if they object on the basis of politics between the two kingdoms?"
As she spoke, his eyes flashed a molten orange, and his voice dropped, "I dare them to interfere in my personal life. No right to dictate who I can or cannot be with. Even my father made his own decisions, and no one dared to object." He moved his glowing orbs to take in her worried features and spoke, "Remember this, Evelyn, power rules. Those without it bend to those who wield it. I am not breaking any rules by being with you, but even if there were those rules, I’d raze them to the ground before I let anyone dictate to me."
Eve swallowed hard, her pulse quickened as his mesmerizing molten orange eyes held her captive. She could feel power radiating from his entire being and couldn’t help but be drawn to them. Slowly, she raised her hand to gently touch his cheek and spoke as a small smile formed on her lips, "So...you’re really a rebel, aren’t you?"
His eyes soften at her touch, "I will always fight for what is worth fighting for." He simply stated.
Her smile widened, spellbinding him, and the storm in his eyes calmed down, turning back to their original colour. He leaned forward to capture her lips in a sweet, lingering kiss, and Eve melted into his touch. He then brushed his lips against hers, whispered darkly, "Although I am a man with tremendous self-control....don’t tempt me, Eve."
Understanding the meaning, she blushed furiously and quickly nodded, reading raw desire in his eyes . With a heavy sigh, he pulled her head to his neck, tucking her securely under his chin, as if to shield himself from the unbearable temptation of her innocent, beautiful eyes.
They went silent after that. Eve held onto the front of his shirt and breathed in his scent she had come to love so much. After a few seconds, she called to him softly, "Ivan?"
"Yes?" he responded.
"When is the court hearing?" she asked.
"In a couple of days, once we’ve gathered all the evidence against Drake Viremont. Then we’ll deal with both father and son once and for all."
"Oh."
She fell silent again.
After a brief pause, she spoke again, "Ivan?"
He sighed and glanced down at her and asked patiently, "What is it?"
"You mentioned that your father will be happy to see me at dinner tomorrow. What did you mean by that?" she asked curiously.
"Well, he wanted me to be with someone for a long time. Seeing you next to me would ease him, knowing I finally have a companion."
"The king wanted you to be with someone?" she repeated.
"Hm."
She narrowed her eyes, "Don’t tell me he set you up with some other lady....You aren’t already spoken for, are you?"
Just like that, her innocent gaze turned fierce within seconds as she waited for his response. A ghost of a smile curved his lips as amusement danced in his eyes. Only she had ever dared to glare at him like that. She was just so different..such a breath of fresh air... that he couldn’t help but relish it all the more.
Though he would have loved to tease her, he knew better not to provoke her when her powers were unstable. So he simply responded, "No, baby, I’m not spoken for. He only ever introduced me to some families, but that was it. It was nothing more than official meetings."
She studied him carefully, and when she didn’t detect any lie in his voice, she murmured, "Okay."
After that, she turned around as her eyelids grew heavy, so she released a soft breath and closed her eyes. Ivan pulled her from behind, holding her securely in his arms.
"Goodnight, Ivan," she whispered softly.
"Good night, Eve." He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss on her shoulder before finally closing his eyes.
Outside, the rain continued to pour, but the two lovers slept peacefully in each other’s embrace, unaware of the dangers lurking in the dark corners of the world, far away, waiting for them.
Somewhere far away from the Kingdom of Versailles, stood a tall, dark grey abandoned mansion. Inside, a woman quivering in pure fear, her hands and legs bound tightly together as she sat in the middle of a pentagram. Figures in black hoods surrounded her, and their chants of an ancient spell grew louder with each passing second. She had cried, begged, and beaten whenever she resisted or tried to flee. Resigned to her impending doom, she sat there defeatedly.
Soon, searing pain shot through her entire being until blood spilled from her mouth, eyes, and nose. A figure cloaked in red stepped forward and, with a single slash from a dark dagger across her throat, ended her suffering. Black smoke filled the chamber as every hooded figure raised a dark stone, for it to absorb the smoke generated from the ritual.
As life faded from the woman’s eyes, a guttural scream tore from the lips of a shackled man who watched his wife’s lifeless body on the ground in horror. His wife...his world, now lay lifeless on the blood-stained floor. Just hours ago, she had laughed by his side when they were in a nearby city for their honeymoon. Now slaughtered before his eyes, she was gone. He thrashed against the shackles until his wrists tore, but no strength on earth could break them, nor undo the horror he had just witnessed.
He yelled at them, "You monsters! You killed my wife!! I curse every one of you!! I’ll kill you all!!"
As he continued yelling, one of the darkrot stepped forward and punched his gut, forcing blood to spill from his mouth. As he doubled over in pain, the figure covered in red stepped forward, with a suffocating dark stone pulsing ominously in its hand.
The figure whispered an incantation near the man, and soon black smog hissed from the stone, slithering into the man’s eyes, nose, and mouth. The man choked and gagged as the vile smoke continued to pour into him. Every vein in his body blackened beneath his skin until his entire body seemed corrupted. Soon the stone pulsed again, and the smoke receded.
For a moment, the man sat motionless, then he lifted his head, and his eyes were pitch black voids, as if he didn’t have an iris anymore. Yet, within seconds, they returned to normal, the dark veins faded under his skin as though nothing had happened.
The figures who were restraining him released their hold, and the man who was just hurling curses at them for killing his wife, now dropped to his knees before the figure in red. His voice rasped, broken yet obedient, "Master, what is your order?"
The master smirked behind his mask and whispered, "So...it worked."
With a flick of its wrist, it tossed a dagger at the man’s feet and commanded in a whisper, "Silt your throat."
The newly turned man robotically picked up the dagger from the ground. Without hesitation, in one swift motion, he slit his throat and dropped dead on the ground as blood continued to splatter from his neck.
He turned slowly to his brethren and whispered, "Now, we hold the power to bend others to our will. Let the world taste our wrath for the countless brethren they have slain. Our path is set...the Lumen princess is the key....to awakening the dark lord."
The other figures lowered their head to their master, their voices echoed in dreadful unison, "Yes, Master."
....
Morning arrived fast, and Evelyn stirred from her deep slumber. For the first time in ages, she felt truly well rested, and a small smile bloomed on her face. With her eyes still shut, she stretched lazily, her hand brushed against something warm and solid beside it. Before she could think, her palm wandered across the firm surface, only to pause after hearing a deep, low voice reverberating in the quiet atmosphere, "Any lower and I won’t be responsible for what happens next."
Her hands froze mid-exploration as her clear blue eyes fluttered open, landing on the drop-dead gorgeous man beside her, who still had his eyes closed. In her sleepy haze, she glanced down to where her hand had stopped, and her eyes slowly widened when she realised it was resting just above his exposed waistline.
