Chapter 99: The Dark Bargain
"Hmm....first, let’s see what she was trying to hide so desperately," Cece murmured as she moved to pry Kayla’s fingers, which were tightly clenching around the scroll she had been planning to bury some time back.
"Don’t touch me, you damn witch! I’ll complain about you!!! Just because you’re a Duke’s daughter, you thin-" she could complete the sentence as Edward let out another light rope and tied it around Kayla’s mouth.
He scowled while mumbling, "Such a noisy woman."
Cece arched a brow and replied coolly, "Thank you for shutting her up. I was starting to get a headache." She then, with force, pried her fingers open and took the scroll in her hand.
As she unfolded it, Edward walked closer to her and peered over her shoulder, asking, "What is it?"
Cece studied the content, and her dark red eyes started widening, "This!" she exclaimed, before glaring at Kayla, "She will have a lot of explaining to do, not to the head master but the king himself."
"Let’s take her with us. I think we finally got what we needed to persecute her." Edward was also shocked as he read the content in the scroll and agreed with Cece.
With one swift move, he lifted Kayla up on his shoulder effortlessly, like a sack of potatoes, and started heading towards the main building with Cece.
...
While Kayla was taken away by Cece and Edward, on the other wing of the academy, Drake was sprawled on the sofa while drowning himself in alcohol. Since the day he witnessed Evelyn taken away by those darkrots in disguise, he couldn’t sleep in peace anymore.
Frustration and anger gnawed at him for not having the one woman he was obsessed with the very first time he laid his eyes on her. Just thinking about her beguiling beauty, her soft, supple skin, and the way her defiant eyes looked at him made him hard again.
In his state of intoxication, he unzipped his pants and let it free. Closing his eyes, he imagined Evelyn straddling him where he sat. He closed his hand around his member and began stroking himself. Soon, his breathing became harsh, his face flushed as he continued to pleasure himself while moaning her name.
"Ah Evelyn...my Evelyn..f*ck me harder..Yes! That’s it!" he increased his pace as he continued to stroke himself until he bellowed in the room as he uttered her name again and came undone.
He clenched his jaw as he relished the aftermath of an intense orgasm he had just had by thinking about her.
He opened his eyes and looked at the mess he had created for himself. Frustration rose within him for not being able to have her when he was so close to marking her as his. With a sharp movement, he ran his hand across the table, knocking out multiple empty alcohol bottles to crash onto the floor, the sound of shattering glass echoing through the room.
Heaving as he tried to control his harsh breathing, he got up sluggishly and went to change his fluid-stained clothes. When he stepped out, he froze in his tracks at the sight of a shadowy figure standing in the middle of his room.
His eyes widened and he barked angrily, "Who are you and how did you get in my room?!"
The shadow figure remained unaffected by his outburst and rasped in an eerie voice, "You ask the wrong question....Drake Viremont."
Drake felt a chill run down his spine at hearing him rasp. Suddenly, he became wary of the unwanted dark presence in his room, and he asked cautiously, "What...do you want?"
"What I want is nothing...however, what you desire...drips from every corner of this room...So what do you want, Drake Viremont?" the figure questioned back.
"I-I don’t understand.." Drake replied, his eyes trained on the figure as he readied himself to bolt if the need arose.
"The only thing you need to understand is whatever it is you desire...I can get you," rasped the shadowy figure. "The question is, are you willing to make sacrifices for it?"
"And what do you know about what I desire? And how can you help me achieve it when the person has been..." Drake trailed off, thinking about Evelyn’s abduction again.
The figure finally turned, revealing his scanty hollow red eyes that held unnatural hunger and pale grey skin, making Drake stumble back as it dawned upon him that this person was not a man...but a darkrot.
He took a step back as cold sweat broke across his skin, when the darkrot rasped again, "I know...what you desire...the Lumen princess."
Drake froze on his tracks again as he narrowed his eyes at him, "H-How do you know that?"
"Again the wrong question.." the darkrot hissed, "Drake Viroment..son of Lester Viremont. Your father has been arrested by Prince Ivan, and the woman you desire... has been taken away by him. He will come for you....and your family."
The darkrot stepped forward, his voice dripping with malice, "If you do not wish the same fate as your father, join us... and the one you desire shall be yourss."
Drake’s eyes widened at the revelation, "M-My..father? Why is he arrested?!" he asked in panic.
"I will tell you...but the choice is yours," the darkrot whispered. "Should you decide to come with me...your fate can be changed. Refuse... and the prince will come for you sooner or later."
Drake felt he might pass out from all the revelations. Still in his intoxicated state, he wondered if he was dreaming all of this. But when he focused on the creature in front of him and his thick looming presence, he couldn’t deny the goosebumps rising on his skin.
He swallowed hard as he recalled the darkrot’s words. Thinking that if his father had been taken, then he had no one to protect him if the royal guards came for him. And this creature promised him to get Evelyn back, who was still alive and with the prince no less.
Ugly feelings rose in his chest at the thought of Ivan with a woman who was his! His possession! She belonged to him, and he would not allow anyone else to take her away from him as long as she lives...especially not Ivan.
Drake asked cautiously, "Do you promise to get me Princess Evelyn if I come with you?"
The creature grinned menacingly and rasped, "Yess...you can have anything you desire."
He then took out a darkstone from his cloak, and sinister power pulsed from it before a shadowy portal opened in the room. He then looked at Drake, "Step inside and claim what you desire..."
Drake took shaky steps forward and, with one last thought of claiming Evelyn as his own, his eyes burned with greed and obsession, and he finally stepped inside the portal. The darkrot followed soon behind him, and the portal collapsed.
...
Back in Dracoria Palace, the young couple, unaware of the chaos unfolding in the academy, remained in bed, wrapped in each other’s embrace as they flipped through the pages of history that remained long buried from the world.
Evelyn read out loud in a soft voice,
"Thousands of years ago, when the world was consumed by shadow...its lands painted in blood and the skies echoed with the cries of the damned. The Gods finally answered humanity’s desperate prayers.
Amongst the Gods, the God of Fire created a soul so powerful that it could burn any evil to ashes, while the Goddess of light created a soul with divine light magic that held the power of healing and filling the world with life once again.
After the fierce battle with the dark lord and his formidable forces, they sealed him in the land so deep, never to see the light of day. Thus restoring balance to the world again.
After they left, the Gods blessed the human race with power in their blood to further protect them. One side received powers from the Fire God, turning them into powerful Vampires. The other side was blessed by the Light Goddess, turning them into Lumens, who bore unique abilities. This blessing was received only by the ones with a pure heart, to ensure that the powers bestowed would not be misused."
"Wait!" Eve suddenly exclaimed as her brows scrunched up. "There seems to be something amiss!"
She flipped the pages to reread everything, and her frown deepened. Tilting her head, she looked at Ivan, who wore a similar expression on his face. He pressed his lips together as he flipped the pages again to see if any of them were stuck together or torn, but to his disappointment, there was nothing.
With a sigh, he closed the book abruptly and placed it by the bedside. He then turned around to meet her confused eyes and replied, "Seems like this book is also tampered with. I wonder which historian dared to omit such an important part of history and...why?" He narrowed his eyes as he sank deeper into his thoughts.
