92

The palace was sort of empty, so it was easier for Toreh to slip inside quietly. Unaware that she was being watched, she walked stealthily past the pillars, heading for the dining room.

“Is she the one?”, Kayne whispered as he shove his hands into his pockets.

Eloive looked up, eyes widening as he recognized the bracelet he had given her. What was Toreh doing here?

“Yes. She’s going to get herself killed uncle. If anyone sees her, they’d put a knife to her throat”.

“She kind of deserves it”, Kayne said, eyes fixed on the human girl.

Eloive looked to his uncle, flabbergasted. “What? You know she does. First, she broke your heart…”

Eloive butt in. “She didn’t break my heart…”, he started to say but shut up when Kayne glared at him.

“Then, she comes into our home without permission on the day of the hunt”.

“That’s just how she is! That’s her personality uncle”.

“Then she should be able to deal with the repercussions”.

Eloive wasn’t listening, his eyes fixed on Toreh. She stood before the guards that guarded the doors of the dining room, yelling out incentives.

“They’re going to kill her”, Eloive whispered as he watched Kiol reach for the hilt of his sword. A quick stab at the heart and she’d be dead.

“Don’t be too sure. I know you want to save her..”

“No, I do not!”

Kayne glared at his nephew. “I know you want to save her but we’ve got to see if this human is worth keeping alive.”

Eloive returned the ferocious look. “Of course she’s worth keeping alive. Everyone has a right to live uncle”.

“Rights are not upheld on a day like this you know that. Now keep quiet so that I can focus”.

Toreh eyed the sword the guard on her left withheld before her. She knew it was a dumb move, demanding they let her in, but the only way she could get in was through the door for the dining room had no windows, and she couldn’t teleport. Sometimes being human sucked.

“So what? You’re going to stab me because I asked you to let me in? You crazy?”

The guard glared. He did that a lot. “Slaves are not allowed in here so leave now before I kill you”.

“How did you know I’m a slave? I thought I had the choker well covered”.

The guard narrowed his eyes. “You’ve got that scent. The scent of a slave”.

Toreh rolled her eyes. “I appreciate you and your colleague but I swear I mean no harm. I only want to return this bracelet to the king. I believe it belongs to him because only royalty can be associated with such beads”, she said, showing the guard Eloive’s bracelet.

Eloive’s eyes widened as he realized what she was trying to do. “She wants to meet with grandpa”, Eloive whispered. “If he sees that bracelet, he would put two and two together and he would have her put to death”.

“Stop being a worrywart Eloive”, Kayne said angrily. “I’m going to stop her”.

“Move an inch from here and I’ll kill her myself”, Kayne warned. Eloive halted, biting his lip. He missed her. It had only been hours since she said goodbye, but it felt like years to him.

“Come back tomorrow. I’m giving you that much grace slave”, the guard whispered.

“Fine!”, Toreh said. “But can I leave a message?”

Kayne was flabbergasted. The human was funny. Kiol was letting her go, something he rarely did, but she still wanted to leave a message.

“You’ve got two minutes”, Kiol voiced out.

“Can you make it five? My message is pretty long!”

Kayne fought the urge to smile. She was amusing indeed.

“One minute more”.

“Fine. Jeez, you’re so annoying If it’s that time of the month, I totally understand”.

Kiol’s partner choked on his spit. Eloive laughed. Kayne chuckled and Kiol went red with anger.

“Do you have a death wish slave?”, Kiol asked angrily.

“I haven’t delivered my message yet, so no”.

“Just go ahead and say what you want slave”, Kiol shouted. The girl was infuriating.

Toreh smiled wifely. “Tell your king to postpone the hunt”.

“She’s mad”, Kayne said. “What makes her think father will stop the hunt because she wished so?”

“Can I step in?”, Eloive asked, impatient.

“No”.

Kiol laughed. “You’re delusional. The royals are almost done with breakfast, so the sooner you leave the better”.

Toreh’s smile fell. He thought she was joking. Her face hardened as she glared at him.

“Are you going to tell the king or should I?”, she asked with all seriousness.

Eloive didn’t need his uncle’s permission to know that it was time.

“I can help you with the message slave”.

Toreh’s eyes widened. She could recognize that voice anywhere. Slowly, she turned around and standing there inn the flesh was Eloive. He openly checked her out. Her eyes didn’t bear the bags that his bore. She looked okay, and not broken. Eloive hated it. He hated that she was able to move on after their friendship ended, while he remained a mess.

Toreh seemed to forget where she was when she said, “You called me slave”.

“Isn’t that what you are?”, Eloive asked coldly.

His response made her bottom lip quiver. Why was he being like this? She knew she hurt him, but him behaving like this was uncalled for. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she glared hotly at him. “I..I don’t need your help. I’ll deliver my message some other time.”, she said and turned away from him.

The princes, alongside the guards watched her leave. She didn’t dare turn back, even though Eloive hoped that she would. Once she was out of sight, the door to the dining room opened and Hanos stepped out, red eyes burning bright.

“Uncle..”, Eloive began.

“A human was here”, he said. “And by what I perceive, she’s still alive”.

“What would you have us do Uncle?”, Kayne asked, joining Eloive on the ground floor. “She disappeared before we could blink”.

Hanos turned to his nephew. “I do not know why you lie and I do not care. I want the human’s blood for breakfast”.

Eloive’s heart thumped in his chest. “But you..you just had breakfast”.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t have another. I want the human's blood for breakfast Eloive. If you bring another, I will know. Now be quick about it”.

“How do you expect u to find her uncle?”, Kayne asked.

“You know what? I’d just find her myself. Guess I’ll be part of this year’s hunt”.

Eloive froze. “No”, he whispered. The last thing the people needed was for the Vampire King to partake in the hunt.

“Yes. I’ll let your other family members know Kayne. No one outside these walls must know what I have in mind. Those prisoners won’t know what hit them”.

…

“Call in Wilhelm”, Eoff said as he crossed his arms. “If the Vampire King is going to start a mayhem, we need to put a stop to it”.

“And you think his son would stop him? Wilhelm is a load of trouble, so no. We are not calling him”, Elvis countered.

“You know, we could just give uncle this human blood he desires to avoid a blood bath. I believe everyone here knows how dangerous the Vampire King can be when he’s hunting”, Izal spoke up.

“I don’t”, Eloive said.

“If you did, you wouldn’t have been messing around with a slave”, Kayne said, annoyed.

“Wait a minute, Eloive’s been messing around? That too with a slave? Why am I just hearing this now?”, Ruarc asked angrily.

“Maybe uf you had invested your time in your son, you would have known. And I wasn’t messing around with anyone”, Eloive yelled.

“Yale says otherwise”, Thane objected.

He should have known that his cousin was bound to spill the beans.

“Admonish him later”, Sia said dryly. “We’ve got more important things to worry about”.

“What other important thing could there be other than the fact that uncle is trying to kill our people?”, Ruarc asked.

“Cocci has an infection. He carries the bomzee’s venom in his veins as we speak”, Izal said gravelly.

“Holy shit! How the fuck did that happen?”, Massa asked.

“We don’t know. All we know is that he needs to be cured before the 26th”, Izal replied.

“How do we prevent him from becoming one of them?”, Dolan asked, worried.

“I don’t know”, Izal whispered. “We can keep him from interacting with others, to prevent him from infecting people”.

“Or we could kill him”, Eloive said. His uncles turned to him.

“Eloive, that’s your uncle that you’re talking about”, Ruarc hissed.

“Well if he’s going to be a threat to those we love, we need to put him down. And death is one way”, Eloive said.

“Hush child. There is a way”, Izal said.

“I know, death. That’s what I said”, Eloive countered.

“Ruarc, shut your son up or I will”, Eleanor hissed.

“Avetha is not an option so we could get rid of the venom by passing it on to an offspring unborn and related”, Izal stated.

Eleanor’s face went white as he understood his brother’s words. “No. You can’t do this to me Izal. You know how hard it is for her to conceive and now you want to take away her child”.

“We’re doing this for Cocci!”

“Fuck Cocci! I’m tired of sacrificing shit for peeps who don’t deserve it!”.

“Eleanor, he’s your brother!”

“I don’t give a damn Izal. I’ve always wanted kids and I’m not going to sacrifice the life of my unborn child for an asshole. Go find someone else. I’m out of here”.

And with that, Eleanor stormed out, Elvis followed suit.

Sia sighed. “I’ll try Wilhelm’s line”.

“We could just postpone the hunt”, Eoff suggested.

“We can’t postpone tradition Eoff”, Massa said. “What we can do, is confuse uncle. Instead of leaving the road free of people, we fill it up with people, so he has a hard time finding whoever it is he’s looking for”.

“He would only kill people Massa”, Sia said.

“Then let him”, Ruarc spoke up. “I am going with Massa’s plan. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare for the hunt. Eloive, we’ll talk later”.