Chapter 10 Vampire's Lover

**Lucas**

This girl was different, and it’s not that she’s the first woman Xavier brought back to the castle. She was special to me because she looked so similar to her, my late lover Chelsea.

The first time I held the girl in my arms, despite only a few seconds, I knew it’s her reincarnation. They had same empathetic eyes and delicate bodies like a malnourished flower. Her scent also resembled hers, a faint smell of rosemary, reminding me clearly of my first encounter with Chelsea, a human girl who had been serving Princess Elizabeth two centuries ago.

Back then, I was the shunned vampire prince who had been sacrificed by royal council to marry off a human princess for the peace treaty. I visited their land with the envoy sent by my father for proposing this ridiculous arrangement which was said to be beneficial for both sides. That’s when I met with Chelsea.

She was the only girl who’s not afraid of vampires.

Up our arrival, we’re arranged with some stale animal bloods at a special hall which was guarded by troops. All of them were armed by guns loaded with silver bullets.

The humans were extremely disrespectful, treating us with rough yelling and nasty words.

The rudeness was unbearable. So as one of our vampires who hissed with bared fangs to warn them was shot by the guns, we decided to fight back.

It suddenly went into a disruption and soon became a slaughter.

I was protected by a fellow vampire and escaped out of the hall with severe wounds. A great pain on my back forced me to collapse before I was able to get out of their territory.

“Are you OK?” I heard a soft voice when my eyes were shutting to resist the pain. And when I open them again, I saw a girl in maid uniform squatting down gazing at me with her brows furrowed.

She was taken aback and gasped as she saw the redness in my eyes. She must know I was a vampire. I thought she would scream for guards or just run away but she didn’t. She looked around with cautious eyes and held me up from the ground.

“We need to take that way.” She made me leant against her and led me along to a winding lane. The scent of rosemary from her body numbed the pain on my back and consoled the resentment in my heart.

The sound of guards scouring around trailed off as we were getting further from the main road and approaching a small cottage near the lake.

The breeze blew up her hairs to tickle my skin. I suddenly felt a pull on my heart and subconsciously let out a groan.

“Can you make it? My house is just there.” She asked anxiously.

I nodded. But I did not tell her the weird feeling I had just gone through.

I was sheltered in her cottage for two weeks before recovery. And it’s perhaps the best days I’ve ever had during the entire 225 years of my life. She never asked me anything about vampires but just treated me like one of her human friends. And I forced myself to reduce food portion and fed only on small mice as a way to delude myself even further.

But the good days crashed completely as father finally declared a war against this country. It’s until then that I realized the marriage arrangement was a lie. My intended ‘sacrifice’ was for a justification of father’s invasion.

I could still memorize it clearly that Chelsea glared at me furiously after I confessed to her that I was the invader’s son. Then she volunteered to become a female warrior out of indignation and guilt. When she confronted with me again on battlefield pressing her gun loaded with silver bullets against my chest, she cried out. I told her to pull the trigger but she said she couldn’t. She thought she could kill me without a blink of eyes but she overestimated herself.

“It’s a sin to love you, Lucas. I’ll go to the hell.” She stared at me deeply and spat out before turning up on her heels.

I was stunned by her utterance at that moment.

I would never forgive myself for the failure to predict the coming danger. When I noticed the bullet was only inches away from my head, Chelsea had already rushed to me, we fell on to the ground and her bloods immediately soaked my suit.

“I…I deserve it…” Her voice trailed away as her heart stopped beating against my chest.

That’s when I eventually understand the word overused by humans – love – and I lost it before I started to feel it. People said vampires were emotionless and no matter how hard we tried, we were merely mimicking warm-blood creatures.

They were possibly true. The heart in our chests could never beat and the blood in our veins could never flow, but I still felt the void in my heart where the piece was taken by Chelsea and might never be fixed.

Then this girl appeared.

I thought she was a forgiveness from Chelsea allowing me to make up for my mistake, until I found the mark on her lower belly.

A cross mark symbolized a sorcerous curse from those with evil abilities. The real meaning of Chelsea’s last sentence suddenly occurred to me.

*I deserve it.*

I smirked. This was going to be way more complicated than I expected, but at the same time, more interesting.

“What if I mark you before Xavier do?” I asked as my thumb brushed over her delicate neck. It remained intact, without a trace of attempted mark. I supposed Xavier was just too cautious to easily believe in the prophecy, or he was too gentle to let the girl cry.

But I wasn’t. I had became an adventurer and a tyrant after what happened to me.

The girl widened her Bambi eyes and stammered, “I…I don’t understand...”

“Are you willing to be mine, little bird?” I asked as our eyes locked together.

She blinked her eyes nervously, “I’m sorry, Master. I still don’t understand what you mean. I was bought by Master Xavier and I’m afraid—”

“Shhh…” I pressed a finger on her luscious lips to stop her from telling me her submissive obedience to Xavier, “Never mention another man’s name while this one was hard controlling his impulse to fuck you raw”

Her adorable face reddened when she heard the word ‘fuck’. She bit her lip and gave me a helpless stare.

I lowered my head to rest my chin on her shoulder and kissed there softly, “As I said, I don’t give a fuck on Xavier at all. And if you want me, I’ll make you mine.”

She gulped as I tightened the grip on her waist.

“It’s your choice, little bird.” I whispered roughly, “But don’t expect me to a gentleman. If you decide to choose Xavier, I’ll win you over by all means.”