#Chapter 47 - Another Rescue Mission

Eloise’s POV

I really have got to stop getting knocked out…

When I partially came back to my senses, the first thing I noticed was how hard my head throbbed. At this point, brain damage should’ve been on my to-worry-about list.

I tried to open my eyes and adjust my vision to the darkness of the room that surrounded me. For a moment, I forgot where I was.

“Eloise?” A familiar voice whispered out to me. “What are you doing here?”

I looked to my left and saw the silhouette of a woman. After blinking a few times, I realized where I was, who I was looking at, and why. I was here. Waves of memory crashed inside of my already hurting head.

“Mrs. Leonard? Thank the Goddess you’re not hurt.” I tried to sound positive.

“I suppose I can say the same for you…”

Did she just say something kind of nice to me?

“Now, are you going to answer my question or did that hit to the head affect your hearing, too?”

I rolled my eyes, thankful she couldn’t see my gesture in the dark. There’s the sarcastic Mrs. Leonard I know…

“Well, I was here to rescue you… Me and Knight Dylan were—”

“What? The blonde smooth-talker? He’s the reason why I’m in this mess! Or at least part of the reason.” There was disdain in her voice.

“What happened?”

Belinda let out a groan. “I was on my way back to Noah after a nice getaway from all of the drama and you know, almost getting killed by an assassin.”

“But to actually answer your question, two men killed my bodyguards and driver on the way back to the castle. They dragged me back here and have been keeping me here for the past two days,” Belinda explained.

“Did they say why they were doing it?”

Belinda shrugged her shoulders then let out another groan of pain. “No, they’ve been awfully tight-lipped about everything. Surprisingly, however, they’ve kept me well-fed and have no interest in actually hurting me.”

A part of me wondered if these men were working for Douglas. If they didn’t want Mrs. Leonard hurt, however, what did they have in store for her?

And now that I’m here, could that mean the men were also working for Adam? My stomach started to turn at the thought of the vampire prince.

Belinda clearing her throat snapped me away from my thoughts. “You say you’re here to save me but it seemed like you knew one of my captors pretty well. This, ‘Knight’ Dylan, you’ve been calling him.”

I let out a sigh. “He was supposed to be one of the new recruits that graduated from the Academy of the Leonard Guards. Before Xavier left for the city of Caspian, he had all of the new recruits assigned to guard duty all around Noah after what happened.”

“Wait, Xavier has left for Caspian?”

“Yes. The place has been overrun by vampires and Captain Oliver had requested an emergency evacuation.”

“By the Goddess… I hope they all make it out okay.”

I smiled. “They will. They’re definitely no match for Xavier. He’s smarter and stronger than those vampires. They’re probably on their way back to Noah now.”

There was a weird silence in the air after I spoke fondly of Xavier and I had no idea how to break it. It was odd having an actual conversation with Mrs. Leonard that wasn’t filled with sarcasm and obvious disdain.

“You know…” Belinda’s unusually soft voice grabbed my attention. “I wasn’t expecting you to be the one to come to my rescue—even if you did get caught, too.” She chuckled.

“Even after the way I’ve treated you…” Her voice was sad. “You still chose to come to my aid. Why?”

The words that left my mouth next came from my heart. “It’s clear as the sky is blue that Xavier thinks the world of you. Because you’re so important to him, that means you’re important to me, too.”

The sound of Belinda sniffling caught me completely off guard. Even I wasn’t expecting my response to be that heartfelt.

Just as I was about to reassure her, our moment was cut short by a roar of laughter.

“Sorry to cut such a heartwarming family reunion short but I just wanted to see how my two favorite prisoners were doing!”

A brown-haired man turned on the light switch and smirked at us.

“The name’s Ben and I’ll be taking care of you since my associate decided to get too soft.” He spat at the ground. “I wasn’t expecting to get both the Lady AND the Headmistress of the Leonard family but now that just means my pockets will be lined up with more gold!”

I couldn’t hide the anger from my voice. “I can’t believe you would betray Lord Xavier like this! You were trusted to protect Noah and the family and this is how you repay that trust?”

Ben laughed. “It’s nothing personal, sweetheart. Just business. Lord Xavier paid a pretty bonus after we graduated the Academy but it was nothing in comparison to what King Douglas paid us before we even enrolled.”

“You see, the Big Boss is planning something pretty huge and he instructed us to save his dear and sweet sister, Mrs. Leonard before everything went up in flames.”

He looks over at Belinda with a sincere smile. “The Boss has a nice cushioned seat on the Royal Council for you after your pesky son and his band of rebels get crushed.”

Belinda jolted forward towards Ben but was completely stopped by the chains that bound her. “I will never serve that murderer!”

Ben laughs once more before turning around to leave. “Well, you can take that up with the King tomorrow morning. Sweet dreams until then!”

I watched as Ben left us while two of his guards stayed behind. It was only a matter of time before we were to be hauled off to the Royal City, and I knew that I had to do something to get us out of these chains and quickly.

I used a minor fire spell to heat my hand as I grabbed a hold of my chains. “I’ll explain everything once we get back to Noah but I need you to work with me, Mrs. Leonard. We can’t possibly let them take us back to the Royal City, especially since Douglas has been working with the Vampire Kingdom.”

Belinda looked at me with a horrified and angry expression but she simply nodded her head. Even she knew what our priorities were right now.

As soon as I melted away my chains, I started to work on Belinda’s. It was then that I heard the guards running for us.

“Hey! Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Without even thinking I pointed my hand right at them and unleashed a fireball at the two men. They instantly caught on fire and fell to the ground. Their screams were agonizing to listen to but I knew that it was either us or them.

“Stand back!” Belinda barked at me as soon as I got her chains off.

Taking a few steps back, I watched as Belinda shifted into her wolf form. Hers was the same as Xavier’s aside from a streak of white fur that streaked across her eyes.

I climbed up the stairs and looked out into the living rooms to see that no one was around.

Belinda motioned for me to get on her back so we could get out of the estate as soon as possible. We needed to make it back to Noah before they got back.

I climbed on Belinda’s back and held on tightly as she sprinted across the living room in the blink of an eye. As soon as she busted through the door, that’s when we saw Ben and his other men.

“What?! How the hell did they get loose?! After them now!”

While we were running through the yard and making our way down the road, I saw Dylan chained to a post. Our eyes met briefly and at that moment, I saw regret and sorrow.

“Mrs. Leonard, please! We need to get Dylan out of there!”

She shook her head no and kept running.

I wanted to protest even more but before I could get out another word, arrows started flying through the air. One of them managed to hit Belinda’s leg as she fell to the ground and I flew off of her back.

“Mrs. Leonard!”

I rushed to her side immediately as she whimpered in pain.

“You brats!” Ben called out to us. “Grab them now!”

His men had us surrounded. Just as I was about to cast another fireball spell, it started to storm.

Damn it! My fire magic will be useless with this rain!

I shielded Belinda from the other men. Just as they were about to grab us, a red-coated wolf slashed and started fighting them. I looked into the wolf’s forest-green eyes and I immediately knew it was Dylan.

“Thank you,” I mouthed at him.

He nodded his head and kept them all preoccupied.

“Fine, I’ll take care of you brats myself!” Ben roared.

Just as he was closing the distance, lightning started to crash all around us. An idea popped into my head and I knew I had to make a decision.

Oh, Goddess of the Moon, hear my prayer! Allow me to use my power to protect Mrs. Leonard so that we may make it back to Noah and Lord Xavier safely!