Dusk had arrived and Ana was roused by her lady’s maids to ready her for her journey towards her husband’s estate in Eldar, the northern land of Elfiro. Her husband. She was still not used to calling Ivan as her husband. When her mother had left for Sanggre earlier that dawn, she had thought Ivan would sleep with her. Wasn’t that the sleeping arrangement for married couples? But Ivan, as per her trusted Erien, was busy making plans of some sort with his men. Of what nature the plans were, Erien had no idea.

Ana just gave Erien a shrug, telling the elf that it didn’t matter what Ivan had been doing, or that she had spent her wedding night, or wedding day since she had already accustomed herself to sleep during the day, alone in her chambers. But secretly, she was kind of disappointed that Ivan avoided her after the celebration.

“Well, it’s his loss!” she told herself. “He just missed a lingerie fashion show!” Not that she was ever going to give him a live show of her wearing that flimsy black lace her mother referred to as sleeping garments that her queen mother had given her daughter as a wedding present. No. She wasn’t that bold enough. Or sexy enough. In fact, she suddenly felt self-conscious about her thin frame. She never had a problem about how she had looked like before. But now that she was married to Ivan, and the way those court ladies with extremely large breasts barely covered by their flimsy, poor excuse of a dress gave Ivan several amorous glances yesterday… she suddenly wished she was well-endowed like them.

She gave her head a swift shake. Now she was having self-esteem problems. Just great. It’s Ivan’s fault! No, really. If he just avoided looking at those ladies with big, over-sized, humongous, alien-like–

 “Are you ready?” Ivan’s voiced suddenly echoed within the walls of her room. She snapped her head to the doorway where Ivan stood, looking impeccably handsome in his white shirt and black fitted trousers. He was again staring at her with a dark scowl on his face, and she was puzzled as to why her husband looked as if he wanted to strangle her.

“Yes, I am,” she answered. “Are we to go now?”

Ivan gave her a small nod and strode away from her room, leaving Ana no choice but to follow him.

A cold night welcomed her as she climbed inside the golden carriage provided for her use. She was accompanied by her two lady’s maids –Lucya sat beside her while Erien sat on the opposite.

Ivan preferred to be outside riding his white stallion. But Ana had the distinct feeling that he was avoiding her. She pushed the curtains to the side and took a peek outside the carriage. He was beside them, and several of his men surrounded her carriage –some were at the front, while others were stationed at the back. She also heard Ivan earlier giving orders to two of his men to scout ahead. It was as if they were travelling to a very dangerous journey and they needed all the protection they could get.

She leaned back on her seat and sighed. She noticed Ivan had started acting aloof towards her since the night after the celebration. She recalled his murderous look that dawn when he interrupted her conversation with her mother. After that he began treating her like how he did before –with vile and contempt in his eyes.

The carriage suddenly tilted to one side and swayed, causing Ana to slam to the side, her shoulder hitting the door with great force. She yelped once more when the carriage toppled its side, and she heard the horses whine and several voices shouting for instruction.

She felt the carriage sliding down a slope, and saw the frightened look on Erien’s face as the elf continued to wail, bracing herself by giving the golden squab of her seat a tight grip.

Ana was about to reach for Erien when she felt Lucya grabbing her arms and suddenly she was no longer inside the falling carriage but outside on the cool night, sprawled on the ground.

“Lucya! Erien is still in there!” she exclaimed.

Lucya gave her a quick nod, and teleported back to the carriage but it was too late. The carriage already hit the bottom of the cliff with Erien still trapped inside. Still, Lucya teleported to the bottom and searched for the elf beneath the rubbles and remains of what was once a beautiful golden carriage. When she found the elf’s hand peeking between the broken woods, she held it and teleported back to Ana.

The moment she saw Erien’s unconscious body, Ana ran towards her friend and cried. Poor Erien! Her limbs seemed to be broken, and her bloodied body was covered with splinters and deep cuts.

“Ivan!” Ana yelled. “Please help Erien…” She continued to sob as Ivan and two of his men assessed Erien.

Ivan gave her a solemn look. “We need to take her to our healer. We lack the needed resources to heal her here. We will send her back to the castle.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” she said in between sobs. “Let’s take here there.”

She was about to get up but Ivan pulled her down. “Listen,” her husband said. “I will have my men send her safely back to the castle. But we need to continue on our journey. Your brother and mother might be waiting for you in my estate as planned.”

She gave another look at her friend lying on the dirt. “Is she going to be fine, then?”

Ivan gave her a curt nod.

“Then please… have someone bring her there and fast.”

Another nod came from Ivan and he stood and ordered three men to bring Erien back to the castle.

Lucya dropped on her knees beside her. “I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I tried to save her… but… but…” The vampire began crying as well.

Ana threw her arms around Lucya. “She will be fine. Ivan will see to her safety.”

She saw Ivan standing not far from her as he barked a set of instructions to his men. As if he felt her eyes on him, he shifted his gaze on her and his angry amber eyes locked in with hers.

***

Ivan tightened the hold on his reins as he adjusted his arms that supported his wife’s back as her head suddenly fell on his shoulder, her even breath told him she fell asleep. Her wife had such funny ways; she had insisted she was well rested for she slept the entire day. But her she was, snoring loudly with her mouth hanging open. So unladylike. So far from how a princess should behave. And yet he couldn’t help himself from smiling while his wife started making big yawns and snuggled her little body closer to his.

His estate at Eldar wasn’t really that far; it was more or less a five hours ride away from the castle. But they needed to get to his home fast. He was very much alarmed over the carriage accident earlier. But he knew it was no accident. Someone had tampered the carriage wheel. Whoever was trying to kill his wife, the killer was now more desperate to have orchestrated such attempt while he was around.

The coachman had reported to Ivan that he had witnessed the wheel coming loose and suddenly detached itself from the rest of the carriage before it toppled over and fell off the cliff.

It was still unclear for Ivan as to who tried to assassinate his wife, or the reason behind the assassination. All he knew was that it was someone who tried to be as discrete as possible; someone who never had any real experience on killing someone. If the person behind it was someone of great importance, someone with power, then he would have hired professional killers, mercenaries, assassins to kill Anastasia. But then again, it could be possible that the killer wanted to look like as if everything was an accident.

Ivan eyed suspiciously the other vampire in their group who was sitting side-saddle on a brown mare.

He withdrew his gaze away from the vampire as they neared the gates of his home. The massive gates opened, allowing his party inside. He halted his horse in the courtyard and gently shook Ana’s arm to wake her up.

She blinked and stretched her arms. “We’re here?”

“Yes,” he answered in brusque tone. His captain of the guards assisted his wife off the horse, and Ivan dismounted afterwards.

His home was not as grand as the castle of Elfiro, but it was still magnificent in sight. It was more like a small palace, a place he sometimes went to escape the life of a crowned prince, a place where he could be whom he wanted to be. Tall multicolored windows adorned the whitewashed walls. In the evening, the palace looked eerie with its wall almost obscured by thick vines climbing all the way up to the towers. But in the morning, when the sun’s light touched the windows, it reflected the light by acting like a prism, creating an illusion of a ring of rainbow encircling the place. A pity his wife would not be able to see its grandiosity and beauty during the day.

After supper, Ivan introduced his men to Anastasia, and as expected, they all pledge their loyalty to her. His vampire wife would be safe from harm. He already confided to his trusted men, Alston the captain of the guards and Elvin, about the Anastasia’s situation and the killer still on the loose. They both guaranteed their prince they would keep the vampire princess safe.

Ivan left Anastasia to her chambers later that evening. When his wife asked her if he would be retiring for the night, he only answered her with a glare before he briskly strode away from her.

By gods! He could not contain the anger he felt for his wife at that moment. She looked so beautiful, so innocent… and yet she was not. She was never innocent. It already came straight from her mouth. She had slept with a different man before. He wasn’t even sure how many men had already had a taste of her delectable body.

Cursed this blasted jealousy that was eating him! He hated thinking about another man’s arms wrapped around Anastasia’s body. He knew she was no elf –she was a vampire, and vampires were very lusty creatures. But he had expected different from her, knowing that she was raised in the human world. He never expected for her to have freely given herself to other men.

He had to admit that he never really gave it a thought before about having to marry a virgin bride –he never agreed to the old customs of the elves. Frankly speaking he really never gave chastity a damn! But now, just thinking about another man had already pleasured his wife…

The crystal goblet he was holding broke due to his tight grip. He threw the remains of the glass on the flames in the fire place, wiped his bloodied palm on his shirt and stormed his way towards the door that separated him from his wife.