Damien's POV

Fuck my life.

Why did I have to say that?

Maybe it was so that she would stop asking me about what it is that I truly want. Scratch that, what I need, crave.

Too afraid to answer that question myself, I shrugged it off by saying something stupid yet again.

There is no 'finding someone eventually'. For years, my mind has avoided the thoughts of being with someone entirely. There was only one woman I allowed myself to be vulnerable for, and she turned out to be the biggest deception of my existence.

A part of me knew that reliving the past and letting it affect my present was wrong, but the aftermath of that betrayal continued to live through my every breath.

Lose, hurt, the never-ending pain. When every person you have ever cared for leaves you.

I wanted nothing more than just to erase that awful memory, it didn't deserve a place in my mind.

Aliya was awkwardly quiet the ride back home, and I was starting to think I had ruined another night of hers.

Not just any night, the first time we actually went out together. It felt like a crime to want her all to myself, without her running away to mingle and chat with my sister. Although I understood why she would get intimidated, being surrounded by vampires who love to feast on humans wouldn't be an ideal party for her. Which is why I kicked everybody out of the restaurant for the rest of the night, making up some dumb excuse when she asked me about it. Having her feel bad about it was the last thing that I wanted.

She is too nice for her own good.

I would shoot a few glances in her direction while I was driving, but I always found her turned away from me looking out the window like she was ready to jump out any second now. That is how annoyed she seemed, with a small frown on her face and eyes glaring into the distance.

Darkness surrounded us by the time we made it back to the castle. The guards opened the gates and I barely hit the brakes inside the driveway before the passenger door flew open and she was already on her feet, barging inside the castle.

This woman.

***

Aliya's POV

The distance between the main entrance of the castle and the king's chambers consisted of long hallways, sharp corners, and a million different groups of people. I turned back to check if he was behind me, but he wasn't. Looks like his majesty won't be carrying me in his arms up to his bedroom again tonight.

I was on my own.

There was a group of guards and soldiers who stopped talking and turned to look at me, clearing away from my way as I passed through them.

"Are you lost, human?" One of them asked, his dark eyes looking at me like I was the only prey in a room full of predators.

He was now blocking my way, unlike the rest of them who had moved back to give me some room. His gigantic physique made it impossible for me to move past him, with his head looming over my body.

He chose the wrong day to get on my nerves.

"Does it look like I'm lost? I clearly know the way that I am going, which you are now blocking," I said to him.

A snicker was heard from beside me, it was another guard who seemed to be amused by the encounter. I recognized him as Anthony; I wasn't familiar with the ranks of the royal guards but I knew he was one of the main ones who was always with the king. He ended up receiving a glare from the soldier in front of me, "Something funny, Anthony?"

"As of now, no. But your reaction to the king's reaction to your reaction to Aliya would be a thrill to watch," Anthony said, and I noticed he called me by my name and not by some human, like the rest of the vampires tend to do.

His tongue twisted words somehow managed to make perfect sense, so I turned back to the rude person in front of me and said, "I'm sure he's actually on his way right now, seeing as we made it back to the castle together."

Astounded, this time he was the one who took a step back, away from me. Fear shot in his eyes as he tried his hardest to hide it from me and looked over to the other men, "let's go, boys."

"Leaving so soon? It's rude to leave a conversation hanging," I knew I was testing my luck, but I didn't seem to care.

I was sick and tired of being tossed around by everyone.

Anthony came to my side, "yes, let us wait for the king to join us, at least?"

"I am sure he would be delighted to see you cowardly picking on someone half your size," I added.

There was a fire inside me which was growing by the second, lighted by the king himself at the restaurant. It was getting out of my control, I could almost feel it burning at the tip of my tongue, forcing the words out.

But before I could get speak another word, the soldier and his two buddies turned back and disappeared down the hall.

Using Damien's name appeared to be the deadliest of weapons around here. Nobody wanted to get on his rough side; and honestly, what was stopping me from using that to my advantage? Even if I didn't have any powers of my own, being associated with the vampire king put me in a far superior position than I realized.

He didn't bow down to anyone.

Yes Aliya, because he is the freaking king, I told myself.

But I was the queen of my own destiny; me coming to terms with that was long overdue. It was time when I started to act like it. I couldn't always depend on others to protect me, and frankly I did not want anyone's protection.

I survived years worth of torture and neglect on my own, and I was capable of surviving so much more.

"Thank you," I smiled at Anthony, for having my back even though we barely knew each other.

I started to make my way towards my destination but then I noticed him following my actions.

"May I walk you back to the king's tower?" he asked me.

Surprised by his kind gesture and politeness, I nodded. Damien must have gotten busy with something, which would be the only explanation as to why he did not follow me into the castle.

"Sorry about Louise, he can be somewhat of a..."

"Bully?" I asked.

He laughed, "I was going to say stupid fucking asshole, but that works too."

The hallways became less bright and lively, and that's how I knew we were getting closer to my- I mean, the king's bedroom.

The inspiring architecture of the place and the walls decorated with beautiful artwork welcomed us to the kings tower. The round stairs led us straight into the highest parts of the castle, with burning candles and the incoming moonlight lighting the halls just enough so we weren't knocking into things on our way there.

Why was he so obsessed with darkness?

Did the light hurt his eyes?

It wouldn't be a wild guess considering he always wore sunglasses when he stepped out of the palace.

"You're like the only guard who has spoken to me ever since I got here," I looked at Anthony from the corner of my eyes.

"I might have an idea why," he trailed off.

I gave him a confused look.

"The king has been very strict about your safety, but some of the soldiers like Louise just got back from a business in another town, so they didn't know who you were. Which is why he was being disrespectful, whereas the rest of us have been given a very long lecture about ensuring your protection and the potential harms that may come your way. Other than that, the king was also serious about two other things: 'keeping our distance and keeping our mouth shut'."

Even though I was upset with Damien, it made me feel a little better that he cared about my safety.

"But I don't see how I can protect you by doing either one of those. I won't let the king's possessiveness come in between my loyalty and responsibilities towards the throne. Sometimes you have to follow your own heart rather than a bunch of orders that come from a place of obsession."

"That makes perfect sense. And here I was going crazy talking to myself trying to figure out why the guards kept brushing me off," I claimed, thinking about Zain and Leo who completely ignored me.

"Oh yeah, trust me, it's not because of you," he said.

We arrived at the king's chambers, the doors were pushed open with two guards on either side of it.

"Thank you for accompanying me, I really appreciate it," I turned back to look at Anthony.

He bowed his head and returned my smile, "anytime, milady."

He said with a fake British accent; he held my gaze as he took a few steps back and turned around to leave. His frame vanished down the hall where we came from.

Taking a deep breath, I walked inside the room expecting to find Damien since the door was left open. But there was no one here, I thought he would've either teleported himself here or flew past us using his vampire speed without me even noticing. While I had to depend on my human feet to drag me along the huge palace.

I was about to walk into the closet to change out of the dress, but something on the bed caught me eyes.

It was a beige-colored fur coat, which even from a distance seemed so soft to the touch, making me want to reach out and cherish it under my hands. And so I did, but right as I picked it up I noticed a note laying on top of it.

I caught it right before it fell to the ground, opening up the half folded piece of paper which read:

I am sorry.

Let me make it up to you.

Time for your wish #2

Put this on and meet me at the terrace in 3..2..1.

Yours,

Damien

My heart skipped a beat, which it is clearly not supposed to do just thinking about him writing a note for me. His writing, his words, his thoughts, I could just drown in them. Even though it was a simple note with a clear message, I didn't know how to react.

Was this some form of trick?

It felt like deja vu.

Valentino had drafted me a similar letter to call me onto the roof where he tried to kill me. My eyes widened at the similarity between the two events.

To make sure, I ran back to ask the guards if Damien was here, to which they responded he came but then left again a few moments before I got here.

Was it really him?

Shaking off the odd feeling, I decided to put the coat on. If it was Damien, he probably asked me to wear it because he knows how I nearly freeze to death at nights here. If it wasn't for his warm, cozy, and sent from heaven blankets, I wouldn't have survived the long nights.

He is an angel after all, I shouldn't be too surprised if he did made a quick trip to the heavens.

***

My body protested as I stepped out into the cold air on the terrace, leaving the threshold behind. The fur coat wrapped around me and kept my upper body warm, but my legs were still exposed to the coolness of the night.

Why did the temperature suddenly drop drastically?

My question was answered as soon as my eyes settled upon the atmosphere.

Rain showers.

No, this was different.

Slower, as light as a feather.

As fragile as glass.

And as white as snow.

Snow.

But it was summer. There couldn't possibly be an explanation for why it was suddenly snowing in the summer.

The magical, white particles danced around, laughing with the light breeze as it fell from the sky. The light from the street lamps bounced off them, making them even more visible against the dark night.

A smoke cloud appeared in front of me, and I realized it was my own breath mixing with the coldness.

There was a shadow to my left, as the person walked closer, I was able to make out who it was just by looking at his frame.

Damien.

"Damien!" I called out to him, my steps closing the distance between us, still mesmerized.

"What- How..."

There was a stutter in my words, I couldn't believe it was actually snowing.

Was I right about him visiting heaven, did he have some sort of tie up with the gods? So much that he convinced them of this sudden change in the weather?

Or was I dreaming?

My eyes glanced up at the sky, and felt the cold, icy tips of white fur land on my face. My hands reached out to capture them in my palms, my mind expecting to wake up from this dream any second.

I could feel Damien's amused eyes on my face, which provided my cheeks with some much needed warmth.

There was something different about him as I turned to look at him. There was snow that was lucky enough to have landed on his soft, dark hair. But that wasn't what caught my attention, it was what he was wearing.

His fancy, signature suit was replaced by a denim shirt and faded black jeans, with brown combat boots that reached just over his ankles. His shirt was folded at his elbows, his tattoos on display as if telling a story of their own. There was something about his steamy outfit, the risqué clothing, and the rough material of his jeans that radiated off a bad-boyish kind of vibe from him.

Might I dare to say that wasn't even the best part, no. It was the fact that his shirt was fully unbuttoned, giving me a crystal clear view of his solid chest, his defined abdomen, and the V-shape that disappeared under his pants.

Oh. My. God.

In the moment, he didn't seem like the invincible vampire king.

He almost seemed human; more similar to me than ever before.

Well, except that he could pass for a Calvin Klein model.

I really hope he did not hear that.

"What are you thinking about?" Damien brought me back to reality, giving me a 'told you I'm not going to read your thoughts anymore' look.

Which I was extremely grateful for.

"I- How did you..." Why was it so hard to get a grip on my self?

"Where did it go?" His eyes searched my face for a sign of something I was unknown to.

"What?"

He poked my cheek with his index finger, which made me retrieve my face from his simple touch which warmed the spot. I smiled because of how cute he was acting.

Definitely not cute. I was supposed to be mad at him, remember?

"That," he said, "I would do anything to bring that smile back on your face. Even if that means making it snow in the summer."

How could I stay mad at him?

Did I even hear him right?

"Is this some sort of trick? How can you 'make it snow'?"

My mind swinging between the reality and what could possibly be a dream, I wondered what if it was neither? Was it magic brought to life, or something else?

"Lets just say I have a few hidden talents, and controlling the weather just happens to be one of them," Damien turned away and proceeded to walk further into the distance, hands in his pocket.

"You're joking, right? Did you hire someone to do this, a witch perhaps who knows magic?"

He turned his head, looking offended as if asking me the same thing. You're joking, right?

"Okay, prove it then. Make it stop snowing," I told him, looking up again.

To my much surprise, it actually did. I looked at him, eyes wide and lips parted. His eyes were closed, as if focusing his energy solely on whatever connection he had with the nature that it listened to him.

"You're crazy. I didn't know you could control the freaking weather. Since when?" I asked him, desperate for an answer.

"That's because no one else knows. There are things that I just can't reveal to the world, so I keep it hidden. There was a time when my father tried to kill my angelic side, the rituals merely had an effect on me and my special abilities, but I fooled him into believing that I lost them, just so he couldn't use them to his own benefit anymore," he looked down for a second, at the layer of snow that had gathered beneath our feet, "but to answer your question, I have been able to control the weather since the age of four, that was when I learned how to rule and focus my powers."

He said it like it was yesterday, but it was more than a century ago for him. I remembered Eric talking about those rituals his father performed on him, with the help of a witch. But as it turns out, he did not lose his abilities like he led the world to believe.

Maybe he will tell you some day, Eric had said when I asked what those powers were.

Damien blinked and it started to snow again, the pieces falling on us like pure bliss. It truly was a blissful moment, and I took a minute to capture it in my mind.

The soft look in Damien's black eyes, the silkiness of his hair that he ran a hand through to get rid of the fallen snow. The dim light caressing his face in all the right angles. The air around us picked up again, dragging the material of his shirt to the side, which gave me a better view of his hard abs.

"Thank you," I found myself saying, "it's beautiful, way more than I could ever imagine."

Why did I have a feeling I wasn't only talking about the snow?

"You're welcome," he smiled at me, one of those rare, precious smiles.

And then we were in a dazzle. He was a few inches away from me, his eyes filled with an unknown emotion I had never seen there before. An emotion I didn't know he was capable of feeling.

His icy gaze sent a shudder up and down my spine, his hands automatically reached out to bring the fur coat that I was wearing closer around my body.

"Don't catch some chills now," his voice dropped low.

"Aren't you cold?"

He was walking around with his shirt open as if he was under the summer heat.

My almost frozen hands managed to grab his shirt and brought it closer against him too, without letting go of the material. My hands fisted onto it and I felt his naked skin barely touch my fingers.

He was freezing cold.

"You're freezing!" I said to him, and brought his body closer to mine, as an attempt to radiate some of my heat onto him.

"I'm alright, princess. Worry about yourself, I can handle the cold remember?"

Right, because he still was the invincible vampire king, even though he looked far from it right now.

"Maybe we should head back in," he must've noticed my icy-cold hands against his skin or that I kept sniffing.

"Just a little while longer," I pleaded, still keeping my hands in place grabbing onto him. Partly to keep his shirt from flying everywhere and partly to keep him close to me. Because even though he was cold to the touch, being close to him warmed my insides. And that warmth spread from every fiber to the rest of my body.

Oh, and also because he blocked the chilled air from hitting me directly on the face.

"If you say so... come here then," his arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me even closer, "so I can keep you warm."

My head rested on the curve of his neck, my hand reached up to land on his chest, fingers looping around the necklace that he was wearing. My other arm snaked around his body, grabbing the back of his shirt to keep him in place.

There was barely enough room to breathe between us now.

I felt trapped, but in a way which I never wanted to escape from.

"I didn't think you would come," Damien broke the silence, "after what happened here last time when..."

I know what he was referring to, and he was right. The thought did cross my mind, that this might be another set up that I might be falling for yet again.

"It was hard. I had my doubts, but my instincts brought me here," I paused, and then said, "I don't want to relive those memories, that was the worst day of my life."

A thought hit me, making me wish I could take back my words. I didn't want to relive those memories, but there was one thing that I wanted to know for the longest time.

Everybody said he saved my life that day, but I wanted to hear his side of the story, his perspective on what he did, and how.

I turned my head to look up at him, still wrapped in each other, "but I do wonder, what happened after Valentino stabbed me? All I remember was falling into nothingness, and the next I know I wake up in your bed screaming."

Pain shot through his eyes, accompanied by guilt, and then anger.

"I was at the party when I felt something was off, I quickly scanned the room and couldn't find you. Then I heard it, your scream when he... when he hurt you. I just followed the sound of your voice and your scent all the way up to the terrace, I couldn't make out his face because he was facing away from me. But I did see yours, filled with shock and betrayal. It made me freeze for a second and that was when he pushed you off the edge. Fuck, I still remember it as clear as the day, it's engraved in my memory."

I forgot how to breathe as I looked at him, heard him. Heard his sentences which were forcefully put together with painful words.

"I was falling, how could I survive something like that? Falling from the highest tower of the castle?"

"My wings," he took a hold of my face, the touch of his hand was comforting and cool at the same time, "after he pushed you, I didn't care. I didn't care about a fucking thing; my body reacted before my mind could process what was going on, and it jumped right after you. My wings appeared on my back and they gave me the extra push that I needed to reach you faster than you reached the ground."

Tears pooled up in my eyes, and I blinked hard to push them back in.

What he described was scary, scarring to the core. It felt straight out of a horror story, the worst possible nightmare. Where you feel yourself falling, but you wake up glad it was just a dream.

But this was no dream.

We had lived through those moments, shared them.

"After that it was all a blur. Medical doctors rushed through the doors, hooking you up to all these machines, your slowing heartbeat, your blood... you lost too much blood, dammit. And when they said you weren't responding to the treatment, I almost knocked the doctor out for even having the thoughts of giving up on you. I told him I couldn't lose you."

Fury raged in his eyes, thinking back to the time. I grabbed onto his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, to reassure him I'm here now.

"But you never gave up on me, why?"

"Because if there was anything that I knew about you back then, it was the fact that you were a fighter. You never backed down without a fight, even against me when I was your worst enemy. Okay, I still am, but that's not the point. The point is, you never know how to give up. So I believed in you, I believed in my trust in you. That you would come back, that you do want to live."

"I think what hurt the most was that Valentino framed you and made me believe that you tried to kill me. So even though I wasn't injured from the fall, I was broken knowing you hurt me," I tried to explain to him.

"I know, but just know this. No matter what, I would never try to hurt you. I hope we are never in such situation again but promise me, promise me you will trust me."

"How can I trust you when you hide things from me?"

He wasn't expecting me to say that, he looked at me with confused eyes. Trying to figure out what I meant by that.

So I continued, "why didn't you give up on me, Damien?"

I asked the same question, expecting a different outcome.

Conflicted, he shifted his weight onto the front of his foot and then back again, trying to think of an answer.

"I want to know what is this between us?" My voice dropped to a whisper.

My direct question left him speechless, but I wasn't in the mood to beat around the bush anymore.

"You said you would be honest with me tonight."

I had to remind him.

He looked elsewhere, not meeting my eyes. The question made him uncomfortable, I could tell. But I wanted to show him that he could trust me with his deepest and darkest secrets and I wouldn't tell a single soul.

Whatever this was, it was between us. It was intimate. So it was selfish of him to know all the answers to my questions and remain silent.

This concerned the both of us.

Cupping his face, I forced him to look at me.

"Why is it that every time we touch I feel a sudden rush of electric sparks?"

His dark eyes found mine, like they could stare deep in my soul. I felt exposed, but I wanted him to know that he could be vulnerable around me too.

"Why do you care so much about me, that you couldn't afford to lose me?"

No response. It pained him to look at me.

I brought his face closer to mine, while titling mine up so we were both only breathing each other in. The bridge of his nose touched mine lightly, tracing it slowly.

"Why is it that I forget how to breathe when you're near? Like right now," I whispered against his lips, without touching them completely.

Our lips weren't making any form of physical contact, but they were separated by a few millimeters of entrancing energy that attracted us to each other.

What he said next made me forget the rest of the world. It didn't matter which world we were both currently in, because we could travel between both realms and I would still feel this way towards him. There wasn't a corner of this universe where I wouldn't be able to find my way back to him.

"Because you're my mate," Damien breathed out, his golden eyes which I missed looked at me as if it physically hurt him to hold himself back any longer.

And so he finally let go, closing the small space between us and bending down to kiss me.

******************************************