Chapter 3

I slid unfamiliar hands over unfamiliar skin, trying to feel right. Since waking up, everything had seemed foreign to me. Even this body seemed too weird to me; like a second skin that I somehow couldn’t remove. I turned off the shower, wrapping up in a towel before stepping out.

My moving self caught my attention from the mirror, and I stopped before it, taking another look. An unfamiliar face looked back at me, studying the same set of features that I was trying to study.

I have a pair of sharp black eyes. They are big and round, making me look like a doll as it is set on pale face. My hair is a bright fire red mess, tumbling all to my shoulders and beyond. I must have slept for long, because I have a bed-head that can’t be tamed no matter how I tried to attack it.

I smiled a little, and then poked my own dimples, studying them. They were deep potholes, and though they accentuated my smile perfectly, I had no recollection of them being on my face at all. If someone expected me to remember something from looking in the mirror, at myself, then that person was sorely wrong. I was no more enlightened about my past than I was five minutes ago.

With a heavy sigh at the vacuum where my memories were supposed to be, I stepped out of the bathroom, surprised to see the woman from before –the one with the gun –standing alone in the bedroom, waiting expectantly for me. Her face was emotionless, and I got the impression that she was a duty-over-making-friends type of girl. I mean, now that I’m not the princess of anything –well, at least I feel that way –she probably could open up a little and find some sort of friend in me, right?

But hey, I’m not going to insist.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched me, wrapped up in my towel. I stood before her, unsure if I wanted to ignore her presence, or ask her why she was here. Maybe if I was still a princess, I would scream at her to get out. But losing my memories must have made me more vulnerable and maybe more sociable.

“Princess, please remove the towel so I can get your measurements.” She spoke in a respectful tone, but her actions and facial expression didn’t fit it. She strode forward in a no-nonsense movement, and her expression is nothing but determined. I clutched tighter to my towel.

“Why?” She reached me, didn’t bother answering my question, grabbed a handful of the towel from the front, and pulled with such force that shocked me, causing me to lose grip and stumble a little as I was unfurled.

I gave a little squeal, regaining my balance. Then I was suddenly very aware of the wide eyes that were on me. Self-conscious, I crossed my arms over my breasts, but nothing covered my… woman part below. I tried to turn around, but she was there, holding on to my shoulders almost instant.

“Don’t move. You don’t want me to get you clothes of the wrong size, do you?” She said in a strict bossy tone, and it is only by instincts that I stopped struggling. She removed the arms over my breasts, taking a good look at them. I blushed, very self-conscious now, and tried not to look at the way her eyes were wide, staring.

Oh god, is she a lesbian?

We stood there, awkward for at least a minute, before she finally moved. It must also have been really awkward for her, because her face was red too –though not as much as mine –and she couldn’t meet my eyes either.

“I will order some clothes for you based on the measurements I’ve taken. For now, Princess, please wear my humble clothes. It might not fit you perfectly, but it will only before today.” She sounded definitely gentler now, now that embarrassment had torn through her first wall of emotional defense.

“U-um okay. Can you tell me beforehand you do that next time? I thought you were… I don’t know, lesbian for a moment there.”

She, already on the way back to the door, stopped mid-step, and turned around with a small smile. Well, that’s wasn’t very hard…

“I’ve been called many things in my life, but never ‘lesbian’.”

“Well, you didn’t give me a name to call you by. And making me strip naked on our first meeting doesn’t exactly tell me about your sexual orientation.”

She turns back towards the door, continuing as if she hadn’t been stopped at all.

“Call me Mila. The clothes are on the bed. Master Kain is waiting downstairs.” She closed the door, and I heard her footsteps down a flight of stairs. Since there was nothing else for me to do except obey, I studied the clothes laid out for me. Even though she’s made it in a way that she was unshapely, I thought she was awfully curvy, and I was even slightly afraid that I wouldn’t be able to fit her… boob size.

I didn’t have much to worry, though, since I found that I fit her perfectly too. Okay, I must have overestimated her size, because I looked down from the V-neck to see my boobs straining to spill out. Damn it… Her skirt fit me well too, and it even flared out a little. I went back to the bathroom to check myself, glad that I looked what I think she wanted me to look like –a normal woman.

Apart from the almost boob-spillage, I was dressed and ready to go. There was nothing more waiting for me upstairs, so I took my first step out the door. A simple corridor met me, and I followed it to the end, where a staircase brought me down to ground floor.

It opened out to a living area, where I found the crash-through-the-bedroom party along with Kain, talking quietly while lounging on the couch, each with a steaming mug of what I have to guess is blood. Their conversation broke as I entered the room, and Mila smiled a little at how well her clothes had fit me. Scarface did a double-take on me with his one eye, and Funny-Looking Man only grinned like a madman.

He frankly reminded me of the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland, which I remembered watching… but not sure when and where.

“Princess, you’re ready. Come, we will talk on our way.” Kain stands up, speaking in his respectful, gentle voice.

“On our way to?” I asked, but made towards him anyway. It was obvious that they had things planned out for me, and since I was without a memory, I guess I would just have to follow them until I have some back.

“We are still close to the Dragos as we speak. I’ve arranged for a jet to be waiting for us at an airport close by. We will be staying somewhere safe while you recover your memories and we plan for the counter-attack the Dragos.”

“Okay.” I nod. There is a sliver in me that still doubts them; and everything they say, but the problem is that if I doubt them, then there will be no one I can trust or listen to. If I don’t believe Kain, then who can I turn to? Even if Kain is my enemy, and is sending me to my grave, I wouldn’t know until it is too late.

I guess the best way for me now is to follow them and watch them carefully. I don’t which sentence they speak is a lie, which is the truth; and right now, I can only take them all in, and try to work my head around this new situation that I’m in.

“Before we go, let me introduce you to my small team. You must have talked to Mila upstairs in my room. This man here is Gabriel.” He said, gesturing to Scarface who nodded in acknowledgment of his name being called.

“Gabriel was one of the elite bodyguards of your Kingdom, one of the royal warriors to your father.” Kain supplied further, but Gabriel stood up abruptly, looking away from me.

“That was the past. Elite bodyguard or not, I have failed the Lucifer Crown and I will not do so again. I will be waiting outside.” He said gruffly in a duteous way –which would totally make another damsel in distress quiver in awe and melt in a womanly puddle, but not me. Gabriel, aka. Scarface, stalked out of the living area, scooping his mug from the table as he did so.

Bodyguard, pissed off, duteous man or not, he was still a vampire, huh.

Mila exchanged a nod with me, grabbed her mug too, and went chasing after Gabriel. I guess they were the two dutiful soldiers of the gang, leaving Kain as the ‘Master’ and the unnamed-funny-looking-man.

I didn’t have to ask Kain for his name, because he jumped up quickly with a flourish, bowing low almost as if he were a court clown, greeting royalty. Glee wrote across his face, and in the morose, tense and dark situation that we were all in at the moment –what with Dragos attacking my kingdom, my kingdom falling and my father’s death and all –he seemed like a light in the darkness. Not so much the knight-in-shining-armor way.

More of the annoying-firefly-flitting-around-your-nose-for-no-apparent-reason way.

“My name” he announces, as he bowed lowly, “is Ren. But I have many other names. You know; the maids in your kingdom used to call me ‘Pretty Face’, ‘Handsome Guy’, ‘Hot Stuff’, and ‘sweet Mamma Jamma!’. Okay, the last one was when one of them was in bed with me…” He trails off, a distantly pleasurable smile hanging on his face.

Kain made an irritated voice at the back of his throat, and Funny-Man jerked back to reality.

“Anyways…” He drawled. “I’m your very own personal mage. You might wonder; why is someone as good-looking and talented as me hanging around vampires like you?”

Kain turned around to give him a look that I couldn’t see, but Ren is apparently good at ignoring glares.

“Well, the answer is simple: I like to play with you bloodsuckers. You know; your kind is one of the most thrilling to be around? Especially Kain-Boy here. He bites, but he’s cute and all mushy inside. I know his dirty little secret, you know… He’s…” He drifted off, eyes finally passing from me to Kain, and his smile turns frozen.

“Heh… umm, I guess I shouldn’t say anything that’s going to get me thrown from the airplane later. I’ll umm… see you guys later. I think I need to cast some flying spells for myself just in case.” Ren raised both hands in weak surrender, and before I could say more, the man picked up the sharp cane-thing by his side and bounded out the room in what I could only describe as a comical manner.

Kain deflated very obviously, and collapsed back on the sofa, as if finally letting go of an exterior that he’d been keeping around his gang.

“I am truly sorry for their behavior, Princess. Ren… has always been wild. Gabriel has been hard to break through since the death of his liege, and Mila… well, Mila is just being her.” Kain apologized softly, but his eyes weren’t on me, but rather closed and covered by a tired palm.

Instantly, I felt sorry for him. No matter what control he seemed to have over them, they seemed to have their own wild force which wouldn’t be suppressed by anyone. I understood that no one could be truly controlled, but Kain seemed distraught that they weren’t on their best behavior around me.

“Don’t worry about it. I like them just the way they are. I don’t want you to call me ‘Princess’ anymore either. Try saying my name.” I replied, taking a seat beside him –and since I was feeling all Miss Brave and stuff, I sat right next to him, thigh-to-thigh. Man, he did have muscles everywhere.

My name must be a blasphemy for him, for he removed his hand, eyes opening so suddenly and so wide that I was surprised they haven’t popped out yet.

“But, Princess… I cannot!”

“Seraphina. That’s not that hard. You can call me Fina if you want too.” I tried to give him the encouraging smile, but the idea horrified him. Was calling a royal by name such an offense in my kingdom?

“You are a Princess, I am…… I am a no one! I cannot call you by name, Princess. I cannot.” He seemed to be trying to convince himself more than me, the horror in his voice as he stared at me as if I’d grown horns and was telling him that I wanted to eat him up for breakfast.

“You said my name alright when I asked for it just now. Come on now. Seraphina.” I said, my own name unfamiliar on my tongue. Damn it, I had to get used to this: this voice, this body, this everything.

He shakes his head determinedly, and I frowned. Alarm flashes across his face –which was kind of cute for a moment –and he looked painfully conflicted, his throat working as he tried and stopped and tried to speak my name.

“I was a Princess before this, Kain, but I’m not a princess now. I want to be treated like a vampire. Okay, like a vampire who has lost her memories, but still a vampire. Can you do that?” I placed my hands over his on his lap, trying to convince him as best as I could. He might still be my enemy; I don’t know. But I won’t go around being called Princess. If I was a spoilt vampire princess before I lost my memories… then I wouldn’t want to be her now.

“For your kingdom… you once gave up your name. You told me that yourself. You told me, sitting by the fountain, that for your father and your Kingdom, and your last name as Lucifer, you will forget your name. You asked me to do so too, only to remember you by ‘Princess’. Now you… want to be treated like another vampire. You want your name back.” He spoke in a slightly distressed and haunted tone, and while his gaze was on our clasped hands, his mind was far away –most probably into a memory that both of us shared… except that I’d forgotten it.

“Seraphina…” He snapped his eyes up to look at mine suddenly, capturing mine in his ensnaring blue eyes, never letting go. In those eyes; there was a promise he made to the old me, to call me forever by ‘Princess’.

Then he grabbed me in a hug so tight that he squeezed the air out of my lungs, pressing me against his oh-so-hard chest.

I still doubted him, but I don’t doubt that emotions behind that hug. He loves me. I don’t know how he has fallen in love with a princess, but he just has. Even if I lost my memories, he still loves me. Even if he is the enemy –even if he somehow is leading me to my death, there is this part in his heart that loves me.

“Seraphina… Oh, Seraphina… I have you back at my side again! Finally, after waiting so long… I have you, your name, and your heart!” His voice almost cracked with emotions overflowing, and I smiled in spite of myself.

I don’t know many things; I lost lots of memories. I have this gaping hole in my heart that needs to be filled with the memories that I lost, but slowly, it’s being filled up by new ones.

New ones; with Kain.