Chapter 6

I can’t wait any longer.

I order for him to be moved to my room, and the servants scramble to bring the battered boy to my quarters. He is still unconscious, but at the very least, he is cleaned up well, healing up well and wearing a decent pair of jeans.

I have him sleeping in a small room adjacent to mine, and I look up from my reading book occasionally to watch his hypnotizing rise and fall of chest. Vampires don’t breathe when we are alive and all, but when they are sleeping, we breathe alright. It is just natural trigger of the body that we share so close to the humans.

My servants come in with a goblet of blood –my lunch, and I finish it with quick efficiency. I tell them to prepare a syringe of blood for the unconscious boy, and they administer it to him without a question. I like my servants quiet and void of questions. They follow my orders quickly and efficiently, and I like them like that.

I continue reading my book in the silence of my quarters. My father has not been happy that I usurped the power of his throne before his subjects, but he must share my same pity for the boy, for he did nothing more than give me a lecture about me embarrassing before the crowd. He says nothing about the claiming, but I think it bothers him, for I have not claimed any vampire before this.

“Fina!” I hear my sister even before she bursts through the door. I groan inwards quietly as I replace my bookmark on the page where I’d stopped and left it peacefully on the table, awaiting my sister’s arrival. She burst through my double doors, eyes wide and wild. Though Mother died giving birth to Kelsey, Father had never blamed her. Instead, we loved Kelsey more than ever, for she was the miracle that Mother gave her life to bring to this world.

“Kelsey,” I greeted, “does it kill you to knock?”

“YOU CLAIMED SOMEONE! You claimed someone and you didn’t tell me?” Kelsey screamed her head off, and I flinched a little at the loud, high-pitched scream. She sounded like a groupie at her idol’s concert, and I wondered if it was the perfect dose of wake-up call for the battered boy sleeping in the next room.

“You were away with Dante, how am I supposed to tell you?” I asked in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, but Kelsey has never been taken in by this kind of thing. Think her as a always-burning flame. She never burns out, and she bugs the hell out of you. But she’s the cutest thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and I can’t bring myself to be, or even feel, bad around her.

“You could have called me! I heard of your heroic rescue! Where is he? Where is the man?” She demanded, and I pointed to the next room, praying for his sake that he wasn’t awake yet. I might not have established why I decided to save him at all, but I pity anyone who is the brunt of Kelsey’s fascination –in this case, him.

She sucks in a large gasp –though we don’t need breath –at the sight of the sleeping boy, and she disappears and appears in his ‘room’, standing beside his bed. I follow her, finding him still sleeping peacefully.

“He suffered a lot from the fight. He has not been awake since.” I informed as Kelsey devoured him with her eyes. I sure see Kelsey fawning over him in my mind, and make it a point to give him to her. I don’t need escorts, and I’m sure my sister appreciates a hot new vampire in her group of escorts.

“Oh, poor boy! Look how beaten up he is!” Kelsey exclaimed, touching his cheeks lightly. “What’s his name?”

I look at her, my mind going blank for a sudden moment. His… name?

“You know? N-A-M-E? The funny thing your parents give you when you’re born?” Kelsey prompts at my blank expression.

“Of course I know what a name is. I… just don’t know his yet.” I admitted, a hand on Kelsey’s forearm to drag her out of the room, partly to give him space and partly to escape more questions about him that I’d yet to answer. “So how did your outing with Dante go?”

Apparently it was enough a question to bring Kelsey’s attention away, because she began her rant on how our brother had ruined her perfect vacation in Hawaii, and had even spoilt her chances with a really hot human guy on the island. Still, my sister has managed to hook up with a hot surfer there, and she spent another half hour gushing about his abs, muscles and well… the little counterpart between his legs.

By pure begging persuasion, I had Kelsey finally out of my room, ready to exact revenge on our brother for her spoilt chances. I was about to return to my reading book, but decided the boy needed a quick check upon. I stayed by his bed a little longer than I should, and since Kelsey had done it, I mimicked her and touched his cheek lightly. I had never had contact with him ever since he came; only ordering the servants to place him and administer his meals through the syringe.

This was the first skin to skin contact I had with him, and he seemed……. Uncannily warm. The head pooled through his skin to my fingers, and I kept them there for a moment longer than I really should.

The moment I pulled my hand back, his eyelids fluttered, and opened slowly.

Back in the pit, during the fight, I had been too far away to look at his eyes, but up close now, I saw the clearest ocean blue eyes I’ve seen in my entire life. They were sharp and mesmerizing, and they darted everywhere to take in his surroundings with caution. I recognized a hunter’s instinct where I saw one, and allowed him to recover from his long sleep of recovery.

I stood by his bed, stiff and waiting. What will  his first words to me be? Does he recognize me? Does he know what I’ve done for him? Does he know who I am, or even what is going to happen?

He shoots upright the moment he places a name and rank to my face, and though I see a little of the unfocusing of his eyes, the dizziness striking him, I don’t do anything. The feminine, kinder and caring side of me wants to tell him to lie back down, but I am my father’s daughter, and I have to be the princess. I have to show him my place, and make sure he knows his place before we can establish anything. Just because I’ve claimed him as my escort doesn’t make him any more different from any other servant.

He is still below me.

“P-Princess! What happened? Why am I not dead?” He asked imploringly. I had expected him to be shocked or surprised, or maybe horrified to find out that he’d been sleeping in a princess’s quarters, but the imploring tone when he asked about his status of being alive struck me odd.

“Do you not wish to be alive? Did you wish to die in the pit?” I asked him, frowning a little in confusion. He is a weird one. I wonder if it is because his master hit in too hard in the head.

“No…” He says, but the conviction is not there. “Yes. I wish to die. I have come to regret the road that my skills have brought me down. I don’t want to live to kill another vampire in the pit. I will rather die at the hands of my master than someone else in the pit.” He changed his mind, and he hangs his head, as if embarrassed.

I stare at him. This is the boy I have saved? This ungrateful little brat that I have claimed to be my escort? This boy that I’ve galled myself and offended my father –ever so little –to save?

“I cannot believe the stupidity of my own actions. Go. If you wish to die, Boy, go. I will not stop you. Go find your master and end your pathetic little life. I cannot believe what atrocity I’ve done. I stepped out of line and went up against my father to save you, but it is apparent you don’t value your life as much as I do. Fine, go die. I wish you a swift and safe road to Hell.” I turn away from him, my anger lighting up like a fuse. I hate it when I step out of line to show a little kindness, and the person doesn’t even accept it.

How can I be so daft and stupid to stand up for a boy like him? I should have seen his desire to die in his last moves. I had mistaken it for a will to live, a will to put up a show for my father. I had caved in at that determination I thought I saw in his eyes. Perhaps I was wrong. I am still young, still unknowing. Perhaps Daddy is right. I should not step out of line any longer, until I am mature and all grown up; until I can look a person in his eyes and tell exactly his intent.

“You are upset, Princess. I have upset you so, but I do not understand why.” The boy’s hurt voice affected me more than I allowed myself to, and I stopped at the doorway to his little ‘room’.

“No, I am not. I am only frustrated at myself. How I could have made myself so blind to see something in you, how I could have believed –for even the slightest of moment –that you want to live, and that you have something to live for. I don’t know how I never saw that desire to die in your eyes. I don’t know why I am so daft and stupid enough to act on that tendril of pity for you while you wished you embrace your fate in the pit.” I replied explosively, but behind that, I feel hurt.

The feeling of hurt has nothing to do with the boy. I am hurt at my own incompetence.

I am aware that I am expected to be the heir to the throne. I am the crown princess; I am going to be the leader of the future vampire kingdom of Lucifer. Yet, here I stand, a mistake made. I have trusted my instincts, and gone against what is expected of me. I had thought myself to be doing something good; something that I want to do, and something I have power to do. I had thought I had carved out my own voice in the kingdom, and made my first mark on kingdom.

But I hadn’t. My first ‘voice’ was an entire mistake.

I clutched the doorway, feeling dizzy with despair. The truth strikes me harder than I thought.

I am not fit to be a leader.

“Princess! Are you well?” He exclaimed as he jumps out of bed, rushing to my side in an instant. Despite his grievous injuries, he seems to have recovered well. He doesn’t touch me, though, for he doesn’t dare to.

“Go away. Go away and die.” I brush him away, trying to regain my feet. Even if I were to wallow in my self-found sorrow, I will not show it to someone as lowly as him. I will keep my self-pity for myself and myself only. As the Princess, I am not able to show weakness. I cannot show tears, cannot show any signs that I am unfit for the throne.

Even if I feel like it.

“If that is what you wish, Princess.” He took a step back and bowed reverently. “I only wished to die in the pit for I thought it was my only choice. My death would have been honorable by the hands of my master, in the place where I have ended so many lives. All I wanted was to put up a good show for the crowd, and your father. And of course, you. I knew I was about to die, but I wanted to make a show.”

“A show? Did you think that bloody scene was any show meant for me?” I spun around and glared at the top of his head. Flashes of the fight in the pit returned to me, and I remembered how queasy I had been, watching every punch land on his pretty face.

“It was certainly a show for the crowd and your father. I am sorry if I have disturbed your… taste. But it was the only way I could offer anything to you before my death. But now… if you wish that I die, I will do it willingly.” He refused to look up, still held in his reverent bow.

I grabbed him by his throat and throw him against the wall, pinning him against it.

“All you have offered me is a show of how stupid I have been to even speak up for you! I put everything I had at risk for you; and this is how you show your gratitude! You disgusting creature; I don’t understand why I thought you worth saving! I don’t understand why I gave a single look at you!” I hissed, pressing close to him. Vampires don’t need breath, but they definitely hurt when someone is squeezing their throat. It definitely hurts when their windpipe shatters.

“Princess, you misunderstand me…” He says weakly, his breath blowing softly against my cheek. “I am truly and utterly grateful that you have stood up and spoke against the atrocity of the competition, against the violence and bloodshed in the pit. Even if you have saved someone else instead of me, you will have my utmost gratitude, for I share the same sentiments. I, though a hunter too, am tired of killing innocents. They could have a family. They could have had a life outside the pit, but I end them all the same. I cannot stand more bloodshed on my hands. I could not speak up, for I am a mere hunter. But you, princess, you have spoken up for me, and hunters that might think like me. That… I am immensely grateful for.”

I tighten my hand around his throat, still keeping him suspended from the floor. I can summon a demon right now, and have him brought to hell. I can think of a million and one ways to end his puny life right now.

“But you still wish to die.”

“Yes… Because you asked it from me.” His voice is strangled now that my pressure has affected his larynx.

His answer surprises me so much that I let go and take a step back while he falls to the floor, rubbing his sore throat before scrambling back on his feet. He is… different. He has a funny thinking, and though I understand it, I find it amusing. How can a hunter like him think so innocently? How can he surrender to me so easily? It is in his very nature to fight back.

Perhaps he is not so much a hunter as I thought he would be. Perhaps he is more… pure.

But I would change that. This kingdom is nothing close to the purity of his soul. Either I can fight to protect his; or I change him and taint him with the dirtiness of the kingdom. Both ways; we were stuck with each other, because I stuck my head out for him, and he is stupidly, yet so innocently, loyal to me and my father’s throne.

“Princess, I am truly sorry to have let you misunderstand my ideals and motivation. I am truly sorry to have upset you. If you still wish for my death… then I understand.” He humbly begged, and I turned around to see him on all fours before me, his forehead resting on the floor between his palms.

“What is your name?”

“Kain. Kain Valent.” He replies almost immediately, eager to please.

“You and I are stuck to each other, Kain-Boy. I stuck out my head for you, and you’re going to be the one protecting me from getting it sliced off my neck by the kingdom. In case you don’t know, I have claimed you to be my escort.”

He sucked a breath so loud that it interrupted my speech. Every pore of his froze up, and I watched him in amusement as he stayed stiff, on all fours, head down.

“I am… claimed by you, P-Princess? A-A-As your e-e-escort?”

“It was the only way to prevent your death. Now, Kain, you will do well to learn how to be the best escort. I will not settle for anything else. I have publicly made you mine, and you will not fail me, do you understand?”

“Y-Yes, Princess.” He stutters, and I could almost see his trembling.

“In return, I will stop the annual competition. I will change the rules for the fights, and I will ensure that no hunters die in the pit again.”

He cannot stop himself, but raises his head to look up at me in wonder. His clear blue orbs are the bluest color I’ve ever seen. I try my best not to compare him to the ocean depth, but fail.

“Do we have a deal?” I cut in before he can say any words of gratitude, or fawn over my new decision.

He fumbles, but stutters a ‘yes’.

“Good.” I say, turning away, intent to get back to my reading book. My day has been crazy enough –even without his waking up. Kelsey tends to be a force sometimes. “Now go before I change my mind. Tell my maidservant outside that you have been made my official escort, and you will begin to live in my quarters starting today. She will attend to your needs, and find you the best escort master.”

He scrambles to his feet to attend to my order, as I lower myself daintily back in my armchair, picking up my reading book again. I look up before he finally leaves the room.

“Kain.” I call, stopping him at the half-open door.

For the first time, I try offering him a smile, and he gives one back uneasily.

“Try not to die out there.”