Two: Family Affair

SOFIA

The king who chose me to marry his son is here to collect what he was promised. I have seen the king on my phone and on TV, but I have never seen him face to face, and honestly, I wish I hadn’t because this man is scary as fuck.

At fifty-three years old, King Ilya possesses a commanding and intimidating presence. His long blond hair falls past his shoulders, framing his cold silver eyes and sharply defined diamond-shaped face. His regal features give him the appearance of a powerful monarch, but his aura carries more menace than nobility.

How the fuck did they even find me?

“Sofia, my future daughter-in-law,” he says as he walks toward me with arms spread, acting like we’re family already. I stand there surrounded by not just the king and my parents, but many, many guards.

I try my very best not to shake. I shall not shake. I have trained myself not to be scared of anyone ever since I started getting bullied for not being able to shift. That fear will not appear for no one, not the king, not the guards, no one!

I stand my ground, head held high, and my gaze sharp.

“But why do you want to run away? We’re about to be a one big happy family, don’t you want that?”

“NO!” I snap, and I can feel everyone jump in shock. The king definitely looks shocked.

“No?” he says with his eyebrows furrowed. “Why not? Is it because of this fellow right here?” he points at Simon, who doesn’t shake or look scared; he looks fierce right now. I can see him falter a little bit, but he’s still standing his ground, looking him straight in the eye.

I realise that there’s no need for cockiness right now and that maybe if I try to reason with the king civilly, then he’d let us go.

“Your majesty, I can’t marry your son because I’m in love with someone else.” I walk over to Simon, and I hold his hand, and he holds mine tight. “I’m so sorry, your majesty, but he’s the one I want to be with. I’m on board with you wanting to unite the kingdoms, and I think it’s a great idea, but why choose me? I can’t even shift.”

I can already see my mother’s face; she looks like she’s about to kill me. I don’t bother looking at her, though. I look straight at the king, and if I want to pass my message, that’s what I’m going to do.

“You love him?” the king asks, with a smile on his face. I feel like I’m getting to him.

“Yes, your majesty.”

“And I love her, your majesty.” Simon holds me tighter, our fingers link so well. We hold each other like we’ve already won, we’ve won this battle.

We’ve succeeded.

The king sighs happily. “How delightful, young love,” he smiles, and we smile at him too, then Simon and I smile at each other because we know we’re going to be free.

That’s until Simon starts screaming viciously, holding his head as he falls to the ground, and the screaming continues. He’s in serious pain.

I look at him, confused.

“Simon, what-”

I look up to see that the king is the one doing this. I’ve heard about the king’s gift; every vampire has a gift, and the king’s gift is very powerful. Of course, he is the king. He fries people’s brains, turns their brains into chips, and if he continues to do this to Simon, Simon will die.

“Wait, stop. Please stop, you’re hurting him!”

“It’s your choice, dearie; it’s either you come with me to Drakorya or your boyfriend here dies.”

“What? No, please no, please don’t do this.” I cry.

“I’m sure your love is precious and sweet. But the humans are rising against us as we speak. There’s no time for true love; all we need now is an alliance. And if one person has to die for that alliance to happen, then so be it.”

“No, no, no, please, please don’t do this. Mom, Dad!” I yell their names with tears in my eyes, but they don’t care. They never cared about me. If they did they would have defended me from the bullies, they would have told me there was nothing wrong with me, but they didn’t, they view me like everyone else does, a mistake.

“Your choice.”

“Okay, fine, fine! I’ll go with you! I’ll go with you!” I shout at the top of my lungs, and Simon falls to the ground, coughing profusely. I weep. I’m about to touch him.

“Leave him, and come with us.” The king commands.

“But- I want to-I want to see if he’s okay.”

“Leave him!”

“I’m so sorry Si.”

“Sofia no, don’t go with them.” he grabs my hand, and I let go, which makes me cry even more.

“I’m sorry.”

“Come on, Sofia.” My mother takes me by the hand.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” I shout, which makes her flinch, then I wipe a tear off my eye with so much anger, and I walk forward.

Marching into the car.

I’m back in my room getting ready to go to this vampire kingdom. It’s cold in Drakorya, for me but not for the vampires; they’re cold-blooded creatures who drink blood, disgusting. I have to sit there and watch them drink blood.

Back in school, the vampires never sat with the witches and werewolves in the cafeteria. Well, they did, but they didn’t sit to eat with us, just to hang out. There was always a room for them to drink blood from blood bags or humans who gladly offered themselves.

So I never got to see such things, but unfortunately, now I have to see that shit.

The maids have put all my clothes in the box, and I stand in front of the mirror, my eyes red as hell. I’ve been crying nonstop, but I have stopped. My parents have taken my phone, I can’t contact Simon to know how he’s doing, and I can’t contact Marissa either. This is all too much for me.

My mother walks into the room, and she stands behind me.

“Oh, honey, you’ll realise soon enough that this was for the best, okay.” She tries to touch my hair, but I smack her hand.

“Let’s do this, let’s go.”

“Sofia!”

“You’re the one who wants this right. Come on, we’re wasting time, let’s do it for the kingdoms, let’s go.” I walk out of the room, and I head downstairs. My dad stands near the stairs waiting for me with a smile on his face.

“There’s my beautiful daughter.”

I ignore him, and I move outside. I know that’s disrespectful, but I don’t care at this point. They want me to get married to this prince. Then so be it.

I get straight into the limo provided for us by the king, and my parents get in, sitting in front of me. We zoom off in silence. Leaving Monteluna. I will miss this place, but I will not miss the people, the people be damned.

All they ever did was treat me like trash.

And so our drive to vampire land was nothing but quiet, very quiet, and I like it that way, I don’t want anyone talking to me.

“It would help if you smiled a little, dear,” my father says, and I don’t look at him, I don’t protest, I smile. Like the way he wants me to smile, I fucking smile.

“The smile looks fake,” Mom says.

“Maybe if I actually liked what was going on then you’d get a real smile from me.”

“Sofia! Please do not talk to your mother that way!”

I roll my eyes, and I look out the window.

“I know you think we hate you for doing this, but you have to understand, we’re doing this for you, for our family mi amor.”

Yes, I’m sure we are. I’m still not going to say anything. The sooner we get there, the better. I don’t want to see their faces.

“Sofia, will you at least look at me?” Mom asks, and I do look at her, but now I’m sure she’s wishing I hadn’t. When I see how uncomfortable they both are, I turn my face away.

I still cannot believe they both watched as the king tried to kill Simon. They just stood there, and what if I had said no, would they have allowed him to kill Simon?

I knew they didn’t like me, but I didn’t know they hated both Simon and me.

I shall not talk to them, in fact, I would rather be in a land full of vampires than be with them.

We’re in Drakorya now. I know this because it has gotten really cold. Monteluna is warm and airy, but this land is striking, cold, and wet. I hear it rains every day. It rains in Monteluna, but not every day. I don’t see people with pointy ears yet, but I do know we’re here. We’ve just not reached the city yet.

I can’t believe this is going to be my new home. I’m going to be getting married to a vampire.

This whole thing is still so suspicious. I refused to believe that all the king wants is an alliance. No way, something fishy is going on here.

The car stops, and suddenly, there’s screaming.

“What the hell is going on?” Dad asks, and we hear a heavy thud on the car; it feels like something or someone, has jumped on top of the car.

“What is happening?” Mom cries.

I look around me, trying to keep my composure and look for whatever is causing all this commotion. Whatever is causing all this forcefully opens the door to the driver’s seat and yanks the driver away. He screams in terror.

Yep, I knew it.

We are under attack.

Just great.

At least it’s better to die than to get married.