The Taste of Betrayal

Echo 's POV:

The crowd followed the guards into the dark forest. It was a vast forest full of oak trees. The moonlight poured down like thin veil tonight, but the forest was still too dark just like its name -Dark Forest. Now the forest was quiet except for the crow. The torches lit up the acorns on the ground. Squirrels fled wildly.

I trudged to Jenna's "secret base." Sure enough, Jenna was there! But she seemed wounded, sitting down in the doorway, pale, but not like her Vampire-white, even whiter.

"Jenna, were you hurt? "I asked, approaching with concern.

"Get out of here, bitch!" Jenna's eyes were full of aggression.

"Jenna, what's wrong with you? Tell me what happened. Maybe I could help! " I did not give up my concern for Jenna, naively assuming that Jenna was as misunderstood as I was.

"Mind your own business." Jenna sneered and coughed, looking even weaker.

"Em...... that......" I hated to doubt my good friend, but the crowd was about to catch up, and I had to ask, "The ring... Heart of Moonshadow. Have you ever..."

Jenna seemed ready to break with me. "Oh, that ring...You gave it to me, didn't you?"

Shocking! Frightening! Unbelievable!

"What? Jenna, what are you talking about?" I couldn't believe my ears.

"You forced me to take it but I really didn’t want it! You just need me to take the fall for you!" Jenna's voice suddenly widened and her eyes looked through my shoulder. I turned around and saw my family had just arrived.

"Your majesty! You heard that. The damn Vampire admitted it was Echo who had stolen Heart of Moonshadow!" Uncle Marcus pointed in Jenna's direction, ignoring any of my feelings.

Marcus waved his whip again. A loud crackling sound broke the dark quiet air. It seemed as if Castile the Elder had been ready to give me the order to die under the whip. I was panic. "No! Your majesty! Please! You got to believe in me! I didn’t do that! I swear! And I didn't really know --"

"Go and get the treasure back, arresting Jenna. We’ll get to the bottom of it!" Castile showed me no trust or mercy. It was just like a fair business.

Though sad, I was very grateful for the Elder's fair attitude at the moment. As long as the investigation was followed up, I could be proved as innocent. I clenched my fists and turned to Jenna, with my chest full of anger and disbelief.

Jenna, on the opposite side, stood up at some point as if waiting for a fight, bared her Vampire fangs and roared at me like a wild animal. In that case, she and I can no longer be friends. Is it true that different races were born with different hearts? Of course I didn’t get time to think about it. The most urgent thing was to reclaim the family treasure Heart of Moonshadow and arrest Jenna.

I took my sword behind me and started to fight with her. In terms of speed, Jenna had the upper hand as a Vampire, zipping through the dark forest as fast as she could run in daylight. And I, with my familiarity with the forest, closely followed. I almost caught up with her. I wanted her to stop, so I threw my scabbard in her direction and she fell to the ground on the heels of that, unable to get up.

I was a little surprised. I knew Jenna was the weaker among the Vampires. But Vampire's physical quality was several times higher than human's. And now I just beat her with one move, which made me question whether Jenna had been up to something or she was really hurt.

I cautiously stepped forward to investigate, and just as I reached over, she suddenly opened her scarlet eyes and looked at me angrily. Her baring fangs deeply bit into my arm. Blood ran down my arm and quickly soaked her hand that was gripping on it. Then I noticed that Heart of Moonshadow was right on her forefinger. At this moment, my blood was flowing towards the ring.

Soon, Heart of Moonshadow bathing in my blood was like receiving some mysterious calls, shining and sparkling. I swallowed the pain and watched the light grow stronger and stronger as Jenna's teeth relaxed on my arm. A look of horror came to her face.

"No! No, no, no! Echo! You can't take my power!"

Jenna screamed at the top of her voice. "Come on, leave me alone! I’m begging you! Just take the ring from me and don't let it drain my power! It’s so painful that I feel like I'm going to die! '

I didn't understand what Jenna was yelling about. But I did feel my body growing stronger. Soon, Heart of Moonshadow, which exclesively belonged to the hunter family, slipped out of her fingers and rose into the air. From a distance, my people probably saw this strange scene, so they stopped their chasing footsteps.

Jenna's strength was dissipating. She tried her best to leave before her power ran out, but Heart of Moonshadow was like a huge magnet, drawing her in. Not only her, but I, too, was trapped, getting no strength to move, let alone to free myself. And I could obviously feel the change of my body: there were a powerful force together with my body's own hunter power arising in my body. As they collided, scurrying and fighting nearly tore my body! I was like being gnawing by tens of thousands of ants. Even DYING was much better than LIVING!

I was dazed by the intense pain. But I still struggled to keep my eyes open. Jenna's white and bitter face was the first to jump into my eyes. Her eyes were filled with hatred and resentment, and her mouth was uttering the worst curse in the world.

"Echo Blake, I swear by the Vampire King's daughter. As long as you live, you will be rejected by the hunter family and reviled by mankind! Eventually you will be hated and abandoned by the people you love the most! Those you love and those who love you will die bitterly! "

In a trance, I could hear Jenna's vicious curse. I felt distressed and desperate. I never thought my best friend would treat me like this. I was so miserable that I could not make a sound when I tried to speak. Jenna laughed louder than she had ever cursed me, while I passed out from the pain.

Jenna 's POV:

I never expected that the moment I put the Blake family's most precious ring-Heart of Moonshadow on my finger, I would feel my Vampire power being limited. Every time I tried to push the Vampire force inside me, my whole body was weakened.

So by the time Echo caught up with me and hit me with the scabbard, I was exhausted and paralyzed. I tried my best to bite Echo on her arm with the unique fangs of us Vampires, hoping to turn Echo into a blood slave for my enslavement. However, when Echo's blood spilled onto the Ring, everything went against my original plan! I felt like I had lost my power to the ring- the Heart of Moonshadow and Echo.

Without my Vampirr powers, all that awaited me was death. Why was that? Echo, that bitch! Once we were supposed to be friends, weren’t we? And now this so-called friend was trying to take my power  away without hesitation. And she succeeded. My heart was filled with endless rage. I, as the Vampire King's daughter, cursed her with the most vicious spells to make her miserable and her life a living hell!

After the curse, I laughed even more when I saw the other members of Blake's family coming. I tried my best to shout out loud, "Echo, I regarded you as my best friend. Even if you wanted to steal the Heart of Moonshadow, the precious treasure of your family, I was willing to stop all the crimes for you. But why are you trying to kill me now? Why was that? Echo, you may not know this, but I am the daughter of the Vampire King. More importantly, my fiancé was the most powerful Vampires of all Vampire families. He will never ever let you go! Surely not!"

After saying this, I vomited a mouthful of blood madly. I closed my eyes and never woke up. I could even feel my body shriveling away. With the falling off of the ring, maybe I would eventually melt into tens of millions of particles and dissipate in this world under the irradiation of the sun. That's how I died. But I made Echo pay before all that had happened!

I was still feeling so pitiful. I thought that after stealing Blake's precious ring-Heart of Moonshadow, I could go back and continue being a Vampire Princess, getting ready to marry my fiancé, the Vampire Duke who I loved and loved me the most.

Now this two-way love eventually became a breakable bubble. But I was pretty sure he would revenge for me!