There were five of them. Lucius took a seat which made them six. Sitting at the head of the table was a man holding a wine glass, who must be the king given his position in the table. But he wasn't the king Lanver expected. He expected to see someone older, their father perhaps, but the king was a young man. Someone who looked just his age or probably a little older.
On the right side of the king was the ill-mannered princess, on his left was Lucius. There were two other men and a lady who looked the youngest among them.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Lanver," the King said in a deep voice.
He didn't know how to address him or if he should greet him back for the sake of courtesy, but at the end he just voiced out his thoughts.
"I couldn't say the same."
Emery hissed. "Why are you so rude? Even if you were raised as a human, right now you are in our territory. Have respect for the King."
The King tapped Emery's hand. "It's alright. He is not accustomed to our rules."
"But Your Majesty, a man should always be respectful to others even without rules, right?" the younger girl said.
Lanver cleared his throat. Was he that rude? He was just being honest! But this kid was making him feel like he was so harsh for saying what he meant.
"Of course, Eloise," the King replied sweetly. "But Lanver was brought here without his permission, so it's just normal for him to be a little annoyed."
"I understand." The girl looked at Lanver and smiled politely. "Hi, I'm Eloise."
Thinking that the girl was still a vampire even though she looked so young and innocent, Lanver couldn't bring himself to smile back. But then were his parents from this world and had lived with them? Maybe vampires were just portrayed in the human world as monsters when the truth was they were not?
"She's our youngest," the King said. "Have a seat and let me properly introduce myself to you."
Lanver sighed and took a seat without sitting beside any of them. They were still vampires, after all. Who knew one of them would suddenly grab his neck if he stayed too close? Necessary precautions were advisable at times like this.
"I am Amadeus Von Rellis, ruler of the Kingdom of Azlea. They are all my siblings. Lucius, Emery, Dimitri, Weston, and Eloise."
Lanver already knew they were all blood-related the second he went in. It was obvious in their identical amber eyes so he wasn't surprised they were actually siblings.
"I was already told everything but I still don't want to do this. I want to leave your world," Lanver said seriously.
"I understand. I also don't want to force anyone into anything but I apologize. We are talking about lives here, Lanver. Not just hundreds but thousands. You are a soldier in your country. You fought for your people's lives. I'm sure you know how it feels to lose a life. We don't want that to happen to our people. We need to rebuild the barrier before a war breaks out. I hope you would see the weight of what's at stake on this. Our people need your help. We need your help."
"But you are asking for help on the wrong person. I may have great accomplishments as a human but I have nothing to offer in this world. I am not capable of doing what you want me to do."
"How can you say that when you haven't even tried?" Emery spoke so cold Lanver felt how the temperature of the room dropped.
"Are you really a fighter in your world? Because I don't see a fighter in you. All I can see is a coward," she added briskly.
Lanver glared at her, gritting his teeth.
"How can I fight for a world I don't even know? How can I fight for your people when anytime now my country might need me? You don't seem to see my point here, princess." He smirked at her out of irritation.
"How can you say that after knowing everything? Your father tried his best to protect this kingdom. You were born here. You belong in this world and yet you're saying that?"
"No, I don't belong here—"
"It's such a shame that a great person like Lord Vincentius had a son like you—"
"Enough," Amadeus spoke that made both of them shut.
Amadeus sighed. He knew convincing Lanver wasn't easy. He didn't want to force him but this was an urgent matter. He can't just idle knowing that a big war was coming. It was either force him or leave everything to fate.
And he knew the latter wasn't a sane king would do.
A king should value his people more than anything. More than his pride. More than his principles.
"My apologies, but I've made a decision, Lanver. You will stay for the meantime. Do what we asked you for and we will set you free. You can also ask anything from us after that. You can have everything you want."
"That's bullshit. I don't want anything from you. I want my life back."
"You have your life. We just want to ask a bit of your time. If you're worried that you might leave your life back there unattended, then you have nothing to worry. Once everything is done here, we will send you back to the exact time you were brought here. You will lose nothing."
"Is that possible?"
"There are certain rules for that but I can make it possible. It won't be hard since you won't take long here."
"What if I fail? Will you still let me leave?"
"Yes. I am a man of my word so rest assured you will be sent back to your world," Amadeus promised.
Lanver looked at the amber eyes expecting a positive answer from him. They all looked hopeful. Even Emery who was glaring at him had a similar glint in her eyes. The ill-tempered princess wasn't a heartless monster after all, he thought.
"Please help us save our people, Lanver," Eloise said in a little voice.
Lanver closed his eyes for a moment. Hearing Eloise pleaded reminded him again of that little girl in his dreams. How she begged him for help. Yet in his dreams he could do nothing. He only watched how she cried as if the world had crushed her soul.
He opened his eyes and upon seeing their expectant brilliant orbs, he realized that the girl in his dreams had the same amber eyes.
He must be stronger and wiser than I thought. I figured that I'm not very unfortunate. I met a strong and influential vampire like him and he is the perfect person who can help me achieve my goals."What else can you do?" I really wonder."Hmm…"In in instant, he was in front of me, pinning me at the back of the old piano.I gasped when his finger grazed my arm in a slow provocative manner. It ran up to my shoulder, then to my neck."What are you doing?""What do you think, my wife?"My wife.I don't know but it sounds strangely… good. What the hell is happening to me? I don't know what change but I could feel that something did change. Is it because of what happened between us that night?All my thoughts were wiped out my mind when I felt Landon's tender lips. His kiss was shallow at first but soon it became deep and urgent.I don't know what I should do anymore. I felt like a wild flower lost in the middle of the forest. I can't seem to justify all my actions, nor stop my emotions f
"Because there is no point hiding the truth now that what I was scared of already happened.""And you are out of the picture now. You can't change the fact that Eve has a new life. So even if you had presented yourself as her mate and wants to take the responsibility to keep her, do you think you still have the right to do that? You don't, so better back off and let me do the job since I'm his husband," Landon said."You don't love her. You just want to use her against Alec because you know very well that Eve has the face of Elizabeth, Alec's mate."Alec's mate? Did he mean that my grandma Elizabeth was Alec's mate? But how did it happen that she married another man? What happened between them?"How intelligent you are, Carter," Alec butt in with a smirk on his face as if he is enjoying this so much.Carter just clenched his jaw on Alec's remark. His look can almost kill and I could feel that he is only stopping himself because maybe like me, he also knew that if this would escalate i
I don't know why it feels weird. I felt a little bad for turning my back on Carter and leaving, but I also feel a little pleasant for walking back to Landon. So complex, isn't it? I don't even know how feeling two different emotions at the same time is possible.I know Carter doesn't want me to go to Landon because he's afraid I would end yo getting hurt, alright. But he doesn't know what I feel. I trust my instincts and it's saying that I can trust that Landon won't hurt me. And also, I didn't feel right leaving him like that. He is all alone while Carter has his family so I don't think it would be a big deal if I leave Carter for the moment so I can talk with Landon. I really need to have a lot sorting out to do, especially about this feelings I have for Carter and Landon.The moment I was close to Landon, I heard a sound of nearing chopper. I thought it was the one Carter's family used, but it wasn't.The chopper landed near us. Henry went out from it."I apologize if it took a whi
I frowned at him. "Don't say that.""Say what?""Don't say 'I love you more' because I feel like my love for you is smaller than what you have for me. Just say 'I love you' or 'I love you too'. I think it's better."His eyebrow shot up. "I don't see the difference.""Whatever. I'm eager to see my parents now so we should get going.""Glad you reminded me that," he said as if he had dark thoughts earlier that made him forget our main business.It was already late when we set a foot in Seattle, so we went to a hotel and decided to go meet my Mom early in the morning tomorrow."Anyway, you'd show up too? I mean, how am I gonna explain that you are with me? The alibi you've rooted in my parents' mind was that I went on a vacation alone because I got heartbroken with Carter. Wouldn't they be weirded out that I brought a man after my short vacation?" I asked while we were on the car he rented, with Henry driving us to Lynnwood."Why don't you just say the truth, then?""What truth?""That y
Isabella's POVLife has always been unfair to me or maybe I want something against my fate.When I was three my mother died in a car accident. Later my father turned his back on me. He re-married Julia when I was seven. She came with her own baggage; her twin daughter Nicole and Natasha.After this I never felt I had a family .My father's life revolved around his wife, twin daughter and his new born son Jaxon.I was out of the frame of this happy family.My dad had a textile company but with the expansion program, he was rarely home which benefited Julia and her daughter. I was treated like trash and was forced to eat trash i.e. remainings and slept at trash i.e. store.My life was a modern Cinderella story minus the fairy godmother and prince charming.But who needs all this when I was a one-woman army. I learned to fight my own battle and ticket to freedom.I graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and did my bachelors on finance at nineteen.I had enough credit points to pa
His lips parted on the last part of what I said as though he didn't understand any of it."Your… boyfriend," he uttered the words slowly as if he is trying to understand it. "What do you mean, I thought…" he trailed off and just dropped his gaze on me, obviously asking for an explanation."Carter and I broke up couple of months ago, remember? I was heartbroken that's why I went to Arizona for a vacation because I wanted to forget and take a break. It was a coincidence that Landon was also there. We developed something while we were spending time with each other. He helped me coped up, so…" I shrugged and just smiled because I don't know what more I can say."Hello, sir. Landon Arthurs," Landon introduced himself politely."Arthurs? Are you connected to the owner of Arthurs Group in England, perhaps?""I'm the one running it," Landon said with pride as if he wanted to impress Dad."Oh!" Amazement was evident on Dad's eyes. Landon smiled, satisfied."Come, come. I will ask the maids to