The Dragomir Heir (Watty Award)

The Vengeful Princess

4-year-old Valentina stood regally next to Vladius and Elizabetha in the courtroom of Sultan Desmond’s palace in Jerusalem. Lucius smiled at seeing his young fiancée small and unafraid at the big sultan with his big gut and beard. He had blue and brown eyes, just like the thin boy who sat behind him.

“My friend, it has been long and how are you?” welcomed Desmond and he looked over to the child and asked, “Is that the Princess Valentina?”

Vladius nodded proudly and said, “She is indeed my granddaughter and my adopted daughter”.

“She has your eyes and oh…such beauty”, the Sultan smirked, “very characteristic of a Dragomir”. The sultan beamed at the child and said, “Welcome Princess to my home”, then he pointed to the 5 boys who sat behind him, “These are my sons: Darim, Jeremiah, Isaac, Aaron and Zacharias. Sons, this is the honourable Crown Princess Valentina Dragomir”. Young Darim winked at her and while the Desmond and Vladius were busy conversing about land and armies, Valentina stuck her tongue out at the prince.

The image changed and showed 16-year-old Valentina in a ball gown and wearing a silver mask dancing with Darim. They had been spying on King Ferdinand of Spain and at the stroke of 11, they left the castle and returned to their hotel.

 The next few minutes, Lucius called the gypsy to stop the image and paced his bar; trying to burn a hole through the expensive Persian rug. Vera and Dante looked frighten at Lucius’ anger and to be honest, he deserved to be angry and jealous at what he just witnessed.

Upon sensing his wrath, the gypsy was trying to stop the next image from coming up but Lucius stopped her. He grew suspicious when the woman started to sweat with fear and made her come closer to him.

Valentina was dressed in a simply silk white dress and Lucius felt his desire aroused; she was so beautiful with a simple gold crown and gold bangles. She was being pulled away from the party in a palace in Egypt by Darim, who only had a long white wrap around his waist and a gold crown on top of his short brown hair. Jealous rose as Lucius focused on the vampire and his hard and muscularly physique. Better start training twice as hard, Lucius thought to himself.

“Where are we going, D?” asked Valentina amusingly. “We are missing out on the nice food- oh Darim, this is beautiful”, she gushed at the exquisite garden with a large lily pond in front of her. She turned to Darim and asked curiously, “Why are we here?” He smirked and called out for another vampire, who looked like one of his brother but unlike Darim, with his easy smile and harden appearance, Lucius noted that the new vampire was stern and serious…like a monk.

“You are late, brother! I could’ve interrupted some scrolls for you but no…I had to be here”, Jeremiah complained and then looking to Valentina, he softened and asked, “Brother… are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” asked Valentina, who was serious now. “D, what is it now? Not some more mischief! It is your father’s birthday…flooding his favourite fountain doesn’t seem like a great idea” Jeremiah smiled and said, “Well…it is something else. I’m just the witness. Oh, by the way…I know about you two and don’t look scared… it will be our little secret”.

Looking solemnly at Valentina, Darim said sadly, “You’re betrothed to Lucius and I know that I can never marry you. It is my deepest desire to have you as my queen but fortune has not favoured us”.

“Darim, please…”

“Valentina please let me finish”, he begged and gone was his strength and replaced with vulnerability, which made Valentina sad. “Because I’ll never marry you, will you indulge me in this mock wedding before we will have to divorce right before your 17th birthday?”