The Kingdom's Obsession

THE KO┃CHAPTER 4

Amara

Amara has never been this confused before. She was fearful and lustful at the same time and she felt as if she was at war with her own body. Her mind told her to fear the man—Damien, but her body told her to feel every inch of him. It is not a feeling she has ever felt before and she found it harder and harder to breathe every time she thought about the way his lips felt on hers. It was blissful, unlike anything she has ever experienced.

The moment she looked up into his eyes, her entire world floated away and she couldn't help but want more after every second. When she felt his lips against hers, she knew she'd been a goner. She was lost in lust and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she regretted not a second of it.

Amara touched her lips as she walked, basking in the reality of what just happened: her first kiss. Amara considered herself to be pretty average and so, when a man as handsome as Damien complimented her left and right, she felt the truth behind his words.

At first, she felt like a prisoner to her own body, not able to control her reaction to such a simple thing like a kiss. But then, he grabbed her waist and guided her grinding. She immediately felt the way her juices practically pooled against his jeans. She could still feel the imprint of him against her and she shivered with ferociousness. It was as if she was standing in the back of her mind watching as it all went down and she had blamed it on that at first. Surely he had to have compelled her into having such an intense reaction.

Amara was never one to lust over strange men, much less a vampire.

She scolded herself for not stopping it sooner. If anything, she was glad he stopped. She was fighting a losing battle against her very own body and had she not pulled away, she could only imagine what she would have gotten herself into.

Amara ran as far as her legs could take her, welcoming the cold air against her hot flesh. It was refreshing, cooling off every part of her body that he touched and before she knew it, the events from earlier were on the back of her mind.

Amara suddenly realized that she had nowhere else to go. After seeing Fort Zarlow in ruins, she had planned on settling there for a bit, needing a long night's rest without the fear of being victim to some insolent vampire, but he had driven her away.

Fort Zarlow had been deserted and in the middle of nowhere. She couldn't imagine what possible reason any vampire would be there yet there Damien was. Maybe it was a good thing he had let her run. Although she had despised the very thing he is, he did give her her freedom. She surely couldn't have said the same if it were anyone else.

As Amara walked further into the woods, the branches got sharper and sharper. One particular branch grazed along her arm, leaving a trail of blood behind. 'Shit,' Amara whispered to herself. The last thing she needed was a wandering vampire catching her scent. Mere seconds later, she heard a twig snap right behind her, prompting her to run deeper—further into the woods. By this point, she was completely lost, seeing nothing but an endless road of trees in every direction.

Amara stilled, steadily breathing as she looked at her surroundings.

Something was wrong. She didn't know what, but the sinking feeling in her stomach told her that something was about to go down. She stared straight ahead and that's when she felt it—a cold breath against her neck.

Amara instantly felt her heart drop. She stealthily grabbed the knife that was tucked into her pocket and with swiftness, she threw her hand back, attempting to stab them in the leg.

A cold, practically lifeless hand grabbed hers before the knife was able to puncture his skin and she nearly screamed from frustration.

However, this time, she screamed from pain as his teeth punctured her skin. Her blood curdling scream shook the forest and all its inhabitants.Amara thrashed against him as a searing pain erupted within her entire body. She had tried biting, kicking, pushing, but it was all pointless.

Slowly, the pain succumbed into nothingness as her body grew weaker by the second. She was deathly pale by now but the vampire feasting on her blood had not a single care in the world. She fell to the ground seeing as her legs could no longer muster enough energy to hold her weight and the black dots filling her vision was a sure sign of her near death.

With nothing left for her in this god forsaken world, she was ready to welcome death with open arms.

"Oh Divine Khalida, how could you?" Amara whispered to herself. The Divine Khalida was once the balance between humans and vampires, yet here she was letting her human parts wither away.

How could you?

Amara felt the way her heart slowed and when she could no longer keep her consciousness, she faded into nothingness.

Nikolai

"Where is she?" Nikolai roared to his friend as he held him by the neck of his shirt. He had recognized the scent. He knew that scent and he had entrusted Damien with the task of finding her yet here he was completely coated in it.

"Do not even think about lying to me, Damien," he said through his teeth. He was hysterical. All he knew was that he needed to see her, to feel her.

"I'll tell you when we get back to the kingdom, Nikolai," his friend said to him and that made him all the more angrier. She was straying further from him every second and they both knew it. He could sense his friend's resistance.

Nikolai scoffed to himself, knowing full well that his friend seems to have been infatuated by her as well. It seems like her scent isn't addicting to just him as he had previously thought. He put two and two together and came to the conclusion that as much as he wished they were the only ones addicted to her scent, that was not the case. All vampires were going to be hunting her, chasing her, fighting for a chance to taste her.

"Fuck, Damien. You don't get it do you. It's not just us that'll be looking for her." That seemed to have struck something within him and all his resistance dissipated.

Nikolai had wanted to find her for his own selfish reasons but after seeing how his friend had tried to protect her from him, had practically betrayed him for her, he knew that it was more than just an alluring scent. Her blood—it was addicting to anyone with fangs.

"I left her. Fuck, I left her," Damien whispered and Nikolai wanted to pummel his face in right then and there but he had more pressing matters to attend to. Nikolai knew his friend to be the smartest strategist he has ever come across yet he allowed a human female to venture out on her own with no protection.

He stared after Damien as he ran in the opposite direction and followed behind him with ease. It took them several minutes to finally catch her scent, but when they did, they were struck with fear. Blood. Although he had wanted a taste for himself, knowing that she bled at the hands of another vampire, a Bloodling, brought about a kind of madness that he had no control over.

Adrenaline overtook his body and his eyesight was coated in red. He was lusting for blood and it wasn't of the beauty with green eyes. He was a sinister man seeking vengeance.

Nikolai ran with accelerated speed until he finally reached her body with a Bloodling right above her, intaking gulps of her blood through the vein on the neck. The deathly scent of the Bloodling nearly overpowered the scent of the beauty on death's bed and Nikolai let out a growl that shook him out of his bloodlust. The Bloodling looked his way before attempting to run away but before he could, Nikolai tackled him to the ground and ripped out his jugular with such ease. He didn't want her blood anywhere inside of this creature and so, he began the process of cleansing.

He had carved out his stomach and let the blood trickle out onto the ground before chucking it into a nearby tree. She wasn't his to feed on. "She's mine," Nikolai said over and over again like a possessed man. He tore the Bloodling from limb to limb while staking his claim every time, needing the world to know that she was his possession, his to do as he pleased.

Nikolai paid no mind to the blood that painted him red. He went right to the beauty and cradled her in his arms.

"Nikolai, her heart," said Damien with a pain-stricken look on his face. Nikolai was so consumed with the need to protect her from the Bloodling that he completely forgot that was but a mere human with a pulse.

There was no pulse.

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Published on: 1/27/2023