His Bloody Bride

Chapter Two: Truth.

CHAPTER 2

Maria? Why does that name sound so painfully familiar when leaving his lips?

He doesn't wait for me to answer, he turns his attention to the guards that brought me here. "How could you not have realized who this is? She's only been gone two centuries! Not a millennium! Leave us now!"

"But sire, she is human. It must be a coincidence that they look alike! There's no way the queen could return from the dead and her blood reeks of human blood! If the queen were to even come back, she'd certainly not come back as a human of all creatures!" One of the guards boldly states.

If looks could kill I'm pretty sure that guard would have already died after he started talking. His ruby red eyes glow in anger and between gritted teeth, he says: "Leave. Now."

Both guards bow in submission and slowly leave the room, deciding that speaking against him again would be foolish.

He then turns his attention to where my wrists are tightly bound. The rope is bloody and my wrists are pink with rope burn and cuts. He gently helps remove the ropes in a civil manner. Gingerly, he touches the insides of my wrists, where the worst of the burns are and says. "I'm sorry for the way you were treated."

A ton of things are racing through my mind right now but my lips don't part to voice them out. I just stare at the injuries on my wrists.

After a moment of silence, he speaks once more. "Did they do anything to you?" I raise an eyebrow for him to elaborate, and he does. "When the guards find humans, they usually do whatever they please. Usually they treat them the worst way imaginable. Sometimes, when they find female humans loose, they.... tend to force them into unsavory events."

"Such as?" I ask more curious than anything else.

His grip around my wrist tightens, making me wince. "Sometimes rape. Sometimes worse... Tell me, did they do anything like that to you? If the did, I swear, I'll kil-"

I don't answer him. Rather, I raise my hand and rest it on his cheek. I rub my thumb against the contour of his cheek in circulative motions, my stomach warming at the electric sensations I feel spreading through me. "You're real. I can't believe it." I say, my voice soft. It breaks towards the end. Tears prickle my eyes and slide slowly down my cheeks in a smooth manner. "I thought I was going crazy. I kept hearing voices, I kept seeing you..." I intake a sharp breath, taking in his scent. It is divine.

It's then that something hits me. He's real. Meaning he's the reason I've had those nightmares that not only include him. He's the reason for the takeovers. He must be.
And he's the reason your parents hate and fear you. A little voice tells me.

"Who is Maria?" I ask slowly trying to take this all in.

His eyes suddenly are filled with hope, there's a small smile forming at the corner of his lips. He reaches up and gently caresses my bottom lip with his thumb. I feel the rest of his fingers curl into my hairline, his cold touch causing me to shiver in delight. He reaches his forehead against mine, staring into my eyes with those startling red eyes. I watch as he opens his mouth, his lips forming a sentence inaudible to me at first, because I'm too busy being dazzled by the way his words are so beautifully formed. "You remember me, Maria?"

The familiar sense of confusion takes me. With my eyebrows raised, I look away from his eyes and let my own observe the room around us. The throne he sat on moments before appears cold and towering to me now, but compared to the size of this room, it's almost ant sized. I turn to face him, backing away slowly. "I'm sorry but I don't remember you. I only know you from my dreams but you keep calling me Maria. Who is she?"

"My bride. You're her reincarnation. She died two hundred years ago."

"That impossible, you can't live that long, humans die at eighty years old at most. Maybe even ninety if they're lucky but...but you look like you're twenty something. So, you can't have lived two hundred years."

He waits patiently till I finish to answer me, "That's because I'm not human. I am what humans would call a vampire and Maria was one too."

"Vampire?" I sigh and look around, "And so I assume you're a king as well? I mean, that should be the case as the ignorant imbeciles that brought me here called you 'sire' which according to my knowledge on english language is only used when you address a king."

He nods."Yes." He pauses to think first and then gives me his hand,"Take my hand."

I decide against taking his hand and using it as support as I stand up because I don't know who this man is. The only things I do know is the fact that he's the man I've been seeing in my dreams this past week and that somehow when we touch, there's this electric type of sensation. Like it's meant to be. Well, that and the fact that I know he's a vampire and his name is Frost.

He's also the reason why you're hated, Mary. The voice whispers again. I don't plan on ignoring it but I don't plan on addressing it till I have his confession.

Hurt flashes his eyes but only for a second. He turns his back, "Follow me, I'm not sure what is going on but I'll get to the bottom of it."

I don't ask him anymore because even though I have a billion questions to ask, I'm not even sure what his answers are going to be. So, I just decide to follow him. We leave the room and walk past the hall, the interior of the hall looks exactly like what you'd think an 18th century castle would look like.

A beautiful white painted stone archway hangs above us. I tilt my head a little more and see a beautiful intricate group of swirls, probably hand carved because of the intricate detailing.

The castle looks incredibly expensive and I can't understand what kind of money would have taken to make this entire building. Within five minutes, we're standing in front of a room. Above the already big doors leading to said room, the words "Rhea" is engraved.

Frost swiftly knocks on the door which seems to be made of white oak, The material the door is made from is smooth and If I were alone, I would have touched it and let my hands slide against the material like a child but this was no time for games so I shake away the random thought as soon as I hear shuffling from the other side of the door.

"Come in!" shouts a female voice from the other side.

Frost pushes the door slowly and walks inside, I trail behind him slowly, the first thing I see is the beauty of the entire room. The walls are painted white, the circular pillars that hold the room together are painted a beautiful light gold. My eyes then slowly land on the woman standing in front of us.

There are other people behind her, most probably her students, they stop their chatter amongst each other to turn their eyes to the two of us. There's a guard behind us as well but all I see is her in all her grace and beauty.

Her brown skin shimmers beautifully under the lighting and the next thing I notice about her is how beautifully black her wavy hair is, a gold headpiece shaped like multiple leaves touching each other is placed on the crown of her head. She's wearing a white long flowing dress with a black sort of cloth tied around her waist flowing to her right side like it's supposed to be there. She also has gold cuffs present on both her wrists. She looks like a goddess and I stare at her in awe for a couple of seconds

"Yes, sire?" She asks, a book in her hand. There seems to be multiple sticky notes on the pages and some of the corners are folded too. Someone's a hard worker.

I'm standing behind Frost which basically is the only thing I know about him - his name - so, I doubt I can be seen by her just yet. He steps away revealing me, "This." He says looking away from me to the girl. "Rhea, she doesn't remember who I am."

Rhea turns her gaze back at the book she'd been reading before we entered, "Well, that's a lie on her part. She remembers you or at the very least knows your name because I did as you asked, I made sure to make her conscious of her memories hidden deep within her consciousness as she sleeps."

I gasp as I let Rhea's words seep into my brain, "So it is true." I mutter.

"What?"

I turn to look at Frost. Tears well up in my eyes as memories of every nightmare that has haunted me since they've started play in my brain like a movie. I bite my lip till the coppery taste of blood fills my mouth. I'd rather focus on the pain in my mouth right now than the pain I feel when I relive these memories.

Veins protrude near his red eyes as the whites turn a grey sort of colour. He slaps his hand over his mouth, "Blood. What did you do? Are you hurt?"

I raise an eyebrow, he told me he was a vampire earlier which still surprises me not because of his confession but because of my nonchalance towards his current appearance and the fact that he's admitted to being a blood sucking creature of the night. Maybe the reason why I don't fear him as much and I find it easy to believe his confession is because I know supernatural creatures exist and I've seen the worst of them in my nightmares.

Even when I don't want to.

I part my lips, "It's coming from my mouth, I bit myself."

"Why would you do that?" By now, his eyes have returned to normal.

I don't answer his question, instead, I ask my own, "Is what she said right? Did you ask her to do that? Did you ask her to make sure I have those dreams?" or nightmares, I silently add.