Married to the Prince of Darkness (COMPLETED)

Chapter 31

The next hour was chaos. Guards came and went bringing with them new pieces of information about Casper's escape, while the diners were quickly evacuated from the restaurant under the pretence that there had been a fire. Standing out on the private veranda, I had watched annoyed customers being led out of the restaurant by very apologetic staff who did their best to try and mollify the anger and disappointment of the diners whose evening had been cut short.

The people looked over their shoulders as they walked to their cars and to steal a glimpse of the strange solitary girl standing alone on the veranda- although I wasn't really alone. Five guards were stood in the shadows watching over me as my husband discussed 'important matters' inside. What kind of 'matters' I was unsure of, because Luc would not tell me. He had told me that Casper had escaped and that the prison guards would stay with us until the palace guards arrived to escort us to a safe place. After that I was sent outside onto the veranda with several guards so that Luc and Nico could discuss the details of the escape with the prison guards. I didn't know why I wasn't included in on the conversation but I had a feeling that Luc wanted to spare me any unpleasant details that might be too violent for my sensitive ears.

Before I had walked outside Luc had shrugged off his suit jacket and draped it around my shoulders, then he had held me close and promised to me in hushed whispers, "Don't worry Mia, I will get you out of here as soon as I can- I will never let this happen to you again- I swear. I will protect you, I promise. I swear..."

I had rested my head on his chest and listened to him and silently thought, 'You cannot save me.'

After that I had gone outside and stood on the veranda and took in the view. Nico had been right earlier when he had said that an autumn storm was rolling it. Over the mountains heavy blankets of thick clouds appeared and the sky became a bleak dark inky gray. The storm clouds began to devour the night sky and the brightness of the moon's silver light began to wane. The forest disappeared into solid black and I could no longer see what lay ahead.

So I looked backwards at the familiar lights of the restaurant and the people walking to their cars, getting ready to go home. They watched me as I watched them, and secretly I longed to be them. I secretly wished that I could turn back the hands of time so that I never went to that stupid graveyard, or stood under that tree. I wished I had never been turned into a vampire, or that I had been cursed with seeing the dead. I wished I was human again.

I was trapped between two worlds, not really belonging to either. I was born a human and made a vampire, and because I was born a human I never really felt like a vampire, but because I was made a vampire I was no longer a human. So here I am, a creature of two worlds, belonging to both while belonging to neither.

The human world was boring, while the vampire world was novel- but at least the human world was safe. Both Nico and Henrietta had warned me that the vampire world was a dangerous one and I had never doubted that danger, but I never dreamed that the danger would one day have a name or a face.

Casper was the danger, and the danger was looking for me.

Standing out in the cold night air I closed my eyes and remembered Casper's voice calling to me. Casper had been searching for me but why? Casper had been thrown into prison and cut off from the rest of the world, yet somehow he knew my name and knew where I would be. How could that be?

"You should come in now, it looks like rain."

I opened my eyes and saw Nico standing next to me, leaning against his elbows on the wooden railing that edged the veranda. His sudden presence made me jump a step sideways and I had to stop myself from cursing at him in fright.

"How do you do that?" I eventually snapped at him, "Do you have a 'creeper' super power or something?"

Nico ignored my childish remark and shrugged nonchalantly, "I've been alive long enough to know how to move quietly and quickly around other vampires."