Prince Darrius

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I sit down next to Johnathan’s bed on a chair while Claudia kneels beside the bed, clasping his shaking hand. He was getting worse. He was barely conscious. Darrius grabs his brother’s chin, a worried look in his eye.

“John,” he says, “Stay awake, I’m going to feed you my blood. You have to swallow,” John’s eyes flitter half open and I see a little of the amazing bright green of his eyes. He nods and Darrius lifts his wrist to his mouth and bites into his own skin. I watch as he presses his wrist against his brother’s lips and Claudia seems to freeze to the spot. Waiting. Hoping. 

After a few moments Darrius lifts his wrist away, the wound closing and I see John swallow weakly. Darrius grabs a tissue from beside the bed and wipes the remaining blood away from his wrist. 

“It will take a few moments for my blood to enter his system,” Darrius says softly to Claudia, who has tears in her eyes now. She nods but doesn’t say anything. We all look on, waiting. John coughs and we all tense.

“John?” Claudia asks, leaning closer to his face. As John’s eyelids spring open and focus on Claudia, the door suddenly springs open. I turn to see who has entered and my eyes meet a pair of cold ones. My own eyes widen.

“Don’t let that girl near my son, Darrius,” The King snarls from the doorway, stalking deeper into the room, “John,” he says more quietly, seeing that his son is awake. I stand up and walk backwards towards the door when the King glares at me. 

“It’s okay,” John says to the King, his voice sounding stronger. Darrius moves to me and puts an arm around my waist, drawing me into his side. He brings me closer to the bed again, where John reaches up a hand and wipes it across his mouth, “Your blood tastes disgusting, Darrius,” John’s insult is mixed with amusement as he suddenly sits up and grab’s Claudia on the back of the neck, pulling her in for a deep, long kiss. 

“It worked,” I whisper to myself. 

“What happened?” The King says, “Are you better?” He asks his son, his hand shaking a little. 

“My blood healed him,” Darrius says, “I’m the cure to Jennifer’s blood.” The King gives me a fleeting look to see me staring at him and he stops his hand from shaking.

“Let’s go,” I nearly jump when Darrius’ voice comes close to my ear. I give him a look that asks, don’t you want to stay? “We’ll give them some time,” he motions to Claudia and John and I nod. Darrius takes me out of the room into the hall. 

“Why don’t you get along with your father?” I ask as he lets me go in the hall and I turn to face him. The tension between Darrius and the King was evident when the King entered the room. 

“We just don’t get along,” he says, “Come to my room.” He starts walking and I follow him.

“Maybe because you are so similar?” I ask.

“We are nothing alike,” he snaps at me. I decide to leave it at that, obviously he didn’t like talking about it.

“You aren’t that bad, you know,” I decide to say instead. He doesn’t answer and just walks in silence the rest of the way to his room. Once we are there he opens the door and enters it, brooding. I follow, not understanding why he was so upset. 

Darrius turns to face me when he is standing in the middle of the room.

“You should go to sleep,” he says, “you’ve been awake nearly all night.”

“What’s the matter?” I ask him, curious. 

“Go to sleep, sweetie, I don’t want to talk right now,” he says this more quietly, dangerously. 

“I don’t understand,” I snap back.

“You don’t have to, I have things to do. You have to stay in here where you’ll be safe,” I open my mouth to reply but he is already stalking towards me and then past me, towards the door. What the hell?

“Did I do something to upset you?” I ask as he reaches for his door. 

“It has nothing to do with you, Jennifer,” he says, and then he leaves. 

Apparently there was a lot more to Darrius then I realised. He had hidden pain in his eyes when he spoke to me, I just didn’t know why.

Darrius had an arrogant side, a compassionate side…

…and a sad one too.