Royal Renegade

Chapter 1: What Are You Waiting For?

Princess Axelia

Tripping over his own feet at the strike of my dagger, a vampire plummets into the white coated ground before my comrade slices off his head with a long steel sword as we pass by.

"My Lady, we've entered the Crescent Woods," another rider informs me.

Abruptly, I pull back on the reins of my Clydesdales horse, Aries. His muscles tense under the dark chocolate hairs that cover his body. Towering over people at six feet and weighing nearly two-thousand pounds, he could easily ignore such a minute gesture, but loyally obeys raising his head and turning with me to face the men of the Calvary as they struggle to slow their five-foot tall and slim Waler horses.

"Why are you telling me something I already know?"

Maynard, our brigade leader, brings his horse to a stop just beside Aries and through his steel bascinet helmet visor I can see an apologetic expression. "I didn't mean to offend," he bows his head slightly, "but I am concerned if we keep breaking the law it will only make matters worse."

Ah, yes, the law that forbids bloodshed between our six Kingdoms in the Northwest. We are meant to be united as a Region. Supposed to be.

"Worse? Do you think Reriman vampires thought about that before they invaded our villages and killed eight families tonight? Stole Cadomian lives for their bloodlust?" I question, seething. This hasn't been the first time and it surely won't be the last. It's why I arranged this team to hunt down and kill these beasts. Maynard holds his tongue but even in his silence my blood boils for the lost. "Children?" I add when his gaze lowers. "Stop me by force or fight for our people. Choose."

The other nine men silently wait for Maynard to speak up. I know he won't and lack their patience. Kicking my ankles into Aries flank, I proceed. Every second we waste allows the vampires a chance to escape.

Behind me, hooves beat against the cold, muddy ground.

"To the south," Turstin, one of the archers, announces.

Sure enough, we catch up to a group of thirteen vampires fleeing on foot. Their bodies move swift as a breeze, blurring and blending with the dark, frosty landscape. Raising an arm, I whirl it in the air signaling my men to break off. Then, we split into pairs of two as we collide with the vampires in a clearing of the Crescent Woods at a merging of three trails: each leading to a separate Kingdom in the region. There are few trees for the vampires to hide in and duck around, but the land provides opportunity for archers to set loose their arrows.

Ceasing their effort to run, the vampires begin dragging men off their horses and drawing their own weapons though they wear no armor. Steel clanking rings in the air. I scowl noticing their blue and white knee-length tunics are stained from earlier victims. The amount of blood they spill is pungent enough for my mortal senses to pick up and I know we must finish them off quick before their Prince comes to rescue them. Leonidas.

Since as far back as I can remember, taking his life is my sole purpose.

He taints our entire region with his existence. Plotting to murder my father, King of Cadomia, despite the fact that his own father sucked the very life out of my mother in my youth. Yet, my father received his vengeance beheading King Davion of Rerimas while we were still children. I remember my father's anguish and my own confusion and anger at the time. He would have killed Leonidas, too, if the Royal Court who oversee our region didn't place the demon Prince and his mother, Queen Ida, under their protection.

The Royal Court values a peace between humans and vampires, but to my father and I, Leonidas' claim to the Reriman throne is a disgrace. He should have been killed with his father, King Davion, and Rerimas joined with one of the other honorable vampire Kingdoms in the region.