Cursed

Prologue

August 23rd, 985 – The Green lands forest

Situations like this were just shameful. The princess of the Green lands, one of the four kingdoms of Mikill, shouldn't be sitting on a cold floor in an iron cage, in the middle of a forest nonetheless.

Kate was never going to live down this disaster. Her father already thought she wasn't fit to learn the ways of a warrior - although that never stopped her from finding ways anyway. Still despite all her effort, he never seemed to believe in her. And here she was, locked up in a cage, proving him right. All because she was yet again distracted by her own life and misery.

The first lesson of a warrior was to never get distracted, and even though she had skills even royal knights didn't possess, she always failed at that very important first one.

This situation was the result of her own incompetence. How could she have been so distracted that she got herself caught by a bunch of Vampire Hunters? She was a Royal Vampire, one of the Originals, and supposed to be one of the strongest vampires in existence.

The princess sighed and let her head fall back against the iron bars of the cage. Her eyes searched for the stars, but the clouds and the light from the campfire and torches that lit up the Hunter Campsite made that impossible. A sigh escaped her again, nothing was going the way it was supposed to go in her life.

She shook her head hoping her thoughts would take another direction. Coming up with an escape plan would be a good distraction. She could listen to her surroundings and the stories the Hunters were telling each other around the campfire.

Kate tried to concentrate on one conversation at a time, but she soon skipped every single one of them and ended up smashing her fist on the iron floor.

Why were those Hunters so full of themselves? Did every single one of them have to brag about killing vampires? Didn't they have anything else going on in their lives?

Talk about her capture had spread like wildfire through the campsite. Even now, Kate could hear her name everywhere, as if they wanted her to hear so she could relive this feeling of humiliation over and over.

Full of pride, a few of them had even started chatting about other victory stories and vampire kills, which didn't really make her feel more comfortable either. Those were her people after all.

The princess nervously moved from her spot. She tried to stand up, but decided against it. She had already tried to break the bars of the cage without much success. It was probably strengthened with some potion. It couldn't have been wolfsbane, because that would've hurt like hell. The small brunette vampire was sure Hunters had a lot more secrets she didn't know of when it came down to killing a vampire. Although, judging from the stories around the campfire, it seemed their skills and bravery were the only thing they needed. Something the princess highly doubted.

Kate sat back down and tried to breathe slowly, as to calm her nerves. She laid her head back against the bars, closed her eyes wishing to calm herself further.

After filtering out the barbaric stories of those Hunters, there wasn't anything left to do but listen to her surroundings. It wasn't her favorite way to distract herself, but it seemed better than being alone with her thoughts. She switched her attention to the quiet nature around her. She had hoped for nearby animals, but no such luck. It didn't come as a big surprise; she had a feeling they'd fled the scene as soon as the Hunters had arrived. She would've done the same thing.

The party was growing by the minute and so was the sound. It got harder to concentrate on the serenity of the forest. Kate had the urge to cover her ears - hearing her own pulse was probably more soothing than the laughs of her enemies.