Vamper : The Return of The Queen (BOOK#1)

Chapter Three : Orange Moon

Marceline's POV:

The sun rose like a golden coin in the horizon sending yellow rays to warm up the forest while peeking from behind the mountain, it was dawn.

I looked above and admired the view ahead of me as the morning breeze caressed my hair and skin smoothly then I moved my eyes to look at the two men who were bickering during the trip, we had been walking for three days. Suddenly we heard a roar very close to us which made us stop and look at the direction it came from, an immense bear with two horns rushed towards us with its mouth wide-open in an attempt to devour anything in its way.

We quickly moved out the way leaving the monster go behind us, Damien and Zen quickly got into a fight position in front of me and were about to attack the monster but stopped right at their spot.

"You should stay out of my way," Damien said.

"No, you should stay out of my way," Zen replied, and for a second I thought I had seen lightning between their glares. I looked towards the magical beast which was growling and charging at us then started running towards us again, so in a fast movement, I took my sword out, ran and jumped on the back of its head before slashing its nape, the monster roared in agony before it fell and landed a few steps away from Zen and Damien.

"Stop bickering all the time you two," I said while slightly waving my sword to my side to get rid of the blood, thus I got them glaring at me.

"What?" I asked, "I want to protect you," they both said at the same time.

"Well too bad for you, but I can protect myself," I answered while snickering as I walked past them, leaving them behind me.

After a few more hours of walking, we finally stopped beside a river to take some rest. I went to the river and knelt down before washing my hands and face then drank some water; hence, I started cleaning my sword with some water when I sensed someone's presence beside me.

"Hey, Celine? I was wondering about something," I heard Zen say as I answered without looking at him, "What is it?"

"I know it may sound weird but I don't know where we are going," he said and chuckled, I smiled.

"We are going to the humans' village near Luvus," I answered, and I could see him tense at the mention of the werewolves' kingdom from the corner of my eye.

"Why?" He questioned.

"I'm looking for my uncle," I responded then started to wipe my sword. There had been a brief silence between us before he talked.

"I'm going to take a nap right now. You should rest too," he said then went to a tree therefore he laid down and closed his eyes to fall asleep, I got up and saw Damien leaning on a tree with his eyes closed so I walked to another tree and sat down before setting my back against the trunk. A wave of exhaustion hit me, and I closed my eyes, resulting in a deep slumber.

"Marceline...Wake up," I opened my eyes after hearing someone calling my name and shaking my shoulder slightly, then I rubbed my eyes slowly to clear my vision.

"We are going to move now," Damien said and gently pushed a piece of hair behind my ear; I yawned and nodded at him so both of us got up, I looked around for any trace of Zen but found none.

"Where is Zen?" I asked Damien still looking around.

"He said he would go to bring some food," as Damien told me that, we heard a loud bump then Zen showed up while pulling a magical monster that looked like a lion with one horn in the middle.

"Food is served successfully for you, young beauty," Zen said and bowed slightly with one hand on his abdomen. I chuckled and thanked him then walked over to the beast, my eyes turned grey and my fangs showed up because of the smell of blood so I removed the furry skin then inserted my fangs on the meat sucking as much as I needed of blood as Damien did the same.

"Why don't you have some too, Zen?" I asked after I had finished, but he just smiled at me.

"No, I've already had my part while hunting," he replied, and I could see some blood in the corner of his mouth indeed. I smiled and my eyes turned back to normal as well as my fangs.

"How much distance is left to the village?" Zen asked addressing Damien who looked at the map.

"We will arrive by night," Damien answered which made Zen groan knowing that there was still a long way to go. Thus, we proceeded with our journey to the village.

Through the trail, Zen and Damien were sometimes silent, sometimes arguing. I sighed at their behaviour and wondered if they would ever get along together.

Unexpectedly, we heard some noise coming toward us but it didn't sound like a monster or an animal, so we jumped up the trees to have a look at who or whatever was about to show up without being noticed; there were guards surrounding a covered wagon as other few people were chained and seemed to be prisoners as they were dragged by force but one of them tumbled and collapsed on the floor.

"Get up, filthy vampire!" A man from the ones riding horses said and harshly whipped the poor one.

"P-Please stop," he begged as he tried to find the strength to get up which was all in vain.

"Does a worthless creature like you think that it deserves mercy?" The man replied and kept whipping him. My eyes turned grey and I gritted my teeth tightly as I felt a strong urge to step in but Damien's hand on my shoulder stopped me, he was shaking his head.

"I'm sure when we reach the castle, Sir Radolf will give all of you what you truly deserve, fool bats," the man said and pulled the chains while the wagon kept going. We jumped off the trees once they were gone but I couldn't help the strong emotion growing inside me.

"They are going to pay," I hissed as I stared in the direction they went in.

"We have to go," Damien said and turned around as Zen followed him with a shadow across his face.

'Calm thyself, Marceline,' I thought whiletaking deep breaths, then followed the young men to our destination but thistime with more determination.