“Where is he?” His voice was no more than a deep growl.
“Who, my lord?”
Gaijryc looked over at Gradeall, who stood by the wall, his posture that of relaxation and uncaring. “Ryce.”
“He didn’t show for practice today.”
Gaijryc looked around at the males in front of him and stripped out of his shirt. He left his jeans on as he made his way to the center of the room, the males breaking away like water from oil. He didn’t need to speak for them to know he needed to fight. He needed to work out this energy that was causing an inferno inside of him. One by one they approached him, ready to fight their prince. One by one they fell to the ground, crawling away as blood dripped from their wounds.
By the end, he was the only one standing, his fists bloody and raw, his body coated with sweat. The rage was still there, though, and he knew until he could get his hands on Ryce, it would continue to fester like a piece of meat rotting in the sun.
He headed upstairs to his room where he planned on taking a quick shower, grabbing food and heading back to Helina. Even though Ryce had been disrespectful and had been in Helina’s presence without him, he knew the male wouldn’t harm her, wouldn’t dare to.
Just as he was about to head out the front door he heard the screeching sound of his mother’s voice calling him to the ballroom. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists as he hurried to the room to get whatever she had to say over with. It didn’t surprise him to see Iena right behind her, her barley-there dress nothing more than a scrap of fabric that covered her tits and ass.
“I have picked out your ceremonial outfit for the ball, Gaijryc.”
He didn’t care about the ball, nor did he want it to even happen.
“Hello, my lord. How are you this fine day?”
He looked over at the small female voice that had spoken. Lucie looked up at him with her strawberry blond hair and her almond-shaped brown eyes.
“Hello, Lucie. I’m fine, and you?” His attention went back to the preparations in front of him and he gritted his teeth in frustration. He looked back at the small servant who hadn’t yet answered him. “Are you doing well, Lucie?”
“Oh yes, my lord. Thank you for asking.” Lucie smiled shyly and turned to leave.
He thought about Helina once again. He needed to bring her to the mansion before the ball, although his family, his kind, would not welcome him mating a human. He couldn’t be banished, couldn’t be punished, there was nothing they could do to the first born DarkShine prince. As he thought about how they couldn’t touch him, he thought about how they could hurt Helina. He might be safe, but the fact that she was a fragile human had him on edge.
Even though anyone who dared touch her, who even looked at her in the wrong way, would meet their end by his hands, he couldn’t guarantee that she would be fully safe. The ball was in a couple of weeks and he only had a short while before his mother started pushing the females on him. He knew that she was the one he had to be worried about. She was the one that would try and hurt him by taking what he held most dear to his heart… Helina.
A week had already passed, the time flying by like the wind through the trees. Gaijryc saw her every day, bringing her little trinkets every time he came by. Many times he never left her side, staying with her day and night.
She hadn’t seen Ryce since that one time and was thankful for it. She had thought back to seeing the woman in the trees, but after a while, she pushed it away to an overactive imagination, something her mind conjured up from all the stress in her life.
Tonight Helina planned on making Gaijryc a special dinner that hopefully led to a special night. She felt herself grow wet and became embarrassed by how strongly she wanted sex. The build-up was becoming unbearable.
She stood in front of the stove, the apron wrapped around her waist and covered with spaghetti sauce. Her mind started to cloud as she stared at the thick red liquid. She could picture Lizzie, both of them in the kitchen with their mother. She had only been about seven, Lizzie ten. Their mother had showed them how to make her special “gravy”, as she had called it. Helina had been standing on a chair stirring the sauce while Lizzie had been chopping the herbs. She remembered Lizzie screaming and clutching her hand as their mother ran around frantically looking for a towel. Blood oozed from between her sister’s fingers, dripping on the floor and mixing with the fresh herbs.
Helina stared at the spaghetti sauce, the thick red liquid looking just like Lizzie’s blood when she’d cut herself, just like the blood that had been around her body when she’d found her dead on her bedroom floor. Her appetite instantly vanished and tears started to slip down her cheeks. She was completely alone in this world, the only surviving member of her family. The vampires had come and taken over everything, had taken everyone she knew and loved and kept it for themselves.