May Death Do Us Part

Vivian sighed and without turning to the woman beside her spoke, “foresight... have you forgotten it’s one of my abilities?”

“Are you saying you saw the princess in Ervelon?” Maria questioned with much surprise. If the princess and Gareth were planning to end up in Ervelon anyway why did they leave the group behind? It didn’t make any sense.

“I didn’t see her there, I saw her and the elven prince being led there,” Vivian responded casually.

“By who?”

“That is what I don’t know, these visions are always so blur.” The woman turned to look at Maria and gave her a reassuring nod, “but they’re never wrong.”

The nosferatu did not possess advanced magical abilities like the elves, except for the the few members of the royal bloodline, most of them were limited to one or two abilities at most. These abilities could range from foresight, telekinesis, teleportation and many others. Vivian been part royalty had a wider range of abilities, telepathy which helped her to track Melissa, foresight, flight and a few others. While Maria had flight and healing abilities.

“But Ervelon is where Aiden went rogue..” Maria whispered, “I highly doubt the elves will welcome the princess with open arms. Don’t you think we should try reaching her before they reach the elven kingdom?”

Vivina smiled to herself and flipped her hair back. Maria was right of course. Ervelon was no sanctuary for their kind, but given the unlikely circumstances, those stuck up elves would have no choice but to welcome the princess, in fact, they would probably have no choice but to cater to her every need and protect her from the battle that Vivian could sense coming their way.

.....

The lycan’s sent was strong, drenched in anger and a bloodlust Vivian had never sensed before. And considering that she was literally a blood sucking vampire, that was saying a lot.

“Don’t worry Maria, I don’t think there’s any safer place for the princess right now than in Ervelon,” the woman spoke in a flat tone, “right now we just need to get there and warn the elves about princess Melissa’s scorned husband.”

“Nathaniel is here?!” Maria felt her spine tingle a little. She had always been a little wary of the silver haired man from the first day she laid eyes on him. Even though he was always so loving and tender towards the princess, there was a side of him that seemed a little dark and almost evil.

“He’s fast approaching,” Vivian responded, “and he’s not alone..”

The woman slowed her horse and looked at Maria with an expression Maria had never seen on Vivian’s face before, one of worry. “He brings halfbreeds with him, lycans and nosferatu, about two dozen or more.”

Maria felt a bit light headed at the statement. Halfbreeds were known to be extremely strong, resilient and powerful. It would take three full fledged purebreed nosferatu to take one halfbreed down in a fight, and now Vivian was telling her the lycan prince had brought with him two dozen?! They would never survive that, they needed back up and quick!

*

King Elric dismounted his horse and walked up to the edge of the thicket of trees that made up the wandering woods. Theo had told him about this place, the elve’s first line of defense against attacks. The poor souls unlucky enough to venture into them would wind up lost for the rest of their unnatural lives.

A Lycan general walked to the king’s side and bowed slightly, “are you sure she went through here my king?”

The man with sliver hair took a quick whiff of the air. He was as sure as the sun rose in the east, that was his beautiful wife’s sent he was picking up, she was so close she could almost taste her. “I’m sure.” Elric responded.

“You’ve heard the tales haven’t you your majesty?” The laycan general added on, “if we go through these woods we’re as good as dead.”

The kind nodded his head, “that is true, no one who bares malice for an elf can get through these woods, and I... well I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that elven prince’s head mounted on my wall.”

“So what do we do now your majesty?”

“Did you carry the gasoline and flints like I asked you to?” King Elric asked his general who nodded in agreement. “Excellent.. light the arrows and aim for the woods. We are going to burn this place to the ground and trample over the ashes.”

The king’s words made the lycan general gulp. Good gods king Elric was terrifying, his determination to get what he wanted was unnatural. He was the kind of man who would walk through the gates of hell, grab the devil by the horns and drag him off his throne if he possessed something he wanted. But then again, it was more likely that this ruthless king might be the devil reincarnate himself.

*

Prince Gareth held on tightly to Melissa’s hand as they walked across the rocky gorge trying to find a way to get back to the top. The sun was low in the sky and the temperatures were dropping really fast, the prince did not want to put Melissa though a night in his creepy eerie place that could be filled with snakes or scorpions or worse.

The redhead had offered to try and fly them out but a few minutes after they crash landed into the gorge her wings had dissipated into hundreds of shards of red lights and disappeared. She had tried to bring them back many times but could not seem to figure out how they worked.

Gareth halted briefly in his tracks and handed Melissa the canteen of water, “drink, you need to stay hydrated.”

The beautiful woman shook her head and pushed the canteen to his lips instead, “you’ve been constantly giving me water without taking any yourself,” she spoke, “take some.”

“Mel I-”

“If you don’t drink that water Gareth get comfortable with the idea of both of us dying of thirst.”

The man scoffed with a light smile before taking a large gulp of water, she was still as stubborn as ever even after all these years. After quenching his own thirst he handed the canteen to Melissa who also took a sip. After he tucked the canteen back into his satchel, Gareth looked up at the large rock walls surrounding them and sighed. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to find a way out of here anytime soon.”

He turned to Melissa and gave her an apologetic smile, “we’ll have to camp out in this dump for a bit and try again tomorrow okay?”

“Worst camping trip ever..” Ella said with an eye roll making Gareth chuckle in amusement. She could see how incredibly tense and tired he was, the last thing she wanted was to make him feel like everything that was going on was too much for her to handle. He was very dotting and worried about her a lot, she didn’t want him stressing over her In situations none of them could control.

“I’ll start a fire to keep you nice and warm,” the prince spoke as he helped her settle down against a large rock that would work perfectly as a windbreaker during the cold night.

“Let me help you gather firewood, I saw some branches-”

“No Mel you stay here,” the man interrupted, much to Melissa’s dismay, “I’ll get the firewood, you stay put and rest.”

“You’re as tired as I am Gareth,” Melissa protested, “you need to stop treating me like I’m going to break at the nick of a finger. I can gather wood, I can fight, I can hunt, I can help Gareth. I don’t like feeling so useless all the time.”

The man crouched down on front of the pouting woman with beautiful blue eyes and brushed her cheek gently, “you’re not useless my love...”

“Well I feel like it,” Melissa added on, “we’re a team Gary, please let me help.”

The man sighed in defeat. How could he have forgotten the badass, sword fighting, arrow shooting, incredibly stubborn woman Melissa really was. He was just so worried about her especially after recent events that he felt like if he looked away for more than a minute something bad would happen to her. But she was right, they were a team and they had to work together to survive.

“Okay fine,” the man relented, “I’ll gather the wood and you’ll start the fire. How does that sound?”

“It’s a start..” Melissa responded with a smile

Gareth gave her a kiss on the forehead and then stood up to gather some wood. As he did his deed, he couldn’t help but smile to himself, he was glad Melissa wasn’t some damsel in distress who needed to be tended to every few seconds. She was fierce and independent and those were some of the reasons he’d fallen so hard for her.

He looked back at where she was sitting and saw her humming to herself and looking up at the stars like she didn’t have a care in the world. Even though in a bad situation, she was still making the best of it, it made the prince’s heart swell with pride knowing that such a woman was one day going to be his wife and the mother of his children.