Chapter 74: Chapter Seventy-four: Damien’s Story XIV: My love, I’ll take care of everything.
Mira knew they couldn’t just ignore the pressing matters at hand. She unwrapped her arms from his neck and pulled away to look at him.
"Darling." she started soberly. "Cassian is gone...he...he was possessed..."
"What?" her husband asked in disbelief. First he battled a maniac in a pyramid that vanished, next he finds out that his butler was manipulated and now his son is possessed? Were the gods angry at him for something?
"When...how...? Alexandria stammered out but Mira just avoided his gaze. It was then he finally noticed her body. Her cheeks were red and she had cuts and bruises all over her arm.
He grabbed her arms and shook it in front of himself. "Who...who did this to you?" he asked worriedly but that was soon replaced by a violent anger.
"Is it that damned king? Did he touch you?"
Mira just broke down at the question. She hadn’t had time to recover from the traumatizing experience she had experienced last night because of her craving to find her children.
Now that her lover was looking so genuinely concerned for her, the memory came crashing down on her and she couldn’t just contain it anymore.
"My love." he said solemnly. "What did that bastard do to you?" Alexandria placed his palms on both sides of her head, wiping her tears with his thumbs.
He was going to mutilate that bastard.
"I...I escaped my love. I wasn’t defiled or anything." Mira said through sniffles but Alex wasn’t having that. Seeing her cry struck his heart so hard he saw red.
No one makes his wife cry and gets away with it. Hell when was the last time he had her in tears?
"That reminds me..." she turned around only to find out they were the only ones in the forest. What? Where was Jesse....I mean Severin?
Alexandria noticed her troubled expression. "What is it my love?"
"Huh? The...the boy...he was just telling me how to get to Cassian."
Alex looked around but there was no one. What boy? He turned his gaze back to his wife who was still searching the surroundings, looking for this ’boy’ He was seriously worries about her now. Her dress, her face in fact her entire being was so troubled. All because of her children.
Alexandria came and stood in front of her. He couldn’t watch her lose herself after what he has been through yesterday till this moment. It could destroy him. "Sweetheart. Let’s head back home now and talk about the rest later hmm?"
"No...no. I’m not crazy darling, I—"
"I never said you were crazy darling. I’m just so worried about you right now. You need to rest." he answered her calmly with loving tenderness in his eyes.
Mira’s wild eyes softened when she finally looked at him. A stinging pang of pain slapped her hard and she felt guilty for making him worry so much. She eventually agreed to his suggestion. She did need to rest. Maybe for a century even.
"Alright love. Let’s head back home." Even though she desperately wanted to ask the little boy more about her solution, she didn’t want to worry her husband the more. Besides, the solution was at the palace anyways so it wasn’t such a bad idea.
Alex nodded once and swept her into his arms. The next moment, they were in the air. Mira snuggled into the fold of his arms as he leapt through the forest. He tried to go as slow as possible so it wouldn’t startle her too much. By the time they emerged from the forest and stood at its threshold, the entire palace was already in a uproar. Everyone, every living being was looking for the king.
Damien had already left with Ezra and the others while Mira was fast asleep.
As he stood there, he stared at her sleeping face. He didn’t want her to spend another second in that dirty, grievous place. He was going to take care of that damned king himself. He had originally planned on waging war on the kingdom but had been held back literally by Ezra who advised another method.
Obviously by that time, the banquet would have already ended so there was every possiblity that she was still in. In order not to rouse any attention, his men had snuck to the throne room, captured the king in his sleep and taken him back to Zerathane. All these happened in the wee hours of the night.
When they had gotten there, they found the king in a robe and nothing else. With the three of them, it was quite easy to capture him. Turns out, the king was a human turned vampire and that meant his abilities were greatly limited. Veylar was rules right from the beginning by humans: he was the first and only vampire king of that time...or so everyone thought.
Ezra landed on the cobblestones with one knee touching the ground slightly. He straightened himself and walked towards Alex who was still carrying a sleeping Mira.
"You want me to take her back too?" Ezra asked knowingly, arching one brow. He knew him too well.
"Sorry for the trouble buddy." Alex said walking over to him and placing Mira in his arms. Ezra was one of the pure blooded vampires who wasn’t part of the royal family. This was because his mother, a pure blooded princess, had mated with a stranger and had him. She was cast out of the royal family and burned. Her ashes were buried under a tree but her son had survived.
Alex had then snuck him into the palace during the recruitment for workers held yearly in the palace. He had passed and was assigned to be his personal assistant. Ezra’s powers came from his long, thick, full orange hair that had never been cut since birth. He had a wild aura attached to him but was more coolheaded that any of his companions.
Ezra took Mira in his arms and gently placed her on the horse in front of him. He grabbed the reins and a force of energy shot through it and into the horse as if powering it. With insane speed, the horse neighed loudly before galloping away faster than lightening.
Alex watched as the horse took his wife away. He could allow whatever to happen as long as his wife and children weren’t affected. He never trusted anyone with her. Not even his other two companions. But with Ezra, he could bet his life on him.
Alex vanished from the palace and appeared on the horse Ezra was riding. He sat behind him with his back facing Ezra’s as the horse galloped through the town in a flash. They took several routes which had fewer number of people so as to avoid suspicion.
By the time they got to Zerathane, it was already dusk. Ezra slapped the reins over the horse and it slowed down walking normally till they arrived at the palace.
"Your majesty." Jene greeted with her head to the ground. Alex walked past her and headed straight for their bedroom. Once there, he placed her gently on the bed and turned to Jene.
"Wash her and get her a change of clothes. Be careful not to wake her up." Alexandria turned back to his sleeping wife and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. " I’ll take care of everything my love ok? It’ll all be fine."
He got up swiftly and disappeared from the room while Jene called the other servants to assist her in washing her mistress.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Where is he?" Alex said darkly. The soft, kind appearance he had around Mirenelle was long gone. In its place was the look that was the stark opposite and also showed he was there for business and ready to kill.
Alex strutted down the dark, dreary dungeon lit with flaming torches that never seemed to run out. He angrily hurried down the hall and turned a corner where he entered a small room with a chair in the center.
Naked on that chair, except for a white robe tied around his waist, was the very man who had dared lay a hand on his precious wife — Xeranthis.
The chains that bound Xeranthis rattled as he lifted his head. His once proud silver hair was damp with sweat and streaked with blood from trying to wrestle with the three men back at the palace. He blinked sluggishly as Alex approached, standing in front of him with danger flashing in his eyes.
"How dare you humiliate me because that who—"
A fist cracked across his face before the sentence was finished. His head snapped to the side, blood spraying from his mouth. Alex didn’t speak. He simply stood there, breathing hard as the veins in his forearm pulsed for another punch.
"What a big mouth you have," Alex said finally, his voice low, but deadly in its restraint. He reached for a dagger lying on a rusted tray beside the chair. Its curved blade shimmered faintly in the torchlight, slick with dried oil. "We need to fix that..." he drawled out, testing the hilt on his palm "... and you’ll feel just how she felt."
He plunged the dagger into Xeranthis’s thigh, twisting it slowly. The man screamed at the top of his lungs, kicking his feet out wildly though they were bound with heavy chains. He was just a convert, nothing special.
Alex leaned close, his lips brushing the man’s ear. "Every inch of pain you feel is still not enough for what you did." He dragged the blade upward, slowly tracing the muscle until Xeranthis’ cry became violent. The blade tore through the robe, staining it on both sides with his blood.
When he finally withdrew the dagger, he wiped the blood across his chest. "Tell me," he whispered, tilting the man’s chin up with the blade tip, "what did she say to you when you grabbed her?"
"I— I didn’t—"
The dagger slid into his side before he could even utter another word. Another agonizing and tormented scream shot out of his lungs as the dagger pierced his naked flesh.
Alex walked towards a table with a black bag on it. He flipped it open and slid on a glove. "Strip him." he said in a deep, dark voice.
Alex’s eyes were cold and devoid of any mercy. He could tolerate anything to certain levels but one thing he could never was messing with his family—especially his wife.
"You’ll beg for death long before I grant it." he whispered menacingly, his eyes slowly
slowly darkening with a cold, merciless promise.
"First of all, let’s do something about those disgusting paws that gripped her."