Enchanted World: Elves and Vampires

6: Thief

*****

Nora tilted onto her side having tossed and turned for the past few hours unable to fall asleep. The bed was too big, too soft, too warm and the room was too dark and quiet. She could not ever remember falling asleep to anything but soft whispering between the others or their breathing, sometimes Kevin’s light snoring and dim light from the moon filtering in through cracks in the paint or boards that covered the windows.

After Arwin said goodnight to his parents, he came back to tell her that he would be in the room right across the hallway. She got the idea that he was trying really hard not to scare or make her more uncomfortable than she already was and appreciated that despite knowing there would be nothing to be uncomfortable about if they had just left her at home.

Pushing the covers aside, she sat up and looked around the dark room. Maybe opening the curtains slightly would allow her to get some sleep because there was always moonlight peeking into her home, but even after Arwin assured her that there were no vampires around the palace she was afraid of someone breaking through the glass, though it seemed a little farfetched. She climbed out of bed quietly and began heading towards the door. The digital clock on the other side of the bed showed that it was just past one in the morning, so everyone was probably asleep aside from a few guards that had to stay up. She would be careful and peek ahead before going into different hallways.

After unlocking the door by turning the key very slowly to keep from making a sound, Nora pulled it open and stuck her head out to have a look up and down the hallway. It was lit by dim lights in the ceiling, there were a few doors separated by paintings or statues on each side and right down the hall was what looked like the rails of an indoor balcony. Stepping out of the room silently, she shut the door with the same amount of care being sure to make as little noise as possible even though it was likely that elves could not hear the way vampires did. Nora had tested earlier by whispering Arwin’s name and received no response from the prince. She looked at the door to the room Arwin was in before beginning to make her way down the hall until reaching the end and stepping up to a balcony that overlooked two more floors of the house, the floor just below with its own balcony surrounding the seemingly central opening. Looking up, she saw another floor of similar design and a ceiling with massive chandeliers hanging from it and figured the building was a 4-story mansion.

Nora looked down each side of the hallway and stumbled back, bending down when her eyes caught movement on the floor just below. A guard? She peeked over the edge of the floor, through the columns of the balcony and looked across to the other side to see an elf with much shorter and curlier hair than both princes’. He held a glowing blue bow and arrow in hand while making his way down the hall. She waited until he disappeared into another hallway before standing up and jogging over to the stairs. Taking the spiral staircase to the second floor immediately led into a wide-open area that held only a few couches so Nora continued downstairs onto the first floor. She decided to start exploring from there but paused. This was the empty hall or foyer she had looked down on from above. It would be easy to find the front door with just a little bit of searching…

Nora slowly began walking right beside the wall in the dimly lit space while trying to stay hidden from anyone possibly looking down from the floors above.

Should she leave?

The lifemate thing had freaked her out. How could anyone be so devoted to being with someone they had only just met? It did not make sense to her, but she knew it made sense to him. It must have been the norm for elves. It seemed like a sweet concept that they absolutely knew there was someone they were meant to meet and be with until she wondered about what would happen if someone did not like the person they found to be their lifemate… Did they then just search for another? Was there really only one? She considered that he had made it up, but then how would his brother have been the first to mention it? Well, they could have planned all of it earlier. Still... Arwin did not seem like a liar. Maybe she was credulous for thinking that, but it was something she could not get herself to disagree with. After all, why would he want to be with someone like her? They were completely different in all aspects of their lives and she was not the type of person that someone in his position would ever even look at were it not for something as bizarre as thinking he had found his lifemate in her.

She had surprised herself by agreeing to a year, but staying in the palace for just a year, being civil with him and being allowed to see her friends and family was better than being held there indefinitely without any chance of seeing them… Or at least she hoped it was better… hoped he kept to his word. For some reason, she could not stop herself from believing that he kept his promises.

Nora gave a humourless laugh at the naivety of so easily being able to believe Arwin had these good qualities while knowing literally nothing about him other than the fact that he had kidnapped her and almost had Zachary killed. Her feet stopped moving as it hit her that it had been stupid to just believe they had healed him. What if they had not…? What if he was already dead? She lifted her hands to cover her eyes as the thought alone made them start to burn with unshed tears. No. She just had to trust that Arwin had not lied, had to try to believe everyone was alright until being able to see them again because there was no point in dwelling on it or breaking down at the moment.

Dropping her hands with a soft breath, she turned to the wall as a painting that was slightly different from all the others on display caught her eyes. The colours seemed brighter. Maybe it was different paint or newer? It was like staring at magic, it just drew her in.

“You.” She jumped at the voice and turned to face a buff male elf holding a bow. “Human,” he said running his narrowed, glowing blue eyes over her. She looked up at him feeling her heartbeat pick up as he towered over her, but despite the instant paralysing fear, she tried to find her voice in the panic that was her chest at that moment.

“Uh – um – A-Arwin –”

“I know who brought you here. It’s his highness by the way, human.” he cut her off spitting the word ‘human’ in disgust while stepping closer. It made Nora step back automatically because of his aggressive stance and clear anger. Her eyes dropped seeing something else begin to glow, an arrow forming in his right hand. Even in the moment, it amazed her that they could make weapons and objects just appear out of thin air. “What are you doing here by yourself? Stealing?” She froze.

“N-no. I was… I…” her voice and thoughts drifted as she stared at the arrow, the blue glow was disappearing slowly and turning into black smoke radiating off the arrow. She had not seen that before, even when they stabbed her brother. Was it because he was angry?

“We do not allow thieves in this kingdom, especially not human thieves.” The words drew Nora out of her magic arrow-induced trans. Thief?

“I-I’m not – I’m not a thief.” She could not seem to speak without stumbling over her words as he lifted the arrow slowly and unconsciously stepped backwards again causing her back to hit the wall lightly. Moving fast did not feel possible with her trembling legs, but how far away from him could she make it if she ran?

“I’ll show you how we deal with your kind around here.”

“I-I didn’t – I swea –” He didn’t wait for an explanation and she let out a scream covering her face when he suddenly swung the arrow. She expected it to pierce through her hands and stab into her face but instead heard something slam against the wall directly beside her head. Dropping her trembling hands slowly, she came face-to-face with the man again, but there was a blue arrow directly between them as his arm stretched out towards the wall. She glanced to see that the glowing blue arrow stuck out of his bleeding arm, the arrow he had tried to stab her with had been slammed into the wall instead.

She looked back at him terrified but was surprised to see an expression that matched her terror on his face as he looked towards their side. Following his gaze led to Vaegon who had his hand up, a finger pointing right at the arrow in the man’s arm before he slowly shifted his arm until it was aimed at the guard’s head. Without a word being said, the pause made it seem like Vaegon was giving the man a chance to speak.

“Y-your highness, she’s a thief.” the guard stuttered. Nora opened her mouth to protest but Vaegon spoke up.

“We can both see that she has not stolen anything. I do not recall ever seeing you amongst the guards though, and your magic is sickening. Clearly, you are trespassing.”

“No – I’m –” Nora’s breath disappeared into a gasp when a ray of light suddenly shot from Vaegon’s finger.

*****