Her Vampire Prince

Her Vampire Prince - Chapter 2

Nineteen years later...

Prince Arvinson was contemplating the dead rabbit's slashed neck. He swallowed visibly.

"I missed Lucinda!" he mourned before he took a gulp of the rabbit's blood. He poured the blood into the wineglass to fool himself that it was Lucinda's.

"Lucinda is gone forever, my prince," Dalton informed him every time he mentioned his favorite blood bank. "She is among the dead in the bombing last month."

"I know. You've told me that a hundred times!" Prince Arvinson retaliated irritably. "But there is a difference between Lucinda and a rabbit."

"No, Prince Arvinson." Dalton's answer was subdued. "Both are dead."

The prince was silent for a while. "Yes. Both are dead." He drank the blood in one long glug. "Aah!" He squirmed as he sighed.

"Delicious?" Dalton asked him.

"Nutritious," Prince Arvinson replied. "How many more rabbits?"

"Seventy-eight, my prince." His aide consulted his little notebook. "If you like, we could kill three more tonight so you'll be down to seventy-five."

"And what? Freeze the blood? It is disgusting to drink iced blood!"

"Yes. It is disgusting," Dalton nodded wisely.

"According to Professor Pavlov, I have to ingest the blood of a hundred rabbits to be able to perform necromancy! What foolishness is that! Where did he read it?" Prince Arvinson was mind-boggled but he had no choice but follow the advice of his teacher. He had attended the best school in necromancy. And Professor Pavlov was chosen among the best.

"You could have a taste of this, my prince." Dalton raised his glass invitingly. "It's human blood."

"Why are you drinking that?"

"I'm not hoping to be the best necromancer." Dalton shrugged while savoring the content of his wineglass.

They were of the same height. They had the same built. Both were stocky and heavily muscled.

They had the same long black hair, which was pomaded to be smooth and pony-tailed at the back. Their ribbons differed, however. Whenever Prince Arvinson wore black, Dalton would wear dark blue. The colors were different but on close inspection only.

It was King Umberto's idea. He chose Dalton among the applicants to be the aide of his eldest son, Prince Arvinson. He instructed Dalton to imitate the prince's sense of fashion.

"I wish I have your simplicity, Dalton." Prince Arvinson sighed enviously.  

"I wish I have your ingenuity, my prince... but I have no love of studying." Dalton shook his head sadly. "I would just sleep through during the lecture."

"Oh, well... we have our own personalities, our own destinies," Prince Arvinson retorted philosophically. "I want to survey rabbits' holes over the west."

"I'll come with you!"

"Can you shift to a bat?"

"Oh! Why can't you hunt in your true form?" Dalton complained good-naturedly.

"I want to be free for a few hours." Prince Arvinson turned serious. "The wedding is to be at the end of the month."

Dalton went quiet.

"Will you be okay here for a few hours?"

"Yes."

Prince Arvinson transform himself into a vampire bat. His golden chained necklace with a round diamond pendant fell off the bat's neck. His princely clothes laid cloaked on the rock.

Dalton shook his head. He picked up the clothes and put them inside the camping bag. Crawling critters were everywhere here in the forest. He put the necklace around his neck.

He tended around the camp to pass the time. He buried the rabbit's carcass. He washed the wineglasses and put them back in their boxes.

When he could not find anything to do, he sat leaning on a rock in front of the tiny fire.

"Keep the fire small at all times, Dalton! I don't want our enemy to learn our whereabouts," the prince instructed precisely.

"Yes, my prince..." Dalton whispered as he took a nap.

*     *     *

The vampire bat flew above the trees. He was relishing the freedom of flying. By the end of the month, he was a married man!

'Ah, how did my father convinced me?' Prince Arvinson asked himself.

"You must marry Princess Augusta Bizeveron, Arvinson! I courted her in the past but she had fallen in love with a mortal. Now that the mortal is gone, I courted her again. She doesn't want me because I told her, she would be the fourth wife," King Umberto recounted the story when he invited Prince Arvinson to dinner one night. "In desperation, I showed her your portrait. She fell in love with you."

The prince laughed out loud. "Stop pulling my leg, Father! It is impossible! I am not handsome. Like you!"

"Stop being impertinent, Arvinson! When I said she liked you, she really liked you!"

"That, I could believe. She likes me!"

King Umberto took a deep breath and began persuading him. "Princess Augusta Bizeveron is very rich. She owns a mountain, somewhere in Africa. She is mining thousands of diamonds every day. Imagine the wealth that she could bring in our kingdom!"

"That is first and foremost for you, Father! Money! For what? So you could buy arms and ammunitions that would annihilate the enemy?"

"The vampire hunters are expanding! They just bought guns and silver bullets!" King Umberto was losing his patience again.

"Why not talked with them? I'm sure, their leader would be cooperative if you told them that we don't kill humans for their blood. That their blood was freely given to us on a monthly basis. We paid for the blood, just like in a blood bank," Prince Arvinson informed his father persuasively.

"My son, we are running out of money. The people are paying protection taxes to the dhampirs," King Umberto sighed sadly. "We are losing ground here."

"But--"

"It is your responsibility as the heir of the throne to protect our kingdom! I'm willing to step down now! Just marry Princess Augusta Bizeveron!" King Umberto declared distraughtly.

"Just marry the diamond mines, you mean," the prince retorted in a bitter manner. "And then what? Kill the princess?"

"No! We cannot do that. We need her alive! You will sign a prenuptial agreement. If anything happened to her during your marriage, the diamond mines would be gone, too!"

"s**t!"

Prince Arvinson flew away. His frustration was still fresh as if the conversation happened that night.

"You have three months to enjoy your freedom. Just don't do anything irresponsible, son. Please..." King Umberto emerged triumphant because he got his son's reluctant agreement.

'Three months... where did the time go?' Prince Arvinson was in a hopeless situation.