Seventy-six
— Slowly, slowly... I ask feeling the weakness eating my legs.
— Cover your face right. Do you want the sun to burn you alive?
"Why didn’t he wait till dark?"
— There — —pointed. —the stable is close. We’ll go behind the garden!
The land of the Palace was something very vast, they had areas that were almost impossible to reach on foot and others that we did not walk. It was miles of garden, a few meters to the stable and countless minutes to the cave, which was in a region far away, where no one went.
The only place I could never explore when I had free time, were the waters that were in the back of the Palace. Such a beautiful sea, but also impossible to approach.
— Can you walk a little faster? — complained. — This is not a parade!
— It’s sunny and I’m hungry. You expect me to fly away?
— You better do it, or I’ll take you with a rope around your neck!
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— So she was seen?
— Yes, passing outside the gates!
— Kaila is here!
— The security guards are looking for her, Benjamin. We can’t say that she got past the bars!
— Are you guys sure?
— Yes, the approach sensor found a presence and the cameras confirmed it!
— She entered, I know she entered! — said returning to the interior of the Palace.
— If she got in, security will find her!
— If they find it, then they will be dead men!
— Your grandfather... —spoke. — He disappeared again?
They look around, assessing the environment.
— He was here a minute ago —
— He knows something! — answered in the same second.
— What? — said without believing. — Lucian has no reason to kidnap Mila!
— Sure? — It’s ironic. — I can give you a thousand reasons why he took her!
— Then tell me Benjamin, tell me at least one reason why he should commit such stupidity!
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— Can you feel the weight of the crown on your head, my Queen?
"K—Kaila is a great..."
The shadow of lies covers my view, revealing a goddess carved by the lord of trickery. The vampire was standing in the middle of the stable, covered in blood with three bodies at her feet.
— V—you... I hesitate to pronounce.
— I love the face everyone makes when they find out it’s me behind the mask!
Actually, I was in shock.
— Why? — I had to know. — Why did you betray Benjamin, why did you turn against everything?
— "Why? For what reasons? You have no heart?" — she mocks. — It’s always the same questions!
If I were to imagine someone in this role, it certainly wouldn’t be her but Iris.
— I’ve been waiting for centuries for someone like you, someone Benjamin really cared about!
— Is this all about Benjamin?
"How long will I be held hostage by those who want revenge on this man?"
— HE TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME! — he cried.
— Keep your voice down!
— How dare you say he took everything from you when he made you his wife? — Reply. — You sit in the best of chairs and wear the best of shields. He has at his side the most acclaimed vampire in the world, boasting of his love and wealth. Others would kill to be in his place. Where no lightning strikes and no enemy dares step foot.
— None of this fills the void that Serena left!
"Serena?"
— You mean the former queen?
— Exactly! — he said walking to me. — the Queen whose body I could not say goodbye, whose I can never call sister again!
— Sister?
"Is she Serena’s sister, Thomas’s aunt?"
— When Benjamin left us her heart on that throne, all I had left was the desire for revenge. He didn’t know who I was, so it was easy to seduce him when I was still human, faking my own death so he could make me his second wife. I had to put up with your other wife until Julie showed up, making us both unite. Years passed and I could never get the location of the bodies out of him, never found anything that could hurt him, or kill him.
— So you decided to turn Lucian?
— This asshole is just one of several mistakes I made in my life! — said the belittling. — But it served me well, when I put my plans into practice!
— And what do you get by giving my children to that filthy one?
— Iris has always been fascinated by Benjamin, it’s like an addiction she has no control over. Her sick love led her to dark places, places only a maniac could reach. All she ever wanted was a gun that made Benjamin love her —
— You mean a gun that would force Benjamin to keep it!
— Yes! — agreed. — He already loved her one day, I remember well how it was, but after a few slips all that feeling was disappearing, until there was only anguish. We knew that he didn’t love us anymore, that what he felt for us was a kind of burden, restitubility.
— God...
— As you know, Iris has powerful relatives, but unfortunately there is no love spell. So decades ago she made me promise to find something that could be used against him, something that he loved unconditionally.
— You! — revealed pointing at me.
— Me? — I let a fearful laugh slip away. — That’s okay — I decide to go back on my word. — Benjamin loves me — I assume. — But he does not love as you think, in this broad and infinite way. He didn’t even want to introduce me to you and when you talk about commitment to him, it’s almost like I’m cursing his life.
— It’s not you, you! — corrected. — He loves her, loves her more than ever loved the three of us together. But in this world there is something greater than that, which is able to overcome all feelings, an unbreakable love. Unshakable. That leads us to put our own existence in the background.
The children.
— Your babies!
"Oops!"
— Iris still does not know — —said raising her hand to my abdomen. — But when she knows what you’re carrying, she’ll be so happy she’ll give me what she promised.
— And what will you do with me later? — I question hugging my belly.
— She gives the babies to the vampire and with that the witch grandmother (Eleonor) will do a spell finding the body of Serena. So everyone ends up happy and you will live with me in another country!
"To live with him?"
— You really think I’m gonna leave my kids in the hands of this psychopath and then run off with you?
— You have no options, Mila. If you don’t cooperate you and the twins will die!
Soon, he pulls me to the corner by slamming my back into the board wall.
— Is there no other drug you can give in place? — I ask begging that it wasn’t me, or my cubs.
— If you listened well to my speech about paternal love, you will know that there is no other alternative!
— It was a miracle that two vampires managed to produce a child. Chances like that are not wasted!
"I should have read that damn book, it suffers fertility before I gave it to that vampire!"
— Stay here, I’ll see if the way is clear!
She goes in the back and I’m alone with that filthy old man.
— How exactly do you intend to leave the Palace?
— Before the plans were to lure you out, but now I have no idea what she’s planning!
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Oscar— Sir! —called him, appearing in the lobby.
— Did you find Mila?
Oscar— No, but we found something strange on the cameras!
Benjamin and Thomas shoot into the security room, full of hope.
Oscar— Look!
The young man reproduces the footage on a large screen, showing a quick figure passing through the terrain.
— One minute. Just repeat this time in slow motion!
Oscar— Right!
As soon as he repeats the recording, the former King Lucian becomes clear, running through the back garden clinging to a blanket being by a black cape.
The play is complete in that second, causing a dominant look at the vampire who faces the innocent King victoriously and enraged.
— You want to bet Thomas that that person under the cover is Mila?
— I do not understand... —sighed devastated. — I know all our rivalry, but involving Mila in this does not make sense. What does he gain?
— BENNET! — went through the door euphoric.
— What happened, Hector? — he asked worried.
— There’s a secret room in the basement, the Queen’s prints are all over it!
At that moment, Benjamin turns to the King doing everything to control his eyes in front of the humans. The veins of his hands stand out and he comes to tremble when he holds his fists.
— AAAAAAAAAAAA! — cried furious, writhing his fingers.
— I didn’t know, Benjamin. I didn’t know, damn it. I never saw that room before!
— YOU SWORE TO PROTECT HER WHILE I WAS AWAY, THOMAS! — said grabbing the collar of the King’s robes.
Oscar— SENHOR BENNET! — shouted drawing his gun. — RELEASE THE KING NOW!
— THAT’S WHY I TOOK HER AWAY. THAT’S WHY I TOOK HER AWAY!
— BENJAMIN! —warned him by finally calling him by his first name. — RELEASE him!
Oscar— I WILL SHOOT!
The security guard raises his gun towards the vampire, but he doesn’t care about the gun pointing at him.
♡♡♡♡
