Chapter 44

Chapter 8:

Trisha’s P.O.V

It took a while for his words to register, but when it did, I was about ready to strangle him to death myself.

“You’re planning on going to the Elder’s Court?” I asked even though I already knew the answer. “Do you really want to die that badly?”

“I’m afraid I’d be dead either way.” Damien gave me a sarcastic smile. “Might as well go down trying.”

“You think this is funny?” I asked through gritted teeth, trying to put up an angry front so that Damien wouldn’t know what was going on inside me. “You’re putting the entire race’s future on the line here! Everyone in the land looks up to you; trusts you to protect them! What happens to all those people? What happens to all the centuries that you’ve ruled over them with promises of a better future?” What happens to me?

“I’m not a pureblood, nor am I the biological son of the previous ruler.” He spoke calmly. “Those are the two pillars of becoming the King, set up by our ancients. I hadn’t known about the reality of either one of those conditions when I had been crowned. That’s all the Elders care about and I don’t fulfill those criteria anymore.”

“That is just stupid!” I snapped. “So they’re just going to undermine everything you’ve ever done for you people for centuries just because you no longer fit this stupid ideal box that they’d built eons ago? They’re gonna forget what you’ve done for your people or how you’ve brought back peace to the lands after the Wipeout…just like that?”

“You forget, Trisha, that the Elders have lived for eons.” Damien said calmly and this time when he raised his hand to touch my cheeks, I didn’t reject him. “They’re as old as time and are feared and respected by all vampires and immortals. They’re no longer just vampires, they have become Gods and whatever a God wants, it goes.”

I closed my eyes as Damien’s skin came into contact with mine. It was like all those feelings that had been bottled inside me just broke free of their shackles and flooded my nerves. I felt tears sting my eyes but I fought them back with desperate strength. How foolish was I to think that I might be over Damien after these few months of separation? He’s the only man I’ve ever loved and loved for years. The love I felt for him had brewed for ages, aged with the years and that was without any physical touch. That kind of love just doesn’t go away. I’d followed him, fought for him, fought with him and fought alongside him but never in my life were the stakes so high.

Damien was a constant in my life. Even when we were apart, I knew that if I ever needed help, he’ll be there for me. I only had to reach out and Damien would be there. I was used to his presence; I was used to his essence. Whenever I needed directions, Damien had been my pole star, even when I was fighting against him to save Neema. If Damien had wanted, he could’ve easily taken Neema away from me, but he hadn’t. In so many ways, he had been the one who had actually helped me save Neema…even if it meant I was to join hands with the enemy.

“I wanted so badly to stop loving you,” I told him now. “I thought if I put some distance between us, if you were no longer in front of my eyes, then it would get easier to stop loving you. But you’re like a drug that I can’t get out of my system no matter how hard I try. It’s frustrating and I hate having to feel this way, but I can never get rid of you. And I don’t think I ever want to.”

Damien wiped away the tears that had escaped through my closed eyelids and placed his forehead against mine. The place where his skin touched mine was warm and tingling. His hair brushed my forehead in the softest of caresses and his warm breath fanned my cheeks. Hesitantly, I placed my arms on his broad shoulders, feeling the strength of his muscles under my palms. He smelled familiar, of black roses and citrus and that undeniable masculine scent that was purely Damien.

I frowned. There was something else; something that I couldn’t quiet place my finger to. There was a hint of something mixed with his scent. I took in a deep breath to get another whiff of his scent. What was it? It smelled familiar…so familiar. It felt like an undertone of so-blood!

The scent was Damien’s blood.

I wrenched myself away from his arms and looked him directly in his eyes. “Why do you scent of blood? Are you injured?”

Damien blinked slowly, as if surprised to find out that I’d noticed. But I grew more concerned when he didn’t answer my question right away.

“Damien? What happened damnit? Why aren’t you healed yet?”I snapped. “Did you fight with Lucas? Did he injure you?”

I knew Lucas wouldn’t do such a thing; he wasn’t the kind of man. But my concern for Damien was making me question everything.

“This has nothing to do with Lucas,” Damien shook his head. “He helped heal me. After all, Death blades are notorious for taking a long time to heal.”

“Death blades?” Everything inside me came to a standstill. “The Elders send the Death Squad after you? That’s how you knew they wanted you dead, isn’t it? They already tried to kill you once!”

I touched my trembling hands to my forehead and found it damp with perspiration. “Oh God!”

Out of everything that I’d learned after turning into a vampire, the stories of the Elders and their Death Squad had scared me the most. Because anyone who came in contact with the Death Squad didn’t live to tell the tale, there weren’t many knows facts but from what I’d heard from the whispers, they were the ghosts in the shadows, the boogeyman of the vampire race and anyone who came into contact with them died a painful death.

But death wasn’t the only punishment they were capable of; only the lucky ones got away with death. The rest were tortured for centuries until they went completely insane. The stories I’d heard had been enough to chill me to my bones. There were very few occasions when the Elders got involved and it wasn’t that often. And they didn’t often listen to the other side of the story; they just went for the kill.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked him finally. “Tell me what I need to do! I can’t-we can’t lose you, Damien. The whole race will erupt into chaos! What do I need to do?”

“Calm down,” Damien said calmly as he placed his hands on my shoulders, and then he was pulling me into his arms and wrapping me in his embrace. “First, you need to calm down.”

I wrapped my arms around his back and realized that I was trembling badly. Damien rubbed a comforting hand up and down my back as I clutched his shirt in my hands. “We’ll figure out something.” He said.

“Yes, we will.” We have to. Because I wasn’t ready to lose Damien, not now, not ever. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Why didn’t you just tell me what was coming? You knew this would happen when you killed Vandal, didn’t you? Is that why you send me away?”

“Yes, I knew.” Damien said calmly. “I thought if I could keep you away from me then they won’t come after you. I was willing to die at their hands-“

“Damien!” I tried to move out of his embrace so I could look at his face but Damien held me tighter to his chest, keeping me in place.

“But I couldn’t.” He gave a humorless laugh. “When they finally came after me, I just couldn’t stand there and let them kill me. I had to see you again. I just had to be with you, even if it was for one final moment.”

“Don’t say that!” I shook my head against his chest. “We’ll survive this. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that we survive, even if it’s the last thing I do.”

Damien didn’t say anything, just held me tighter in his warm embrace until the light faded in the horizon and the sound of crickets and other nocturnal animals welcomed the world into the night.