Chapter 9: The Accusation

I was looking at myself in the mirror as I was wiping my face. I sighed before I felt the stiffed muscles as I slept on the chair last night. Next to Aiden. I smiled before I was walking out of the wash room and Aiden was standing outside.

"Oh, you're awake already?" I asked him as he was looking at me. He smiled charmingly before he was nodding.

"Yeah, I think I had the strangest dream ever last night," he said as I was arching my eyebrows.

"Oh, do tell?" I said as I was smiling at him. Aiden was looking at me before he shook his head.

"You would not believe it,"

"Try me,"

He took a deep breath before I was waiting for him to continue, "I dreamed that your eyes were bleeding black and you attacked the cronies that my boss was coming at you to rape you. I tried to stop it but I was being stabbed in the stomach. It seems…so surreal that I don't think I was dreaming at all," he said as he sighed.

"Probably I was working too hard," he mumbled before he went inside the washroom as I stepped aside. I went back to the room that I used for my stay here but now, I felt like I was intruding on the space.

A respectable Lady, especially a Princess, did not have to share a room with a stranger. But I don't think I was a stranger to Aiden as he was to me anymore.

If anything, he was my soulmate. My demon told me so as I was making my way to the kitchen. Nana was looking outside the window, listening to the music of the winds.

"Nana?" I called after her before she shushed me.

"Hush, child," she said before she was moving to the front door. I followed her and I was looking at the mob that was circling the house. Grandpa came out after a while.

"What is all this?" he asked as I was looking at the villagers that I get to know last week. One of them was the boss that spared his life last night.

"She's a demon. She's an abomination. She's a Vampyre!" he shouted and the villagers were shouting along with him.

"Burn her. Kill her. Stake her!"

Everyone was chanting but no one dared to come close. I was looking at every one of them and the boss was smirking at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"What the devil was going on here?" Aiden came out after he put on a fresh tunic and legging as I was looking at the crowd.

"You have been conspiring with a Vampyre, Blackwood! You have fallen under her spell and with that, you are to pay with your head!" the boss said as I was gripping my hands into fists. I don't know what I regret more; the fact that I let him lived or the fact that I don't drain his blood last night.

The latter sounded so much better now.

"And what proof do you have that she was one? She was a commoner, just like us!" Aiden said as he was putting me behind him. For protection, of course. But we all know that if I was a Vampyre, I don't need to be protected.

They needed protection from me, the predator among their midst.

"She killed my sons and she will pay for it with her head!" the older woman that stood beside the boss was shaking with rage. I can see that she resembled someone among the cronies that I killed last night.

But that doesn't mean that I was regretting it now.

"How do you know that you can trust this man when there was no evidence that my guest was a Vampyre? Perhaps he was trying to rile you up?" Aiden asked when his boss sneered.

"You ungrateful son of a bitch! I gave you a job and helped you and this how you repay me?" the boss said before Aiden stepped forward, the rage was all over his body.

"And you tried to rape my fiancée? Now who's the son of the bitch?" he growled before my heart was beating so fast.

Fiancée? Oh, Aiden!

Then, when the mob was trying to attack us, a group of horses was streaming down the cobblestones before I felt the blood was drained from my fast. I know that stallion everywhere and only one person can be riding them.

Niklaus, my cousin has found out where I was!

*****

"So, are we there yet or not?" Dan asked Marsh as he was trying to pick up the path for their group to be retreating the queen of Niapachad Island. Nick sighed before he turned to look at the count.

"You know, you're starting to get on my nerves," he said as Dan just smirked at him. Tom was rolling his eyes at his friend's behavior before Ian was shaking his head.

"What? Are you afraid that you will the ball that you will be finding your wife, Nick? Come on, it's too early for us to settle. Besides, we have to make sure that your cousin married first. Then, she can pester us with the marriage talk," the count said as Nick shook his head when Marsh jumped on his horse now.

"Well?"

"Southeast. I think there was a village named Grea in that area. She might be hiding there," Marsh said before he was nudging his horse to go ahead. Of course, why don't I think about that? Nick thought when he was following his friend the baron to get on the right path. Dan, Tom, and Ian were following from behind and they were happy to be talking about something else among them.

"Who do you think will be the first to marry among us, lads? I bet it was Nick for he's a duke," Dan said before Nick shoots him a glare over his shoulder.

"But perhaps it will be you, Dan, with your unending blabbering about the fairer sex," Tom said before Ian laughed.

"Well, one thing for sure. We will be getting married. We will get leg shackled and we all will be enjoying a good retirement to the country," Ian said before Nick smirked.

"If you can keep a secret about your 'blessing'. I don't think Arabella would love for the commoners to be stirring about our rite of passage yet," Nick said before he caught something in their path.

"Looks like a mob over there. What would it be about?" Marsh said before Nick saw who it was among the midst.

Blonde hair.

Blue eyes.

Even from this distance, Nick knew deep in his heart who was it. It was none other than his rebellious cousin, Arabella Dragomir.

"Hiya!" he urged his horse to go ahead of Marsh. His friends followed close behind and when they were arriving at the front of the mob, Nick gets off from the horse and went after Arabella. Her eyes were shocked to see him here but most importantly, she was looking like a commoner with that dress.

She looked like she was home.

*****

Nick stood in front of me before I was blinking my eyes. Is this true? Was my cousin really here? And before I could utter any word, he hugged me, crushing me to the bone and he was whispering to me.

"You are so much in trouble," he said before he was putting an arm's length between us. I was looking at my cousin's face and there was wariness inside them. Poor Nick, he must be searching for me for days.

"And who's this? Another one of your benefactors, was it, Arabella?" the boss said before Nick turned to look at them. Looked at the villagers. Some of them knew who he really was but clearly, this man was not included in his tenants.

Or else he might not be speaking like that.

"Did you not know who you're talking to?" Nick asked the villagers that still backed up the old pig. Sometimes, I wished that I unleash my demon and kicked him in the loins.

"Your Grace—" one of the villagers said before Nick was looking at him. He nodded at him before Nick was addressing me to his tenants.

"This is your respect to your monarch? With pitchforks and fires? Have you no shame to show such tributes to your queen?" his voice carried through the mob. Some of the villagers were talking and some of them did not believe that I was a monarch.

Especially the big ugly boss.

"You're lying. She's a whore and I know for a fact that she was serving—"

He cannot finish his answer for Nick was gripping his collar and was looking at him.

"You will respect my cousin like the queen she was. And if I hear that one more word about her from your filthy mouth, you will regret it, sir," my cousin threatened the big man before he released it. I was looking around the villagers before I turned to look at Aiden. His face was expressionless.

"Aiden, I—"

I did not finish the sentence for he stormed into the house, leaving me alone here with Nana and his grandpa. I was smiling at them before Nick realized who they were.

"Lord Blackwood, Lady Blackwood. How are you doing?" my cousin said before he was kissing Nana's cheeks and shook grandpa's hand. I was turning to look at them.

"We are alright. Though, Her Highness did not want to be treated as a royal in our home. We did not have much a choice in that," Nana said as her green eyes were looking at me knowingly.

I was being played by her and grandpa. They were gentry as well? though they might not be carrying the craving virus.

So, the lesser gentry then.

"I thank you for your kind service to keep my cousin here. We will be taking it from here now," Nick said and before I can utter another word, I was pushed onto the mare that he rode as Nick settled behind me.

"Disperse now. There was nothing to see here," Ian said as I was turning to look at his closest friends.

Ian, Dan, Tom, and Marsh, the finest lords of the Higher court.

"Let's go home now," Nick whispered before we were riding into the night, leaving behind the only home that I ever know.

And with it, I left my soulmate that I never get a chance to explain of my deception.