Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 152: Captivating Guests

Chapter 152: Captivating Guests

Queen Lucinda invited the strange guests into the Palace, silently leading them to the throne room, and when they all arrived, Ivan’s bored gaze scrutinized the three individuals that had been brought before his presence. Abdiel took his seat at the right side with his wife, and the vampire brothers took their seat on the left, finding the strange predicament before them oddly fascinating. The strangers’ mode of dressing was quite different from that of GreenHollow, making it easier to guess that they weren’t citizens of their Kingdom..... but if they weren’t subjects of GreenHollow, where did they come from? And most importantly, how did they step into the Palace despite the increase in security?

"You are?" Ivan began in an authoritative voice, finally raising a question, and the young man who stood at the center of the room, lowered his head in a bow before introducing himself to the royalties present. Even at his own disoriented state, he glanced at his wife who was also at loss for words before returning his attention to the intimidating man sitting on a Throne.

"The names Cassian, Your Majesty, and the woman here is my wife, Madeline." Cassian politely briefed the introduction, and he noticed how none of them bore any response to what he had said, but, however, he could sense the man on the throne was silently analyzing how true his statement was with concentrated eyes. No human could bore such crimson eyes according to his knowledge, he knew of one creature that was capable of possessing such, but Cassian kept his inner turmoil to himself.

"Cassian, Madeline, do you understand the gravity of trespassing into my Palace?"

Ivan’s gaze shifted to the young woman who lowered her head in a deep bow, and with a sophisticated tone that hardly portrayed any evil intentions, she proceeded to explain why they were found roaming the garden. "We mean no harm at all, neither did we have the intention of trespassing. Actually, this may be hard to believe but Cassian and I experienced a very strange encounter in our home. Our son here had run into an open portal cause we accidentally left him unattended, but we followed him in and that’s how we ended up here, in your garden. I promise we only came to get our son, he’s just four years of age and children of his type tend to be reckless at this time. If... if you let us leave, we can return to where we came from and we won’t bother anyone. We deeply apologize for the unwarranted alarm."

Madeline’s voice held her sincerest apologies.

"Did you say portal?" Ivan’s eyebrows rose in reaction, and he reclined against his throne. "The only ones with access to portals are those who possess the ancient medallion. If I’m not mistaken, medallions are owned and forged by witches." He intoned firmly before narrowing his intimidating eyes at them, his gaze holding slight doubt. Fortuitously, these people possessed auras that didn’t belong to ordinary humans, whilst inviting suspicion, but regardless of what he sensed, it would be wrong to jump into unnecessary conclusions based on his thoughts alone.

"Where do you come from?"

"We’re from Carmarthen." Cassian was the one to speak now, and he was hopeful that someone amongst them would at least recognize the name, but unfortunately, no one seemed to be aware of Carmarthen.

How can they not be familiar with the name Carmarthen?!!! Cassian mentally wondered.

"If you don’t believe me, I can show you the insignia, but that is if I’m permitted to reach my pocket to get the evidence?" Cassian’s gaze lingered on Ivan who contemplated briefly before granting him that permission. For a split second, Ivan noticed the young man’s relief as he reached his hand to his pocket, and he brought out the golden color insignia, whilst he stepped forward to hand it to the vampire King.

Ivan unhurriedly received the insignia from him, but before the young man could take his hand back, with a movement as quick as an arrow being shot, Ivan swiftly used his elongated nails to tear at the skin on his wrist, deliberately eliciting a painful groan from Cassian who clutched to his bleeding wrist. A shocking gasp escaped Madeline’s lips at the sight, and she covered her son’s eyes with her palm.

"Poppa?" The little boy eventually opened his mouth to speak, but Ivan, who remained unaffected by the shocks of everyone, watched as the man’s wound instantly healed before his eyes. After confirming his suspicion, Ivan proceeded to take a good look at the insignia, and he handed it to Abdiel who also confirmed that the insignia was authentic. But even they were curious about how they hadn’t heard about such a Kingdom before.

"As shocking as it is to me, I haven’t heard of Carmarthen until now, what are you?" He questioned further, referring specifically to the wound that just healed before his eyes, and Cassian, who found the vampire’s action utterly rude, couldn’t stop himself from glaring with evident dislike, but when the guards charged forth since it wasn’t allowed for their King to be glared upon, Ivan stopped them from taking any actions, rather, he was enjoying this. His new guests were actually more captivating, but his focused gaze returned to Cassian who hadn’t answered his question yet.

"You’re a vampire." Ivan commented with a sly smile, quietly taking in the familiarity. "Half human, half vampire. I can sense both aura from you." He revealed, and it was only after he announced it that everyone else took a hint of the resemblance in their aura, and his was just as intimidating as theirs. Clearly, this strange man was no ordinary vampire, his aura signified one that belonged to an upper rank, a rank that made them equal.

"What do you want?" Cassian, who noticed the vampire King was actually picking some fun out of this, stopped playing polite and immediately tried to get to the bottom of the matter. "Pardon my manners but we haven’t committed any crime, and I showed you proof of our domain which declares us innocent. My wife already explained as best as she could how we ended up here, you can’t hold us captive."

The door to the throne room opened when he finished speaking, revealing a female servant who walked in with her head low. Alain’s big round eyes watched as the servant headed towards Lady Agathe with a glass of red liquid. After offering her the drink, the servant quietly turned to leave, but Alain’s eyes followed her till she was out of sight, and he looked up at his Mother who held him in place so he wouldn’t run off again.

"I never intended to." Came Ivan’s retort once the maiden had left, and he straightened up against his seat. "Do not be frightened, I wouldn’t hurt you if I didn’t pick up on your aura sooner. I did what I did cause I wanted to see you heal for myself, and as for your wife and child, no harm will come to them. My Kingdom is presently uncovering witches, and I was only being alert because lately, I’ve been tracking moles who are under the guise of humans. I hope you understand."

"We assure you that we’re not one of them," Madeline spoke more softly, and she reached for Cassian’s side, whilst giving him a look that indicated he should be nicer. Returning her complaisant gaze to Ivan, she said. "We would really appreciate it if we can return to our domain soon, our families must be worried sick since we disappeared without their notice."

"That can be arranged. I will send a guard to locate your domain so you can return." Ivan answered to Madeline before his gaze lowered to the extremely cute boy with fluffy dark hair and big round Amber-brown eyes.

"And what is your name?"

"My name is Alain, your Majesty." The little boy innocently responded before lowering his head in a curt bow. His cute action had Lady Agathe and Queen Lucinda smiling, unable to hide how impressed they were by his courteousness. Ivan’s demeanor remained indifferent, but the little boy hardly expressed even a tinge of fear, on the contrary to his eyes that kept glancing at the entrance door, he managed to slip from his Mother’s grip and ran off.

"Ali, get back here!" Madeline glanced at the vampire Lord apologetically. "I’m really sorry, I’ll go get him!"

"Guards, hold that boy!" Abdiel, who was getting slightly irritated by the drama, ordered the guards at the entrance way to seize the little boy, but once again, he maneuvered his way around the guards grip and ran outside with a mischievous grin. Cassian glanced at Abdiel who facepalmed at the guards inability to catch a simple little boy, but little did he know that that little boy was capable of turning the Palace upside down, or downside up, whichever way it goes!

Meanwhile, the young Ali was going after the servant who had given a red liquid to the strange lady, and he quietly followed her while maintaining a good distance. The servant, who was unaware of someone following her, carefully brought out the knife she had hid in the belt around her waist, and with a dark gleam in her eyes, she headed for the upstairs corridor after confirming that the human servant was all alone in her chamber.

As if timed, Samantha had stepped out of her room to go see Maurice, she was already planning on how to break down everything for him but unbeknownst to her, a servant headed in her direction, holding an extremely sharp knife that glinted in her grip.

Alain, who hid behind one of the curtains, watched as the servant slowly approached the young woman who walked ahead. His Amber brown eyes studied the maiden’s movement, and when she got close enough with her hand raised.....

Alain screamed out loud.