Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 159: Bonus -

Chapter 159: Bonus Chapter

{Music Recommendation; Into The Woods by Joel Sunny}

"In a month’s time?!" Madeline couldn’t hide her exclamation, whilst she counted with her fingers how many days it was going to take till next month arrived. She lowered her gaze respectfully before requesting, "isn’t there another way for us to return? A month’s time is undoubtedly too long and what’s worse, we can’t communicate with our families to let them know we’re safe. They will be immensely worried about us, and waiting a month’s time to do all of this is certainly not possible."

"You have no choice here." Lord Lucius spoke up, his gaze transfixed between the couples. "The portal brought you to an entirely different realm, your Kingdom doesn’t exist here. Other than waiting for the next blood moon to resurface, there’s absolutely nothing we can do to help you, and I’m afraid contacting your families is also impossible."

"You should thank your stars you weren’t brought here during the last blood moon. Otherwise you’d have to wait two decades." Lord Viktor made them aware of the greater consequences, "you have just a month to wait, and you’ll be able to return to your realm."

"We’ll wait." Cassian agreed with Lord Viktor as he stepped forward, "I won’t deny the fact that we would have encountered a much worse predicament than our current one. Waiting is not our problem, but there has to be a way we can communicate with our families. You have no idea the type of family I was born into, and not to mention but I am the Duke of Carmarthen, so my absence in my own territory can stir commotions if I’m not found. We have no knowledge of this realm, so we can only appeal to no one else but you to help us find a way we can contact them."

Cassian’s gaze moved to the vampire King who listened with concentration. The young man was in deep thoughts, brows inquisitively creased, but then he glanced at Queen Lucinda whose blue eyes met his inquiring stare. "Aunt, I have a witch in my dungeon, is it possible for her to possess one of those medallions? I already had her loads thoroughly checked but I believe she must have one within her possession."

"They are fond of their medallion, it never leaves them." Queen Lucinda hinted, and the two of them exchanged knowing glances before returning their gaze to Cassian.

"I can’t guarantee it yet, but there’s a chance you can contact your family. Although not today, I have to retrieve something first, and when I do, you shall be sent forth." Ivan assured them, his gaze holding not a tiny hint of malice, and he noticed the relief that dawned on their visage, and they lowered their heads in gratitude.

"Thank you."

"You can leave." He dismissed them. When they finally exited the throne room, Lord Viktor glanced at Ivan before proceeding to clear his inquiries.

"How does gaining the witch’s medallion help in this matter?" He was only asking out of mere curiosity, and everyone else except for Lord Draven seemed interested to know Ivan’s plan. Queen Lucinda glanced briefly at her nephew before shifting her icy blue eyes to Lord Viktor, and then she said,

"Every medallion contains magic, aside from creating portals, some of the witches can use them as a means of communication, and there is a chance the one we have captive has one on her. I’ve given you enough hints, the rest, you can guess them yourself." Elegantly tearing her gaze away from Lord Viktor, she reached for her glass of wine, and although she could feel Lord Viktor’s intense gaze on her, she silently ignored them.

After ending the matter in the throne room, Ivan, who was still yet to recover from his headache, returned to his chamber to rest for a while. When he stepped inside, he found his bed empty of his little lamb’s presence, but on the table beside his bed was a glass of dark burgundy liquid which brought out steam, and beside it was a note.

Reaching the table, Ivan picked up the note which reads; I made some Willow bark tea for you! Drink this and you’ll feel better!"

But how did she...? Ivan’s bewildered gaze shifted to the Willow bark tea she had kept for him. But she didn’t even see him stand up, how did she know he would be needing one? Ivan couldn’t hide his astonishment. For any other person this would probably mean nothing, but the same couldn’t be said for Ivan.

He couldn’t remember the last time someone detected his discomfort without him uttering a word about it.

"Little Lamb." He called her out, but it was quite obvious she wasn’t in the chamber.

"Where did she go?"

Murmuring to himself, a genuine smile curved his lips, and without hesitation, he reached for the glass containing the Willow bark tea. Since his little lamb had made it for him, there was absolutely no way he’d let it go to waste. With this in mind, Ivan emptied the glass cup within seconds and kept it back on the table.

Just in time, the door opened, and he turned to see his little lamb walk in. The look in his eyes flickered with concern as he noticed her expression which was contorted into one of discomfort, but when her gaze fell upon him, he didn’t miss how she instantly masked it up with a smile, and her lazy movement changed as she made her way towards where he stood.

"You.. you’re back," her eyes moved to the empty glass cup. "I see you got my note, how do you feel–"

"What’s the problem?" Ivan cut her off, his own worries reflecting on his features as he gently grabbed her by her shoulders. "Is something wrong?"

"I.. I should be asking you." Samantha immediately tried to dodge his question. "You were the one who returned drunk last night, you really need to monitor how you consume liquor cause you’re no ordinary being, you’re a King and–"

"Little Lamb." He cut her off again with full seriousness this time, he could still see she was holding in the pain, her mouth could lie, but her eyes weren’t that good. He noticed how her mask began to drop as the discomfort returned, and she was almost clutching her belly till he stopped her.

"Is anything the matter? You know you can always talk–" Ivan stopped short when he perceived a scent from her, a very pungent one, and his worries intensified. Rather than completing his statement, he chose to sniff out which part of her body distilled the scent of blood, but when he kept going down and down passed her lower abdomen, he paused, and almost as if a realization struck him, he looked up to meet his little lamb’s eyes that watered.

"Are you.... Bleeding down there?"