Marrying the Vampire Prince
chapter 23's

Inside the lavish reception room, Gavriel sat opposite the general and Thea.

The general was formal and courteous but Gavriel would never forget the look in this man's eyes whenever this great general turned his gaze towards him when Gavriel was young, until before he left the empire. 

Like all other high-ranking officials, this man was a thick-skinned hypocrite who only knew how to judge based on outward appearance and political gain.

Time had passed, the general was still blabbering about things that even Gavriel did not care about. 

Anyone can tell that the powerful and great general is convoluted, perhaps trying to pull the prince's good side or get a positive reaction from him before finally reaching his true goal.

 But Gavriel never spoke. He looked as if almost all of the expressions were erased from his handsome face. Except for the cold expression that his men are very familiar with – expressions of adamantine which means it is easier to move mountains or kill dragons than to change his mind about something.

Elias had just entered the room when at last, the general stopped rambling.

"Prince Gavriel, I've come to talk to you about your engagement to my daughter, Thea. You are the smartest young man I have ever met, so I'm sure I don't need to mention a very obvious reason why I want to hasten your marriage with my daughter. Even though you had just gotten married a few days ago .." the general continued speaking, not knowing that his words had turned into a background voice for Gavriel as soon as Elias entered the room.

The Prince meets Elias with a glance and his first question is to ask if Elias has ushered his wife back into his room.

When Elias tells her that the Lady insists on continuing to hunt birds in the small forest, Gavriel's face darkens.

"So, you're saying he's still there till now?" he asked the butler through their eyes and when Elias nodded, the prince suddenly got up, causing the General to be a little surprised and stopped talking.

Gavriel's gaze fell out the window and when she saw that it was almost dusk, she grabbed her jacket and without a word, she said, he stormed out of the room as if there was no one else and nothing important, leaving the general dumbfounded, with his mouth agape.

"Your Majesty, where are you going? Did you hear what the general just said?" Zolan is after him. 

"You can't just leave a general like that. He'll be very helpful to you. What you need most right now is an ally ..."

Zolan sighed in defeat because as soon as they reached the window, the prince jumped down and disappeared without a word.

 It seemed like his only option now was to go back and comfort the general until Gavriel finished whatever made him rush like that. 

Although, in his mind, he was almost a hundred percent sure that it was just him.

Meanwhile, at that moment, in that small forest, Evie was lying on the ground, frozen in fear.

 Something dirty, cold, and dark had splashed onto her pale skin and hair and on top of her dress.

 His pale face that was already like marble became even whiter as if all of his blood was drained from his face.

The beast was shot right in his left eye. His arrow flew powerfully and was now buried deep within his eye sockets as a dark viscous liquid that looked like his blood gushed out as the beast growled loudly while shaking its huge head violently in the air in front of him, hoping that the movement would make the arrow dislodged and fall out by itself. 

The hoarse sounds of bones, bloodied beasts, and black blood splattered everywhere.

He felt as if his lungs had stopped working and his breath was wheezing ever since the moment the beast leaped towards him. 

His entire body trembled, as if no part of his body was under his control right now.

If it was a normal wolf, he should have been dead by now, and yet, he was still standing. 

Somehow it seems like it will soon heal itself – is no different from how vampires heal themselves whenever they are injured. 

Evie's heartbeat and the sound of the beast in pain were the only ones she could hear now, still unable to take her eyes off him.

 His body seemed to know that the moment he turned to run, the ferocious beast would attack him from behind. When her trembling pale hand touched one of the many arrows she carried, Evie frantically prepared her weapon and raised it again, aiming for an important point on the beast.

It was as if the beast had sensed another source of danger, he suddenly fell silent, and his remaining one eye was burning darkly as he looked at it. 

Evie felt as if she was staring at the gates of hell. The terror that passed through him was too heavy for him to handle.

Another arrow flew without warning and due to the uncontrollable vibration, it hit the beast's leg instead of hitting the mark in the middle of its forehead. Evie frantically picked up another arrow without taking her eyes off the beast, but before she could even mount it on her bow, the beast growled furiously and jumped up. Towards him.

His heart froze as if it was completely encased in a block of ice. The next thing he knew, he was staring at a huge beast that was flying through the air and was about to land a deadly blow on him. 

He did not know how he could still move but he felt his hand clasping an arrow if he got the chance to stab him into the beast once the arrow reached him. It might have been a futile move, but he had no other choice.

Funnily enough, the beast did not seem to land as he had expected. The wolf had been hit by something that looked like a sword that had been used as a spear in the air and disappeared blurryly from his sight.

 Then there was the sound of a tree falling from the direction where the wolf's flying body disappeared.

Before he could wrap his head around what had happened and another heartbeat had passed, he firmly lifted from the cold ground where he was sitting. 

Something that was sturdy, warm, and exuded a sense of security hugged him tightly.

"Gee!" he heard her name being called with a suspicious panicked tone and when he blinked and saw Gavriel's worried face fill his gaze, he just daydreamed and stared until he called her name again. 

"Evie! I'm here now."

His heart seems to have finally come back beating again but this time decided to make up for the pause from before and start racing too hard, too fast – caused his chest to ache due to shortness of breath.

 "G-gav..."

"Yes. I'm here, wife."

"Take me away from the s..."

Immediately, his feet left the ground, and a feeling of being embraced and enveloped in something comfortable at the same time. 

He gripped his frozen fingers into his clothes, not knowing why there was a feeling as if he was strangled.

"Evie. You're safe now, baby." her lips curved gently to the cold edge of her ear as she whispered. 

He did not even realize that Gavriel had lowered him into the meadow outside the forest as she carried him. 

His hand moved quickly over his corset and hurriedly removed the hook of his corset.

He felt like his lungs were about to explode and no matter how hard he breathed, he couldn't seem to get enough air. 

And then his voice suddenly sounded as if it was coming from a great distance before everything suddenly darkened.