Royal shuffle: Vampire’s mate

ANDREA

A lot has been achieved since my last meeting with Leonidas. Adela has gotten so much stronger and faster. She was almost as strong as our head warrior and that in itself was saying something as he was a hulk of a man. Everything was going smoothly, no one knew about my child’s newly found status, there wasn’t any threat. People finally seemed to have gotten over the incident of five years ago. Everything had finally fallen into place, and yet my mind couldn’t be at ease.

From experience, whenever everything was going smooth in my life, whenever I think that I found peace, pure and utter chaos always seemed to spring out of nowhere. And so here I was…waiting for that chaos.

And it didn’t disappoint…

I was rudely awakened from my slumber by the incessant screaming coming from the woods. I sat up rapidly on the bed and attempted to gather my bearings, cursing at the insufferable noise the kids won’t stop making. Just as I stood up from the bed, Savannah rushed into my office covered in blood. The side of her face and neck covered in angry red claw marks.

“What the hell happened to you?!” I asked.

She ran to me and began pulling me with her, her eyes were wide with panic and fear.

“We don’t have time. You have to come with me…” she said.

“Why? Did something happen?”

She didn’t respond. Savannah kept pulling me until we got to the clinic on palace grounds.

“What’s going on?” I asked, dear creeping into my tone.

“It’s Will…”

“What happened to him?”

“He’s…he’s been taken…”

“Taken? What do you mean? By who? To where?”

“Adela is in a better position to answer those questions,” she replied, dragging me into a ward.

“What has Adela got to do with this?” I asked.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

I stepped into the room and there lay my answer. Adela lay on the bed with the doctor hovering over her and hooking her to a drip.

“My goodness, what happened?!” I asked, rushing to her side.

“She’s doing okay,” the doctor said, shoving his hands into in’s coat pockets and moving out of the way.

“But what happened?” I asked.

My eyes roamed from Savannah to the doctor to the Adela who looked away immediately.

“Would somebody mind telling me what just happened?! Where is Will?!”

“I’m sorry, mom. I couldn’t stop them…I failed…I’m sorry…” Adela said.

“What are you talking about, my darling. What do you mean?”

“They took him,” Adela said, her voice cracking and a single tear rolled down her cheek. “They took him away.”

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise, fear rising inside me.

“Savannah, tell me everything.”

Savanah took a deep breath and nodded.

“Will ran off into the woods…said he could hear his father calling him, I told him no one was called his name, and his father wasn’t in the woods. He didn’t listen. He took off anyways. I um…I heard him scream and both I and Adela ran after him,” Savannah paused and took a deep breath. “The kids are faster then I am and by the time I got to there, I couldn’t see either of them. I remember hearing Will scream and when I got to the scene. I did what I could but…it wasn’t enough.”

My brows burrowed in confusion. My mind went agog with possibilities of why anyone would want to kidnap Will. Was William back? Was he responsible for this?

“The people who took him, did they say what they wanted?”

Savannah shrugged. “Not really. I did hear them say something about a ritual and a powerful being…”

“Then why didn’t they take Adela?”

“They tried. I heard my name too, and ran after Will,” she said, wrapping her hand around the necklace on her neck. “But the necklace…I get vibrations off of it. It felt like warning vibrations. It got stronger as I trailed Will.”

The necklace…the same one my mother had given to me in my dream, the same one I had gifted her on her birthday.

“So, they…couldn’t take you?” I asked, confused.

“They tried. They cast the first spell, it didn’t work. And then they tried to physically grab me, but there was some form of force around me. They couldn’t touch me,” Adela said.

My eyes opened in shock, my mind just opening up to how powerful that necklace was. The shock only lasted for a while, and then it was replaced by anger and worry. Someone knew who my daughter was…what she was. And now they wanted to use her for some sort of ritual…but why Will? What did they need him for?

I forced a smile to my lips and held Adela’s hand in mine, hoping that my face reflected the hope and strength that she needed to see and not the fear and panic that was bubbling inside me.

“It’s okay, love,” I said. “We’ll find Will. I promise.”

Adela nodded. “I’m sorry…”

“Shh…there’s nothing to be sorry for. You did great today. You did really well. Get better, okay?”

Adela nodded. I kissed her on the forehead and walked out of the hospital as calmly as I could, my feet felt both heavy and light at the same time. I rushed back to my office and slammed the door shut, my mind working at the fast pace of a sports car. Where could he be? Who could have taken him? My mind went back to William again. Had he somehow managed to sneak into the territory and kidnap him? Maybe he wanted his son back? But Adela mentioned magic, William didn’t do magic. Esmeralda didn’t either until she did. Anger bubbled inside me.

I needed to find William.