“I am much obliged to you archbishop.” Dante said opening the door for the archbishop.

The bishop hobbled over to the door and bowed, “Your majesties.” He said respectfully.

Dante slammed the door in his face and turned his attentions to me. He crooked his finger and beckoned me to come to him. I stood at the opposite side of the room in the shadows against the wall shaking my head. Dante’s smile faded and he said,

“Ebony stop hiding, come to me willingly or I will come over to you.”

“I’m not going near you and if you come near me I promise to scratch your eyes from your very skull.”

“As much as I admire your spirit and determination you are forgetting one little point.” Dante said.

“What?” I asked.

Dante moved in a manner the ordinary eye could not see. One moment he was there and the next he was stood in front of me pinning my arms against the wall. He lowered his face close to mine so our noses were almost touching. I looked down at the floor refusing to meet his gaze.

“Look at me,” Dante said in low compelling voice.

I lifted my eyes up and met his.

“You forgot, my dear, that I am a vampire. If you do not obey my will then I have the strength, the power and that flea bitten dog of yours to make you obey me.”

“Blackmail is not the foundation of a marriage.” I replied bleakly.

“You wanted to marry me.”

“No I did not want to marry you!”

“Yes you did. You have just forgotten,” Dante’s arrogant condescending tone faded he took a step back away from me, “In fact you have forgotten everything.”

 “Look, did you ever think I might just look like your dead bride?” I said.

“You are my Princess and my bride, and when you remember we shall have a glorious wedding celebration.”

“I doubt it. I promised my best friend, Morgan, that she would be my chief bridesmaid.” I replied.

“So make a new a best friend. There are plenty of great vampire women at court.”

“No one could replace Morgan. We grew up together, went to school together-”

“Blah, blah blah. You can find a new friend and a new family here and forget all about that girl.”

“My family-”

“Are fake. You are immortal and this is your home.” Dante said cutting me short.

This was not my home and I could never replace my family or best friend. How would they cope when they realised I was missing? What would happen? Hopeless tears welled up and splashed down my cheek on to the bed. Dante was too busy to notice. He seemed preoccupied about what he was going to wear. I looked down at the wedding band on my ring finger. Consider to be symbol of love by many I now thought of it as a symbol of my miserable future with Dante. Luna scuffled around me sensing my sadness, she licked my hand and rested her head on my lap. At least someone in this room was being sensitive towards my feelings.

“The fox. She has appeared.” The guard panted.

“Lock her in here and guard the door.” Dante ordered grabbing a sword and leaving the room.

The guard followed him out and I heard the door bolting shut loudly. Outside I could hear noise and chaos. Dante was shouting orders and there was the sound of frantic footsteps. How could a fox cause so much trouble? I listened carefully at door trying to catch snippets of conversation. I heard Dante shout,

“She followed Ebony here! Make sure she doesn’t escape this castle alive!” He yelled.

Who was he talking about? There was the sound of more footsteps as armed guards stomped through drowning out the sound. Behind me was a sudden scraping and flapping of wings that echoed down the fire place. I turned to see a raven fall out of the fireplace in a cloud of soot. The bird landed with a heavy thump on Dante’s beautiful rug.

Poor thing looked like it had been almost knocked out. It sprang up and flapped about and looked at me. I smiled,

“Did you fall down the chimney you poor thing?”

The bird ruffled its feathers and tilted its head and crowed.

“Are you friends with that wicked fox.” I asked playfully.

“No, I am your brother.” The raven replied.