"Do you know where Celia is?" I heard one of the maids whispering to each other.

"I don't know. I haven't seen that girl since last week. The ceremony is today and she is not even here. Blood Devil will get angry."

"But for her to disappear like that is unusual. She is always trying to be around Blood Devil."

It's not normal for vampires to leave the kingdom. Though they have freedom to do what they want, they still prefer to stay here. Celia's disappearance raises many questions because she doesn't sound like a type who would run away on her own.

"She disappeared the same day Sera came. Don't you think it sounds fishy."

"Yes, I think Sera has to do something with this."

I stiffened. What are these maids saying? Are they even serious?

I remember clearly the last time I saw Celia. It was after I was going to my room. The Vampire King had ordered me to stay inside my room. I was going to follow his orders for the time being.

And on my way, I met Celia.

"Guess who wants to talk to me?" She smirked. "It's Blood Devil."

I only gave her a flat look and prepared to leave but she interrupted me once again.

"Maybe he is bored with your constant presence around him." She continued. Her eyes turned into slits as she glared at me. "Listen Sera. I want you to stay away from Blood Devil. He is mine."

I only raised an eyebrow at her.

"You know, he slept with me, a month ago. He gave me everything. But then you created a ruckus a month ago and messed up everything. Now that everything is going back to normal, I want you to stay out of the way."

I scoffed at her words. "As if I would listen to what you say."

Those were the final words I said to her. So the last person she saw was not me but Blood Devil. I did nothing more than sleeping in last week. Being holed up in that room was not a problem for me.

Today is the ceremony of god-knows-what. But I have a premonition that this ceremony is for the addition of some new vampires in the Vampire Kingdom. But now I don't think it is like that. Neither do I think I'm going to be crowned as the Vampire Queen today. If that was the case, I would have been informed about it. I am completely in dark.

Just a few hours and after that I will not hold back. If it comes to it, I will even kill someone, that certain someone being the obvious person. But that is all until this ceremony ends.

"Miss Winters," Gibson's voice drew my attention. "Blood Devil wants to talk to you." He informed me.

I simply nodded. The maids around us finally noticed that I was standing there, listening to their conversation. Their faces were morphed to the looks of shock and fear. Without bothering to say anything to them, I followed Gibson as he led me to Blood Devil.

"Gibson," I said his name.

"Yes?" He glanced at me as we continued to walk.

"What is this ceremony for?"

The kingdom was not exactly decorated with flowers or anything. There was an arena which is readied for ceremonies. They don't bother about food but for an occasion like this, there are blood banks. I don't know much. And I don't know whether I should make any effort to discover more about this kingdom.

"I'm not allowed to talk about it, Miss." He replied in a cool voice.

If he was not going to say anything about it then it was alright. I was not going to pry knowing he won't say anything. He was fiercely loyal to the crown and I respected that.

"Do you have any idea where Celia might be?" I asked another question. I remember Gibson was with the high and mighty king when Celia visited Blood Devil.

He stayed quiet for only a couple of seconds before repeating his previous words.

That simply means he has some idea about it.

"Do you think I will become the queen of this kingdom?" He gave me a sideways glance and politely refused to answer again.

"Did your king order you not to talk to me?" I threw my last question at him. His eyes widened ever so slightly at my words.

He opened his mouth but then stopped.

"I'm right, aren't I?"

He didn't say anything in return.

Gibson stopped in front of a room. I knew who was at the other side of the door. I stared at it as Gibson reached to knock at the door.

"Stop!" I told him and his hand stopped midway.

"Excuse me?" He seemed confused.

"I don't want to talk to him." I said knowing the king was hearing every word I was saying. "I will talk to him only after the ceremony is over."

Gibson looked troubled as his eyes shifted from me to the door.

After a few minutes of silence that followed, a voice came from the other side of the door.

"Very well then," the king spoke. "As you wish."

There was a hidden edge to his voice that I didn't fail to notice. I only smirked.

** **

The arena was packed with vampires. It was not a huge place considering there were only a few thousand of vampires in the kingdom.

Vampires are the creatures of night. They are usually either ignorant or violent beings. And their undefeatable power makes them more dangerous.

Surviving on human blood, they don't have any humanity in them. Some vampires who have lived with humans are usually softer but the others can still be vicious. A world where vampires live is cruel and lethal. It's heartless.

The Vampire King stepped on his throne, looking down at everyone who bowed down to him. Every vampire in the arena acknowledged the power their king possessed.

I, on the other hand, didn't even lower my gaze.

No one else noticed because they were bowing. The only person who could witness my imprudence was the king himself. But his eyes were not on me. They were on his kingdom. His sharp green eyes scanned every one of them. His powerful presence was enough for them to respect him.

In their world, the one with power is the one who rules. And others follow him willingly because he has the power. In fact, everyone in this world, not only vampires, werewolves and humans or any other creature, all of them follow the one with power. Because the one with power is the one who can provide them safety and everyone crave that sense of security because in simple words everyone is selfish.

I didn't even know why I was even thinking about that stuff. But I just wondered what the world would be like if no one was selfish. If Alpha Wayne's father was not selfish, what would my world be like? If Daniel was not selfish, if Blood Devil was not selfish, how different my life would be?

Blood Devil sat on his throne wordlessly. I stood on one side of him while Gibson was standing on the other side. A guard was standing behind me with a wooden stake in his hand. When I looked closely, the top of the stake was burning with almost invisible blue fire. Undoubtedly, it was some kind of spell. When I looked at the other side, a guard was standing their too with the similar stake. When I focussed my gaze on it, it's top was coated with fire too.

Gibson stepped forward started to speak as every vampire turned their attention to him.

I frowned down at the king who was scouting an unreadable expression on his face.

These wooden stake... they could easily kill a vampire. I've been to a couple of ceremonies before but I've never seen these.

"This man, who was closest to our King, tried to kill him in the forest but was defeated by the hands of our invincible King." Gibson said and my eyebrows shot up. The crowd cheered.

Okay? What exactly happened?

"Our King..." Gibson started babbling something in the praise of his King again but my gaze was looking from the door from where the person who is to be executed would enter.

"Today!" Gibson started, "is the execution ceremony of Vladimir Summers!"

** **

The arena was filled with murmurs as Gibson said the name of the person to be executed. Everyone has only ever known of Vladimir as Blood Devil's most trusted associate. But the same man going to be executed before everyone.

It sent the message that their king wanted them to receive - no one can stand against the Vampire King. The man is incredibly powerful.

They had seen Vladimir fighting in the past. He was extremely powerful. His power equaled to Blood Devil's - that's what they had thought. But it looked like there was no one who could defeat the King. He was the most powerful being to exist.

The vampires were filled with a new sense of respect for their king.

The King smirked. His finger danced on the armrest of the throne as Vladimir Summers was being dragged by guards. The King was extremely aware of Sera who was standing near him. He could sense her body tense as the man was brought.

He wanted to see what she would do.

The vampires growled words of disdain at the battered man. He was wearing an old dirty gown for prisoners. His hair had elongated and were reaching his shoulders.

He had a fire in his dark green eyes as he looked at the man sitting on the throne. He couldn't speak a word because a spell was casted on him. The same spell that is casted on every other person who is to be executed so that they can't create any uproar in the crowd with their words.

But he didn't need any words. All he needed was a dagger and Celia. He already had a dagger and now he had to trust Celia. He couldn't actually trust her but he had no other choice. His eyes moved to Sera who was looking at him with a frown.

He didn't have the time to think about her. He was going to be burnt to death. That's how vampires were executed. Beheading someone would also work or a wooden stake to the heart would do the job too. But burning someone to death was most common. A tradition started by Blood Devil a long time ago.

As he was brought near to the platform created for his execution, a female scream was heard as a girl jumped into the arena. Where did she appear from, no one had any idea. She just appeared to emerge out of thin air as everyone's attention was focussed on Vladimir's form being brought to his death.

When everyone looked at the girl who had disrupted the ceremony being caught and killed by a guard, they didn't see the person who was sentenced to death killing the guards and runing towards the throne at a lightning speed.

But two pair of eyes were directly on him - the man sitting on the throne and the girl to his right.

Sera's eyes widened as she watched Vladimir's form dodging the stunned guards and making his way to the king in a speed so fast that even her eyes found hard to follow. But still she noticed a shiny object in his hand - a dagger.

Sera knew without any doubt that he was going for the person sitting on the throne. She didn't know if the Vampire King had seen the man approaching him.

Her heart thudded inside her chest. A burst of energy channeled inside her and she reached for the wooden stake in the hands of the vampire behind her.

As Vladimir stood directly in front of his target and moved his hand to plunge the dagger in the heart of the person he wanted to kill, Sera stepped forward.

Her stake pierced right through Vladimir's heart.

His body sagged forward as the dagger fell from his hand. His head landed on Sera's shoulder as she supported his weight. Life was slowly draining out of him.

"You are a bastard but still I need to thank you." She whispered in his ear. "Good bye, Blood Devil." Those were her final words to him as she pushed him away.

Blood Devil was airborne as he watched Sera and the man wearing his face standing behind her.

Both of them deceived him, the most powerful vampire. Even he was going to die. And he was glad, for the first time. He really needed to die. But by the hands of the vampires he had created... though they were not actually vampires. They were the Royal bloods. And they had defeated him. He tried to create an imbalance in the supernatural world and he was killed by them. They were doing their job. The Royal bloods have finally taken over.

Everyone watched with wide eyes as Vladimir's body fell down from the podium and was quickly consumed by the blue flame.

Sera stared down at the man who had brought a big change in her life. He had made her realize that the world was cruel and that it needed to be saved from beings like him.

Behind her, she felt her mate's presence. He pressed his body to hers and lowered his mouth to her ear.

"Well done, mate." He breathed out.

** **

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