"Everyone, bow down to the lady of this manor! Credința Aresului!"

As if gripped by an enchanting trance, everyone present in the throne room bowed down immediately, accompanied by multiple voices synchronized well into a single harmony,

"Greetings, Milady!"

'When in hell did I become an actual lady?! And did he just change my name to make it sound more foreign?'

Her hands turned cold and clamny as her body became stiff under the overwhelming pressure of the room. Her eyes roamed over the strangely dressed villagers, casting a quick glance at their bowed stance before returning back to her own feet,

'What do I say? What should I do?' As a last resort to get her out of the miserable situation, her gaze went up to look at the cause of her misery, who still had her pressed firmly to his side.

Her eyebrows rose up as she found him already staring down at her with his enticing emeralds. There was a tinge of red tinting the corners of his pupil, barely noticeable but still there. His eyes looked like the canvas of a mad artist, torn between painting the coolness of a shadowy forest or letting the fall suck the life out of it.

"You may all rise!" Reading the hidden message passed through her gaze, he commanded without letting his eyes move away from her.

The room was filled with the rustling of clothes as they all straightened up from their bowed positions.

"This servant has a query, Milord."

She blinked as a familiarly unfamiliar voice reached her ears, forcing both of them to tear their gazes away from each other.

"You may speak, Father Gabriel."

Her eyebrows creased as a middle aged man with greyish black hair stepped forward from the centre of the crowd. His clerical attire became much prominent as he distanced himself from the others but part of his face stayed hidden away from her view. She could see his lips move—he was speaking something to Ares, but she was unable to graspe his words as all her attention remained fixated on trying to see his face properly.

Suddenly, he shifted his gaze away from Ares to stare directly into her eyes. Shock crossed her features as she met the grey coloured storms swirling in his eyes, resembling those caught in her own orbs.

She remembered Ares calling her that once in her dream. He never mentioned that again and she had too many problems to deal with that she had forgotten this minor detail altogether.

Her eyes turned to slits as she tried harder to rack her brain for more details while keeping her gaze glued to the man sharing her unique irises. Suddenly, her eyes widened as a swarm of memories started flooding into her brain, urging her to grip the shoulder, she had already been leaning against, tightly.

She stood dumbfounded, unable to let out any voice, as her surroundings started melting into a blob of nothingness, leaving her trapped inside a never-ending holo of darkness,

'What's this? Where's Ares?!'

She tried turning her head to the side but her body seemed to be under someone else's control. She tried lifting her hand but her limbs felt heavier and heavier after every attempt. Thousands of insects seemed to be crawling up her body, leaving it cold and numb after their haphazard trail. She was no longer possessing its reins.

She felt like a prisoner, locked inside her own body, only able to peer through the parted doors of her eyes helplessly.

Gradually, colours started appearing on the bleak walls of her mind, replacing the darkness, merging together to form a new scenario.

She could see wooden benches, rows and rows of benches linning both of her sides. Her own heart rattled along with the glass windows as the storm occurring outside made its presence known with every strike of thunder. Tears gathered into the corners of her eyes, blurring her already murky surroundings. Her hazy vision could barely detect a gigantic cross hanging from the wall in front of her.

'It's.. a church.'

Her attention shifted to a man walking towards her. Salt and pepper hair, stormy eyes.

"Milord, I'm Father Gabriel."

'Gabriel...'

Once again, the colours started melting into a blob of nothingness before the darkness became overpowered by another scenario.

A gutwrenching cry reached her fuzzy mind, as she suddenly found herself faced with a man, who was clinging onto another man's legs screaming on top of his lungs,

"Save my daughter, Milord! Please, save her!"

Before the words could fully register in her mind, a loud ringing overtook her hearing sense, almost causing her to topple over because of its sheer intensity.

Gurgling sounds escaped through her clenched teeth as a scene kept playing over and over inside her head.

A girl tied to a wooden cross by silver chains that burnt her flesh to a charcoal black. Her bloodied battered body dangled forward from the metal chains causing her blond hair to caste a curtain around her bruised facial skin, but the thing that unnerved Faith the most were the unnamed girl's eyes. Her grey lifeless eyes staring right through her soul.

"FAITH!"

Her body jerk forward abruptly before two arms held her back into her place. Her breasts started heaving up and down as her dried up lungs started gulping large amounts of air inside. With a 'deer-caught-in-a-headlight' look plastered to her face, she looked around hurriedly only to find herself back inside the thrown room once again.

She had never been happier to be there.

"Love?"

A subtle nudge to her right shoulder shifted her attention to the vampire lord looming over her small built, peering down worriedly at her. He was cradling her carefully in his arms as he himself sat against the large doorframe of his throne room.

They were present at the same place she had last been with him, the only difference was, there were no soul present there except for them, 'Where did everyone go?'

"Do you feel fine, love?" In her hasty state, she paid no attention to the fact the had called her 'love.'

Her throbbing head found the support of his shoulder shocking him with her unnatural behaviour. The swarm of memories had drained her to her bone. She had no place to rest, no person to trust, except for the one holding her at the moment. He was the only one who appeared as her salvation in a world full of uknown lurking dangers.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the centre of her attention patted her wet locks with his gloved hand.

"Father.. Gabriel." She let out her words carefully.

"What about him?"

"I-I saw him.. in a memory." She sounded unsure about her own statement.

"And...?" He urged her to speak more as his hand continued stroking the top of her head.

"I saw you meeting him in the church, and when he brought his sick daughter to you..." She clenched his loose sleeves between her fingers, leaving her sentence hanging in the air.

Sensing her hesitation, he gripped her shoulders, moving her away from him. His gaze held utmost love for her as if trying to reassure her of his absolute sincerity to her.

"Do not hesitate, love." He seemed to have taken a liking to the new endearment.

"I.. saw a girl, a dead girl," She paused for a moment to see his reaction. There was no recognition shining in those emeralds, "She was bound to a cross with silver chains."

She felt his grip on her shoulders loosen instantly as all expressions were wiped off his face. His loving gaze turned blank in a mere second before shifting away from her to stare into a non-existent spot in space. If it were possible, his complexion seemed to have become paler than before.

'What's going through his head?' She kept her eyes firm on the unresponsive man sitting in front of her, 'Will he, too, avoid answering my questions like the future Ares did?'

Her hands touched the soft fabric of his shirt tentatively as she placed them over his chest in an attempt to reach out to him,

"It's from your memory. Right?" There was no changes in his expressions. He continued staring in space silently.

"Can you please tell me what's going on? Don't keep me in dark," Her fingers clutched the fabric tightly as she said the next part in a small whisper,

"Who did I see?"

She watched as after a second of contemplation, his gaze slowly moved back to hold hers. Instead of forest green, his eyes had now turned into a beautiful shade of crimson.

"You saw my beloved."

'Beloved...'

Her fingers released the dark cloth immediately as all colour drained from her face, "What?"

"You already have a beloved..." The sentence barely felt like a whisper as she passed a hand through her raven locks, gripping them frustratingly in the process.

"I had one," Her head shot up at his statement, "she died before I had the chance to meet her,"

"H-How?" Her throat was tightening with every passing moment as she barely managed to get one word out.

There was a long pause before his gaze found his way back to her swirling pools of melted storms. His eyes somehow had turned into a much darker shade of scarlet It almost felt as if they had been filled with blood,

"The villagers killed her."

She remembered the night he jailed her in the cell he had called her a liar, claiming that his beloved was already dead.

"You-Did you punish them?" The next question stumbled out of her mouth in a jumbled mess.

"They were merely defending themselves against an unnatural predator," He heaved out a small sigh before leaning against the doorframe for support, "Morever, I could not bring myself to rob those children of their happiness, their family. They come under my rule. I stand responsible for them."

'Is this man really supposed to be a blood sucking monster?'

Her eyebrows furrowed at his uncanny behaviour, "Is every vampire out there like you?"

A dry chuckle left his parted lips as he stared into the space above her head, "All my life, I have been considered a weakling, an abomination."

Her eyes were glued to his face as she silently absorbed every single word that came out of his mouth. 'This Ares is so open about his emotions...'

"What made you so different?"

The grassy green in his eyes once again started peaking through the burning flames,

"Deborah."

Her eyebrows wrinkled at his short response urging him to elaborate his reply.

"She was a human slave that served me in my childhood. My mother was assassinated shortly after my birth, leaving my father vulnerable and weak. He was a powerful vampire which enabled him to survive through the broken bond but that incident changed him forever. To make the pain durable, he shut off his emotions." He paused for a brief moment as a pained smile touched the corner of his plump lips,

"During all those lonely years, colours, books and Deborah were the only things keeping me sane."

"Where's she now?" The question was out before she could contemplate her words. She felt eager. Eager to know everything about him.

She watched as he turned his head back in her direction, leaning down to peer into her vulnerable soul.

"Dead,"

The veins crawling up his neck seemed to pop out as he let out his next words, "My father's courtiers hanged her. They considered her the root of my unconventional behaviour."

She felt like the breath was knocked out of her, 'He.. didn't have anyone to love him.'

"Is that why you left them and came here?"

A small flame was once again ignited in the depth of his grassy eyes, "I did not leave them. I was exiled."

"Why?" The question came out as a small whisper barely hanging from the tip of her tongue yet he still managed to hear her.

"Henricus accidentally killed a royal vampire in order to save me. That crime is punishable by death. I had to choose between him and my kingdom. I chose Henry."

His words didn't miss to crack her heart a bit along with the silence resting in between them. Unbeknownst to her, the clear liquid pooling in the rim of her eyes overflowed. They seemed to be shedding tears in place of the fiery pits burning a hole through her soul.

She didn't know what came over her but before she could think it through, she had already thrown her arms around his broad shoulders, hugging him as possibly tight as she could.

Her knuckles turned white as her nails dug deep into his back through the silky material of his shirt. Her eyes turned blurry as a small warm drop dripped down the side of her nose onto his cold neck, alerting him of the small human female crying for his losses, crying for everything he was never able to cry himself.

"I'm sorry, My lord."

She had no idea how long she remained cocooned in his embrace, trying to share his silent agony. The only sound that could be heard amongst the maze of deadly silent hallways was her soft breaths hitting the side of his neck. Soon, it was joined by the rustling of clothes as she untangled herself from the vampire lord, matching his crimson gaze with her own reddend eyes.

"The Ares I know did not tell me anything about your past, but you did. A man who has known me for barely a week. I respect your decision for entrusting me with something so personal," She took a small pause before reaching up to place her warm forehead against his cold one, "I will forever be indebted to you, Lord Ares."

The turmoil of emotions she felt too much to handle. A warm feeling was spreading inside her like wildfire, a warmth she had only felt around one man. The boundaries between his past and present self seemed to be blurring with each passing moment that she spent with him.

"Are you not going to inquire me about the possibility of having more than one soulmates?" His voice brought her attention back to him as his thumb gently wiped the splotches left on her reddend cheek.

"Is there?" It took every fibre inside her being to stop her voice from quivering.

"I know not. I have been studying it in every scroll and book I could get my hands on yet failed to find anything remotely similar,"

She watched as another pained smile overtook the corners of his lips before he continued to complete his statement,

"You appear to be my miracle, love."

For the first time since she had arrived there, her heart viewed the man for who he really was—An exiled prince. He was leaning against the wall like a worn out, defeated soldier, barely hanging by a thread in his quest of a shelter.

Her hand itched to comdfort him with her touch, 'If I remain one more second with him, I don't know what sin I'll end up comitting.'

"I need to go."

She abruptly stood up from her spot, ready to flee out of his sight. Before she could take another step away, a cold hand grasped her wrist out of nowehere, urging her to turn her head back and meet his glassy gaze.

"Do you remember what happened here before the villagers left?" She could detect a hint of urgency in his voice.

"No, I don't." Confusion laced her words sensing his desperation.

The way his eyebrows knotted at her answer, she could tell this was probably not the best reply to his query.

His hands crawled up her cheeks to lace around the nape of her neck, tugging her in the process to bring her face closer to his. Her breathing hitched as his cold breath touched her warm lips making her painfully aware of their proximity with every slow puff of air that he exhaled.

"Do you believe in me, Faith?" She could almost feel his words on her lips.

'Do I?' She knew she had to answer carefully. He looked like a man who'd take her word rather seriously.

The series of events from their first meeting till this morning started playing before her like a reel. He did come off as cold and mysterious but she couldn't turn away from the fact that he had saved her life, multiple times.

"I do."

"Will you do as I say?" The urgency lacing his tone could now be clearly seen through the mirrors of his eyes.

"I will." To her surprise, her voice came out firm, complete opposite to what she had been feeling.

What he said next shocked her to the core,

"Then we shall get married this evening."

"What?!" She pushed his hands away from her face, crawling away from him till her back hit the opposite side of the wall, trapping her between him and the doorframe. She appeared as a caged wild animal, staring up at him as if he had just grown a second head, 'When did trusting someone mean you had to marry them?'

"Listen calmly to me, Faith." His voice had turned more tender than before.

"No!"

She almost lost her balance in an attempt to put more distance between him and her. Her hands reached out to grab the stone wall behind her as she stabilised herself against it for support. He legs had gone numb for sitting there for too long. 'Stupid.. Stupid legs!'

"Fait-" She cut him off before he could complete his sentence.

"I said, No! I can't marry you! I don't belong here. I have to go back. This isn't my home!"

"They will kill you!" His voice boomed across the empty hallways, bouncing back from the cold walls, echoing around like a bad omen hanging over their heads.

It took a second or more for the impact of his words to settle down in her mind, "Kill.. me?"

Her grip on the wall loosened as her legs gave out beneath her. Slowly, her back slid down the stone wall as her body made a soft thud by hitting the ground.

After a moment or two passed in silence, her horror filled gaze finally looked up at him, "What?"

In a flash, he stood before her causing her to involuntarily press herself harder into the wall. She watched as his large frame swallowed the light coming from the torches just as the forsaken moon engulfs the sunlight during a solar eclipse. His pale skin along with his dark clothes blended perfectly with the shadows lurking around in the castle, leaving only his eyes to be visible.

Blood red, peering down at her coldly.

He appeared every bit of a predator he was described to be.