Days were slipping past her like specks of sand slipping through the tiny gaps between her fingers. The tighter she tried to hold onto it, the faster it tried to escape her. As far as her sight allowed, only the widely opened arms of a dark deep sea of history greeted her, threatening to drown her existence, similar to how it had been doing to countless people for centuries. Cradling her half-empty hands to her chest, she could do nothing but watch quietly as everything she knew and believed, slowly but surely, fell apart right in front of her eyes.

Caught in this chaos, only one thing was helping her hold onto her sanity—her husband, Lord Ares.

Although she had been unsure regarding her decision of finding and staying with him when she had arrived in this timeline, the man had been nothing but exceptionally kind to her. In a barbaric society where women had barely acquired the rights to breathe, he had taken a huge leap by putting her way above anything in the list of his priorities. A vampire by name, raised by a witch yet he had turned out to be a better example of humanity than most humans of that time, but she knew better than anyone, the cruelty of humans, unable to accept the harsh reality of their nature, wouldn’t let his untainted faith last forever.

“No matter how strong a chain, there always exist a strain under which it falls apart. Everything, living or dead, has a breaking point.”

She knew Gabriel had not been playing games with her when he had told her this. Every word that he let out of his mouth, held an immensely powerful meaning. The man seemed to know what he was talking about and no matter how she looked at it, she could see that his prediction had taken the shape of materialized truth. She had witnessed it with her own eyes, in her own time.

A pair of emeralds had lost their warmth, a set of rose petals had forgotten how to smile.

It had been a month since Henry’s transition started, a month and a half since she became trapped in the timeline of fifteenth century yet during all these days, the man never gave her any chances to complain. His skills at managing his lordship along with taking care of her-his wife-were impeccable. Despite being overburdened by the excess of duties getting dumped on him after his aid’s transition, the vampire lord always returned home early to prepare food for her himself as she did not have any idea regarding the medieval methods of cooking. Even after she started getting a hang of it, he continued returning early to have food with her every night, gracing her with the sweetest memory of a passing day.

In no time, trapped inside an unknown world, he had become her sanctuary—a sanctuary threatened to be snatched from her any moment.

One important detail she had missed during her initial days in here was finding out the year she was taken back to. To her surprise and horror, they were months away from approaching the mid of fifteenth century, 1450A.D.—the year in which Lord Ares Aléxandros King was burnt in his own castle.

Both of them were aware of it yet no one talked much about it, dwelling on other conversations, trying their best to avoid stumbling upon the forbidden topic. Still at times she found herself urging to probe more into it. She had had a deeper insight of his character, she was aware that he was not so petty as to abhor her for her ancestor’s doing. He did seem rattled at the moment he came to know about everything but he never expressed much emotions regarding that incidence after that.

‘If he already knows that he’s going to get turned to stone, if he’s already aware of Gabriel’s cunning nature and the truth behind the development of our blood bond then why has he become so distant and cold to me in future?’

She often found herself dwelling on the question much more than she wanted to. At times, a bizarre idea of future Ares already being aware of everything that is happening in the past would hit her out of nowhere, but then she’d think about the time she had read that book about him. It was mentioned in there that the lord had never married anyone in his life.

She could feel the hands of clock ticking relentlessly, making her painfully conscious of the fact that they didn’t have much time together. The day of commencement of the spell was fast approaching and soon, they would surely run out of it. The hand of her benefactor holding her arm from falling off of the tip of the cliff was going to turn into a sand mound and she’d hardly be able to watch the ashes getting scattered by the wind whilst she’d herself fall face first into the ice cold grip of the never-ending sea beneath her.

“Ah!”

A low hiss escaped out of her clenched teeth as her index finger accidentally touched the side of the sizzling cauldron while taking it off the hearth. Retreating her hand immediately she inspected the reddened pad of her skin while lightly clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

“Damn it!”

Just as she was standing up from her spot, planning to hold the burnt part under the running water, a loud crashed echoed through the empty castle followed by a thudding sound, making her freeze in her place as her own heart started hammering against her rib cage uncontrollably.

‘What’s that?’

All worries of her newly inflicted injury were washed out of her head as soon as the thought of stumbling upon some dangerous trespasser settled inside her mind.

‘I need something sharp.’

Her eyes danced over the dimly lit living room enveloped in a dull orange glow coming from the hearth, trying to find anything for her protection before ceasing their venture as they landed over a fireplace poker resting nearby. Gulping inaudibly, she extended her quivering hand forward to grip the iron rod firmly in her grasp whilst slowly turning around to crawl out towards the source of the sound with as gentle footsteps as she could produce.

Sticking her back to the rough texture of the wall, she lingered in the dark shadowy corners, stepping forward bit by bit, her gaze rapidly scanned the dark area, her paper white knuckles ready to smash any head that came in front of her. Adrenalin was coursing through her veins, urging her natural instincts of survival to kick in, narrating to her the same hard lesson she had to learn multiple times throughout her stay in the past,

‘Hunt or be hunted.’

“Ugh..”

Just as she reached the end of the main hall, a low groan hit her senses out of nowhere, making her halt in her steps, trying to located its source.

Main doors of the castle were partially opened, forming a long slit through which she could see someone sprawled across the porch.

‘It sounds like a pained moan.’

Gripping the rod close to her chest, she carefully moved out of the shadows, crawling on all four to hide behind a closely placed wooden couch. Resting her back against the hard surface, she craned her neck to get a better view of the person lying limp across the entrance. Although not much was visible due to the doors limiting her view, she could still see the drooping eyelids hiding her favorite shade of emeralds from her view, assisted more by several raven locks, sticking to a wet pair of eyebrows trying to hide the pained look swirling in a grassy gaze.

“Lord Ares...”

With a loud clank, the poker fell out of her hand as she jumped up from her crouched position, running blindly to reach the man slumped in front of the doors.

“What happened?!”

Scrupulously pushing the wooden doors while avoiding to hit the slumped vampire on the ground before her, she all but fell down, in front of him, grabbing his face to place it on her own lap. His half parted eyelids had closed by now, scarcely twitching once every other second, distorting the shadow cast be his long eyelashes on his sunken cheeks.

‘He’s alive.’

“My lord!? Lord Ares?!”

Gently tapping his cheeks to urge him to gain consciousness, her brimming eyes helplessly stared around her, trying to find a way to help the man lying unconscious in her arms.

‘I can’t go to Gabriel. I don’t know how to operate a carriage. I can’t let any other villager see him like this either.’

Racking her brain to come up with a solution, she grabbed the back of her hair in frustration, pulling them as if she were trying to separate them away from her scalp.

‘I should at least try to bring him inside.’

Biting her lip, she gently wiped the sweat beads lying on his forehead before bending down to place his head back on the ground. Moving back, she was in middle of standing up when her eyes turned the size of saucers looking at the deep scarlet spot marring the middle of her dress, just below the point where the injured vampire’s head had been placed.

‘Is it his blood? His head is not injured. I touched it before...’

Stumbling down on her knees, she put all her weight on her forefeet before slowly outstretching her hands, her fingers trembling with trepidation as she grasped his shoulders with a firm grasp. Clenching her teeth hard to avoid any sound from escaping out of her mouth, she applied as much forced as she could in her direction, trying to roll his body on his chest to expose his back. It took many attempts but eventually she was able to do it.

Immediately after she got successful in turning him around, her breath got caught in her throat in form of a horrified gasp as her eyes landed on the view awaiting her.

Dried patches of powdery blood mixed with a fresh sticky liquid furiously oozing out of his back was lacing the opaque limestone beneath her feet in a gruesome way. She hadn’t been able to see it before due to his dark clothing and the lack of lumination.

’Why hasn’t it healed? Why is the bleedi..’

Her thought got cut short as a sudden realization dawned upon her frozen frame,

“Silver..”

Leaning down, her trembling fingers hastily touched the left side of her back, trying to locate the source of the blood. Her fumbling stopped abruptly as her hand suddenly touched something cold and hard. Looking closely, she could see the tip of a small rod sticking out of his back.

‘It’s still inside...’

Heaving a dreadful sigh, she poked her fingers around the swollen flesh in order to get a better grip of the object impaling his back. Cold blood had smeared her fingers in dark crimson mess, making her empty stomach churn and feel quizier than it already did.

‘I have to do it.’

No giving it another thought, she pulled the object out with a sharp movement, causing a loud groan to escape out of Ares’ mouth.

Quickly covering the gape with a scrunched up corner of his own shirt, she stepped away from him immediately. A sour acidic taste could be felt coming up her throat making her turn her head away as she started dry heaving uncontrollably making her insides hurt.

‘Reminds me of why I couldn’t be a doctor in the first place.’

After she was done retching her soul out of her system, she started stumbling back towards the vampire lying unconscious some feet away from her,

‘He should be waking up soon.’

Looking down, she stared apathetically at the rod shaped object in her hand. The fear of it accidentally coming into contact with Ares, if he were to wake up with a start, wasn’t allowing her to place it down. The tip of it was reflecting the light coming from the lamp hanging above her head, giving the blood laced object a dangerously sinister glow.

“What’s this?”

Slowly a frown formed across her brows as her gaze zeroed in on a small pin poking out of its one side.

‘Don’t tell me it was laced with some kind of poison?’

Covering her hand with the rim of her frilly dress, she hesitantly moved her free hand forward, trying to pull the pin out. Contrary to her expectations, the pin came out of the rod like object quite easily, bringing a cylindrical compartment out with it.

“Huh?”

The frown gracing her forehead deepened as she witnessed a rolled parchment coming out of the compartment attached to the pin.

“It’s a scroll.”

Letting the silver object fall inside her blood soaked lap, she took the scroll out of it, unfurling it slowly to read the contents written inside.

“Te-am gasit.”

Unbeknownst to her, her lips had uttered the foreign words marring the white of the paper.

‘What does it mean?’

“F-Found you.”

The unexpected voice caused the parchment to fall out of her hand as she whipped her head to the side only to meet with glassy emeralds peering up at her through a web of scattered raven locks.

“You’re awake.”

Sitting upright from her kneeling position, she crawled on all four towards the vampire coughing blood on the already stained patio of their castle.

“Are you okay?”

Resisting the urge to hold him in a tight embrace, she watched silently as the vampire lord placed his hands on the ground, trying to sit up from his grovelling position.

“Get inside.”

Despite his rugged appearance, his voice had came out firm,

“Why? What about you?”

Her eyes followed him like a shadow as he continued creeping towards the nearest wall to use it for supporting his weight.

“Go inside, Faith!”

In a flash, the vampire who was barely able to creep merely a moment ago, got in front of her, grabbing her waist before using his unnatural speed yet again rendering her unable to assess his exceedingly fast movements. Her mind barely had the time to register a loud bang behind her followed closely by a clicking sound.

Soon after, she felt herself getting closer and closer to the ground, her brain getting ready to absorb the fall but before anything could happen, a large body switched their places, cushioning the impact.

“Ugh!”

The loud groan coming out of under her made her lift her head immediately, turning her eyes wide as she found them sprawled on the floor of the living room, in front of the hearth, her lying on top of him, him clenching his teeth to suppress any sound from coming out of his lips.

Placing her hands on the ground beside his head, she hurriedly scooted away from him, staring down at him for a moment too long before bending down to put a hand on his waist, trying her best to support his weight on her small frame by urging him with her shoulder to get up. Staring at her wordlessly for some time, he started following her lead silently, wrapping one hand around her shoulders and placing the other one on the ground beneath them to help himself up. She could tell he hadn’t put much of his weight on her, trying not to burden her more than she’d be able to handle.

Following a bit of struggle, she was able to get him to brace his back against the leg of a chair resting behind them. His condition didn’t seem to be any better than before, in fact the dark circles framing his eyes seemed to have gotten deeper in comparison almost matching the blue of his rapidly shivering lips.

Untangling her arms from around his waist, she wiped the blood lacing the tips of her fingers with the side of her already stained dress while keeping her eyes trained at the motionless man sitting in front of the fireplace.

Yellowish orange hues arising from the mantel crawled up his dark attire, tracing every exposed part of his skin with an ethereal golden glow, making him appear as an abandoned gold sculpture, staring quietly in the depths of an indiscernible firepit.

‘What is going on in his head?’

Burning ember flames were twirling and dancing magnificently in his translucent eyes making it more difficult for her to comprehend whether his eyes were reflecting the flames from the hearth or the flames ignited inside of him, swallowing him, bit by bit, inside out.

‘His portrait could never do him justice, not to these burning emeralds.’

Although he looked undeniably breathtaking, she didn’t like seeing him this quiet. It reminded her of the night she saw him trapped in this very castle’s basement. It reminded of their awaiting doom.

“Found you.”

The unforeseen voice pierced through the thick wall of her thoughts, bringing her back to the current situation they were facing.

Despite having uttered those words, he continued gazing away from her, into the sizzling hearth leading her to doubt her own hearing.

Just as she was contemplating on whether to probe about his statement more, his voice once again rang out through the empty hallways,

“It was written in Romanian, translated as, ‘found you.’”

‘Romanian?’

She finally understood the reason behind the edge in his voice causing her to scoot a little closer to him, till they were sitting side by side, her shoulder almost touching his bloodied shirt as she motioned him with a little nod to continue talking,

For a moment or more, the vampire remained silent, closing his eyes to savor the feel of her warmth seeping into his cold skin through the partially torn shirt. He looked drained in every way. His eyes seemed sunken, giving the skin around it a darker appearance. In addition to the sweat beads on his forehead rolling down his hollow cheeks, his bluish lips gave him a wearier look. They were shivering like a pair of dried leaves caught in the middle of a thunderstorm.

“It is my mistake. I had become too careless.”

“No, it’s not-”

“It is. I was out to get blood for Henricus. I found a wanderer near a stall. I followed him, deciding to compel him for this purpose, but what I failed to see was that he was already compelled. As soon as I got near him, he attacked me. I did not want to harm him so I was fighting my instincts to tear him apart. We were in a bustling street, people were looking. I could not use my true self either. The crowd got thick, some were trying to help, some were just watching silently. Taking advantage of the situation, someone slung this at me from a distance. It was not a vampire’s doing. There was no unusual heartbeat or scent in that crowd,”

He paused for a small moment, turning his head away from her touch, almost as if he were embarrassed to meet her gaze,

“It was madness. The man escaped before I could capture him for questioning. The silver was cutting and burning through my flesh, villagers were screaming to get help for me whilst on the other hand I was afraid, afraid of what would happen to you and Henry if my wound were to be seen by someone so I flew from there like some ruffian.”

A deep frown covered her face, hearing him share his worries about her even at a time when his own self was trapped in such a big crisis. Tracing her hand behind his head, she locked it in his soft hair, rubbing them ever so slightly,

“Think about yourself first. Henry would want this, too. There’s no point for us in living a life where you don’t come back to me every night.”

She wanted to hold him desperately but the thought of injuring him further was keeping her at a bay,

“Who do you think sent it? You said there was no vampire in the crow-”

The sentence got stuck in her throat as she met his meaningful gaze, realizing what he was trying to tell her,

Entangled in his hair, her fingers stopped their movement midway,

“Ruth. It’s Ruth. Isn’t it?”

“Along with Cyrus. Witches cannot compel humans.”

He had maintained the emotionlessness in his tone till the very end. She couldn’t have slightly guessed what was going inside of him.