“I hear two heartbeats coming from you.”

“What?”

The soft hold she had on his cheeks immediately turned loose making her hands fall to her side. His gaze on the other hand was already fixated down, staring unblinkingly at the bright material of her dress pooled around their kneeling bodies. He had zoned out of the scenario, clearly trying hard to focus on something incomprehensible to her human senses. His pale hand, partially covered with traces of a crimson liquid, made contact with the velvet hugging her torso. His long thick lashes gradually lowered to caress the smooth skin resting above his cheeks before lifting up again. He kept repeating the gesture again and again, almost as if he were matching the movements of his eyelashes with a sound coming from inside her.

A heartbeat.

She watched stunned as his plump lips slowly curled into an ‘o’ shape, parting for a mere moment, followed closely by his upper teeth sinking into his bottom lip before his tongue clicked against the back of his incisors.

“You are with child.”

The sentence, mouthed to her without any sound, seemed to have brought back life to his glassy gaze. It was no longer lowered down impassively towards the ground. It was now directed towards her slightly bulging belly with an extremely soft expression.

“With-”

Before she could let the rest of the words out he hurriedly lifted his fingers to her mouth. He was shaking his head.

‘He doesn’t want me to speak in fear of Cyrus overhearing…’

Tears pricked the reddened rims of her eyes as her quivering hand lifted up to cover a large cold one already resting on top of her womb. Her lips slowly mouthing a single word to his intense stare,

“Baby…”

“Our baby.”

A lone tear slid out of the corner of her left eye, witnessing his gaze become even softer as he mouthed the word ‘our’ to her.

“Do not be afraid, love. I’m here, every step of the way.”

Not waiting for her to reply, he leaned in suddenly engulfing her in a bone crushing hug that filled her insides with great warmth. Keeping one hand glued to his, resting on the velvet hugging her trunk, she gingerly raised the other one. Just as she was about to clutch his shoulder with her shivering fingers, he leaned back to meet her watery eyes with a determined gaze. The blood lacing his lips had long dried.

“We shan’t stay here in the open. The coachman must be going around telling people.”

His sickly pale complexion didn’t seem to have improved yet the newfound discovery of the truth wasn’t allowing his deteriorating health to show.

“What about Cyrus?”

She had completely forgotten about the man standing behind them in the shadows watching their heartfelt exchange silently. Gabriel.

“I cannot sense him near.”

“This could be one of his tricks.”

Gabriel’s frown seemed to have deepened.

“What else are we supposed to do? I cannot allow any harm to come to my… people.”

‘Child.’

She could tell how desperately he wanted to say that word out loud. His gaze was speaking volumes yet the fear of losing the gift granted upon him just a mere moment ago had become too big. It was driving him out of his wits.

“I have to get Henry out.”

She had almost forgotten that the four moon cycle had come to an end tonight. Henry’s transition was almost complete. He just needed blood to replenish his senses.

“I-I’ll come with you.”

The silence that had washed over her stunned figure suddenly broke as she saw him standing up causing her to hurriedly grab the sleeve of his coat.

She didn’t want to be away from him. She knew she had been sent here before, she was well aware of the fact that the future Ares already knew her, had been with her. She thought she was prepared for the time when the man she loved would be brutally betrayed and turned to stone but the new addition -their baby- to the scenario seemed to have crushed her courage. She was scared out of her mind.

“It’s not safe in the dungeons as it is in the castle.”

Her hold had slipped down his sleeve to clasp his slender fingers in a tight grip,

“Please.”

The fingers she had been clutching to death easily slid out of her grasp only to intertwine with her own warm ones. He was peering down at her with an unknown expression gracing his sharp features. It looked like if she were to ask for his own head in that moment, he’d have given her that in a single heartbeat.

“Come.”

“Staked and burnt.”

Pressing her palm into his strong grasp she slowly stood up from her kneeling position, Ruth’s words ringing inside her head,

“No mercy for a killer.”

For some time, she continued following him silently as he took her to his throne room, moving his humungous portrait effortlessly before starting to go down the endless maze of stairs and hallways.

“Ares I need to talk to you about something.”

“I need to talk to you as well, love.”

“About?”

“We need to form a seal on your mark to hide my scent, hide the fact that you are indeed my beloved.”

She whipped her head to look at the man leading her carefully through the dark tunnels. He had stopped in a desolate corner of a corridor. She could see a metal door peeking from above his shoulder, the door behind which Henry was present.

“Why?”

“Because Ruth maybe averse to the idea of hurting humans but Cyrus is not. The easier way for him to harm me would be killing you. He hasn’t made a move until now because he may not have wanted to cause a ruckus or draw unwanted attention to his schemes, but now he has achieved what he wanted; he has turned the villagers against us,”

His emerald irises were glimmering like a cat’s in the darkness of dungeons, the white of his eyes brightly reflecting the warm yellow glow coming from the torches lining their path. She had never seen something more pure than his gaze,

“I am at my weakest . This wasn’t supposed to happen tonight. When the time came, Henry was supposed to be standing with us. I hadn’t taken blood from you for a long time because I needed it for this particular night. Gabriel could feed Henry and I could take some from you. I cannot take blood from Gabriel as it is more crucial for Henry and taking blood from you is out of the question now.”

Slowly, he lifted one of his hands to stroke the back of his cold knuckles against her wet cheeks,

“You need to hide yourself well inside the castle for the night. If you stay inside, Cyrus will not be able to hear it.”

His eyes lowered towards her belly for a moment before lifting up again to meet her frowning one. He was talking about the baby’s heartbeat.

“Cyrus wants the throne. He would never leave any potential heirs behind that may cause a danger to his position in the future. This is why Henricus needs to stay with you. He would be able to fight off humans. Cyrus, on the other hand, wouldn’t waste much effort on you if he failed to detect my mark on you,”

“That’s impossible. I won’t leave you alone!”

The moment she raised her voice, he gently grabbed her cheeks, leaning his head down to touch his forehead with hers,

“Listen to me, Faith.”

“No.”

“Love, please.”

“No.”

“Look into my eyes, Faith.”

No matter how much she tried to turn her head away, he wasn’t letting her. He looked utterly desperate in that moment.

“My other self knew you; this had already happened to him. This has already happened in time. This is the reason I had become so envious of him. You were his to keep and mine to protect. My duty ends tonight.”

“No, please.”

Her shivering hands lifted up to grab his resting on top of her cheeks. This was the first time she didn’t feel the temperature difference between their skins. Hers were equally cold.

“I may not be able to protect all of you without harming other humans coming in our way. My insides are burning with the traces of silver left inside me. I am afraid my hunger would take over my senses any moment.”

He had lowered his head more by now, grazing his rugged cheek against her soft one lovingly,

“Let me get you safely through the night and I shall meet you again on the other side of the timeline, stronger and well able to protect you both.”

Tears were leaking uncontrollably out of her eyes. She had never felt more powerless. She was aware of the fact that she was being irrational; she’d only burden him more if she stayed by his side but the thought of leaving him alone in such crucial times just to protect her own self seemed too selfish in her eyes.

'For me, it'd be a mere moment but for you... You'd lose centuries of your life.'

Not being able to retort, she averted her gaze while shaking her head side to side stopping only when his ice cold lips engulfed hers quivering ones abruptly. She didn’t close her eyes this time. They were wide open, staring square in the emeralds of the vampire lord as he tried his best to comfort her through his plump lips, sucking her top and bottom lips with slow torturous movements.

‘This is our last kiss.’

She could taste his dried blood through the kiss but it didn’t matter to her. It only made her heart ache.

“I love you.”

The words were whispered against her lips in such a low voice that she could’ve easily missed it if she hadn’t been paying attention.

Slowly he moved his lips away from her, giving her a small pained smile. Raising his hand to his lips, he tore the skin above his thumb with his elongated canines before bringing it down to her neck. Her back arched unintentionally the moment his cold blood started dripping down her skin. She saw him muttering something incoherent under his breath and just as he was done, more blood started spewing out his mouth making him topple over in pain.

“W-What… What’s happening?”

Motioning with his hand for her to stop he lifted his head to stare up at her,

“It takes strength to hide a vampire’s mark.”

After a moment or two had passed in silence, he raised his hand to his lips to wipe his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Stumbling back to his feet, he was about to start walking towards Henry’s cell when her hand shot out to grab his making him turn his head back in her direction,

“I love you, Ares. I love you much more than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

It didn’t take much time for the small pained smile to turn into a full blown grin,

“I have never been happier, love.”

With that, he once again took her small hands in his as he started leading her out of the corridor, towards the metal door.

Reaching the door, he was careful enough to not let his skin come in contact with the metal.

‘He isn’t wearing gloves today.’

That’s when something clicked inside her mind,

‘The door is made of silver. The room where I found him turned to stone also had a door made of silver…’

“Is this the only door made of silver in here?”

The jingling of keys stopped as he tilted his head a bit to look down at her,

“There is another one where I used to feed. It was built in case I ever lost control.”

“Where is it?”

There was a hint of emergency in her tone.

“The hallway on the right leads to it.”

Her eyes widened as she realized they were standing a mere feet away from the altar where he was meant to be sacrificed.

‘He shouldn’t be here.’

Before she could ask him to get out of there, he turned stiff in his position. Before she knew it he grabbed her waist hurriedly, moving abnormally fast with her in his arms to take her to the farthest corner of the corridor before going back in lightning speed to lock the door behind which Henry was resting. He barely had time to throw the keys back in her direction before a loud voice boomed through the empty tunnels,

“There he is! The devil!”

The villagers were already inside the dungeons.