"What is a word made up of 4 letters, yet is made up of 3. Although is written with 8 letters, and then with 4. Rarely consists of 6, and never is written with a 5."

-Ans at the end of the chapter. XD

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The dungeons,

Crystalline Castle.

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************Damien's POV**********

"Let me go!"

Her fighting voice outside the door surprised me. What is that human doing down here, at the dungeons? Is she not enjoying being out of this place that she's struggling against my guards to enter these walls again?

"Nobody's allowed here. Our King is busy." I heard one of the guards say to her.

"What's going on in there? Who screamed? Is Damien here? Let me go!"

Realizing she wasn't going to give up any time soon, I yelled out, "Bring her in."

Alexis' frame entered the room I was currently in, her eyes instantly dropping on me. She was covered in food? She looked like she was on the kitchen as a tornado hit the place.

She looked around the room until she discovered the screaming human girl all tied up in front of me. At first she was confused, but then realization slowly settled on her face as she noticed the long cut on her cheek. The cut carved by the knife in my hand. It wasn't deep enough to kill the human, but it still looked like it hurt like a bitch.

The human girl's scream slowly died down as she noticed who just walked into the room, as if she knew she was one of her own kind.

"Help me," She called out to Alexis.

I put the tape back on her chapped lips, "Shut up."

That was all it took for Alexis to come to action as she started running towards the wounded girl. Two persuasive words and this girl thinks she's a superwoman who can save everybody's ass.

God, when will she learn?

Using my Vampire speed, I snaked my arms around her waist to prevent her from moving towards the girl.

"What did you do to her?" She gasped as she took in the bruises coating the girl's body. The plain, black button down shirt was clinging to her body due to her sweating. Her black hair looked like a bird's nest, her plain brown eyes were filled with tears as they silently begged Alexis to somehow help her. Psh, as if.

Alexis continued to struggle in my arms, Trying her best to run to the girl and set her free.

I turned towards the three guards standing stiffly next to me, "Force some information out of her. Make sure you don't kill her, though. She can be very useful to us."

Alexis shook her head," No! Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting her like that?!"

Passing one of them the knife, I dragged Alexis out of the room, ignoring her loud protests. Sometimes I really hate my sharp senses, like now when she continued to loudly scream in my ear to let her go.

"Never, if you continue to scream like that." I yelled over her voice.

She stopped talking at once and calmed down a little as I took her hand and dragged her to our room.

Our room?

What the fuck is wrong with me? Since when do I like sharing rooms with anyone? It's my room. The King of the Vampire World's room.

Arriving at the set of doors, I pushed them open. Pulling her inside with me, I turned around and locked the door.

"You're a monster." She whispered as her eyes filled with unshed tears, "you know that?"

Her words didn't effect me at all. I've been called worse. Well nobody has ever had the courage to say it to my face, but I'm not blind, I know what they think of me. Plus, they forget that I can read their thoughts. This girl was one strong human, I had to give her that. Or maybe stupid is more of a word, since she seemed to be digging her own grave by provoking me.

I just rolled my eyes and walked over to the sofa so I could explain to her what she just witnessed. But then I remembered her state so I walked closer to her, smirking, I reached forward to lick the Nutella off her cheek but she stepped back.

"Go shower first, I'll explain everything."

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After getting dressed super fast, Alexis walked out of the closet and made me face her by pulling on my arm harshly.

"Remember when I said that I see a five year old boy hiding under that table waiting for a hand to slowly pull him out of the darkness? Never mind that. You're a Monster. Just like your father."

Something in me dropped. Her previous words didn't effect me. But now, the thought of her thinking that I'm just like my father, that selfish man, hurt more than anything else. It made me stop breathing altogether. It made me feel like a part of me died even though I'm already dead. I've heard so many negative thoughts about me, but why did this one hurt the most? I realized it wasn't because of what she said, it was because of who said it. Since when did I care about what this human thought of me?

I turned around, ready to hit her with some facts about that human girl which will get her to think straight. But what I saw in front of me, left me speechless.

I saw an eighteen years old girl looking so defeated as if she had lost everything she could ever think of. She gulped to appear strong in front of me, but I saw right through that facade. Her fists looked like she was ready to take me down, but her eyes, her eyes said the opposite. Her stormy blue eyes held so much anger in them that they prevented me to think straight. There was something else in those eyes. Something that was buried deep down, but it was still there. I could make out the pain she felt as she stood there, trying to look all confident.

It was as if this was the first time I could actually read her. I couldn't hear her thoughts, that was only for a short amount of time since I gave her my blood, but her eyes said everything I needed to know. They were holding in years of extreme rage. Why didn't I realize this sooner? But now that I have, I wanted her to let all of that anger out. The anger which turns people against themselves. The anger that slowly eats people alive until they're an empty shell.

"I know I'm a monster. Maybe even just like my father, if not worse. I also know you're extremely mad at me. So just let it out. Yell at me."

Her eyes watched me cautiously as she tried to think hard about what caused my mood to suddenly change.

"Go ahead, let it out, yell at me, hit me. Do what you want."

She was in deep thought for quite some time. But then she opened her mouth to say the most obvious thing in the world, "You ruined my life."

"I know that. Keep going."

Really Damien? That's all you've got? I know?

But I did want her to tell me everything she thought of me so I urged her to keep talking.

"You forcefully brought a seven year old girl, so full of dreams and hope in this twisted world."

She paused to see if I was getting mad but I just muttered, "keep going."

"She used to be so full of light, she used to find happiness in the smallest things. You snatched that goodness away from her. You snatched her ability to think positively. You basically killed her."

That hit me hard, but I tried not show it, "Yeah, tell me what else I did."

"You ruined her childhood. You forced her to live a meaningless life. You turned her into this emotional wreck who doesn't know who to trust and who to not trust anymore."

With that, she gave me a sudden push, which caught me off guard, causing me to stumble back a couple of inches.

"You know why she didn't have a common sense to know about that Vampire kid lying? Because you prevented her to experience the outside world to know these kinds of things!"

With every sentence that came out of her mouth, her hands also reached forward to either land punches on my chest, or push me back roughly. I decided to make her think her soft beatings actually effected me by acting weak.

She didn't say anything for some time so I asked her, "are you done?"

She looked away but nodded her head.

No, she wasn't done.

"No you're not. So keep going."

"How would you know that?" A cute frown appeared on her face.

Realizing how stupid I sounded, I shrugged off those thoughts, "Because I just do. I know you're not done yet."

"You're right, I'm not." She admitted.

"Okay, continue then, beautiful."

What the fuck? Did I just say that? Did I ever mention how sometimes I really wish I wasn't immortal? I didn't? Well at the moment, I was damn sure I wanted to die of embarrassment.

Alexis' cheeks turned a light shade of pink, "You can't do that."

"Do what?"

"Call me beautiful and then expect me to be mad at you."

I found myself smirking at her words. I was glad that I wasn't the only one who was having trouble focusing. It was good to know I had that effect on her, too.

"Alright, keep going, you ugly person."

She let out a light laugh and for once, I found myself smiling at her, too. Not because of what I said, but because of the way she looked when she laughed. Her entire face brightened up and her eyes wrinkled. Her laugh was like the sun. I wouldn't mind feeling the warmth it provided me, but it could also be dangerous and burn me like the sun. Her laughing face was an image I wouldn't mind looking at for the rest of my life. And these are the thoughts that scared me.

It only lasted for a moment, because soon, her face slowly turned sad again. I could tell a thought hit her but she was debating on whether to say it or not.

Another push came from her at the same a tear ran down her right cheek. My back hit the wall but I don't think Alexis noticed as she kept walking closer to me, thinking I would stumble back again if she gave me another push.

"Just say it."

And she did.

"You know the worst thing you did to me? Y-you killed my parents."

Her voice broke as she struggled to say the last part, turning it into a mere whisper. But I heard it, and I wish I didn't. There were more tears streaming down her face now, she tried to push them away forcefully.

"All you had to do was give me a choice. All you had to say was, Alexis, you have two choices, either surrender and come with us, or we kill your parents. My seven years old self would have happily surrendered. All you had to do was ask, Damien. They- at least they would still be alive. And that thought alone would have gave me the strength to live the rest of my life in that prison."

She looked like she would fall apart at any moment. Seeing her like this, an emotion washed over me, an emotion I've prevented myself to feel for so long. Guilt.

"All you had to do was ask." She sobbed as she looked down to hide her tears, her hands on my chest, gripping on my shirt.

I couldn't stop myself from pulling her forward, into my arms. She gripped onto my shirt tighter, pulling me close to her, as well. I rested my chin on her head as she buried her face in my neck, making me feel the wetness of her tears. Somehow, they managed to crawl up into my own eyes. I blinked hard to get rid of that water like substance, but it was no use.

"I'm sorry."

There I said it. Who knew that the first time the King of Vampires will apologize will be to a human?

"I hate you."

Even though her words were filled with hatred, her arms that went around me, hugging me tight, said otherwise.

"Good. You should." I said.

"You still didn't tell me something."

"And what is that?"

"Who is that girl? Why did you hurt her?"

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