Cursed Blood | Chaelisa

Chapter 30.

Even when my two best friends in the world just saved my life; I still didn't think I would fully recover from the flying car experience. We stopped at a gas station later. I borrowed Jisoo's cell phone to call Lisa. And thank goodness, she picked up on the first ring. At the same time, we both just exhaled in relief.

"Are you okay?" She beat me to it.

"I'm fine," I said. "Everyone's fine."

"I was so worried about you," she said again.

"You too, but I'm okay," I reassured her. "Anyway, there's something I want to tell you."

"What is it?"

"We ran into the undead vampires earlier," I told her and then there was a very long pause.

"Oh, no," Lisa breathed, "Tell me, where are you now?"

"We're heading back to school," I said, feeling the bad omen in the air.

"Please, make it quick," she said anxiously. "You'll have to tell me everything."

After we hung up, I told Joy to take a turn driving the car. I really don't want another year of my life flash before my eyes again.

We entered the Ultara gate. It was almost midnight, but as usual, every light in the mansions was still on. From afar, I could see Lisa was waiting for us in front of the Ancient Hall. She had a white jacket over her short dress now, and the glowing light flicked on her perfectly divine figure. Joy had parked Jisoo's car in the underground converted parking lot in the school grounds (I wanted to ask Joy whether our Ultara Academy used to be a military base or something).

I had taken off my leftover shoe and walked barefoot on the cold gravel path. As we got closer, Lisa started descending the stairs towards us. Her expression was hard to read. I braced myself for all the blame, feeling guilty that I had blown off our only chance to meet her mother's old friend.

Lisa stopped and stared at my face.

"Lisa, it's my fault," I started to apologize frantically. "I'm sorry, I screwed-"

At that very moment, I don't think I would ever get the last word out of my mouth. Lisa grabbed my face and pressed her soft beautiful lips on mine. From the corner of my eyes I saw Jisoo suck in a huge gush of air. Joy just stood there with her hands on her hips and her jaw on the ground.

"I would never forgive myself if anything happens to you," Lisa whispered as our lips parted. Then she wrapped her arms around me, pressing my head against her chest. Joy whispered something into Jisoo's ear and scooted her away from the scene, leaving me and Lisa alone.

"Lisa?" I said softly, still locked tightly in her arms. When she seemed to come to herself again, she loosened her grasp on me. I just realized I hadn't taken a breath until then. Looking back at the most beautiful face in front of me, I gave a reassuring smile.

"Forgive me," Lisa said. "I just need to feel that you are really here."

I was still amazed at how I could still be standing. Then Lisa pulled something out that seemed to glitter brightly in the dark. I recognized the object immediately.

"Oh, that's my shoe!"

"I found it on the way back to the hotel," she said with a teasing smile. "I guess if you could run with one missing shoe, you have no trouble training for the Olympics."

"Survival instinct," I said. "How about those bad bodyguards?"

"I hope they could make it out of my wolf army," she said with a cool smirk.

"How could you summon the wolves?"

"You forgot who my mother was?"

"But was she a vampire?!"

"She was also a descendant of the Romans," she said, "Remember the tale of Romulus and Remus being raised by a she-wolf? The knowledge of summoning the wolves is only known to a few. She taught me that song."

"Aw, such an incredible Lisa," I teased. "And thank you for rescuing my shoe, too."

But when I reached for the shoe, Lisa stopped me. Then she just kneeled down and proceeded to lift my ankle with her gentle hand. I was stunned and dazed as I gingerly stepped back into my own heel. She took the other one from my hand and also fastened it for me. Then Lisa stood up and smiled her angelic smile. I was completely and utterly lost in her charm.

Back inside the suite as we sat around, Joy and Jisoo filled Lisa in about what happened while I was watching her reaction. It had been a long evening of unsuccessful surveillance. After they finished, it was my turn to deliver my part of the detail.

"The undead vampires have been expecting me all along," I said. "I have a feeling that someone knows about us, but their motive is to keep us around until the right time comes."

"Yeah, I can tell they wanted to kidnap you for some reason," Joy simply said. "Unfortunately, I broke them like a mannequin."

"I still don't get why those vampires want to kill you," Jisoo said, pursing her lips thoughtfully as if she was trying to solve a physics problem, "I mean look! You guys are too cute."

She made it sound like Lisa and I were little bunnies.

"The thing is we already know why they came after me," I told her. "Our existence is forbidden in the Underworld. Our parents were executed because they had broken their marriage law."

"That's baloney!" Joy said. "Everyone has the right to get married to whoever they love. I thought only humans were bakas!"

"What's 'baka'?" Jisoo asked.

"Idiots in Japanese."

"Anyway, I heard one of them mentioning someone, like their master," I said again. "And I'm sure these guys must have been tracking me down by that person's order."

Lisa looked at me as if we both were wondering the same thing. Why did those vampires want to kidnap me instead of killing me right away? Now, I had a feeling that this group of undead was up to something.

"Maybe they want you alive for something far more important," Jisoo said. "You must be someone who can bring them benefit."

We all looked at our genius friend as if we had never heard anything intelligent for ages. I felt heavy all of a sudden.

"Chaeyoung sounds important to them, I even heard the vampires call her in a royal term," Joy joined in. "Does that mean...?"

I tried to swallow the rock in my throat.

"Well, my father..." I gulped dryly, "he was a Russian royal."

"A royal?!" Joy and Jisoo said at the same time. I lowered my head, unable to look at my best friends.

"Yeah," I said awkwardly, "A vampire prince."

"Then you must be..."

"No, no," I interrupted, "I'm not anything. I'm just an illegitimate child born against the law and nature, and maybe that's why they want to kidnap me or kill me... probably in that order."

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