The Forced Marriage With The Vampire King

Chapter Twenty Six : Ardent Artist

"Hey!" the voice boomed across the large empty hall making Rose flinch in fear. When she turned around she found an awkwardly smiling girl in her teens, dressed in grey shirt layered by a brown jacket and a skinny black jeans paired with white converse. Her hair a colour of jet black with a dark blue streak hanging freely on her forehead. Her eyes were same as that of Nigel, the colour of sea green except she had a lighter shade.

"Pardon, I didn't mean to scare you." She spoke making her way towards Rose.

"Hi, I am Karen. Nigel's sister and you must be.." Karen introduced herself and enlended her hand for a shake.

"Rose." Rose completed accepting her hand.

"Of course, it is so good to see you Rose, in person. I always wanted to meet you and now that you are here." Karen smiled. "I had some meeting to attend last night and was quite tired to stay awake by the time you came and when I came to know you were here, I was late, Nigel told me you already left to sleep." She waved her hand reasoning out her absence last night.

"It's okay." Rose said with a small smile.

"I see you were watching my artwork." Karen rambled.

"Um.. You made it?" Rose asked.

"Yes. Do you like it?"

"It is very skilfully painted, I must say this art is excellent." Rose skimmed her fingers over the frame of the picture.

"Well, it is one of my hobbies." Karen smiled. "I like trying different stuffs you know.."

"I see." Rose listened to Karen as she gleefully elaborated her about her hobbies.

"Let's talk while we have our breakfast." Karen led Rose to one of the chairs and sat beside her.

A while later they were talking about several hobbies and interests they had in. They chatted like they were two peas in a pod. Rose found their interests matching and came to the conclusion that Karen in spite of being a princess was passionate in painting, horse riding, music composing and writing.

Rose too talked about her hobbies like reading, writing, sketching, singing and dancing. "It is like I am meeting my other half in the field of arts." Karen chuckled.

"Come, I will show you somewhere." Karen too Rose's hand and led her two floors up to a huge room that was guarded by two bulky guards that stood aside and bowed as Rose and Karen entered the room filled with paintings, artworks and antics. There were abstract arts, conceptual arts, surrealist, photorealist, futurist and impressionist paintings along with a separate corner of Karen's pop art collection which included her canvas and instruments.

"You see my brothers always found me quite boring with all my studies and paintings and rarely do I find someone who takes interest in these." Karen gestured towards the neatly displayed antiquated items.

"There would have been dust all the way and these things would be rotten if I wouldn't be here."

"That's sad." Rose remarked taking an old painted flower vase carefully in her hands and examining small details that were painted.

Karen frowned, "I know."

When they ventured further they came across different oil pastel and natural colour paintings of the past kings and queens; dukes and dutchess; other royalists and even their royal chariots with their horses they had as their favourites.

There were even few scripts and old books in Spanish which happened to be linked with Henry's Spanish maternal ancestry.

Vamparia was a place where the Royals openly promoted art, science and literature along with the full support of their people.

Rose eyed a silver sculpture of a king of the fourteenth century with vivid details. "This is interesting.." Rose remarked.

"That one was made by the Indian artsmen and specially imported here." Karen informed.

Rose admired every artwork displayed when her eyes landed on a specific corner, "What is there?" She asked while she made her way towards the corner that had paintings of a young boy in his early teens with dark hair fighting against his opponent with a rapier style sword in his hand.

"That is Henry and against him is Nigel. Henry took an active part in fencing and his skills are just outstanding. He started practicing since the age of five and proved out to be an excellent one in that." Karen explained.

Rose saw there were many trophies and certificates displayed on a special shelf which even included two swords. Karen even said that Henry took part in horse riding, classical guitar playing, fotbal (football).

"He doesn't even know his stuff is here." Karen scoffed.

"Speaking of which, where is my beloved cousin?"

"He is resting." Rose informed.

"That sleepy head won't wake up till evening. So, let's go somewhere." Karen said.

"Where do you want to go?" Rose asked.

"How about shopping?" Karen smiled.

"I am not sure if I should be going or not.." Rose rubbed her palms nervously.

"Come on. It'll be fun." Karen grabbed her hand.

"I may have to take... um.. permission." She hesitated.

"I didn't know you had this good sense of humour." Karen giggled.

"I am not joking." Rose dropped her candid.

"Nigel would do that. You needn't worry." Karen said suggestively. They walked out of the room and Karen ordered one of the maids, "Asigurați-vă că colțul cu sculpturi este curățat în mod corespunzător." (Make sure that corner with sculptures is cleaned properly.)

"First we need to get something." Karen took Rose's hand in hers and led her to her own room.

She instructed Rose to wait then came back after a minute, "You need to drink this." She poured water in a glass and produced a glass goblet filled with blue translucent liquid and put two drops in the glass vessel of water.

"What is this, Karen?" Rose asked.

"This is Miros de sânge încetează potion. This stops the smell of blood from reaching the senses of other vampires. This is important for you, Rose. Your blood is something too exquisite and moreover, it is pure virgin blood. A vampire can smell it from two miles. Its not like anybody can harm you that easy since you are linked with royal blood and by that I mean you have a very strong mate. I know taking you out is not safe if you don't drink this and I like taking risks plus I can take care of your safety as well too." She winked at Rose and she found Karen's sense of thinking quite different.

"That means my blood would have affected you as well." Rose stated.

"Yes, but I find drinking blood quite gross. I rather prefer food that contains small amount of blood because blood is necessary for our survival." Karen shrugged.

"May I say something?" Karen asked making Rose nod.

"It is strange Henry married you and can stay without drinking you. He is good at controlling himself but your blood is... too engaging." Karen said.

"Pardon, I didn't mean to scare, isn't it obvious by that, he loves you." Karen smiled.

Rose blushed at the statement and drank the water that Karen handed her. She didn't have a good feeling about leaving without his consent but for a while wouldn't do any wrong or will it?

***