Entertaining the Vampire King

Afraid

Thaddeus POV

Hold on, Ayla. Please hold on.

I had never felt a fear in my centuries of life like I had when I saw Ayla collapse in front of me. Blood. There was so much blood. It poured from her mouth like water and she had drifted into darkness.

I could feel her heartbeat while I paced. It was steady, but slow. So slow. I knew she was alive, but how much longer? Could she hold on? She had to.

It was daylight and I was limited. I couldn't take her anywhere. I had contemplated letting the guards take her to a doctor but I couldn't. I couldn't leave her, and I didn't know what was wrong with her.

I did the only thing that I could. I called for Adisa. The messenger took the fastest horse from my stable. It would take hours for him to reach her, and Ayla could die.

It had already been so long. It felt like days as I watched her breathe. I cleaned her face and her lips with a damp cloth, occasionally patting her forehead. She was still and utterly silent. Did she feel pain?

"I love you. Please hold on." I whispered to her. If she could hear me, she would know I could never leave her.

My thoughts kept me company for these few hours. I thought of everything that had brought us here.

She shouldn't be here. She should be dead.

Rescuing her as a babe... it was never something I thought about after I had done it. I had been a firm believer of leaving the past in the past.

I hadn't loved a woman in so long I had barely remembered the feeling. Isabelle was my first love. We had known each other as children. Our parents arranged our marriage years before we were of age. I married her when I was 16, and she was 14. A year later I was sent to war.

I fought for the crusade for eight years. Eight long years. In that time I had returned home twice.

The first time, Isabelle was already 17. She was taller and so beautiful. That was the first time we made love. I spent nearly a year at home. We had became friends again, and she had became pregnant twice, and lost both babies. The midwife had told her that she was unlikely to ever carry a child. The news deeply depressed Isabelle and I left soon after for war again.

The second time I came home I was 21 and she was 19. Things had been so different. She lived with her sister and their family, and we grew distant. We hadn't made love ever again, but I had still loved her. She had always been good and kind, and she treated her sister's children as if they were her own.

A year later I returned home a monster. Somehow she had accepted me and there was never another woman who I put my faith and trust in. Until Ayla.

I stared at her still face, and an aching grew inside me. Centuries. Centuries I had met and bedded thousands of women and now I could not recall any of their faces. Ayla is all I can see.

Click

I turned and watched Adisa walk in briskly. It had been years since I last saw her but she looked the same. Dark skinned and beautiful with a strong hint of deadly. She carried a brown bag with her and was wrapped in a black velvet coat.

"Is this her?" She said calmly as she strode past me and looked over Ayla. I walked to her side.

"Yes."

"And she is human?" She asked. Adisa had never came to my aid for a human, only vampires.

"Mostly." I said softly. She turned and narrowed her eyes at me.