Should Have Walked Away | Aarmau Vampire AU

𝔰 𝔢 𝔳 𝔢 𝔫 𝔱 𝔢 𝔢 𝔫

Standing, I reached to pull my hood back over my head but got nowhere when it was stripped away from me. The clasp audibly snapped away from my neckline.

Standing, I allowed my hair to cover the burn on my forehead as it grew.

The guards surrounded me, and the frontline shields gave no shade as the sun was directly above my head. Because of the way I was standing though, it hit more of my right side.

They knew I would burn, and they trapped me so I couldn't hide.

However, they clearly didn't know how long it would take.

"You think you can just come in here and kill us? Seduce my son? Damn belligerent vampires!" The king spat.

"I don't want to hurt anyone and I haven't," I shouted. There was a crowd gathering around the guards, but they didn't budge when the village folk tried to get through their defense. The king and I focused solely on each other but it was becoming fairly loud.

My arm started burning first, and I could almost hear the sizzling on my flesh as it burned away my clothes. Due to the fabric, it didn't catch fire, but nothing could protect me from long-term, dead-on exposure.

I tried covering the fresh wound with my hand. All it did was burn there, too.

Everyone tried desperately to get through to my side, but I ignored them and continued the fight for my life.

"You really expect me to believe that?" His highness bellowed.

"No," I was becoming increasingly aware of the heat stretching over me as the layers of my skin burned one after the other, "I don't expect you to believe anything I say — true or not — but at least I know I've said it!" I yelled back without taking my eyes away from his. He was taller, and clearly had help to see over the shields.

My leg burned, and with a sudden shock of pain from a popping blister, I tumbled to the ground. Landing on my stomach was painful, though I have worse going on.

With so many open wounds the pain was getting worse, not to mention they were now deep enough to bleed. I was burning quicker.

I felt a warm trickle of the liquid now running over my skin as I moved to see the crowd better. I found Aaron's eyes when I rolled onto my side, shifting the heat to my back and left side. He was trying to both see me and get enough of an opening to help.

He knew his father would kill me if this kept going.

The sear began to tear into my muscle, wanting to barbecue my insides slowly as I was awake enough to feet it.

I held back a scream, but I couldn't stop myself from shouting out in pain and shutting my eyes. I stretched my neck, dipping my head back almost enough to continue burning my forehead.

Instead, my jaw burned.

The sound used to be annoying. I was shouting over a crowd of people to talk to one specific person, and it combined with the shields - metal on metal. Although now it sounded dull, like a low hum.

Everything was humming. My head was pounding and throbbing, and I felt my pulse quicken with a ringing in my ear. The world started to spin, tipping my perspective as things grew purple.