Her Vampire Prince

Chapter XXVIII

William went and visited Faith later on that evening as promised, confirming what Hope had told her about the injuries. The troublesome human's device was disarmed swiftly, meaning there were no casualties. There was the capability of fatalities though. Florence also visited, jumping on Faith and knocking her to the floor with an excited squeal. Faith nearly had a heart attack, and had bruises to confirm Florence's concern for her.

The next morning William found her in the kitchen eating breakfast with Hope. Ever since they had arrived, there was an abundance of food enough to keep six families going for weeks, much to their delight. It was a bit like a vacation for them – apart from the kidnapping part. There was an excited buzz in the palace with a flurry of maids and staff bouncing through the halls preparing for their King and Queen's annual ball in only two days. It was certainly very busy, and gave birth to a fresher, more alive atmosphere. Of course, the ball would not work out flawlessly as planned – partly due to Faith. She felt the familiar guilt that sat like ice in her gut start to pound at full force. She could hardly look at William, and was struggling to keep her frosted flakes down.

"I'll see you later Faith, Florence said she's going to take me to see their cinema room which has finally completed re-construction!" Hope beamed brightly, mentioning one of the areas that was destroyed when the hunters attacked with bombs a few days ago. It felt like a lifetime.

"Oh... ok, see you later." Faith murmured, but Hope was already out the door.

"Are you ok Faith?" William asked after a couple of minutes of drumming his fingers into the table.

"Yes, yes fine." She said quickly, eyes darting to the left to see him staring at her soulfully.

He would be the death of her.

"Ok." He hummed softly. "Faith... I was just wondering... if Hope wasn't here... would you have come back?" He questioned, the worry in his voice disconcerting her, making her turn to look at him.

"Well, I... I would have gone to see Hope... obviously, and made sure she was ok. Then I, I would have tried to find you. Made sure you were ok." She admitted as casually as possible.

"Well, I for one am really pleased you're here." William announced with a sweet smile on his face, making Faith wonder how one man could be so striking, handsome, rugged and cute all in one. She simply smiled brightly at him in response, as their eyes got lost in each other's.

"Walk with me for a while?" He requested, and Faith felt like she couldn't say no, entranced by his spring green eyes.

They exited the kitchen, walking leisurely side by side. The silence was comfortable between them, although Faith did feel slightly awkward. She felt as though she may spurt the truth of her betrayal out at any moment.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok today Faith?" William asked, concerned.

"I'm good thank you." She replied, tucking her thick brown locks behind her ear.

"I'm really sorry about what happened Faith... I knew I shouldn't have let you go to the meeting. I feel so guilty..."

"William, stop – it's fine. Honestly. I'm here now, and nothing horrendous happened to me. They didn't hurt me. You don't need to feel guilty." Faith interrupted him, placing a hand on his arm to get him to stop walking, but quickly retracting it when she felt the pleasurable tingles erupting where their skin met.

"Thank you Faith, but I still blame myself for putting you in harms way." William said, looking so angry and distressed Faith felt a pain in her heart.

As they were walking, they had stumbled into the lounge/music room, where Faith had first met Katherine.

"Honestly William, it was my choice to be there. I just wished I had been actually able to help, not make things worse." Faith stressed sadly, collapsing onto the loveseat.