May Death Do Us Part

64 Chapter 64 : You can call me ‘my love’

“I can’t believe I considered myself one of those terrible creatures,” Ivan spoke in disgust.

“You’ve been an elf for thirty minutes Ivan,” Beric responded with an eye roll, “don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“it’s actually been two hours thirty minutes Beric,” Ivan responded smugly as he pulled out a mirror from his satchel and admired his chiseled face for the hundredth time.

The group had been riding south east for almost three hours now towards the enchanted forest. The little settlements of the shires were getting more and more scarce as they forged ahead. The road wasn’t even a road anymore, just a very narrow path surrounded by long grass and scattered trees.

Along the way, Zander and Roland told them all about the great cleansing and how the humans had planned to wipe out the other races and enslaved and experimented the ones that weren’t able to escape.

“I can’t believe people can be so selfish,” Ozias responded, “it sickens me.”

“But now that we have Prince Gareth and the other chosen ones, there’s hope of taking back our lands,” Zander spoke, “it’s just a matter of time. I’m sure the royals from the other races are preparing as we speak.”

Adam was deep in thought, he understood the hatred towards the humans, what they had done was truly selfish and horrifying beyond measure. He could only imagine how his people and the other races had struggled to rebuild from the ground up, and how the ones who didn’t escape were tortured, but was waging another war really the answer? Wasn’t there a more peaceful way to settle this.

“Hey Adam..”

.....

The elven prince looked down at the beautiful woman who was comfortably nestled between his legs.

“Does it mean that I have to call you Gareth now?” Ella questioned him

He chuckled quietly at her question, “you can call me ‘my love’,” he responded with a risqué grin on his face.

Ella rolled her eyes and lightly elbowed him, making him chuckle and snuggle closer to her. “Don’t be a tease,” Ella scolded him.

“What? You don’t like it?”

“I don’t,” she responded blankly, but was clearly lying. She enjoyed chitchatting with him like this, it took her back to the days back in Mirine when they would spend afternoons talking and horse riding.

“How far to the enchanted forest?” Ozias asked Zander, “you’ve been there before right?”

“At our pace,” the blonde man responded, “we’ll be there in about two to three weeks. Then a few days after that is when we’ll reach Ervelon the new elven kingdom, we’ll have to go through Lenora first, the kingdom of the dwarves, it is situated at the borders of the enchanted forest.”

“So we’re talking a whole month of traveling?!” Ivan squealed, “at least tell me we’ll have enough time for beauty sleep!”

Beric was getting tired of rolling his eyes at Ivan’s vain comments, the wrong man was made an elf that’s for sure.

As they continued moving, the trees increased in number and the shrubs became thicker, and for some reason Ella was starting to feel strange. She clasped her stomach which seemingly felt incredibly empty even though she had eaten a few hours ago. And this time, the hunger was accompanied with thirst, she felt incredibly parched.

“Hey, are you okay?” Adam asked her, he had noticed her fidgeting around.

“I’m fine,” Ella assured him, “I’m just a little parched that’s all.”

The dark haired prince held the reins of his horse with one hand and with the other grabbed the canteen of water from his side and handed it to Ella, “drink some water, we’ll be setting up camp soon enough and you can rest alright.”

Ella nodded and took the canteen. She took two large gulps of water and closed it, her stomach was filled with water but her thirst still prevailed. It was something that had started to worry her.

The caravan moved at a steady pace for another two hours until they reached a small clearing were they could set up camp and decided to stop there. It was almost evening, they had decided it was safer to move during the day and rest at night while taking turns to keep watch.

Adam carried Ella off the horse and settled her down on a fattened rock near where Odran was making a fire, he then grabbed her cloak from his bag and wrapped it tightly around her. “You’re still cold Ella, stay by the fire while we set up camp.”

Ella nodded. She pulled the garment tightly around her body as she watched Adam join his men in erecting tents and spreading the mats within them. Odran had gotten the fire going and was preparing to skin the rabbit he had caught on their way.

Ella looked down at the dead little animal, when she saw the small traces of blood on its white coat her mouth watered, making her absolutely horrified. Why on earth would she crave an animal’s blood, no! She wasn’t going to let her savage vampire instincts take control of her, she wasn’t going to allow it.

Watching Odran take out the knife and skin the animal was absolute torture, the smell of blood wafted into the air and Ella almost drooled. When Odran peeled off the animal’s skin, a drop of blood splattered on Ella’s cheek and almost immediately, her pupils narrowed into slits. she stood up abruptly form her seat and covered her mouth as fangs began to protrude from her beautiful mouth.

“Sorry princess did I get some blood on you?” Odran spoke apologetically, he grabbed a piece of cloth with his bloodied hand and handed it to Ella.

As his hand stretched towards her, the smell of blood became unbearable, the redhead stumbled backwards and crawled hurriedly backwards away from Odran, one hand still covering her fanged mouth.

“Stop! Stay away!” Ella released a muffled warning.

Adam heard the commotion and rushed towards Ella and Odran to see what was going on. When Ella saw Adam approaching she got to her feet and ran into the darkened forest.

“Ella!” Adam called out to her, but she was moving so fast that he lost sight of her in seconds. The dark haired prince turned to Odran, “what did you do to her?”

“I was just cleaning some rabbit meat and got a little blood on her,” Odran responded innocently, “it was just a drop.”

Adam grabbed a dagger from his bag and made his way into the forest where Ella had run off to. Odran just stood there in shock looking at the prince disappear after the redhead.

“Geez it was just a little blood,” Odran mumbled, “it’s not going to kill her or anything.”

*

Nathaniel was looking down at about thirty to forty men of the royal guard who were gathered below him. If one thought the royal

gaurd were ferocious and deadly before, now they were absolutely lethal. ninety percent of them hand transformed into strong immortal creatures.

“For over a hundred years, we have been hiding in the dark corners of the continent!” Nathaniel spoke to the masses below, “now the time has come for us to take back what is ours! Today is a great day for all of us, because today, not only will I be the crowned prince of the silver pack of the great lycan race, but I will also be crowned king of Meria!”

There were roars of applaud from the men below.

“And we all know what that entails!” Nathaniel added on, “We, the exiled races will rule Meria, and soon the entire continent!”

“yeah!!!” The men roared in agreement.

“The coronation is in two hours!” Nathan added on, “control the chaos in the capital and assemble everyone, today will be a historical day that all must witness!”

The soldiers of the royal guard were deployed into the capital and the close surrounding towns, spreading the word of the great cleansing and the truth behind the transformations that were happening to some of the citizens of Meria.

The announcement was the beginning of division. Members of the exiled races banded together, either out of hatred towards the humans for what they had done, or out of the fact that the humans now feared them and wanted nothing to do with them.

Humans were urged to cooperate and comply with the prince’s orders or be thrown in dungeons or exiled from the kingdom. Some cooperated, especially those with family members and close friends who had transformed, while others opted to leave the now terrifying kingdom, not knowing that the situation outside was the same.

Back in the palace, Theo put the final touches on Nathaniel’s outfit for the coronation. Nathan smiled as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

“Now this is a king worthy of Ella’s love,” Nathan smiled proudly, “don’t you think so Theo?”

“You’ll be a king worthy of anyone’s love my prince,” Theo responded.

Nathaniel tugged his sleeves and creased down his collars, “no one is worthy of mine, no one but my beautiful Ella. After she sees everything I’m doing for her, she’ll have no choice but to come back to me.”

The silver haired prince turned to his butler, “Adam has nothing to offer her, while I’m giving her the entire continent.”

“Shall we proceed to the coronation my prince?” Theo asked politely.

“With pleasure Theo,” Nathaniel spoke as he walked in long strides proudly out of the room, “with pleasure.”