Aleksander was not thinking straight. All he could ever think of at the moment was the fact that Elys was holding onto him for dear life. The vampire had jumped out the wide arched open window without much of a plan but to get his wife to himself.
"What the hell are you doing, Aleksander?!" she yelled into his ears, "Have you gone mad?!"
Elys’ chambers were only at the fourth floor of the palace, but the height from floor to ceiling per floor was too high to accommodate most lavish chandeliers to hang from. Such heights were deemed to be usually more than what normal humans could jump off and not get injured.
Of course, if she had to, Elys could actually jump off such heights but that would need her to add a few spells to ease her landing.
She might have come from a kingdom of hardened warriors, but even she was not immortal - a fatal fall could be the death of her.
She could try to wrestle her way out of Aleksander’s grip, but that was too dangerous to do while they were midair. They were free falling for almost half a minute already, the winds whipping on her face as gravity pulled them down.
In her frustration, Elys reached for Aleksander’s shoulder and pinched him. Her long nails dug in, and Aleksander winced at the sudden pain that he felt.
"Ow!" he yowled. "What was that for?"
"That was for doing whatever you want without asking me first!" she replied. "Now tell me, what the hell are you doing and why did you jump off, Aleksander?"
The vampire could now finally see where he was to land. A tiny balcony was just a few feet now, and he braced himself for the impact it would have on his feet.
"Brace yourself, hold on tight," Aleksander told Elys.
"If my life wasn’t on the line here, I would have choked you already," she grumbled but obliged.
Elys wrapped her arms around his neck, her hands reaching towards the broad of his back. Aleksander tensed for a second, his mind racing with the sensation of Elys’ hands behind him.
The split second that he had tensed deemed to be one wrong move for the vampire. He landed on the stone balcony with a heavy grunt. Elys let out a tiny squeak, but that was the most she let herself react in gracelessness.
Aleksander’s head turned towards the room behind him, and noted it was one of the many vacant guest rooms in the palace. He slowly walked inside the room and pushed the glass door open.
"Put me down now, husband," Elys insisted, "you still have an explaining to do with the brashness you did."
Aleksander put his wife down gently. Elys’ foot lithely tapped on the empty room. She turned around and crossed her arms in front of her, a brow raised in incredulity.
"You have some explaining to do," she stomped her foot down.
Aleksander scratched his head and then mumbled something under his breath. Elys had a hard time catching up to his jumbled words. She raised her right hand, and then slapped Aleksander’s arm to get him straight.
"Speak clearly!" she told him.
"Ow," Aleksander rubbed his arm, "I noticed that you have been more violent lately, wife."
"Well, that is all on you, husband," she retorted, "I wouldn’t have done that if you were not such an incorrigible asshole."
"Am not!" Aleksander instantly replied in defense.
"You most certainly are!" she snapped back.
Elys crossed her arms again, her face twisted with annoyance. Aleksander heaved a heavy sigh and then started to guide Elys out of the room. She didn’t move a muscle, and Aleksander was forced to stop to turn around and look at her.
"I am not moving from here if you don’t give me at least one damn good reason you did what you did right now," she scowled.
Aleksander held her gaze, blazing red eyes to his cold silvers.
This time around, both Elys’ brows shot up and she pressed on, "Well? I am waiting, and I am not that patient too!"
He sighed and replied in a rush, "I don’t want you to be left alone in your room, Elys! It’s not safe at all."
The young king looked at her king and rubbed her temples.
"We talked about this already, haven’t we?" she said, "Aleksander, what is bound to happen will happen. I am more than capable to defend myself, more so because of the fact that I couldn’t care less if I lost control over my powers with the enemy!"
"But wife, it would not hurt to be safer when you are with me," he insisted. "We don’t even sleep at the same time, so you need not to worry as I won’t insist on sharing the same bed as you."
Elys scoffed and said, "Have you forgotten you actually have tried to push yourself on me back at the manor? What kind of proof do you have that you wouldn’t try to do such a thing again?"
Aleksander let out an exasperated sigh, "That was a mistake on my part, and I am much sorry for that. Believe me, Elys. I am only thinking for the greater good of our plans."
The young king reached out for Elys’ hands, and she let him take them as he gently lowered his lips for a tiny peck.
"I need you to be safe always, my queen," Aleksander said. "Would it be too hard on your part to ease my heart from worrying about your security?"
"You gave me personal knights to keep me safe, husband," Elys said, "aren’t they enough?"
"They are but temporary. Also, those knights are Sir Wiriam’s knights, not mine," Aleksander frowned.
"And we both know the risk of that," she told him. "Don’t you trust that I can keep myself safe? We are just practically at opposite ends of the same floor."
Aleksander raised his eyes to meet Elys, and he whispered softly, "It is not that I don’t trust you, my queen. It is the rest of the people around us that I don’t trust."