The vampire didn’t think Elys was strong enough to cause him any injury, and he collapsed to the ground writhing in pain. With the distraction this gave the other vampires, Elys took her chance and dashed out of their reach.
The little boy clung to her like a child to his mother, "Sister... they are coming after me!"
The princess held the boy firmly in her arms. "They won’t reach you as long as I am here," she assured him.
Bird screeched outside and made her heart almost jump out of her mouth.
Without turning back, Elys could hear the sound of their cloaks whoosh as they rushed to chase her. She could feel ominous auras emanating from all of them, and even with the other’s blunder a while ago, she knew they weren’t people one could easily mess with.
The princess ran up the stairs, dodging the vampires that chased her. She could hear them snicker behind her, laughing as if they were playing a game of tag with the princess.
’What the hell is going on here?!’ she thought to herself.
Elys rushed over to the second floor, but one of the vampires had already blocked her.
"Hello, princess... would you kindly hand over that child to us?" the vampire said.
"We love young blood the most compared to old people," another vampire appeared, this time around slowly walking up the stairs.
"Why don’t you leave him and we will spare your mortal soul?" a third spoke, floating in mid-air right above the second vampire who spoke.
Elys couldn’t shake off the feeling of malice from the vampires. She turned her eyes, and saw there was the last one that stood perfectly balanced on one foot at the balustrade. The vampire was silent, but Elys could tell it had its attention locked in on the child.
"Fuck you all," the princess cussed.
In a span of a second, she grabbed a vase from where she stood and smashed the head of the vampire nearest her. The other four hissed as their ally screamed, and the chase continued for the princess who had snatched away their prey.
The princess found it very unusual. Why were these vampires seemingly weaker compared to the ones she knew of from the Western Kingdom? Who were they and could it be that the Western vampires weren’t the ones that attacked the town they were in?
But if that was the case, why did Teo disregard Elys’ call for help when she had been outside?
Her head swirled with question after question, to which no definite answers ever presented themselves. Was she going crazy? What was happening to her?
Was she under some kind of spell?
Elys turned around, rushed to the other side and coincidentally saw the prince’s room was just a few steps away. She bit her lip as her choices were narrowed down every second that ticked by.
It seemed like she was running out of options now.
Her pride didn’t want to go and ask him for help. But five vampires against a human without a weapon seemed like a very odd chance for a win on her side. For a moment, the princess mulled over the option of her using magic.
"No, I am not going to use that cursed ability," she whispered to herself.
"Princess... you have nowhere else to go now," the vampire she had attacked smiled, their sinister fangs jutting out of their mouth. "A corner is not much space to run around, don’t you think?"
The hood had fallen from the vampire’s head, and she saw that this certain vampire seemed to be a lot different than the vampires of the Western Kingdom.
"You aren’t from the Western Kingdom," Elys said, shielding the child who shook in fear.
The other vampires flocked like birds as they perched on the railings. Seeing that their friend’s hood had fallen, they took off theirs too one after the other.
"I’m scared!" the little child cried. "I want to go home."
The princess held on to the boy and comforted him as much as she could.
"Come home to us, then, little child," a woman with pale as snow skin and violet eyes crooned, "We will take good care of you."
"Yesss..." another one hissed, the only vampire left who didn’t take off his hood. "Great food, great company... hihihi..."
Elys noted he only spoke in very few syllables, while the rest were far eloquent compared to him. The vampire that she had hit with the vase had his head bloodied, but he seemed to not care whether there was blood in his eyes.
"Are we done playing games?" one pouted. She was a lot younger compared to the others, although she was as tall as the adults. Physically, she looked like she was in her early teens.
"You are not going to have this innocent child," Elys said adamantly. "You will have to go through me."
The teenage-looking girl smiled wickedly, tapped the bloodied man and said, "The game’s over. Get her as well."
Elys suddenly felt a chill run up and down her spine.
What should she do now? It was either she jumped from the third floor and rush out in the open yet again, or she enter the prince’s room without permission.
’He surely must have heard the commotion with his enhanced hearing,’ Elys thought to herself. ’What a bastard not to come to my rescue!’
The princess didn’t have another second to waste. She was right with her hunch – the vampires were just playing with her – and now things were a whole lot serious.
Aleksander was going to be furious, but she didn’t give a damn anymore. She tightened her grip around the boy in her arms, and then destroyed the prince’s doorknob with one kick.
If there was someone who could possibly defeat a vampire, that was going to be a vampire as well.
But just as the door burst open, Elys was confused.
"What the hell is this place?" she muttered under her voice.