T H I R T Y-S E V E N

Iris squeezed past his guests, avoiding their reaching hands like they were plagues. Only when he was outside did he swallow a big gulp of air as though he hadn't been breathing properly all day. The sun was just starting to sink behind the far mountains, casting right angle shadows across the side of the mansion and the leaf covered brick walkway. Autumn was nearing, yet it was still very warm outside.

It was bright enough to see where the prince was going but that didn't stop him from losing focus; blurring his vision all together.

Iris stared at his ground while he rushed down the walkway to get to the garden-his favorite garden-where hopefully his nurse was there waiting. Suddenly he looked up when a light gust of wind blew across his face, as if something inhumanly fast flew right by him. He glanced over his shoulder, looking for a blamable source. When he turned back forward..checking behind him was a mistake. Iris squeezed his eyes shut when another body came slamming into his.

Him and the other person, who he concluded was another male due to its more manly grunt of surprise, hit the floor and started rolling backwards. Apparently they both were running fairly fast, so the impact caused them to tumble on the ground.

Iris groaned when his back landed, finally, and he reached a hand up to clutch the side of his head. He parted his eyes slightly until he was blinking widely at the pair of ocean colored ones staring down at him. While he was on his back, the person that he bumped into was hovering over him awkwardly. Despite the position, Iris saw the crystal clear concern in the boy's eyes.

"I am so sorry," He apologized quickly, because he knew if he caused any harm, unintentional or not, to Iris, he was in huge trouble. Iris didn't personally know this. "Are you okay?"

Iris watched as the boy's eyes scanned him, and a strange rapid thump bashed against his ribs. He opened his mouth but no words would come out, so he resorted to nodding quickly. The boy sighed and Iris gazed at the fangs poking out of his mouth. He quickly scrambled back so the prince could sit up.

"I wasn't paying attention, I didn't know you were right in front of me." The vampire had incredible guilt in his tone, but Iris couldn't train his attention on his apologies. He only gazed at the boy like he was an ethereal being. Perhaps he hit his head too hard?

The vampire tilted his head, ready to express his sorry more, but was distracted by the other boy's appearance. He wore a fitting suit, which was a light black coat with a darker black shirt that had golden buttons on it. A yellow pin was over his heart, the color matched Iris's hair when it was glazed in sunlight(of course this vampire couldn't recall that detail.) With his very noble wardrobe, the boy could tell right away that Iris wasn't just a commoner or village person. That caused more guilt to plunge through him.

He opened his mouth this time to apologize again, but they both jumped when a woman's voice called out distantly.

"Iris, is that you?!"

The vampire relaxed, for he thought the woman wasn't speaking to them, but when the boy he hit reacted to the voice, he became tense again. He moved back more when Iris began climbing to his feet. The vampire watched as once Iris was ready to continue running in the direction he was going in, he spared a glance at him; it was thoughtful. Then he ran.

The vampire blinked at his disappearance, sighing as the lasting remorse bubbled in his system. He probably scared the human, which was the last thing he wanted to do. Especially today.

"Iris."

The boy flinched and turned ahead to see a woman stop in front of him. Sage. With narrowing eyes, Kai stood up while dusting off his pants. Sage had been messing around where she wasn't supposed to and when Kai found her, she booked it. Vampires can run at a very inhuman, particular speed-sometimes even they themselves don't see where they're going. The human boy was lucky to get off with no injuries. No, Kai was lucky he didn't.

"What?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Iris," Sage repeated in a low whisper. Her eyes widened and she lunged forward, abruptly gripping Kai's shoulders. "Iris!"

The guard blinked confusingly at Sage. "Okay..?"

"For someone who's reasonably smart, you're pretty slow, Kai."

"What do you mean?"

Sage groaned and started shaking Kai hard enough for his brain to hurt. "That was Iris, Kai! You know, the King's son. The prince. The one who this party is for! You just tackled prince Iris!"

When Sage stopped shaking Kai, he still felt like his insides were scrambled. He stared at her, and she couldn't tell if he was processing what she just said or if he was trying not to scream. Suddenly Kai took a step back and sunk into a crouching position while covering his face.

"I'm so dead."

Sage bit her tongue, but to no avail, she started cackling.

"And your laughing. Of course."

"I'm-I'm sorry it's just..I knew he looked familiar and-" She snorted, "he's the prince!"

Kai angled his head so the lower half of his face was covered and only his eyes were visible. They were glaring at her. "Is my death seriously this priceless to you?"

Sage fanned her face and exhaled a giggly breath. "Of course not." She cleared her throat and a less amused expression captured her features. "He didn't look angry," She shrugged with her hands, "he almost looked starstruck. I think you'll be fine."

"This is the prince we're talking about. I highly doubt he's going to let something like this go."

"I don't know about that. I mean, today's his day, his rightful place tonight is beside his dad on the thrones. Why was he outside? Perhaps he's a rule breaker himself."

Kai scoffed, "That's a bit farfetched. Did you see how many people are attending this party? No one could blame him if he wanted a little air."

The female guard peered in the direction of where Iris had retreated, but she didn't see exactly where he went.

"A jog isn't a little air."

Kai shook his head and dusted the excess dirt off his pants before walking past her. "Let's just go before we get caught in this area."

"You aren't going to try to find him to apologize again? He is the prince."

Kai didn't even stop to glance at her, "Which means the chances of being forgiven are most likely below zero. Let's go."

Regardless of his stern belief, if Kai did see the prince again, he'd definitely put all his effort in trying to apologize.

††

"When I told you to come find me I didn't mean try to die in the process."

Iris winced when Allison gripped his elbow he scraped during his collision with the vampire. He jerked it away and rolled his eyes.

"Don't be dramatic. It's just a scratch." If Iris didn't forget to fix his tousled up hair before he met with Allsion, he would've gotten away with appearing unharmed and appeared as though he didn't just in fact get takcled by a guard.

"Well, you should be more careful."

"You sound like a mom."

"And that's bad?"

Iris slipped his coat back on after he knew Allison was done babying his elbow, and glanced at her.

"Not at all. Just don't make it annoying."

Allison waved a finger at him, "A mother's nagging may indeed be annoying, but it's always useful in its own way."

"I guess."

Allison smiled at his shoulder shrug and patting his cheek. "You should listen to my advise."

"I do listen to it," Iris almost sounded offended.

"In a scant way. I have so much to say but I stay silent, because I'm sure you'd just eye roll your way out of it." When Allison gave Iris a knowing look, he pursed his lips and looked away. Denying her would be useless. She was right.

When he didn't reply he gave their conversation to the silence, which gladly took their words in exchange to let nature become vocal. They sat on a bench in the garden with the willow trees and blooming flowers. They listened to the soft harmony of a cricket playing its song and the soothing swish sound of the dangling leaves on the weeping trees. The breeze that passed through was gentle and barely above cold.

Iris looked up and through the branches looming over him, he gazed at the moon. Night had fallen, and him and Allison were in the sight of the silver light emitted from the moon and the stars accompanying it. It was a beautiful night.

Without looking away, Iris inhaled quietly and let his breath out heavily.

"You'd make a great mother."

Still without looking away, Iris knew Allison was smiling as bright as the moon he gawked upon. He knew for a fact the young nurse would, because she was more of a mothee figure to him than the Queen would ever be; and he was grateful for that.

††

By the end of the night and once a new day breathed air, the mansion was in a thankful state of peace. The King had expected crowded and loud hallways, he was surprised to find it almost the exact opposite. A few guests walked the corridors, but they were silent. Many were still in their rooms, that was probably the main reason, but it still brought his mind relaxation.

As he was wandering down his hallways, he paused when he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye. He backed up to meet the archway of one of the openings on the south side of their mansion and lowered his eyebrows.

"Who are you looking at?" Arlo's question made his son jumped and put a quick hand over his heart. The amount of times he got startled would impress, and he didn't know if he'd ever get used to being suprised.

"No one. Them, I'm looking at them..which is plural."

Arlo raised an eyebrow before scanning his guards below. He hummed as if focusing on trying to find who Iris was actually observing.

Iris shook his head and snapped his dad out of his determination.

"Forget it. What are you doing here anyways?" Iris distracted himself from his dad's particular behavior with the fact that he was here and not in his office doing typical...kingly stuff.

"Well, it is my job to make sure my guards are doing what they're supposed to. Why are you here?"

Iris narrowed his eyes, "I'm allowed to be around them now, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are. I didn't think you'd be so interested in them right away."

"They're just vampires."

The King smiled at that. He looked down at the guards then back at his son. He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly.

"Maybe after your done mingling with the rest of our guests we could introduce you to them properly–the vampires."

Iris dropped his smile a second after it formed. "Mingle? I did that last night."

"Before you ran away."

Iris opened his mouth, but closed it when Arlo pointed a finger at him. He sighed in defeat and slumped his shoulders.

"Fine."

"Great! A few are in the dinning room now."

Reluctantly, the prince started following his dad away from the brick railing, but not after glancing down one last time.

There was no mistaking the strange hammering pound of his heart when he noticed a pair of ocean blue eyes were already watching him when he caught sight of them. But like all the other unfamiliar traits that's been coming over him lately, he pushed the feeling away and quickly caught up with his dad.