Chapter-18

-Previously in DiR-

"No listen to me." He shushed me. "I'm sorry. It's your choice whom you like. I'm no one to make these decisions for you."

"I don't know what to say, Nate." I said. "I really like you. But love is something that takes time to develop. You know that I can't stay here forever. I had a life outside and I hate you for stealing that from me. All of you have been trying to make me feel home here, but this is not my home. I want to get out of here. To my family. I miss them. I can't spend my whole life rewinding my mind to see the memories of them. It is not working."

He nodded, understanding every word I said. The sadness on his face had grown.

"I know you miss them." He said. "And I'm going to do something about it."

***

"There are no secrets that time does not reveal."-Jean Racine

Chapter-18

-Karen-

Sometimes in life it is really hard to convince people. No matter how much you try, some people never trust you enough or don't have the power to believe anyone.

Nonetheless, the vampires around me were kind enough not to kill me here. Victor and Nate were poles apart but they were not bad persons. Nate was cute but the way he had been trying to express his feeling, it was pretty confusing to me too. I don't know whether he wanted to tell me that he liked me or there was something else he wanted to tell me.

Anyways, I could not see any chances of going back home, to get together with my parents and Jon. You know what I mean, right?

I didn't see Nate for other two days after our last 'talk'. I didn't have any idea where he was busy. I just kept on hoping he would try to send me home.

I don't know what my parents would be doing at this time. Was the police searching for me (I wished the SWAT team would not intrude)? Had Jon told them everything about my disappearance? What was their reaction to it?

I could keep guesses the consequences for the situations but what was going on there was still a mystery. If I had a choice to myself, I would run the room where Jon and I had fallen to and go back somehow.

I had this weird thought sometimes. Maybe I could be flirty with Victor enough to send me back. Flirting would be so easy with him but I wasn't sure if he was such a foolish guy. The way he looked at me with his grey eyes was way too creepy.

"Can I go out?"

I kept on tapping my feet on the hard marbled floor.

Lady Adeline looked at me and groaned softly. She was with her servants. It didn't take her much time to shoo them away with a signal from her hand.

"What did you say?" She asked.

"I—want to go out and see the ancient world. I guess I'm too bored, sitting here and doing nothing but reading books all day." I sighed. She nodded. "I think I've read more than I ever read in my school. Every day is just the same. There is no adventure or action or movies in my life."

I wasn't sure if she understood the meaning of the last lines I had said.

"Have you read Red Riding Hood?" She asked. "Victor said it was nice."

Okay, I didn't laugh. That wasn't a joke; I kept reminding myself to supress the laughter coming up my throat.

Then, Lady Adeline laughed.

Wow! That awkward moment.

"Have you forgotten to laugh, my dear?" She asked, her eyes scanning me.

"No," I said. "Maybe I've. Because there is nothing interesting here. My phone doesn't work. How do I update my status and even chat with my parents to know if they are alright?"

I thought about the statement made and saw how confused the Lady looked in front of me. She was still working out what were the new words I had said.

"I don't know what creature you talked about." She finally said. The look of confusion was gone, taken by irritation. "It doesn't sound any of that I've heard. Did you mean any faery creature?"

I exhaled and composed myself. Angering or irritating a vampire queen was like telling the death to take me first. I had no death wish.

"Lady Adeline, the point is, I want to go out of this mansion and see the surrounding." I said firmly. "Can I please go?"

I made the puppy face that had fooled my parents a lot of times. Lady Adeline stared at me.

"Of course you can." She replied. "But there is a condition."

Argh, these vampires had too many conditions.

"Yes we do have." Shit! She could hear my thoughts. "Two of the vampire guards will come with you because Nate is busy and Victor is not home."

Two vampire bodyguards. What, did I become too important to them?

"Sure." I said defeated.

***

"Lady Karen, it can be deadly." A guard screamed when I tried to touch a rose.

Rose and deadly?

"How is a flower deadly?" I asked bored.

I was out of the mansion but still bored. The guards were pretty much giving me hard time. One was a man in his twenties and looked young. Most of the vampires looked young, duh! But the other guy was maybe in his thirties. He was silent and kept his eyes looking around us.

They were wearing black coats and looked like right out of some movie.

"It can be enchanted with evil magic."

I made an oh with my lips. See, boring.

"Yeah, right." I uttered. "What's your name?"

"My name is Austin." He said, beaming. "I'm a freshly made vampire."

Freshly made vampire, how easy was that to say for him. And he sounded excited and happy at the same time. It seemed he was so happy to become a vampire. Then again who won't be? Everybody wanted a long life.

"This place, we're roaming is dangerous," He said next.

We were not even a mile away from the mansion. Totally infuriating.

"Why is it so?" I asked, having only him to talk to. The other guy was not talking.

"I don't know. That's what Prince Victor told me. I'm just passing on the information."

"Great. Are there people in the village?" I asked.

He scratched his chin, a gesture that told me he was thinking to tell me or not to.

"Yes, there are. But they don't come this way. Only if there is any emergency call, like a crises," He said. "Most of them want to travel to the other dimension. So, they ask for Lady Adeline's orders. You know, it is important for us. No human can know that we exist even if we do in some other dimension."

He knew about travelling.

"Who found this travelling?" I asked. "Are we in the same time?"

"Yes. It is 21st century here and we behave like we're in ancient times because the barrier between the two worlds is so thick that it is unbreakable. Only few of us have travelled. That's why we still act like this." He told me. "The people who travel are given a specific amount of time to come back to this dimension. If the rule is broken, the law-breaker gets executed."

Now, that was scary. I couldn't believe vampires were there in our world all the time and I had not known. I always thought they were just story characters, sexy and alluring.

"Who brings them here to execute them?" Curiosity got the best out of me.

"It is mostly done by Prince Victor."

"And what about Nate?"

"Nate?" He frowned. "What is that?"

Oh, I forgot. The people around here wouldn't know of the nickname I had given him. His full name had to be taken so they could recognise him.

"Nathaniel." I said, stressing my brain to come up with his name.

"Prince Nathan does travel." He looked around and whispered as if it was a secret. "He just woke up. I mean he is still weak."

Weak. Nate was weak. I wasn't sure if that was completely true. He could be a bad guy when he wanted to be. I had seen him in fury and that wasn't very pretty. The way his fangs came out and the way he moved like a wind was far from being weak. If this was him in his weakness, what would he be like when he wasn't weak?

I don't think I was ready to know.

I walked and the place made me remember when I had tried to run from the mansion with Jon. The escape had been great but the plan was a failure.

It could have been better.

Suddenly, the man in his thirties came to halt and raised his hand.

"What?" I asked.

"Shhh..." He closed his eyes and smelled the air.

My heartbeats grew faster. What was he doing?

"There are some vamp—"

Before he could complete his sentence, a group of vampires attacked us.

I saw the pale creatures, maybe four or five (I couldn't really count as they were faster than the wind) surrounded us, beating the hell out of Austin.

I screamed as a vampire tore off Austin's neck.

I froze for a moment and then tears rolled down my cheek. The sweet vampire I had been talking to was dead. This time he was never gonna come back to life. He had seemed so enthusiastic. Oh my god, all gone in a second.

"Run, Lady." The other guard shouted as he tried to fight the enemies alone.

I ran. I knew they were too fast. I knew they could catch me but I still ran. I had to.

I heard the guard scream and I turned around to see his body lying on the ground, decapitated. I stopped dead on my tracks. There was no way I could run away from this.

"He told you to run, human."

Those were the only words I heard before darkness took me in.

***

My eyes opened in a small bulb and music. Music? Yes, a foot tapping new song. I heard some people screaming and laughing. I was surely having a dream.

It was a new song by Rihanna.

Where was I?

My head hurt. My hands were pulled at the back and were tied to the iron pole, where I was leaning. My legs were too tied together.

I groaned. I couldn't even pinch myself to know if this was a dream. I tried to focus my brain on the last moments before I ended up here. I was outside the mansion, taking a walk with my forced bodyguards and next there were a group of vampire and then I was here.

That didn't make any sense. How could I be hearing music? No devices could work in the mansion.

I wasn't dead, was I?

But my dying wish wasn't to be tied down to a pole and Rihanna's song.

My head spun and I felt dizzy. The music had changed and I could still hear people screaming. Right above me. I don't know how but that was what I heard.

I took a long breath and looked around me.

There was nothing. The room had little light, so whatever I saw was vague. I couldn't clearly see. I finally looked at my legs. There were bruises.

"CAN SOMEONE HEAR ME?" I shouted.

Maybe I could call out for Nate or Victor.

I tried doing this many times but all in vain. The voices were coming down but no one replied. They couldn't hear me in the loud music. This was not real and if it was, I was going to get out of here somehow.

I was tired and panted like I had run miles in a race. My throat hurt too. I was thirsty. My voice was down, when I tried to shout again, nothing more than a gasp came.

I now knew this was real. This was damn reality. I was stuck here.

No one was here to save me.

I struggled to keep my eyes open. I saw from the corner of my eye as something moved on my right side. My heart thudded in my chest, causing pain. I pulled the rope tied on my hands to free them. It didn't work. It was tied too tightly for me.

"Where am I?" I choked out. And saw a figure move in shadows. It was a man; his shadow grew taller as he moved. "Who are you?"

He moved closer and I saw his perfect features. His hair was combed back. He was pale and looked like a corpse. The only flaw was a small scar down the right of his face. Although, I couldn't tell his age, I could tell he was older than I thought him to be. It didn't take me to be Sherlock to know what he was.

"You already know what I am," He grinned. His canines were shining. "We're in Paris, human."

A/N Hmmm... Any thoughts how'd she get there? Then what are you waiting for? Just comment already.

CoTe

8000 reads? No. I must be dreaming!!!

Take care amazing readers. :)

_M_M