Chapter 3 Chapter Three

Nyra's POV

I ran towards Victor's outstretched arm, but then I slowed. I remembered the knife the bastard had held to my neck, remembered he'd almost killed. I shut my eyes tight at the bitter sting of memories, and I turned away from his offer of help, ignoring his continuous yell for me to return.

"Evelina," he screamed. "Evelina!"

But I didn't stop. I dragged my dress up, pulling it above my knees, and I bolted in the other direction. Roaring chants and war cries followed as the army of vampires came after me.

It doesn't matter that Victor was another person in this story world, that he was the king of Hades. I regained my original identity and memories in the story, so he might also have regained his. Then he would be the same evil bastard who betrayed me in the real world and nearly killed me.

A vampire soldier traced to me, long hands reaching for my shoulders. I shrugged him off. I still didn't know how it happened, but the blasts of light came again, as hot as fire, it burned through my hands as it appeared on my palm, and I swung it his way.

He was so close he couldn't dodge it. The blast formed into a bigger mass of light that collided roughly against his chest. Then he went flying into another charging mass of his colleagues.

He took some down with him. I had just one glance at the mass of Vampires groaning on the floor, when I turned to find another two had appeared before me.

Tight scowls were plastered to their faces, their fangs gleaming bright under the moonlight. One of them reached to sink those miserable fangs in my neck.

Whoever Evelina Ashborne was, she must still be very well alive inside me and desperate to keep both of us alive. Because suddenly, my body steered itself to glide smoothly past the vampire and his damn fangs. He staggered past me to collide with the wall.

He turned back to me, his fangs chewing plaster dust, and his eyes, like balls of murder on his head.

He flexed his biceps with a brutal show of menace and charged for me again just as the other one reached wildly for my arms.

I threw myself from their reach and onto the wall just before their claws could latch onto me, and they both collided into each other, tangled in each other's snarls and claws.

I increased my pace, racing down the field madly.

My breath was raspy now, screaming out of me in bursts that made my chest hurt. My legs were like sacks of lead beneath me, but I didn't dare stop.

Still, the chants of battle continued after me, and the ground vibrated beneath me continuously from the pounding of so many boots. It felt like a bloody earthquake.

A group of five vampires traced to my front. I dragged my dress up higher and spun swiftly in the next direction. I froze when I found another group of Vampires waiting behind me as well.

I hadn't moved a step when they traced closer, trapping me in a half circle. "Holy hell," I whistled beneath my breath, my heart pounding against the thin walls of my chest.

Suddenly, something moved behind me, a blur, too fast to see. Then strong arms claimed my waist. What came next was a bout of dizziness, and my eyes swirled. My back hit stone before I could even gasp.

"I finally found you, bride. Now you cannot run away from me anymore," a voice whispered around me, low and velvety. It sounded like a dream.

The misty fog over my vision cleared, and it landed not on the massive field in the Vampire's properties, but on the opulence of a castle hall. And rather than an army of angry vampires, all I saw was an arranged mass of luxurious furniture, luxurious in the medieval sense.

"Welcome home, Evelina. My mistress of ruin." The low, velvety voice slipped through the fog of my mind. I snapped my head to him then.

A gasp escaped me when our eyes met. I forced much of it down with a hard swallow. Had I thought the vampire twins were beautiful, the Male before me was beyond that. He was off the fucking chart.

With his aggressive V-shaped jawline, lean aristocratic nose, and golden eyes the colour of sunlight, he looked like he had just stepped out of a fantasy movie.

Well, he was sort of in a fantasy novel already. My breath quietened to a noiseless exercise, while I unconsciously traced the contour of his sublime face.

That was until his lips curled in a triumphant grin. He licked his lips gently and with pride of a man used to being ogled at. "Stare all you want, Evelina. Feast on the beauty of your Male."

That's snatched my mind from its prison of awe. "I wasn't staring." I snarled, shoving him back from me with a gentle jab at the chest.

He dropped back a foot before teleporting to the biggest armchair in the large room. He threw one leg over the other, the triumphant smile growing on his lips. He sat like a man who knew he was beautiful and loved flaunting it.

Nah, another egomaniac. I thought as I chewed gently on my lower lip, and I shook off the dizziness from the tracing in my system. I buried my awe for his manly beauty behind a veneer of seriousness. I don't fancy feeding his ego any more than it was already fed.

"And who might you be, creature?" I demanded.

He brushed his thumb over his lips, a dark, mischievous tint in his golden eyes. Without warning, he traced to me again. He came with a force that threw me into the wall again. And just as fast as he traced to me, he traced away.

He appeared in another corner of the room, a mini bar. He snatched a wine glass and a bottle of strange-looking alcohol. His lips curled into a half-smile as he poured himself a drink.

"Are you going to answer my questions or not?"

He raised the wine glass to his lips. He spoke in that same low, velvety voice as earlier. It brushed over my skin with a low rumble. "I find it rather odd that you don't recognize me, Evelina. Considering how often I have been in your dreams lately," he took a sip of his drink.

I walked away from the wall, and I made him a stiff smile, exaggerating my boredom. Whatever dreams he was talking about, I had no idea. "Well, why don't you jog up my memory about you, mister?"

He watched me for a while over the rim of the glass. "Well, I am the Azriel Nightborne." He said. "Your favourite dream hunter."

That sent cold shivers through me. I stiffened in alert instantly. I remembered hearing Miss Robert, the bookstore lady, talking about a certain Nightborne being the third and last Male love interest for the witch, Evelina Ashborne.

"Are you the Incubus, the creature who can find people through their dreams?" I demanded, my toes practically curled as I stared eagerly at him for an answer.

Another amused curl of his lips. He brushed the drops of alcohol from his lower lip with his thumb. "I see you remember me, witch." He traced to the armchair again, raising the wine glass to his lips. "Do you also remember you were betrothed to me?" He said.

"Betrothed," I repeated, aghast.

"Yes." He smiled. Without warning again, he was before me again. One moment, I was at the center of the room, the other, I was flattened against the wall, my chin raised high to stare directly at his terribly handsome face, and his finger right under my chin. His gaze tightened to one of possession. "You were promised to me, so you are mine, Evelina. Mine." He said with a strong note of finality, like I didn't have a choice in the matter.

He dropped back from me, "And this..." he spread his arms to the room. "...is your new home."