Leaving the labyrinth of tunnels, we now enter a section with great stone pillars. They are all carved with all kinds of symbols and glyphs. The steps become softer as we now walk over sand. Lylah is intrigued by the carvings. She stops, stares at some of them, and runs her fingers over others as if trying to figure out what they mean.
We are about to enter my favourite part of the underground. I’m excited to show her our home, but she looks sad and miserable. I can see she is forcing herself not to cry. She keeps looking over her shoulder and becomes even more depressed every time she looks back. My heart begins to ache as I realise she misses her family and home. Her shoulders slump, and she won’t look at me, keeping her eyes on her feet.
As we are about to step into the final part. I give Lylah a small smile, but she looks away, making me frown.
‘Welcome to the Underground, our home,’ I tell her as we step into the vast underground cave.
I watch as her mouth drops open, and she looks around in utter shock and surprise. The sound of water flowing and splashing echoes throughout the cave.
A massive lake glistens before us. Waterfalls on opposite sides of the lake are gushing out water from holes in the cave wall. The water in the lake is so clear you can see fish, the odd stingrays and even turtles swimming around. There is a big island on the left full of trees and flowers and some rabbits chewing on the grass. Green vines grow throughout the walls of the cave. Small tunnels of light seeping through the walls shine against beautiful large precious crystals reflecting the light. There are old bridges made from wood and rope to crosse the water to go to the island or waterfalls. The one across the centre leads to the largest island where my lair, my castle, is. I continue to watch Lylah’s reaction.
‘What do you think?’ I ask her.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s like I have fallen into an enchanted world.’
She steps to the water’s edge and points, ‘Is that a turtle?’ she asks, surprised.
I smile and nod.
‘Those bridges don’t look very safe,’ she says.
‘There safe enough,’ I assure her.
She holds onto the rope rail with each hand and steps onto the first plank. She begins to wobble as the bridge sways, and she panics. Standing behind her, I grab her waist to steady her.
‘Don’t touch me,’ she says and angrily turning, she slaps my hand away, steps back, loses her balance and falls into the water. Lucky for her the bridge is only a foot above the water. ‘That was your fault!’ she yells when her head pops up out of the water. She clings onto a wood plank on the bridge and pulls herself up.
‘I was just trying to help, so this wouldn’t happen,’ I say to her.
She glares at me as she wipes the water from her face. ‘You’re the reason I’m here! I don’t ever want your help,’
I try not to flinch and glare back at her angrily. ‘Fine, you don’t want my help. Then you can get across the bridge yourself!’ I say to her.
She looks over her shoulder and frowns at the long bridge. She then looks back my way but at the exit behind me. I step forward, blocking the start of the bridge so she can’t get past me.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ I warn her. My eyes flash with darkness, and my heart hardens to stone at the thought of her ever trying to leave me.
Lylah stares at me as if she wants to stab me. Unsurprisingly, she reaches into her boot, then pats around her belt to reach for a dagger but then remembers I removed them all.
What would normally take ten minutes to cross, takes Lylah two hours to cross as she slowly crawls and grips each plank one at a time and very carefully at a snail’s pace.
Each time she moves onto the next plank, I roll my eyes or sigh and casually take a step forward. I could easily scoop her up and sprint across the bridge within seconds. But we are angry at each other, which will only escalate her anger toward me.
As we reach the bridge's end, Soren and Nadia enter the underground.
‘I see she hasn’t managed to kill you yet?’ Soren jokes.
‘Not yet anyway,’ I reply as they approach behind me.
‘Oh, I will. Don’t you worry about that,’ Lylah says, jumping from the last plank onto the large island. She rolls and lays flat on her back, relieved to have made it across.
We stand and stare down at her.
‘What happened back there anyway?’ Nadia asks. ‘We have never craved to drink anyone else’s blood before except for each other’s as we are blood flames. I don’t understand why we became so feral with blood lust for your Blood Flam-,’
I narrow my eyes at Nadia. I don’t think telling Lylah she is my Blood Flame is wise and that it’s the same thing as werewolves finding their mates. She is dealing with a lot as it is. She isn’t ready to know yet.
‘I mean for Lylah’s blood,’ she rephrases, taking the hint.
‘Lylah’s blood is very powerful, which I assume is why all vampires will be unable to resist it. Drinking her blood will strengthen any vampire from the power flowing through her and greatly enhance our powers. The small taste I had from her hands made me feel stronger than ever, and the taste was incredibly delectable, the purest, most powerful blood I’ve ever tasted.’
Soren laughs, ’Lylah, actually allowed you to taste her blood?’
Lylah sits up, ‘I never allowed the jerk to taste my blood. He decided to rudely help himself to the remnants on my hands after wiping the blood from my wound.’
Soren laughs even louder and elbows me, ‘You sly fox. Even you became feral with blood lust and couldn’t help yourself.’
‘Well, of course, I couldn’t help myself! I am her Blood Fl-‘ I close my mouth abruptly before spilling the beans to Lylah. ‘It doesn’t matter now anyway. What matters is making sure, Lylah, under no circumstances, ends up with any injuries, not even a scratch. The smallest drop of blood could send the coven into a blood lust frenzy, and it would kill her if they managed to get to her.’
Lylah stares at me fearfully and gulps. ‘I shouldn’t be here,’ she says, standing up. ‘I’m going home!’ she storms past us, but I scoop my arm around her waist and pull her into my chest.
‘Let me go,’ she says, trying to loosen my grip.
I turn her around to face me and place my hands firmly on her shoulders. ‘Look at me, Lylah,’ I say.
She stops fighting me and locks eyes with mine. Although she is quite fierce and strong, I can still see she has a soft and vulnerable side, which gives me hope that Lylah and I could work. That she could one day accept the bond and the feelings between us.
‘I will not let anything happen to you. I will not let anyone harm you. You are safe here with me, and I will have Nadia as your personal maiden who will stay with you when I am not around or when you don’t want me around,’ I assure her.
‘What!’ Nadia and Lylah shout.
‘Lord Talon. You can’t be serious that I’m to be her personal maiden? Surely there is another in our coven far more suitable than I?’
‘Lord Talon, I’m going to have to agree with Nadia,’ Lylah says, ‘I don’t want her as my maiden, nor do I need a babysitter or anyone to look out for me. Just lead me out of the labyrinth, and we can be done with each other for good!’
I gently but firmly grab her chin and watch her eyes change to a light blue from my gaze and touch, ‘For your own sake and safety, Lylah, you will stay here with me whether you like it or not.’
Her eyes narrow at mine, and her eyes change to the darkest shade of blue possible. She tries to shove me away and then turns and storms towards the bridge to leave.
I face Nadia, ‘As the Lord of the coven; my word is final. You are to be Lylah’s maiden and shadow her every move when I am not with her, and if I find out you have left her side for the briefest second or she has sustained the tiniest scratch. Then you will reap the consequences.’
Nadia forces a smile and nods, ‘Yes, Master.’
I blink, appearing in front of Lylah and try to take her hand. The sound of the slap across my cheek echoes throughout the cave.
‘You’re a Liar! I’m your prisoner. I don’t want to be here. Please, just please let me go,’ she begs, falling to the ground.
‘If it were that easy to let you go, then I would have already,’ I tell her truthfully.
Lylah looks up at me with a defeated look, ‘I hate you,’ she says.
My whole body flinches in pain and hurts at her words, and I don’t even try to hide it from her. It would have been much less painful to let her stab me in the heart with her blunt, rusted dagger. I take a deep breath, gently take her arm, and grip tighter each time she tries to pull her arm away, ‘So be it,’ I reply and enter up the steps of our castle.