1 The arranged marriage

As I look into the mirror dressed in white, tears filled my eyes. Why me? I wanted to marry for love, yet here I stand on my wedding day. Waiting to see the groom for the first time, I must do this. For the good of my people, I will build the bridge with those beasts.

You see I am a royal born female vampire, a rarity among rarities. You see vampires are not what you see in the movies, we don't sparkle, we can't die by the hand of a human, we can be born but it's rare. Born vampires are extremely rare and in pretty much every case the mother dies to give birth, a life for a life I guess you could say. Nearly every vampire born is male, for a female to be born is just unheard of. Accept for me of course. I am born of the great vampire king, Onyx Bijou and his late wife Ruby Bijou.

Born vampire are stronger, faster and most importantly can live in the sunlight just like humans. We can also have powers, mine being the power to control the elements, although I struggle with fire... good thing I'm fire proof. There is another kind of vampire, the created. They are vampire made, they can't go out into the sun or they will burn, they normally have to be at least 900 years old to endure the sun, the are a little less refined and normally not as in control of their blood thirst. They are easier to kill but the older they get the harder it is to kill them, fire normally does the trick for most vampires. The older the vampire the hotter the fire must be and the longer they must be in it. My entire family are born vampires, part of the royal family charm, we can only marry another Born vampire. Except I'm not, my groom is a dragon.

A few thousand years ago, a war broke out between vampires and dragons. Nobody can truly remember why, but we have been mortal enemies ever since. Until that is, the blood king himself sent word to the vampires. If the rare female princess (me) marries him, it would unite the species, putting and end to the war and blood shed. However should my father refuse then the blood king would destroy us, so my father agreed. Lucky me.

"Saph, it's time" I look towards the door to see my best friend, becca. She walked towards me flipping her straight red hair over her shoulder. I've always loved becca, we have know each other since she was freshly turned, we don't know who did it but we helped her over come her thirst. She's about 1200 years old now, so she's as close to a born vampire as she'll ever get. She's tall, with a very thin waist, long straight red hair, big blue eyes with thick long lashes. Beautiful.

"I'm ready" I said as I take one last look in the mirror, my black Curley hair pinned half up in a beautiful braid while the rest was left to fall naturally. My white mermaid style dress clung to me perfectly, the beautiful lace sleeves went down to my hands where it ended in a point as it was attached to my middle finger.

"You look stunning saph" becca said giving me a warm fuzzy hug, "thank you becca" I said as we walked to the entrance of the church door. Big breath Sapphire. I can do this.

My father joined me and walked me down the isle, the cannon in the d echoed through the church as the organist played. My father looked rather handsome for a dad I must say, he's 6ft5 with black short hair, clean shaven with wonderful dark brown eyes in his lovely old tuxedo . I soon switched my attention to the incredibly 6ft9 tall very muscular man standing at the alter, brown hair, tan skin, bespoke suit. That's got to be him. Finally I get to see this blood king.

As my father handed my hand over to the blood king, I tried to look up at his face. He was however facing forward and at 5ft5 it was extremely difficult to see this gigantic mans face without standing on my toes which would have been obvious. "We are standing here today to witness the marriage between sapphire bijou and drago...." Drago, that was his name huh. I wonder why he doesn't have a surname. "These vows are sacred and form a bond between the vampire covens and the dragon clans, these two are willing to unite for the sake of their people. Please turn to face each other as we begin the vows of marriage" I turned to look at my husband to be, when he turned to look at me I caught him checking out my figure, at least I think I did. But my gosh, he is a walking god. He has a beautiful tan skin like he's been at the beach all day, his hair was a beautiful chestnut brown that was long enough to run my fingers through, not too long that he could tie it up. He had a very muscular jaw with a little bit of stubble, a small scar just on his right eyebrow. His body was rippling muscles, tree trunk legs. My god he looks ravishing. At least if I'm marrying someone I didn't choose he's this handsome. Oh crap. My parts coming up, what did the vicar say? "I solemnly swear to uphold the right and traditions of my husbands clan to the best of my ability, I will be his and he will be mine. Together in one life to the next, time after time" a smirk crept along his face, parts of me jumped with joy at this sex on legs reaction, the other was weary. They don't call him the blood king for nothing.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. May your clans and covens join In merry at the joining of you both"

Drago looked at me and kissed my hand, then pulled me close to whisper in my ear "You belong to me now princess, say goodbye. We leave in 5" 5 minutes, that's all I get to say goodbye to my father, my best friend. I walked up to them, fighting back the tears. I must remain strong. "Goodbye father, becca. I shall miss you both terribly" I hug them, if my heart was alive it would be breaking. "You have done a great service today little one, I love you" my father embraced me tightly with a catch in his throat, he let go. "You are tough saph, beat his arse if he tries anything" becca always the person to lift me up. I hope I can visit her "keep an eye on dad for me becca, I'll miss you" she gave me a quick wink and blew a kiss. " it's time princess" there it is that deep smooth voice again, drago. I waved goodbye as this total stranger, sexy stranger. Took me to his car, a smokey grey Bentley was waiting. He opened the door and off we sped to my new home, in the stone fire mountains.