Chapter 21: Embrace

Ezra scanned the woods with his supernatural hearing to find nothing. Not even a heart beat or breath. Was she that fast? He thought.

He had never been able to not catch what he was chasing and this annoyed him to an extent. His body swiftly appeared all over the woods nearby to find not even a trace of her. He gave her some time to run but he never thought that she would be able to get away. Caine territory was miles and miles long. She has to be there somewhere.

His eye color brightened as he glanced over the trees to see nothing but shrubs and wildlife. What a stupid girl, he thought. With a quick sniff, he smelled blood and it was nearby. He narrowed down the scent and managed to find the exact location of it. Her blood dripped from thorns on a bush which caused his heart to skip a beat.

With an anger thrust, "Agh!" He closed his eyes and thought. She was bleeding and therefore injured which only means that she was now in danger to other vampires. The thought of someone else sinking their awful fangs into what was his made him swing his fist around to collide with a tree. The tree immediately broke in half and fell to the ground.

He took a deep breath and made his way back to the castle. Before entering the corridor, he demanded to the guardsmen, "Bring me the royal sorceress." They bowed and left the room.

Ezra placed his hand over his head and began pacing around the glass windowed room. It was the west wing of the castle but it was also an indoor greenhouse. It harbored many herbs and spices that help make blood pouches and substitutions for vampires.

Royal vampires have the unfortunate capability to over feed. Herbs like Angelica allow them to contain their thirst for blood. It is a well-kept secret for thousands of years but Ezra has refused to continue taking it for the past century. He hated the smell and taste of it even in the tea. Not taking the herb has made him more anger and intolerable for nonsense. He has slipped up quite a few times outside of Caine and demolished small villages without it ever tracing back to him. He hated half breeds and pure blood vampires because they did not have this curse. He envies them.

He sighed into his hand and began to curse under his breath, mentally threatening Katerina once the sorceress was able to find her. He was not going to take it lightly on her this time. He frankly had become annoyed with her defiance from just a days worth. He wanted to avoid taking her to the dungeon but he felt that it would be sooner rather than later.

With a quickened pace, he would go from one side to the other. A few voices were heard from down the hallway that eventually reached the room. His head snapped up to see Katerina being held by two maidens. With an overwhelming feeling, he appeared in front of her and without hesitation, the maids scurried away and left them alone in the room.

His crimson eyes, brighter than ever, gleamed down on her as he noticed the possible tears in her hazel eyes. She was staring back up at him which only annoyed him more that she was becoming confident. He allowed her to bully him because he was being too soft with her.

It was a long silence between the two of them before Katerina was pulled into his chest. One arm curled around her body as the other cradled her head on his torso. The sudden embrace made him stumble backwards but he firmly held his feet to the floor.

She couldn't utter a word from the shock she held by his touch. She was sure he was going to hurt her but he was holding her. Fearing her life in danger, Ezra felt relief at her sudden appearance at the castle again. Before he saw her, he wanted to chain her up and whip her until she could no longer scream. Those feelings went away when she stepped into the room.

All he wanted to do was hold her and make sure she was alright. That she was alive and well with no major injuries.

"You foolish, flower." He rubbed her tangled hair before letting her go. "Are you okay?" He gripped both of her shoulders and stared at her face, searching for injuries.

Katerina was confused and had no idea why he was behaving this way. She had just attempted to escape from him and almost succeeded if the other vampire hadn't returned her. She felt unharmed in his embrace and the fear had went away. "I'm fine.." she stuttered.

His eyes narrowed at her as he glanced over her arms and legs, frowning at the tattered dress.

"You need to be cleaned." He pulled a twig from her hair. "Come." His usual commanding voice echoed her ears but before she willingly went, he had his hand in hers.

His fingers interlocked themselves with hers and he pulled her down the hallway and back up the spiraling stairs to his room.

Once he pushed her into the room, he mentioned to the guardsmen to dismiss the sorceress for now. He then entered the room and latched the door locked.

Katerina gulped her breath, "I'm so-" her words were cut off by the sudden warmth against her cheek bone.

Ezra had cupped her face, pulling her upwards to where their lips were just centimeters apart. His eyes searched into hers, looking for something or anything as to why his feelings of hurting her had went away.

As he spoke, his breath blew softly against her pink lips. "Get undressed."