Chapter 17

I walked back to my room after that, deciding to simply wait until we were called for the first task.

My mind couldn't help but recall the look on Jules face. How his face was so flushed and his gaze… starving as it looked at my neck.

Why was he shocked about it?

I had confirmed he was a vampire last night, but it wasn't such a big deal for me. I realised how he had sat in the sun on the grass with me like a normal person . How he seemed so inhuman with his captivating beauty. How he always felt dangerous without so much as lifting a single threatening finger.

I wanted to know more about him.

I stepped into the room, finding Crystal sitting near the window, a book in her hands as she shot me an inquiring look.

"Where did you go off to?" She asked as she shut her book and laid it flat on the window seat.

"To the tea party. Where did you go?" I asked as I made my way to my dressing table. I noticed the letter on it and sighed. Somehow unsurprised when I saw how it said I passed, and with 21 points.

"I went to investigate what our next task will be" she said excitedly, grinning as she looked at me with sparkly eyes, "do you want to know?"

"Nope" I replied sharply and sat on my bed.

"Are you sure?" She pressed, voice faltering.

I thought about it for a moment. If I knew what we were doing then maybe I could think up a terrible way of doing it before we start.

"Tell me" I turned to her in interest, surprised to find her suddenly looking scheming.

"Only if you tell me what you spoke about with his majesty during the first task".

"Okay" I shrugged.

"You're telling me that easily?" She frowned.

"It wasn't anything special and I have no reason of hiding anything that happens to me here. I did something terribly stupid and said I've never met anyone with eyes like his. The colour, I mean" I couldn't help but feel glad to get that idiocy of my chest, but I knew why I asked that question at the time.

It was because of Jules.

"You flirted with the crown prince?!"

"No!- it wasn't like that!" I yelled back in a fluster, "he had red eyes and I've never seen that colour" I looked away unable to quell the feeling of humiliation I got when Crystal looked at me with judging eyes.

"But everyone knows why he has red eyes" she replied, "how could you not know? Haven't you travelled a lot around the country?"

I couldn't but feel ignorant all of a sudden.

"I didn't spend the last few years reading articles and keeping up with gossip. Even when I was travelling it was just to find the best manufacturers" I said without a care, but it was true. I had only decided to study the nobility when I made plans to go to the capital. I didn't bother with engaging in gossip and was usually getting to know people or studying trends. "To think the colour was unique to vampires… I always thought vampires didn't have irises".

"That's some of them and they still do! It's just pale or sometimes a faint grey" Crystal explained.

"Well it's pretty…" I thought of Jules eyes.

"Right the prince was beautiful. An ideal handsome prince" she said and then with a pause, "you… don't think he'll drink his wife's blood, do you?" She asked in worry.

I thought about it.

From what I remember learning in the Elf village, a vampires desire for blood activates his animalistic desires for food and sex. It was kind of like having to put oil in an engine, but they only needed it after they hit puberty. I remember the elves said they had human partners picked for them in the Empire and since the vampire genes were dominant it didn't affect the children usually. They can have eternal youth if they had enough of a thirst for life, but it was tradition to die alongside your human partner since the bond they have is usually soul binding.

I could recall the elders face softening in a strange delight as he explained that the act of giving blood was sacred between these partners and a big part of their relationship.

I wasn't sure if a half-blood would have the same needs.

I shrugged with an exhausted sigh, "I don't know. Why not ask him the next time you see him?" I suggested knowing full well the answer to that.

"How does anyone ask such a question?!" She shouted throwing a pillow at me which hit me square in the face.

An idea lit up in my head just before I fell over from the force of the pillow.

"Owww" I groaned and threw her an obscene gesture which she returned. I threw the pillow back at her, but it really just fell a metre away from me pathetically. "I'm going to ask him myself!"

Her face froze, a look of terror slowing cascading up it as she cried.

"Don't be insane!"

"He'll probably disqualify me from the competition!" I beamed at her with a thumbs up.

"He'll disqualify you from life!" She shot back at me and unfortunately did not stop there, "Don't forget that man can take lives ruthlessly without a care. Don't be fooled by a pretty face".

"Are you… actually lecturing "me" on that?"

"…" she was silent, lips pouting as she replied, "I just want to be a queen and have everyone look up to me and maybe my beauty will win over the prince and he'll fall in love and we'll live happily ever after in a house of gold and have three kids!"

I gave an exasperated sigh and fell back on my bed.

"Didn't you say you knew what the next task was? Weren't you going to tell me?" I looked up at her while my head hung down from the side of the bed.

"Oh. About that…" she gave a nervous giggle. The one she did when she had been caught in a lie and I let out another sigh.

"I want to go home!"