Must I Be Your Bride? - Chapter Fifteen

I hear rain, and all I can think about right now is that I was glad William was right here beside me. I stretch my arms, trying to find his warm body, but I frown when he's not in reach. Where did he go?

I open my eyes, but at once I realized I was in a different room and force myself up. Everything is dim; I can hardly see the outline of the bed I was on, of a dresser that was right below a one foot tall and four foot wide window. Cold swirls around me, along with fear.

With a shaky breath I slowly make my way off the bed, but then I realized I can barely touch the floor. Something is holding me back. At first I struggle, thinking a hand was clutching my wrist, but then I realized is far too cold, hard and heavy. When I reach it, I realize it's a handcuff, and then I hear the chains with it. Now I'm horrified.

I search for some button - that I know is not there - that will un-cuff me, let me go. It takes me a while to know that I'm yelling in frustration, in fear, asking for someone to help me, to let me go. When I accidentally pull back to hit myself in the shoulder, I realize I'm not wearing my wedding gown anymore. I quickly search my body, trying to make out what I'm wearing. Shorts; shirt; jacket; my sneakers. How did I get into these?

I hear a door open, but not one stream of light gives away where it came from. I am shivering, from cold and fear. I don't know what's going on, which only make things worse. William. Where is William?

When I feel a hand fumble with my han cuff I start screaming, trying to pull away, trying to push the person unconscious, and trying to demand for answers. Nothing. This person forcefully un-cuffs me, only to replace its own firm painful grip in its place, and I'm yanked away from the bed. I'm dragged into complete darkness.

All of a sudden I feel some cloth wrap around my eyes, and the first attempt to yank them off causes a slap on the face. I would have stumbled to the floor if this person wasn't holding me in the painful way he was. I managed to hold in my tears, so I wouldn't let this person think he was succeeding in terrifying me. I supposed it was a man, since the strength and the roughness of his hands was just too extreme to be that of a woman. I didn't attempt to yank off the blindfold again.

I notice light suddenly, but of course, it was muffled by the blindfold. Our steps were heard and echoed the place in a way that only huge places could do. When we stopped, I could hear very faint and muffled voices in the distance, but when I heard the sound of doors opening, the voices were closer than I thought. We took steps toward it, and almost suddenly does the voice stop.

I feel the tension in the room immediately go stiff, and I can't help but try to yank off the blindfold again. This only causes a painful and loud slap on my hand, and the tears haunt me again.

I hear thunderous steps, as if people were running to a certain place in the room, followed by lots of understood words and pushes. A laugh is heard during the commotion, and somehow this makes me shudder.

"You don't like the way she's being treated?" The owner of the laugh says - a man. "You should have thought of that before you attempted her escape. I don't like it when people miss my appointments." There is more shuffling among people. "Remove the blindfold."

A second later, I'm blinking into the bright light, trying to adjust. At first all I see are men huddled in the middle of a large lavishing room, all of them stiff and ready to take any order from their master; but then I noticed why they are huddled so close. They're making sure the person they are restraining doesn't attempt to run again. William. I stare at him, seeing the same pain in his eyes he had before, I felt that pinch in my arm; except this time they were worse. Wait, pinch? I'm still unaware of what's going on.

"Now, I suppose we can go on as we were supposed to; before you decided to ignore, yet another, one of my wishes."

The man who held me tightly - he resembled the men that held William, bulky and sharp, wearing these red uniforms - led me toward the man who is doing all the speaking, sitting on a golden, glimmering chair at the end of the room. He was a tall and thin middle-aged man, his colorless eyes following me as if he was a snake and I was his prey. The men holding William also led him near this man, but they made sure to keep a large distance between us, which only killed me.

"So tell me, Prince William, what you did to defy my kingdom," the snake-like man asked, suddenly going serious and sharp.

"I never intended to," William answers, his jaws obviously tightly pressing together.

"Answer my question," the man snapped.

I knew who this man was. How everything seemed to be waiting for his orders. It was as if the rain would stop if he ordered it to. This man was the sovereign.

William was silent for a long moment, and I turned to watch him, barely able to see him through the half a dozen men who held him. He was trying to hold in the glare he was giving the sovereign, but he wasn't succeeding. "I said I would marry a human."

"Why would you say something so preposterous?"

William glanced at me, but it was only for a quick second. He tried to pull away from the men one last time before turning stiff. "I knew she would believe it."

It took me a while to process that, knowing the sovereign's hunting eyes were on me, and when I did, something inside me shrunk.

"Who," the sovereign asked, suppressing a grin.

This angered William, but he somehow managed to keep his calm voice. "I'm sure you know, sovereign, someone as smart as you should."

"Of course," he says, going strict again. "But I want you to say her name."

He wanted to pain us, torture us, for me to feel the betrayal that was slowly coming to my realization inside. I could barely push it back any longer. William only wanted me to believe that he loved me? So he could buy some time to send me back home? Was I so annoying that he'd want to get rid of me?

Another long silence followed, and this frustrated the sovereign. "Her name!" He demanded. When William didn't answer, the sovereign gave a quick nod toward the man who was holding me, and it took one swift turn of my wrist for me to feel a horrible sting that made me let out an uneasy cry.

"Serene," William quickly says. It was hard to tell if he was telling this to the sovereign or simply acting toward my cry.

"Good." The sovereign gave another nod toward my direction and the pain on my wrist quickly stops, leaving behind soreness. I couldn't believe I was still managing to hold in my tears. "And what has been clearly stated in the law about marrying a human when you're from the royal family?"

I hated this. I hated how he was treating William as if he was only a five year old kid. Why couldn't this be spoken maturely?

"That it's impossible," William says quietly.

"Then why did you say you would defy that law in front of your kingdom?" The sovereign was tapping his fingers on the rail of the chair, his colorless eyes narrowing.

"I did not intend to defy your law!"

The sovereign sat up from his seat, not the slightest happy. He took slow steps toward William, his scarlet robe trailing behind him. I suddenly feared for William, and found myself trying to struggle out of this man's grip again. Another turn of my wrist made me fall to my knees with a moan.

"Don't try that again, or you will regret it," the man holding me hissed.

"But you did," The sovereign says to William - who had his attention on me again -, paying no attention my pain. "Once I heard they caught your want-to-be-bride making her escape, unconscious, you are lucky I didn't kill her then." William tenses, and he is forced to look away from me again, to look at the sovereign.

"She has nothing to do with this. This was all my doing. This punishment is deserved by me."

The sovereign smirks, and when I hear him start to make his way to me, I look at him, hoping I was showing no sign of fear in my eyes.

"Tell me, Serene, who do you think deserves to be punished?"

I was hesitating, but not on my answer. I was hesitating because I didn't know how my words come out; if they would come out at all.

"Why ask, when you already know my answer?" I say, managing pretty well.

"I liked specific answers," he snaps.

I let out a quivering breath, the hand on my wrist starting to sink into my skin. "I do."

Shuffling with the men beside us made it clear that William didn't agree.

"Why do you say that?" The sovereign says, a smile creeping onto his thin horror lips.

"I was the one who decided to come out as a bride; the one who refused to live without William." Saying his name sent warmness in my throat.

"Yes, I heard about that. It was quite I show, wasn't it? A perfect one it would have been, if he had not said his last words. Maybe even so, if he had not tried to send you away."

It would have worked. We could have made it work. We still can.

"Are you implying it's too late to change our mistake?" I force myself to say.

"That depends. I don't know if I like you yet." The sovereign smirks again.

I get to my feet to stare into his haunting eyes and kept my chin high.

"I can become a vampire. I can be a good queen." I say.

He stares at me, amused by my words. "I have no doubt," he says.

"I'm asking for one chance."

I flinch away when the sovereign reaches for a strand of my hair, but that doesn't stop him. "You want to be a queen?"

For some reason, I remembered when Matthew said to not wear any wedding dresses, because I'd only give the sovereign ideas. This made me use my words with caution.

"I want to be William's bride."

The sovereign's smirk fades, but he keeps the amusement still surging inside him. He takes a step back and starts making his way toward William, who looks away as soon as I glance at him.

"You might as well have broken her heart." The sovereign says with a torturing laugh. "Surely, you knew leaving her would have only killed her."

"She deserves to live a happy life," William snaps.

"You were giving her the contrary, you silly boy." Another laugh fills the large room. "If you don't want her, I could always just have her for myself."

The thought sends a shudder through me, and I want to struggle again, but then I remember the warning I got from the man gripping me, and I decide to wait for a better timing.

"If you let us go then -"

"Oh yes, I will let you go," The sovereign says before William could finish, suppressing a smile. "I have wanted to try new things lately. I suppose, giving a prince a chance to correct his wrongdoings can be on the list. Of course, this would only be set on a deal."

"Why don't you get to the point then," William says frustrated, but I also hear the slight pain in his voice; fear.

"You have a simple decision, Prince William. You merely have one minute to decide whether you're willing to turn her into a vampire and marry her, or give us a free meal today."

My eyes widened in shock. He was really giving us a choice?

"I ask for her to return home safely," William says.

I quickly look at him, getting frustrated now. What is he implying? Why is he suddenly not willing to marry me? To turn me? What did I do to change the William I first met, the one who kept me against my own free will?

The sovereign laughs. "You are deaf. That wasn't one of your choices."

"She won't tell - "

"You can either argue with me, and waste your minute, or decide," the sovereign snaps.

William won't look at me, and all I'm worried about right now is him. I don't care whether my life is on the line, or that my death will probably be painful if I had bad luck today. I'm confused, and I'm trying to read William, to see if, in the end, it really was all an act and he decided to bail on it at the last minute.

"Twenty seconds," the sovereign warned, actually studying William to see what he would choose.

Without thinking, I found myself struggling from the tight grip that held me, tears now stinging my eyes again. This only caused me to get shaken as if I was some rag doll, and then a slap on the face that made my head turn in a painful way. I lifted my hand right next to my lips, and sure enough, I felt the warm liquid. The sight terrified me. I'm a bleeding human, in a room full of vampires.

Everyone was looking at me, staring at me, their eyes not hiding their hunger. The man gripping me lifts his hand that slapped me to his mouth, and licked the drop of blood it held. He savored it.

William took this time to quickly sprint out of the men that held him, but these men were good. They snapped out of their trance as soon as they felt movement and were able to restrain William by his arms again.

"I'll change her," William says finally, the desperation obvious in his voice. "But I want a month."

The sovereign frowned, his tongue running over his dry lips a bit disappointed. "A month is far too long. You have a week. Any attempt to argue about it will have her killed right here." With a sigh, he takes a seat in his chair. "The wedding will be in a week, on Thursday. I will be present and expect her to be turned by then. This wedding will be public; to make sure everyone from your kingdom knows that defying the law is out of the question. You better hope they get that, because if they don't, your kingdom will be destroyed." And with two nods, I felt the grip on me let go, and I stumbled to the floor.

William rushes over to me to. As soon as his hand touches my face I am swept with relief, forgetting the betrayal I felt just moments ago, just for a second. His arm found my waist, and I thought he was only going to help me up, but instead, he carried me up in a careful tight grip, surprising me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my stinging tears finally escaping me, and I made a vow not to look up until I knew it was safe.

"Where are ..."

"Your helpers will be waiting for you in the car. I hope they learned a lesson also, to never help a law breaker," the sovereign interrupts, making William tense. I didn't move.

Without a word, I felt the familiar gush of wind that told me that William was as eager to leave this place as I was. It wasn't hard to feel the difference once we stepped out of the place, feeling free. We weren't though. We still had to complete the order the sovereign said we must do. I was going to marry William. As a vampire.