Chapter 70: Chapter 70

TRISTAN:

I gasped for air as soon as Dahlia said those words to me, and I found myself bolting upright in bed.

It was pitch black now. I couldn’t see a thing… What happened?

Suddenly, a pair of arms wounded itself around my waist. I looked at my side.

After a few minutes, my eyes had begun to adjust to the dark. It was Dahlly’s slim arms alright, and she’s asleep.

Damn it, that dream felt far too real!

‘What happened,’ I asked my wolves.

‘What else? You dozed off in pleasure,’ Arthur said wryly.

‘And?’

‘And what now? How can I possibly know what’s going on after we fall asleep?’

I looked once more at my wife sleeping innocently beside me… It really was just a dream, right? After all, wouldn’t Dahlly have run away if she really saw the rune in my head?

However, something dawned in me earlier when Dahlly and I were in the bathroom.

Didn’t she ask me back then if I could transform to another wolf?...

‘Perhaps, did she remember your form,’ I asked Arthur in our shared recollection.

‘Of course she did. Who in their right minds could forget making love with a wolf?’ my spirit animal said in satisfaction.

I scratched my head. I would get nowhere with this sarcastic wolf.

‘Where’s Albus?’

‘He’s still knocked out. Maybe he’s come to meet Eva in the Animal Spirit World… Who knows?’

I laid myself down into the bed once more and thought about the events of the day and the past weeks.

As Livia promised, she helped me strengthen the spell against the effects of the fated mate bond. I was able to resist sharing my full thoughts and the state of my heartbeat to Dahlia since then as a result. Only a numb feeling when I think of my mate remained in my chest.

Today, however, I had made love to her for the first time in weeks. I could feel our mating mark burning heatedly against my skin.

Damn it… If only I could have kept away from the temptation of holding her, my life would be so much easier…

This month, I began with my undercover work again as I take part in ransacking the Vampire villages.

The last time I was part of it, Samalah and I had a huge fight. Everything spiraled out of control all because she used some sort of drug...

“What the hell did you use to make them like this,” I told Samalah after witnessing one vampire suddenly fall down in front of me while clutching his chest.

“Relax… It’s just a simple herb to make our attack easy.”

“Our attack? We aren’t here to kill them,” I growled fiercely at Samalah.

Before I could swipe her with my paw to knock some sense on her, something stirred inside the bundle I was carrying.

The male vampire was serious! He did hand me in his baby before he dropped dead on his knees!

“Where’s the antidote for this? I know you carry one,” I hissed.

“I didn’t bring it with me.”

“Liar! How can you not bring it? You reek of medicine,” I growled.

Samalah, being just a half-wolf, was relatively smaller than the usual wolves, so I towered over her considerably well. Despite our physical difference, she looked at me with her red and blue irises as if she was trying to question whether I would really hurt her or not.

I put the bundle of cloth beside me and barred my teeth towards her.

“Don’t make me regret being your friend,” I snapped.

Perhaps sensing how deathly pissed off I was towards her for going against our original plan, she whimpered a bit. After that, she turned into a half wolf and removed a small sling bag hanging around her neck.

“Feed her this,” she handed me a small black seed the size of a corn kernel.

“If this doesn’t work, prepare to come home with a bloody pelt,” I warned her.

I knew Samalah’s gut. She was a tricky fairy and an even trickier wolf. I sniffed the seed before I attempted to feed it to the young vampire before me.

It didn’t smell suspicious, and I couldn’t see any spells casted on it. After satisfying myself with the inspection, I took on the layer of cloth bundled around the little vampire.

The little girl before me instantly cried when she saw my wolf’s face. I quickly transformed into my human form so that she could stop from exhausting her lungs further.

“Don’t cry, little girl… What’s your name?”

“Cara,” she said in between sobs.

“What a lovely name! Cara… Do you feel pain anywhere?”

“Uh huh,” she nodded and pointed her small finger towards her chest. “It hurts here…”

“Right… That must hurt a lot. Your daddy says you have to drink this medicine to feel better…”

“Is it bitter?”

I eyed Samalah who was only looking at me with a strange expression on her wolf’s face. I nudged her with my foot, and after what seemed like a stretch of eternity, she also transformed back into her fairy form.

“No, baby… It’s not bitter at all. It’s a special kind of medicine just for you. It’s very sweet, and it tastes like candy,” Samalah replied.

I eyed Samalah once more, and she gave me a reproachful stare. It tastes like candy - yeah, right! Well, she better not be lying to this kid. It’s the least she can do after killing the baby’s father with some unknown concoction…

“Go on. Eat this one and then you can go to sleep.”

The girl nodded and chewed on the seed. To my utmost relief, a pleasant look spread all over her face, and soon, despite the chaos that was happening all around us, she fell into a slumber.

Samalah sighed. She too looked relieved after Cara had fallen asleep.

I rocked the little girl, who seemed to be about four or five years old, in my arms back and forth softly before settling her down on the floor beside me.

F*ck it! Samalah and I organized this attack by hiring rogues, but the rouges were out of control, and Samalah’s little trick did more than just make our attack easy. As a result, we were plunged into a bloodbath, and Samalah and I had to personally show ourselves here and stop the rogues into wreaking further havoc.

However, the damage had already been done… It seemed that almost close to none was left alive in this village. Now, we have vampire carcasses to weigh on our soul on top of those who we have been deceiving to make this pay back possible…

“You look lovely with that kid… You’d probably make a good father, Tristan.”

The words that just came out of Samalah’s mouth were so unexpected that I did not know what to say to her…

There was a time when we were children that she and I had dreamed of living a quiet life together away from all this violence and filth.

But, it was just that – a passing dream. Perhaps if Samalah and I weren’t so caught up in our thirst for revenge, we would have lived a perfect existence just she and I somewhere… Maybe we could have grown our own family too…

Now I wonder if that would ever be possible with my Dahlia… Would she still choose to live a quiet life with me after all of this was over?

Yeah, right. I could only dream of that possibility now… Is there even an end to this? I would have wanted to see the whole Talandor perish in my very eyes just like how they killed every last bit of the Shadow Rune wolves back then…

Going back to the present, I inched slowly away from Dahlia’s embrace and away from our matrimonial bed. I had somewhere I needed to be tonight.

I have already descended into the depths of hell to which I can never go back.

The time I spent with Dahlia a few hours ago was pure heaven, now I must go back to the place I truly belong...

Tonight, another vampire village will get ransacked, and until Count Jeteris’s name and reputation get dragged into the pit of doom, it’ll continue.

I summoned Arthur’s form and disappeared under the cover of the night.