1. Down By The River

1733 Words
Ivy's POV. The moonlight was shining rather bright tonight as I sat on a rock by the river. The way the light kissed the water causing it to reflect was just mesmerizing to me. I skipped another rock that bounced three times before it sank in the water. The river wasn’t flowing as much as it normally did, it was calm tonight. It seemed so still even though it was flowing so slowly, only an untrained eye would not see the flow. I'd sort of blame the ice that had frozen it but it was starting to defrost a bit. Even so, the water looked so peaceful. I wish that I could just stay here forever in this very spot. "Ivy, it's your turn." My best friend's voice took me out of my thoughts. I threw another rock and this time it slid into the water five times before sinking. "I won, again Charlotte," I said as I looked at her and smiled. My win caused Charlotte to pull her hair in frustration. "Arrghhh... How do you win all the time?" She asked, "You barely pay attention or focus on the game." She added. Of course, I never paid attention when we played this game. My mind was always somewhere else. "I don't know, I guess it's just luck," I answered as I shrugged my shoulders. It was quite easy though, all one had to do was feel the balance on the rock to be able to know how much power to use when throwing the rock. Charlotte and I always played until we could make the rock bounce five times. That’s when the game was over. Whoever made the rock bounce five times first is the winner. Most of the time it was me. But, of course, I wasn’t going to tell her that it was easy, the poor girl might actually rip all her hair out. "What are you laughing at?" Charlotte asked as she raised her brows. I didn’t realise I was chuckling at the thought of my best friend ripping out her hair. "Oh.." I began before I thought of something to say, "I was just thinking about how Sir Rylie was admiring you yesterday evening at dinner." I said, it was the truth but not the reason why I was laughing. "Lady Ivy, I assure you that I will not even think of going there with one of my father's Knights in training." She said as she tried to hide the blush on her face, which I caught. Charlotte Williams is the daughter of my father's best knight, Marcus Williams. Sir Marcus is also my father's best friend and right-hand man. This is how Charlotte and I grew up being so close together and became best friends. Charlotte's mother died in childbirth but she had my mother to help her through her womanhood. We were practically sisters. My father is Lord Aiden Darthe, the most feared Vampire lord of our kind. Other than the vampire king, of course. Yes, I had forgotten to mention that I am a Vampire, lady Ivy Darthe. The only child of Lord Aiden and Lady Eleanor Darthe. Vampires can only give birth to one child. We weren’t like most creatures as they can have as many children as they want. If vampires wanted more children, then they would just turn into humans, but only a pure-blood vampire could do that. Being a vampire is the reason that we are sitting here, down by the river in the moonlight instead of the sunlight. I would love to feel what the sunlight feels like, but if I did, I would surely burn and turn to dust. The sun is our flaunt even though we have many flaws. We vampires can live forever, only the purebloods, anyway. Normal vampires, the ones that are bitten and not born, can live for a few hundred years. The only way they can truly be immortal forever like purebloods is with the blessing of the vampire king. Well, more of a ritual that involves the vampire king biting you, feeding you his blood and burying you. I know it's brutal, but that is how the ritual works and only the vampire king's bloodline could do that ritual. I had to witness Charlotte go through the ritual. I honestly found it disturbing. Her father even went through it too, but that was long before either of us was born. The vampire king doesn't just do the ritual for anyone, he mostly does it for those of more status. Since Charlotte was born to two parents that were bitten, she had to get the ritual done. That was how her father went from a knight to being my father's right hand. That status allowed him to be noticed by the king and allowed him and his daughter to go through the ritual. If only her mother would have done the ritual before she fell pregnant. However, I am pure blood just like both of my parents, so no ritual is needed. Other than the sunlight burning us to death, we also suck blood to survive. If we didn’t, we would just desiccate but still be alive, which is why our very being needs blood. It was also how our kind would deal with those of us that went against any law or rules the vampire king would put in place. They would just stave us off and dry out our very being. That was just for pure blood vampires only. For normal vampires, they would just die instead of desecrating from no intake of blood. That is if they hadn't gone through the ritual they have done. If they do, then they are safe from dying because of no blood intake. Other than the sunlight and blood being our downfall, we were really strong, fast and could heal from any injuries, however small or big. That also included not getting sick, like catching the simple flu that humans would catch. "Why won't you just give Sir Rylie a chance?" I asked, "He seems so interested in you. I even catch him smiling at you from afar sometimes." I said truthfully. "He is just a Knight in training, Ivy. I want someone that is higher up amongst our kind. Like the Lord, for example, or maybe even the prince of Darkness." She said in a lovey-dovey tone. "You know it's not always about status, right?" I said, giving her a questioning look. "Sometimes it's how you feel about the person. I see Sir Rylie always staring at you with love as well as admiration. Why don’t you give him a chance? You never know, you might feel the same way towards him." I tried to get her to see it from another point of view. "Yeah, but you know how my father feels about those below our status," She said in a defeated tone. Right, I almost forgot about how her father's brain is wired. He worked his way up to being my father's Knight. My father saw greatness in him. That was how he and my father became best friends. Sir Marcus was now my father's right-hand man when it came to everything, even advising my father about war strategies and simple politics. I let out a sigh and just nodded at Charlotte because my father's brain was also wired the same way. So I had a huge understanding of what she was saying, even though I don’t have my eyes on anyone below nor above my status. I was more of a 'follow my heart' type of girl. "Excuse me, Lady Ivy, Lady Charlotte. His lordship is requesting your attendance for dinner this evening." A servant girl bowed as she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. If it wasn’t for our vampire hearing, we would have missed what she had said. Charlotte and I nodded our heads and stood up from the rocks where we sat. With the servant girl following behind, Charlotte and I walked straight towards Midnight's keep. My father only asked me to dinner whenever he had an announcement, so I wondered what the announcement was. . . . . Charlotte and I had gone to our rooms to quickly freshen up to look more presentable. We are ladies, after all, we had to look and act like a lady in front of others . Even though she and I would fool around behind closed doors, away from prying eyes. We were both beautiful women and had many admirers, but we both chose not to pay any attention to any males that took an interest in us. Although I had noticed that Sir Rylie would stare at her from time to time, his stare was different from the other males. He only had eyes for Charlotte, but my best friend never once looked his way, no matter how many times I brought it up. She had insisted as we left the river that it had to be the last time to speak of Sir Rylie. I had to agree with her, not because she was my best friend, but because we have both recently come of age. When female vampires come of age, their fathers would arrange for their hands in marriage. My best friend and I were now eighteen years old and ripe for the picking. At least that is how my mother put it when she told us both about what would happen when we came of age. I, for one, dreaded the thought of being married off, especially if I didn’t know or love the guy. I was not looking forward to the day my father told me that he had found me a suitor. A knock on my door caused me to jump a little bit. Then the door opened and in came my mother. She was the most beautiful female of her time, she still is and I am now the spitting image of her. While my mother has black hair, mine was dark brown like my father's. "Oh my beautiful child, you look exquisite as ever. Let's walk to dinner together." My mother said with a smile on her face. I gave my mother a huge hug, then followed her out of my room. We bumped into Charlotte on the way and all walked towards the dining room together.
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