The Vampire Prince's Hybrid Mate

Fate, Agony, Death, Destruction and Blood Rage

Kara's POV

Time stood still as I processed every word that had come from the King’s mouth. I tried to stop the panic from sinking in, from taking over my body and making rational thought non-existent.

With clenched teeth, and a large breath, I moved further forward into the room. I was hyper aware of the camera up in the corner of the room, watching me. The red light blinked on and off, the constant reminder that I was on display for thousands of eyes to see.

Everything in the room was still as my eyes scanned the sparse surroundings, overthinking what exactly I was supposed to do.

There must have been a clue in what he said, Annysia said slowly.

Yeah, I get that, but what part? He said a lot of things.

I knew Annysia could feel my anxiety, and she was the only thing keeping me grounded at this moment. Clues and puzzles were not something I had ever had much skill in. I was always more of a warrior, excelling in hand-to-hand combat and fight skills in my wolf form.

The last thing the King said seemed to circle around in my brain – may the creator show you the way.

The creator? That seemed like an obvious direction.

But which creator?

I scoffed aloud, my gaze zeroing in on the bookcase. “The Creator of vampires,” I said aloud, the lightbulb clicking on in my head. “But who created the vampires?”

There were many moments in my life that I regretted not appreciating my parents when I had them, and this was another one. They would know the answer. They spent their lives gaining knowledge of the other species, believing knowledge to be power. My eyes burned as I blinked away the tears. Little good that knowledge did them when they were attacked though, I thought bitterly.

I hurried to the bookcase, my eyes scanning the titles. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Moby d**k, On the Origin of Species, The Bible, Selene’s Children… I stifled the gasp that wanted to burst from my mouth. They had a copy of a werewolf manuscript and human bible? How ridiculous, or maybe it was there to trip us up, or maybe to trip me up in particular? I took a moment to compose myself. I couldn’t allow them to see any kind of recognition in my eyes.

My fingers danced along the spines of the books, the musty smell of the ancient volumes permeating the air around me. They smelt old. The material under my fingers was thick, but there was a brittleness to the way it felt.

I stopped when a title popped out at me, something about it making my fingers pause their dance along the books.

That is it, I can feel it.

I knew I agreed with Annysia as soon as she spoke the words to me. There was a familiarity in the title, as if I had seen the book before.

“Hades: God of the Underworld.”

Slipping the book from its place in the shelf, I carried it to the couch, moving swiftly. My eyes darted to the tablet on the table and a shot of panic sliced through me. Twenty-five minutes remained. How had I already used up five minutes of my time?

As I settled in the seat, my fingers tingled. I couldn’t feel the power waking within me, and I pushed it down, stifling the urge. There were too many eyes. Too many people to witness whatever power this book would unleash.

I had never been closely attached to my witch side, but there was something about this old text that had my magic flaring to life in my chest.

Hurry, open it, Annysia urged me.

Taking a deep breath, I grasped onto the tingle of power that floated through me and lifted the cover of the book, flicking quickly through the pages. A strong urge to stop flashed through me, the magic within me tingling along my skin.

My eyes skimmed along the top paragraph of the page I had landed on. Some of the words had faded with age, but I got the basic idea. It was talking about the creation of vampires.

The words flowed from my mouth as I read aloud from the passage, my heart sinking the more I read.

“And in the darkness, Hades breathed life into the people, wakening their minds and their bodies and creating a new species – Vampire. But the price of immortality was the craving of blood – having to end lives and provide more souls for Hades, to prolong their own.”

I swallowed the emotions that bubbled up within me. If the clue was here, it was hiding within this text.

A soft pinging sound gained my attention, the light of the tablet flaring to life as the numbers flashed on the screen in red. Twenty minutes remaining. Crap! I was wasting so much time.

I had no idea how many layers of clues there were to escape. For all I knew, this was the only one, but I highly doubted it. I never knew how close I was going to be to the key to get out until I found it.

Hurry! Annysia growled loudly.

My eyes darted back to the book, continuing to read the passage.

“However, in a rage at Hades creation, Helios, the sun God, cast them into the dark. Many millennia passing before they grew accustomed to the light, but they were forever known as the embodiment of darkness.”

They sure have a thing about darkness, don’t they? Annysia commented, something about her words sparking an idea in my mind.

Darkness, of course.

My eyes lifted from the book and began scouring the walls, looking, but there was nothing to be seen. We need to cast ourselves into the dark. The iridescent bulb above me taunted me with its light, laughing at the fact that there was no switch to turn it off.

I ran an agitated hand through my hair before jumping into action.

Flicking the tablet onto the couch, I pulled the coffee table directly under the lightbulb. If there was no switch, I would have to pull it directly from the source. If the vampires were cast into darkness, I would need to do the same to reveal the next clue.

Carefully, I lifted myself onto the table, reaching upwards towards the bright bulb. With my arms outstretched and my feet lifted onto my toes, my fingertips barely brushed against the warmth of the light.

I need extra height.

Use the books Annysia barked, her voice gaining an edge of panic.

Racing to the bookshelf, I pulled several of the thicker texts from the shelve, carrying them to the table. I placed them carefully on top of each other, lifting the height of the table. It wasn’t the safest option, but it was the quickest.

Stepping on the books, I felt my feet slip as one of them turned, shifting my balance. I wobbled precariously for a moment, concentrating on not falling flat on my face.

The bulb was now within reach and a hiss escaped my lips as my fingers curled around the heat pulsing from the light. I moved quickly, turning the light until everything was plunged into in instantaneous darkness.

Shocked by the sudden dark, my foot slipped while in the outstretched position, and I tumbled from the table and onto the floor, my head clipping something on the way down. A cry of pain burst from my mouth as agony flooded through my temple, leaving me momentarily disoriented. I didn’t want to think about the thousands of vampires that would be laughing at me right now, probably making fun of the poor, useless human. Oh the things they didn’t know.

As my eyes became accustomed to the dark, a strange luminescent glow began to build around me. The painting of the little girl was now littered with words that covered every space. Some words overlapped on top of each other making it difficult to read, but other stood out clearly in the darkness, making my eyes hurt.

The girl had also changed, her hair blinding white and her skin pale, almost translucent. It didn’t take me long to realise she was a vampire. Her large eyes appeared as if they were gazing at me, watching me every move and it sent a shiver down my spine. Her fangs were glaringly obvious, her face scrunched into a scowl rather than the innocent appearance she had before.

My fingers pressed against my temple and came away sticky with my blood. Acknowledging the blood sent another wave of pain pulsing through my skull, dragging all my thoughts from the task at hand.

You need to focus Annysia’s voice mumbled in my mind. It was like someone was messing with the volume, the sound of her voice wavering in and out. This is the next clue.

“Right, focus,” I muttered to myself, gritting me teeth against the pain.

This hit to the head would be nothing compared to the agony of suffocating to death of poisonous gas if I didn’t solve all the clues. I didn’t want to even think about what that would feel like.

My gaze traced along the words I could read, each one more haunting than the last.

Fate, agony, death, destruction, blood rage.

What the hell was I supposed to get from this?

My gaze darted back to the tablet on the couch which I could see was now getting closer to only fifteen minutes remaining. I had chewed through almost half of my time and only solved, what, two clues? I might not even be halfway through the clues yet.

Thankfully, looking at the time had been beneficial as out of the corner of my eyes, a passage of text was written on the large blank wall, which glowed just as brightly as the words on the painting.

I read each line slowly and carefully, each one making my heart sink deeper into the pit of my stomach.

‘In the darkness your path was bound,

What you are searching for will be found.

Choose wisely for you only get one chance

To prove your worth and advance.

Within the painting are phrases to know,

That are either a vampire’s friend or foe.

To move one step closer to the key,

You must feed the vampire’s greatest enemy.’

I felt sick to the stomach, and I knew it had more to do with the words I was reading, rather than the pounding headache I had.

All I knew right now, was that I had to solve this riddle to find the key, but how in the Goddess’ name was I going to do that?

Try relaxing to start with Annysia whispered softly.

How helpful! I snapped back. Telling to relax wasn’t going to magically make it happen.

Each two lines make a pair. Try reading them like that and working out what each one means before piecing it together.

We don’t have time for that I bit back again, my eyes finding the slight glow of the tablet and watching the timer slip below thirteen minutes. Oh, Goddess we are going to die.

Annysia’s growled reverberated in my already aching head, causing my head to feel like it was going to split open.

Just listen to me.

I re-read the passage, twice, and a few things stuck in my mind. The first four lines had nothing to do with the clues. It was the lines after that where the clues really started.

The words written in the painting were either good or bad things for vampires. The second to last line was easy enough to decipher, but the last line had me running my hand through my hair.

Feed the vampire’s greatest enemy – it didn’t make a lot of sense. Not for the first time, I wished I had paid more attention to my parents. But I had to figure this out, I had to escape this damn room, if only to protect Piper.

I took a moment to pray to the Goddess that Piper was safe and had maybe even escaped. The tablet then let out a sudden blaring siren, the sound piercing the silence that had enveloped me.

My hands gripped tightly against my ears, trying to block out the sound before it suddenly stopped.

Sirens heard in the first round meant someone had the completed the challenge.

“Best move faster then,” I answered her out loud, my eyes seeking the numbers on the tablet screen that were ticking quickly away.

I found myself back into front of the eerily glowing painting, the words almost burned into my brain. The vampire girl had appeared to have changed again, her eyes darker, her look more feral. If I didn’t know any better, I would think the painting was enchanted my a witch.

My fingers brushed against the painting, and a rush of energy sped along my arms.

That f*****g monster, Annysia growled, feeling the magic within my body. He probably has witches locked up and forces them to perform magic for him.

A shiver worked its way down my spine at the thought. After seeing the dark look within the King’s eyes, the idea that he had witches creating spells for him. It would explain quite a lot of things I had seen so far.

“Right, fate, agony, death, destruction and blood rage,” I whispered slowly, my eyes tracing each word individually. “Surely destruction would be a friend to vampires, just like death.”

They are going to think you are going crazy, talking to yourself.”

I wanted to laugh loudly, but I stifled the urge. But I talk to myself all the time. Now is just when other people can hear it.

Death could also be the enemy, the true death of a vampire.

I froze, realising she was right. This was going to be harder than I thought.

“Feed the greatest enemy…”

Blood rage, Annysia growled out as it came pouring out of my own mouth. “Blood rage!”

But how am I supposed to feed it?

Within me, Annysia mood turned, darkening as I realised where her thoughts were taking her.

No, no, no, no NO!

It is the only way, you must feed it your blood.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hi All,

Sorry for the late update. I also have to apologise as I have shifted a few of the chapters around and added a prologue. The idea came to me as i was just about to go to sleep, so naturally spent the next few hours typing out my thoughts.

Don't forget to comment if you are loving the story so far and feel free to have a look at my other books:

Spyrit Magic - Book 1 of the Spyrit Trilogy (completed and on app)

Spyrit Study - Book 2 of the Spyrit Trilogy (ongoing)

Hope you are liking the book so far.

Love,

Ax