Chapter 1 -Rosabella P.O.V
"You must!"... "Think about your sister!"... "Rose you must!" it all echoed in my mind like a horrible tune. But this isn't a nightmare. It's my reality. I am to be Lord Gabriel's Marked one for the next three years... what if he kills me before then? Would Rebecca still be picked even if I sacrificed myself for her? Everything, before I left, feels like a blur, even as I sit here and try to remember it's as if I lost those memories despite only it happening moments ago… All I can replay in my head was the day of the reaping. How I watched my little sister Rebecca get picked as the new marked one yet, my mother and father saw it fit that I'd be the one instead to go. I don't blame them for sending me instead of Rebecca. What I do blame them for is always putting me to be the backbone of the family, the one who always has to make the tough decisions. I started feeling sick to my stomach once we left the Mundane Society, come to think of it, how long have we been driving?
Out of my head for a second, I noted that these two vamps; who happen to be unpleasant and the rudest beings I have ever met, even so, they have a good taste in music. Who would've thought these leather-wearing biker type vamps would be listening to classical music as they escorted me to the Tellurian residence. I mostly sat mute, lost in thought. Though I have been trying to loosen the tight cuffs that were biting into my wrist unfortunately without any improvements.
"Tellurian" It read on the tall metal gate. I felt my heartbeat against my chest scarcely as I began to feel numb at the thought of my death. My inevitable death? Is that what these gates mean to me?
We stepped out of the car once we reached the main entrance. I glanced down the road we just drove by, lines of big trees on either side, all cascading with moss went from the roundabout to where we were down to the metal gate we just drove by. From afar I could hardly see the manor but here I stood, ten feet away from it. I felt cold, my eyes darted from the gargoyles that surrounded every window to the statues of angels on the top at the corners of the manor. It was both breathtaking and alarming. It gave a sense of warning, a strong presence of cessation. I could only imagine the infamous vampire Tellurian Tellurian killing behind these walls.
I'm done for.
"Walk faster." One of the vampires who is escorting yells out.
Ah, remember I had said rude? These vamps are as rude as hell.
"She won't last." the other fat vampire snarks.
"Lord Gabriel will have a great time with her though." The skinny one turns to me.
"She has very nice tits, I bet drinking from them would soothe anyone's thirst." He giggles.
I put my cuffed hands over my chest trying to cover them from their view. When I did this, both their eyes glowed red as they stared at my wrists. The cuffs had bitten into my skin, deep... blood had dripped down to my shirt.
"Your Blood smells sweeter than any blood I have ever smelt before... I bet it tastes the same... Sweet..."
I look away from their eyes and try to calm my racing heart.
"Look at her, we have a shy whore." they both fall into laughter before being interrupted by a beautiful petite woman.
They both simultaneously bow their heads but the skinny one had noticed I hadn't moved. He kicked me behind my knee causing me to fall hard to the ground. I moaned in pain and I skidded my knee.
"Are you okay?" The woman held out her hand to me. I looked away avoiding her gaze, at first she was taken back by my action but then she gave a small smile.
"I got it from here boys." She says harshly.
"I wonder how our king would feel if he knew his guards managed to cause injuries to his marked one and thought about tasting her blood before he did?" She asks quite threateningly.
"Lady Othilia, we would never!" The fat one bows.
"He's right Lady Othilia, we would never dare eat from her... we were just playing along with the human."
"And playing requires her to have slit wrists and a skinned knee? How am I to explain this to the king? I should have your heads for dinner." She spat.
Her eyes caught mine, her green eyes glowed red but once they locked on me they changed back to green. She places her hands on either hip
"Leave now. And next time be more considerate."
"Yes, lady Othilia." They both bowed and before I knew it they had disappeared back into the car and just like that they drove away.
As I watched the car driving away I felt a sudden sense of hopelessness envelop me, eyes filled with tears but deep down, deep down I felt rage. For my life is to end soon, I am to die under the hands of the vampire king.
"I can help you up." She says scrunching down to my level still offering me her hand.
"No need to take pity in a pathetic human like me," I say getting up. "I am only a slave to please Lord Gabriel," I say my voice shook as my mother's voice echoed in my head. 'You need to do this! If you go then our family will be saved from reaping and your younger sister will get to live rather than feasted upon those monsters!' My eyes water at the memory but I shook it off.
"Slave isn't the word that comes to mind when I think of a marked one... yet I don't know how else to put it into terms."
"Might as well get it over with."I murmur under my breath.
She leads me into the manor. It smelled of pinewood and something confectionary, like candy once she opened the main door. Odd scent to smell from a home filled with cold murderers. It looks enormous on the outside but on the side is extensive. To my left, there was a whole fucking tree in the middle of the room and under the tree, there is a small pound with a freaking bridge, and a bench looking towards the wall covered in green leaves and small white flowers cascading down to the floor and into the pound. I stare in awe, such a beautiful sight.
"Cayden loves nature, he has designed this room to be the main focus of this manor...He did a pretty damn good job of that," Othilia says with a wide smile. "I still get amazed too."
"I see tombstones," I say quietly. "By the big window."
Othilia's smile disappears. "My father and mother died...all in the same night in this very room... Cayden did this as a remembrance for them." Othilia leads me away from the entrance.
"He had done it for the...But due to vampire democracy, he HAD to include the late vampire king Draco." She says more to herself.
"What's your name?" Othilia asks, taking a hold of my cuffed hands. "I hate when they bring humans like this... look at your wrist." she brakes them easily off of me and wipes her thumbs over my open wounds softly.
"I'll have Antonia heal this for you." Her green eyes look up at me. "Your name?"
"Ro-Rosabella... but everyone calls...called me Rose." I simply say.
"Such a lovely name, I like it." She laughs a bit. "Rose, may I ask something?"
I didn't answer, but I didn't look away from her either but I did pull my hands away from her.
"Why did you volunteer in the reaping?"
I said nothing while my sister's ReRebecca'sace came into my mind.
"You're young, I see you and smell you're in perfect health...Just wondering Why?"
I look down at my feet. She gently pats my shoulder causing me to jolt in fear, my body begins to tremble as the thought of her trying to be friendly just to get my guard down to rip me into shreds plays in my head.
"You did it for someone you love?" She asks after a while of us just standing and not speaking. "You-"
"Othilia, stop pestering our guest." Some man says from the top of the staircase.
She smiles. "Come down and meet her! She's adorable." Othilia took a hold of my elbow and gently pulled me to follow her to the end of the staircase where in a blink of an eye the man who was just standing at the very top was now one or two feet away from me. I stumbled back, my heart nearly jumping out of my chest.
"Didn't mean to scare you." He says, giving me a grin. "I'm Cayden Tellurian." He bows a bit.
I say nothing. I just stare at him, he's very handsome...a vampire, and so is she... but they look human to me, nothing different, not even in the paleness of their skin makes them look like monsters. Cayden is tall, with an athletic physique, broad neck, chest, shoulders, he looks very muscular, but not too much, which makes him quite attractive, yet, his face isn't as broad as his whole body; it looks as if sculpted by an artist. Narrow dark green eyes, bold chin, high cheekbones, plump lips for a male, and a perfectly pointed nose. He is a very attractive man...probably the most attractive man I have ever met... all vampires are. That's how they mostly win their prey, with their charm, beauty, and cunning thinking.
"Her name is Rosabella, but we are to call her Rose, she's the one who volunteered. So the Mundane Society decided to give her to Gabriel."
He peers at me surprised. "You volunteered to be this year offering?"
I nod looking away, I actually stared into a family portrait that was right across from me. Othilia followed my eyes and stood beside me.
"Our only family portrait," Othilia says a bit drag. "Three of them are no longer with us."
"They died?" I ask softly.
"She speaks," Cayden says sarcastically while walking along with us. "Our father and mother are dead... Not our sister though, she just hates our guts and for that, she lives far away from us. Dead to us." Cayden says with a shrug.
"Hate?"
"Gabriel-"
"The Vampire king?" I interrupted Cayden who nodded with an understanding smile.
"Do you know how he became the king?" He asks.
I nod. "I was once told he killed his parents for the crown."
"Partially true, you see..." I stood right in front of the painting as Cayden spoke.
There were six individuals in the portrait; I recognized Cayden, he had such a serious demeanor, actually taking a good look at it, they are all serious. There was a beautiful woman with long black hair holding onto a small girl who was just the small version of her; she looks a bit like Othilia... but she's just a kid. The girl sat beside another girl who was much older, she resembled the Man standing next to the woman whose beauty is astonishing. That man looks a bit like Cayden but looks thinner, almost reminds me of a corpse with life. That must be Lord Draco?
"Lord Gabriel?" I ask as my eyes lock on the man standing beside Cayden.
He is the same height as Cayden in the portrait, unlike Cayden, his hair is long, although I can't tell how long since it's up in a tight ponytail, out of the six his eyes were the only grey ones and almond-shaped. His sharp jawline was complemented by his high cheekbones, and narrow lips and nose. Also what makes him different from the rest is that he seems to have a tattoo on the left side of his neck close to his collarbone. I can't make out what his tattoo is, but just staring at him in this portrait he's the most intimidating.
"Yes, that is him," Cayden said. "Well, this portrait was made when you were probably... how old are you, twenty-two, twenty-three?"
"Twenty-one," I answer.
"This was made thirty-three years ago," Othilia said. "I was four months old, but appeared to be twelve." She chuckles.
What?
"Your family is one of the purebloods, right?"
"Yes," Cayden answered.
"This way to your room." Othilia points down the hall. "West wing is all yours... here you will have your own butler, maids, and a maiden to help you replenish any blood sacrificed, or prevent you from...well you know, dying."
"Ever since I was a little girl, back in the Mundane Society I was taught that girls were picked as the marked ones every three years to subside the supernatural from killing as many humans as possible. Thus It's the law. A daughter born is a daughter cursed. Why prolong the inevitable?" I say looking down as we get closer to what I presume it is to be my room.
"You really think we'd kill all of our food sources in one sweep?" Cayden asks sarcastically.
I stare blankly, unable to respond.
"Those are just rumors," Othilia cuts in with a nervous giggle. "Some of the marked girls from years prior still reside within the manor. Gabriel always frees them once their term is complete... but they choose to be maids, maidens, for the next year girl that is picked. But, there have been girls that do end up dying due to blood loss. Thus why we try to prevent it."
"Some do end up leaving, but seeing how you mundanes not knowing we don't kill them, I can say they don't make it back to the Mundane Society.", Othilia added with a slight shrug.
"In reality, some of the other marked ones don't have the luxury of saying that their master is as forgiving as we are, considering we are the infamous Tellurian, the house in which the Vampire King resides in." Cayden opens the door to what I presume to be my room.
I walked into my new room and like a little girl in a new surrounding, I gaped at every corner of my room to be; four white walls, I walked towards the big window only to see it wasn't just a window it's also a glass door leading out to a small balcony. I look over to my huge dark cherry wood canopy bed to the matching dresser and nightstands on either side of the bed. I saw two doors in the room. One must be the closet, so what is the other door? I guess my puzzled gaze caught up with Cayden since he opened the door I wondered about and politely showed it was a spacious bathroom.
"This is all yours, same as the hall, and entertainment area, like the library, tv-room, gym, and in-house healing room," Othilia says cheerfully.
"I would have never expected it to be like this... I thought I would be much... much darker, and you guys to be evil...and left for dead."
"Well... I'm starting to think we need to perky up our reputations with the Mundane society. But this way is preferable. With that being said, You are to satisfy the needs of the vampire king..." Othilia says.
"I know," I say.
"You must be tired, please feel free to wash-up, also, Antonia will heal your wrists... Gabriel should be back soon... hopefully in time for dinner." Cayden says his goodbyes and so does Othilia, they close the door behind them and there was, standing in a spacious room, free but tamed, alone yet surrounded.
This is my new life, this is what it means to be a marked one, marked by night is what we are called by our fellow humans as we are sacrificed to keep them safe from the supernatural and protected by them. I am now, and will always be Lord Gabriel. I know my life will never exceed beyond these walls. He has me by my soul.
-Hey this is Anat here ❤️ I hope you enjoy chapter 1! Please don't forget to hit the like button and comment ❤️ Next chapter will be posted sooner than you think! I may even post it right now! come on! What are you waiting for? Keep reading!