The face of the woman he longed for, the touch of her skin, and the features of the woman he deeply loved. Without a doubt, she is Catina, his fated bond.
He unconsciously gripped her hand that made her screech in pain. As soon as he realized that, he quickly let go of her. He wanted to hug her, touch her, and never let her go but he was too stunned with the situation.
Catina took this opportunity to escape, luckily, only Grand Duke Arthur saw her face. Emperor Charles yelled his brother's name and it made him come back to his senses. The emperor went near his stunned brother but the moment he faced him, tears started to flow on his face.
The emperor wanted to know what happened but the Grand Duke left in a lightning speed to where the enemy was heading. He quickly ordered some of his men to follow his brother while the others aided the injured and sent them back to the villa.
He waited for his brother and men to come back but when his men arrived they reported that they failed to track the Grand Duke. He sighed in disappointment then ordered them to go back to the villa and they all left the area with no Grand Duke to be detected.
They tried to ask prince Nikolai but he lied to them by saying that he can no longer detect his presence. The two older brothers obviously knew he was lying but decided to let him be. For now, their main focus is to make sure their soldiers as well as the Marcos' brothers are nursed back to health.
On the deep side of the forest where Catina used to escape from the vampires, she could barely stand from too much loss of blood with how deep the wound was pierced on her. She assisted herself by leaning on an old oak tree and decided to rest because she's unable to go further than this.
She could barely catch on her breath while leaning her back on the tree and positioned herself comfortably. Slowly, her eyes became heavy as she was about to close her eyes. She saw familiar figures of two men but was too tired trying to remember who they were.
When she finally rested her eyes, Maxx and Peter watched her sleeping deeply like a tragic, sad, and pitiful Snow White. Peter and Maxx saw the dagger pierced inside her and their faced slowly turned murderous. Peter was about to reach her but a rock was thrown towards him.
Fortunately, he caught it without batting an eye on an object thrown towards him. Maxx turned to see a man with a protruding aura surrounding him. His ocean blue eyes slowly turned red upon seeing his fated bond about to be held by a stranger. His senses began to go haywire when he saw two suspicious strangers near her.
Grand Duke Arthur ran towards the twin closest to Catina to launch an attack, however, within a speed of lightning, he was already in Maxx's grasp. Peter watched expressionlessly as Grand Duke Arthur tried to free his head from Maxx's grip. The younger purple headed twin smiled towards the vampire he was confining with his bare hand and said.
"Sleep tight, Sky!"
Maxx's hand glowed and Grand Duke Arthur for the first time, once again, felt scared. Slowly, his vision started to fade while he watched his bond sleep soundly. Soon, everything in his view suddenly went black as his body lumped on the ground.
Jasper is now in Catina's apartment together with his father who had been cheerfully singing the first opening song of a Japanese anime, Haikyu. His facepalm expression couldn't even describe how disappointed and annoyed he was toward his father. It had been raining heavily which made him worry if Catina was safe or not.
They both waited in the living room for the Female Blood to arrive, and the moment Jasper heard the bell ring. He was at first confused since he knows Catina has her own keys but he still quickly opens the door to surprise her. However, instead of surprising her, he was the one who was surprised the most.
Dir. Melvis wondered why he's standing at the doorway completely stunned so he went near him and said.
"Why are you standing there completely stunned? Quickly let her i—"
When he finally got a closer look, he himself was shocked to see the Grand Duke who was looking weak, at the same time, soaking wet by the rain while carrying Catina in his arms. Grand Duke Arthur gently handed her to the director, Dir. Melvis gladly yet carefully accepted it. They noticed that Catina had blood stains on her clothes.
When Jasper slightly pulled her shirt to see if she had any wounds, they found nothing. In spite of knowing that she is a full-fledged vampire who can easily heal herself, on the contrary, because Catina is a defective Female Blood, she is unable to heal herself as fast as vampires do.
Grand Duke Arthur was glad to see Catina safe and sound. His breathing became heavy but slower than he usually breathes. What happened back then was too much for him that his body still couldn't adapt from it. Eventually, he collapsed on the ground and Jasper hurriedly carried him despite the struggle because of how heavy he was.
Jasper took the unconscious vampire to the guest room next to Catina's room while the Female Blood is being carried to her room to give her more rest. Catina was carefully laid on the bed, on the other hand, Jasper barely tossed him on the bed then he tried to catch up with his breaths while wiping off his sweats.
The father and son went out of the room to give them the time to recover and rest. The two only then were able to question themselves of what happened for them to be in such a state. When their eyes met, they closed their eyes then gave a long sigh and went down to the kitchen to cook some food.
The both of them were quiet the whole time. The only things that made sounds were the boiling of the porridge, chopping of the knife, and the noise of utensils. Dir. Melvis was too focused on cooking his porridge while Jasper began to assemble the plates.
As soon as everything was done, they both went to Catina's room first to check on her. They welcomed themselves in and saw Grand Duke Arthur, looking so weak, sitting beside her bed while watching his beloved sleep soundly. The Harlows slowly approached him and the royal spoke to them without batting an eye on them.
"Why did you keep her from me?"
"…"
"Did you even know how desperate I was searching for her? Did you even think how I felt when I lost her? I had been searching for her for years… and here she was… right under my nose."
"Your Highness… I know no matter how much we explain it to any of you, none of you will understand."- Dir. Melvis
"Empress… Jasmine still believes she's alive. She still believes that her little cousin is still alive and well. She was so broken when her father and the Vaughan family died but no matter what they say, she still believes that Catina is alive."
"What about Hans? Aren't you even gonna ask how he is? For pete's sake, he's Catina's brother and the Empress' cousin too."- Jasper
Jasper desperately expressed his frustration towards Grand Duke Arthur for ignoring Hans like he was just an insignificant being. However, he didn't expect to see his tears flow uncontrollably as he sobs aggressively and continuously hits his head because of anger towards himself.
Dir. Melvis didn't waste any more time and immediately stopped the Grand Duke from hitting himself. The vampire looked at the director's eyes and saw sympathy in him, he couldn't help but expressed his anger by saying.
"Don't pity me! I don't need your sympathy! I don't need anyone's sympathy! Why?! Why is this happening to us?! They had been a good kid ever since I can remember! They never do things that could hurt anyone! I never hated or hurt anyone to deserve this! We don't deserve this at all! So, why?!"
"Follow me, Your Highness. I will tell you everything when we reach there."- Dir. Melvis
The director instructed Jasper to look for Catina in the meantime while they're gone. The confused vampire followed the director as they traveled to the third floor that is turned into an attic. As soon as they arrived, he saw a coffin standing while leaning its back on the wall. A large white coffin with gold shades from each side and corner, the top/lid was left open and a glass was placed inside to avoid the body from falling.
A young man with black hair, as pale as the dead, was inside the coffin while crossing his hands together as if he was trying to protect himself from danger. Below his feet were white and pink roses while artificial leaves and small flowers were hanging above his head. The coffin was carefully and effortlessly designed showing how deeply they care about the body.
In spite of his death, Hans showed no sign of withering or returning into ashes. His small face and petit figure remains the same as when he died. He never showed any sign of growing up nor did he present any life and death, it is as if he was only asleep.
Grand Duke Arthur scanned the whole place then saw a bouquet of roses placed inside a basket on top of the table. He marched his way towards it and took a single white rose then slowly approached Hans. As soon as he was in front of him, he offered the white rose to him and said with tears in his eyes.
"Long time no see… No, I mean…"
"I'm back, Bro!"
...