"What?" her pretty smile flattened into a thinner line, "What are you saying?"
Kai suddenly turned colder. "I said I'm not marrying you."
"I get it," Rose sighed in denial as she went to him. "You got cold feet." She goes to touch his forearms.
But Kai snatched her wrists and held them apart, "I'm not having cold feet. I just don't love you anymore, but I still care about you as my friend," he tried telling her.
Dear Kai, this isn't how you end it. The pang in her heart hurt me to watch him crush her into pieces.
"You lie!" Rose's temper struck, and she twisted her wrists free. "I know you love me!"
"I'm not lying. Last night I dreamt about my mate!" Kai conceded and Rose's teary eyes reddened into blackness.
"No!" she hissed as her fangs came pointing out gnashingly.
Kai shook his head before he left the tent. I followed him through, and he went to the heart of the campsite, where the tents circled it. Most of the vampires and vampiresses were in this middle section. Mr. Collin, Chester, and so many more faces I've seen or haven't met were there, sitting on blankets around the fire pit. Only the small chattering of the little vamp children or human kids made noises. Otherwise, everyone else was mostly quiet, and rather confused as to what was going on.
"Is something wrong?" Mr. Collin asked. "Everyone is ready to begin the wedding."
"Sorry, but the wedding has been canceled," Kai announced, as perplexity and disappointment drove through their minds.
Rose's father and her older brothers each frowned to hear him. However, they didn't question his decision.
"Why this sudden change?" asked Mr. Collin as he lifted a brow.
Kai was going over to his father to give his explanation until Rose appeared in front of him.
"You promised me!" she yelled for all to hear, and she had certainly gone demented in her mind. "You love me! You vowed I was going to be the Queen of your Clan and the Collin Coven!"
"I did, but not anymore because I dreamt of my destined mate!" Kai hissed cruelly. "What I felt for you is gone! What we had no longer matters to me!"
A loud gasp spread among everyone to hear such news. Most of the mated vampires seemed to understand. Ace came in between two tents looking relieved. Nonetheless, he stood aside and didn't step forward to comfort Rose.
Rose cried out, making a scene, "It couldn't be possible whenever you are over the age limit to have a destined mate!"
"Yet it did!" Kai roared, then he turned his back on her.
As he was walking away, Rose yelled to the sky. "I swear once you find her, I will shred every limb off her body while she's a newborn!"
Kai's back diminished into the bright golden rays as Rose's hysterical screaming emitted across the desert when her father goes to settle her.
"Victoria," a gentle voice summoned.
My vision met these gorgeous emerald green eyes. "Rose?" I muttered, feeling partly dizzy when I realized I had returned to my time frame.
"Yes," she confirmed, taking a tissue from her purse. "Take this and clean your nose. This is a bad section to be bleeding. Plus, Kai will have a hissy fit if he knew you traveled in your time-gap again."
I took the tissue and wiped my nose. Then I threw it away in the basket.
"I'm sorry." I frowned at her in a mumble. I felt horrible for the heartache I caused between her and Kai.
"For what?" Rose was confused. She didn't have a clue about what I was referring to.
"I traveled back and saw Kai break your heart on the day he was going to marry you," I confessed with sadness. "I had no idea it occurred like that."
Rose gave an honest smile. "It's alright. I blame Ace because he never told me we were mates."
I wiped a tear, and she hugged me. "I could only imagine how devastating it was," I mumbled.
After hugging me, Rose then told me. "At first it was, but it got better because I have Ace. After he told me I was his mate, he kissed me. It all naturally clicked for me as it will for you after you transform into your true self."
I could only faintly nod to what she said. Having these mixtures of feelings about this idea of myself partly changing who I am as a human girl was upsetting to me. Pushing those emotions aside, something else puzzling came to mind.
"Why did you claim Kai was no longer at the age to have a destined mate?" I questioned to clear this up.
She clarified, "We assumed the age limit was from eighteen to nine hundred, but we learned later on it's up until a vampire reaches ten thousand. We were well over nine hundred when that happened."
"I get that," I simply noted as I realized Kai must be older than I imagined.
After talking, we continued strolling along the corridor as I asked, staring at these old framed portraits on the walls, "Who are these men?"
"Vampires, not men. Most of them are the Lights that gathered together with the idea of establishing the Vampire Covenant," Rose replied with a small correction as we reached a dead end. Only a plain plaster wall that had two old-era candle stick holders made from gold and rubies is mounted to it.
"Now what?" I say, wandering my eyes baffled.
"Just watch," Rose indulged me as she pulled a lever that was made to look like a candle stick holder.
With a loud crack and snap, the plaster broke into a spinning door. Rose and I stepped on the limestone, and the floor automatically circled us inside a dimly lit hidden chamber.
"Wow, that was amazing," I say, walking backwards to study the door as Rose strode off ahead.
"There are many vampiric secrets hidden in your world. This hidden chamber is only one of them," Rose intrigued me. "Now this way."
I stumbled on my heel boots before I veered off in her direction into this stygian chamber. Inky blue walls shade the corridor with a gloomy ascent. Electric old-era candle holders lined the walls, which gave this tenebrous lighting. I'd imagine these refurbished old-era candle stick holders were once lit by flames, before electricity was invented. Making it eerier, the velvet carpet was ebony. Portraits of these vampires chilled my blood to the bone from that strange feeling their eyeballs were moving in my direction. This corridor certainly gave you a vampirism chill up your spine.
Rose led me to this one lightless room. But before she allowed me access, her arm blocked me from going into the pitch-black room as she whispered, "Try not to make too many sounds. This might be emotional for you."
I nodded to what she said, and then we slowly walked into the darkness.