"W..where are my parents?" She asked again, her voce cracked worse than the before like the broken carriage behind them.
He stared at her speechless, he didn't know what to say or do, telling her that her parents had just been swallowed by a gigantic snake didn't seem like a good idea.
He wanted to say something, anything other than he had witnessed her parents being swallowed alive by a strange snake like beast not until he got a whiff of a strong familiar scent that made him salivate.
His eyes narrowed to her elegant jade robe with blood soiling it slowly in her abdomen area, she flinched in pain and both their eyes narrowed to her bloodied dress.
"You're hurt." He blurted out but he quickly composed himself with the thought 'First aid fist' popping into his head, he applied pressure with his hand pressed gently against her abdomen which made her flinch and hiss in pain.
The blood still seeped from his fingers and he found himself trembling as he struggled to compose himself, he already had his fill but her blood made his body react strangely and not in a good way.
He withdrew his bloody hand and tore a piece of his robe before wounding it gentle round her waist, securing it tight enough to prevent her from loosing excess blood and loose enough for her to be comfortable.
"My brothers will be here soon, I'll take you to a physician." He informed and she nodded without saying anymore, he was surprised she had suddenly stopped asking about her parents and didn't say anything either to bring the topic back.
He clenched his teeth hard as he stared at the blood in his hands which trembled uncontrollably as he felt the urge to bite her, get a taste of her blood, but why was it so strong, so irresistible?
He moved three, ten steps away from her as he slowly gained composure of himself. He forced himself to think of something else other than her blood, after much effort with his mind, in the next moment, it seemed like an image flashed through his eyes.
"Where have you been Zhalong?" He heard his Oldest vampire brother's voice playing in his head along with the vivid scene of his brothers like a movie playing inside his head.
"Ahh, about to make her one of your harem? I see" He heard Lei's voice accompanied with a throaty laughter.
What the! He shook his head vigorously, what the heck was he seeing. Why was bizarre things suddenly happening to him, was he hallucinating? He pondered.
"Are you okay? You're the youngest vampire god, right?" She queried as her jade blue eyes stared at him with what seemed to be perplexity but it also seemed heavy. Her voice abruptly interrupted the playing video in his head and everything went back to normal.
"Yes, who are you and how do you know me?" He asked, also perplexed she knew him well when it was apparent it was their first encounter.
She opened her mouth to speak but it was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of his brothers who returned in a flash with a gust of wind.
"Where have you been Zhalong?" Wenglei asked as he narrowed his black eyes at him with dissatisfaction etched on his face and he sighed.
What? This was exactly the scene that played in his head a few minutes earlier, was he seeing the future?
"She's hurt, she needs to be taken to a physician to tend to her injuries." He quickly explained, trying to sound organized as he had already been behaving too weirdly and he didn't want much concentration on him.
"Ah about to make her one of your harem, I see." He heard Lei say with a round of throaty laughter.
What the! Confusion struck him, but he gave out a serene expression.
He glared at him shortly before throwing a glance at the young lady whose face was flushed red with what seemed to be anger and embarrassment, he knew she would have retorted but it seemed like her wound made her tight lipped.
"It's nothing like that, she's a victim of the attack and she needs to see a physician, I'll take her to the palace for treatment." He said with a straight clipped tone before walking towards her.
"That's not gonna happen brother, we need to get rid of her, she's seen too much." He heard this time, not Wenglei's voice but Ying's (short for Yinging) hard one. He slowly veered around to meet his brother's hard unfeeling gaze.
He glanced at his other brothers to say or do something against Ying's ridiculous decision but they stood unmoving as if silently in support with Ying.
"Why would you get rid of her for being a victim? You're no more better than those monsters then." He heard himself retort as he stood protectively in front of the girl.
"I never said I was and neither are you, but I thrive to keep the kingdom balanced and composed, the world actually." Ying said with an unwavering gaze and a hard tone before walking towards him.
"You can't get rid of me, I'm not an oblivious human, I'm Azure and I'm a descendant of the Azure dragon's clan." She declared with a sharp voice as she moved away from behind Zhalong and came into view.
The kingdom had four guardians each guarding the four cardinal points of the kingdom while the vampire gods ruled it, namely the Azure dragon, the vermilion bird, the white tiger and the black tortoise.
The Azure dragon clan watched over the East side of the kingdom, they were known for their elegance, refinement and their great powers in which they could shape shift and have the ability to control water, rain and storm.
Their powers were bestowed upon them by the Azure dragon millennium of years ago as well as the other clans.
Zhalong merely blinked at her in puzzlement, he had a bit of awareness about the mystical four guardian gods in Chinese folklore but staring at one left him in stupefaction.
He saw his brothers narrow their gazes at her silently as if reading through her to figure out if she was lying or not.
His eyes followed Ying's movement and he alarmingly shielded her with his body while holding a hard gaze with Ying, even he didn't understand why he was so keen on protecting her, but he did anyway, it felt like redemption for killing that innocent girl during breakfast.
"Move. I won't harm her...if her claims are true." Ying said with a straight face but it didn't seem like he had the patience for him to move if he declined so he took a sharp breathand moved, but not without watching his menacing brother's every movement like a hawk, ready to defend her if he tried to harm her.
He watched as his brother locked gaze with the girl before taking a swift movement with his hand to pull down the sleeve of her dress in a rude and discourteous manner which revealed her shoulder and a bit of cleavages.
The girl flinched and shoved his hand away but he resumed what he was doing and screened his eyes on her exposed body which made her cheeks flush redder than before in embarrassment.
"What do you think you're doing?" She yelled hysterically before pulling the fabric of her dress up to cover her exposed skin.
"She has the dragon's mark." Ying stated out and mechanically walked back to his former position.
"Well, what do we do with you now? your parents are dead, you should return back home." Wenglei stated out the facts nonchalantly and he saw tears fill the brim of her jade blue eyes but it didn't drop.
"I can't go back, that's why we were on our way to the palace, to inform you of the impending dangers." She replied with a shaky voice, her body trembling slightly and Zhalong couldn't decipher if it was the news of her parents death that made her body tremble like she just caught a fever, not until his eyes dropped on the black fabric of his clothes wound around her abdomen, slowly getting soaked with her blood.
Shit! She was bleeding out.
"What do you mean?"
She opened her mouth to reply Wenglei but her head felt dizzy and her eyelids shut close as she lost unconsciousness.
Zhalong caught hold of her with a swift movement before her body could hit the ground.
He stared at her small oval unconscious face, her long thick lashes brushed her upper cheek as her eyes laid close, she looked like a damsel in distress.
He carried her in a bridal style and they all set to leave for the palace, not before he saw Lei give him a mischievous wink.