Chester shook his head in disapproval. "You are fifteen years old. You should be enjoying your teen years instead of worrying about the war," he lectured his younger brother.
"But I wanna fight!" Kai exclaimed in a whiny pitch.
"In the next five years, you will, but for now, you should be dancing with a pretty vampiress like your friends." Chester suggested with a chuckle as he pushed his brother forward towards the cheerful crowd.
Kai peered at the crowd, and his cheeks flushed into a reddened blush. "You are twenty-five, and I don't see you dancing with any vampiress," he argued, attempting to distract his older brother from the topic.
I followed Kai's gaze and discovered his focus was on a stunning young vampiress around his age, undoubtedly someone he had a crush on. She wore a layered tunic gown in shades of purple and pink. Vibrant jewels adorned the silk fabric and glittered as she twirled, topping off her appeal. Her golden curly hair resembled the hue of dusk, framing her jewel-round face. Additionally, a cute button nose and perfectly plumped lips enchanted her beauty. For a royal vampiress from a different Coven, her elegance surpassed most of the crowd, which explains Kai's attraction to her.
"Fair point," Chester chuckled. "I bet I can get a vampiress to dance with me faster than you can," he playfully challenged that theory.
"Hey!" Kai shouted when Chester darted into the dancing circle.
He instantly grabbed a random vampiress and started dancing with her. By the way, she giggled and joined hands with Chester, I could tell he knew her quite well, even though I hadn't met most of the Covens they were celebrating a victory with. Nevertheless, I recognized Mitchell, Levi, Clarice, and Elizabeth's Covens were here dancing with their allies. Like Kai, they were only teenagers and clearly not together just yet. None of Kai's Alpha friends haven't gotten any clue that they will get married sometime in the future.
"You show off!" Kai chuckled to himself as he stood alone, unaware he was with me while he watched his older brother.
Inside the lively dance circle, Chester and the vampiress gracefully danced their way over to the youthful vampiress Kai unmistakably had a crush on. With a gentle lean into her ear, Chester whispered something sweetly that sparked her laughter to resonate like tinkling bells in a tower. Still giggling, her shimmering eyes meet Kai's gaze with a magnetic pull. As a result of her captivating appeal, a rosy blush painted Kai's cheeks even redder when she twirled and danced in his direction.
"Dance with me, Kai!" she exclaimed, capturing his hand with a lighthearted giggle that echoed into the joyous melody of the celebration.
Whoever the young Royal vampiress was, she pulled him into the crowd, and he happily danced with her while I stayed unseen on the sideline. I warmly smiled at him having fun with the vampiress, which I didn't take to heart because I acknowledged he was young.
Naturally, I expected Kai to have his fair share of crushes and relationships long before he knew he had me as his destined mate. Way before he knew about me, he had an arranged marriage with Samantha, which he turned down. Then he almost married Rose if it wasn't for him having a dream about me as a baby the night before their wedding.
As I watched Kai dance cheerfully with the Vampiress, an unexpected chill ran across my body when Orlando strode through my unseen ghostly figure. I scowled at him, pushing forward to notice his glare was fixed on Kai and the vampiress as a sneer curved his lips. Being fifteen years old, I could only imagine what Orlando was scheming since he didn't appear jealous.
Kai was spot on when he once mentioned that issues between the Collins and the Mills escalated sometime after the second-generation grandchildren of the Headmasters had matured. Kai, his brother, and their first cousins belonged to the second generation, just like Orlando, his twin, Alejandro, and their first cousins did too.
Orlando's sinister expression certainly foreshadowed he was about to initiate a dispute with Kai. As he goes to step into the ring of dancers, a sudden flash of fear crosses Orlando's gaze, bringing him to a halt.
Multiple Headmasters, including Vlad, Vincent, Edgar, and Morbius, urgently planted their feet on the sideline of the dancing crowd and bellowed. "Everyone head for the cliffs!"
Immediately, the celebration came to a halt. Panic replaced the cheer with an eruption, and the little ones cried as their mothers swiftly scooped them up.
"Get the vamp children and the vampiresses to higher ground!" Edgar roared in panic."Everyone else, grab what you can!"
Most of the vampiresses flew to one of the high cliffs while some of the mothers searched for their older offspring. Other mothers hastily grabbed their sleeping vamp babies from inside the tents. All the while, Mrs. Mill hurriedly ushered Orlando and Alejandro out of there, following Emily and her daughter Crystal, while CJ stayed behind to assist in getting everyone to safety.
"Kai!" Mrs. Collin called out for her son as others scattered around her, yet she pushed through them. Veronica was by her side, along with Mrs. Collin's sisters and their offspring. Meanwhile, Kai and Chester ensured the vampiresses they had danced with found their mothers first.
"He's with me!" Chester hollered, darting to their mom with Kai.
"Kai, let's go!" Mrs. Collin argued in a panic, reaching for his hand.
"No, I wanna help!" Kai backed away from his mother's hand.
Mrs. Collin asserted, grasping his hand. "You're not old enough!"
When Chester noticed Kai yanking free, he intervened, "He can help me free the horses!"
"Don't let anything happen to him," Mrs. Collin agreed, though her motherly instincts asserted strongly.
Nevertheless, she left with everyone she was with while Kai and Chester freed the frantic horses as I did my best to keep up.
"Double-check the tents!" Vlad shouted as he zoomed in and planted his feet on the ground near Kai while he was untying Veronica's white horse.
After Vlad smacked the horse's rear to get it trotting with the herd, he demanded, "Come now, I'm taking you to your mother."
As I pressed forward, following behind them, I stretched my hand to snatch Vlad's garment.
It's a good thing Kai taught me a few tricks to maneuver around my time gap. Ghost or not, my invisible fingers could still grasp items. However, I still wasn't able to move anything since my body went through everything and anyone if I did it wrong.