In a very large circular hall, different creatures were all gathered, and despite how crowded the hall looked, everywhere was as quiet as a graveyard.
The door was quietly opened behind the crowd, but it still got the attention of a few people as they looked back to see who was entering the hall.
Two people, a man and a woman quickly ran up to the man who had just entered the hall and led him towards the right side of the hall where their kind were patiently waiting for the master.
"Alpha Elliot, there seems to be a problem," Morgan's eyes glazed over as she spoke to Elliot through the mind link.
"Problem? Isn't it about Cassius's awakening?" Cassius replied through the mind-link.
"I heard from someone that it's about an intruder..." Aubrey still replied in the mind-link.
Elliot didn't reply, he remained quiet, silently thinking about how an intruder could cross the realm, even though he couldn't cross the realm without a proper portal being created for him by his mage, Morgan.
Everywhere was still quiet, no one dared to make a sound. They were all apprehensive and scared as they'd just been informed that their master had awoken, they feared for they knew the meaning of a vampire awakening from a two-thousand-year healing sleep, and, not just any vampire, a pure-blood vampire.
It meant that their abilities had reached an unmatched level and as a pure blood, he was bound to become stronger and gain more abilities. Everyone was quietly looking up at the stage, waiting for their master to come and address them.
And he did.
They watched in fear as dark thick foggy smoke started to appear on the stage, and in a matter of seconds, it cleared up to reveal a very beautiful yet dangerous man with skin so clear that it reflected the lights in the hall.
"Welcome, master! Your subjects await your order!" The whole creatures said at the same time as they immediately went down on their knees with their heads bowed.
"Arise," Cassius said, moving across the stage in an almost fluid manner as if his legs weren't touching the floor.
A frown marked Cassius's face as he stared at his subjects, he didn't quite understand why their dress seemed very off to him, they almost looked like the human intruder. And he couldn't understand the type of lightning they used to decorate his hall, it was too bright, and it was too large, not his style at all.
"Master, here she is," Felonious spoke as he slowly carried Rose up the stairs and gently laid her beside Cassius's legs on the stage.
This time, gasps were heard from the crowd as they stared at Rose. They instantly knew that this meeting wasn't for welcoming their awakened master, but for something more lethal, like betrayal.
"Silence!" Cassius commanded coldly.
His long black button-down coat flowed on the ground as he slowly and majestically walked back and forth across Rose.
The crowd of magical creatures instantly kept quiet, returning the pin-drop silence to the hall.
"I don't need to tell everyone why you've all been summoned," Cassius stopped walking and stood by the edge of the stage, facing his subjects.
"Now, I'll only ask once, who brought a human to soil my lands?" He asked menacingly, his eyes fluctuating between sea green and dangerous red.
The whole hall was quiet, everyone stared suspiciously at each other. They couldn't believe that anyone was bold enough to betray them all and break the law by bringing a human into the dark world. It's never been heard in the history of their kingdom and had always been warned against.
They all knew it was an abominable act, and if the perpetrator decided to keep being mute, then they knew what their fate was... Death, death by prolonged torture, and as immortals, they knew that their torture could last for as long as a hundred years, depending on their lifespan.
No one wanted that for themselves.
"No one?" Cassius tilted his head to the side as he regarded the crowd with narrowed eyes.
"I'll let you all know that this human didn't only enter my realm, but, she's also responsible for my awakening, no human should have been able to see my grave, but she did, and so easily too. But, that's okay..." He paused and stared meaningfully at the crowd.
They all got curious and scared from the way he spoke, there was a foreboding in his voice and eyes. They felt sorry for whoever it was that was responsible for bringing the human girl here.
"It helps me narrow everything down to the mages, don't you think so, Felonious?" Cassius asked with a slight tilt of his head and a raised brow as he regarded Felonious with a serious look.
"Yes, master," Felonious replied with a bowed head.
He dared not answer otherwise, even though he knew replying the way he did was also putting himself into trouble as he was the most powerful mage in the Darkonis kingdom.
"Uhg, where am I?" Rose mumbled as she slowly opened her eyes.
The moment she saw a crowd through her blurry vision, she immediately sat up, disregarding the pain in her head.
Elliot hadn't paid attention to the girl that was lying on the stage, but, the instant he saw her sit up, he felt like he's been punched in the gut.
He wished it was Felonious playing some kinda trick with his magical powers. But, he knew; he knew he had seen right, from the gasps and whispers of the people around him, he confirmed that he wasn't just imagining things on his own.
"No way," He said to himself.
"Alpha, she's the girl you brought over"
"Quiet!" He immediately churned Aubrey from completing her comments.
How could this be happening? He was sure that Rose was a common... Well, a human, but how did she end up here from falling off a cliff?
He had to find a way to help her, but he knew it was almost impossible as she had entered the hands of the dark prince.
Cassius heard Rose's voice and slowly turned to her, his eyes narrowing dangerously at her.
Rose didn't wait for the tall and dark figure to approach her, she quickly sprang to her feet and made a run for it, heading towards the stairs that'll lead her down and away from the stage.
She was almost at the end of the stairs when Felonious suddenly appeared before her and blocked her path.
"Please, let me go, I promise I'll never tell anyone about your existence!" Rose pleaded in a shaky voice.
She felt the eyes of all those weird creatures on her, and she also felt the piercing gaze of the vampire prince on her back.
"Don't make this hard for yourself, human," Felonious said as he approached her.
Rose didn't have any other choice than to slowly climb back up the stairs with her back. She discovered that she wouldn't win a war if she started it.
She slowly climbed up the stairs, not looking behind her to see where she was going, but when she suddenly felt a dark shadow hovering above her, her heart sank with the realization that she had once again, willingly gifted herself into the arms of a dangerous vampire.
As she slowly turned to look up at him, she wished she had listened to her friend's advice and thrown that book away. If she did, she wouldn't have ended up transmigrating into this kind of world.
"Hi," She managed to say with a crooked smile and a half-wave as she now faced Cassius's unsmiling face, hoping he decided to let her go because of her good manners.
"Come," Cassius commanded coldly and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, leading her to the edge of the stage.
Rose felt her heart beating a hundred times in a second, she felt her palms suddenly turning cold like the vampire's from fear. As she stood in front of the stage, she dreadfully realized that all the people below the stage weren't human; from the way their eyes glowed, to the way some of them had scales on their bodies and the way their ears protruded.
She shockingly realized that some of the people looking at her with unreadable emotions in their eyes were half-humans, their upper bodies were like normal humans but their lower bodies were like animals she'd never imagined before. In a nutshell, they looked scary as fuck!
"This is the intruder human, I'm sure whoever is responsible for her is here amongst us, that's good..." Cassius said in his silky but dangerous voice.
Rose felt his hand wrap around her neck, she closed her eyes tightly and clenched her fists, praying to every god she knew and hoping a miracle happened, if not, she knew he was about to tear her skin open just to prove a point to his subjects.
"Come forward, or, watch your little human die before your eyes," Cassius hisses beside Rose's face.
The crowds of magical creatures gasped loudly in shock, whispers and murmuring suddenly filled the whole hall.
"What the fuck?" Elliot whispered and instantly took a step forward.
"No! Alpha, you can't do it. You are in no way responsible for her appearance, do not put yourself in danger for a mere human-"
"She's not a mere human!" Elliot barked at Morgan.
"I'm sorry, Alpha," Morgan bowed her head and stepped backward, allowing him to move forward.
"P- please, Mr. Vampire, please let m- me g-go," Rose stammered.
"You shouldn't have ventured into my lands, little human," Cassius hissed angrily and swiftly stepped behind Rose, he used one hand to put over her forehead, holding her in place and slowly raised his other hand to her throat, his sharp fingers shooting out of his hands as he neared Rose's neck.
Rose was profusely sweating as she started to struggle when she saw the sharp claw coming straight to her neck.
"No! Please!" She screamed with her eyes shut, in the neck second, she knew that her blood was going to flow down her neck and stain the wooden stage.
"I'm responsible for her!" A voice suddenly roared from the crowd, everyone looked back in the direction the sound had come from and it caused Cassius to pause in his actions.
Rose instantly opened her eyes and followed the sight of everyone else to see who had spoken, she too was curious to find out who was responsible for bringing her here, she was even more curious than Cassius about how she had ended up here.
But when her eyes landed on the very familiar figure that was now walking towards the stage, she couldn't believe her eyes, she believed that this, like her current location, was a severe hallucination.