Scared that he had ended up in waters too deep with the misunderstanding Cassiel might have of him, Prince Angelus raced down every hallway in search of his shapeshifter.
'Where are you, Cas?' he asks, eyes dark with worry.
His haste movements and hurried search made him less focused on his path. He failed to register the person coming about the corner.
Bam!
He collided with someone sending them falling to the ground. With no remorse, he proceeded along the path without a care for the accident he caused.
"My lady, are you alright?" Zaya helped Lady Catalina to her feet and dusted off the dirt from her dress.
Lady Catalina was fuming mad at the utter disrespect she faced by being pushed to the floor and not receiving an apology from the villain who assaulted her.
She shot her head back and glared at Prince Angelus's back with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you blind?" she barked.
Prince Angelus kept walking, ignorant of the angry lady behind him, whilst his eyes darted left to right looking for Cassiel.
"I am speaking to you. How dare you ignore me!" Lady Catalina fetched her shoe and threw it in Angelus's direction.
Whomp!
The shoe swung across the air and hit the back of Prince Angelus's head.
"Argh," the prince groaned, his right hand raising to brush the spot Lady Catalina's shoe hit.
His worry for Cassiel, along with his frustration over the drama Lady Saskia created, morphed into the anger of being hit and turned into pure rage.
He twirled around, slowly. His dark green eyes snapped up to the two women standing across the hall from him.
When he locked eyes with Lady Catalina, both parties recognized the other instantly. The scene from the market was fresh in both their minds, which elevated the anger they both felt at that moment.
"You!" they chimed, pointing their index fingers at each other.
Prince Angelus smirked. He had let go of the insult from the market out of fear of his father. Now, he had gotten over his father's issues and accepted the fact that no matter what he did, he was always going to be hated by the king, so he didn't care about anything other than his interests.
"Hmph," Lady Catalina scoffed. Having failed to recognize Prince Angelus as anyone prominent in the kingdom, she figured he was of low rank and had used someone to secure entrance to the palace.
Her assumption gave her the confidence to mess with him. "It seems someone adopted a stray dog from the street and cleaned it up real nice," she mocked.
"Are you talking about yourself?" Prince Angelus fired back. "They did a good job but not even a million baths can clean that dirty tongue of yours," he added.
Lady Catalina fumed. Angered by the lack of fear in Angelus's face. The reaction was far from what she anticipated from him, especially since Angelus gave in to her after learning her identity at the market.
She elegantly marched ahead to slap some senses into Angelus's head and show him his place.
"Why? Can't hear yourself being insulted from a distance so you're moving up close?" Angelus smirked.
"It's rather difficult to slap you from here, "Her rage needed an outlet and Angelus's attitude provoked her to the core.
Lady Catalina waited until she stood inches away from Angelus before raising her hand in the air to hit him.
Alert, Prince Angelus caught her hand. His fingers wrapped firmly around her small wrist, putting more pressure than needed in his hold.
Lady Catalina winced in pain. Zaya stepped forward to assist her, she struggled to release Catalina's hand from Angelus's arm.
"Release my lady right now!" she demanded arrogantly. "You have no idea what trouble you are inviting for yourself by acting like this."
Unfazed by the threats, Angelus kept pressing hard on Catalina's hand. Releasing his frustration on her.
Lady Catalina sobbed silently. Moving her hand about to free it from Angelus's firm grip. The pain brought tears to her arrogant eyes and humbled her features to a pleading sense.
"Let...let me go," her voice shivered.
Never in her life had anyone touched her so violently. Everyone she met either respected her or feared her, they didn't dare cross the line with her.
"Leave her!" Zaya demanded; she clasped her hand on Angelus's arm and took a bite in the hopes that he'd release her lady from the pain.
Prince Angelus tolerated the pain from the bite but refused to release Lady Catalina's hand. He forcefully pushed his hand forward, shaking Zaya off and as she wasn't expecting it, it sent her falling down.
Shaking off the nuisance, he pulled forward with all his might. Lady Catalina stumbles into his arms. Prince Angelus raised his left hand to Lady Catalina's face, snaking his finger under her chin, he forced her to look up.
Lady Catalina met his darkened gaze with her wet teary eyes. "I turned a blind eye to your insult at the market. Did that give you the opinion that I am easy to bully?"
"Disgusting!" Lady Catalina spat out. "A man who hurts a woman is not a man. You're disgusting!"
"You'll run out of words to describe me. I am a lot of things, dear, don't waste your breath trying to define me, " he whispered, his soft voice sending shivers down her spine.
She had seen eyes like his before and heard a voice like his, too, in her father. Lady Catalina knew without a doubt that darkness rested behind the gorgeous green eyes staring back at her.
"Who are you?"
"Isn't that a question you should've asked before you made an enemy of me?"
"You hit me first and didn't apologize for it. You've shown me nothing but disrespect and insulted me repeatedly; if anything, I should be the one getting angry here," she made her case.
"Too bad, I'm angry and my anger be satiated," he said, dragging her along with him.
Lady Catalina resisted with all her strength but her efforts bore no fruit as Angelus was stronger than her.
He dragged her down to the servants' bathing house in the main palace with Zaya running behind them, throwing threats at Prince Angelus to release Catalina.
"Since this is the second time you've offended me, I won't be too harsh on you."
"What do you intend to do?" Lady Catalina asked in panic, her eyes staring at the dirty water in the bathing pool.
"Cleaning up the filth that is your arrogance," he spoke shoving Lady Catalina forward.
Splash!
A huge slash wet the edge of the pool as Lady Catalina's weight landed on the water.
"My lady!" Zaya rushed over, scared out of her wits. "I am going to kill you!" she threatened Angelus.
Prince Angelus burst out into a laughing fit like a madman. In a split second, his features froze into a crooked expression, "That was a mistake," he said pushing her in after her lady.
The two women struggled to float in the dirty water. They made splashes in their struggles, and their dresses floated about.
The prince watched for a few seconds before he remembered his pressing issue. "If I had time, I would have settled the score with you in such a way that you'd never raise your voice to me again."
He turned around and left to find Cassiel and clear the air about his 'supposed' engagement to Lady Saskia.