"How dare she?" the Queen squinted, hands clenched into tight fists as she looked at Zacharia and Prince Kuzma. "How dare she!?"

  "Mother— "

  "That little b*tch is really testing my patience!" she said and shoved a vase closest to her. The loud sound of the porcelain vase crashing against the floor echoed inside her quarters. "She actually killed a Duke that was working for me?"

  "She didn’t kill it it was Gavril but— "

  "She instigated it! She must have planned everything with that evil son of mine!" she hissed. Gavril was just too sinister, he was too prideful and smart that she found it hard to control the man. In an attempt to make Gavril suffer so he would bow down to her, the Queen used his second son to make him fight against Gavril.

  She thought once Gavril would feel threatened and would smell the defeat coming his way, he would bow down, apologize, and asked for her advice. This, of course, didn’t happen. Instead, Gavril maintained his distance and stopped asking her for her thoughts about his plans.

  This…… this was enough to make her mad. And now this? Lucinia is actually working with the Prince? How could this happen? "She needed to die!" she added and walked towards her bed. Grabbing a wine that was full of blood, the Queen looked at Zacharia. "I thought she liked you? She begged me to make her marry you! What happened?"

  "I— " Zach stuttered. Even he couldn’t understand what happened with Lucinia. It was like she had changed after that accident.

  "I know you hated her but did you actually have to watch her almost die as people made fun of her?"

  "Mother…… please don’t blame Zach about this matter. Lucinia’s change was because she almost died. That wasn’t Zach’s fault."

  "Zacharia was her knight! A guardian! How could he let her suffer like that?"

  "Mother…… I am certain this wouldn’t change a thing."

  "If he defended her then…… then that woman would be with us now!"

  "Mother— "

  "Stop defending Zacharia!" the Queen hissed. She narrowed her eyes at Prince Kuzma as she remembered Lucinia’s words about the two. Just thinking about it, made her nauseated. She immediately shook the thoughts out of her head as she glared at the two. "I want you to fix this!"

  "How?"

  "She needed to die!" she barked at Zacharia. "This is all your fault so, you must……"

  "Mother…… please calm down. Let’s not talk about this in the middle of anger." Prince Kuzma immediately intervened, his dark clothes fluttered as he moved quickly next to Zach. "I haven’t told you everything about Lucinia, but she mentioned something about controlling blood. Zach and I suffered at the same time, and I was certain she would have killed us if the Duke didn’t intervene."

  "And?"

  "Well…… Well, I think that we needed to send assassins. Vampire assassins to fight her."

  "You— " Speechless, the Queen downed her glass of blood before turning towards her son. "You wanted me to order the assassin that…… Kuzma…… are you insane? Those people are my family’s secret. We cannot ask them to do something as menial as this."

  "This is what I was trying to say, mother. Lucinia was not a small thing. She could kill me and Zach. She could kill you and might even have the capability to kill father!"

  "But how could that be? She…… she shouldn’t be more powerful than your father! After all, her mother was…… a human." Slowly, her eyes widened when she realized that she had actually mentioned the secret behind Lucinia’s mother.

  "A human? I thought it was a low-level vampire?" Zach immediately frowned.

  "Well…… she was a human. A servant. And only a few people know about this matter. I believe, even the Duke doesn’t know about the secret of Lucinia’s birth."

  "If…… if she is not a pure vampire then……" Zach turned silent for a few seconds. "To be honest, that actually made sense. She can’t drink blood and isn’t as fast and strong as us. If her mother was indeed human then that is only a natural reaction, but that wouldn’t explain her ability."

  The Queen’s face turned ugly when she realized that she actually didn’t know much about Lucinia’s mother. The King told her that she died after giving birth and he just asked his people to burned her body but, she hadn’t actually seen the woman’s body so, she couldn’t be certain if the King was even telling the truth about this matter. "She is an abomination," she gritted her teeth. "I am certain that she is sent to make us suffer!"

  Zach and Prince Kuzma eyed each other before they turned their gazes towards the Queen.

  "So…… are we going to kill her?" Prince Kuzma interrupted the silence inside the room. She hated Lucinia so much that he could feel every bone of his body loathed her. He couldn’t even mention her name without feeling all the blood in his body boil.

  "She needed to die," the Queen said. "But if she is as powerful as you say, then even our assassin won’t be able to stop her."

  "You mean……"

  "Duke Mo." The Queen stated as she met her son’s eyes. "Duke Mo is with her all the time. Even if she was not physically strong, the man could easily subdue anyone before they could touch a strand of her hair. The Duke was as strong as the King. If he would be easy to defeat then…… the King …… would have been long dead by now."

  "Mother! What are you talking about?" Prince Kuzma’s face changed. "The walls have ears!" How could the Queen talked about her husband’s death as if it was as easy as squeezing some food?

  "This place was enchanted by a witch. No one could hear what we were talking outside." People like the King and the Queen have their own witches that worked for them to create these spells. Of course, these witches were the ones deemed as criminals by their covens. She looked at the two before she sighed. "I don’t know where did Duke Mo come from. All I know was that one day, a white-haired vampire arrived and talked to the King. Then…… they just became this…… close brothers overnight. It was a very strange event that I won’t be able to forget the smug smile that the Duke gave me when I tried to asked the guards to arrest him."

  "So you were saying he is someone of an unknown origin? What if…… what if he was a criminal from other kingdoms? And father— " Prince Kuzma didn’t continue his words when he saw the Queen shook her head, gently.

  "I suppose you have heard about The Ancients?"

  Prince Kuzma stared at the Queen blankly, seeing this, the Queen continued. "I can’t blame you. Not many people know of them. They were not the first vampires, but they were someone made by vampires and witches to protect the other vampires. They have the power of a witch, the speed and strength of a vampire, and the face of an angel."

  "I— I haven’t heard of these people," Zach uttered.

  "Of course, you haven’t. These people were long gone from history. They were this powerful entity, legends that don’t really exist. They were the monsters used to scare small children."

  "But they were real?"

  The Queen nodded. "My father knew that these people became corrupted by power that they…… tried to rule the vampires instead. No one could withstand their abilities, and no one actually dared to fight them. However, according to the legends, all of them…… just disappeared."

  Silence descended inside the room. "Rumor has it that because they use their ability a lot, their body wasn’t able to withstand it, and they turned into ashes." She shrugged. "Some say that a god descended and killed them all. However, since not every ancient was in the castle that day, many survived while hiding."

  "So you are saying that he might be one of them?"

  The Queen nodded. "Of course, this was nothing but some guesses that I made based on some factors like how the King treated him like a superior, and how he would always intervene if something would threaten the Kingdom and the King’s ability."

  "I don’t get it," Zach uttered. "Let’s be honest here…… this Kingdom was not the strongest. Why would he hide here and even protect the King?"

  The mother and son just stayed silent as they really cannot answer that question. The Queen sighed as she tried to think of other ways to kill Lucinia. However, these thoughts were interrupted when one of her knights knocked and walked inside the room.

  "Your highness…… I have some news."

  "Speak!" the Queen ordered.

  "After the banquet…… Duke Mo said that he needed to attend to some personal business with the King and left the Princess along to go back to his mansion."

  "And?"

  "Just as the Princess arrived in the mansion, a few assassins attacked her, she was wounded but still survived using her ability. Now the Duke was saying that his mansion is not safe anymore. He was begging the King to make the Princess and him stay in one of the Quarters until he figured out who was trying to kill the Princess."