I am still reeling from my recent encounter with Viviana's and Anya's secret conversation. All I could confirm from the little discussion was that Viviana is somehow manipulating Anya. 

But why?

By being Dima's mate, Anya has become the Princess of the entire Vampire Kingdom. Theirs is the only royal couple. Isn't she happy with it? What else do you need to be happy?

Thinking about what the couple has with them, reminds me of what I have lost.

I know I have failed my people as the King. I was never really around for these people to understand their problems. I was never there to provide any solution to any of them because I was busy in exacting my revenge.

Revenge that I have failed to exact. Every time I feel that I am close to the murderer of Charlotte, he slips through my fingers. I have been chasing the vampire with a fang tattoo on his wrist but he always manages to escape. That's how I remember him. He murdered my mate in cold blood.

Not too long ago, I had sniffed him in a local bar. It was in the Blue Moon's human region but it was there. Sniffing the bastard in a human town had made my hackles rise but before I could catch him, he had slipped away.

He left a mess behind for me to clean. Not wanting to give away the existence of supernatural beings, I had to move the dead bodies of two men. They were sucked dry and I knew enough about this vampire that I can identify his modus operandi anywhere.

And it pisses me off, to watch him playing with me like this. He knows that I am following him and he has successfully evaded me for 25 years. I have had enough now.

And now when I am visiting my brother before I set off once again to search for that bastard, I find out that Viviana's the cause of my brother's disturbed mated life.

How I wish to throttle the woman!

Gulping down the blood wine, I slam the glass on the counter and run my fingers through my hair, hating this feeling. I hate being a failure. But that's all I have ever been.

I couldn't be a good mate. I was never a good King. And now I am failing to be a good brother, as well.

"Shane, get me another glass," I growl at the bartender. He's has been a loyal vampire, serving here since he was a kid. He gives the best advice and at this moment he is very unhappy to serve me. But do I give a fuck?

Hell no!

"Please refrain from drinking anymore, your Highness," he whispers, further cementing my doubt. Shane only calls me 'your highness' when he's pissed at my behaviour.

"Follow your orders," I snap and point at the glass.

"Will you for once listen to the old man?" The sharp rebuke has me shifting in my chair. I nearly stumble out of it but am caught by a pair of soft feminine hands. Lifting my head up, I catch sight of a familiar red-eyed gaze.

"Jenna!"

"Hello to you too, my Lord. You are not a pleasant sight. Now, will you please stop wallowing in guilt?" she asks, while pushing me back into my chair. Jenna plops down on the chair in front of me while I take in her appearance.

She looks fine. Healthy.

"You are doing well," I state gruffly, overwhelmed by the emotions coursing through my mind at seeing my little trouble-maker of a sister. I am meeting her after a decade.

Jenna rolls her eyes at my words but I do catch a sheen of tears in her eyes before she blinks them away. She looks at me for a long moment and then a soft smile grazes her lips. "I am happy, brother."

Gratitude overflows from her words and her stare but I shake my head. I am not really the one responsible for her happy life. It's her mate who decided to be sober again.

When Jenna had met her mate, he had been a drunk, almost a feral vampire. Jenna was devasted to find a mate who hadn't even bothered to acknowledge her, much less accept her.

She hadn't asked for any help but it was my duty to bring happiness to my sister. She's not my blood but emotionally, Jenna is like a little sister to me.

Her pain and loss affected me; it drove me to pull Damon, Jenna's mate out of the clutches of his beast. He struggled a lot. I had once nearly punched the vampire to death, wanting him to realize how much he would be losing.

And that had been a turning point for Damon. Ever since then, he has made remarkable efforts to keep his beast locked. To have full control over his mind and body, not crossing the limit of killing any human while feeding.

The rush of taking a human's life is very thrilling. And addictive. That thrill had ensnared Damon in the first place but now, Damon is a changed man. And Jenna is a happy woman because of her mate's efforts. He became sober for Jenna. That's what mates do. Look out for each other.

"You should be. How's Damon?" I ask, shaking myself from the past memories. Shane walks toward our table and places a huge glass of ice water for me while offering a glass of chemical-mixed blood to Jenna. Shane looks at me sideways completely ignoring my glare but Jenna looks completely satisfied with my drink. However, she's not with hers. She sniffs her glass and then takes a sip, trying not to gag.

"How do you drink this stuff? A human vein is so much better than this thing," she says while making a face.

"Why are you even drinking it? Go find a human or we have donors available for us," I whisper while looking around for any available donor. They are human bartenders working here as well, but they have fully consented to be a donor for us. They are paid well for it and they are respected equally for their service to us.

"Damon doesn't want me to. He's been paranoid lately. He says that he overheard some feral vampires talking about infecting the human donors with a poison deadly to us."

"What?"

I am out of my chair in seconds. The chair almost slams into the wall but I grab it before it draws anymore attention to us than I have already caused. Gesturing for Jenna to get up, I start walking inside the bar, towards the office's – employee-only section. Jenna follows me quietly but I do not fail to observe the stiffness in her gait.

She looks a little different than before.

Before I could question her about her appearance, she stops in her tracks. "Damn, these women."

Her soft curse makes me turn in my tracks. Looking at her, I follow her gaze, getting the second shock of my day. 

There sitting amongst a bunch of teenage vampires are two women. The blonde-haired woman, I know. It's Viviana but it's the other woman who has me shocked to my core. Shit!

That's Alcina, right beside Viviana. And she's laughing at the older woman's words.

What the fuck is going on here?

"Do you know them, Dominic?"

Jenna whispers her question inside my mind, startling me out of my shocked stupor. I nod at my little sister and grab her hand, pulling her into the office and out of their sensing range.

"What the fuck was that?" I slam my hand on the old mahogany table. It creaks under the force but otherwise stays strong.

"That was Anya's mother, am I right?" asks Jenna while plopping down into the chair as I slide into the owner's soft cushiony chair. Officially speaking, Dima is the owner of this bar but with me being the King and his brother, we both handle our responsibilities together.

People around us think that we aren't close, especially after my mate's death and then due to our father's death as well. But what they don't know is that we share an unbreakable bond. We are twins, not identical but that is not of consequence.

I and Dima have been there to hold each other when we had no one. He held me when I cried after Charlotte's death and it's my duty to catch him when he's being threatened to fall into the unknown abyss spun by Viviana.

One thing I am now sure of is that Viviana is planning something. All I need to find now is what's Alcina's role in it?

Is the young witch a friend or a foe?

"Yes, that's Viviana," I confirm Jenna's suspicions and watch her face scrunch up in disgust.

"Why is she associating with a witch? And how did she even get to walk in here?"

"Viviana's trouble, Jenna." She nods at my words, completely agreeing with me but it also brings back her words. "But first things first. Tell me about what Damon found," I whisper, hoping that my humanely fragile-looking vampire spy has found something.

Jenna sighs in her seat in front of me, her hands lifting in the air before settling in her long dark curls. Her pierced eyebrows furrow, as if deep in thought as she tries to recollect anything about the incident. From her concentration, I assume that she was present when Damon overheard this conversation.

"Something about poisoning the humans with an excessive dose of Calcium. This way the human donors will not be able to store their blood for us. It will allow the blood to clot faster."

"That's not logical enough," I think out loud. Jenna nods her head in agreement and then rests her chin on her palm thinking hard.

"I think we are missing something," she whispers. She sighs and then rests against the chair, her restlessness obvious but her next action is what surprises me. Jenna lays both of her hands on her belly and starts caressing it, unknowingly. She closes her eyes and I watch as her face relaxes a bit.

My gasp must have been audible because the next moment, Jenna's eyes fly open and she sits up straight, looking right into my eyes.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," she chastises while blushing hard under my stare. I poke at her mind and she rolls her eyes, allowing me entry. What waits for me inside, shocks me.

"Say it."

"You know now. I am pregnant," she whispers, her words soft yet their impact is explosive. I am out of my chair and within seconds, I have her clutched in my arms. My emotions threaten to overwhelm me but it's been so long. So long since any of our females have conceived.

Jenna's pregnancy will be a ray of hope for the other expectant females.

"Congratulations, sister. May the Lord bless you with a healthy child," I whisper my words softly into her hair, thanking the heavens for blessing my sister.

"Thank you, Nico. Damon has been trying so hard. We are truly blessed by this pregnancy," she whispers, her voice thick with unshed tears. She pulls away, wiping at her tears. Just as I am about to speak, the door bursts open, revealing Damon.

"What's wrong?" he whispers, looking around as if trying to find something harmful inside the room. The moment he sees me towering above Jenna, who's sniffling with a bright smile on her face; he relaxes. Putting the pistol back into his waistband, he walks ahead toward me and bows in a gesture of respect.

"Congratulations, Damon!"

"Thank you. For everything," he whispers the last word, and I know exactly what he is feeling at this moment. Silently, he pulls Jenna into his arms, sniffing his mate deeply. Only when he's sure that she's happy and safe, does he let her go.

"Have a seat Damon," I whisper and order a huge bottle of blood wine and orange juice for the pregnant lady.

"It's time we execute our plan, Korol,"

~~~~

Walking inside the house, I shrug off the icy shiver that runs down my spine. Something's off.

"Smells odd," whispers Damon beside me and I agree. It really does smell odd.

"Let's get into the safe. I want to see if everything is fine," I whisper and then take off into the castle's east wing.

Walking inside my father's personal quarters, I make my way towards the safe and look around for any kind of evidence. I need to find out if anyone's been here in my absence.

Damon walks behind me, but it seems that he's taking in the room and the death in it. This is the place where my father breathed his last breath. We do not come here often. Someone can easily come in and go without us noticing it.

"Korol!"

Turning around at Damon's soft call, I narrow my eyes when he points out at the bar. He walks ahead of me toward the bar and then circles around the counter, moving towards the racks and racks of bottles. Some are very old, older than me.

My father was a very enthusiastic drinker. He liked his alcohol flavoured nicely. That's why he founded the club where I was sitting a few hours ago. Nirvana. That's the name of that club where humans and vampires come. Some come to feel the ecstasy when a vampire sucks off their vein. Some humans visit for the first time and then run for the hills when they see a vampire smirking at them with their fangs on display.

It's amusing! Especially when those humans try and rattle off to the police. It's hilarious to watch the humans trying to lodge a complaint about a vampire and then being called drunk beyond the point of sane thoughts. The police ignore them because they reek of alcohol and it's quite easy to prove that we do not host monsters.

What a joke!

Chuckling internally at my thoughts, I blink my eyes at Damon. He's trying to find something but what?

"What are you looking for?"

"I think I saw a bottle from our previous King's personal bar in Dragon's Lair," he murmurs and then continues looking around.

"What?"

Shocked at the revelation, I sit back on the barstool, trying to connect the dots. What do Dragons get to do with vampires?

It is true that some Dragons have managed to survive this long in the modern era. However, they are solitary creatures. Never do they engage with the other supernaturals. Business with supernaturals is taboo for their kind.

I wonder how Dragons fit into this mystery.

Suddenly, Damon jumps up in victory, making him look like a 5-year-old who won a lottery of candies.

"Here, see this?" he pulls out a very old looking bottle. The dust has settled on the bottle's neck but it's sealed and that language is Old Irish. The bottle's old and its content is worth diamonds in today's date.

"That might just be the oldest drink that father ever collected," I wonder out loud and walk toward the table where the bottle is kept. Taking a closer look at the bottle, I also make out that the shape and design on the bottle are also ancient, further proving its worth.

"Yes, it might be. It's Blended Irish Whiskey," he whispers proudly and I raise a brow in mock curiosity.

Blended Irish Whiskey is the favourite Whiskey of Dragons.

It is the only drink that Dragons can tolerate. All other forms of alcohol either bore them or doesn't suit their monstrous bodies.

"So, you are implying that father had more of these bottles?" I ask, eyeing the bottle in curiosity now. Will Dragons want more of this alcohol? Is the alcohol needed desperately? Will the Dragons go to war for a barrel full of this whiskey? Sounds immature. 

"Yes, Korol. Please take a look." He backs off a little, making room for me on the other side of the bar. I scoot down to the self from where he pulled out the bottle. The cupboard is dark and smells weird but I can clearly make out the rows and rows of the specially blended whiskey. There are like 20 bottles in this cupboard.

"What the fuck! Dad kept this hidden from us!" I shut the door, more forcefully than I intended to but this revelation changes a lot of things. He has made a direct target out of us. Why steal from Dragons?

And I can bet on my life that dad couldn't have bought this much alcohol. It's not even blood alcohol. It's only alcohol. And Vampires do not even like "only alcohol".

I could just give my left fang to run away from this mess. 

~~~~

Thank you for reading!!

How was the chapter?? What do you all think about the Dragons?? Did Dominic's father really steal them? And if he did steal, then we all know that Dragons do not let a thief run away without punishment. 😉😉

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