E R I K

After the Devil's House confrontation, I thought all was lost. Morgan had been taken, and the Mad Prince would keep her from me for centuries.

It felt like the war was truly over. The vampires had won, and I was forever doomed to live my days in Thorsbury as the homeless man who liked to pretend he was King.

I had gone home, heart heavy and soul broken. Ranni and Byron were waiting for me back at the cottage. I imagined their disapproving reactions when I told them their gut instinct about Morgan was right. The fox had betrayed us and returned to the Mad Prince. My mate had abandoned me, and my life was no longer worth living.

However, when I came in with my tail between my legs, Sir Glen furiously threw food packets into a backpack.

"The swine took them," he yelled, shoving a packet of ginger nut biscuits into his military backpack. "Goddamn Devil worshipper came and took our women folk."

"What are you prattling on about," I snapped.

"Poppy and Morgan are gone, kidnapped. He took them," Glen explained. "I was out patrolling the woods when suddenly, I saw a shifty fellow creeping through the wood. I took one look at him and thought he was up to no good and so I followed him. I tracked him through the woods to the Devil's House. Morgan and Poppy were lying unconscious in the snow outside the house. The bloody pig picked them up and took them inside. I ran after him, but when I got to the house, he was gone."

"Gone?" I repeated.

"He had vanished into thin air," Glen explained.

Byron rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Or maybe he disappeared through a portal," he countered.

"Motherfucker," Ranni snapped. "The bastard must have a portal hidden in that house, and he is using it like a rat to cross from this world to our home world."

I'd collapsed into a chair as it dawned on me that nothing the Mad Prince had told me was true. My mate had not betrayed me; instead, she had been kidnapped from me by those bastard vampires.

Black fury bubbled and raged inside me. The thought of my sweet innocent mate being torn away from me, against her will, tore at my soul.

"My poor Morgan," I exhaled.

"We'll get her back," Byron said, opening a cupboard and pulling out a sword wrapped in a blanket.

"We have to save them, but we have no armour," Ranni said.

Our armour had been one of the first items we had sold when we arrived in this world. We sold it because, in this world, there was no need for it. However, if we go home, then we'd need our armour back.

"We could take the armour suits from the village hall," Glen suggested. "The village hall has three suits of armour displayed in the foyer, next to the food donation box and community notice board. The armour belonged to the first settlers of the village. It's old but still in good condition."

"I guess that's better than nothing," Byron shrugged.

"I won't need any armour," Glen chirped. "I shall wear my robes."

"You are staying here, Sir Glen," I replied.

Glen shook his head and grabbed a handful of garlic bulbs, and shoved them into his robe pockets.

"You'll need a warrior of light to help fight the bloodsucking demons of the night," he argued.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that garlic did nothing to demons. It had been four hundred years since anyone in this village had come face to face with a vampire. Most of the village's vampire knowledge came from TV shows and movies.

"Vampires are tricky, Sir Glen. It would be much safer for you to stay here," I said.

Glen shook his head and placed a plastic bottle labelled 'holy water' in his rucksack.

"I have struggled with dark entities in those woods for the past four decades. I refuse to miss out on an opportunity to confront the source of the evil that has been plaguing our woods," Glen replied.

I didn't want Sir Glen coming with us, but something about Sir Glen seemed to bring us luck.

I suppressed a groan and exchanged glances with Ranni and Byron. Their eyes screamed silently at me, 'Don't you dare bring him along'. They knew that they would have to babysit him if he came along.

"Sir Glen, if you come with us, then you may never return," I sighed.

"That is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Thorsbury might seem a silly little village to you, but it's our home. I'd give up my life to defend it," he said.

This seemed strange to me. Growing up, I'd only ever seen the long abandoned charred remains of burnt villages and towns. I'd always thought that dragons only lived in the relative safety of the grand mountain forts. I'd never realised there was a time when people had lived and farmed the lands at the base of the mountains.

Hearing Glen speak about his village like this surprised me. I thought soldiers fought for their King - but Glen was fighting for me. He was fighting for Poppy and Morgan.

"Okay," I said, finally relenting. "You can come with us."

Byron and Ranni rolled their eyes at me from behind Sir Glen's back. They'd probably thought I'd gone mad, but honestly, I felt we could learn a little more from Sir Glen.

We packed enough supplies for a few days and brought some small trinkets to trade for coins once we arrived home. Sir Glen retrieved the suits of armour from the village hall without any effort. The warden of the village hall kept the key to the entrance hidden under a flowerpot that sat outside the front door.

The armour wasn't much different from our sets of armour. It was plainer and lacked our previous armour's royal markings and gold decoration.

We changed into the armour behind the back of the hall and set off across the woods to the Devil's House.

"This armour weighs a ton," Byron lamented as we followed Sir Glen through the forest.

"I remember my old armour being much easier to move in," Ranni replied as she fidgeted with the leather straps of her chest plate.

"We'll get used to it," I said.

It had been years since we had worn armour. There was no need to wear armour in this world - unless we wanted to be bombarded with tourist photo requests.

"Do you think our home will be the same," Ranni asked.

"I don't know," I replied honestly.

My mind was focused on getting Morgan back. I didn't care which world I was in as long as I was in the same world as her.

The Devil's House loomed ahead. The tumbled-down building was the perfect place for the vampires to conceal a portal.

We entered the house and began shifting furniture and checking cupboards to see where the portal was hidden.

"Remember, portals can appear as light, air, or water," I said.

"There is a funny puddle of black water under the kitchen sink," Sir Glen called out.

"It's probably a puddle caused by a leaking tap, Sir Glen," Ranni replied impatiently.

"I don't think so. I can stick my whole arm in it," Sir Glen said.

I raised an eyebrow at Ranni, and we both went into the kitchen, where Sir Glen was kneeling in front of a strange black puddle of water.

"Watch this," he said, rolling up the long sleeve of his robe and sticking his hand into the water.

His hand and then his forearm sank deep into the black water. Ranni crouched down next to Glen and dipped her hand into the water.

"That's the portal," she confirmed.

I knelt down next to it and studied the dark water. I shrugged off my backpack and dropped it into the water. The backpack disappeared.

"Okay, I'll go first," I said, carefully lowering my feet into the portal.

Seconds later, I was sinking into angry black swirling waters. The light above me faded, and for a brief second, I wondered if this was really a portal. Maybe this was a well that I had fallen down.

I started to kick my legs against the current, hoping to swim back to the surface. The pull of the water was too strong, and seconds later, I was spat out of the portal onto a cold hard flagstone floor.

Byron, Ranni, and Sir Glen quickly followed.

Glancing around the room, there was no clue where we were. The room was small and windowless and seemed filled with crates of rusting weapons.

Before we had a chance to compose ourselves, I heard footsteps outside the room. I pressed my fingers to my lips and crept towards the door.

As the footsteps passed, I threw open the door, startling a servant. Her eyes widened in panic as I pressed the tip of my sword against her throat.

"Where is your master?" I growled.

The servant froze but then replied in an unsteady voice. "He's in the dining hall."

"Take me to him," I demanded.

The servant nodded her head slowly and took us to Henry.

When we reached the dining hall, I could hear Morgan's voice pleading with Henry. I didn't understand what she was pleading with him about, but the desperation in her voice made me fucking furious.

I entered the dining hall with my sword pressed against the servant's back, determined to save my Morgan.

*Hi all, this is a quick note to say that after writing this chapter, I realise that this chapter should by chapter 29, instead of chapter 30. I'll probably switch the chapters around next week to better suit the flow of the story <3 EDIT: They have now been swapped over :)*