The Devil's Son and His Fated Bride
Chapter 63: Oh well... Here you are, little brother!

Chapter 63: Oh well... Here you are, little brother!

Silence reigned in the tent for a long moment after Kai explained why they needed a vampire. Alpha Xander was baffled. Why take the vampire to Thegara when they could simply bring the physician here and decrease the risk? But he refrained from asking since there must be a reasonable justification for this that made His Highness risk.

"Your Highness, we need a harness to restrain the vampire and..."

"We have a cage here, don’t we?" Axe, now standing, interrupted him, pointing toward an iron cage in the corner of the tent.

"Oh, yes! A dog was infected. We tried to heal the animal, but it didn’t make it. The fever took the poor thing."

Axe pouted. So many animals would die because of Luther’s greed.

"That will work. Are they still lurking in the forest?" Kai asked.

Alpha Xander nodded. "There must be plenty on the other side of the lake."

Kai rose to his feet and turned. "We’ll catch one and kill the rest."

"Your Highness, please stay here. We will catch one for you. Now that Luther is behind this, please don’t get close to their nests."

Kai’s glare was sharp, unyielding. "I’m not afraid of Luther. If he wants me, let him come. I’ll face him and send him back to my father again. However, he is tempting me to kill him this time. He had put a finger on something which is mine."

Axe coughed to clear his throat. "Now that Shadow has awakened, Luther must be crying!" He laughed sheepishly.

"Shadow is awakened?" Alpha Xander’s expression twisted, a mix of fear and relief. Shadow was powerful—too powerful. The vampires couldn’t bite him or turn him, and he could slaughter many in the blink of an eye. But it would also drain His Majesty’s stamina dangerously fast.

"Yes, since Your Grace was attacked by those intruders in Alvonia."

Axe immediately regretted speaking when he saw the look on Kai’s face. He was too chatty tonight.

"Then we go out!" Kai strode toward the entrance as Xander hurried to bring his cloak.

"Here, Your Highness. The wind is strong near the lake. Please be careful."

Kai pulled the cloak around his shoulders, the corner of his lips curling into something akin to irritation. "If my bastard brother attacks, don’t hesitate to send for me. I’ve given you my signet to open a shadow portal in urgency. Use it."

Xander bobbed his head. "I will. But I suspect he doesn’t plan to surge us now. He is aiming at Alvonia first. I don’t know what has made him so enraged there."

Kai stepped into the cold, his sharp gaze catching Agara’s dim expression. Again, the same thoughts ran through their minds. The rumors about a bride for the devil’s son—it wasn’t entirely false. It had driven both the King of Alvonia and Luther to madness. They were hiding something and he would find out tonight.

They moved swiftly through the forest, reaching the lake after an hour of running at a fast speed. Axe carried the cage on his back. "Your Highness, we should separate."

"No. We stay together. I release Shadow."

A rare occurrence. Kai never liked letting Shadow roam—it was savage and lethal to anyone who angered him, not just enemies. Shadow fed on fear, wrath, and lust. If Kai had deemed it necessary to unleash him, it meant he had sensed something none of them could.

"As you say, Your Grace."

Darkness unfurled from Kai like ink spilling into the air. It coalesced, shifting into a shadowy crow with burning red eyes. Whatever Shadow saw, Kai would see. And as a being with no true physical form, not even Luther could hunt or catch him.

"How many forms can he take?" Axe asked. He had seen only three forms, even after three centuries at Kai’s side—before that massacre that Shadow caused, before the day Kai sealed Shadow away to avoid more damage.

"Eight forms, each one capable of unleashing hell," Agara answered.

Kai halted near the shore, eyes narrowing. "There’s a village on the other side. We’ll turn around the lake to reach it. I’m sure we can find feeders there. It’s too quiet. I can’t hear even the smallest sound."

His hearing, vision, and instincts surpassed those of any shifter a hundredfold. Something was very wrong.

A sharp wind sliced through them. Axe cursed under his breath. Carrying the cage meant he couldn’t shift, and in this weak mortal form, the cold cut deep. Worse, His Highness was moving at an insane speed, forcing him to struggle to keep up.

Minutes later, they reached the village’s threshold, protected by wooden spikes.

Torches burned bright, the thick scent of sizzling whale oil coating the air. Kai’s eyes narrowed. He should be able to hear the sound of breathing in their sleep, should be able to sense Shadow feeding on their fear, their lust, their rage. But even death wasn’t this silent.

"Gods forbid. What is going on here?" Axe dropped the cage, unsheathing his sword.

"I hate to say this, but... he’s here." Agara pointed at the temple down the street, where fallen torches lay extinguished in the snow. Darkness swallowed the building whole.

"You see what I see?" Axe whispered, his grip tightening on the hilt of his blade.

More than two hundred people.

They stood frozen, shrouded in darkness. The flickering torchlight barely brushed their edges, revealing motionless figures concealed beneath the veil of night.

The boundary between the living and the dead was a thin, fragile line of light.

Kai’s brow twitched. He finally sensed it—only one heartbeat inside the temple. And Shadow? Shadow returned to Kai’s shoulder, and felt a terror so immense, moreover, it wasn’t delicious to feed on as he could sense the malice and ulterior motive behind that terror.

The temple doors groaned open.

Three figures emerged.

The first was a vampire lord. The second, a young woman in a night wedding gown, her delicate throat trapped beneath sharp black nails of the vampire Lord. Her dark, wavy brown hair and blue eyes—were eerily similar to Reneira. How did he know about Ren’s appearance? Kai frowned, a deadly dangerous light blazed in his eyes.

And behind them stood a slender man with raven-black hair, his green-grass eyes gleaming in the dark. From his side, a deep, guttural voice slurred lazily.

"Oh, well... here you are, little brother."

Lutherieth.

~*~

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~Winter.

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