Chapter 77: Chapter 77

77 Chapter 77 : Ichor

“Your grace wait I didn’t-”

Ivans voice was drowned out by the the water as the elven prince used his magic to dip him into the lake. Adam had created streams of water like ropes that had wrapped themselves around Ivan’s body, dangling him in the air and dipping him over and over into the lake.

When Adam pulled Ivan out of the water again, he was coughing hysterically, his eyes were red and he was shivering. “Have you no shame Ivan!” Adam yelled, “does your lewdness know no bounds?! Huh?!”

Adam swung his hand and dipped Ivan into the water again, removing him after a few seconds. “Ella is going to be your queen one day and you have the audacity to peep on her while she takes her bath?!”

“Your grace I swear it wasn’t my intention to-”

SPLASH! GURGLE.. GURGLE... GURGLE

“Adam wait this is all a huge misunderstanding!” Ella yelled. She grabbed his arm and shook him in an attempt to cool him down. “Ivan wasn’t peeping, he was in the water way before I got here! If anything I’m the one who invaded his privacy!”

Ella made her way to stand in front of the dark haired prince and cupped his face in her little hands, “Adam stop!”

“How dare he lay eyes on you naked!” Adam yelled, “even before...” the prince narrowed his eyes and dipped Ivan in the water again. “I haven’t even seen you naked before!”

.....

Zander and the others clicked their tongues and rolled their eyes. The jealousy and envy in Adam’s voice was very evident. Here they were thinking that they were under attack, only to find out that the prince was throwing a jealously tantrum because Ivan had accidentally seen Ella naked. This was completely ridiculous.

“I’m the one who should have been the first to see you with your clothes off!” Adam yelled, his voice echoing throughout the cave, “not that bastard Nathaniel, and definitely not this womanizer Ivan!”

“Womanizer?!” Ivan yelled in retaliation.

“Shut up!” Adam yelled at the dangling man and dipped him into the lake again. He returned his gaze to Ella, his eyes filled with jealousy. “I loved you first Ella, me! So why do I always have to be second place when it comes to having you!”

Ella flattered her lashes at the man, he was like a little boy who had been given a smaller peice of candy as compared to his friends. The redhead realized that Adam wasn’t upset about the little mishap with Ivan, he was just lashing out. His real problem was with the fact that she had been with Nathaniel before him.

The woman rubbed Adam’s cheeks gently with her thumbs while her hands cupped his face. “You’re never in second place Adam, you never have been.” She spoke softly to him, “I love you Adam, you’re the only man I’ve ever loved and you’re the only man I ever will love.”

Adam’s chest heaved up and down as he looked down at the blue eyed woman in front of him. His heart flattered when he heard Ella say that she loved him, that was the first time she’d ever said that and it made the little cocoons in his stomach erupt into a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

“You... you love me?” The man muttered in a low voice, his heart was pulsating and a smile was threatening to curve his face.

“Of course I do,” Ella repeated herself, her eyes never leaving Adam’s.

“Oh for heaven’s sake just kiss him so he can let me go!” Ivan screamed at Ella.

The blue eyed woman pursed her lips as a light blush tinted her cheeks. She drew in a breath and inched closer to Adam, and with a light pull she drew his face closer to hers and pressed her lips on his. Immediately, the streams of water that had wrapped themselves around Ivan shriveled away, letting the dark haired casanova fall into the water with a loud splash.

Adam closed his eyes, wrapped his arms tightly around Ella’s waist and pulled her deeper into the kiss. Every inch of his skin tingled with euphoria. He had had multiple fantasies about how it would feel like to kiss Ella, daydreams and dazes about how her lips would taste. And now that he was finally kissing her, it was far much better than anything he’d ever imagined. He felt like he was sipping the sweet nectar of primroses, it was intoxicating and all so sensual.

When Ella broke the kiss, Adam had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from protesting and claiming her lips yet again. He placed his forehead on Ella’s and drew in a deep breath. “I love you Ella...”

Ella lowered her hands from his face down to his shoulders and rubbed them gently, “and I love you Adam.”

The man smiled, he placed his arms under her arched back and legs and hoisted her off the ground, “let’s get you out of this wet clothes.” With one last warning look at Ivan, Adam walked back towards their furs.

*

Maria’s jaw tightened and she abruptly stood up from the log she had been sitting on, “did you feel that?” She spoke in a low whispered.

“Aye,” Vivian responded, “she’s getting more and more powerful, blue bloods tend to exhibit such power, but hers, it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

“I pray we reach her before her cravings get the better of her,” Maria responded, a worried tone in her voice, “she knows not of the ways of controlling the blood lust. And if we’re unlucky she may feed on a human, and you know what that would do to her.”

“She’d go rogue...” Vivian responded, her voice trailing off into a violent shudder.

“And with a power like that..” Maria sat down and wiped her hand nervously over her lips, “no one would be safe. We wouldn’t want what happened to Aiden to happen to her.”

Vivian picked up a stick and poked at the ambers of the dying fire they had used to roast up some venison for lunch. She didn’t like talking about Aiden, it wasn’t a pleasant memory to visit, not for her and not for any nosferatu of the snowlands.

“We should move,” Vivian spoke firmly, “I’m not going to lose anyone else to humans again, especially not someone from my family.” She stood up and arched her back a little before two large bat like purplish wings sprouted out. With one flap of the beautiful appendages, the ambers of the fire were put out completely.

Maria waved her hand in front of her face to prevent the rising dust and soot from reaching her nose, “could you please be a little more discreet with those things, we don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.”

“What? Do you want me to put out the fire with water and a bucket? Like a human?” Vivian spoke with a frown, “I’d rather chop off my right wing.” The woman retracted her wings and walked towards where they had tied the horses and their luggage, took out a golden canteen and took a large sip from it.

Maria walked to her and grabbed the canteen away, “stop it, you know we have to ration this!” She closed the lid shut and shoved the canteen into her satchel. “If we run out we’ll be in the same dilemma as princess Melissa.”

“Can’t we just make some more?”

“Oh yeah definitely,” Maria responded sarcastically, “if you have blood oranges, beets, and a baby dear stuffed in your bag somewhere I’d be more than happy to make you some more.”

Vivian rolled her eyes and mounted her horse, “fine, you don’t have to be condescending about it.”

Back in the snowlands where ninety eight percent of the nosferatu population consisted of pure bloods, a potion called ‘ichor’ was used as a substitute for blood. After realizing that drinking human blood made the nosferatu rogue a few thousand years back, they had switched to feeding off the blood of animals, but this practice diminished the wildlife in the snowlands greatly and was affecting the food chain. So instead, they came up with ichor, a solution whose consistency was similar to that of blood and proved to be a potent substitute.

Ichor was made from mixing the juices of blood oranges, beets, cherries, pomegranate and a thick broth of blood sausages. A small amount of baby dear blood was added to give the mixture the life essence necessary to make the potion a potent substitute. Many nosferatu had taken up the use of ichor instead of blood, so much so that some nosferatu had lived all their lives not knowing what actual blood tasted like.

This was different from the half breeds, most of who now inhabited the central continent after the awakening. They could go their whole lives not needing to drink blood or ichor and had no complications whatsoever. In fact, this ability to live on human nutrition alone was one of the elements that made half breeds more powerful. The combination of nosferatu genes and the genes of humans created some super strong vampire hybrid that had all the attributes of a nosferatu and none of the weaknesses.

Maria mounted her horse and lightly kicked its sides so it could move forward, “Come on, my lady must be found.”