S E V E N T Y

Iris, Kai, and the others waited nearly five minutes before Kris returned.

"Zoe has gathered near the west side of the mansion. She said that your friend, Sage, has already gone to the location. Zoe will be joining shortly."

Iris nodded at Kris's information. "Thank you, Kris."

"Of course." Kris gave a short bow of his head before returning with the other Vamps.

Iris looked down at Kai who was still sitting down. He didn't say anything, only roll his eyes at Iris's quirked eyebrow.

"Alright!" Kai said loudly as he stood up. He made every head turn in his direction. "We are going now. Make sure you take only what you can carry. We don't want luggage to slow us down. We must move fast. Understood?"

Everyone gave their own assurances and started standing, scrambling calmly around to get their stuff. Some just stayed and continued to talk or remained silent.

Kai's shoulders relaxed when he felt soft fingers touch his rougher ones. He looked down at Iris and expressed a small smile.

"Let me say goodbye before we leave," Iris said.

Kai nodded and let Iris take him towards the young woman he first said hi to when they arrived.

"Mary." Iris smiled when he got her attention. "We are going now, but I wanted to thank you before we left. For the food and your company."

"Oh." Mary put a hand over her heart and chuckled softly. "You are very welcome, my prince! I will pray for your safety." Her eyes wandered down to his and Kai's intertwined hands before she raised her gaze with a wide smile. "Yours as well," she said, smiling at Kai.

He stared at her for a short moment before bowing his head lightly. "Thank you."

Iris was smiling warmly when they walked away. Kai just shook his head at him.

No had commented on the affection they were showing, which was mainly gentle smiles and hand-holding. They stared and they tilted their heads, pondering, but they kept their comments and criticism to themselves if they even had anything to say. Iris and Kai were thankful for that.

The judgment in their eyes was mellow, if not there at all. When Cyrus caught on, she expressed a look that could only say, it's about time.

"I'm curious to see how many Sage managed to gather," Kai voiced his thoughts while lowering his hands to Iris's sides.

Iris smiled at him. "Well, we'll find out soon enough, won't we?"

"Mm. But we might've made a bet, so I'm really anxious."

Iris scoffed. "What did you bet on?"

"Let's just hope I won."

***

The smoke-ridden and black midnight sky had slowly begun to brighten and clear. On the east, the sky was growing lighter, the black morphing into a distinguishable dark blue. The clouds continued to block the moon, but they weren't as opaque as before, so Vridora was lit up with the faint help of the moonlight.

The crickets were silent and the hooting of howls was distant. Nature continued to sleep through the chaos happening around it.

Like Kris had informed, Sage was already waiting at the shed when Iris and Kai arrived along with the vampires and Vamps they gathered.

Sage leaned off the wall of the shed as Iris and Kai walked closer. She rushed up and threw her arms around them.

"Sage, we were barely gone for an hour," Kai mumbled, patting her back. Iris chuckled.

"I don't care." Sage pulled away and let out a deep breath. She peered over Kai to study the group they brought. She nodded, curling her lips in an impressed manner. "Nice."

Kai followed her gaze. "I think I won." He and Sage both observed her group.

"Eh, it's a tie."

"No, I clearly have more."

"It's a tie."

"You just don't want to admit you lost."

Sage flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked away from him, not denying his accusation; which clearly meant Kai won.

Zoe was the furthest away, so they had to wait for her to arrive to finalize a plan.

The outline was broad. Finish fending off the rest of Annesa's Vamps, help the straggling villagers, and, simply, don't die.

A big reason why Annesa attacked Vridora was because it had one of the greatest set of guards in the whole country. Strong, tactful, and large in quantity. Gaining its power and combining it with what she currently has would guaranty a victory over the neighboring Kingdoms. Vridora had always been in her line of sight, however, it was a resilient Kingdom.

And every single beating heart there was going to prove that to her.

There was still a lot left under Annesa's control, so Kai, Zoe, and all of them were gambling with time. The number of Vridora guards fighting in the main action was unknown, but oddly enough, it made Kai less nervous not knowing. Iris and Sage, too.

Iris's only thought at the moment was that he wished more had weapons like his dagger. He held it tightly in his grasp, staring down at the blade, observing the glow it gave off when the moonshine caught it. The battle would be a million times easier if others had one like it. Or if even half of them had one. The importance of the dagger made him more possessive of it, though.

Caught up in that train of thought, when someone tapped his shoulder, Iris jumped and pressed the dagger against his chest. He quickly learned it was better to hurt himself by accident then swing the dagger around while surrounded by vampires–the one creature the dagger was made to kill.

Iris looked up to see Zoe standing behind him. Her hair was tousled and faint dried-up blood streaks were going across her neck. She looked worn out, but the determination in her eyes was still wide awake. The anger circulating through her atmosphere was still blazing hot, too.

"Hey." Iris stood up and laid a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just ran into a few trouble." She rested her hand over his. "I'm so ready for this to be over."

"Yeah...you and me both."

"We will win. We will protect your Kingdom, Iris, with everything we got."

Iris smiled at her and nodded. That little voice deep, deep within his brain doubted the promise in her tone; doubted everything they've planned. But he shoved it further back and let his optimism stay on the surface. They will win and they will protect his home. They had to.

Zoe smiled back and let her hand fall.

"Thank you," Iris quickly added. Zoe paused from walking away and titled her head slightly.

"For what?"

"You know," Iris scoffed, "everything. For being on our side. Fighting with us, with me. We couldn't have done it without you."

"And it's all because you trusted me. So, I should really be thanking you, Iris. Thank you for putting your trust in me."

"Of course."

Zoe continued forwards for a few more steps before turning back around. "Oh, and for trusting my men as well."

Iris chuckled. "Kai wasn't too happy about that one."

Zoe grinned. "Well, that just makes it all the better."

"Ahem."

Zoe turned around and hurriedly put on an innocent smile. "Kai! Good to see you're still in one piece. You've gathered a lot, that's great. The more the merrier."

Kai narrowed his eyes at her. He stared unresponsive for a while before uncrossing his arms and patting her shoulder once.

"You as well."

Zoe smiled widely before rushing to meet up with the Vamps and vampires she grouped.

"Progress?" Kai asked as he stood beside Iris.

Iris nodded, a proud glint in his eyes. "Progress. But I've been thinking, you don't really hate her as much as you lead on."

"Well...I don't hate her. I just don't fully trust her as you do. And you know, people are allowed to dislike each other."

"I understand that. I never asked you to love her. But you really can trust her. Remember what I said? I just know when a vampire is trustworthy."

"Right. It's your princely quirk."

Iris held a hand up to Kai. "Gift," he corrected.

"Gift..." For some reason, that word stuck to Kai like glue, but to what memory was a mystery, something foggy he couldn't quite recall. He shook his head, coming back to the present. "Anyway, we should group up now, talk about the plan with Zoe and Sage."

"Yeah." Iris glanced towards the crowd and searched through(what felt like)the endless faces–glares, smiles, frowns, concerned and worried expressions. "Yeah," he repeated. He smiled up at Kai and took his hand. It was quick to become a fearless habit.

"Quick question," Kai began as they walked towards Zoe and Sage.

"Hm?"

"Would you be mad if I decided to keep from telling you something now and wait till this is all over just because it will cause a more dramatic effect?"

"That depends on what you want to tell me. Would it be better dramatic?"

"Well, I'm dramatic, so of course I want it to be, too."

Iris shook his head. "Of course you do." He glanced up at Kai. "I wouldn't be mad. But it better be worth it."

Kai grinned, his fangs glistening, and squeezed Iris's hand. "Oh, trust me it will be."

"And you better live to tell me. I'll die of curiosity if you don't, you know, so no self-sacrificing."

"Then, that goes for you too."

"I'll try my hardest."

"Yes, do your best, sir."

Iris shot a small smile towards Kai. "Sometimes I think we joke too much under serious circumstances."

Kai chuckled. "You read my mind."

"Is that normal?"

"To a bystander, perhaps not, but for us it is. After all, we're nowhere near normal ourselves."

"Joking in serious situations is a healthy abnormality? Never knew."

"You know what I–oh."

Iris nudged Kai's shoulder with the side of his head and let out a skittish chuckle.

"You know what, I have something to tell you, too. May our patience be on our side"

Kai let out a small groan and leaned his weight onto Iris's.

"Acting like that just makes me want to tell you now."

"Oh? Well, no one's stopping you."

For a split second, when their eyes met, Kai looked like he was contemplating actually telling Iris, but he quickly jerked his head to the side as if disgusted by the idea.

"No! Dramatic effect, dramatic effect, dramatic effect...."

Iris laughed and dared to cup Kai's face, bringing it into his proximity. He hopped on his toes and planted a kiss on the vampire's pale cheek. When he leaned back there was the softest pink tinge under Kai's eyes.

"Alright, lovebirds!"

The two flinched apart and simultaneously looked to their right. Too many faces were turned their way, too many wide eyes, too many of nearly everything and yet the two remained unbothered. Immune, if you will, at least at that very moment.

"We have a plan to finalize, so you know your help would be graciously appreciated."

Iris rolled his eyes at Sage's sarcasm while Kai intertwined their hands once more. They shot each other subtle grins.

"May patience by on our side."

***

Sooooooo, quick chat:

I know I've been away for a while and I'm sincerely sorry for being silent and not updating. Truth is(and this is the short version)for a while now I've been contemplating on just deleting this story completely and either redo it or scrap it altogether. I had a vision for this book but I've really strayed away from my goal, and yes that's my fault, but it kind of got to my head. Not only that, but I fell into a pretty deep hole where I was just completely unmotivated and couldn't write to save my life; despite this book getting a lot more reads and receiving such nice comments, I was just deprived of encouragement.

Yes, I could say a lot more and go into detail with why I haven't been updating, and I can do that if you'd like, but I know people will just think I'm spitting bullshit reasons to excuse myself for just being "lazy" so I'm just saying this.

No, I'm not deleting this book and I will continue it, but the next update is undetermined. Again, I'm sorry for taking so long! Thank you for being patient with me.

Also, thank you for at least reading this far 🥺 and if you actually enjoyed it.....*cries*.

I will do my best to fall back in love with this story so the ending isn't complete garbage :').