CROWN OF BLOOD

AURORA VLAD

Humans are despicable and weak creatures. Humans are useless.

I grew up hearing things like that all the days of my life, and I never thought I would get so close to a human being.

Humans only mean food to us, they are fragile things that only serve to feed us with fresh blood.

We are vampires, and we are like demons who are here in this world to destroy the innocent souls of humans. We are the villains in all the stories told by humans in Dracoria.

I've never touched or come close to a human being. I drink human blood every day, but I've never been so close to a human person in all my 60 years in this world.

And now a human is here.

It's very dark in the forest at the moment, but I can smell the blood running through the veins of his body. I get off my favorite horse and stroke his head.

"We shouldn't be here, Artax...", I mutter before I start walking a few meters.

I know I shouldn't be alone and out of the castle right now, I'm the vampire princess, and I should be in the castle with my family, but watching my parents rule Dracoria always makes me bored, and I like this forest.

Being a vampire means that I have night vision and can see the body of a human person in a large lake. It's night now, and it's very late, but I keep watching the person swimming in the water.

Humans never leave the kingdom at this time, and this person doesn't seem to care, which makes me curious.

I'm surprised when I see the person turn around, and I see the body of a man with long, dark hair. I keep smelling his blood, and I keep watching him as if he were the most fascinating thing in the world.

"I didn't know vampires liked to watch humans swim in lakes at night.", I hear his voice, and I move closer.

I didn't know I was being watched by him, and I saw that the man was completely naked in the lake. He turned his head, and I saw when his eyes landed on me.

"Aren't you scared?", I ask quietly, and I see him smiling at me.

"Afraid? Why would I be afraid, exactly?"

"Maybe because you're here alone in a dark forest, maybe because you're alone with the strongest and most dangerous creature in this world, everything about me should make you afraid.", I reply, and he continues to watch me.

"Well, despite your red eyes and sharp teeth, I'm not afraid of you, Princess Aurora," he says, and I'm confused.

"How do you know who I am? It's dark and..."

"It's not hard to guess that you're the future queen of the blood throne, Princess Aurora.", he says, pointing to my body, and I lower my head, looking at my clothes.

Okay, no one in our kingdom would wear clothes like that, so of course I must be part of our kingdom's monarchy.

"I'm a vampire, and I could kill you in seconds, and you wouldn't even scream, and you're still not scared of me?"

"Are you going to do that? You're going to kill me in this lake and leave my dead, naked body in this lake?", I can see that he's teasing me, and I smile.

No one can ever make me smile, and this human man is managing to make me smile.

"I need to get back to the castle, I shouldn't be here...", I say, turning around, but his voice stops me in my tracks.

"You're Princess Aurora Vlad; you're the future heir to the blood crown and daughter of the king of Dracoria, you should be free to do as you please."

"Vampires and humans aren't compatible, and we can't get involved.", I say it quickly and see that he's smiling again.

"Is that a rule? Did your father tell you that?"

"You're teasing a vampire, I don't think you're afraid of dying. Don't tease me, human."

"And what will happen if I keep provoking you? Will my throat be cut and you drink all my blood?"

I'm silent when I see him come out of the lake, he's a human person, but he's a very big and strong man. I've never seen a naked human before. Furthermore, I'm not innocent, but I've never been with a human man before.

"So? What are you going to do to me, princess?", he whispers, and I see his body completely naked and wet.

"I could kill you right now...", I say, and he nods.

"Yes, you could do that, but I know you won't because I keep you fascinated somehow."

I sigh when he takes my hand, at any other time, a human being would be killed if they dared to touch me like that.

I hate to admit it, but he's right. There is something different about him, and I'm curious to find out.

I look at his hand touching my hand, and I feel the warmth of his skin against my cold skin. I lift my head, seeing that he's looking at me and smiling.

"Haven't you ever felt warm skin before, princess?"

"No..."

Maybe I feel this way because he's the first human who doesn't seem to be afraid of me, and that's very confusing.

"Feel the warmth on my skin, feel my heart beating inside my chest, Aurora...", He whispers my name, and within seconds my hand is touching his chest.

I can feel and hear his heart beating, it's incredible and very strange because I don't have a heart beating inside my body.

My first reflex would be to pull away when he touches my face, but I can't pull away at this moment.

"Your eyes are beautiful, they're like two ruby stones shining brightly..."

"Doesn't that still make you afraid?"

"No."

I close my eyes when I feel his warm mouth kissing my lips. At first, I didn't react because I'd never been with a human before, and this was completely different.

AURORA VLAD

We're different, and we shouldn't be doing this. I'm a vampire princess, and I was raised to hate humans.

For a moment, I wished I wasn't the princess of Dracoria, I just wished I was a woman having an adventure with an unknown man in the middle of a forest at night.

My hands touch his body, they seem curious because they've never touched a warm body before.

"Aren't you still scared?", I whispered, opening my eyes after our kiss.

"Why do you want me to be afraid of you so much?"

"Because fear dominates humans, fear controls this world..."

He falls silent, and I frown when I feel him pull my hand towards the lake.

"Can't vampires swim?", he teases once more, and I smile again, understanding what he's proposing at the moment.

I look at the surrounding forest, and there's no one here. If someone were here, I could see an