10th December, X786
_________________
Vanessa sat in the solemn silence of the art room. She'd been getting better at painting on canvases during the past few weeks.
She'd painted the castle, the town below them, the sunset, and some other things. Chadwick often praised her work as what could make a fortune!
Whenever the house began to get too boring, she'd find herself lingering about the endless shelves of the library, or trying to make a beautiful art piece.
"There!", she added the last touch on her work. She'd been painting a picture of-
"Lady Vanessa!", Chadwick seemed to be excited for once as he poked his head through her half-open door. "The master is back!"
For a moment, her body stopped as the brush unconsciously dropped from her hand. "The... mas..ter..?", Vanessa's gaze at him widened and her heart began to pulsate rapidly.
Jumping off her seat without warning had sent the poor thing falling. "Where?"
Chadwick smiled in amusement. "He just entered his room"
Vanessa pulled her hair, "My word! I didn't have time to reorganize the castle"
Chadwick finally pushed the door open to allow her race out. He knew she was really excited about the master's return so she could ask for permission to send letters to her family.
He watched her sit outside some days and watch the sunset. She'd painted the sunset over and over again....
Literally flying up the stairs with her gown in her hand, she paused about an inch away from the door. Her knuckle raised to knock but later dropped.
Disturbing him on his arrival may spark his anger.
"I'll wait...", she whispered to herself sitting beside his timber doors. If she could wait four months to send letters to her family, a few hours won't hurt.
There was so much she wanted to tell them especially as Christmas was around the corner.
Dante Vladwick didn't come out for about an hour, then two hours, by the fifth hour... Vanessa had fallen asleep after a lot of fantasizing...
At midnight she just curled herself up like she'd done the first day the master had arrived home. Her body was trembling all night long but she didn't dare open her eyes to peep into the darkness.
The light of dawn came but the master never came out of his room. This worried her but she was too determined to see him!
By the afternoon of that day, Chadwick walked up to her. "Lady Vanessa, please come and eat!". He had a worried frown on his lips.
She just smiled waving off his kind gesture. "I'm not hungry"
By the next day, she said the same thing... Although her cheeks had begun to deteriorate inward.
"The master won't be pleased seeing you this way!", He pleaded with her once more. It had been nearly two days since she'd last eaten or tasted even water!
"I'm not hungry, Chadwick", she smiled a weary smile at him. "I'm too happy to eat".
He pitied her knowing that Lord Dante could stay in his room for even a week!
Scurrying downstairs, he brought up a tray of food and placed it on the floor beside her. "I'll leave this here"
She didn't reply and her eyes seemed half lifeless. But the smile on her face never wavered.
How could she be worse now that the master had returned?! The first few weeks after his departure, all she did was lock herself inside the room and cry or sleep in the bath.
She ate at least a meal every day.
After a while, she got past that stage and started enjoying the house to the fullest. Painting and reading had become her hobbies whenever there was nothing to clean in the house.
Vanessa had looked her happiest!
Chadwick paused halfway down the flight of stairs to take one last glance at her. Her body seemed malnourished and pale after just two days of dry fasting.
"Please come out soon, master", he mumbled to himself.
It was on the afternoon of the next day Dante had come out to discuss something of the utmost importance with Chadwick.
"The hell?!", he half panicked on seeing the young woman next to his door. "Is she dead?", his eyes pierced Chadwick's although his voice was deadly calm.
Chadwick who'd just appeared at the scene shook his head. "She just passed out due to the hunger....", taking some steps forward, he bent towards her with a knee. "She's been waiting since the moment you got back to make a request"
"What is it?", he frowned with worry.
Chadwick didn't say a word. She'd waited here to make the request herself so what right did he have to speak the words before her?
Dante understood his gesture. "I had something to discuss with you, but it can wait for now". He leaned down to scoop Vanessa up into his arms. "Bring some water, custard, and bread to my room". It was advisable to feed starved people light meals for starters.
Chadwick bowed. "Yes my lord", before vanishing into the distance.
"What could be so important...", his eyes lowered to the tender woman in his arms as he walked to sit at the edge of his bed. "Humans are so fragile".
Her face seemed to have dried up from both dehydration and starvation. The sight of her pale skin made his chest hurt.
In a few months, he'd have to let her go back to her family as he was to return to his.
There was a slight knock at the door.
"Come in", he answered before Chadwick could knock again.
After a little table was set with the tray of food, he shuffled Vanessa's body between his legs..... taking off her heavy clothing till she was in her underwear.
She was really beautiful.
He smiled to himself wrapping an arm around her waist.
"Wake up, woman!", he raised his voice beside her ear.
When she didn't move, he lifted the glass cup to her face and poured some water on her.
"Hhhhh!", she took a jolting breath as her eyes shot open.
"Eat", came the voice of her master behind her and a spoon of what seemed like custard at her lips.
Her body felt too weak to talk, even overanalyzing the situation wasn't an option.
After being fed the first few spoons, her tummy growled for more.
Dante rubbed his left hand on her flat stomach. "Humans should eat, don't be so reckless!". He unintentionally leaned in to kiss her neck.
"My... lord?", her eyes had begun to clear. "I can feed myself...".
Those were quite some audacious first words.
"You should be honored...", he fed her a few more spoons till the custard was almost gone.
She didn't want any bread, only water.
When he realized she'd slept off between his thigh. "How audacious...", he raised her with both hands to lie next to him on the bed.
His right hand went to her slender face, even in this state... She was still a sight to behold.
He'd started to feel his manhood raise its head. As if on impulse, he rolled off the bed to take a shower.
It was around evening when he summoned Chadwick in the dinning area to pass a message.
"Hades is dead"
Chadwick's eyes widened in fright. The king of the underworld?! Dead?!
"How is that possible, my lord?!", he could feel his body quivering for some reason. Not even the royal family combined could kill Hades!
"My sister said it was poison, it seemed like that woman's venom". He'd been referring to his birth mother.
Chadwick folded both hands beneath his chest. "So we're returning to the demon continent?"
Dante nodded. His mother Medusa was a scheming woman, she'd married Hades in order to rule the Demon continent alongside him...
But it seemed she'd grown weary of being second in command.
"Where is she now?"
He lowered his head in annoyance, "I don't know...". Could she have been after something else? After banishing him to the human realm for so long!
At the thought of his foolish family, he unwittingly slammed his fist on the table.
It cracked to an extent...
"It's probably a trap", Chadwick leaned on the wall.
"That's why I'm going to walk right into it". Dante let out a raspy laugh. "Not without a plan though". He seemed serious once more.
There was silence for a while.
"I guess we've spent enough time in the human world my lord", He cracked his fingers. "It's been almost half a millennia since my exile, I too long for revenge"
About half a millennia ago, Medusa had accused Chadwick Quinx.... the commander and right-hand man to the royal family of plotting to kill Hades.
With enough evidence backing her up, he was then sentenced to death on sighting.
His family was slaughtered first apart from his wife who was still on the run with him.
No matter where they ran, they could never erase their presence. It was years later they'd come to face the sky witch, Gruella.
"You want to erase your presence aye?", she let out a mocking giggle. The enormous woman was about fifteen feet tall!
"Yes!", they both pleaded before her. "We'll do anything!", his wife said.
Gruella took some seconds to think. "You", she pointed at Chadwick's wife who was unimaginably beautiful. "I want your body"
"Don't get ahead of yourself, witch!", He defensively stood in front of his wife.
She laughed once more. "I'll make a place where you can stay without being bothered. Your presence will be completely erased".
They'd both wanted to know more.
"Just that the place would be made of the soul of one of you", waving a wicked hand in the air. "You won't die though"
"Preposterous!", Chadwick pulled his wife away to leave. "That's utter nonsense!"
But his wife didn't think the same way.
Behind his back, she'd gone back to make the deal with the witch who took her body and turned her into a castle.
When Chadwick had discovered the truth, he'd come for the witch's head but couldn't bring himself to harm the body of the woman he loved.
He lived in solitude in the castle for years killing any human who dared step into it.
Till a young man arrived.....
As usual, he'd waited for the man to step to the center of the castle before attacking. Dante had stopped him by the neck, "A vampire?". He arched a brow at the creature scratching and struggling for breath. "Weak!", his thick voice echoed throughout the castle as he slammed Chadwick on the ground.
After coughing up some blood, Chadwick finally met the person before him. "Prince Dante?!"
"Commander Chadwick?!"
There was some misunderstanding at first of who'd been sent to kill who, but it was worked out that same day.
"Banished because you were too powerful?!", Chadwick was furious. "Your mother can't seem to stop getting rid of anyone she feels threatened by!"
"Don't- call her my mother...", he stamped his feet on the floor, breaking the ground below him. "I have discarded my past, I'm no prince"
Chadwick laughed merrily.
"I was told you were dead", Dante wrinkled his nose.
"For a while... I wished I was", he managed a smile trying hard not to succumb to tears. "But then she spoke..."
"Who?", he arched a brow.
"Kali".
After swearing his loyalty to Dante, they'd moved to a mountain at an uninhabited place where they trained together.
Over time, the humans started to migrate and the ground not far below them became a town.
Valley town.
____________________
The darkness of the castle had already enveloped them at some point in their conversation.
There was a creaking sound beside the dining door. "Who's there?! Come out!". Dante jumped to his feet ready to kill whoever was eavesdropping.
A spy sent from the demon continent? Or maybe a spirit from the castle?
But it was too early.
"My lord", came Vanessa's light voice. "I- I wanted to get some water...", she was trembling.
"Did you hear our conversation?"
She gulped in fear.
"I... I didn't mean to..."
At those words, Dante rushed at the woman...