Read with BonusRead with Bonus

2_Barbarian daggers

Thoran stood in silence, thinking this situation over. He’d expected the lord of this castle to be some obnoxious rich man who was to immediately be disposed of.

Instead, he found this.

There was a sparkly little woman in front of him, ordering him to tie her dress. Who did she think he was? Her maid?

Her windows were open, white drapes blowing in the breeze as the afternoon light filled the room. He didn’t know whether his eyes were playing tricks on him or the light in the room really did make her skin look that pale.

Her fairness was mildly shocking. Even her brown hair was fair, her green eyes like a shallow body of water in the sunlight. They stared at him expectantly, her long lashes fanning out as she blinked.

He could only think one thing as he looked at her. Weakling.

It wouldn’t take him an ounce of strength to end her life right at that moment. She was clearly the spoilt daughter of some wealthy pomp, considering how easily she ordered others around. He gave himself a moment to decide what he wanted to do with her.

Her big eyes stared at him as she waited for his obedience.

Slowly, Thoran took a step closer and stretched his hand toward the dresser. He set his dagger down.

Calmly, he picked up the black strings of her corset and pulled.

She gasped, straightening as her waist was gripped by the corset. “Don’t snap me in two,” she muttered.

His unfriendly eyes stared her down in the mirror and Amethyst slowly started to feel uneasy.

“You don’t… you don’t speak?” she asked politely.

Thoran simply stared at her, tying the corset.

His presence behind her suddenly became a heavy burden, chilling her neck and tensing her shoulders. Amie swallowed hard, thinking she may have made a grave error. She quickly reassured herself. So, he was rough-looking. What about it? It was normal for werewolves to be all rough and tough, wasn’t it? Plus, he’d come all the way from his kingdom just to fetch her, he was certainly tired.

“I should’ve offered a glass of water before… before I put you to work,” she mumbled in the awkwardly silent room. He did not respond and she looked anxiously around.

Her gaze fell on the dagger he’d placed on her dresser and Amethyst paused, slowly tensing up. Her simple unease quickly turned into mild terror as she stared at the stained blade.

“Uhm… y-your dagger looks a bit used…”

Cautiously, she turned to face him but quickly froze.

The sharp tip of a knife was pointed right at her throat. With a stiff neck and wide eyes, she stared down at the weapon.

“That’s because it is,” a deep and gravelly voice said.

Oh… God. Tense, Amie struggled to compose herself, feeling fear threaten to paralyze her bravery. No, she couldn’t panic. She was a Vampire Viking and this was her chance to prove she wasn’t a weakling!

Swallowing hard, she raised her gaze to his even though taking her eyes off the knife made her insides tremble. “Wh… who are you? Were you not sent by King Raiden?”

His eyes darkened with obvious anger and her chest momentarily constricted with terror.

“Are you alone, poppet?” His deep voice filled her ears again.

She was slowly shrinking away, raising her hands to cover the part of her bosom that showed at the neckline of her dress. God, she’d let in a criminal...

“No. My sisters just went to… the market! They’ll be home any minute now. For your information, my eldest sister is the best fighter in the kingdom, she’s never lost a battle. So, y-you better leave.”

His hard expression morphed into one of obvious contempt, clear scorn.

“That so? Only makes me want to meet her.”

“My sisters—”

“Left this castle and took the mountain way leading away from any nearby market. Leading away from any nearby kingdom. You’re all alone.” He was lying but, by the look on her face, it seemed he wasn’t far from the truth.

She froze, her eyes wide in her pale face. Failing to calm her racing heart, she attempted to look brave. “Yes, I am. And that’s bad news for you, pal.”

Thoran tilted his head. The sparkly little woman was incredibly audacious. “How so?”

“I’m a Vampire Viking. I don’t know whether you’re a wolf or not, but I’m definitely stronger than you. One bite from me and you’re dead.”

His brow twitched, a sign of interest. “Do all Vampires look this weak? Your aura hasn’t an ounce of power in it.”

Flustered by a sudden bout of embarrassment, she was momentarily at a loss for words. “I... My aura is suppressed! I have more power in me than you can see. Now, leave.”

The interest in his expression vanished, replaced by a dark look of annoyance. “Bad habit, you’ve got there. Ordering people around.”

His knife touched her chin, raising it. The touch of cold metal made Amie’s heart lurch. She was quickly losing to panic and wanted desperately to remain brave. Why was this happening to her? It was always her, it’s like trouble knew where to find her because it knew she was defenceless. She was so sick of getting pushed around by anyone and everyone.

“So brave of you,” he murmured. “When you’re so frail it wouldn’t take me a second to end your life.”

His voice alone was frightening, the sound and tone of it like a dark threat nobody wanted to risk. She was trembling, shivering before him and she hated it. He was a big man, imposing and obviously very mean. However, Amethyst was secretly relieved because, despite his appearance and her fear, she still felt a spark of anger against him deep inside. That spark made her want to disarm him and have him at the sharp end of his own knife.

As usual, her mind was a million times stronger than her body.

Still, her body wouldn’t be able to perform what her mind wanted, too weak to stand up to him. Her teeth clenched.

“I’m not afraid of you. What are you? A burglar? In this day and age? Embarrassing.”

His right brow rose. “Burglar? I’m a Barbarian, poppet. And your castle is now mine.”

Her eyes widened. “What? You… you think you can take it? Just like that?”

He said nothing, his heavy gaze glued to her face.

She scoffed. “What kind of Barbarian are you? If you knew who owned this land, you’d be trembling. Do you not fear the consequences of your actions?”

His face shifted into a slight grimace, his knife pressing harder against her chin. “Consequences? Fear? Neither of those words carry any value in my world.”

“But this is my home. I’m not letting you take it.”

His eyes seemed to glimmer, amusement filling them. “Please, stop me. I’m dying to see you do it.”

She stared at him, humiliation curling in the pit of her stomach. For a strong species, she was doing an awful job at representing her people. Glaring at him, she gulped. “I would, but you’re holding a knife against me. Funny you’d think a weapon is necessary against me, a girl so frail that you could kill me in a second.”

Her bold challenge instantly struck him and, with a flash of pride in his grey eyes, he lowered the knife.

She watched him set it down beside the dagger on her dresser and waited tensely.

As soon as he was backing away from the weapons, Amie jumped for the dresser, snatching up the bigger dagger. She spun around, holding the pointy tip before his nose.

“Halt!” she said shakily, eyes staring intensely at him. “En garde!”

She held the thick hilt of the dagger with both hands, trying to stop their trembling.

Thoran stared at her in interest, highly shocked to find his face nearly moving to express his amusement.

Had she just spoken French to him?

“You’re at my mercy,” she continued bravely. “So, exit my home or I’ll be forced to cut you to ribbons.”

Raising his chin as he looked down at her, he crossed his arms over his chest and Amethyst could’ve sworn he became two times bigger.

“Do your worst,” he murmured deeply.

She stared blankly at him before quickly wearing the darkest frown she could so he could see she meant business and so he couldn’t see that she had no idea what she was doing. There was no other way. She would have to spill blood.

It was customary for vampire Vikings to have blood on their weapons, Amie was only practising the traditions passed down by her forefathers. If he died… it was self-defence.

With a grunt, she clenched her teeth and leapt for him, raising the dagger up high.

It was true that she was a Vamp, Thoran was mildly surprised to see her speed as she rushed at him, attacking.

She was no match for him.

He caught her wrists mid-air and then, spinning her around, pinned her firmly against the wall beside the dresser.

Frozen with shock, she stared up at him and then looked disbelievingly at the single hand that pinned her wrists against the wall above her head.

A single hand? Humiliation watered her eyes, staining her cheeks with red.

Seeing the despair fill her eyes, Thoran scoffed with a mixture of amusement and scorn.

Lowering his head, he tilted it mockingly. “Nice try, poppet.”

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter