Nah, it couldn't be true. Trusting people wasn't my style, especially right now. Moving it to the back of my mind, I collected the last of the stuff I wanted to take with me and put it in my suitcase. The meeting was about to finish, and I hadn't eavesdropped yet. I preferred sneaking up and finding out in person, which sounded like a very good idea.

Jogging down the stairs, I bumped into Mr. Anders, who offered to make some lunch. I realized I hadn't eaten anything since we left and I happily accepted. I followed him to the dining hall where he quickly threw some ingredients together forming a delicious Italian chicken salad. Halfway through it, voices became louder in the hallway confirming the meeting had ended.

Keeping my gaze on the wall, I continued to eat, not wanting to engage in any conversations. I wanted to save my energy and social battery for the arrival in the vampire kingdom, because my gut told me I would really need it there.

Foxglove waved in front of my face, breaking my stare, and sat down across from me. He chuckled as I blinked a couple of times. "How was your trip?"

"Wasn't too bad, it was a nice change. The nature is ten times better, less industrial smock and all that. Let's not forget, less generals." I shrugged eating some more food, keeping any hint of joy or excitement out of my voice. Since the generals weren't too fond of supernatural creatures, it was best not to make them jealous, especially since I was leaving to another supernatural kingdom in less than an hour.

"Really?" He narrowed his eyes. "Did you get into trouble there?"

"What makes you say that?" I frowned questionably. "You know I'm a perfect model citizen."

There was absolutely no way I would tell him about my adventures there, I knew my father wouldn't have told him either, to not increase the hate. Saying 'we were attacked by rogues and then the Werewolf king ripped off multiple limbs and a head' didn't exactly roll off the tongue.

He grinned. "Uh-huh. I wonder where you got that 'perfect behavior' from, definitely not from your father."

Boy, did I have news for you.

"I'm adopted." I casually took another bite, knowing I actually did get it from my father since he raised me, but he didn't need to know that.

"Oh shit sorry, I completely forgot." His eyes widened and he scratched his neck.

"It's okay, we can't all be smart and good-looking." I smiled, my eyes twinkling in amusement. It took me a little over one hour to get under his skin again like the good old days before last week.

A scowl appeared on his face, he was offended. "I'm definitely smart, how else did you think I became the youngest five star general ever?"

"I always assumed you slept your way up there." I said seriously, finishing up my salad.

"But only men are allowed in the army." He asked confused, tilting his head to the side.

"I don't judge." I shrugged, standing up and bringing my plate to the kitchen, leaving him alone at the table, just staring at me.

On our way to the airport, Foxglove and my father talked about the volunteers. Today would be the last day to volunteer as it would be Monday tomorrow and apparently, lots of humans had death wishes since they were still lining up in front of that damned box. 

When we arrived at the airport, it was finally time to board the plane to the vampire kingdom. The same black and gold jet stood there again and the colors reminded me this week was going to be dramatic as fuck.

We said our goodbyes, again, and Foxglove stopped me when I wanted to get in. He leaned closer to me, his mouth right next to my ear. "You've won today sunshine, but I'll get you next time." 

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't realize you were competition." 

His grin faded and his tone turned more serious, concerned even. "Try not to get killed by the vampires."

"I'll be fine, Nuin." I sighed, turning away from him and stepping into the plane. 

What was it with everyone's concern about me? It wasn't like they cared before. Besides, I could handle my own.

Time passed by during our flight, it was getting dark outside when we were about to land. The flight wasn't eventful. No turbulence, no sleeping, no marked man appearing to tell me more prophecies. My father told me he had brought the Indiana Jones movies with him again so that we could have another marathon. We also had one in the werewolf kingdom, with Valerio joining in with much hesitation after getting caught in a popcorn war. I grinned, my father really took those movies with him everywhere he went.

He looked up from his book and put it away while we descended. "Kiddo, stay on guard there and take vervain. This kingdom is all about appearances, do not get sucked into the glamour or you might get stabbed in the back."

"Sounds like we're going to have a great time." I sighed. 

My plan for this week was to lay back and keep to myself as much as possible, maybe take the time to figure out some lines of the prophecy. Perhaps I could finally get a little break from everything, since my father was convinced he wouldn't be killed here for the same reason he wouldn't be killed in the werewolf kingdom, although I would still check in on him for my own sanity. 

"You'll be fine as long as you appeal to their egos and don't insult them." He said seriously.

I was not going to be fine.

Not even a little bit.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard. Sucking up to a bunch of fake people." I smiled awkwardly, avoiding my father's gaze.

Appealing to people's egos was non-existent in my vocabulary and I had a special hate for fake people. My plan was going to fail, miserably might I add. 

The plane came to a stop and the doors were opened. We both stood up and my father patted my shoulder with an unsurprised expression, holding back a snort. "Try not to kill anyone."

Shaking my head with a smile, I rolled my eyes. The two of us got out of the plane, where Haimon, Kenzo and Drew were waiting for us. It was completely dark now, but my eyes roamed across the area anyway. There was nothing out there, except for the airport, a building where cars were parked and a big fence surrounding them. As far as I could tell, there was no other building in the area or the entire land. 

For as far as the eyes could see, they could only notice nature. Loads, and loads of it. Tall grass reaching far over my own height stretched over the plain fields and canyons. Deformed trees which seemed to twist and turn into every direction grew in random spots. One of them stood out the most, it was tall beyond measure, had holes in its thick, red trunk, which halfway split into seven smaller trunks that twisted and turned into various ways. Out of them, spiraling branches grew, but leaves were absent. It appeared to be dead, yet it felt like it was more alive than the others.

The flora seemed quite rough since it had the ability to grow and evolve how it wanted to. The same thing was the case for the fauna. The animals were bigger, wilder, better developed with more eyes, paws or even heads. There were some species I had never sensed before in my life and I knew I had to look at them in the light to figure out what they were.

An animal that I did recognize seemed busy fighting some guards at the wall as it had climbed over it. It was Funnel-web spider, but it wasn't its normal size. This fella had the size of a Great Dane and it devoured one of the nine guards that were fighting it in front of my eyes. Watching the scene unfold without the presence of more guards to help them or buildings for the men to flee to was pretty cruel and it could only mean one thing.

The vampires were living underground.

"Mr. Ashford, welcome! How was your flight?" Haimon nodded to my father, ignoring the fight behind him like it happened on a regular basis, which it probably did.

"Good, thank you, Orpheus" He bowed.

Haimon turned his gaze to me, his lips moving into a big grin while his hands straightened his blue velvet suit. "Beautiful, so glad to see you again."

My father eyed me from the side, and I smiled to Haimon, clenching my teeth and cringing, refusing to curtsy. "Pleasure is all mine."

"Follow us." Kenzo motioned, his expression non-existent.

They walked over to a couple of heavy mechanical doors, located horizontally in the ground. They opened after Haimon pressed on a button attached to a remote Drew held out for him. Up moved a golden elevator, and we stepped on it. Drew pushed a button, making the elevator descend and the doors above us close. Golden lamps lit up the elevator shaft, which was white. It took a while for the elevator to reach the bottom and when it did, other heavy mechanical doors opened, revealing where the vampires lived.

Another day, another kingdom.

I didn't know what I expected their lair to look like, but it wasn't this. They had built a whole palace underground in the middle of a lair the size of a city. It was carved out of stone and it's walls were extremely colorful, trying to mimic the nature above. Multiple tunnels could be seen at the sides, probably connecting to more lairs. Everything was really well lit, revealing actual roads where cars were driving and ventilation shafts all the way at the top. The whole thing was massive and I wondered how they were ever able to build this in the first place, although they had centuries to do it.

The palace itself looked like one out of a fairytale and it was completely gold, and with Haimon's posh personality, I hadn't expected anything less.

"There are more cities like this, every clan has their own city. The tunnels connect them, and they all lead to this capital with my palace in it." Haimon stated proudly.

A limousine was waiting for us and we got in. On our way to the palace, multiple people waved handkerchiefs to it, literally worshipping their king. Staring out the window, I suppressed a laugh. 

How could I possibly take these people seriously?

"You'll be living with me in the palace, allowing you to conduct your investigation peacefully Mr. Ashford. What's mine is yours." Haimon said blankly.

My father nodded in gratitude, while I just stared out the window, trying to figure out how this whole place wasn't collapsing because of the huge sized hole it actually was in the ground. My eyes fell upon a couple of weird square buildings, looking rather out of place around the rest of the fancy architecture throughout the city.

The palace gates opened as we arrived, next to it people were standing in line to volunteer at the box, and after a ride through the massive courtyard with lots of statues of Haimon, we came to a stop at the palace doors. I frowned when I walked inside, every-fucking-thing was gold. A circular stairway led all the way to the top, which was incredibly high, making me glad our bedrooms where on the first floor, otherwise my morning workout would be climbing those stairs.

My room was closed to Haimon's, which seemed to become a habit of mine, and it was the size of both of my other rooms combined. Just as expected, practically everything but the white floor was gold and bound to give me a headache if I looked at it for too long. Everything you could possibly think of was present in the room, along with an incredibly fancy wardrobe strangely in my size, which seemed to be the regular clothing around here, making me wonder how on earth these people dressed up for actual fancy occasions.

I stared at my luggage, realizing I had practically packed my clothes for nothing if I had to wear what was hanging in that closet. I sighed and turned around when the door swung open, revealing a very smug looking Haimon. I felt admiration and a bit of lust radiate from him, aimed at me.

"You're going to be my muse this week. Fire like yours has to be shown off and admired." He grinned, grabbing my hand and placing a kiss on it.

When he let it go, I let it fall beside me while a deep frown formed on my face in disgust. "I'm sorry what? I'm going to be your muse?"

"I want you to get to know my kingdom. My people will faint over your beauty." A twinkle was present in his eyes.

That was an exaggeration.

I smiled awkwardly, not impressed at all. "I think I'll get a much better chance of getting to know the kingdom if I blend in by myself a bit, so I'll pass."

"Careful now, I might enjoy your defiance but not everyone here will. Follow my every instruction and choose your words wisely, or they will have your head." He chuckled, stepping closer to me.

"Good to know." I said blankly. 

I was not going to do that.

He took a step back, observing me, before turning around and leaving the room, closing the door behind him. I narrowed my eyes. Something told me I wasn't going to get much freedom in this kingdom.

Looked like the sneaking around was going to have to make a comeback and I would welcome it with open arms.

I went to bed, with proper pj's on, not having the slightest clue of what tomorrow was going to be like. Unable to sleep because my mind was racing, I grabbed a pen and paper out of my luggage and sat down at the golden desk in the room, writing down the first two sentences of the prophecy. I might as well make myself useful while being awake.

Guiltless blood will be spilled as steps were taken that can't be undone,
Earth shall unleash it's force to maintain the equilibrium,

Now what could this mean?

Deciding to tackle the first sentence, I split it up in two parts. First, the guiltless blood will be spilled and second, as steps were taken that can't be undone. 

"Guiltless blood, guiltless blood. Who's guiltless blood?" I sighed, tapping my pen against my lips as I thought hard.

Considering the prophecy was ancient, it could be talking about past, present or future events. My thoughts went to two events in history were significant guiltless blood was spilled. The first one was the war, which took the lives of millions of innocent people from all races. The second one was the murder of the King and Queen, who were killed without good reason, even though I doubted they were completely innocent. Was anyone these days? It could also be blood that would be spilled in the future, making it nearly impossible to figure it out. 

The same could be said for the second part of the first sentence, it could have something to do with the war, the murder or a future event. I scribbled down my incoherent thoughts onto the paper in the exact same way as my father, slowly leaning into the possibility the prophecy could have double meanings in its sentences.

Moving on to the second sentence, I split it up in two parts again. First, earth shall unleash it's force and second, to maintain the equilibrium. Earth could mean a couple of things, it could mean the literal earth, which would be a bit crazy, but it could also be symbolic for its people. Then there was the matter of the force, because what force was it talking about? The force of people standing united against a problem. Was I going to be that problem with my strange growing powers? Or were my powers the force being named in the prophecy? If so, how would they connect me to the 'earth' other than the ground making me feel prickled sometimes and animals bowing to me? 

Groaning frustratingly, I moved on to the second part of the second sentence, realizing I was only raising more questions instead of solving them. There were so many possibilities for what an equilibrium was necessary for. Light and darkness, war and peace, yin and yang, positive and negative, warm and cold, evil and good, life and death.

This wasn't working.

Annoyed, I crumbled up the piece of paper and burned it in the fire place, along with the papers underneath it on which the letters could've been secretly pressed because of the pressure applied on it during my writing. What could I say? I really couldn't take any risks of people finding out the whole thing around here, or anywhere really.

My gaze locked on the burning paper in the fire. I was mesmerized by it and I wanted to touch it, but I didn't. Instead, I snapped out of it, my mind wondering back to if I was ever going to be able to solve the prophecy before it would one day come true and if it truly was as important as it was hyped up to be. An eighty-year-old dying madman could've just made it up on his death-bed with a couple supporters surrounding him, who passed it on for centuries while it possibly was a bunch of shit.

Deep down however, I knew there was some truth to it, otherwise I wouldn't feel so torn up about the thing. My eyes narrowed as I thought about having to pry the real meaning of it out of the marked man, but I knew he wasn't going to budge, at least not yet. The secretive son of a bitch hadn't even told me his name, first or last. I swore to myself I would found out what it was, what he was.

I laid down in bed again, closing my eyes and slowly drifting off to sleep, the voice of the marked man being present in my head.

"All will be discovered in time."