Chapter 32

She only made it half way to her room before Xavier gasped and went completely lip in her arms. She put him down, gently. Sat on the floor and sliced open her arm.

“Come on baby, you need to feed.” She said, willing life into him, as her blood flowed into his mouth, all he had to do was swallow it.

“Rowan. What are you doing?” her mother’s voice shattered the deathly silence.

Rowan felt her fury rise, they had done this to him, the man she loved looked like ground beef, not a person, and they had been the barbarians to do it. Her mother had known they were doing it, she had to have ordered it.

“Leave me mother before you say something you’ll regret, I'm not in the mood to forgive right now.” Rowan said throwing her hand up to stop her mother coming any closer. As her hand came a wall of wind separated them, he mother couldn’t get through, no matter how hard she tried.

“Darling don't do this, he is using you. Can't you see that? He had your father almost killed so he could have both kingdoms. You’re only a pawn to him darling, he doesn’t love you; everything he has said to you has been to gain this kingdom. I'm sorry baby, but he told me this himself.”

She kept her hand up but looked down at Xavier who was now swallowing her blood, wondering if that was why he had come back for her. Had it all been a lie? Had he planned this with his parents?

“He wants revenge for what we did to his father Rowan. Please let me in, it's not too late to stop this. He is going to die one way or the other. Why prolong the hurt baby? I know you love him but surly you can see that he hasn’t ever loved you, why would he leave you if he did?

Her mother’s words were slicing open her heart, each one going a little deeper than the last. She couldn’t deny any of what she was hearing, it was all true. Only the fact the she had felt his love in her soul, made her question the poisonous words.

His skin was starting to form, it was patchy but at least he was healing. He also had the strength to hold her arm to his mouth and was now drinking instead of just swallowing. 

Her blood had healed him so fast, she has to blink to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, as she watched more skin covered the muscles that had been dripping blood just minutes ago. She wondered just what else her blood could do.

“Rowan STOP this.” Her mother’s voice was raised now, as she pounded on the wall of wind.

Rowan sat there watching Xavier’s life-force strengthen, she didn’t know if she believed her mother. She would have know if he was lying about being his soul mate, surely he couldn’t fake that.

Oh who was she kidding, she didn’t know jack shit about any of this. She had fairies popping in giving her visions of awful things. She was a vampire that wasn’t dead and still had a beating heart. And she now lived in a parallel world to earth.

What did make sense these days? Absolutely nothing.

 Xavier could, for all she knew, be doing this to get her Kingdom, a Kingdom she would gleefully give him as long as he loved her. As she pondered if he really did love her or just her kingdom, his eyes snapped open pinning her with sadness.

Oh why couldn’t she read his mind? She needed to know for sure that he loved her, for her.

“Do you want this Kingdom Xavier? Is that why you came back for me? Is it why you asked me to marry you?” she whispered to him, her voice breaking slightly.

His eyes flared bright red and his jaw tensed on her arm, he didn’t stop drinking. She guessed he couldn’t, he must still be in excruciating pain, and if her blood was stilling that, then she couldn’t blame him. Even if he didn’t love her and had been trying to use her, he didn’t deserve this.

She finally pulled her arm from him, she wasn’t sure how much blood she could lose before she passed out, and was starting to feel nauseous and weak herself.

“I  l... lo...ve   y.ou.” He rasped, before passing out.

“He will stand trial for what he has done Rowan. I will not let him get away with hurting my family. The council expects it as does this Kingdom.” Her mother said.

“Then I will stand trial with him. He is not to be harmed until then. We are not barbarian’s mother, and I will not see him treated like an animal. He is my fiancé and should be treated as such.” She said, tilting her chin up to show she would not back down.

“You can't be serious.” Shae screeched.

“Deadly.” She said, picking up his body and walking towards her mother.”Until I hear it from his mouth, that he only wanted me for this Kingdom, I am his. And if he dies at the trial, so will I.” The wall of wind died down as she approached it and she briefly wondered what else she could do before he mother spoke again.

 “If you love him this much Rowan, let him go and I will drop the charges against him. I will save his life if you promise to marry another and never see him again.” Shae pleaded. “If you stand with him you will both die, the evidence is undisputable. I can't lose you again Rowan, so I'm giving you this one opportunity to save his life. Once this goes to trail there will be nothing I can do to save either of you.”

He fear in her mothers voice was clear.

“How do I know you will get rid of the evidence that you say is indisputable. How do I know that you’re not just saying this? Why can't you just get rid of it anyway without giving me an ultimatum?” God she was so sick of not knowing anything. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to here. She knew the council was made up of all the ruling houses and that what they said was law.

Oh her brain hurt.

“It's not really an ultimatum Rowan, the council would never sanction your union anyway, they won’t allow that much control to pass to either family, it's just the way it is. So you can save him or kill him but you can never be his wife.”

Rowan stilled in her stride, so it wasn’t just her mother and father that wouldn’t allow them to be together she would have to fight the whole council too. SHIT. She would have to agree with her mother for now, until she found a way round this. Even if it was for them to leave. She had lived her whole life so far without parents but she couldn’t live without Xavier.

“Ok, I will give him up and marry another, IF, you save him.” She said.

“I am sorry about this my dear, but you’ll see, it really is for the best.” Shae said. “I will have him sent home, they can care for him there.”

“NO, he stays with me until he doesn’t look like you put him through a meat grinder.” She barked. “And make sure you other GUEST is cleaned up too.”

 Rowan carried Xavier to her room and laid him on her bed, got a wet cloth and cleaned her blood from his face. He looked so peaceful now, the only evidence of what he had been through was the slight frown between his eyebrows and the matting of his hair. His skin looked fresh and unblemished; there was no blood on him, other than what she had just cleaned from his face.

She covered his body with her blanket and lay beside him, stroking his face, aching for him to open his eyes and look at her, the way he had when he made love to her. She brought her lips to his and kissed him gently, as her tears dripped from her cheeks and on to him. She was so grateful that she had managed to get to him in time. She had saved him.

She had saved him! Even though she had been scared to death, she had faced down guards and her mother and he was now lying in her bed.

*

Xavier felt the briefest of touches to his lips and his body flared to life. Rowan had saved him. She had come for him and taken the pain from him. He had been so delirious at the time he thought she was an aberration, that his mind had conjured her up for him so he could die in her arms. It wasn’t until her blood dripped into his mouth that he knew she was real.

He felt her hot tears hit his face and he opened his eyes. She was crying. Why? He lifted his hand, his skin felt tight and painful but at least it was skin and the pain was nothing compared to what it had been. He brushed the tears from her cheeks.

“Don't cry my love.” He said his voice sounding like a whisper to his ears.

“Oh Xavier.” She cried and threw herself on top of him. He winced at the contact but held her to him. It was a precious pain and one he wouldn’t deny himself. Masochist he thought. But the pain made it real, made her real, as it set fire to every inch that she touched.

He stroked her hair and let her cry on him, he knew how she was feeling, he had felt the same way when she had woken up.

When she finally stopped crying she curled herself up against him. God she felt so perfect there he never wanted to leave this bed.

“I heard what you told your mother Ro.” He said.

“Hmm, what was that.” she said tilting her face up to his.

“You told her you would give me up, if she saved me from trial. Did you mean it?” he asked running his fingers down her cheek.

“No. I just needed time to figure out how to beat the system.” She said reaching for his face.

He kissed the top of her head. He knew she hadn’t meant it but he needed to hear it for himself.

“You can't beat the system Ro, I wish we could but everything she said is true. Well the part about them not letting us be together, not the part about me only wanting you for your Kingdom. I hope you know that.”

“I do, but there has to be a way, and if there isn’t then we can leave here.” She said kissing from his chest to his throat.

“No, you can't live on earth right now, it's too dangerous, too many people trying to kill you and I can't fight them all Ro.” He said as his blood called for her, his body igniting with need to be inside her.

“Then what do we do?” she asked, her eyes filled with fear and sadness.

“I don't know.” He said kissing her lips, “But I'm not giving up on us either.”