“She seems…a little…distracted.” Magdalene chose a more motherly tone as she replied to him. “Lily tried to act like she was okay and making jokes with me on my way out…but I can tell that something has troubled her since I awoke her.”
Magdalene’s words caused him to become on edge. The fact that Lily was uneasy from what sounded like a simple bad dream made him uncomfortable. He wanted to race to her, wrap her up in his arms, comfort her, and send any and all bad thoughts of her dream to oblivion.
Daniel sat in silence for a moment before he made a gesture towards the door, suggesting his maid to leave him. He propped an arm up on a side of the tub, and supported his head, holding his chin within it.
I believe the time has come…to show Lily the reach of my powers.
Although his body was at ease in the warm water, his mind craved to find out what it was that troubled her, and had put her in a state of distress. Daniel closed his eyes, and sought out Lily with his thoughts, whispering her name.
* * *
Lily moved her wet wash cloth across the back of her neck, and up the side of her face before dipping it back down into the water that had warmed both her spirits and her body. Her long black hair hung free and down her back, slightly damp from the water.
This feels so nice.
She brought it back up from underneath the warm water it had been submerged in, and proceeded to wash the rest of her face that had not been touched by its heat. Her body had started to relax itself and forget about all the things that had been troubling it beforehand.
I don’t believe that I have ever enjoyed a hot bath like this in my whole life…It is always cold baths at my parents’ home, nothing like this. It is really good to get to experience something different for a change.
How did you feel last night when I was the one washing your body?
Her body nearly jumped straight up out of the water from what was said to her inside of her mind in response to what she had just said, silently. The moment of surprise caused her hand to drop the rag outside of the tub and onto the smooth floor. Moving her hands to rest on the rim of the tub that ran all the way around it, she darted her gaze around the large chamber in search of the voice.
However, upon observing the space she was in at the present moment…There was not a single soul in sight that could be the owner of the voice. The way it spoke to her sounded just like the way that…Daniel spoke to her.
“H-Hello?” Lily asked, calling out to the immediate area she was in, as well as towards the direction of the opened doorway that led from her adjoined bed chambers to that room. “Is someone there?”
No answer.
The discovery of silence echoing around her made chill bumps dance all over her back, stretching from the bottom of her tail bone to the very top of her spinal cord, leaving no spot in-between untouched. She brought one of her hands away from the tub’s rim, and tucked a strand of her hair behind one of her ears while her eyes looked to the area once more to try to validate for herself what was going on.
Strange…I am pretty sure that I just heard Daniel speaking to me right now-
And you are correct on that assumption, Lily.
His voice speaking out of nowhere made her nearly dunk her head down into the water of being shocked like she had been a moment ago. She managed to catch herself before her head went under, and pulled herself to be a seated position amongst the warm, heated water. Looking to the bathroom that only herself was nestled in, the confusion that had started to plague her a little bit ago returned with a vengeance in her voice.
“What…What is going on here? How-“
Don’t fret, my love. It is I, Daniel. His voice continued to speak in her mind with a more soothing tone in his deep voice. There is no need for you to be concerned or confused like you are.
“Where are you?” Lily looked around the area she was in at the moment for him, but found her to be the only one there. Her frustration grew a little more as she looked to the area. “I can hear you, but I can’t-“
I am in the privacy of my own bathroom, cleaning up for tonight, but my mind has the ability to keep a line of communication open within your own in a way to help us talk to one another without needing to be in the same room at the same time. So…There is no need for you to speak aloud. If you want to speak back to me, just use your thoughts.
You are truly full of surprises, Daniel. She relaxed the tension that had started to grow inside of her being. Reaching to the floor, Lily picked her rag off of it, and brought it back inside of the tub. A vampire king with the ability to speak into the minds of those he chooses to…Is there anything that you can’t do?
Stop you from being troubled on the eve of our wedding…Magdalene has informed me that you have been uneasy and distracted.
Damn it, Magdalene…Why did she have to tell him? She silently cursed at Daniel’s maid in a portion of her mind that he couldn’t and had not gotten into it yet, keeping him from hearing the words she wanted to say to her. Lily drew in a breath of air before she focused back on the link that Daniel had on her.
It is not anything serious, Daniel. She dampened the cloth once more, and ran it up and down her arms before sliding it across the tops of her shoulders. You don’t need to be worried about it.
If it makes you uncomfortable, it is something that I need to be concerned about. His voice took on a more firm sound as he maintained the mental connection with her. You are to be my wife, and I don’t want you hiding how you are truly feeling from me, as well as things I can easily get rid of for you so that you can be a peace with yourself.
Daniel’s sweet words to her started to wear down the resolve she had before their conversation with one another. Lily didn’t wish to bring up what had happened with her that had caused her to feel the way she had been with Magdalene, but found the words starting to slip out of into her thoughts and into the open.
I just had a bad dream is all, my lord…It is really nothing for you to be focused on.
What was in this dream that caused you to be on edge?
Daniel…
Humor me, Lily.
The dream didn’t go bad…until I saw some startling images.
Such as?
My father with a group of men from the countryside and town holding weapons in my directions while he was ordering them to kill the vampire queen.
Lily wrung the cloth out with her own hands before she draped it over a side of the tub. She waited for a moment, but found his voice not speaking to her anymore.
Daniel…Daniel, what’s-
The sound of her bedchamber door closing caught her attention, and had her to break the connection with him. She turned her head, and found Magdalene poking her head in the bathroom and smiling towards her.
“Let’s not waste time, my lady,” Magdalene said, softly, “for I need to get you dressed and ready for the grand ceremony tonight with Daniel in the grand ballroom before the royal court.”
Although she had a desire to lash into her for telling Daniel about how she was feeling when she had come into the room to get her out of the bed, Lily bit her tongue and gave a nod of her head shortly before speaking up to her in a soft yet polite tone.
“All right, Magdalene,” she replied, “I will get up, and come in there once I dry myself off.”
“Very good, my lady.”
She waited for Magdalene to go back into her room before her body rose to stand up in the tub. Beads of the water trailed down her body, causing it to glisten in the faint rays of the setting sun. Her head turned, and looked to where the sun was moving further behind the mountains now while she couldn’t help but wonder about Daniel and the sudden silence that he had graced her with. Lily let herself ponder on it for a while shortly before she removed herself out of the warm water and towards where her robe was awaiting her.
Chapter Eighteen
Securing the black trousers on his tall physique’s lower part, Daniel bent down to retrieve his shirt from the foot of his
bed. His hands trembled with a hidden rage that had been consuming him as soon as he had left his private bath to get ready for the night.
I knew that something like this would occur when I finally find the woman that is my other half. Daniel cursed at himself, silently, from what he heard Lily tell them during their mental communication link with one another. The news of her dream made him feel very unsettled and nervous. The moment that I discover true happiness…it causes my future wife to have a premonition of what might happen.
He struggled with the fabric of his top inside of his fingertips. The amount of anxiety and unbridled anger inside of him started to make it impossible for him to have the ability to open it up so he could place it on himself.
Knock.
Daniel tossed the shirt that was made for the wedding onto the floor of his room out of frustration. He moved his hands up to his face and ran them across the sides of his head as his voice came out muffled due to his hands moving across his face like they were.
“Come in.” He said. His voice bellowed out of his parted lips with all of the turmoil that had been building up inside of his body.
He caught the sound of his door opening and closing in a matter of moments of each other. Daniel lifted his eyes in the direction of his full length mirror, and saw Richard, his advisor, walking up, and retrieving his shirt from the spot he had tossed it down on.
“Everything is in order for tonight.” Richard said, “All of the guards are in place, the hired help is in the kitchen with the cooks, and the members of your court will be here very soon.” His voice came across as being polite and professional while his chubby hands held the top opened for him to move his hands through the sleeves of it. “There is nothing to be concerned about.”
“Yes…There is.” Slipping his arms inside of the sleeves, he relaxed his body to let his confidant move around, and start to button it up for him. His voice got more deeper and concerned as he spoke to him. “Lily received a very troubling dream that has left her unsettled.”
“What did she dream of, my lord?”
“She saw her father leading a group of men in her direction, coming for ‘the vampire queen’, with the full intent on killing her.”
Daniel waited for him to button the very last one before he moved up to his full length mirror. He focused on himself in the glass while his hands tucked the bottom of his shirt into his pants. His body remained tense and on edge about the whole thing while he listened to his advisor speaking up in a slightly shaky sound.
“Lily’s father and whoever he decides to bring with him will not be able to break through the line of defense I have set up for this evening. No mortal man can get through what I have arranged to keep everyone within these walls safe.”
“No offense, Richard, but I am not going to be at ease until the ritual is complete, and Lily is my eternal wife. Only then will I be able to focus on letting all of the tension out of me.”
His eyes moved away from the mirror to the balcony that stood nearby, and gazed in the direction of where the mountains lied. He looked upon the sun disappearing behind the peaks of the mountains, slipping completely out of sight. The sight eased a small part of the tension away from his voice as he turned around, and put his full focus on Richard.
“Let’s go…We have guests to greet, and a wedding to take part in.”
* * *
As Magdalene was lacing up the back of her dress, Lily kept her attention on the full length mirror that she stood in front of, focusing her gaze on the beautiful purple and black lace trimmed dress that had been made for her wedding that evening to the land’s king. A faint smile came to her face as she lingered on how she appeared in the gown.
I have never seen anything as lovely as this dress in all of my life. She couldn’t help herself but feel attracted to the view of her body being dressed in an elbow length sleeved gown with a skirt that flowed down to the tops of her purple and brocaded slippers, matching the material that the dress was created from. This is something that seems to be unreal…Like…Like it something from a dream, and it is not real.
It’s your dreams that have had you worried since you woke up, Lily. Her conscience slipped into her mind, giving its own opinion. Perhaps there is something to this, Lily. Maybe your dreams are trying to tell you something…something that is going to happen if you go through with this wedding, and allow Daniel to turn you into a vampire like him.
Lily couldn’t disagree with the suggestion that came from her rational part of her mind. There was a small part of her that had wondered if what she dreamed of was her impending future. What if her marriage to Daniel would bring about a war that could not be stopped by anything else other than her own destruction and demise?
“How does your dress feel on you, my lady?”
She broke out of her thoughts, and focused on the mirror to find Magdalene smiling at her from the side. Lily took a moment to look over how the gown clung to the upper part of her curvaceous body to a degree while the lower part was flowing and gave her legs room to move. Her eyes let the sight soak in for a moment before she moved them in the direction of her fiancée’s maid.
“It fits very nicely, Magdalene.” Lily replied, friendly. She managed to put a smile on her face despite how she was feeling on the inside, and kept a light hearted tone with her to not let anything on. “I believe it is on me just right.”
“If you will move over to the vanity, my lady, I will run a brush your hair, and finish the last things that are needed to be done before you make your way downstairs for the ceremony.”
She made her way over to where the vanity was nestled with Magdalene at her side, and eased herself down on a cushioned, white bench. Her eyes tried to focus on her face in the mirror while her hair was being fixed, but were unable to due to what was going on her mind, causing them to look at her lap.
I have to tell Magdalene…I need someone to give my mind some reassurance that everything will be fine.
Lily looked to where Magdalene’s reflection was in the mirror in time to see her giving her hair a few more strokes before reaching to where some purple and black hair ribbons had been set out. She drew in a breath of air, and released it, shortly, before her voice came out in a soft tone.
“Magdalene,” she asked, “can I ask your opinion on something?”
“Of course, my lady.” Magdalene answered while her hands worked the ribbons underneath a portion of her hair on the top of it, and proceeded to weave in several strands of it. “I would be happy to answer anything that you have on your mind at the moment.”
“Well…um…Do you ever have dreams?”
“I have had dreams, my lady.”
“Do those dreams ever seem…real?”
“There are some that do seem very realistic…Why do you ask?”
“Do those dreams…seem to be telling you of something that might…happen in the future?”
The moment the question left her lips, Lily found Magdalene’s hands stopping at the bottom of the ribbons that had been weaved into some of her hair. She turned her head, and watched her move over to a side of her body before she moved to kneel down and speak to her.
“Does this have to deal with what you dreamed of before I woke you for your bath, Lily?”
She tried to keep her emotions in check, but found them causing her to rise up, and move over towards where the glass doors of her balcony were located. Lily wrapped her arms around her waist, and clung to herself while the words came flooding out of her mouth.
“Yes…I saw my father storming towards me with men from the village and the surrounding countryside with torches and swords in their hands…wishing to harm me.”
“Why do you believe it might happen?”
“Because my father was telling the men to get the vampire queen…” Her body trembled as the words came from her mouth. Dropping her head, her voice grew even softer and had a hint of sadness to it. “What if my dream was a vision of what is to come, Magdalene? What if my marria
ge to the person who I have come to love unconditionally in such a short amount of time brings nothing but despair and-“
Lily’s words fell silent once she found Magdalene’s hand moving onto one of her shoulders. She looked towards her, and found an expression on her face similar to that of her mother looking at her with a gentle kindness before her ears picked up on the sound of a tone in her voice to match how she was looking at her.
“Lily…There is a saying that dreams are windows to a future that is possible and can happen. However…We hold the power in making those dreams come true, or change them before they are a possibility.”
She was right…She knew Magdalene was correct. Her dreams held no power…She did. If anything was to happen, it would be on her own accord, not her dreams.
Giving a nod of her head, Lily turned to Magdalene and held onto her as if she was her mother. She waited until she felt the arms of Daniel’s maid moving around her own body to hold and console her before her words finally came out of her mouth.
“I believe you, Magdalene,” she whispered, sincerely, “and I thank you…for everything.”
Chapter Nineteen
Downstairs, Daniel stood in the foyer of his castle home, greeting the stragglers that were coming in a little late while the part of his guests were already in their seats, awaiting the ceremony to start.
Oh…How I do hate those of my kind who have no sense of time on nights important to me like this one.
He did his best to keep his frustration in check while his right hand was shaking the ones extending out from his remaining guests that were still coming inside, and heading into the grand ballroom where the ceremony was to take place in. Secretly, however, he wanted nothing more than to tell them off for showing up late on his special evening.
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