Chapter 142   - 19

Heaven slowly sat up on her bed and looked around. This time he didn't bother to hide. He stood a feet away from her bed and stared at her with his smoking silver eyes. If he was angry he didn't show it, He looked rather relaxed and in good condition.

The sound of her heart beating loudly filled the room, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. A thousand images appeared inside her head. Her family slaughtered their bodies on the floor in a pool of blood. Her friends dead, the maids and guards dead, everyone dead.

The Stranger took a step forward. Heaven didn't flinch back.?If everyone were dead, then she might as well die. What was she supposed to do without her loved ones? Oh, how she wished this was just a nightmare, but she knew it wasn't.

"My...my parents…" she stuttered.

"I didn't kill them if that is what you are asking."

Relief washed over her. She still had a chance to convince him.

Heaven bolted out of bed and went down on her knees before him, something she had never done in her life before. She bowed her head.

"Please. My family were only trying to protect me. Please don't hurt them. Please." She shut her eyes and rubbed her hands together nervously.

The room went quiet. The stranger didn't utter a word.

Heaven peaked through one eye to see if he was still there, and he was. Standing exactly where he had been standing.

"Please. They are all I have." Heaven said realizing that she could lose everything because of a stupid decision she made. Her eyes welled with tears.

The stranger's hand went under her chin, lifting her face gently so that she was looking up at him.

"Stand up." He ordered and Heaven did as he said.

A tear fell down her cheek.

"You stabbed me." He said as a matter of tact.

"I am sorry. I was afraid you would kill my friend."

"You hurt me."

Heaven looked up and into his eyes. Was she imagining things, or could she see pain swirling in those silver eyes?

"How could I hurt you?" She asked.

Letting go of her chin, he reached behind his back and took out a dagger. First she thought that he was going to hurt her, but to her surprise he held the dagger out for her to take.

"Here." He said.

Heaven stared confused at the weapon in his hands. Why was he giving it to her?

Carefully she took it from him and gave him a questioning look.

"Stab me." He said.

"Why?!" Heaven was utterly confused.

"Just do it. You wanted to kill me, anyway."

Heaven looked at the dagger in her hand. He came back alive so a little knife would probably not hurt him. Yet, just in case, she only stabbed him on the arm. Blood seeped from the wound. Heaven stared, waiting for it to heal, but it didn't. His silver eyes met hers in realization. She could inflict pain on him, and he didn't like that. Yet another reason for him wanting to kill her.

"I don't want to kill." She hurried to say. "I just want my family to be safe."

"Just because you can hurt me doesn't mean you can kill me."

"Exactly. I mean I stabbed you with a sword yet you are here."

Oh no. She was making the situation worse.

"Are you disappointed?"

"No… I mean…" No. She wasn't disappointed. Strange because she should be.

"No, I am just scared." She admitted. "Please don't hurt my family. My father is just very protective of me."

He stared at her for a long moment. "As he should be. I would have done the same for my daughter."

"You have a daughter?" She almost burst.

Did he have a wife? How could he?

"Had."?he corrected. "Your people killed her."

Killed her? The witches killed his daughter? And then locked him inside.

"She was only a child. Her soul still pure. What crime did she commit?"

They killed a child. Who were they exactly? How could they do such a horrible thing?

"They took my wife away from me and my child and then a thousand years of my life. Tell me why I shouldn't do the same thing? Tell me!" His voice was venomous.

Heaven flinched back. Afraid by the rage in his stormy eyes.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you. But all witches are not the same. I would never do that to anyone."

While talking Heaven noticed that his wound still didn't heal. He was loosing blood.

"Wait." She said, turning back to her bed. She tore a piece of clothes from her bedsheet using her claws, then she walked back to him.

"You are still bleeding." She said approaching him carefully. Slowly she reached for his arm and wrapped the piece of clothes around the wound. The whole time she could feel his intense gaze on her. She wondered what he?was thinking.

She knew he was so focused on his pain that he was blaming everyone, but she hoped he would calm down, eventually. What happened to him was awful, and she couldn't imagine the pain he went through.

Once she was done she took a step back and looked at him. "All wounds heal eventually. Some just take longer to heal."

He gazed at her appalled, as if she was speaking a foreign language. He probably thought she was insane for believing what she said.

"You think So?" He asked.

"I hope so."

"Hope?" He repeated the word as if it was useless. "And you hope that I won't hurt your family?"

"I beg you." She said unashamed.

He looked at her for what seemed like forever. Heaven waited for an evil laugh or a raging anger, but nothing of that sort happened. Instead, his gaze fell on her neck where he had bitten her.

"It will fade away with time. I won't bother you again." He said.

Heaven's eyes widened with surprise. "You won't kill my family?"

"No."

Where her ears deceiving her? She searched his face, trying to see if he was telling the truth.

"You released me. See this as me repaying you. Now I owe you nothing." He explained when he saw the questioning look in her eyes.

"Thank you." She breathed, relieved and still in shock.

He just nodded and turned away to leave.

"Wait!" She said, grabbing his shirt's sleeve.

He turned to her, surprised.

"I...I" She began to stutter, but he waited patiently for her to speak. "I am getting married." She said.

He raised a brow. "And?"

She stared into his eyes while containing her anger. How could he be so indifferent?

"And I can't. Because you bit me and the bite hasn't faded away."

"Then don't get married." He said simply.

"It's not that simple. The kingdom needs a future King." Heaven explained.

"Why a King? Can't they have a Queen?"

"I can't become a Queen without a husband and Queens don't rule."

"Then be the first Queen to rule." He said.

Heaven sighed. Why couldn't he understand? He made everything sound so simple.

"It's not that simple."

"You either take a step to make a change or you follow the rules. It's up to you."

Heaven looked into his eyes. There was this honesty she felt when she first met him. He spoke his mind in a genuine way and he believed what he said even though it sounded impossible.?So she didn't want to argue about the impossible yet maybe possible.

Instead she asked, "where will you go now?"

"Wherever my feet takes me."

That sounded lonely. She wanted to ask him to stay. He couldn't just bite her and then leave her.

"What about the bite?"

"What about it?" He asked.

"When it starts to fade, you will get the urge to bite me again."

"I'll be long gone by then."

Heaven felt as though his words stabbed her in the heart. Slowly she let go of his sleeve. She looked at his face and his beautiful eyes one last time before he vanished into thin air.