The black wolf leapt in a graceful ten foot arc and attacked Nyles. The woman skidded on the ground some fifty feet away. Anastasia fell down with a thud and when she looked up, she saw the vukodlak standing over her, protecting her body with his own. His rage was beyond comprehension. He looked towards the moon and howled. Then he looked at her with his piercing yellow eyes. The way he hovered over her, it was as if she was his possession.

Anastasia was dazed. The call of her lands and the urge to get out of here mixed with the gratefulness she had for this vukodlak… and She was confused. “I want to go,” she mumbled. She had difficulty focusing. He growled. She extended her hand to touch his face. She should have been scared of him, but she didn’t know where was she getting the courage to touch him. She stroked his fur and her vision blurred. The voices became distorted and she felt herself being scooped from the ground by a pair of strong arms. She was going away from him. She missed the warm, soft fur. “I want—”

“M’lady!” Nyles shouted from behind. “Leave her! We have to go back!”

The buzzing sound of a portal faded slowly and Anastasia clutched at the neck of the man who was holding her. When realization dawned upon her, she thought that she was about to commit such a grave mistake. How could she? All the years that she had spent planning her escape would have gone to a waste. And how did she even end up here? She was baffled.

“Anastasia?” He called as he held her in his lap. “Anastasia?” He cupped her cheeks. She could feel his chest heaving against her. Was that Kaizan? “What were you doing?”

“I don’t know… I thought I was dreaming…” Anastasia focused on his face. It was Ileus. And Kaizan was standing over them. Ileus was sitting on the fur near the fire. Ileus appeared as though he couldn’t speak a word. She stared at his face as he shook her lightly by the shoulders.

Kaizan sat down beside them and asked her again. “Anastasia, are you okay?”

Nyles came running over and sat beside them. She was crying and howling. “You idiots! Because of you we missed such a fantastic opportunity! Leave us. We have to go. I will take care of m’lady.”

Confused as hell, Anastasia’s head turned towards Nyles. “Y— you are bleeding.”

“It doesn’t matter m’lady.” She extended her hand. “Come with me back to the portal.”

“How did I end up there?”

“You simply walked out of here Anastasia,” said Kaizan. He looked up at Ileus accusingly. He was so angered that he was taking heavy breaths which condensed into thick clouds. “Ileus discovered that both you and Nyles had left and so he tracked you down. Had he been even a minute later, you would have been the midnight snack of a vampire, a rogue Wilyrain.” He gritted his teeth. “Haven’t you noticed that rogues from various kingdoms run around Sgiath Biò? These forests are so heavily charmed by ancient spells that your abilities are limited.” He looked at Ileus with anger all over again. “Only when we are out of Sgiath Biò, we will be able to move quicker. For now, we are going as fast as we can!”

Anastasia had no idea what he was talking about. “I am sorry,” she said. She looked at Ileus’s pale face. His grip around her was so strong that she felt as if he wanted her to merge in his body. She noticed that the mist around them had thickened as if acting like a layer of protection, as if trying to sheath all of them in a defensive wrap.

The others gathered around them.

“You shouldn’t be sorry m’lady!” Nyles hissed. “They should be sorry. They are taking you away from your destiny! We must go back, else we won’t get out alive from Sgiath Biò. We could have jumped in the portal before the vampire even touched us. Now you know what? The Crown Prince will come soon and kill them all and then do you know the punishment you will get?”

Kaizan turned to her and slapped her hard across her cheek. Nyles fell to the ground and looked at him with eyes full of terror. “If you want to go, then go. The next time I see you luring the princess, I won’t be so kind.” He got up and walked away.

Nyles followed his movements, terrified as hell. Guarhal came over and roughly pulled her to her feet. “Don’t tempt the princess to walk back inside a portal. Next time we might just throw you inside it, and from what I have heard, it is a one-way entry. You can’t come back.” he spat as he dragged her away.

For the first time Ileus asked her, “Why did you leave this place to enter the portal to Vilinski when you were the one who wanted to escape?”

“I don’t even remember doing that Ileus,” she replied, completely baffled. “I just felt such a strong call from that portal. It— it was calling me. I felt— I felt that I had to meld with it.”

Ileus looked up at the sky. “I understand. That’s the call of your land. No one else felt it except you. That’s because you are the royal blood, a true princess. That’s because it recognizes you, the real ruler of the land and no one else. I highly doubt if Nyles felt the same. Or who knows, maybe she did…”

“I am going to have to learn how to resist the pull of the portals,” she resolved. This had been dangerously close, too close. She shifted in his lap and he placed her on the fur.

He wrapped her fur over her, tucked her in and then after lying down beside her, he covered her with his fur too. He slept close to her with his face turned towards her. They were merely inches away from each other, their breath mingling, forming thick clouds of mist.

She was so exhausted that she closed her eyes almost immediately. Things were mentally agonizing. “What does a vampire do?” she asked in a low voice. She had heard about vampires in her kingdom, but not much except that they were some kind of evil.

Others started lying in their furs around them. She wondered where Guarhal had taken Nyles, but from what little she gathered, perhaps they were sleeping farthest away from her. She would talk to Nyles tomorrow. The poor girl was traumatized after being pulled away from the comfort of the place she called her home.