May Death Do Us Part

88 Chapter 88 : She’s Unwell

Maria threw her head back in frustration. It had been almost an hour since Adam and the princess went to their tent to ‘have a discussion’, they were running out of time. Every minute Ella was not in the snowlands was a minute that delayed their plans to take back their home from the humans.

Maria had volunteered to go to the central kingdoms a little over eighty years ago to keep an eye on the princess. At the time all she knew was that the princess had red hair and blue eyes, thank the gods there was no human who had those traits except for Ella, who at the time was named Carmilla.

Maria willingly took on the task in spite of her hatred for humans because of her ailing mother. The woman had been born and raised when the races all lived as one, when the nosferatu had hundreds of animals to choose from in terms of nourishment and blood, it was an easier more beautiful time.

When the cleansing happened, her mother was one of the women who managed to escape and settle in the snowlands, she was heavily pregnant for Maria at the time and had just lost her husband during the dreadful coup by the humans.

Animals in the snowlands were incredibly scarce so animal blood was cast aside as a source of norishment. It was during this time of hunger that some nosferatu tried to feed on humans in desperation for food, but the tainted human blood made them run mad and turn evil.

And it was because of this scarcity in blood that Ichor was formulated as a substitute. At first some nosferatu shunned it because of its consistency, claiming they were being forced to go ‘vegan’. But eventually majority of the race adapted to ichor and some even began to prefer it over animal blood.

Alas the same could not be said for Maria’s mother. The woman’s body physically rejected the potion, every time she would try to take some she would throw it up and fall into sickness. Necromancers diagnosed her with a rare condition that only allowed her body to draw the life essense from whole blood, so she was one of the few who solely fed on animal blood for survival. But as the years went by, her body slowly began to reject the animal blood as well, and her body shriveled away with each passing year.

The woman’s ailment was so strange and no one knew how to cure it, some even claimed she was bewitched or cursed. Maria had to bare the pain of watching her mother slowly dying, and every night she would always talk about how lovely it would be to see the central kingdom, her childhood home one last time before she died.

And that is why Maria had taken up this job, she was adamant on aiding in anyway she could to take back their homeland on behalf of her mother before it was too late.

.....

When the nosferatu woman saw the elven prince come out of the tent she heaved a sigh of relief. “Finally!” She exclaimed as Adam walked towards the people who were sitting in a circle in front of a dying fire. It was already late into the morning so the temperature was not as cold anymore.

“Where is the princess?” Maria asked the dark haired prince who had taken a seat on an old log across from her, “we’ve wasted enough time here we need to be on our way.”

Everyone turned to look at Adam who surprisingly had a very casual and relaxed look on his face. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” the prince responded.

Maria scoffed and gave Adam an irritated glare, “look, I know you are in love with the princess but your obsession is going to have to wait, we have real roblems to deal with. Now where is princess Melissa we need to go!”

“Ella.... princess Melissa is not well,” Adam responded. Everyone around could tell that he had held himself back from chocking Maria a second time.

Vivian furrowed her brows, “not well? She was fine just an hour ago, what happened in that tent?”

“He must have done something to her so she wouldn’t be able to travel with us!” Maria rose to her feet and started walking towards the tent when a hand grabbed her and pulled her back. She turned around ready to give Adam a piece of her mind but realized it was Vivian who had stopped her. “Vivian what are you-”

“I’ll go check on her,” she spoke calmly and gestured Maria to take her seat.

When Maria was seated, Vivian turned to look at the elven prince who slightly cocked his head to the side and gave her a go ahead.

When Ella heard footsteps approaching the tent she pulled the furs that covered her over her head and closed her eyes tightly shut. The footsteps drew closer until finally she heard the person sit down on the floor of the tent beside her furs.

“Princess..” the voice spoke softly, “are you feeling alright? The elven prince said you were feeling unwell.”

Ella faked a cough and slowly pulled the fur from her face. She turned to look at Vivian who was studying her closely. “I don’t know what happened,” Ella spoke weakly, her eyes shimmering like a glass doll’s eyes. “I just felt light headed all of a sudden.”

Vivian reached out to touch Ella’s forehead and furrowed her brows. Her temperature was low yes, but much warmer than a normal nosferatu. “You’re warm princess.”

“Well yeah that’s because I’ve been covering-”

“No princess,” Vivian interrupted her, “for a nosferatu, being warm is not a good sign.”

Ella flattered her long lashes and slowly pushed herself up so she could be seated in the furs, “it’s not?” She questioned the woman sitting beside her.

“Princess, when last did you feed?”

Ella nibbled the inside of her lower lip nervously while her tiny fingers raked the furs, “err well we had some stew last night and-”

“No Princess, I didn’t ask you when you last ate,” Vivian responded sternly as she inched closer to the visibly nervous redhead. “I asked you when you last fed. When last did you drink blood?”

“I uh...” Ella didn’t know how to respond to that question honestly, just the word ‘blood’ left a foul taste in her mouth.

“Wait here..”

Vivian stood up and exited the tent rashly and Ella watched the exit intently until the woman returned a few minutes later with a golden canteen in hand. She took her place next to Ella, opened the canteen and handed it to the blue eyed woman. “Drink it.”

Ella hesitatingly reached for the canteen and took it from Vivian. She looked into the canister but could not make out what was in it. But still, after the conversation they had just had Ella felt she may have an idea of what she was holding. “Is this blood?” She questioned Vivian.

“Not exactly,” Vivian responded, “take it, it will help you feel better. Just a sip of it will keep you norished for over a week.”

Ella drew in a quick breath before taking a sip of the contents of the canteen. She then lowered the canister from her mouth and licked her perky pink lips while she studied the container closely.

“How does it taste?” Vivian asked with an amused smile.

“It tastes...” Ella looked up at Vivian, her eyes filled with dread because what it tasted like was something she had tasted before and vowed she never wanted to taste again. But after this sip, the fluid tasted almost delicious. “... it tastes like blood.”

Vivian chuckled at the sight of the beautiful woman’s realization that the taste of blood was something she liked. “Don’t worry it’s not blood. Well not entirely, it’s a potion called Ichor, us nosferatu take it as a blood substitute.” The dark haired woman crisscrossed her legs and leaned back on her hands, “I actually think it tastes better than blood.”

“Oh..” Ella didn’t know what to say. It was already crazy enough she had just realized that she liked the taste of blood, so she wasn’t about to have a conversation about which tasted better, the potion or actual blood. The red head closed the canteen and handed it back to Vivian but the woman shook her head.

“Keep it,” she spoke softly, “I have a feeling you’ll need it more than me little cousin.”

“Thank you..” Ella muttered. She was very grateful because she couldn’t picture herself hunting down animals for blood in the woods, and she definitely didn’t want to take blood from Adam or anyone else ever again. The experience was still very traumatizing to her.

Vivian studied the beautiful redhead who was gazing curiously at the golden canteen and couldn’t help but smile to herself in amusement. This was going to be a very interesting journey indeed. Vivian was glad she had taken up the mission to find the princess, she had been so bored cooped up in Wintershold, craving a bit of adventure. And now that she was sitting here looking at princess Melissa, she knew she had stumbled upon an adventure of a lifetime.

“Princess..?”

Ella looked up at the dark haired woman who was watching her with much interest.

“Have you ever heard of blood halves?”