Valerian Empire

Hearing the hurried footsteps coming from the other side of the door, Katie quickly tried moving away but this time due to her jerking the chair, she felt the chair falling sideways and with a crash she was on the floor. The chair now broken, one of her hand and both her feet were free to move. Hearing the loud crash the guardsmen unlocked the door to see Katie lying on the ground.

"How did she get there?!" One of them asked to the other.

"Have her tied back to the chair again! Get the one that's outside before Lady Ester or Lord Norman comes back!"

The one who had first spoken pulled Katie on her feet but she was quick to jab the broken wooden piece to the side of the guards chest. Seeing him wince due to the unexpected attack Katie looked at him worried. In panic after jabbing him again as he had grabbed her hand by force. Unfortunately the guardsman who had gone out caught her from behind. Suddenly the door to the room closed with a loud thud.

"Open the door," the guard who had caught Katie ordered the other man and when the man did the door couldn't be opened and seemed to be locked, "What the heck are you doing instead of opening the God damn door?!"

"I am trying but it isn't opening for some reason," the guardsman replied while shaking the knob in an effort to open it up and that's when the three of them heard someone laughing. The guards looked at each other before looking at the man who was laughing in the room.

It was the Lord of Valeria who was laughing with his head lowered down while sitting bound to the chair. The sound of his laugh was sinister which even made Katie nervous. The guardsmen wondered if the Lord had finally lost his mind due to lack of blood.

"If you want your death to be less painful then I advice you to remove your filthy hands off her," they heard him speak once his laughter had died away.

"Stop acting high and mighty. A murderer should just shut up!"

"Oye! I don't think-" the other guard spoke.

"Look at him. He's been hammered with nails. The last thing we need to worry about is him. Do you think we will be scared huh?" The guard said pulling Katie's hair painfully making her scream.

When Lord Alexander finally looked up, his expression was calm and relaxed. They heard something knock over the wall and when Katie looked down she found that it was a nail that was hammered into the Lord's flesh. One knocked out after another until all the nails that were in his body, now laid on the ground with a hint of blood on each of them. The wounds in his arms and legs healed in seconds and he stood up straight to the horror of the guardsmen in the room.

With a blink of an eye, the guard who was trying to open the door laid on the ground motionless. His head ripped off from his body.

"Yes, you were saying?" Lord Alexander asked charmingly.

"I-I f-forgi forgive m-" the guard stuttered.

"Do you know where I might find Lady Ester?" The Lord kept a smile on his face as he questioned the man.

"D-deep in the fo-forest. P-pleas-"

"Now, now. I did warn you, didn't I," he tutted the guard who picked up the wooden piece of the chair in his hand.

"Don't c-come near me!"

In a nick of time, Alexander had his hand wrapped around the guard's neck while enjoying the fear he spotted. Sensing that Katie was watching he spoke,

"Darling if you could turn around," Katie didn't have to be told twice as the sight of the dead man on the floor was already making her nauseous. He had knocked out all the nails without having anyone touch them, like they were merely feathers lying on his arms. Feeling a hand on her back she saw that Alexander had blood all over his clothes.

"You…the nails…witch…" She whispered looking at him unable to form a proper sentence.

"When a white witch and a vampire marry, there is a rare possibility of the blood combining to produce an offspring having an identical ability such as of a black witch. These offsprings are called the dark witches. There have been sayings before of how the dark witches would be the cause of destruction of the lands due to which the secrets of the white witches have been erased long ago, to save their children and not many are aware of it."

He was a hidden witch, Katie murmured it in her mind. Somewhere at the back of her mind she had once thought of the possibility of him being a white witch but to be something along the lines of a black witch was completely out of the box.

How different were black witches from the dark witches? Probably by appearance, she thought to herself.

"Take this," he said giving her a sword which he had taken from one of the guardsmen, "Katie, once we step out of the room it's going to be difficult to stay together with the amount of security that has been put place here. I want you to get out of here and go to the town if possible," he instructed her.

"What about you?" She asked him anxiously and momentarily the look in his eyes softened for her. He leaned down towards her to place a kiss on her lips.

"I have few things to take care of. I will distract them so that you escape. I will be fine by myself," one end of his lips raised up in a cunning smile, "Ready?" And she nodded her head, holding the sword close to her.

When Alexander opened the door as expected the guardsmen who noticed them ran at them, one of them alerting the others in the perimeter. Lord Alexander moved swiftly without breaking a sweat as he snapped their neck effortlessly giving Katie the opportunity to run from there.

Katie ran as if her life depended on it, because it did now. The route Alexander had asked her to take was clear until a guard out of nowhere appeared with his sword in his hand. Their swords clashed against each other and hearing the footsteps approaching them in distant she realized she had no time to waste and therefore kicked him right in between his legs. The man fell on the floor as he cursed and groaned.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and continued to run, and not long did the guard she hate the most appear.

Leroy stood there in front of her, his expression seeming utterly bored with a sword in his hand.

He wouldn't let her go without intervening her path. The deep down desperation to run back to Alexander was high but at the same time she wanted to take a stand. Even if she did go down she would do it with her head held high.

"Put down the sword," he spoke but it only made her grip the sword tightly, "So be it."

The man didn't give her another second and came right at her, his sword clashing against hers. His attacks were furious but somehow due to sheer luck or the training she had she defended herself by blocking and dodging him in every possible way. When he tried to catch hold of her she jumped back, her heart thundering inside her chest.

It was hardly two minutes and she was heaving for air. Katie wasn't sure how long she could keep up with him. In the next minute the buffman sent her sword flying across space to fall on the ground with a clank sound. Seeing him swing his sword towards her, she closed her eyes knowing there was no where to run. Just when she readied herself, she heard metals clash above her head.

When she opened her eyes, she saw two blades against each other, one belonging to Leroy. Trailing her eyes from the blade to the person she expected to see Alexander but instead saw someone else. Her eyes going wide as saucers.

"Yo, little lady. Missed me?" The man asked his grey eyes smiling down at her.