Stuck In Between

chapter 4:

'The wake of the sun with the rise of the moon, tell thy reaper thy come too soon...' along with those words, passed an electric shock through my body making my eyes flash open as I ended sitting up straight, gasping for air as if I really needed it.

"What exactly had happened?" I asked the first person I saw, an elderly looking lady with crazy frizz in her dark, curly hair. Her darker olive skin had wrinkles all over and sagged a little and her dark eyes looked at me tenderly.

"You don't remember a thing?" I turned to look at the owner of the familiar voice that came from another side of the room.

Duke who was seated there with distorted hair and dirty clothes looked at me intensely waiting for a reply. Worry clouded his face.

There were only these two people in the room apart from me and that let me relax a little.

I wasn't ready to share any conversations with people who always had a disgust on their faces for me and were really judgmental in nature.

Although I remembered all the events till I was sucked into the darkness, I lied through my teeth acting all innocent and clueless, "no... What had happened to me?"

"You were compelled to follow orders," the lady answered. Her tone had a sing-song edge to it.

"Compelled?" I couldn't help but ask. My eyebrows furrowing into a frown.

"Yes, a stronger vampire in a certain vicinity can compel a new or a weaker vampire to follow the orders," she answered putting back the books that were laid all around me.

"We need your help, Urdahl. After what has happened tonight, you better do what I've been asking for you to do," Duke's voice sounded more like a plead rather than a command.

"In any other situation I would be obliged, alpha. But I'm a priestess and a priestess should never intervene with the fate and the nature," she replied before adding, "it will never end well. And you have witnessed the consequences with your very own eyes."

I could say that sympathy dripped from her voice leaving Duke even more restless and frustrated.

He pulled his hair and growled in frustration, "I don't give a s**t about the consequences anymore. We are already at our rope's end, we better go ahead."

There was pause and followed by two pairs of eyes landing on me asking they were taking note of me for the first time. For some reason, it felt as if I had unknowingly dragged into their secret conversation that I wasn't supposed to hear.

Nevertheless, Duke dismissed it by waving his hand in the air dismissingly, "We will be discussing about this later again."

Then he turned towards me saying, "Lizzy, come with me."

"Let her rest here. She needs it. There are positive energy here that shall treat her fast," Urdahl replied instead as she wiped the weird spell portions that had spilt around the table. Not once stopping to look at the alpha. He looked like wanted to say something but just ended up eyeing me before striding out.

"You are not scared of me?" I asked Urdahl as soon as Duke was out of ear shot.

"Why? Our species match in power. Why would I be afraid of anything?" She asked raising her eyebrow at me. Yeah, now that she pointed that out. The others were mostly disgusted by me, not afraid of me.

"He was asking about some barrier, right?" I voiced out casually, inspecting the potted plant with a beautiful jasmine type of flower but it wasn't jasmine as it smelled differently.

"So you do remember about what had happened the previous night," Urdahl's voice had a smirk making me pass a nonchalant shrug.

"He makes fuss out of small things," I added for no particular reason, referring to Duke.

"Alpha Dukario was never the one for patience. Except when it concerns you," she replied. Dukario, huh? These people had really weird names.

"Then why don't you listen to him and raise that barrier?" I questioned her knowledge making her stop whatever she was doing and come stand before me.

"You, young vampling, you have no idea about what is happening around you, do you?" Urdahl's choice of words made my stomach drop with anticipation.

"You know that seven people in the world have the same face? It doesn't concern the timeline or when and where," Urdahl paused there increasing my curiosity about where she's going, "in alpha Dukario's case, his mate cursed him to live what she lived through. Even though she died then, he was cursed to live on till he could break it. The other six girls who would look like her, her doppelgangers, or what some would argue as reincarnations, were bound into his mating bond while being destined for someone else.

"His bond is messing up with your head. You should be with your mate who saved your live. The vampire who gave you his life source, risking his own life to save yours."

"Are you telling me to leave Duke and go to Rome?" I raised my eyebrow at her questioningly.

"I am not telling you to do anything, rather just advising you. And it is just for you that I am refraining from raising the barriers. Because once they are raised, no vampire can come in or get out." My heart literally dropped at her words.

Duke was planning to keep me here forever?

"He was going to trap me here?" I breathed out in shock.

"Yes, he's been busy discussing the mating ceremony and all the necessary rituals to mate with a vampire." Her words were only scaring the hell out of me.

"He is adamant to mate with you on the next full moon when his wolf will be stronger. And once the barriers are raised, there is no way out."

"But Rome... I need to find him," it felt like my dead heart pounded inside my chest or was it my wishful thinking.

"Yes, he will die without you. Sacrifice himself and leave the world in the hands of a chaotic power hungry heir, literally turning this world into a living hell," Urdahl added thoughtfully.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You will understand everything, little one, once the time is right, you will understand everything," she smiled at me softly.

"You will need to leave at the dawn, before the sunrise and travel North. Most of the guards will be drowsy to understand anything. And use the trees to hide. Prevent the ground. Once you are on the other side of the river, you will be out of the barrier, away from the reach of the pack," she instructed looking at the wall clock as she ushered me towards the door.

It was around half past four in the morning making my heart race. I had less than half an hour to depart. Her warm hand handed me a dark full sleeved hoodie, a pair of shoes and a pair of jeans.

"Change into it to hide your scent temporarily. There is some money there but I don't think you would need any of it anyway," she shrugged making me frown as I started undressing only to wear the clothes she had provided me.

"Why?" I asked irritated.

"You're a vampire now, darling. The things you are capable of is something you have no idea about. And you wouldn't be needing to worry about food. Once you consume half a liter of blood, you will be good to go for more than a week without anything," she shrugged handing me about five vials. I looked at them skeptically.

"These are a few portions. Use them wisely," She added looking at me.

"What do they do?" I asked her skeptically.

"They are versatile and unpredictable. You vampires are more well-versed with portions than us werewolves. You will know what to use when you need it. Your instincts will guide you," she said looking at the colorful little vials in my hand.

"Thank you so much for all that you are doing for me," I smiled at her, feeling genuinely grateful to her.

"I'm doing this to let the fate do it's job. We shouldn't be meddling with it. And be careful, there is a strong evil force out there. It is lying in wait for you, so you must be very careful. Don't follow the voices out. If you are within a five meters radius of him, he shall have a hold on you. Now go find your mate and save both of yourself," she gently pushed me out of the small wooden cabin of hers.

"Remember, don't trust anyone out of this cabin that easily. And don't follow the voices," Urdahl said hurriedly before closing the door on my face.

This was it. It was the moment of do or die. I turned on my heels and listened to the eerie silence of the night.

The gushing of water grabbed my attention before I opened my eyes and ran in that direction.

For my freedom, for Rome.