Fury and Pain
Fury and Pain
To those except Adeline and Theodore, the time seemed to move very normally as if nothing had happened. The guards kept on looking outside the window wondering why the lightning occurred out of nowhere. The birds began flying again.
Those who were outside also started to run around to complete the tasks that they were doing.
Adeline's blood and tear that were stuck in time finally dropped. And Adeline gasped loudly as though she was choking, attracting everyone's attention.
She had never felt this suffocated and this helpless ever in her life before.
The moment Theodore heard Adeline gasping for air, he immediately crawled and knelt in front of her. His head became a little clearer than before and he was finally able to give his complete attention to Adeline.
"Adeline! Are you oka–" he felt as if his heart was plucked out and tossed into the hellfire when his eyes finally landed on the four huge puncture marks on Adeline's neck. In his panic, he had forgotten that Adeline was bitten by Rebekah before he pulled her heart out.
Blood was still gushing out from those deep wounds of Adeline. The light orange gown of Adeline was already soaked in her blood. And on top of that, Rebekah's blood made it look like Adeline had lost way more blood than what she actually had.
And Theodore even suspected that his father had only pretended to spare Adeline's life because she was already dying. His fingertips and feet went cold and numb in an instant and he began to have cold sweats.
Adeline, on the other hand, was devastated because God himself had stated that her beloved father was going to die within a month.
And upon hearing if she was okay, Adeline instantly broke down. All the mixed emotions that she was feeling until now came bursting out like a tsunami.
She put her arms around her waist and curled up into a ball. She began wailing without caring about the agonizing pain in her neck that became worst with her crying. Her throat was already dry and her cries sounded so broken that everyone feared she would hurt her throat.
One of the guards panicked and ran to check where the healer had reached. And another guard asked in a freaked voice, "Your Highness, please let us take you to the healer. You seem to be in a lot of pain."
But there was no answer from Adeline.
The guards had no idea why she was crying all of a sudden, and neither did Theodore. Theodore had no idea that Adeline had heard all the conversation between him and his father.
So, naturally, he also assumed that she was crying because of the physical pain that she was in.
"Adeline…" Theodore spoke with great difficulty. He feared to even touch her at first thinking she might have been hurt in other places as well. The bloodstained cloth was making it harder to tell.
And hearing her gut-wrenching cries, Theodore forgot all the scolding that he got from his father a minute ago and said, "Adeline, let me take you to the fountain."
Theodore was about to touch her knee with the intention to teleport her to his cave. But Adeline saw his hand approaching her and slapped it away in fury and screamed, "No!" And she continued to cry.
"Adeline!" Theodore furrowed his brows and asked in a whisper, "Adeline, why are you denying it? Please don't be so stubborn and let me take you there. You will heal in no time."
Adeline abruptly raised her head to directly look at Theodore. Her eyes had already turned red and were swollen. Her face looked very flustered.
She was angry at Theodore for even suggesting that after everything that happened. She wiped her eyes and nose with the back of her palm and she furiously yelled at Theodore, "I don't want to heal at the cost of another life, Theodore!"
"Just leave me alone!" Adeline turned her gaze away from Theodore and began to silently shed her tears again.
A cold shiver ran along Theodore's spine. He understood that Adeline was able to hear the unfortunate talk, the unfortunate side-effect of still having Theodore's demonic power inside of her.
"Adeline, I'm–"
"No!" Adeline raised her palm in front of his face and let out her fury, "Don't say a word to me right now. Just. Leave. Me. Alone. You've already done more than enough!"
Those words crushed the hearts of both of them. Adeline didn't want to say it but the anger overtook her rational thoughts. And the guilt that was eating Theodore up was magnified even further by her words.
The guards and the healer came running inside the room. The healer had brought a huge box along with him. The moment he reached near Adeline, he instantly knelt down and opened his box.
"Your Highness, I'm going to clean your wound." The healer had not seen all the drama so he couldn't see the tension in the air. He carried on with his task without waiting for the reply from the Princess.
Theodore felt his heart clenching. He couldn't even look eye to eye at Adeline because of the accusing glare that she was giving him. If he could turn back time then he would have done things differently, a lot of things.
The pain and frustration became unbearable to him. He wanted to teleport to Hell and vent out his anger where he was allowed to. But there were a few things that he needed to take care of first.
"I will teleport all the vampires back to Mihir. And I will ask everyone in the Palace not to spread today's event outside the Palace." He dared to look at Adeline's angry eyes and asked as softly as he could, "Summon me when you are ready to have a talk with me."
"I won't appear in front of you until then." The moment the last sentence came out of his mouth, Theodore regretted it. He was afraid that she would never want to see him again. He was afraid that he would never get to have the life that he dreamt to have with his beloved.
Adeline also felt pain in her heart because she could hear the anguish in his voice.
She regretted how she shouted at Theodore when everything that he did was to protect her. And she didn't know how and when but Theodore's father had said that Theodore had saved her father time and again.
And she knew very well that Theodore didn't deserve those harsh and cold words from her when he had literally clung to his father's feet and begged not to do anything to her and her father.
The more she recalled the conversation between Theodore and God, the more breathless she felt. And the blood loss was making her feel dizzy.
Theodore kept on staring at Adeline for a while thinking it could be his last time seeing her. He pressed his lips together disappointedly and let out an exasperated sigh. And he slowly got up with a very heavy heart.
"Theodore…" his feet stopped mid-air when he heard a soft whisper from Adeline.