It only took me 24 hours to decide that I would go to Klastidy myself but I had to pick a time when my parents weren't going to be home for a long time. So around 7 in the morning when they had left I got dressed and gave myself a quick pep talk before I went into the unknown. The image of the palace from the transporter was so beautiful. I had never seen anything like it before. It looked like it was made out of crystal and when the sun hit the palace it seemed to glow. Not only that but it was on a cliff with an ocean at its back.

With this image in my mind I closed the compact and stepped into the portal. The sensation of falling engulfed me. Everything was spinning and melding together into one blur. I couldn't tell if I was falling upwards or back towards the ground. It felt as if gravity had been eliminated and I was freely floating in my own little universe. Soon up became down and down had become up. All I could think about was Landon throughout this entire situation. Would I have felt this scared if I would have been with him? As quickly as the phenomenal feeling started I could sense it was ending. Gravity hit like a ton of bricks as the ground came rushing at me.

Just like I expected the earth under my body did not feel very soft. My whole body ached and I knew I did not land where I was supposed to. This was not a soft royal landing pad. It was solid earth and I could feel the breeze all around me. The fresh smell of grass filled my lungs as I tried to role over. Besides a sprained wrist from breaking my landing nothing hurt too badly.

The sound of beating wings woke me from my dazed trance. It became louder and was accompanied by angered screams. I had landed in an open pasture so there were no trees to hide behind; there was no way to avoid the confrontation. My only hope was that I could avoid any problems. However, today was not my day.

"Well what do we have here?" The guy's comment was followed by numerous cat calls. They circled around until I was trapped in the center. Hands reached out, some with swords and some just trying to touch me. There appeared to be no way out of this one. They were all dressed in black and wore masks so there was no way to tell any of them apart. All accept one who stood out from the group.

His confident posture could almost be misinterpreted as arrogance. With his relaxed appearance it was easy to tell that he was the leader of the group because he just hovered on the side observing what was happening in front of him. Our eyes locked and I mentally slapped myself when I felt my face flush. I couldn't see his face but I noticed his mask twitch from a smirk. The jerk knew I was checking him out. The feeling of his stare penetrated deeper into me then I would have wished. His eyes looked so familiar.

A movement from behind me interrupted our gaze. One of the men's swords had made contact with my back. This drew a large slash across my back and I could feel the blood seeping through my clothes. The pain caused my vision to blur and before I passed out I felt someone catch me.

I awoke to find myself surrounded by soft velvet. The room was lit by a single oil lamp sitting on a table next to my bed. The velvet along with every other material in the room was black. No matter how I tried the chamber looked sacred instead of dark. When I tried to roll over to get up pain shot through my side. That's when I remembered that I had been cut. "I wouldn't try that again if I were you."

As I whipped my head around I noticed the clan's leader from earlier. I wonder if he had been standing there the entire time. He was leaning against the door frame but as he spoke he walked over to the bed to sit next to me. My entire body shivered as he sat down since I had no idea what he was going to do. At first all he did was look into my eyes. "Please let me help you, my men were out of control back there. Let me make it up to you. Where were you meaning to go before we interrupted your travels?"

"I was on my way to the pure's palace. A messenger was sent to get me but I refused to go with him and came on my own." His voice was soothing but I couldn't shake the feeling off that I had met him before. I looked into his eyes to see if I could figure out who he was. There was so much emotion behind them but they revealed no answers to aid me. Wait, his eyes were exactly like Landon's. These were Landon's eye, this was Landon. "Landon, is that really you?"

A smirk formed on his lips as he pulled the mask off. It really was him! Before I knew what I was doing I reached over wrapped my arms around him. "I was so worried that something had happened to you. When I didn't get a rose I was afraid that I would never see you again." My words turned into sobs and tears fell onto his shirt while others were wiped away by his hand. "I thought you were dead." My last sentence came out as a whisper and I wasn't sure if he had heard it.

He pulled me into his lap and whispered soft words against my ears. "Nothing happened, its okay. I told you I would come for you. When we last talked I was afraid that you never wanted to see me again so I waited until I heard your message. But when it was coming from Klastidy I got confused. So I came to you with my men. I didn't know they would hurt you. I am so sorry. I promised that I would never let anything happed to you and my own personal group injured you." Anger rose in his words as he spoke. I wouldn't trade anything to be on the other side of his wrath.

I pulled his face down to mine and softly kissed right next to his mouth. If I would have touched his lips I don't think I would have pulled away. Landon meant so much to me but I knew nothing about him. I didn't even know if I trusted him yet. "Come on. I will take you to the castle. It is none of my business why they want you but I will take you anyway. Just for you I will risk my life." And just like that he went from clenching his fists in anger to running his hand along my face.

It took a few hours but we finally made it to the palace. Landon's wings were shiny black feathers and at least 16 feet in wing span. Being held in his arms felt so wonderful, gosh I hate school girl crushes. When we reached the palace there was a fifty foot wall surrounding it. "Thank you." It was barely a whisper but I knew he heard me.

As I turned to leave my wrists were caught by Landon's strong grip. Instead of flying away he was following me towards the castle gates. "When can I see you again?" His eyes looked so hopeful that it broke my heart to tell him my answer.

"I don't know. I need to sort through a few things and get some questions answered before I can see you. I still don't know if I trust you completely." I really wasn't sure if I could ever see him once he found out who I was to these people.

"Why." His voice sounded like a little child's, so innocent to the situation.

"Because you don't even know me. You have no idea was has happened since I saw you last."

"What does that matter?"

"Because you don't know me, you don't know what you have done to me. You killed some guy who I guess is my brother. That's why I'm here. I am on my way to the palace so I can have my powers awakened."

Realization swept across his face when he figured out who I really was. "Wait, only royals go to the palace for that. That means you are the princess. No. You can't be, no." He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him. My palms pressed against his chest. I felt so safe in his arms I hated how he did this to me. In my mind I knew I should hate him for everything that he has done. It is his fault I am here, that my life is altered forever. Yet I can't hate him. I tried to pull away so he wouldn't see my cry for the second time today but it was no use. He was stronger than I could ever be.

"Unhand the princess now. You are under arrest for the murder of his Royal Highness Prince Malachi." Guards came storming out of the palace gates carrying spears that seemed to be electrically charged. As they surrounded us Landon's eyes started to glow red under his mask. This only caused me to hold onto him tighter. Even if he did kill my brother I couldn't stand there and hand him over to the authorities.

That's when it hit me, somewhere in the past month I had fallen for Landon. I had fallen in love with the guy who destroyed my perfect life. I must be going crazy. If I didn't think of something fast Landon was going to get hurt and possibly killed. "Who here is in charge?" Let's just hope my plan works.

"I am your majesty." That earned a growl from Landon. "My name is Sir Reginald and I am the captain of the guard. We saw you walking towards the palace and then get captured by this monster." Landon growled louder into my ear as this was said. "We came rushing out here as fast as we could. Now if you would please come here, he won't stop you unless he wants to get electrocuted."

"I am afraid that you have your facts wrong. This man did not capture me. He was escorting me here since my teleporter malfunctioned. So if you would please lower your weapons and let him go unarmed that would be most appreciated." I quickly turned back to Landon and whispered for him to fly away the moment I let go of him. "Now!"

The captain looked at me like I was crazy and ran over to see if I was ok. "Princess are you hurt at all? You shouldn't have let him go. We have been trying to capture him for over a month now. This could have been our only chance to. . . ."

His words were lost to me as I watched Landon circle above us. All of a sudden a drop of something red fell on my face. A bit of it dripped into my mouth before I could wipe it away. It tasted like salt but looked like blood. It was blood. I interrupted the captain's lecture with my curiosity. "Excuse me sir, but do vampires cry bloody tears?"

"Why yes milady, they do." Then it was my turn to cry once more.