I so fail at this creative chapter title thing. :D

Warning: prepare to be confuzzled.

Review please?

Chapter 8 – Foreplay

A young man in the prime of his twenties sat behind a large and polished wooden desk, which was elaborate in design and taste. His short dirty blond curls posed in the bright chandelier light, flirting with the shadows and highlights. A sly smile rested lazily on his lips, as the young man's dark eyes idly scanned the large room. His long legs stretched in front of him, and his feet rested on the desk. The chair and his body twisted from side to side as his heels deformed the stack of papers on the desk. A golden pen twirled in his right hand, its brilliant glare playing hide-and-seek between his long fingers.

The man cursed when a loud thud crashed against the giant wooden doors in front of him.

"Fucking commoner."

"Your royal highness, please stop! His majesty has requested especially not to be disturb– No, no, please! Please, I have a family to feed!"

The bastard came back. Kavach let out a long sigh. He contemplated murder for a fraction of a second, but swatted the thought away. There were other ways to entertain himself.

"Let him in!" he yelled at the door, annoyance on his brow.

"Y-yes…" a small voice whimpered, followed by the nervous shuffle of feet. With a loud clunk, the giant gold-framed wooden doors to the Crown Prince's office slowly parted.

The doors barely scraped the floor when a cloaked figure slipped between the slit with furious determination, and shot like a straight arrow into the room. He marched toward the desk, his soaking wet cape trailing behind.

Kavach leaned back in his chair, and looked up with a sharp glare. His lips quivered in impending laughter. The poor boy looked like a drowned cat.

Eremes froze in his tracks. The hardness in his emerald eyes became flustered, as he clumsily adjusted himself.

A long silence stretched. Eremes gulped, as Kavach stared at him expectantly.

Kavach sighed.

"O-oh!" Eremes sucked in a sharp breath. He cleared his throat and roughly peeled his drenched long hair from his face. "Good morrow, your royal highness the prince," he bent awkwardly in a low bow.

"It's the afternoon, you nincompoop."

"I-I'm sorry," Eremes' childish face flushed.

Kavach caught the horrified gaze of a maid through the gap of the door. The twirling in his hand slowed, as his irritation began to build.

"You've scared one of my man-servants half to death only to track dirty water and mud all over my carpet and fill my office with this putrid stench? No, I'm not putting fences up around the moat for you."

Eremes' fingers dug onto the dripping sleeve of his right arm. "I didn't fall into the moat…" He muttered with bitterness, almost to himself.

"I-I found the vampire," Eremes said with conviction, "The vampire." He stressed, as to avoid another bullet in his side.

Kavach stared intently at Eremes in silence; slowly, his intimidating gaze softened. Eremes smiled nervously.

"What, do you want a cookie?"

"But, your highness! He's the vampire you've always told us about; the one vampire that we must hunt down at all costs–"

"If you're standing here in front of me and making a fool out of yourself, then you obviously failed to kill him. He very well may have relocated himself already, now that he's been so clumsily confronted. I am not here to pat you on the back just because you managed to live through a fight with a bloodsucker – I'm sorry, the bloodsucker. As of now, you are worth nothing to me."

Eremes looked as if he was about to cry.

Kavach smiled crookedly.

"B-but…" Eremes stuttered, refusing to leave the room. He searched desperately for anything that would redeem himself.

"Go away, so the maids can clean up this damn mess."

"He was with a girl."

The pen stopped twirling.

"So? What do I care about him and his whore? If she is a vampire, find her and kill her – he would never take along extra baggage. If she's human and still alive, then props to the lucky bitch." Kavach rolled his eyes in exasperation, yet the pen rested motionless between his fingers.

"No, but she was different! Her presence stood out as much as his did," Eremes noticed that despite Kavach's nonchalance, the man was very attentive.

"And?" Kavach grew impatient. He was interested. Eremes high-fived himself.

"What would you like to know?"

Kavach scowled.

"I would like you to know that if you keep wasting my time, that stupid little smile of yours will be hanging upside down from the tower."

Eremes opened his mouth as if to speak, but took a delayed breath in an attempt to pass the movement as a gasp. He swallowed hard and his lips twitched nervously upwards at Kavach.

"Well, then," Eremes gulped again – nervousness always dried his tongue. The words he was tempted to say burned in his throat, but he swallowed them.

Eremes turned on his heel and stalked out of the room, his jaw tight and eyes lowered.

A loud metal clink echoed the door slam following Eremes' exit, as golden shards of light scattered across the floor.

QITPAs:

QITPA?
Questions I Think People Will Ask. No, I'm not drunk. Just tired. :]

Wait, wait, wait! Is there a missing chapter? What happened with Seth from chapter 7?!
I debated whether to put chapter 9 or 8 first. I thought it would be more effective to have eight first. I tend to write response before event, so expect explanations in chapter 9.

Kavach?
Yes, also from Ragnarok Online. Again, the only association between Kavach from Sacred Blood and Kavach from Ragnarok is their first name. "Kavach" by itself isn't copyrighted, so I'm not doing anything illegal here.

Your terminology is wrong!
Actually... I am aware that princes should be addressed by "Your royal highness", while kings are addressed by "your majesty."
Kavach requires everybody in the castle to address him as "majesty", instead of "royal highness", thus gaining the false image of a king. However, Eremes refuses to adress to him as "majesty". Kavach punishes all who disobeys except Eremes. More details in later chapters. :D

Prince? Royalty? Kingdom? I thought this novel is set in modern times!
Ever heard of Princess Diaries? There's a castle in modern time for you.
Is it so hard to believe that, after centuries of chaos between vampires, hunters, and humans, there would be an ancient secret kingdom that acts as a middle ground for the three? Wow, that sounded so cliche'.

Well, you can probably sense that the rock is starting to roll around now.