The Crown's Obsession

Little Calhoun coughed blood from his mouth, and he hurled himself on the wet ground that had filled itself with water. The man frowned, and he looked around before placing his hand on Calhoun's forehead.

When the man placed his hand on Calhoun's forehead, the wounds that the little boy had received slowly started to heal, and the person pulled his hand away.

'Children without proper guidance can truly destroy the world,' murmured the man to himself and noticed the small boy had fallen unconscious because of pain. Not wanting to leave the boy here alone in the rain, the man decided to pick up the boy and left the boy at his house without another word.

Coming back to the present, Calhoun didn't know what happened that day when he was small because he was sure it was going to be his last day. He had been in too much pain, and he didn't know how he ended up back in his house, nor did his mother.

"You don't deserve to be alive!" shouted one of the men who was fighting with him, "You are an abomination in this world like your mother!" The man had picked up a rod from one of the shops and threw it at Calhoun, but Calhoun caught it on time.

Calhoun pulled the rod before he twisted the man's arm and kicked him. The fight continued with some of the shopkeepers yelling at them for damaging their things, while most of the people had gathered around the place to watch the fight. Though Calhoun had strength, it was one person against four of them, and they were all demons born in the living world.

Two men fell on the ground, groaning in pain as Calhoun had beaten them up, while the other two continued were persistent. The man named Javier pulled the burning rod that was heating the vessel and was ready to strike on Calhoun when someone's hand came in between to hold his arm.

"That is enough for the day," came a woman's voice and people who stood nearby looked startled. Not because someone had tried to interrupt the fight, but because it was a woman.

The woman stepped forward. Her features were sharp and her eyes red with her long blonde hair tied. She wore a large greenish-brown cloak that covered her body except for her hands, which had stopped the demon from using the rod.

Javier was not one bit pleased, and his eyes narrowed, "Small pretty girls are not supposed to poke their noses where it doesn't belong. Go play in the kitchen," he said, ready to pull his arm away from her hold, but the woman's grip tightened.

"Stop it before you make matters worse," she demanded as if she didn't want to hear any more bullshit.

When Javier didn't listen and pulled his arm away, ready to use his other arm to catch hold of the woman, everyone gasped, not because she was hurt.

Simultaneously, Calhoun had crashed the third person's head to the wall and turned the man unconscious. Calhoun turned to look at Javier and saw him talking to a woman. One would think that the woman needed help, but she surprised everyone by twisting Javier's arm and knocking the back of his legs to make him kneel on the ground.

"Just to let you know, this small girl is more than your older sister's age, not that I want to be your sister," said the woman, and she twisted his arm further to have him groan in pain.

Calhoun wondered who this person was because he had never seen her before, at least not around Javier and his lackeys.

"How dare you?! I will fucking kill you, you whor-AH!" Javier yelled in pain, and Calhoun only hoped that the village guards would not appear now.

"Useless," the woman pushed Javier down on the ground, and she dusted her hands before her eyes fell on Calhoun. As if on cue, the villages' guards came running towards the marketplace after hearing the sounds and screams from people.

Both Calhoun and the woman ran from the place, moving to another corner of the village so that they wouldn't get caught.

"Do you often get into trouble?" questioned the woman who had run along in the same street as Calhoun. She cracked her knuckles before putting the hood over her head.

"Do you often involve yourself in matters that don't involve you? You don't have to get into a fight for me. I can handle things myself," he offered the woman a lopsided grin, but the woman didn't return it.

"I don't like fights, especially one that isn't fair. This village is going to be turned into the capital of Devon. You should be more careful about the place where you choose to fight. The number of guards are only going to increase, and you will be thrown into the dungeon for causing unnecessary troubles," she advised, her eyes continuously looking at Calhoun. "Even if it wasn't your fault."

"Seems like you speak from experience," commented Calhoun, passing a look at the woman whose eyes had narrowed, and he smiled. Most of the women usually didn't know how to defeat men in a fight, even if they were vampires, not everyone fared well in the art of combat, but this woman seemed more than capable. "What are you doing here?"

The woman looked apprehensive about talking about it, but then she said, "I came to Devon to meet the royal family, but it seems like they don't want to talk to me."

Hearing this, Calhoun, who was ready to leave, looked back at her and asked, "Why? Are you the illegitimate daughter of the King?" a dry chuckle escaped Calhoun's lips.

The woman didn't find it funny, and she said, "I don't know what that means, but I can only guess that you are the one. The one who is being most discussed in the high society circles right now." Calhoun could tell this person wasn't an ordinary woman. "I am here to get the King and the Queen's approval for the establishment of justice. A committee, to be precise. I have been here for a week, but the guards won't allow me or answer my letters. I heard someone mention that Queen Morganna was here, and I decided to come and meet her here."

Calhoun didn't respond to her words and only listened to the woman before realizing he should get back to the castle.

"It doesn't look like it is the first time I saw you being involved in the fight. You should keep a low profile," advised the woman, her red eyes staring straight into Calhoun's eyes.

Calhoun smirked and then said, "I wasn't born to keep a low profile." Without exchanging another word with the woman, he left the alley so that no one would see him. The woman continued to stand there, watching the young man's back until he disappeared from there. Not a minute later, a man came running towards her.

"Are you alright, milady?" asked the man, who was a vampire. He looked back and forth between the lady and the empty street where the lady looked at.