Marked by the Vampire Prince: I’m His Mate, Not His Baby Maker!

During the train ride, I believed I had filled five buckets of bile and despite that, I still felt sick. For the first time, Jakub took pity on me and offered me to take the whole seat where I could lie down and rest.

"Thanks," I mumbled, curling on my side.

Jakub nodded in acknowledgement before he got out of the compartment and just stood there like he was on a lookout.

I could still remember how this man killed two bounty hunters in front of me. But oddly enough, I was not afraid of him at all. Perhaps, due to this lack of interest in my presence, I felt safer with him than with Julian Czarnel.

"You were a pitiful creature, you know that?"

I groaned. Speaking of the devil.

Hadn't he kept quiet, I would have been sleeping in peace by then. Turning my head slightly, I could see Julian sitting elegantly with his long leg crossing the other, his chin came to rest on his fist while the other hand was holding a book titled: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

He sat there quietly, his immaculate tailored suit made him authoritative despite his attention to his reading.

"Is that how you treated your bride, vampire?" I asked, sarcastically. "Mocking me when I was in this state?"

Julian found it oddly amusing that he chuckled. "You still had that acerbic wit despite everything." He flipped a page, eyes scanning on his novel as he continued, "I took it that the medicine helped you with your motion sickness?"

"Yeah, whatever," I begrudgingly nodded. But the effects were slow. I had finally stopped throwing up after a few hours and finally I could talk without spitting out more puke. Then quickly changed the topic. "How long did this train take to reach the surface?"

"Assuming this was the evening train, it would take two to three hours from then."

"It will be dawn by then. Didn't you vampires die from the sunlight?" Hopefully, it would.

He smirked. "You watched too many movies, kitten. The sun wouldn't kill us. Otherwise with the modern technology we had on the surface, our enemies could create man-made UV ray weapons to obliterate vampires easily, don't you think so?"

Fuck.

"Then, would it weaken you?"

"Were you trying to find my weakness so you could kill me?" There was no accusation in his tone and seeing how his eyes gazed at mine with a mirth of amusement, it was clear he was just there to entertain me.

"What if I was?" I scowled, crossing my arms while still lying comfortably on the seat.

"You needed to be more creative than that." He shut the book with a quiet snap then set it aside. "Knowing you, you probably had multiple ways of killing me in your head."

"Were you a mind reader or something?!" My eyes widened.

He only laughed. "It would be nice to be born with that gift but to answer your question, it was so easy to read you like an open book."

Flustered, I looked away. Not because of his insult to my character but rather my skill as an "actress".

"I heard that you were a part of a theater troupe before you became a wanted criminal."

Was Julian interested in me? I thought.

"Well, yeah. Yes, I was."

"How? I thought the wolves had already thrown away anything related to human inventions."

"By throwing them into our dumpster." I lazily shrugged. "So yeah, we still had our technology but most were barely functioning."

I slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position and stared at him. "Books were scarce, TVs were sold ten times more than the most expensive houses but we still had our phones. The governing wolves decided to establish a market for us to have our own gadgets. But they were dumb enough not to scavenge the dumpster where we still had the relics of the past."

I was glad that Mr. Berns lived closer to the dumpster. Years living there helped me find hidden treasures I looted.

"Ah, that explains why you knew Audrey Hepburn. Most of the dwellers living in your city barely knew art."

"That was because we were taught to focus on survival. And in case you forgot, you threw us in the deeper depths of the earth." I shot him a glare.

He chuckled. "That, I did."

For the 1042nd time, I daydreamed of killing this bastard in the most excruciating slow death. I sometimes wondered how the great hero, Gregory Miller, managed to beat a lot of these creatures.

And now I was in front of the one who murdered humanity's hero and would be married against my will.

His eyes continued to linger on mine and when he caught me staring, he smiled—a devilish handsome smile that made my heart flutter.

Fuck, not again. I quickly looked away and instantly regretted it cause he might think I was just being fucking "shy". The thought made me want to vomit again.

But why was he in such a good mood that day? It was a stark contrast from yesterday, I thought.

"You know," he spoke once again, breaking the silence. "Once we married, you would be the most fortunate human if you were by my side."

"Why? Cause I'd be married to the great almighty Julian Czarnel?"

"It's one of the perks, that's right." His smirk grew wider. "Other than that, you were officially my main weakness as soon as I marked you."

He reached to touch my red frizzy hair, playing the tips. "If the world found out that you were my fated mate—a human, no less—you would be targeted by my enemies from then on."

"How was THAT fortunate?!" I glared at him.

"Didn't you hear me? 'If' you were by my side." His eyes gazed at mine once more as he leaned closer to my face. "To marry me, to bear me children who carried the blood of the High Vampires and to resurrect my race. In return, I'd protect you at all costs." He kissed the tip of my hair before letting it go.

"And to prove that we are fated mates, I'd give you a demonstration of why you are my weakness…" He paused before shaking his head. "No, we are now both of each other's weaknesses."

In a blink of an eye, claws erupted from his fingers—and he slashed his own hand before I could react.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" I screamed as I got up, petrified to see his hand now lying on the floor.

Alarmed, Jakub entered the compartment, his eyes crimson red as if ready to strike. But when he saw the situation, he immediately relaxed his shoulders.

As for me, I was far from relaxed. "W-what was that for—" Suddenly, a burst of pain struck me as I collapsed back on the seat. I screamed as I squirmed, rolling back and forth from the excruciating pain.

"Ah, so that was how it looks like," Julian muttered as he calmly picked his severed hand and held it like a toy truck. With lazy movements, he reattached it like a puzzle and it was back to its original placement. "No doubt you are my fated mate."

It was more like a reaffirmation to himself.

I panted heavily, the pain finally subsided, my skin already damped with sweat as my whole body heated up from the side effect.

"So, as you could see, you and I were cursed by fate." He rotated his wrist, curling his fingers to test its movements.

"To elaborate it for you: If I die, you die as well. And that applies the other way around." He smirked as he took out his handkerchief and handed it to me.

 "So, give up your old life and accept your new future, Lyra Ellison."