Married To The King Of Darkness

Amelia Hayden, a senior at college, has no time for dating, going out, or having fun. This all changes one Halloween night when she unintentionally becomes the target of a terrible joke in which she is presented as the virginal bride of the local legend known...

Chapter 1

The cemetery was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, and I was starting to really regret agreeing to this stupid dare. I secretly hoped that a couple of kids might be hanging out among the tombstones for Halloween fun while I stood there alone in the freezing cold. But I hadn't seen a single person in the cemetery since I got there…

I felt stupid. Stupid for believing that a girl like Laura Taylor will want to be my friend, stupid for allowing her to use me as her doll to play dress-up, stupid for letting her take me to the frat boys Halloween party, I felt stupid for allowing them to convince me to come here for their stupid “prince of darkness bride” dare. I felt so humiliated and ashemed of my self.

Now that it's almost midnight, I'm standing under the famous Hangman's Tree and waiting for an urban legend to jump out and grab me. If it wasn't for the cold, I'd probably be freaking out right now. My outfit wasn't made to keep me warm on a cool October night. I tried to take my mind off the fact that I was standing alone in a creepy graveyard by trying to pull Laura's lace gloves that extra millimeter up my freezing cold arms.

I shivered very hard. It shouldn't be long now.

I looked at my phone for the sixth millionth time and saw that it was 11:55pm. I also saw that none of my signal bars were showing up. I felt uneasy in my stomach. I said to myself, "Come on, Mia. You only have five minutes left before you can go home."

I didn't want to say it, but this place was getting to me.

"Come on, twelve."

My clock now says 11:59pm because the minute changed.

"One minute until midnight is fine with me." I said.

I took a few steps toward the cemetery gates, but stopped when a loud, heavy chime broke the deathly quiet. The witching hour had come, and the church bells were ringing. I looked around the graveyard one more time to see if any ghosts, witches, or demons had decided to join me, but I didn't see anyone. I was the only one.

The church bells kept ringing out the hours, and by the time the last bell rang, I was halfway across the graveyard and running to get out. I didn't realize how stupid it was for a young woman to be alone in this remote place until now.

I took out my cell phone and started talking loudly into it. "Hey, Mom! I'm coming to meet you at the gate. I can almost see you."

Even though there was no one on the other end of the phone, I thought that if anyone was here, they would leave me alone if they saw me talking to someone on the phone.

When the gates showed up in front of me, I felt a wave of sweet relief. I was almost done, and then I'd be free.

I sped up because I couldn't wait to get home and forget about this terrible night. As I got closer to the straight path that led to the gate, whisky-colored wisps of white fog began to creep through the railings.

At first, the mist was almost see-through, so I could still see the gates and the light from the street lamps. However, as I moved forward, the mist changed. It got thicker and denser until it poured out between the railings and covered the gate and path in a solid white layer.

"Oh, shit," I muttered as the mist swallowed me.

I could hardly see further than my nose.

Well, I had no choice but to mess up my way out of here.

I began to shuffle toward the gates of the cemetery. Everything was going well until my toe hit the stone base of a tombstone. As the pain shot through my foot, I took a sharp breath.

"Fudge, fudge, fudge, fudge, mother trucking fudge cakes," I gasped.

I turned on one foot and reached for the closest headstone to rest against.

God, I hope my toe wasn't broken. The proverbial cherry on top of this fudge cake would be a broken foot.

I raised my head and rubbed my toe. I felt my stomach drop. There was a dark shape coming toward me in the fog, and I could slowly see how solid it was. The temperature dropped quickly, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

The dark shape was getting closer.

Please, God, let this be a drunk trying to get home faster...

I tried hard to see through the white, but it was hard.

"Madam, are you okay?"

From the fog came the calm, polite voice of an old man. I couldn't see him very well, but I thought he was either the minister or the person in charge of the church grounds.

"Hello, Sir. I'm sorry to bother you, but I can't figure out how to get out of here."

"Ah," said the man as he got closer. "These night fogs can make it hard to find your way. Take my hand, and I'll show you the way."

I took his arm and quickly said, "Thank you." "My friend is at the gate waiting for me."

I couldn't say for sure that this guy wasn't also a creep.

As we moved through the fog, I couldn't help but notice that the man's arm was cold and wet. His jacket sleeve looked and felt like he had been standing in the rain for a while.

"Are you the person in charge of this place?" I asked.

"Yes, in a way. I've been keeping an eye on this place for the past 300 years."

"Really? Three hundred years?"

"Yes, although I sleep on the ground most of the time."

"Sleeping in the dirt... well, I think I can get out of here," I said with a smile.

"Oh no, my dear. You are the honored guest, and the ceremony is about to start."

I let go of his arm and started to move away from the crazy man.

"I'm sorry, but I have something else to do. We might be able to do this another time."

"No!" He cried out and grabbed my wrist. "You have to come along."

I said, "I'm sorry, I can't."

"There's no going back now.

"Okay, you're now scaring me so I'm going to go."

He sighed, "You can't." "My dear, the curse is on you. We can't get away from it now."

I looked down for the first time and saw that his fingers were tightly wrapped around my wrist.

"Hey, what's wrong with your arm? The skin, it's gray."

"It's dead."

I thought he was joking, but when I looked at his skin, I could see that something was moving underneath it. I gasped and took a few steps back.

"What are you doing? "Why does your skin look so bad?"

When the fog lifted, I saw what was wrong with him for the first time. He was a dead body.

I was in a strange state of shock as I looked at him and suddenly realized that the urban legend was true. I shook my head and said, "I didn't know, I thought it was..."

"A legend? A storybook?" He queried.

"Yes." I said this in a desperate attempt to get him to understand my situation so that he would let me go.

"Sorry, my child, but you have already kept your promise by standing there in that dress waiting for our Lordship." He gave a glum answer.

"Are you the Prince of Darkness ?"

"No, I'm Blackwater, the bishop. I will be the one to officiate at your wedding tonight."

"What do you mean?"

"Come, Madame. He took my arm and pulled me up the aisle, saying, "Your husband is waiting."Starticiate at your wedding tonight."

"What do you mean?"

"Come, Madame. He took my arm and pulled me up the aisle, saying, "Your husband is waiting."

Chapter 2

The bishop literally dragged me down the aisle while I kicked and screamed. I kept telling myself that if I was going to die, I would make sure that the flag was flying when it happened. I had no intention of giving up and resigning myself to my death. I would fight this dead person and his "Lordship" until I died.

So, while I was in the zombie bishop's rotting hands, I turned and twisted and fought every step, but the zombie bishop dragged me up to the altar. When the bishop finally pulled me under the arch of dead roses at the end of the aisle, there was a wave of hushed whispers from the other people in the church.

"I am not getting married." I yelled at him and everyone else there.

The bishop grabbed my wrist hard and broke, "Don't whine, child. Your future husband will be here any second, and he won't want to see you acting like a brat."

I nervously looked back down the aisle, but I didn't see anything. People in the crowd would also turn their heads sometimes to try to see the groom. I was curious about what kind of smelly creature the groom would be. What if the bishop here turned out to be the handsome brother of the Prince of Darkness? What if the Prince of Darkness turned out to be a dead man?

I started to feel sick as waves of it came up and hit my stomach. My mind started running through a million worst-case scenarios, which made me feel sicker and sicker.

The bishop snapped his fingers and yelled to someone he didn't know, "Tell his highness to hurry up before his bride dies!"

My legs gave out from under me, and the bishop grabbed me and pulled me to my feet in a rough way. He hissed at me in anger, "For God's sake, child, be brave."

"I can't get married. Please let me go, "I asked him to help me.

The bishop looked at me with pity and said, "Have courage, my child."

Fear was slowly freezing my muscles and paralyzing me as my situation became more and more hopeless. Even as my knee tried to give way, the zombie bishop kept holding me up.

When the bishop saw how upset I was, he shouted, "Someone should tell His Majesty to hurry up and get his bride before she passes out!"

A small, pale boy got up and ran down the aisle, disappearing into the fog. As everyone looked at the scene in front of them, there was a quiet ripple of laughter. The bishop raised his hand sharply and told the crowd, "Quiet down now," in a firm voice. He then gently squeezed my shoulder. Oh my god, was he trying to cheer me up or make me feel better?

My mind was now going crazy.

The altar boy ran back up the aisle, and the bishop asked, "Is he coming?" The boy nodded, and the bishop asked again, "Is he coming?" God, please help me. I shut and opened my eyes again, hoping to wake up from this nightmare.

People started eagerly looking over their shoulders for something or someone. I just stood there, frozen with fear and cold. The dead bishop gave another small sign to something that couldn't be seen, and out of nowhere, an organ started to play a haunting tune.

All of the people at the wedding turned their heads to look down the aisle. As the music got louder, their faces lit up with big smiles. It wasn't quite the wedding march I was hoping for, but it sounded like something grand you might hear on TV from a foreign royal court. I probably would have liked it if my life hadn't been about to go down the drain.

Now, waves of fear were hitting me, and a rush of adrenaline made me feel better for a moment. In a last-ditch effort, I used force to try to get out of the bishop's grip. The bishop struggled to keep me from turning and twisting. I thought I could get away for a split second, but then I saw something out of the corner of my eye that made me stop.

I raised my head and watched as the legend walked toward me down the aisle. The guests at the wedding stood up and bowed their heads as he walked by. It was The Prince of Darkness. The Prince didn't look like the walking dead I had seen in my dreams. He was taller than six feet and easily filled the aisle with his broad, muscular body. He wore a well-fitted black Armani suit. I almost choked on my own breath as I thought to myself, "He's so handsome that he could distract a girl from fighting a zombie bishop."

The Prince walked down the aisle like a runway model in one of the world's fashion capitals. I watched with a strange sort of interest as he casually lifted his hand and ran his fingers through his jet-black hair, smoothing back a few stray strands that were covering his beautiful amber eyes. Those eyes were like a spell. He was like a spell. I was on the edge of a metaphorical void I didn't know much about, and all I could think about was how good he looked in a suit.

The Prince showed the bishop a relaxed hand and said, "Now you can let her go." The bishop's hand on my wrist got a little bit looser, but not all the way. The bishop didn't know if I would run or not. But the Prince gave the bishop a cool smile and said, "Don't be afraid, I've got her. She won't do it."

I blinked. What was he trying to say? Even though I wasn't completely sure, the bishop let go of my hand and moved behind the arch of dead flowers.

I thought right away that it was my chance to escape. My eyes were drawn to the far-off cemetery gates, and I tried to move, but I couldn't. I was stuck and didn't know why. "Look at me, my love, if you're scared," the Prince whispered to me. What? Did he just call me love? I wasn't sure if I should feel hard or soft...

I couldn't tell if my heart was beating faster or slower as the Prince got closer to the archway where I was standing. He was both a dream and a nightmare. He was perfect in every way, but everything he stood for was so dark that it scared me. He had strong features that were put together in a way that was neither too soft nor too rough. I was drawn to his eyes, which were two pools of brown gold that glowed like dark amber in the moonlight. They were mesmerizing enough to make me forget about everything else.

The Prince moved under the arch and stood on the other side of me. He smiled and told her, "You're beautiful." He reached out and gently took both of my hands in his, brought them to his mouth, and then ran his lips over my knuckles. My mouth slightly opened in shock as my brain went blank. Did I want to get away from this guy or make out with him?

Part of me wanted to get away, but the other part of me wanted to stay in those eyes for the rest of my life. As the mist got thicker around us, I started to feel like I was in a dream. The group of people left, and it was just me and him left. Even the bishop's mumblings, which made no sense, disappeared into the ether.

Someone or something I couldn't see wanted me to give in to this man and accept my fate. I wanted to fight against the urge. I moved around uncomfortably, and the stranger's grip on my hands got tighter. He was powerful. "Don't get in my way." I thought of an echo.

I blinked. Did I just hear his voice in my head, or was I dreaming?

He looked smart, like he could read my mind, from the way his eyes sparkled. My eyes started to burn with tears, and I thought, "If you can hear me, let me go." I felt sick to my stomach, and I could feel his hands lightly squeeze mine.

The echo said, "I promise to make you happy."

Oh no, I was stuck. Stuck with no way out.

When the bishop loudly cleared his throat, the Prince took his golden eyes off of me. "Are you going to marry this woman?" the Bishop asked.

The Prince turned his head back to me, looked straight into my eyes, and said, "I do."

"Now you're mine, and I'm yours," he softly said in my head.

I suddenly found my voice and said, "No way am I married to a crazy person!"

The edges of his mouth turned up, and I could feel how amused he was, as if our minds were linked. I yelled in my head, "GET OUT OF MY MIND!" I was so mad.

He said, with a hint of sarcasm, "Darling heart, please don't be like this. You're making yourself upset."

The bishop shut his sermon book with a snap and said loudly, "Now you may kiss the bride." The crowd cheered, and I turned to my husband and looked up into his face with a mix of fear and attraction.

"You'll never be alone, because I'll always love you." His words kept playing over and over in my head as he pulled me into his arms and pressed me against his body. I wanted to scream, "Get off of me!" but my body seemed to react strongly to his touch, wanting and needing it. The muscles under his shirt were warm and hard, and my hands couldn't help but feel them.

The Prince gently put his finger under my chin and pulled my face up. Leaning down, he brushed his lips against mine and then said, "I'm sorry." He put his head on my shoulder and nipped my neck. At first, I didn't get it, but when I felt his grip around my waist tightening like a boa constrictor, I got it. I knew that something was wrong.

He kissed my neck again and whispered, "Please forgive me."

I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but pain exploded in my neck as I felt the Prince of Darkness's teeth tear through my skin and start to drink my life away.Startkin and start to drink my life away.

Chapter 3

There was a glowing brightness inside of me that represented my life, and it was dimming. I was floating in a dark, peaceful haze between life and death. I was thinking about all the little things that had made my life so special, like the summers I spent in Florida and my mom's Christmas cookies. There was neither anger nor bitterness. Instead, there was just a calm acceptance that my time had come.

I was shocked by how calm and peaceful I felt. All the small worries I had when I was awake went away. It was surprisingly quiet, and the only thing I was sad about was that I was going to die so soon. My life was too short and I didn't have enough experiences to say that I lived a fulfilled life. All of my hopes and dreams for the future were gone, and all I could see ahead of me was endless silence.

I started to give up my physical life and let my spirit leave the physical world. It was a strange feeling, like slipping into a cool lake or ocean. It felt almost like I was floating. I felt very light, free, and calm. There was no worry or fear. Instead, there was an endless calm.

I was suspended in the stillness that existed outside of physical reality when I suddenly felt a terrible sense of unease creeping up on me and slowly wrapping around me. The quiet started to crackle like white noise, and I could hear the faint echo of a voice whispering incoherently. I worked hard to pay attention.

Through the crackles and pops, I could hear soft, quiet gasps of air and small whimpers. It sounded like someone was crying, but the sound was louder, like this person was crying out of sadness.

It could have been my mother. Maybe she found out I was killed, and her grief was so strong that it was being heard in the afterlife. But the voice did not sound like my mother. It sounded easier and younger, just like me. The crying kept getting louder and louder. I didn't like this. I wanted to run away from the noise, but I couldn't because I was overcome by a force that was as cold as ice.

Oh, God, I'm in hell! "Mia..." "Mia, help me," a woman's voice said, but it turned into gurgling white noise that I couldn't understand. I was scared and tried to get away, but I didn't know how. Then I heard a different voice, a man's voice, coming from the darkness.

He called out to me as if I were his dead lover. He called me "my love" and begged me to forgive him. His voice seemed to push away the white noise and the woman crying, and it made me feel warm and close. I couldn't figure out how this could happen. I couldn't remember ever having a boyfriend. Who was this man, and what had he done to me that he needed to apologize?

I could feel his sadness pressing in on me and wanting to bring me back to life.

""Drink," he said in a whisper. Drink to stay with me for all time. Drink my love."

A strange life force flowed into my body, changing the laws of nature and bringing it back to life. My heart started to beat again, and I felt myself being pulled out of Death's arms and pushed back into my own body. My soul started to slowly and painfully get back together, but not fully. A small part of me chose to stay in the happy otherworld, where we all went to die.

I started to feel my body again, and then anxiety and panic hit me like a freight train. I was the kind of dead that modern medicine couldn't bring back to life. It felt strange and unnatural, and I was almost turned off by it.

The first thing I felt was a metallic taste of liquid heat that ran down my throat and exploded in my stomach, sending shock waves through my body. For what felt like a second but could have been an eternity, there was pain that faded into awareness. I felt like I was coming out of a deep sleep and getting all my senses back.

I became aware of the soft cotton sheet on the bed and the warm blanket on top of me. I moved my fingers and could feel the warm body next to me.

Even before I opened my eyes, I knew it was the Prince of Darkness. His big arm wrapped around my waist, and he put his hand across my stomach to hold me close. As he slept quietly, I could feel the soft rise and fall of his chest against my back.

I should have been scared or freaked out, but the fact that he was so close made me feel strangely at ease, as if we were real lovers.

His arm moved slightly, maybe just a centimeter or two across my waist, but it was enough to make my eyelashes flutter and open. I couldn't see anything at all.

I thought that the mysterious man who had taken me away was just a dream for a split second, but when his solid arm tightened around me, I knew he was real.

I tried to remember how I got to be in this bed with this guy, but I was too tired. I was teased by fuzzy thoughts of Laura Taylor and that stupid wedding dress. Then I thought about the graveyard, the Hangman's tree, and that stupid story about that man with the sharp teeth who lived in the graveyard.

My body went rigid in fear.

The Prince of Darkness took a deep breath and woke up. His arm pulled me closer to him until I was pressed up against his chest. He said to me in a sleepy voice, "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I didn't ever want to hurt you."

I screamed out loud and pulled away from the stranger next to me as hard as I could. I dug my heel into the mattress and pushed backwards, almost doing a somersault across the bed.

"Calm down, my love," he said softly as he touched my arm with his hand.

I pulled my arm away and pushed myself in the opposite direction of where his voice was coming from.

"Don't come near me!" I yelled like a crazy person.

"Okay," "I won't come near you," a soft male voice replied.

"Please, could you do something like turn on a lamp? I can't make out anything, "I asked.

"I could, but it wouldn't change anything. You're blind, my love. This is just a short-term situation until the change is complete "He spoke slowly.

"Change?" I echoed dryly.

I put my hand to my neck and reached out to feel where his teeth had gone into me. My fingers were shaking. I carefully ran my fingers over the skin, but I didn't find any cuts or painful bruises. There was no proof that he had ever killed me.

"My love, are you scared?" He asked.

"I'm scared of you and what you did to me," I told him.

"Why do you think I'm mad at you?"

I said, "I don't know, but I do know I'm not the same."

He let out a loud breath and said, "Look, I think this wasn't the best way to do this."

"What do you mean by the right way?"

"It no longer matters. You are scared and scared, and as your husband, I have to say something about that:"

"Please don't do that. Look, I don't know who you are or why you thought it was okay to bite me, but let's get one thing straight: we are not getting married tonight. It was a fake wedding. We didn't have a license, give each other a blood test, or get married in front of a judge. Most importantly, you didn't have my permission to be your legally married wife "I lost it.

He told her, "You stood under the tree."

"Because of stupid Laura Taylor, I had to stand under that tree. And where on earth does standing under a tree mean, "I agree to marry you?" Could you imagine trying to explain to a judge that I am your legally married wife because I stood under a tree in a graveyard?"

"Yes, in vampire court," he said in a snide way.

I yelled, "There is no such thing as a vampire court!"

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but there is. I'm a vampire, and now you are too "He answered.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Vampires don't exist.

"They do, yes." I heard his voice in my head all of a sudden.

"Please don't tell me I was thinking of you," I said without feeling.

"Yes, telepathy is one of my many vampire powers," he said with pride.

I realized all of a sudden that he was reading my mind like it was public property. I could feel him casually going through my memories, trying to put together what he knew about me. I was shocked that he didn't care about my privacy, so I told him, "Get out of my head!"

He said, "I'm sorry. I was trying to find a way to help you calm down."

I almost laughed out loud, "Help me relax? You bit me like a crazed bat and then took me away. I can't see, so I have no idea where I am. If you don't have strong sedatives, I don't think there are any words in my memory that you could use to calm me down."

He said, "Look, I know I bit you and I'm sorry, but I had to because you were alive and I didn't want you to die."

"Because you bit me!"

I could hear his voice saying, "Oh well, to hell with it."

When I opened my mouth to say something, I felt two hands grab my shoulder and push me back into the bed. I screamed in fear and tried to push him away, but he grabbed my wrists and pinned my arms above my head with one hand.

"What are your plans?" I spoke in a broken whisper.

He said, "Take you home and put you back to bed."

"What? Are you really sure?" I asked.

"Yes," he groaned, "I'll have to court you, Amelia Hayden, and try to make you love me."

I tried not to laugh and said, "Yeah, well, best of luck to you."

He finally said, "We are meant to be together, Mia," and then he bent down and ran his lips across my neck.

I couldn't help but moan as his teeth scraped my skin.

"You taste great, Mia," he said in my ear.

"GIVE ME HELL!" I yelled back at him in my head.

He moves his tongue over the pulse in my neck, and I can feel myself shivering under him. My body didn't feel like mine anymore. Instead, it wriggled around uncomfortably under him, wanting more physical contact.

He breathed on my neck and said, "Hmm, this seems to be a very good way to calm you down, Miss Hayden."

My mind felt fuzzy and full of the thought of him.

He said, "I wish it could last longer, but I have to take you home."

As he bit down again, the pain in my neck went off the charts. I let out a loud gasp, and the darkness came back around me. He let go of my arms and pulled me into his arms. I fell on his chest and felt how warm his skin was against mine.

Before I finally fell asleep, he whispered, "I love you, Mia Hayden."