Rosangela: The Runaway Princess (Book #2)

“Don’t move—we’ve got you covered!” Pablo yelled, brandishing his gun at us.

The other guards levelled their guns at us too.

Prince Maximilian took a step forward and pushed me behind his back, covering me with his muscular body.

Frightened, I clung on to Maximilian’s sleeves. ‘Oh no we’re really cornered by the guards now! How can we escape from here?’ I asked myself apprehensively.

“Jasper, get us the hell out of here now!” Prince Maximilian commanded.

‘Oh yeah I forgot that Jasper has the power of teleportation,’ I thought.

Jasper nodded his head. Then, he got hold of Maximilian, while the vampire prince took my hand in his firm warm clasp.

Just as Jasper was about to teleport us, all of a sudden, someone took a shot at Jasper from behind. The bullet entered his back and exited through his chest.

“Jasper!” I shrieked his name as he fell to the floor with a groan.

I stared, horror-struck at the sight of blood which was beginning to seep through Jasper’s clothes, making his white shirt crimson. Jasper clutched his right chest; he was clearly in a lot of pain.

I intended to approach Jasper, but suddenly, a guard grabbed me and twisted my arm behind my back.

I tried to wriggle free, but my attempt was unsuccessful because the guard was much stronger than me.

“Let go of me!” I screamed.

Instead of listening to my plea, the guard tightened his grip on my arm.

“Take Princess Mirabelle away now!” Pablo barked out an order.

The guard, who had my arms locked behind my back, nodded his head. He was just about to drag me away, but Xavier suddenly wrested me from his grasp.

“What the devil do you think you’re doing? Let her go now!” the vampire prince thundered.

Pablo jerked me away from Xavier. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but we’re under orders to send Princess Mirabelle away.”

“OK then, I order you to let her go now!” Xavier gave a command.

“With all due respect, Your Highness, we take orders only from the king, so we can’t obey your command,” Pablo refused to let me go.

Prince Xavier’s hands balled into fists in an attempt to keep in his indignation. “How dare you talk to me like that?!” he hissed.

Ignoring his prince’s remarks, Pablo turned to his underlings and snapped out an order, “What are you waiting for? Take Princess Mirabelle away! Now!”

I was immediately grabbed by two guards and frogmarched down the hall. Four other guards followed behind us.

“Rosanne!” Prince Maximilian shouted after me.

I looked back over my shoulder and watched in horror as several guards set upon Maximilian at the same time. Jasper, who was badly injured, was unable to come to his prince’s assistance and could only watch helplessly as Maximilian fought with the guards alone.

“Maximilian!” I screamed and struggled to free myself from the guards’ vice-like grip so that I could help Prince Maximilian, but to no avail.

“Rosangela!” Prince Xavier screamed my name.

“Xavier, help me!” I shouted back.

Prince Xavier attempted to start after me, however, several guards suddenly moved to block his way. Those guards violently struggled to restrain Xavier from running after me. After a brief struggle, the guards managed to grapple the vampire prince to the ground.

A sudden feeling of panic gripped me. ‘Oh no, I’m dead meat! Neither Maximilian nor Xavier can help me now. Jasper can’t come to my aid either due to his injuries. Worst of all, I am not able to use my power for the time being because of the frigging silver,’ I thought.

The guards kept propelling me along the maze of corridors. I screamed and squirmed all the way, yet the guards wouldn’t let me go.

Just as we turned to the right hallway, unexpectedly, we got waylaid by a hooded figure. To judge from the hooded person’s build, it seemed to be a male.

“Get off her!” the hooded man commanded, but the guards refused to release my arms.

“Who the hell are you?” one of them demanded angrily.

“I will be your nightmare if you keep refusing to let go of her,” the man retorted before he pushed the hood of his robe back, exposing his face to us.

My eyes shone with happiness as I recognized him. “Sigmund?” I whispered.

Sigmund casted a warm glowing smile in my direction. “Long time no see, Princess.”

One of the guards who was holding my arm ordered his friends to advance on Sigmund.

With a nod, those four guards charged at Sigmund. Fortunately, he could deflect their attacks. Sigmund then got into a fight with those guards. Much to my relief, he managed to knock out all his opponents in a mere 20 seconds. Quick as a flash, Sigmund tore me from the two guards’ grasp before he lunged at those guards, and finally he could easily knock the two of them senseless.

Seeing all the guards had lapsed into unconsciousness, I ran up to Sigmund and threw my arms around him. “Thank God you’re alive, Sigmund! I always worried that my grandfather would kill you once he found out that you’d betrayed him, but gratefully, he didn’t,” I said with a sigh of relief.

“I told you a king always delivers on his promises. Remember?” His face wrinkled in a grin.

A smile touched the corners of my mouth. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“We’d better make tracks now!” Sigmund grabbed me by the hand and was about to pull me forward, but I held him back.

“Wait! Prince Maximilian is still fighting against King Joaquin’s soldiers now. We can’t leave him behind,” I stated.

“You don’t have to worry about Maximilian—I am sure he can take care of himself. Besides, Jasper is with him, isn’t he? If they’re cornered, Jasper can easily teleport them out of this place,” Sigmund said nonchalantly.

“The problem is Jasper is severely injured right now. So he can’t teleport the two of them out of here. It’s impossible for Maximilian to fight all of those guards alone. We must help him, Sigmund,” I said urgently.

Sigmund heaved a sigh. “Fine. Let’s go and help the spoiled prince!”

I gave a satisfied smile. “OK, let’s!”

Finally, I led Sigmund to Prince Maximilian’s place. I gave a gasp of horror as I saw Maximilian being kicked and punched by a group of guards as he lay face down on the floor. Every time Maximilian tried to get up, the guards pushed him down and then started beating him up again.

With the small amount of energy Jasper had left, he tried to help his prince, but his effort was pointless. Jasper was too weak to stand up, let alone fight the guards who roughed Maximilian up. Meanwhile, Prince Xavier was nowhere to be seen. The guards probably had sent him away.

I intended to run towards Maximilian, but Sigmund grabbed my arm, trying to restrain me. “Wait here! I’m the one who will help that spoiled prince,” he said coldly.

Before I could attempt a reply, Sigmund advanced on the guards who were banging Prince Maximilian up. I watched in awe as Sigmund flitted from one guard to another at the speed of light, conking them on their heads. Within seconds, he managed to lay all the guards out.

After Sigmund defeated all those guards, he came up to Maximilian and held out his hand to him. The vampire prince grudgingly took his hand, and lastly, Sigmund yanked Maximilian to his feet.

“I’ve just saved you, young man, what do you say?” Sigmund mocked.

“Thank you,” Maximilian said wretchedly.

“We’d better leave now before other guards come,” I suggested.

“Right! Let’s get going!” Maximilian said, while Sigmund nodded in agreement. Without further ado, the two of them started running down the corridor.

“Maximilian, Sigmund, wait!” I called after them.

The two vampires stopped running and swung around to face me.

“Yes, Princess?”

“Yes, Rosanne?”

Sigmund and Maximilian asked at the same time.

“Do you want to leave Jasper behind?” I flared at them while pointing my finger in Jasper’s direction.

“Sorry, Rosanne, I completely forgot about Jasper,” Maximilian apologized.

“Same here,” added Sigmund.

“What are you waiting for? Help Jasper! Now!” I snapped at them.

Prince Maximilian and Sigmund hurriedly marched over to Jasper and carefully raised him to his feet.

“Look! Jasper’s bullet wound is still spouting blood,” Maximilian said anxiously, “We have to staunch the bleeding before we can move him.”

“You’re right, but how can we do that?” I asked in bewilderment. I was in a state of panic now that I was at a loss what to do.

“Don’t worry! I have a pretty good idea how to check the bleeding,” stated Sigmund. Afterwards, he tore at the the hem of his robe, and then tied the strip of cloth around Jasper’s bullet wound. Thankfully, it succeeded in stopping the flow of blood from his wound.

“It’s done! We can run along now!” Sigmund exclaimed.

“Okay. Come on, Guys, let’s go!” I preceded the three of them down the hallway.

Prince Maximilian and Sigmund helped Jasper along, following at my heels.

Just as the four of us reached at the end of the hallway, we bumped into Prince Xavier. I didn’t know whose side Xavier was on actually. So, I couldn’t decide if he’s here to help us or put us to trouble.