Rosangela: The Half-Blood Princess
Chapter 29

I strode towards the ladies which was located at the back of the restaurant. Every now and again, I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure that Prince Maximilian or Jasper wasn’t tailing me. So far, I didn’t see them, so it meant that I was safe, for now.

I was about to enter the ladies but stopped short when I spotted a sign on the wall that said ‘EXIT’ with an arrow symbol below it. I looked around to make sure that I was alone before following the sign for the exit.

I jumped for joy when I finally found the exit. I tried the door. To my surprise, it was unlocked. Pushing the door open, I stepped out into the moonlight. Quickly, I ran away from the restaurant without a backward glance.

“Yes finally I’m free!” I shrilled happily.

However, my triumph was short-lived because after just a few meters from the restaurant, suddenly I bumped into someone’s chest.

“Trying to escape Princess?” that person queried.

I froze. “I knew this voice.”

Frighteningly, I looked up. My guess was right. The man standing in front of me was Jasper.

“Ja—Jasper?” I stuttered.

Jasper held out his hand to me. “Let’s go back, Princess! Prince Maximilian is waiting for you.”

“After you,” I insisted.

Withdrawing his hand, he sighed. “Follow me!”

Jasper started walking past me. At first, I came after him. But then, quick as a flash, I spun around and made a dash for one of the dim alleys at the back of the restaurant.

“Princess?!” he yelled.

Ignoring him, I kept running as fast as my legs could carry me. But it’s weird, I didn’t hear footsteps following me.

‘He’s a vampire, Rosanne. Why does he have to run after you if he knows he can outrun you easily?’ my conscience told me.

‘Shut up! At least I have to try, right?’ I retorted.

I carried on running. Because it’s almost midnight, there were no other people around here. So I couldn’t ask for help. Well, even if there was somebody here, I wasn’t sure that they could help me because the one who was after me was a vampire.

After running for more than ten minutes, I began to be out of breath, so I reluctantly had to stop for breath. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Once I could get my breath back, I looked back over my shoulder to check if I had lost Jasper or not. I let out a sigh of relief when I didn’t see him anywhere.

However, as I turned around again, I shrieked in fright because out of the blue, Jasper had already stood in front of me with his arms folded across his chest.

“Are you done trying to escape, Princess?” he asked teasingly.

Ignoring his question, I tried to run again. But Jasper wrapped one of his arms around my waist and the other covered my eyes.

“What are you doing?” I protested while trying in vain to to prise his hand off my eyes.

When Jasper finally removed his hand from my eyes, I was flabbergasted. One moment we were in the dim alley at the back of the restaurant, the next we were already in the restaurant’s car park.

“Thanks, Jasper. I know your teleportation power will be very useful,” Prince Maximilian, who was leaning his back against his car, said.

“With pleasure, Your Highness,” Jasper responded while releasing his arm from my waist.

My jaw fell. “What?! Teleportation?”

“Vampire’s power. It’s cool, isn’t it, Princess?” Jasper winked at me.

I rolled my eyes.

Prince Maximilian suddenly grabbed my hand and then pushed me against the car.

“Why did you try to escape, Princess? You know, King Bellamy would skin me alive if I didn’t come back to the palace with you,” he reprimanded me.

“You don’t understand, Maximilian. King Bellamy had kidnapped me and brought me here against my will. So I just want to go home to my family in London,” I retorted.

“Look, Mirabelle!” he began, “I—”

“Don’t ever call me with that name again! My name is not Mirabelle,” I bellowed, cutting him off.

Prince Maximilian looked at me in mystification. “But King Bellamy said that your name is Mirabelle, why did you say otherwise?”

“I’ve told you that my name isn’t Mirabelle,” I insisted.

Maximilian sighed. “OK then, if you don’t want to be called Mirabelle, what should I call you?”

“Call me Rosanne—it’s short for Rosangela, Rosangela Sinclair,” I answered.

“Okay. Rosanne, right?” Maximilian wanted to make sure.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Rosanne,” he said softly, “I understand that you’re here against your will. But no matter what happens, you have to go back to the palace with me now or else King Bellamy will be furious. And I’m sure he would never let you step out of the palace ever again if he found out you tried to escape. Do you want that to happen?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Then you have to go back with me willingly, okay? I promise I won’t tell the king that you tried to escape. And I will take you out of the palace more often so you can feel a little bit of freedom. What do you think?”

I huffed. “Fine. Let’s go back now!”

“There’s a good girl!” Prince Maximilian rumpled my hair playfully.

“Stop it, Maximilian! You’re messing my hair,” I complained as I pushed his hand away.

Prince Maximilian and Jasper cackled at me, but I quelled them with a glare.

“Let’s go now, shall we?” Prince Maximilian suggested with a cheeky grin.

Right on cue, Jasper opened the back door for us.

Without a word, I got into the back seat.

Prince Maximilian hopped in after me.

Jasper shut the door right away before he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine soon.

'Prince Maximilian and Jasper are so annoying. Why did they have to foil my escape plan?' I grumbled in my mind.

'Calm down, Rosanne!' I told myself. 'Maybe you fail to escape now, but you still can try again later. And no one can stop you, including this arrogant vampire prince and his irritating bodyguard.'

“You can never run away again because I will always keep my eyes on you,” Prince Maximilian stated calmly.

I turned my head to look at him with startled eyes. 'How could he know what I was thinking about? Did I say it out loud?'

“No, you didn’t say it out loud. But I could read what’s on your mind,” he answered my unspoken question.

My eyes widened. “S—s—so you’re a mind reader?” I stuttered.

“Yes, I am,” he said confidently.

“It means, from the start, you’ve known that I was going to escape?” I asked.

“Of course!” He smirked unpleasantly.

“But if you’ve known it, why didn’t you try to stop me?” I inquired out of curiosity.

“Because I wanted you to trust me,” he replied, “You said you would only trust me if I took you out of the palace tonight, right? Then I did it for you. However, I don’t need to worry that you will run away. Because I will know what you’re thinking before you can even make a move.”

“That’s not fair!” I hollered.

“Life is so unfair sometimes, Princess,” Prince Maximilian commented .

I glowered at him.

Somehow, Prince Maximilian found my glare very funny until he began to laugh at me.

Jasper who watched us through the rear-view mirror gave a chuckle too.

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