The Rock's of Beauty by Meghan Escott (books for new readers TXT) 📕

Damita is and I'll tell you who Lucy is?”
“That would be brilliant my darling Damita. But you must choose your second guard from the brute force section.” I gave him a nod and let go of his hand and swam behind him with the three guards behind us.
When we reached the second battle field what I saw completely amazing. All the men were fighting against each other just using their own bodies as their weapons and their defence mechanisms. They seemed to have a system and it was an easy system to recognise; the better you were, the further to the front you got and the two men battling it out at the front were the best of the whole class.
I ignored the chairs again and sat on the floor and crossed my legs. This time, Murray joined me on the floor however, he didn't sit next to me. He sat behind me and he wrapped his arms around me and made me lean back into him.
“I want to talk to the two at the front.” I told Murray turning my head to face him. He smiled and then kissed my cheek. I smiled back at him and then he helped me up. I walked over to the two fighting at the front.
“You can stop fighting now. Are you two okay?” I asked the two of them, getting in between them to stop them fighting.
“Yes your majesty, I am fine. Merely bruised from his attempt to hurt me.” The one on the right said.
“As am I majesty. Were all in the same boat here. Everyone is trying to hurt eat each other to prove our worthiness for you.” The one on the left said.
“Yes you are and you should watch your tongue.”
“Sorry your majesty.”
“What do each of you need to stay fit and healthy?”
“A mixture of just normal healthy eating and a sip of blood every once in a while does all of us good in the long run.”
“How long has it been since you had blood?”
“A while.” They both looked at each other and then smiled sadly at me.
“Do you need blood to live or is it just a pleasure to drink it? I mean we all are vampire here right?”
“Yeah, we all used to be vampires but we've all been down here so long that its mostly for pleasure now.” I nodded at both of them and walked away back to Murray and sat down in front of him again. “I want those two to fight it out and then I'll chose which one.”
“Okay.” He said to me and then turned to the battle field. “Alexander and Charles, remain on the battle field and Damita wants to choose between you two to be her second guard.”
Everyone cleared off the battle field leaving the two men that I had just spoken to left on their own. I watched both of them intensely and Alexander got the first punch in and hard at that.
“Stop them. I'll have Alexander.” I said to Murray.
“Stop!” Murray shouted and they stopped immediately. “Alexander.” Alexander and Charles shook hands and gave each other a man hug. Alexander then walked over to me and stood behind me with Morgan. “How about we go somewhere were we can go and talk about things.”
“Okay.” Both of us swam away from the battle field and we swam back to a private little area where we both sat down and our guards left us alone and gave us some alone time.
“So, who is Damita?”
“She's beautiful and she's intelligent. Her hair is always wavy but her personality is always different but perfect.”
“So what makes me Damita?”
“Your beautiful, your intelligent, your hair is wavy and very very long and black and beautiful.” He ran his fingers through my hair and pulled me closer to him and smelt my hair. “But I want to know more about your lift on land. As Lucy.”
“Obviously, I'm a vampire on land. I'm a turner which means I have turned people into vampires and I have seven at the moment although I did have more but they died in the process of me being tested to learn about your magic. I had twenty seven people to start with. I've had so much death around me in the past couple years I've been a vampire.”
“Why do you have those tattoos if you've only been a vampire for a couple years?”
“I'm a very special vampire. I'm a vampire princess with all these special powers and each power is represented by a tattoo.” I explained to him further about my tattoo's and what they meant and I even showed him some of my powers.
“Can I trust Morgan and Alexander?”
“Of course my sweet Damita. You can trust everyone under the water and no one breaks their trust without a price. And it will never happen now with a new and powerful queen here now. I've been alone for about 6 months now and people were getting out of hand but now that you are here, this will all stop. You can handle all of this my Damita?”
“Of course I can. I may need regular blood however to survive a long period of time using my abilities.”
“There is no problem. You can feed on me whenever you need to. I have never been fed off before. It should be an experience.”
“Can you show me around this place? I have no idea where we are or anything Murray.”
“Of course Damita. Do you need to feed now or are you okay?”
“I'm okay for a couple more hours if I don't use my abilities.” Murray nodded, kissed my forehead and then led me away. With Morgan and Alexander and Murray's guards behind us, we swam away so Murray could show me the underwater realm.
I was shown the castle where Murray lived and I should live, the different rooms where different classes study and the different private areas where couples sneak off to to make out. We finally got to the battle fields and there were people still practising their magic and their strength. There was a girl section and men section.
“Facts about you will spread quickly and many people will already know about your magical abilities and many will be brave enough to challenge you. Even the males will try to over power you. Some people – both males and females – are power hungry down here and many will go to extreme lengths to over power you and show that you are weak. However, you must accept any duel that they challenge you with because if you decline you will also be deemed as weak.” Just as Murray had stopped speaking a voice shouted out from the crowd of people.
“I challenge Queen your majesty to a duel.” A shout emerged from the crowd.
“There you go, your first dual. You can now prove yourself to everyone. Good luck.” Murray said and patted me on my back and pushed me slightly forwards toward the battle field.
“I accept your challenge.” I shouted into the crowd and everyone apart from one male went to the sides and all around the battle field leaving a gap for Murray and his and my guards to fit in and watch.
I pushed all my hair back off of my face and then tied it up into a tight bun with a hair tie that was permanently on my wrist. I then looked up at my opponent. He was very tall and had dark brown hair that almost looked black from a distance. I closed my eyes and read his mind. He was already anticipating his moves and his spells.
When the first spell was shot I merely jumped to the right and shot him with some air creating a whirlwind around him putting him so off balance that I had time to think and concentrate for my next spell. I concentrated and when I opened my eyes I found myself the perfect opportunity to shoot it.
I shot the most powerful and forceful fire spell I could muster on him and set him on fire. The crowd gasped as the fire took hold as water was always meant to defeat fire and to use a fire underwater and make it work must have taken some magic from me and it definitely was gong to take its toll on me later.
I sprinted at vamp speed over to my challenger and took the fire off of him. He had burns all over him but I knew I would heal him after I had defeated him. Even now, he was struggling and trying to get up. I shot another spell at him and made sure he couldn't get up from the floor. I continued shooting these spells until he stopped struggling to stand up and gave up.
Murray started clapping and the rest of the crowd follow suit. I gave Murray a small incline of my head and then tapped the challenger on his back. He flinched and cowered away from me. I bent down so I could see his face.
“It's okay honey, I'm not going to hurt you any more. In fact, if you would like, I can heal most of your injuries.” I put my hand near to his and tentatively he grasped it. I pulled him up and gave his another pat on his back. I then rubbed my fingers were his worst burns were and started to heal them the best that I could. “What's you name?”
“Luke.”
“Congratulations to Luke for taking me on. He is the best magical fighter I have come across for a long time. Well done.” I shouted out to the crowd and then left Luke on the battle field and rejoined Murray and my guards. However, before I could get there, there was a searing pain through my head and I collapsed to my knees. Murray rushed over to me and went down on his knees too to join me.
“Damita? What is wrong?”
“It's nothing. I have to return back to land Murray. And soon.”
“How do you know this?”
“People on the land, they are telepathic like me and they send me messages. I have to return to land otherwise this pain will render me dead.”
“I will take you to the land. Morgan, Alexander, Sam, Jess, with me.” Murray shouted orders and then swam with me to the crossing between sea and land.
“Morgan and Alexander, wait here for me until tomorrow noon. If I have not returned by then then I shall not be returning till tomorrow evening. Thank you for guarding me today boys.” I turned to Murray. “I shall see you soon my king. Goodnight.”
I then swam to the edge of the land and lifted myself onto the rocks and sat on the rocks with my feet dangling in the water. I was suddenly exhausted and needed blood and fast.
“Sam.” I said weakly to myself before falling back into the water where I had another sharp pain through my head.
“Damita. Please wake up Damita.” I could hear Murray's voice slowly growing louder until I opened my eyes and then he stopped saying my name. “What happened Damita? I thought you needed to get back to the land?”
“I must have fell back in again.” I said slowly.
“You also hit your head on a rock.” Murray said and I could see his hands were covered in my blood.
“I feel fine though.”
“It what the elements do to you. You'll feel perfectly fine in the water but when you get back on land, you'll be exhausted. You need blood Damita. You must feed before you attempt to