On day 158, according to Arthur, he brought me my food but remained in the doorway instead of leaving.
“I understand you’re mad at me,” he said after a few minutes of standing there like a twat.
Oh, so now he was going to talk about it? “What, for eaves-dropping like a perv?” I stabbed the blood bag and started sipping it. Gods, it tasted awful. Was this a bad batch? Maybe the human had been sick.
He sighed. I’d been listening to his sighs long enough to know he was trying to not growl at me for annoying him. “Not that. Before, with the Lycans. I was trying to protect you.” When I didn’t turn around, he continued. “We crossed paths with the Lycans that were hunting the werewolf. They made it clear that if we didn’t assist in their search for him, they’d kill you when he was brought in. There was no way to save him. I could only save you.”
I turned from my tray, crossing my arms over my dress, the fabric rustling under my fingers. “You still lured him to the warehouse. That’s why you were shouting in the woods like it was a church social.”
“It was a territory threat, one of the few things he can understand when he’s a wolf. I was trying to scare him away so he wouldn’t follow us. I didn’t realize he’d already thought of you as his mate and would’ve followed no matter what I did.”
“You were trying to save him,” I said quietly, finally understanding, after all this time. Finished with the blood, I picked up a piece of toast from the tray to wash the nasty taste out of my mouth. “Why are you telling me this?”
He held out his hand and I stared at it like a beacon of hope. “Let’s go.”
Oh. Oh gods. I was going to cry.
“Don’t tease me,” I warned with a mouth full of toast, lifting a finger at him and shooting a death glare. “You tease me and we’re done.”
“Let’s go,” he repeated in that same flat tone. Eagerly, I jumped forward and he took my arm on a magical journey out of my rooms and down the hallway.
After so long! The sights! The sounds! Everything was new and beautiful, even though it all looked exactly the same as it had for decades. The same boring castle was magnificent.
As excited as I was, it was odd being in the rest of the castle after five months of suffocating confinement in the same damn rooms. I’d grown tired of the same colors and designs. At least if they exiled or killed me I wouldn’t have to look at any of it anymore. I was hoping for killing me, because god, I couldn’t take more of those same walls and same furniture and same everything.
Everyone we passed on the way to the bigger drawing-room gave me a look. They were clearly angry that I’d broken the second vampire law. I could tell a few of them knew about Knight because they looked less angry and more disgusted. Eww, it’s the vampire who let a Lycan touch her vagina.
We turned the hall and I suddenly felt something coming up my throat. I gagged and held it down with a fist over my mouth. My stomach was in knots and flip flopped around like a dying fish.
“Let’s go,” Arthur said for a third time, tugging on me. I heaved again but didn’t let it come out. “What’s wrong?” He wasn’t concerned, just annoyed.
“I’m not sure, I think the blood was bad.” My stomach flopped again in a final protest and the churning faded to a low whisper. It was just nerves. My trial was finally here. Everything would be okay.
Satisfied I wasn’t going to blow chunks everywhere, Arthur opened the door to the bigger drawing-room and shoved me slightly so I’d go in. Waiting for me there in the large, hunter green room was the head of every Order on the planet, twelve in total, Othello among them. They sat in a half circle behind a very official looking desk that hadn’t been there before. It felt like model U.N. or the Evil League of Evil. They were definitely the Evil League of Evil.
“Nice desk. When’d you buy that?” I asked Othello. Arthur flicked me hard in the ear for talking, because being my jailer hadn’t softened him towards me, apparently. Pain shot through my lobe and my stomach rolled again. “Oww! What is your problem?” I wanted to hit him back but I thought better of it. He’d probably hurt me again.
Othello gave Arthur a pointed glare. “Stop that, Arthur. She’s not an unruly child.” For once in my life, I was glad Othello was there. Maybe he’d order Arthur to leave his permanent residence at my door. Or at least let me go outside for five minutes.
A woman sitting near the middle of the huge desk stood up. With her salt and pepper hair, she looked much older than me, but I felt her age was only about five decades my senior. Peanuts in vampire years. “I am Castilla of the Order Acilino.” She had a deep Spanish accent. “Elisabeth, you stand accused of disregarding your duty to slay any Lycan found within our borders. This is the second in our most sacred laws. To ignore it is punishable by death. Do you understand this?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed. “Yes.”
“Normally these proceedings would be overseen by the head of the oldest Order, but as that Order is the one you belong to, Othello has not been allowed to supervise the hearing.”
I glanced at him and he looked apologetic. No doubt he would have swayed the vote in my favor, which was why he’d been replaced. “I understand,” I told her with a nod.
“We shall proceed,” she said with finality.
“Wait.” I knew that talking out of turn was absolutely inappropriate, and might earn me another ear flick from Arthur, but I couldn’t help it. “If I may ask. Why was I locked in my room for five months? That’s quite a long time to gather everyone together. Was there something else you had to do first? A soirée to attend?”
Castilla wasn’t annoyed, which was good. I could see she had an ocean of patience, and respected me just enough for her to be kind instead of patronizing. “We’ve been here this entire time, Elisabeth.”
Now I was the one annoyed. Their old asses had been in this castle all this time? Oh that old bag upstairs unable to leave her room? She can wait a little longer, this wine won’t drink itself, you know! I ground my teeth together and took as deep a breath as I could without making noise.
“Why wasn’t I summoned here sooner, like say, when you first got here?” I couldn’t help being snippy.
My tone caused a stir across the curved desk, but Castilla graciously let it slide. “The reason it has taken this long to summon you is that we were very divided on a detail of your case, a detail many have come forward about as advocates for you.”
“And what would that detail be?” I asked her, curious to say the least.
“The Lycan you spared was a child and had not yet felt the change. Was he human? Was he Lycan?”
“You couldn’t decide,” I stated. It made sense. We had another rule about preserving human life as much as possible. No wonder they were so torn.
“This is a very serious offense,” she emphasized, her dark red lips pursed making wrinkles on her face. “Some believe it doesn’t matter. He will one day become a Lycan, so therefore, he is to be treated like one. Others believe he is human until he changes. Five months,” she said wearily and ran a hand across her forehead, her many bracelets clinking against each other. “Five months and we still cannot come to an agreement.”
“And yet you’ve summoned me.”
“No matter what the offense, the accused can plead their case. In some cases, it doesn’t matter. Yours, it may. So. Proceed.” She sat down and straightened her ivory jacket, her eyes fixed on me. All twelve of the heads waited for me to speak.
Where should I begin, I wondered. Might as well start with the basics. Standing up straight, I leveled the curved desk with my serious face.
“I spared a Lycan child,” I confessed. “I knew he was within the borders, but I still did it.”
“Why?” one of the heads asked.
“Because he was a child. Despite my faults, I don’t kill children. It may not be a rule you enforce, but it’s important to me.” I hoped they would respect that. I wasn’t holding my breath, though.
“But you knew he was a
Lycan,” another said.
I nodded. “Yes. I knew.”
“And you did it anyway?”
The urge to roll my eyes was very strong. “Like I said. He was a child.”
Castilla spoke next. “And after Arthur came, you ran.”
“Yes.”
“Why?” she asked me.
The answer had become clear to me over my imprisonment as I’d dealt with the guilt of Knight’s involvement. It was still a paltry excuse.
“I’m old. Not quite as old as everyone here, but we’re not very far apart in age. I didn’t want my 400 years to go to waste.” And my selfishness had ended a life. A life much more precious than my own. I looked down at the green carpet and felt another lurch inside my stomach. I hid it with a cough.
“Why run?” Castilla questioned. “You knew Arthur and the Hunters would find you eventually.”
“I was scared. Everyone knows when the Hunters are involved it means someone is going to be executed. I didn’t know you held trials. I thought you just killed first and didn’t care if the judgment was fair or not.”
“We haven’t held a trial in a long time, since before you were born. I’m not surprised you thought this,” Castilla said solemnly. “Understand, we hold the first law above all others. Don’t kill other vampires. Every time we end a vampire life, it is a tragedy.”
I felt deflated by her words. It had all been for nothing then. If I’d never met Knight, the other Lycans would’ve never fucking found him. He’d still be alive. He was dead now because of me being a fucking coward. Because I did something I thought was morally right, and then I ran instead of facing the consequences. And Knight paid the price. I’d never forgive myself for that. Never. A broken sob escaped my lips and I held down another heave.
Castilla took my tears for something else. “Calm down, please. I’m sorry that you were scared and thought you had to run. Luckily, that won’t sway our decision. Running is not an offense.”
Oh fucking awesome. I wouldn’t want to be executed for running. God, they were pricks. “Because Arthur always finds us?” I couldn’t help sounding as annoyed as I felt.
She pursed her lips like I was pushing her patience. “Correct.” She waited a bit for me to get my emotions under control. I focused on the hunter green walls around me and pushed Knight from my mind so I would stop crying. Mourn him later, when you’re not on trial. “Do you have anything else to say?”
I sighed and looked down finally. “When I spared the boy, I wasn’t sparing a Lycan. I was sparing a child. He didn’t have their scent. He smelled human.”
“And if he had smelled of wolf?” Castilla asked.
I looked straight into her dark grey eyes and spoke the truth in my heart, damn the consequences.
“I don’t kill children.”
The heads dismissed me after that so they could debate on a technicality again. I hoped it wouldn’t last another five months. Arthur took my arm and started leading me back to my rooms. My stomach was flopping over and over, I could hardly catch a breath.
“Tough crowd, amirite?” I joked, and put a fist to my mouth to hold it closed. My feet stumbled and I struggled to stay upright. Arthur’s hand gripped my arm and dug in with a crushing intensity to keep me from falling. I was sure I’d have bruises later. “I don’t feel so good, jailer. I think that blood was…”
Halfway up the stairs, amid dozens of stares from other Born vampires, my stomach lurched and I threw up bagged blood and a toast all over Arthur’s army boots.
Oops.
I waited for him to rip my head off, but he merely pulled me up by the arm so hard I wondered if he had dislocated it, and dragged me up the rest of the stairs, down the hallway, and deposited me inside my suite. My stomach was still upset and I had to run to the toilet to heave until there was nothing left to expel.
Olivier burst into my bathroom and saw me leaning over the expensive polished toilet. “What in the hell, Lisbeth? Did you drink some bad blood?”
I looked over at her in confusion. “I threw up two minutes ago, how are you already here?”
“This castle is tiny, everyone knows everything. Plus, I was in the lobby, so I saw it. Right on Arthur’s shoes, too.” She gave me a round of applause. I laughed and heaved again over the bowl. “Where’s the blood you had today?”
“Living room,” I got out before I had to gag. She walked over and brought it back with her, stuck a finger inside the plastic bag, and licked it. She smacked a few times and looked confused. “This blood is fine. Vampires don’t throw up unless the blood is bad.”
“It tasted bad when I drank it, I swe–” Heave.
And then a thought occurred to me as I sank my butt onto the tile floor and wiped at the sweat that had gathered on my forehead.
“Or unless…” I focused my power inward and searched my body.
There it was. The tiny sac inside my womb that couldn’t be noticed yet without focus, and the result of my choice to sleep with Balthazar.
A baby. I was pregnant.
I mean, I knew Incubi were 100% fertile with human women, but I’d assumed they wouldn’t be able to get a vampire pregnant. It seemed genetics hadn’t cared who he’d tupped because I was having his baby.
I came back to myself and gave it all away with the look on my face.
Olivier stared at me in horror, the empty blood bag slipping from her hand and falling on the tile floor. “You… with who, Othello?”
“Oh fuck off. I’m not in the mood for jokes. If I have to think of Othello’s O-face, I’m going to throw up again.”
She wasn’t laughing. “I’m serious. He’s mated to Marie now. You cannot be pregnant with his child.”
Well, that was new. And gross. “It’s not Othello’s, I promise.” That was too horrible to imagine.
“Then whose? The werewolf?” She made a gagging noise and I glared at her.
“Sadly, we only kissed. Plus I’m sure biology wouldn’t allow it.” Would it though? If Knight had lived, could I have had his child? I clearly was able to mix my genes with another species.
“Then who?” Olivier asked again, her hands on her hips.
I couldn’t say it. I’d see the way the Lycans had treated Knight because he wasn’t like them. If anyone knew I was carrying the child of an Incubus, I was sure they wouldn’t let it live.
“I can’t say who.”
“Look. I know that Othello has always been nice to you-”
“It’s not his child, god that is so disgusting! I would never!”
She pursed her lips and I could tell she didn’t believe me. Great. My best friend thought I was getting busy with Creep-zilla. “You should get rid of it. Right now. Before anyone finds out. I’ll get you the stuff you need.”
“No,” I told her firmly. “I refuse. No.” How could she even suggest something like that? Children were so rare for us, to get rid of one was like shooting a tiger. “I’m fine. You should go back to Renard,” I spat out, making sure she knew exactly how pissed I was about both things.
Now she was the one to look guilty, and I ignored the slight twinge in my stomach at her sadness. “You know?”
“Cameron told me. Thanks for sharing.”
She went to the sink and brought me a wet rag to wipe my face off as a peace offering. Folding her dress underneath her, she sat beside me on the cold tiles. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. You lost… the werewolf. I didn’t want to make you feel worse.”
“You’re happy, that’s good.” I smiled at her, sincerely pleased with her love life, even if mine was in pieces.
“Speaking of boys,” she said, turning to me with her eyes narrowed. “You just lost someone you loved and you’re getting pregnant with someone else?”
“Judgy much?” I stood up, my stomach appeased for the moment, and walked over to stare at myself in the mirror over the sink. “Knight is dead. He wouldn’t want me to mourn him forever. It’s not like I did it straight off. It’s been months. Five of th
em.” Feeling guilty was inevitable, no matter how much I’d enjoyed it, but now that there was a child in the mix, I didn’t regret what I’d done, and I’d keep telling myself that until I believed it.
She got up from the floor and flushed the toilet for me. “You’re right,” she conceded gently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
I caught the slightest whiff of lilacs and it soothed my stomach further. “I’ll be fine. I need to rest.” Olivier hugged me and left. Two seconds later, Balthazar appeared from Cameron’s old room. His eyes went down to my belly.
“Mine?” he asked. I nodded. “I’m sorry, Lisbeth. I should’ve said no to you. I had no idea this could happen.”
I shook my head, finding a smile. “You wouldn’t have said no to me so don’t pretend otherwise. I was dying inside and I didn’t care. I took advantage of you.”
He chuckled. “That’s never happened to me before, and it still hasn’t so don’t feel bad.” He walked closer and kissed my forehead. “I still love you. If you ever need me in that way again, I’m afraid I will have to decline. Not because I don’t want you, as much as you reminded me of…” I raised my eyebrows, shocked that he was about to confess how he knew me. He bit down on his lip to stop himself from saying too much. “My point is…”
“Okay, A. One day you are going to finish that sentence.” He rolled his eyes at me. “B. I understand, and I am content to still be friends with you.” I smirked, he grinned, and we stepped closer until I leaned in to kiss him warmly on the cheek, hugging him tightly.
He hesitated, and then he pet my hair, the same way he always did. “I will always be here for you. I promise that.”
One hand moved to my stomach and I leaned my head against his shoulder. “I can’t tell anyone you’re the father. They might try to take the baby. They’ll be afraid of it.”
He put his hand on mine, over our baby. “The child of a vampire and an Incubus. We have no idea what she’ll be.”
My eyebrows raised in a thunderous rage. “SHE?”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 21