“Thank you,” I said quietly. He stiffened but he didn’t turn around. “You are unabashedly honest, and while it might be one of your annoying qualities, I do admire it.” I studied the curves and planes of his back, wondering what they would feel like under my hands. “I’m sorry about your mate. Causing the death of a loved one is something I can identify with.”
“I’m…” he started and stopped, probably regretting what he was about to say. “I’m sorry I let the Lycans take your wolf in. I didn’t know he was harmless. You can blame his death on me too. There’s no need for you to carry that burden. It was me.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed, intending to get up and stand beside him, or behind him, anything to be closer to that safe feeling he’d brought me. “Stay,” he ordered when he heard me moving. “Stay over there.” Was he so compromised that he didn’t want comfort? Or maybe he didn’t need comfort in the same way I did.
I hesitated, staying beside my bed, away from him. “I’m going to say something, and if you try and hold it against me later, I will lie my ass off.” That made him turn his head slightly, enough where I could see the scar that ran down his rugged cheek. “You were doing your job. I won’t blame you for it, so stop trying to be noble. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I did what you asked. There’s something on the tray for you,” he said, as if I hadn’t spoken.
I noticed a small folded paper in the little flower vase. I picked it up and unfolded it to see Cameron’s handwriting.
‘Lisbeth,
I can’t say I wasn’t expecting this to happen, so don’t blame yourself. In fact, I’ve been anticipating it for months. I knew that eventually, things would come to a head, and the Order would turn us away.
I couldn’t prevent this, no matter how hard I tried, but that doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying. There’s only one thing I can do to help, and that’s infiltrating the turned ranks. I know it’s dangerous. Regardless, I must do this. If this war is to happen, I’ll do my part to help end it.
I’ll be careful. I know we’ll meet again in more peaceful days. I love you.
Cameron’
Cameron was gone. He was off risking his life trying to fix the mess others like me had made. My optimism regarding his survival was not high.
Olivier was gone. Her official reason was a more in-depth search for Othello, but I knew the real reason. She was angry at me for throwing her lover out. She hadn’t said so, and perhaps it was my guilty conscience convincing me of her anger, but nevertheless, she had still left.
I was gone. With my spirit broken, I wandered around the castle day after day, feeling as if I was watching my life from a distance. I was alone now. With no friends, no family, no lover, no father-figure, or whatever Othello had been. I was utterly on my own.
Arthur was the only constant now, and we were riding that line where I wasn’t sure if we were friends or if we were something else, but we had more respect for each other than we used to, and I had a feeling respect translated to something different in his mind.
My only escape was the hidden library in my office. I spent most of my free time there, reading almost every book on every shelf, and though the room was small, it had plenty of both. Some weren’t in English, but I spoke many languages, and those that I didn’t were easy enough to learn.
The content of said books was largely disappointing, though not dull in content. They were simply chronicles of vampires that had come before me. Tales of vampires who had built the pyramids, influenced cultures to be born, razed Rome to the ground, and many other things in history that did not surprise me in the least that vampires were behind them.
Pompeii? Vampires.
War of the roses? Vampires.
Library of Alexandria? Vampires. (Yeah, thanks for that, fuck ups.)
It seemed my kind left destruction in our wake wherever we went. Maybe that’s why Anastasia Bathory had done what she did. Karma? It was sufficiently ironic.
The volume about Anastasia’s treachery was the only book in the room that was probably forbidden. I read and re-read it dozens of times, and every time I did, I became more convinced that Anastasia had been a half-Bicus half-vampire. Bi-pire. And I needed to know if that was the fate that awaited my child, a life of violence and terror.
There were two things that prevented me learning anything about her that wasn’t written in the volume.
1. Anastasia had disappeared, and since I’d never heard her story in my 400+ years, I had little doubt she was still missing, or dead.
2. James was the only vampire who knew anything about her, as far as I knew, and the only one who wouldn’t be upset by me asking.
Therein lay my problem. If I wanted to learn more, I would have to break two rules. I’d have to consort, again, with a vampire that disobeyed the blood limit law, not to mention biting vampires to control them, which was a horrible thing to do even if there wasn’t a law about it, and I’d have to ask him to talk about a vampire of whom information regarding her was banned on pain of death.
The only way this could be accomplished was if my only ally helped me. And lucky me, that ally was a rule junkie. A rule junkie that was knocking on my door.
I set the Anastasia book back onto the lamp table and left the room quickly. It clicked shut behind me just as Arthur entered the office. He bowed in his short military manner and flicked his eyes behind me to the secret door. Had he seen it move?
“Another group has arrived,” he informed me. Since Gennadi, Born vampires had been coming in slowly from all over, seeking refuge in our home. With every larger group came a member of the Council, on which I now held a seat. “Castilla was with them.”
I breathed a sigh of relief that she was unharmed. “Set her up on the top floor with the rest of the Council.” Space was becoming a precious commodity now, and we had to put safety over privacy. Arthur had given up his rooms and was now bunking on my couch. Even the Council had to share their rooms with each other. It was a necessary sacrifice, but some of them acted like it was completely intolerable. I told them in the most polite way to stick it up their ass.
“Olivier sent word,” Arthur said once I’d waddled over to my chair. I was hopeful and scared all at once. Was it bad news? Did she tell me to go suck blood and die? “She hasn’t found Othello yet, but she thinks she has a lead. She’ll update us soon.” Looking away, I fiddled with my fancy feather pen. “And also, I know about the secret room with the contraband book.”
I’d never been good at faking things, so my surprised, “What secret room?” had about as much effect as a 1.0 on the Richter scale. Arthur gave me the most apathetic look I’d ever seen on his blank face. He didn’t even bother looking skeptical. “Okay, fine. I’m shit at lying.”
“Yes, you are.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and imagined how it would feel to strangle him. “So?”
“So?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Are you going to turn me into the authorities?” I asked with a gulp.
He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “It might surprise you to discover this, but you are the authorities. I answer to you.”
“You’re the puppy of the Council. I’m not the Council.”
“No, but you’re on the Council. And I signed paperwork that means my allegiance to you is surmount to any other loyalty. Including the Council,” he added.
Oh. “That was in the paperwork?”
“You didn’t read it,” he stated, not the least bit surprised.
“There was a huge stack that day. I didn’t want to read all of them,” I said defensively. He let out a breath that was almost a sigh, which in Arthur speak meant he was rolling his eyes internally. I was less annoyed with his annoyance at me and more excited by the fact that he had just solved one of my problems. I leaned forward and put my elbows on my desk, then I nestled my chin in my hands and smiled at him. “So…”
His mouth twitched, the ice of his eyes about to turn me into an icicle. “Do
n’t look at me with that face ever again.”
I scowled at him and dropped my folded hands onto my desk. “Fine. I need you to do something for me. And it involves breaking the rules.”
“Does in involve killing another vampire, killing a human, or not killing a Lycan?”
“Nope.”
“Then done.”
I hadn’t expected him to be so chill with it. Now I couldn’t use the argument I’d thought up to convince him to help me. It was really good too. I’d even thought up a show tune to go along with it, though that part was just for me because he wouldn’t have appreciated it.
I leaned back in my chair. “I need you to contact a vampire for me and have him brought here. Secretly. He’s a lawbreaker. He indulges in blood intake, and he…” I swallowed and gripped my belly with one hand. I felt my baby’s tiny hand reach out to me to give me comfort. “He bites other vampires to control them.” Arthur took in a sharp breath, but remained silent. “He has information I need about… someone… and that information is forbidden to be spoken about to all who know about it, and you can be assured that there are others here that do.”
When others would protest, question motives, or report you to the Council, Arthur simply nodded his head and asked, “What’s his name and where do I find him?”
19. I won
The smallest amount of stress was off my shoulders now that Arthur knew some of my secrets and had agreed to not only keep them, but assist me in my plans. He assured me my message to James would be sent and the vampire’s arrival here would be kept secret, so now all I had to worry about was being in the same room with James at some point. I wasn’t sure if that would bring me to tears, or end with my fingers around his throat. Either way, I was dreading it.
Almost every Born around the globe had taken refuge at our castle. We numbered over 500, in a fortress that was made to house maybe 100. Not every human companion had made the journey with them, so we had the problem of too many vampires and not enough blood to go around. It was for that problem and many others that we had gathered for the first Council meeting since my trial, and the first where I had a seat at the ridiculous half circle desk that had magically reappeared in the bigger drawing-room.
Sitting at it as I now was, I saw that each seat had its own little area on the desk. There was a pitcher of water with a crystal glass, a little black pen cup filled with designer pens that cost more than a liver transplant, a stack of monogrammed paper (the monogram was BV for Born vampires, because pretentiousness started this entire mess so we might as well rub it in), and a vase with a single hand etched flower made of glass. Why? Because money. Ignoring all that expensiveness, the chair I was sitting in was worth any amount of money. It was like heaven under my butt. I was stealing this chair. Arthur could suck it.
Out of the other eleven Council members, nine had survived and were at the meeting. Only two had met their end at the hands of the turned.
“Lisbeth, it is good to see you again.” Castilla sat in the seat next to me and shook my hand. She was smiling, but she had less of a glow to her than the last time I’d seen her. Then again, so did I. “Su niña,” she cooed, and put a hand to my belly before I could stop her. Some of her weariness melted away and she removed her hand with a smile. “Beautiful baby. She is worried about you. She feels your fear.”
Great. Didn’t anyone care about keeping a baby’s gender secret anymore? If this baby was born a boy, I was going to ride that boat of irony for centuries.
“The Council will come to order,” Arthur shouted over the noise of people talking. He stood with his hands crossed in front of him and waited for the room to quiet before he continued. “We have come here to discuss the current situation, and how we will proceed from here.”
The Council members offered up suggestions one by one. They ranged from do nothing (who invited you?) to bargaining with the turned. Bargaining. With traitors. That would work well.
“I propose,” Castilla said when it was her turn, “a full-scale assault on the turned. We find out where they are and we attack.”
The smallest giggle escaped my mouth, and of course everyone heard it. I half expected Arthur to come and smack me on the face again.
“You find this amusing?” Castilla asked me, slightly insulted.
“Kind of,” was my answer.
“These meetings must be taken seriously,” one of the other members reproached, giving me look like I was a five year old who had stolen his juice box.
“Oh, I am taking it seriously, believe me. But you’re suggesting attacking an enemy that has double, if not triple our numbers. And triple is being generous. We turn dozens of vampires every year. And how often do we procreate? On average, once every fifteen years. We have maybe five hundred at best in this castle right now. They have thousands. Thousands.” I slammed my finger onto the desk to emphasize my point. “We fight them as we are and we perish.”
Castilla sat down and took a drink of her water in the expensive chalice. “You make a good argument. What is your proposal then?”
They all waited for me to wow them with my idea, which I can assure you I definitely had one, but it wasn’t the awe-inspiring one they were waiting for.
“I propose an alliance with the Lycans.”
The room went so silent, I could hear a rabbit running in the field outside. The sound of Castilla putting her glass down was deafening.
“You’re joking, right? Having a laugh?” a Council member asked in disbelief.
“I can assure you, I’m not. They have the numbers. If they become our allies, we’ll be able to defeat the turned.”
“You’re assuming they’ll agree to it,” Castilla pointed out. “Which they will not.”
I shrugged. “They might. The turned threaten our safety, and in turn, the safety of the packs. If humans find out about us, it won’t matter who helped who. But if we want to stay secret, we’ll need them.”
“This is insanity,” another member declared while rubbing his forehead like it would remove this idea from his head. “Aligning with the Lycans. I know you’re new here, but that’s not how we do things.”
Othello’s letter came back to me, and I smiled.
If someone tells you ‘we don’t do it like that,’ tell them, ‘we do now.’
“Maybe it should be.” I sat back and folded my hands over my belly. “But hey, we could just do nothing and be slaughtered. There’s always that option.” Silence around the desk, and I glanced at Arthur to see him staring at me with a look that sent shivers up my spine. I tucked some of my curls behind my ear and looked away before a flush came to my cheeks. “We’ll put it to a vote. That’s how things get done here, right? All in favor of surviving this with our lives by making an alliance with the Lycans before any attacks take place, raise your hands. And all those in favor for committing hara-kiri by attacking the turned with ridiculous odds, don’t raise your hands.” I raised my hand and felt my belly stretch with the hand of my baby. She wasn’t even born and I could feel how sarcastic she was going to be.
Mentioning death and hara-kiri must’ve sparked something in the other members because six of them had their hands up.
I won.
The only other order of business was the issue of our human population. Still brimming with the success of my Lycan alliance, I suggested we bring back past companions that we trusted, who would never turn against us. It was unorthodox since the companion contract was binding, and had more than a few words about our non-involvement in their lives after they left us, but desperate times and all that jazz. We had more than enough money to make up for bending the rules, and now was not the time to be caring about social issues.
After the meeting ended, messengers were dispatched to the Lycans, and the dismissed companions we chose were contacted. I was officially breaking two codes of conduct while still being an unofficial leader. Or maybe I was official now? Was there a waiting period for being official when you get the job from a kidnapping? Was it l
ike a human marriage where the person has to be missing for seven years before you can get married again? No one had said anything, so maybe I was officially official until Othello came back.
If. If Othello came back.
A week after the Council meeting, Arthur knocked on the doorway of the secret room, preventing me from nodding off in the dusty chair. I glared at him and thumped the Anastasia book onto the end table before reaching a hand out for him to take. He crossed from the doorway to where I sat and helped me out of the chair. My belly had greatly increased in size, and even though it pained my dignity, getting in and out of chairs now required Arthur’s assistance. I didn’t thank him for helping because that meant every other phrase coming out of my mouth would be ‘thank you’, and he didn’t require gratitude to continue doing so.
“God, my feet hurt,” I groaned out. “Any chance being my underling involves foot rubs?” I waddled out of the hidden room and heard Arthur close the door behind us. He followed me to one of the chairs by the fireplace and helped me sit down before sitting in front of me. What was he doing?
“Now,” I said when I’d finally found a position in the chair that was mildly comfortable. “Why did you pull me out of my hideaway? I was about to take a nap. I’m pregnant. I like naps.”
“Several things require your attention, I’m afraid. You’ll have to nap later,” he said with a hint of sarcasm. I shut my eyes, still feeling a bit sleepy, and then Arthur’s hands were on my feet, slowly removing my slip-on shoes.
“What are you–” His hands pressed into the swollen skin of my left foot and I moaned loudly in relief. He hit the right spots, massaging away all the aches until I was putty beneath his fingers. “Would it be presumptuous to ask you to massage every inch of my body?” The words slipped out before I realized what’d I’d said, and damn it, my cheeks reddened in response. “I mean. Not… fuck, you knew what I meant.” His hands moved to my ankles, then up my calves, and I was worried he was going to start massaging… everywhere.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 32