She inched closer to him and pulled his arms around her, listening to his staggered breathing as he lay there dying against her. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She must do it now or nothing was ever going to change between them.
“I don’t want you any other way,” she whispered, slowly lifting her chin until her lips met the side of his jaw. She could feel his breath catch in his throat, not sure if what she was doing was wrong.
“Ch-charlotte, p-please….” He began to pull away.
But she wasn’t going to stop. She inched up farther, pressing her toes to the back of the coffin until she felt his cool, soft lips touch hers. Her heart lurched in her chest, jumpstarting, thudding hard against him. It must have been agonizing.
His hands moved slowly to her head, fingers intertwining in her curls. She sighed into his mouth, the muscles in her neck tensing, but the rest of her relaxed the most it ever had.
Valek slammed on the side of the casket with his fist, making a cracking sound with the impact. She was sure he’d busted a hole in it. Charlotte knew it was once again his time. He pulled his face away—a precaution—yet also, he pulled her body closer to his.
She rested her cheek on his chest and listened to his dead heart slam hard against his ribs, growing gradually slower. She stayed that way, listening, until it finally stopped.
His arms stayed stiff around her. He was sleeping, she reminded herself, beginning to be painfully aware her warm, living heart was beating solo against his hollow chest. Looking for a distraction from the truth, she closed her eyes and focused on his sweet scent and the lingering feeling left from his lips.
Chapter Fourteen
At A Loss
Aiden paced the floor with so much fire the wood scorched under his feet. His eyes blazed behind their shroud of black lashes as his gaze darted about the room, threatening to melt the first face they met.
He couldn’t stand to ever see Charlotte hurt, or dead, nonetheless. When he saw Valek standing before the fiery palace entrance with Charlotte slung motionless over his shoulder, simple instinct took over. It didn’t allow him the time to consider whether or not he was making the right decision. He didn’t care what happened to Valek, naturally, but no one was going to hurt Charlotte. Not even the high ruler himself.
“Damn it!” Aiden’s roar shattered the silence about the room. He sent his fist flying into the side of a redwood bookshelf.
“Calm yourself, my son.” Danek Price’s voice was smooth and eloquent, but somehow managed to unnerve Aiden all the same. “This will all be dealt with in time.”
“I had her!” Aiden growled, balling his hands up in his hair. “She was right in front of me.” He thought for a moment. “What if they run? What if they flee the country?” He turned on his father.
“There is no place they can hide successfully. Not for very long, anyway. Not with Valek being what he is, and the complications he has with the sun.” Danek slowly stood from his chair. “We will find this girl Charlotte.” He poured a glass a brandy. “But we must keep our wits about ourselves.” He swigged back the liquor.
“Those ticks think they’re so damn clever,” Aiden fumed, tightening his hands into fists at his sides. Flamed exploded just above his knuckles.
Danek sauntered over to his son and placed his thick hand on his shoulder. “Aiden, you have been bestowed all of this power for a reason. Now is your time to use it. You did the right thing by letting them go. She would have been killed.”
Aiden bitterly shrugged his father’s hand off and stormed to the bookshelf. “That’s right! Because those idiots put her in the dungeons with those disgusting lice!” He growled.
“I promise, son. If I had known anything about it, I would have prevented it.”
“Who did know about it? Who was responsible?” Water streamed from the lower lids of Aiden’s eyes, though it was not natural, salt tears. It flowed down his face and pooled around his feet.
Danek set down the brandy glass. “The platoon from the fire division had been sent to capture Valek Ruzik. I do know that.”
“Kill them, then. Whoever it was.” Aiden stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
He tore down the dour corridor, eyes and fists still blazing. The sound of his approach bounced off the stone like chills off a spine. Wind whipped his hair around his face as floods trailed from his feet. His powers were only as controlled as his emotions were, and being an angry teenager did nothing to help the situation.
Aiden stomped down the North Wing up to Vladislov’s quarters. A string of ivy tendrils ripped from underneath his fingernails and latched onto the locked door. It tore off its hinges with such force chunks of stone flew with it. The large hunk of wood and metal crashed to the floor in splinters.
“By all means, come in.” Vladislov glowered at Aiden over his half-moon spectacles. He pushed away from what he was reading at his desk and turned to face Aiden, one biological hand cradling one metal one. “What is the matter with my prodigy?”
“With all due respect, sir, this plan isn’t working. The guards in command are completely incompetent,” Aiden raged.
Vladislov lifted his eyebrows at the gall of his young apprentice. “Censor your tone please,” he said with calculated ease. “I have not yet had a single problem. They’ve been capturing and killing Vampires by the hundreds. We plan on invading the German Occults by next week.” He smiled, obviously impressed with himself.
Aiden blanched. “They almost killed Charlotte!”
“Who?” Vladislov apathetically shuffled through some maps on his desk.
“Charlotte! The human girl that upir Ruzik holds as a pet!” Aiden’s chest expanded with rage and saliva spewed from his lips as he bellowed. “The girl who was meant to by my wife!”
Vladislov leered at Aiden, then. “A human girl as a wife?” He spoke slowly.
“Yes!” Aiden breathed. “I know that sounds unconventional but—”
“I’m not quite sure I follow you, Aiden.” Vladislov’s forehead crinkled as his eyebrows drew together. “You want to take command of my army to have them carry out orders not plausible to the war I began. You want to compromise the safety and security of the Order of Magic, simply because you have a silly crush on a mortal girl?”
“I know it sounds crazy.” Aiden gave him a pleading look.
“Apprentice,” the elder began, and leaned his biological arm on his desk while the metal one tapped on the ball of his scepter. “Matters of the heart will always make us do things that are ‘crazy,’ but you are the next ruler of the greatest empire in the world, and I am afraid you must put matters as trivial as these in the very back corners of your mind. Focus.”
“I’m sorry, lord, but if you could just hear me out, there is a reason—”
“Aiden, I think it would be best if we spoke about this when you are in a less,” Vladislov appraised the boy, “hormonal state.”
Aiden sighed. He could see he was going to get absolutely nowhere with his argument tonight. That was the end of the conversation, and he needed to find somewhere else to turn. He nodded his thanks to his mentor and quietly began out of the room, the Wizard watching after him.
Before Aiden could get all the way past the threshold, Vladislov called out, “And do repair the door on your way out.” He turned his attention to the various sheets of parchment on his desk.
Aiden thought of Valek and Charlotte, hiding alone in the dark streets. Like rats somewhere in the mortal world. He cringed. An approaching guard stopped in the middle of the hall, saluting Aiden.
“Fix that,” Aiden ordered, indicating the splintered door, and trotted back down the now flooded corridor, lost within his mind. The guard immediately rushed to work, though Aiden continued to keep his burning gaze toward the floor. How could he make Charlotte see Valek for what he really was? How could he find her so he could carry out the plan he had been refining so feverishly for years?
It was ingenious. If magic married mortal, it would change the world
forever. There would be no more living in secret. No more hiding. People would be people, and therefore the Regime wouldn’t have to necessarily rule over the “greatest empire in the world,” but rather the whole world.
And he would be the greatest ruler that ever lived, because he had the formula none of his predecessors had ever even imagined. And this one small girl was at the center of all of it. And one single leach was standing in the way.
Aiden didn’t walk down the stairs, but rather, flew as his mind swelled. The cool air bouncing off the bricks washed his head clear of everything except for how to carry out his plan. He plunged deeper and deeper, until he was back in the bowels of the palace, in front of the dungeon’s entrance.
The doors swung open from all of his angered might, the dank smell of rotting corpses slamming him in the face. Sounds of moaning struck him like a choir of untuned cellos as he stalked past cell after cell of prisoners. They weren’t only Vampires. The Regime captured anything or anyone they believed had conspired against them. Anyone, including one, lonely Witch with long, chestnut hair.
“Get up,” Aiden ordered as he swung open the barred door.
Evangeline glowered up at him behind her black-stained eyelids. Her hair was a nest about her bruised face, from the fight of getting her on the defiled floor. It clung to her bloody forehead, neck, and shoulders. The rest of her emaciated appearance matched the rank stench that fumed from her distressed, grubby clothing.
“I said get up, Evangeline.” Aiden's voice stayed even and low. But when she still didn’t cooperate, he moved swiftly and snatched her by her matted hair, yanking her upward.
She cried out, clutching his arm for relief.
“When I tell you to do something, I expect it to be done.” His voice was liquid fire in her ear.
She nodded frantically, biting down on her lip as tears stained trails on her cheeks.
Aiden released her, and she stumbled backward into the wall of the cell. “Evangeline.” His tone grew quieter still.
She glowered at him.
“Do you expect to live much longer if I keep you down here?”
She shook her head and heaved.
“Do you want to live?” He neared her, his large shadow darkening her face.
Evangeline only looked at him with pleading eyes. The answer was clearly written on her face.
“Then I want you to listen very closely to everything I am about to tell you. And I want you follow my instructions exactly as I give them.”
Chapter Fifteen
Beautiful Mind
Valek felt himself in the cool darkness, caught in some undertow he could not resurface from, and wheeling around in this infinite space. No oxygen. No smell. No sight. Something pounded in his ears. A pulse he recognized, though it sounded drowned, like it was sinking just next to him in this dark ocean. Then, suddenly, it was as if someone had ripped a gaping hole in his universe. All of the black water flooded away, the sound overwhelming his ears as if he were being washed away with it through a large, hollow tunnel.
It muffled the sound of the beating heart completely, until the rushing almost deafened him. His mouth opened, gasping for air, though he only felt suffocated. And then he opened his eyes.
Darting about the dark casket, he gasped for the oxygen to return to him, his gaze finally resting on her.
“Lottie?” His heaving calmed when he saw her fearful eyes, heard her heart flutter like a bird in a cage. He immediately pulled her closer to him, his hands burying in her hair.
Charlotte, who had probably been dreaming intently, woke with a fright when Valek jolted back to life. The smell of her fear instantly filled the tiny space around them. Her pulse was a weak, shallow throb in her chest, and he knew instantly it was the same pulse in his ears before he woke. The memory of the night before came flooding back as the tight space seemed to shrink around him, and her delicious scent became all too overwhelming. He clenched his jaw. She’d kissed him, Valek remembered. He heard the nervous lump form in Charlotte’s throat as he gazed down at her. She stared back, her eyes as wide and glassy as two full moons. She lightly began to trace the contours of lips.
“Lottie,” he whispered, as he began to run his wiry hand along the length of her jaw.
Charlotte immediately pulled away, wrapping her hands around her neck. He frowned, knowing his eyes must have shifted in that moment. The same hollow feeling he’d felt when Charlotte had been mad at him swelled in his chest again. He would sacrifice anything just to show her she really was safe with him.
“No. Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I'm not going to hurt you.”
Charlotte waited a few more moments before she released her hands. She inched closer to him again, and his sorrow melted.
He stroked her curls with his claws, reveling in her purity. It almost made him warm. “We’re really together now.” His lips pressed against her ear, smiling at the reality of what he was saying.
Valek mentally heard her shock over how he reacted to her. Charlotte was frowning at him. She had been anticipating some sort of argument—like he might try and convince her he was much better suited as her father figure, and her impulses were insane. But this was no longer how he felt in the least. It was the difference between night and day.
Her thoughts were extremely loud as they circled in his head. The challenges they now faced were enough to convince him, if they survived, they would survive together through anything. Even this confusing taboo. As he gazed down at her, he could see the apprehension burning all too fervently in her eyes.
Valek chuckled. He cradled her cheek in his palm and shifted so they lay gazing at each other, nose to nose. “Can I come back inside your head now?”
She gulped once and nodded.
He tilted her head back so he could look at her directly. Tidal waves of emotion flooded through open gates. All of her fears and fantasies he already knew would be there, made themselves extremely evident to him in that moment. He smiled at the chagrin burning in her cheeks.
“Do not be embarrassed, Charlotte.” He grinned when he felt her face heat against his palm. He brought his mouth cautiously closer to hers and hesitated.
He was testing himself before pressing his cool lips against her warm ones. She sighed into his mouth as he moved his hands to the base of her neck.
Their lips moved together. The ache, which had burdened them for so long, seemed to melt away in that moment in which everything else disappeared. The world and all of its problems were lost somewhere in space. Charlotte was once again the person Valek knew best. In that moment, they weren’t different from each other at all.
Valek pulled away first, one small thought fighting him in the oceans of his mind. But he continued to hug her close to him. He listened, enjoying the complicated mind he had been forbidden from for what seemed an eternity. Even though he couldn’t physically see it, he mentally heard the enormous smile Charlotte hid as she pressed her face against his chest.
That was when Valek remembered something else about what happened the night before—the evil, disgusting promise he was forced to make. Lottie peered at him, still beaming, but her face dropped when she noticed he wasn’t smiling anymore.
“I need you to stay strong for me tonight,” he said darkly.
Then, the thin sliver of orange light filtering in through the open crack in the coffin was eclipsed. Valek quickly released Charlotte and glared up at it as someone’s fist lightly tapped at the roof.
“Valek?” It was Francis.
“A moment, please.” Valek quickly kissed Charlotte on the forehead before gazing at her sadly one last time. He slid open the top of the coffin to reveal Francis standing there, along with the rest of the rogue coven. All of their faces looked harder and paler than they had the night before. Valek slowly got to his feet, watching them. Charlotte began to get up, but Valek held his hand out to stop her.
“We need to talk to the girl now, Valek,” Francis said regretfully.
Valek gri
maced as the rest of the coven stared at Lottie with their hellish eyes.
“What’s going on?” Charlotte asked, the blood draining out of her face. He frowned. She had always been so intuitive.
“We have confirmation of what the regime has planned. It’s exactly as I thought.” Lusian was the one speaking. “An all-out genocide of our kind. They are planning on cleaning out Occults all over the world.”
Valek glanced at Charlotte, tuning in to her mind again.
“Well, there is only one thing to do then.” He looked at Lusian and the rest of them. Andela stood next to Lusian, her dove face stained with streaks of red. “We have to gain as many as we can on our side. Build our own empire. That means going to the other Occults before the Regime can, and convincing other Vampires to join our forces. If they want a war, I think we should give them one.”
“Why stop there?” This time, Jorge spoke from his stance at Dusana’s side. “Why not get any Lycan who isn’t on the side of the Elves, and Witches, too.”
“No. That puts us at risk. What if the Wizards send someone to be their insider?” Francis argued.
“How can they when we are able to know everything they think?” Jorge argued back.
Valek stepped forward, addressing the entire coven then. “They boast so well they rule with the light, true? They hate the darkness. We are the darkness. Their safe haven is beginning to divide now because they fail to recognize both powers have to coexist, or else the entire world loses balance. Well, if they are trying to rid the world of one of its halves, I think they have officially lost our balance!”
Lusian gazed thoughtfully at the ground.
“They have created a world in the light and ruled it. Now I think there must be someone to rule in the dark. If they want a war, that’s what they shall be served.”
Charlotte smiled at Andela as she walked toward her.
The tall, drawn woman glared down at Lottie’s innocent face as more ruby tears rolled down her cheeks. An odd sort of fear shot up Valek’s spine when Charlotte took the Vampire’s cold hand in hers, causing Andela to stiffen.
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