The Vampire King's Cage

by T. S. Ryder

  Her hand pressed against the bandages and she shuddered. "She wanted to turn me into a vampire so I wouldn't die."

  Rollon nodded, his expression grim. "Yes. Ironically, she nearly killed you in the process. Hilda had never tasted blood straight from the vein before. She lost control. Imagine someone surviving on rice and beans tasting ice cream for the first time."

  Tindra didn't need to imagine anything. She had been there. She shivered as she remembered the pain that had coursed through her. It made her stomach churn, but she forced back the bile. "What is going to happen now? Turning someone is illegal on pain of death."

  "Hilda is a child. She didn't understand exactly what she was doing, and she certainly didn't fully understand the consequences. She is going to be punished, but the punishment will be tailored to suit her understanding. She won't be allowed near you alone for several months, and then she'll be evaluated to see what sort of danger she poses."

  Tindra shuddered. "She just didn't want to lose anybody else."

  "I know. She's devastated, but I'm sure she'll feel better once she knows you're awake. You required a lot of blood to replace what she took." Rollon's expression darkened for a moment and he moved closer. "For a while there, I wasn't sure you were going to come back to me."

  "I'll always — the baby!"

  Tindra's grip tightened on his arm. Dread flooded through her as she looked down, as though her flat stomach was going to tell her if the worst had happened or not. She felt no different down there, but it was so early still that she wouldn't even miss it if she had lost the baby. Terror clawed at her throat as Rollon pulled her closer. It took several moments for her to understand what he was saying.

  "The baby is fine. Still strong and healthy. It's the vampire in him." He kissed her forehead. "The baby is fine."

  She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Rollon's scent swirled around her and she breathed in. Her mouth watered and her gums throbbed. The small fangs that had erupted that first time she wanted to drink his blood were back, and they felt longer than they had been before. Hilda had tried to turn her . . . Was it possible she had?

  "Am I a vampire?'

  Rollon's face was grave. "I don't know."

  "How can you not . . . " She let herself trail off.

  "You are displaying some vampire traits. Your heartbeat has slowed, you're cooler to the touch, and you've grown a nice set of fangs. But is it because you're turning into a vampire? We can't know for certain. Thor's mother developed some vampire traits when she was pregnant, but they disappeared after she gave birth. Usually, it takes ingesting vampire blood on the verge of death to turn a human into a vampire. You didn't do that."

  Tindra nodded, not sure if she was relieved or disappointed. "So I'm not."

  Rollon put a hand on her stomach. "Maybe not."

  "What . . . Oh. Because blood is shared between baby and mother through the umbilical cord . . . I had vampire blood in me. From the baby."

  The king nodded. "And it's the combination of death and vampire blood that triggers the change. We don't know if you were drained enough, or if there was enough vampire blood from the baby. Right now we'll just have to wait and see."

  "Wait." Tindra smiled. "Well, either way . . . I'm alive. We survived. And Eva?"

  "In custody. I'll deal with her. And the shifters have responded favorably to my extension of peace. We are going to negotiate somewhat, but things are looking up." He stroked her face. "Especially since you are here. Alive. With me. Now you need to rest."

  She eyed the pulse at the base of his throat and a wicked smile crept over her face. "What if . . . we did something else instead?"

  His pupils dilated and he shook his head. "Oh, Tindra . . . you are determined to end me, aren't you?"

  ***

  One Year Later

  The night sky was bright with moonlight, the stars hidden behind wisps of clouds. Tindra walked through the gardens, bouncing her small baby boy as he hiccupped, his tears just starting to subside. Walking around outside was one of the only ways to calm him when he got all worked up at night. The silly thing was already too interested in what was going on around him to want to sleep.

  Rollon came up beside her, smiling as he gazed down at their son. Their daughter was nestled in his arms, cooing as she waved her small fists. She never slept unless she was with her brother. It made for some interesting nights when neither of them would settle down properly. Little Artemis smiled a toothless grin at her mother when she saw her.

  They had decided to continue the god theme that had started with Thor, but Tindra had flatly refused to keep the Norse mythology ("Do you even know the legends of Freya and Frey? Look them up!" she had told Rollon when he had brought it up) and so they had Artemis and Apollo. Both appeared fully human at the moment, but that's how Thor started as well. They would just have to wait and see how things went from here.

  "Ingrid wants to see us once the babies are asleep," Rollon whispered to her. "More wedding planning."

  Tindra had to bite her tongue to stop laughing at his expression. She leaned over and brushed a kiss on his cheek. "It's your fault for asking me to marry you."

  "I know. I just never thought it would inspire her to do all this. I just hope that those seductive eyes she's been making at the wedding planner start to work soon. Those two would make a cute couple, wouldn't they?"

  Tindra nodded, thinking of the short, curvy woman who Rollon had hired to assist Ingrid in planning everything. "Have you seen Hilda in her flower girl dress yet? She looks like a little angel."

  "Not yet. She insists it's bad luck."

  Tindra smirked. "I think that just applies to the bride."

  He shrugged. Over the past year, Tindra had slowly gained more and more vampiric traits. It appeared that she was going to be a full-blood vampire sooner rather than later. At times it was very unpleasant and painful, but if the slow change meant forgoing the week of pure torture that Rollon had told her about when he had changed, it was worth it.

  Everything was good. Eva was locked up, Ingrid was moving on, and Thor adored his younger siblings. He had taken over more responsibility for the kingdom, allowing Rollon to have more time to spend with his mate and two younger children. Even Hilda had recovered from Eva's treachery.

  "We should get back inside," Tindra whispered. "Before our little sun-god wakes up again."

  Rollon nodded. They headed back inside, walking side by side. Tindra couldn't help but smile as they got inside. It would only be another year before she was a full-blooded vampire like Rollon, but she never had any cravings for human blood. Her king gave her all that she needed. Their children would grow up like Thor had, having normal childhoods and becoming adults before they stopped aging.

  And as for her and Rollon? They would live forever together. King and queen of their kingdom, their lives full of happiness and love, never having to fear when death would part them because it never would. They were looking into the possibility that they might be able to have children still after her change was complete. There was some evidence that vampire women could, in fact, carry and give birth if they were supplied the right amount of human blood. They had forever to test it out, though, and for now, she was happy with her babies and her king.

  Her eyes shone as she gazed at Rollon. Thor had made the right choice after all. To imagine this might have never happened . . . She couldn't imagine her life could get any better than this.

  And it would only get better from here.

  *****

  THE END

  The Dragon Shifter's Love Potion

  Description

  A witch in love with her best friend’s older brother PLUS a dragon shifter with a bad boy attitude PLUS a risky love potion!

  Thea, a twenty-one-year-old big, beautiful woman, has fallen in love with her best friend’s older brother.

  As a witch, she knows how to make the best potions, but love potions are risky...

  They only work if the drinker already has
some feelings for the maker. Thea mixes the potion and spikes Logan’s drink, but she isn’t sure the sip he took was enough. Later that night, when Logan comes to her dorm room, she thinks the potion has worked after all. But the next day, Logan seems to have changed his mind, leaving Thea questioning everything.

  Does Logan have real feelings for Thea? What will happen when she tells him her secret? And what will her best friend do when she knows that Thea slept with her brother? Find out now!

  Chapter One

  Thea went into the closet of her dorm room and pulled the door shut behind her. She turned on the lamp, illuminating the small space and all the objects she had brought in there with her. Several containers held crushed herbs or other elements, like the dove feather she’d had to find. There were several test tubes of liquid and a candle to heat the mixture.

  She looked at her book of potions, reading the instructions again. She poured oyster oil into an empty flask and added her own saliva. Then the dove feather. Next, she added the rose petals and lavender. She swirled the mixture while holding the tube over the candle’s flame, as the book instructed. She added the remaining ingredients, heating and cooling, stirring and sitting as the potion called for.

  When it looked to be the correct color, Thea dipped in her finger and tasted the potion. She’d never made a love potion before, so she wasn’t sure what it should taste like. But there were always certain things to check for with potions, like whether it tasted burnt from the flame or rotten in any way. She also needed to know how strong the taste was and what might hide it the best.

  This potion, though, unlike many others, was designed to be hidden. Most times, people didn’t knowingly drink a love potion. They had to be tricked into it. Tricked into loving the person who’d brewed it. When she tasted it, its taste was very faint. She could likely hide the potion in almost anything. Except maybe water. Or something too clear. It did have a pinkish hue to it that would show if whatever she put it in didn’t have a color or taste of its own.

  With the potion ready, Thea turned the lamp off and opened the closet door. Her dorm room was empty. That made things much easier. She mixed potions and did spells in the closet sometimes to keep them hidden from her roommate, but always worried that one time she’d come out of the closet to find Marie standing there, staring at her like she was crazy. And she would surely look crazy, having hidden in the closet for who knows how long. What excuse would she give? Was she looking for something? Was she crying in private? Or praying? None of them really applied, but her roommate wasn’t here, so all was well.

  She stood in front of the mirror, checking her outfit. She wanted to look cute, but not like she’d dressed up on purpose or anything.

  Her denim shorts and t-shirt seemed perfect. The shorts hugged her voluptuous waist and the t-shirt showed off her ample chest. All of her curves looked good today. She smiled, tossed her dark hair over her shoulder, and slipped the tiny vial of love potion into her pocket.

  Thea picked up her purse and left her dorm room, locking the door behind her. She walked out of the building and down the street three blocks, then over two blocks until she reached the gray house. It stood tall and eerie before her, its many dormer windows reaching into the sky.

  Maybe it only seemed creepy to Thea because she knew what went on inside the huge house. It was full of college students, like most houses on campus, but this one was a bit different. Each of the six students who lived there was a dragon shifter. This was not public knowledge by any means, but since she herself was a witch, also bound by secrets and magic, Thea was in on it. Though she wasn’t allowed to live here. It was exclusively for shifters. The“nest”, as her best friend Elise called it.

  She walked to the front door, where they had brazenly and ironically installed a dragonhead door knocker. Clearly they found humor in their secret keeping. Thea knocked and waited. Elise was expecting her, and just a few moments later, she opened the door and smiled at Thea.

  “Morning!”Elise said, rubbing her eyes.

  “Or afternoon, but whatever,”Thea said.

  “Oh.”Elise yawned and looked at her watch, then shrugged.“We were up late.”

  They hugged and Thea followed her into the house.

  “So, what were you up late doing?”Thea asked.

  They went to the living room, where all the windows were covered in thick curtains. Their purpose was to keep anyone from seeing in, so the shifters could shift whenever they wanted to, but it also made the whole house feel very dark and spooky. The curtains, a stiff burgundy fabric, glowed blood red in the afternoon sun, sending a red tint over everything.

  “We were working on a spell.”Elise flopped down on the couch and Thea sat beside her.“Want some coffee or something?”

  “Sure. What spell?”

  They both did magic, like all dragon shifters and witches did, but the shifters could often do more powerful spells. Something in their blood connected them to the magic more strongly than it did for their purely-human counterparts. Thea was always slightly jealous of this, but also knew the hassle and dangers that came with being a shifter.

  So many times she’d had to sit with Elise through the night when she couldn’t shift back for some reason. Either she’d gotten too emotional or drunk too much, and she couldn’t get her head in the right place to make the shift. Or there were the times when she accidentally shifted, the worse being in the middle of class in high school, when Thea had had to cast a memory spell on all the students to make it seem like nothing at all had happened in class that day. The moon affected her, as did certain foods and spices, and being out in nature was always dangerous. Anything that tied back to nature, which was the root of all magic, could affect dragon shifters if not handled correctly.

  Most shifters, by the time they reached their twenties, had gotten a good handle on shifter life. They stuck together closely, helped each through it and relied on their witch allies to help as well. And the dragons often worked with witches to do more powerful spells. It was a big advantage for them both that they were best friends. Even if she didn’t have the increased magical ability that Elise did, Thea had to admit that many times she was glad she didn’t have to deal with the hassle of shifter life. Her world was much simpler.

  Elise padded into the kitchen to make coffee.“We’re working on levitating objects.”

  “Whoa.”Thea followed her, leaning on the counter to watch as Elise yawned again, then poured coffee grounds into the filter.“Did you get very far?”

  “We didn’t do too badly. Little things are easy now, but bigger things are still difficult. We did manage to move the furniture around.”

  “That’ll make moving much easier.”

  Elise chuckled.“Sure will. People are next. Lifting living objects is pretty hard, though.”

  Thea groaned.“Not as hard as my calculus homework.”

  Elise gave her a look.“It is way too early in the morning—err, afternoon—to be thinking about math. I need at least two cups before I pull out any books.”

  “I have a test Monday. Guess I’ll be studying all weekend.”

  Elise leaned back against the counter while the coffee brewed.“I’ll help.”

  “Elise!”

  Thea recognized Logan’s voice, coming from the basement. Her heart jumped at the sound. So he was home, after all. Not that she didn’t love just hanging out with Elise, but having her older brother around made things extra special.

  Elise walked to the top of the basement stairs and called down,“Yeah?”

  “Can you come down here a minute?”

  Elise gestured for Thea to follow her and they walked down the creaky basement stairs into a dim room. This was often where they shifted and did spells. The floor was cement, and dirty with bits of plants and herbs. There was no outside light at all and, where there had been small windows high on the walls, they were now covered with cardboard and lots of black duct tape. The walls were lined with long, narrow tables full of miscellaneous
bottles and containers. Potions, plants, magical elements. Many candles as well. In one corner there was a sofa with a large tear on one side, probably from a claw or spike from someone getting too close while in dragon form.

  Logan stood in the middle of the room, watching them walk down. Thea smiled at him and tried to act cool. But every time she saw him or was near him, her body went into overdrive. Her pulse sped, palms sweat, the whole bit. She’d known him for years, of course, and it seemed like every year he got hotter and hotter. And he was the coolest guy she knew, too. She’d had a crush for a long time, but then their friendship had grown when they had gone off to college. Many times it had been just her and Logan having a deep conversation late into the night, while Elise and the other dragon shifters were asleep upstairs. She wanted something to happen with him so badly. But she thought his primary hesitation was Elise.

  “Oh, hey, Thea. I’m glad you’re here,”he said.“Would you be up for helping me out for a minute?”

  “Always,”she said.

  “Are you still levitating?”Elise asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Thea looked him over while he talked to Elise. His dark hair was in short spikes today, glistening with some sort of product. He wore a close-fitting t-shirt that showed off his arms nicely and his jeans hung just right on his hips. His bare feet stuck out the bottom and he looked chill and relaxed like he always did.

  “So, Thea,”he said.

  She snapped her attention from his body to his words.

  “Yes.”

  “After Elise casts her spell on me, would you be willing to be my object?”

  She raised an eyebrow at him.

  “I want to try levitating a person.”

  “Okay, sure.”

  “Thanks.”He smiled at her and she thought he could have asked her just about anything and she would have agreed to it.“I’m going to shift now.”