Sleeping Beauty

by Maureen McGowan

  By the tenth night, Lucette and Alex had settled into a routine. She’d get up and change into a slayer uniform hidden in the library, and when Alex arrived, they’d meet on the balcony above the main entry hall. The long corridor was the best place to stand guard, since her mother’s bedchamber was off to the left and her father’s to the right. Not that there weren’t other routes that vampires could use to get to either wing, but at least from that spot, Lucette could divide her attention and listen for signs of trouble at either end. Plus, the huge windows in her father’s office just behind the balcony looked down over the inner courtyard, and from the balcony, she could see the main entry hall.

  “Many Xandrans have already fled the kingdom,” Lucette told Alex, based on the information in her mother’s last letter. “But how can we help keep the vampires from getting to the people who’ve stayed?” Her father never shared much information in his letters, but her mother often did. Besides the slayers and the most loyal of the palace staff, nearly half of the population of Xandra had left, especially those who had children. Who could blame them? “My mom says my dad is planning to set up shelters for the people who’ve stayed, but if everyone gathers in one place and the vampires get in, won’t it be like a blood buffet?”

  Alex laughed. “You’re funny.”

  She tried not to smile. “There’s nothing funny about a gang of vampires sucking on the necks of defenseless people in their sleep.”

  “I know an easy way to keep vampires away,” he said.

  “Oh?” Based on her experiences, there weren’t too many things that could deter vampires in spite of the old wives’ tales.

  Alex rubbed his chin with his fingers.“Vampires have a few secrets humans don’t know.”

  “What?” Lucette’s hopes lifted.“Is the garlic thing true? Have we just been doing it wrong? Does the garlic have to be roasted, sautéed, finely chopped?”

  “No.” Alex laughed.“Personally, I can’t stand the smell of garlic, but it doesn’t have any effect on vampires.”

  “Then what?”

  He leaned onto the railing beside her. “I do want to help you. I really do. But you have to understand that I’m sharing secrets my people have guarded for thousands of years.”

  She turned to him. “If you’re sincere about wanting to maintain peace between our kingdoms, why keep secrets?”

  “Don’t humans have secrets from us?”

  “Here’s one. We don’t like to have our blood sucked.”

  “Ha!” He nudged her with his hip. “That’s no secret.”

  She waited patiently. She couldn’t force Alex to tell her anything, and sensed that pushing too hard might make him clam up. He was the one who’d offered to help her, after all. And she needed help. In his letters, her father had told her he’d put out calls for assistance to the other kingdoms surrounding Xandra, but apparently there had been no volunteers. At this point, Lucette would even accept aid from the trolls.

  “Roses.”

  She spun toward Alex.“What?”

  “That’s the secret. Vampires can’t be around roses, especially red ones. There’s some chemical in the fragrance that sends the vast majority of our population into something like anaphylactic shock.”

  “Anna-what?”

  “A severe allergic reaction. Our throats close up and it’s hard to breathe.”

  “That must feel horrible.”

  Alex shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Is it fatal?” Roses had always been potentially deadly for her, too—the thorns, not the scent.

  “Not always, but it really slows us down. Most vampires lose consciousness. Not breathing enough has that effect.”

  Lucette buried her head in her hands, realizing she’d caused another big problem. “That’s just great,” she said. “No one in Xandra has any roses.” She lifted her head and turned to Alex.“Vampires are feeding off defenseless people in their sleep, and it’s my fault they don’t have the one thing they need to protect themselves!”

  “You’ve got a bit of a complex,” Alex said, stepping away from the railing. “Now you’re taking responsibility for everyone’s taste in gardening?”

  She shot him a nasty look. “No one in Xandra is allowed to have roses. My father ordered every rosebush in the kingdom destroyed so I wouldn’t prick my finger on a thorn.”

  “Oh.” Alex made a face. “That sucks.”

  She sighed. “I’ll write notes to my parents. They’ll send word to the surrounding kingdoms to let them know we need lots of red roses.” Not that any of her father’s appeals for help had yielded anything, yet. According to her mother’s notes, everyone was too afraid of retaliation from the vampire queen.

  “I’ve never even seen a rose,” she said. “I suppose you haven’t, either.”

  “Oh, I’ve seen roses,” Alex said.

  “But you said ...”

  “I said ninety-nine percent of the population is allergic. I’m part of the one percent.” He shrugged.“Probably because my mother was born human.”

  The vampire queen was born human? Lucette wondered what else she didn’t know.

  Natasha stepped out onto the balcony high above the gathered crowd as moonlight bathed her subjects. As their glowing white faces gazed up at her, the thrill of her power and the adoration of the throng rushed through Natasha. She leaped onto the balcony’s railing, and the noise from the crowd swelled.

  Even though they were just a portion of her subjects, the worship emanating from the courtyard below was exhilarating. Soon she’d have all her subjects eating out of her hand. Soon they’d bow at her feet and do her every bidding. Under her rule, vampires would regain their rightful place at the top of the food chain and she, as their sovereign leader, would rule all the known kingdoms. The mere thought of domination over so many buzzed and tingled inside her. As soon as the ranks of her supporters grew, she’d command the Sanguinian armies to invade Xandra, and Stefan and his stupid little wife would pay.

  She raised her arms and the crowd quieted. “People of Sanguinia, it is with a heavy heart I must report that our long-held peace with the kingdom of Xandra remains threatened.”

  Murmurs swelled. With every dead vampire body found near the border at night, the lust for drinking human blood grew, along with support for her. The stupid humans meant the dead bodies as a warning, but the slayers were playing right into her hands. Soon, Natasha wouldn’t even need bribes to encourage vampires to help her seek her revenge and claim the throne of Xandra, the throne that should have been hers in the first place. And she didn’t plan to stop there. Once she had Xandra, she’d conquer the entire known world.

  She placed a hand over her heart and addressed the crowd. “I have just learned of more vampire deaths at Xandran hands. Our citizens who innocently, accidentally, crossed the Xandran border at night have been brutally murdered by vicious killers the Xandrans call . . . vampire slayers.” She let the reaction drift through the crowd like a building wave. “Yes, my good people. An army trained with the specific goal of murdering every last one of our race.”

  Angry shouts rose from the crowd below.

  “The evil King Stefan of Xandra is no longer our friend and ally.” She jumped down from the railing, turned, and beckoned her son, Prince Alexander, forward. He looked in the other direction. Natasha wondered if it were shyness, as he claimed, or if something else kept him from her side.

  She refused to let her disappointment in her son spoil this glorious moment, but if he weren’t careful, if he didn’t rise up to capture his birthright and start seeing things her way, he’d meet the same fate as his father.

  If she did kill her son, she’d need to disguise his death as a casualty of the conflict with Xandra. She grinned. A fabulous idea, but one she’d save as a backup plan. As much as she loved her son and wanted an heir, her people would eagerly rally behind her against King Stefan if they believed Xandrans had killed their crown prince.

  “Behind you!” Alex yelled, and
Lucette spun and saw a vampire heading toward her, in the courtyard just outside the back entrance to the palace. The vampire lunged, fangs first.

  Executing a twisting side-kick, she planted her heavy boot into the vampire’s nether regions and he staggered back, bent over in pain.

  Raising her stake, she said, “Go back to Sanguinia, or I’ll plunge this stake deep into your heart.” She’d become better at issuing these threats believably, and so far almost every vampire she encountered cared more about his own life than the money he might earn if he drank from her vein.

  She’d had to stake one or two to drive home her point, but no lethal strikes, yet. She hoped her first kill had been her last.

  “Boy, I’m glad I’m not that guy.” Alex chuckled. “Serves him right, though. No one bites my girl.” Alex draped his arm over her shoulders. “Great job.”

  She ducked out from under his grasp. “Thanks.” She tipped her head to the side to stretch her stiff neck. “I hope that’s it for tonight.”

  He reached for her again. “Here, let me rub your shoulders.”

  “Let’s get back inside first.” She stepped away from his reach. “No sense in drawing more vampires here on purpose.”

  They crawled through the tiny, hinged door beside the back entrance that had been used by the royal canines in years gone by to come and go from the palace. When she was a baby, her father had given all of the royal dogs away to ranchers and farmers in the countryside, afraid that boisterous animals in the house might lead to finger pricks.

  Once they’d both squeezed through the tiny door, Alex locked it and slipped the key into his pocket. Lucette was so glad she’d discovered that little door that was hard to spot from the outside unless you knew it was there. So far, no other vampires had found that way in, and it provided a great entrance for Alex, without her having to move a barricade from another door, and without Alex having to smash through one, thus opening the way for other vampires to pass through.

  As the pair climbed the staircase from the main foyer to the balconied corridor, midway between her parents’ bedrooms, Alex’s fingers brushed hers. She clasped her hands behind her back, but then turned to smile at him.

  “Come on,” Alex said. “When are you going to let me hold your hand? We’ve spent every moment of every night together for more than two weeks now. Don’t you trust me yet?” His lips twisted and the skin at the sides of his eyes crinkled. “Don’t you like me?”

  Her heart squeezed at his obvious hurt. “I do like you, Alex. You know I do, but... ” But she didn’t feel that way about him. She didn’t want to hold his hand or welcome his arm across her shoulders or around her waist. It felt odd and awkward and wrong. At this rate, she would never find true love.

  “But what, Lucette?” Alex stopped at the top of the stairs and crossed his arms over his chest.“You need to find true love to break this horrible curse, and I’m sorry, but unless you’re falling in love with one of the boys who gawk at you in that display case and fall asleep next to your glass coffin, I’m all you’ve got.”

  She walked along the railing that ran the length of the balcony high above the foyer and trailed her fingers on the polished wood. Was Alex right? By resisting his advances, was she prolonging the curse? If Alex was her true love, she’d feel it eventually ... wouldn’t she?

  He moved over to the wall opposite the railing, so she turned to face him. She did find Alex attractive. He was certainly handsome. His bright eyes flashed with humor and intelligence under eyelashes that were thick and dark, given his red hair, and his infectious smile never failed to draw out one from her. But it didn’t feel right. He felt like a friend, nothing more. Still, wasn’t friendship the way true love was supposed to begin?

  “Give me time, okay?” she asked. “The curse won’t lift if we pretend to be in love. It has to be real. I have to prove that it’s real.” She looked down for a moment. “We can’t force it.”

  Alex leaned back against the wall, crossed one leg over the other, and spread his strong arms to the sides. “Whenever you’re ready, here I am.”

  “Thank you,” Lucette said. Alex was right about one thing. He was her only option. All the other boys were either asleep or trying to drink her blood.

  Lucette’s eyes snapped open in the darkened room. She flipped over onto her belly and pressed the panel to spring herself free from her glass coffin. The twenty-eighth night of the curse, and she still had no idea if her father knew she got out of her cell every night. He had to realize someone was responsible for the wounded vampires, but neither her father nor her mother had mentioned a word in any of their letters. Perhaps her mother was covering some how, or her father was in denial.

  She and Alex had become a great team. He might not be willing to fight, but he was good at keeping watch and warning her of danger. Plus, he was super sweet. Almost every night he brought her a small gift. His attention was so flattering, and she realized she needed to try harder to return his affections, especially if she were to find true love.

  She rolled out of the long glass compartment and, once on her feet, bent down to stretch out her tight back and legs. Three young men had braved staying in the tower tonight as an expression of their alleged undying love and were sleeping in chairs next to her sleeping case. She turned on the gaslights and looked into the cell to see whether the boys had slid love notes through the slot. She’d stopped reading most of them weeks ago, because they all said the same things: she was beautiful, they loved her, they’d do anything for her. Some even suggested exactly what she should write back to them, in order to prove her love.

  If only it were that easy.

  Two of tonight’s young men she’d seen before. Henry, the one with the dark hair, drooled in his sleep, and, by her count, this was the seventeenth night of his vigil. She admired his persistence and bravery at not locking himself somewhere more secure, instead exposing his neck to whatever might come up the stairs of the tower in the night. He’d already been bitten once, and Lucette had left him a note begging him to take cover, to stop risking himself as a display of his love. But her letter had only encouraged him; his response told her as much. If he was bitten a second time, she’d write to both her parents and insist they force Henry to lock himself up at night.

  The second suitor, a pudgy teenager with curly blond hair, was on his third night. She supposed that at some point she should read his love notes to at least find out his name.

  The third boy, who looked older and more muscular, was new and wore a slayer uniform. His dark hood and mask covered his face. A slayer was potentially interesting, but off limits: slayers weren’t allowed to date, and Lucette couldn’t imagine why his commander had allowed him to sleep here. Perhaps he hadn’t gotten into his compartment in time? She snagged one of his stakes from the quiver lying on the floor next to him, then checked the eight wooden boxes around the room. All were occupied.

  Too curious to leave the room without finding out more about her mysterious new suitor, Lucette turned back to the sleeping slayer. Had he left her a note? She reached under the slot at the bottom of the cell wall, grabbed the letters left there, and flipped through them quickly. The curly haired boy was named Felix, but there was nothing to indicate that any of the notes were from the slayer.

  Time to take a peek under his hood. She thought that was only fair, since he’d been watching her sleep. She stood in front of him, impressed by his broad shoulders, his trim frame, and his considerable height.

  She reached for the zipper that fastened his hood to his shirt.

  His hand grabbed her wrist.

  She gasped, and his other hand came up, holding a stake.

  “You’re awake,” they said together.

  She wrenched her arm free and lifted her stake. He had to be a vampire disguised as a slayer. Her heart pounded and she fought to gain control of her thoughts, fought to find an explanation for this person who was awake, other than his being a vampire. She braced herself, stake pointed at his heart
, ready to fight should he attack.

  “Princess”—he rose slowly, lowering his stake—“I mean you no harm.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that.” She lunged, stake forward to show she meant business. Threats frightened most vampires off.

  “Hey, careful.” He chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Anger rose inside her. Perhaps tonight she’d follow the slayer army code and stake first, ask questions later.

  He shook his hooded head.“I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that, watching you sleep this afternoon, I thought you were the most beautiful, delicate creature I’d ever seen. So sweet, so vulnerable.”

  “Vulnerable?” She drew back her stake. “Guess again.”

  He backed up a foot. “My mistake. Now you’re awake, a better description might be angry and violent.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I think I like it.”

  Her cheeks burned. “How are you here?” It was just minutes after sunset. No vampire could run that fast, and he claimed to have watched her sleep. Creepy. Plus, according to everything she’d learned, the only vampire strong enough to withstand sunlight, even on a rainy day, was the vampire queen. “How did you get in here before dark? Do you know Alex?”

  “I traveled a long distance,” he answered, “but I arrived before dark. And no, I don’t know anyone named Alex.”

  She jabbed the stake with more force, coming closer to him than before, and as if by instinct, he raised his too. But then he took a step back, almost falling into his chair.

  “Princess, I’m not a vampire. I’m a human.” He thumped his chest as though that proved anything.

  “Then how and why are you here?” Something about his voice was familiar, even muffled under the masked hood.

  “Stories of the sleeping beauty of Xandra intrigued me,” he said. “And I must say, even now, as you’re threatening to attack me, your beauty has far exceeded my expectations.”