by Cege Smith
“I thought that the Clan may try to kill me,” Angeline said. “But I’m not able to ascertain one way or the other by Malin’s behavior. In fact, he has been quite attentive.”
Connor growled again and Angeline looked up at him with worry. “He is my betrothed, Connor. If it was as simple as striking down the law that said I needed to be married within three days of my Ascension to keep my throne I would, but I don’t think that the court would support me even if I could. Malin is well connected and well respected here. I can’t risk introducing doubt now.”
“I don’t trust him,” Connor said.
“I don’t either, but for the moment I need him,” Angeline said.
Connor looked at her and saw a queen. She was making the right decisions, the logical ones. They weren’t based on emotion but on what was best for her kingdom. In that instant, he didn’t want to be logical. He wanted what he wanted, and that was the woman sitting before him.
His hands gripped her around her waist and he pulled her to her feet. She gasped, but then his mouth covered hers. He wasn’t about to let her go.
CHAPTER SIX
The tumult of emotions that had been heaving in her chest since she first spied Connor in the shadows was unleashed when he took her in his arms and kissed her. Her head was sent spinning. Everything in her wanted to nothing more than to close the door on the rest of the world and stay right inside his strong embrace.
Her arms wrapped around his neck and her mouth widened as his tongue shot between her lips. She moaned. It was like she had been a walking dead person ever since she returned home, stiff and unrelenting in not letting her emotions overtake her. But Connor had blown through that wall around her feelings and was taking no prisoners.
His hands pushed her hips backwards and moments later her back was pressed up against the wall of the garden. His mouth never left hers and she couldn’t pull him close enough. Her body was tingling from head to toe. Her hands crept down his shoulders and gripped his biceps as he dragged his mouth across her cheek and down her throat, setting her skin ablaze as he went.
“Connor,” she moaned.
His mouth was immediately next to hers again. “I want you, Angeline.” His voice was gravelly and filled with passion.
The words rippled through her. She knew what he was asking and she wanted to say yes. With every fiber of her being she wanted to say yes. But there was a tiny voice in the back of her mind that still clung to her, reminding her that she was the queen. She had a duty. Then his lips were on hers again and every thought flew away.
His hands wandered up from her waist and then his fingers were caressing her collarbone. His touch was cool, and her skin was so feverish that it felt exquisite. He pulled the neckline of her dress off her shoulder and then his mouth was kissing her there again, up to the area where her neck and shoulder met.
He paused there just long enough that Angeline’s mind cleared, and she realized that he was struggling not to do something that was second nature to him. Something that even in her passion-induced haze, she knew meant a massive shift in not only their relationship, but also his entire perception of himself.
Her hand fluttered to his face and she pulled his eyes up to meet hers. “Connor, you don’t want to do that.”
His eyes closed as he pushed his cheek into her hand and then turned his head so that his mouth swept across her palm. Her eyes widened. She could feel his vampire incisors inside his mouth were extended, and then she cried out as they bit into the fleshy part of her palm.
In that moment she saw herself as if she was looking down on them from above. It wasn’t right at all. She pushed him away, hard, gripping her hand. Connor looked dazed and confused.
“You will not bite me,” she hissed.
Connor’s eyes narrowed briefly and her heart sped up. They both knew that if he wanted to take her in that moment, he could. Without the benefit of her wraith strength, she would be defenseless against him. She needed him to come back to his senses.
Then he raised a hand to his head and winced. “Angeline, I’m sorry. There are so many people here. It’s been so long since I’ve been around so many people. I’ve...forgotten.”
Even though her palm was stinging from where his teeth had bitten it, she felt a small bit of pity for him. “You told me that you don’t drink human blood anymore. Have you fed from anyone since you’ve entered the city?”
“No, of course not,” he said shaking his head. She was relieved that he didn’t appear to be trying to hide something. “I got carried away. It’s been a long time since I have desired a woman the way that I desire you. I’m in unfamiliar territory. It’s been a challenge for me, but it won’t happen again.”
“Is it because you drank my blood?”
This time, Connor looked at his feet. “I don’t know. It may factor into it. That did awaken my thirst.” He turned away from her. “You are the last person I’d ever want to hurt. My demon isn’t tucked away somewhere safe like yours. I am sorry.”
He was being honest with her. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she did. Connor had never wanted to become what he became. He had spent the better part of his nonhuman life trying to find a way to cure himself, or die trying. She couldn’t hold him responsible for acting on an instinct that was being led by the other piece of himself that he seemed to so easily hide.
She pulled up the shoulder of her dress and walked around him so that she could see his face. “I’m sorry that I snapped at you. It wasn’t your fault.”
He gripped her shoulders then, his eyes fearful. “I’m a beast. A damn animal! You should be afraid of me. You should order me away from you and tell me never to come near you again.”
Angeline realized that he wanted her to punish him. He had spent over a century punishing himself for what he was, so he assumed everyone would do the same. She knew then that she wasn’t angry with him anymore. He was lost, just like she was, and that meant they needed each other more than ever.
She brought her hands up between his arms and pushed them aside easily. Then she reached up to his face. She watched him wince as he caught the scent of her wounded hand, but she didn’t stop. “You swore fealty to me. You are the only one I can trust, Connor Radwin. I will never order you to leave me, so stop trying to convince me otherwise.” His face relaxed and she smiled at him. “Why would I order away the man I care about?”
This time as his head lowered to hers and his lips gathered hers, it was soft and tentative. Then he embraced her and set his chin on top of her head. She felt completely safe and protected there. “This is foolish, you realize? What I feel for you is going to be my undoing,” he said.
“We are going to find a way to get around these curses, and then we will talk about what happens next,” Angeline said. “For now, I just want to enjoy this moment.”
They stood like that under the stars for a long time. Angeline rubbed her cheek against his jacket and it brought back the memory of when she first met him. She had fallen asleep in his arms as he carried her through the night. She looked up at the night sky. “I need to go. When will I see you again?”
“I will come whenever you wish,” he said. “I am only sorry that I cannot stay with you always.”
Angeline sighed and stepped out of his arms. She looked up at him. “We both carry heavy burdens, Connor. But as long as I know you are there, then I can do what I need to do.”
He reached up and caressed her cheek. “I know certain things are expected of you, but I don’t like the idea that Malin Baford will ever lay a finger on you. He has already betrayed your family once, and he will use you to his own ends. We know this. You know this.”
“Not unlike that fact that I am using him to my own ends? Unless we can find another way, I will marry him in three days to keep my throne,” she said quietly.
“Then we have three days to find a way out of this mess,” Connor said. Determination laced his voice. “I will not lose you to anyone.”
She took
his hand. “You have my heart, Connor. I’m sure that counts for something.”
Connor looked pained and took a shuddering breath. “Angeline, I am not worthy of something as precious as your heart.”
“That is a shame then,” she said. “Because it’s too late for that.”
He brought her hand up and lightly kissed the top of it. “As you have mine.”
Angeline was suddenly as giddy as she had ever felt in her life. She loved someone, and he loved her back. It was heady and exciting and risky and dangerous. But she was determined not to let that ruin the moment. She would figure that out later, with Connor’s help.
“Your Majesty?” Angeline heard a familiar voice call from the other side of the garden.
“Meet me here tomorrow at dusk, and by then I will have thought of something,” he said. “I’m going to consult one of Monroe’s sources here in the city.”
Angeline nodded. “I will search the archives. There may be something there I’ve missed.”
Connor kissed her cheek and then Angeline watched in awe as he took a running leap and flew over the garden wall. Just like that, he was gone.
Angeline quickly straightened her skirts and tried to settle her hair. Moments later, Malin entered the rose garden with Elise right behind him. Angeline walked to them. “What is it?”
“I thought you were going to see Rhone,” Malin said with narrowed eyes. His gaze swept the garden. “Then I ran into Elise and she said that you had told her to go make up your room for the evening. You had indicated you were coming back to the feast, so naturally I was concerned. Have you taken ill?”
“I appreciate the concern, Malin. I told you that I needed a bit of fresh air. This garden was one of my mother’s favorite places to come when she was alive. I feel at peace here. I was actually just on my way to see Rhone now.” Angeline hated that she felt the need to explain herself, and realized she was rambling, but her mind was still full of Connor and everything that had just happened.
“Good, because he’s looking for you too,” Malin said.
That caught Angeline by surprise. “Is something wrong?”
“Come with me, Majesty. I will take you to him,” Malin said. He seemed out of sorts and not like his earlier pleasant self. Angeline wondered if he could sense Connor’s presence. She had meant to ask Connor how Malin knew he was in the hall earlier during her Ascension ceremony. Regardless, Malin seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere and that made her nervous.
“Of course,” she said.
This time Malin didn’t offer his arm; he simply gestured for her to walk in front of him. Something was definitely wrong. She made her way quickly through the gardens and when they entered the palace walls Malin turned right, away from the west guard walk where she knew Rhone had been stationed for the evening.
“Where are we going?”
“The war room,” Malin said tersely.
Angeline grabbed his arm and stopped him. She looked over her shoulder at Elise, who had been following them closely. “Elise, you can return to the feast,” she said sharply.
Elise curtsied and dashed away. Angeline waited until the woman was out of earshot. “Why are we going to the war room?” she asked. Malin needed to remember who she was. “I am the queen. I refuse to be kept in the dark.”
“I think some things are better discussed in private than the middle of a public hallway, don’t you agree?” Malin said in a condescending tone.
This was the Malin that Angeline knew well; the one who had ridiculed her as a child and always acted as if he always knew better. This was the man who had once been the boy she had always felt compelled to compete with to gain her father’s attention and approval. She had known that Malin was still just under the surface, and she congratulated herself for not succumbing to his earlier affections, especially in light of her meeting with Connor in the garden. She couldn’t forget for a moment what experience had taught her.
But nonetheless, Malin was right, which chafed her. If something bad was happening, and she could only assume there was, it wouldn’t do to discuss it where others could overhear. She nodded curtly and turned on her heel. At least now she knew where she was going, so she didn’t need him to guide her.
Five minutes later, she swept into the war room with Malin on her heels. Rhone was already there, with a large map of Brebackerin spread out on the table. Rhone gave her a quick nod. “Your Majesty, thank you for coming so quickly. We have a situation.”
“What is it, Rhone?” Angeline was terrified of the answer.
Rhone shuddered. “The vampires, Majesty, they’ve returned.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Connor waited on the other side of the wall until he heard Angeline and Malin leave the garden. The suspicion in Baford’s voice was evident, but Connor was onto the Chief Advisor’s game. Since the confrontation during the Ascension ceremony, Connor had cloaked himself from the view of humans. It was an old vampire trick that essentially meant that any human eye would slide right over him without seeing him. After over a century in the company of only vampires, Connor had been careless in the ways of hiding his true nature. He wouldn’t make the mistake again; he had no desire to be under the thumb of the Clan and he was going to be damned if he was going to stay away from Angeline.
It made him anxious to leave her side, but he knew that it was unavoidable. Their lives were on two different, albeit parallel, paths and he knew that he should be grateful that they had intersected at all. He ached to claim her as his, but as long as he was who he was, he had no right to do so. As Angeline had so gently reminded him, they had a bigger mess to figure out. If he could find a way to break the curse, he could be the man that she deserved. But he only had three days left to find the answer to the question that had eluded him for over a hundred years. It seemed an impossible task.
Connor’s feet led him away from the palace and deep into the city. He thought about the feel of Angeline’s body in his arms, and for just a moment he allowed himself to remember the sweet taste of her blood in his mouth when he bit her hand. He had lost control for just a moment, with his mind spinning and his body aroused. Her smell had been tantalizing and irresistible. She had been right to chastise him. He didn’t comprehend what she saw in him or why she continued to have such patience with him. He thought that perhaps it was because she had, for a short time, been a slave to her own demon. It gave her unique insight into his world. Even though she had said it, he couldn’t believe that a woman like her could ever love a creature like him.
Without consciously realizing it, Connor found he had wandered into a part of the city that he knew all too well and had been avoiding since arriving in Brebackerin. It was where he had lived during his all too short human life. He stood across the street from his old family home and felt a lump rise in his throat.
Even in life, Connor had been a lost soul. His father was a well-to-do merchant in the city, and had wanted nothing more than for his eldest son to follow in his footsteps and eventually take over the family business. But Connor had no interest in the import and sale of woolens from the other Alteran provinces; instead, he spent his time visiting every tavern in the city, racking up gambling debts and bar bills all along the way that were left for his father to pay. Often those visits resulted in violence, and more than once Connor had wound up in a holding cell in the city jail.
On the last day that he ever saw any of his family members, in a drunken, surly state, he hit his father over the head with a candlestick and killed him. Worse yet, he left his mother and younger siblings to clean up the mess and to try to carry on without any help or guidance. That single event was the turning point of his life. Monroe found him miles from Brebackerin trying to escape his fate. Connor had wanted to die. Instead, Monroe used the situation to his advantage and turned Connor into a vampire.
Since it was the middle of the night, Connor didn’t expect to see any movement in the house. He wondered if the descendants of his siblings still lived there. He f
elt shame that he didn’t even know if any of them had survived to carry on what his father had worked so hard to build. He had been so young and stupid. He ruined his life and the lives of everyone he loved for petty, small reasons. He was still paying penance for those mistakes all these years later.
Connor shivered. He didn’t want to do that to Angeline; she couldn’t be burdened living a life of regret. He couldn’t shake the feeling that her trust in him was misguided at best. Connor wasn’t meant to be a hero. He had been a villain his entire life. But he was willing to try to be better for her.
Connor was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t realize until too late that he was no longer alone. He whipped his head side to side. He could see nothing, but the looming sense of another presence was overwhelming. He had only the flash of movement to warn him before she stood in front of him.
In her human life she would have been beautiful, but becoming a vampire had transcended her physical appearance to stunning. White-blond hair cascaded in soft waves around her shoulders, and her blood-red lips were drawn up in a lecherous smile. The soft blue dress she wore should have made her look innocent, but it was just a tad too tight in the bodice and the hips to be decent. Her eyes spoke to hundreds of years of experience. No matter what Elvry did to look innocent, Connor knew that she wasn’t, not by a long shot. Her presence in Brebackerin was a very bad sign.
“You just cost me ten gold pieces, Connor. Expect to pay up,” Elvry said with a wink and a wicked smile.
Connor could only guess what Elvry would ask for in repayment, but the gleam in her eye gave him a good idea. “This is a surprise, Elvry. How did I lose you ten gold pieces?” Connor felt cold inside. His mind raced as he considered what this latest turn meant. He didn’t dare try to reach into her mind to find out; she’d sense the moment he did.
“Monroe said that I’d find you here and he was right. I hate it when Monroe is right,” Elvry said with a swish of her hair. “You could try being a little bit less predictable.”