The Finale

by Leigh Walker

“I just wanted to see it for myself.” Austin considered her. “Dallas mentioned you were quite tall.”

  “He’s a genius, that brother of yours.”

  The younger prince chuckled. “Thank you for indulging me, my lady. I haven’t been around many human women. And I’ve never seen one as tall as me.”

  “So not only am I the one that your brother’s never kissed, I’m also the tallest.” Blake plopped down in her chair a bit glumly. “I’m so happy to entertain you.”

  Austin tilted his chin, his gaze never leaving hers. “I also heard you’re quite good at basketball.”

  Blake preened a bit, buoyed by the compliment. “Yes, I am. Quite.”

  “Maybe we can play together.” Austin smiled at her, and she smiled back while the rest of us just sat there, a bit uncomfortably.

  The younger prince eventually stopped staring at Blake and turned to me. “And finally, there’s Miss West. You’re the one who’s causing all the ruckus.”

  “I… I am?” I pretended not to know what he was talking about.

  “You’re a terrible liar. I’ve seen it for myself on your tapes.”

  “Oh?” I tried to be nonchalant as I stirred my tea.

  “You. In my office.” He jerked his thumb toward a path through the roses.

  “You have an office?”

  “It’s an expression. Come with me, please. No cameras.” The look he gave the production crew stopped them dead in their tracks. “Film these two. They’re better looking than me, anyway.” He winked at Blake, and she blushed.

  I hadn’t known Blake could blush. I raised my eyebrow at her while following Austin, but she demurely added another sugar cube to her tea and ignored me.

  We left them as Austin led me down a path. We veered to the left and ended up in a pretty little private garden. Large Asters bloomed in yellow, pink, and orange. He motioned at a stone bench; I took this as an order to sit, which I obeyed. Much like his brother, Austin had an air about him, as if he expected me to do exactly as he wished. I supposed that was a by-product of being raised as both a prince and a vampire.

  “So.” He put his hands on his hips and surveyed me. “Are you getting on all right without my brother?”

  “He just left an hour ago. I think I’ll make it.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “The way he made it sound, I thought you’d be boo-hooing by now. He probably is, in the backseat of his fancy car. That poor other girl won’t even know what hit her.”

  I chuckled. “I assure you, Dallas won’t be boo-hooing. He’ll be the perfect gentleman, as always.”

  “Is that what you call it when he snogs your face off? He’s being a perfect gentleman then?” Austin’s eyes sparkled merrily.

  I cleared my throat. “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

  “Are you serious about my brother?”

  “Serious how?”

  He leveled his gaze at me. “Don’t play with me, Miss West. I want to know if you’re serious about becoming his wife.”

  “I am.” The words tasted funny coming out of my mouth. I hadn’t bald-faced admitted this to anyone else.

  “And for what reason, may I ask?”

  “Because I’m in love with him.” I blurted the words out before I could stop myself.

  Austin chuckled and raked a hand through his closely cropped hair. The gesture was so similar to one by Dallas, I couldn’t help staring. “So it’s true, then.”

  “What’s true?”

  “You really are a madwoman. What sort of a human marries a beast like my brother?”

  I shot to my feet. “Pardon me, but Dallas is no beast! He’s the kindest, most gallant, most—”

  Austin waved me off. “Blah, blah, blah. You don’t need to sing his praises to me. I love him, too. But that doesn’t mean I think this is a good idea. Quite the opposite.”

  “What do you mean?” I sank down onto the bench, my heart thudding. “Why do you think it’s a bad idea?”

  Austin grimaced. “Because it was my father’s, and that’s usually a telltale sign.”

  “It’s certainly not your father’s idea that Dallas marry me, if that makes you rest easier.”

  “I heard that. You come from a family of rebels?”

  I sighed. “Something like that.” I wanted to tell him the whole story, but I didn’t dare.

  “I see. But despite my father’s objections, I know full well that my brother will do as he pleases. And from what he’s told me, you’re what pleases him.”

  I smiled a little, my cheeks heating. “Thank you for that.”

  “But there’s more than one problem with all this. It’s not just my father’s historically bad judgment.”

  “Go on.”

  Austin crossed his arms against his powerful chest. “My family has no business mixing with humans.”

  “You looked like you wanted to mix with Blake pretty badly back there,” I quipped.

  Austin laughed. “You caught that, eh? Well, she’s…refreshing. There’s something about her.”

  “Yeah, like the fact that she’s tall and gorgeous.” And probably smells delicious to you.

  “She’s fetching all right, but this isn’t about your friend. Back to you and my brother. Vampires have no business marrying humans. It’s not what we do.”

  “Then why does your father want your brother to do it?”

  Austin scrubbed a hand over his face. “Because he’s lost his home, and it’s made him lose his mind.”

  “Explain. Please. Dallas won’t get into the specifics of what happened up north. I don’t know why your family had to leave your lands to come here.”

  “They didn’t have to leave, but my father’s always been too ambitious. After the blight hit, there wasn’t enough left up north for him to stay interested in sticking around.”

  “What blight?”

  “The one that ruined our lands and turned everything dark. Mind you, vampires like the dark, but even this was too much for most of us.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  He sighed. “A blight’s like a virus. But the land is its host, not a person. Our lands got sick. A lot of things died—except the bloody werewolves and a particularly nasty breed of gnomes. The virus left the worst of us to rot with each other.”

  “What are the werewolves and gnomes like, exactly? Do they fight against you? Do they drink human blood, too?”

  “No, they don’t drink human blood! Are you daft?”

  I threw up my hands. “No one will tell me about these creatures. I didn’t even know they existed until recently!”

  “There’s all manner of things up north. But don’t bother yourself with creatures you don’t need to understand. Honestly, the less you know, the safer you are.” Austin eyed me. “In any event, my father wasn’t interested in ruling a bunch of bloody gnomes while fighting off the werewolves. There were lots of volunteers to leave the North in its decrepit state. That’s how he assembled such a large army. He’d had the settlements in his sights for a long time. The blight gave him a sense of urgency about it.”

  “But why did you stay up north? It sounds terrible.”

  “I wouldn’t ever leave my home. I will fight for it until the day I die.” Austin leveled his gaze to meet mine. “And I’d never come down here to rule a bunch of wanking humans. I think Dallas and my father are mad. Vampires have a symbiotic relationship with your kind, and it’s not exactly loving. It’s like your relationship with livestock—keep ’em in a pen until you put ’em on a plate.”

  I swallowed hard. “Dallas only drinks donated blood.”

  “Oh does he, now? Such a hero, my brother.” He took a step closer. “Don’t let him fool you. We had slaves up north, you should know. He drank from them just like the rest of us.”

  I raised my chin. “And where are these slaves now?”

  Austin sighed. “I only have a few left. I’m hoping to bring some volunteers back with me.”

  “You won’t do any su
ch thing!” I shot to my feet again. “If the staff wants to donate blood for you, fine. But you won’t be taking slaves back north with you. Slaves don’t exist in the settlements, and I won’t stand for you continuing such a barbaric tradition.”

  He started laughing, deep from his belly. He shook his head. “You telling me what to do—in some ways, Gwyneth, you’d fit right in.”

  “I suppose I did cross a line there. It’s just that I don’t want to see you do something terrible to our people. I believe we can move past all that and have a brighter future. One in which you don’t have us on an…er…plate.”

  “My mother was right about you.”

  I looked up sharply. “Right how?”

  “She said you were ridiculously optimistic, just like him.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  Austin sat back on his heels, regarding me. “Both you and my brother think that love will save the day, and that humans and vampires can coexist. In fact, you think you’re going to skip off merrily into the sunset together, hand in hand, happily ever after. I say that’s hogwash. I say, you make my brother vulnerable. The best thing you could do is to walk away from him.”

  My heart twisted. I’d quite expected to like Austin, but I felt as if he were turning my already chaotic world further upside down. “Why would you say such a thing?”

  His face softened. “Because someone has to. And if you truly love my brother, you’ll listen.”

  Chapter 16

  The Great Divide

  “I can tell I’ve upset you. My brother will have my head on a spike.” Austin looked up at the sky, as if searching for instructions on what to do next.

  “I want to hear what you have to say.” My limbs felt heavy as I sank down onto the cold stone bench. Even though the sun shone brightly, I was chilled to the bone. “I have some of my own concerns, anyway.”

  His eyes glittered. “As well you should. If you didn’t have any reservations about marrying into this family, I’d say you need to be committed.”

  “Because you are vampires or because you are royals?” I asked.

  “Because both. And therein lies the problem.” Austin stalked the tiny garden, clearly trying to align his thoughts.

  “You said I’d made your brother vulnerable. Please explain.”

  He nodded. “Our enemies here are the human rebels. To date, they’ve been unable to succeed in their efforts against us. That’s because a human can rarely, if ever, kill a vampire. Our distinct advantage is their undoing, and they’re too stupid to figure out that it’s never going to get better. They keep trying to take back their lands.”

  I coughed. “Perhaps they’re too ridiculously optimistic.” I still smarted from the queen’s description of me.

  “Are all of you like that?” Austin asked, genuinely curious. “That hopeful?”

  “Maybe, to a point. I think the human condition might be to believe that, eventually, things will work out the way you want them to. Or at least, to hope they will.” But then I remembered the hollow look in Balkyn’s eyes, the hate that burned just below the surface of his skin, too hot to touch. “But not all of us are like that.”

  “But you are. You think that you and my brother can bring change to the settlements and have united peace here. A real future. Dallas told me that himself. He sees you as partners, ruling the nation together, human and vampire.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “I’m sure your father won’t let that happen.”

  “Not if he gets his way. But if anyone can give him a run for his money, it’s my big brother. They’re both pigheaded, another reason I like staying up north just fine, thank you very much. I’ve been doused one too many times getting in the middle of their pissing contests. But anyway, back to the point—you, being bad for my brother.”

  I frowned. “Go on.”

  “The reason you make him vulnerable is simple. You can die. The rebels can’t ever get to him or my father, but they sure as hell can get to you. You’re fragile, weak. If the rebels don’t kill you, childbirth can, or the plague, or any of the other hundred things that humans are susceptible to. You’re flimsy, Gwyneth. You have a short, perilous shelf life.”

  “I would consider being turned, but I don’t think Dallas would hear of it.”

  “Of course he wouldn’t.” Austin grunted. “He’s a bloody purist! He thinks you’re perfect just the way you are. His bleeding, optimistic heart wouldn’t dream of sinking his fangs into you, even as he craves your blood. He doesn’t believe in changing humans, never has. He thinks we’re born the way we’re supposed to be and that we should accept our lot in life.”

  “He is rather reasonable in that way. He won’t play God.”

  “And yet you have him on a pedestal and worship him as though he were. Enough. It would take a lifetime to debate whether turning others is ethical, just as we could go round and round about the morality of our respective dietary choices. My point is, I don’t see that you’re worth all the fuss.”

  “Well.” My cheeks heated. “Tell me how you really feel, Austin.”

  He tilted his chin. “It’s not because I don’t like you—I do, very much so. Like I told you, I’ve watched every episode of this contest. If I had to choose one of you crazy humans for my brother, I would choose you. You’re perfect for him. You calm him down even as you inspire him, and I believe since he’s been with you, he’s seeing things more clearly. You’re his emotional eyeglasses, if you will.”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You help him see better. Father’s tried to keep him in the dark about the true state of the settlements because he knows my brother won’t tolerate injustice. Where my father is slow to make change, Dallas is bold. He’s not afraid to try new things, but my father’s very set in his ways. That dynamic’s always been difficult between them, but now that Dallas has come of age, and he will marry soon, his point of view has become more of a threat to my father. You exacerbate that. You’ve helped him see what’s really going on, and it’s changed him. For the better.”

  “So why are you saying I’m bad for him? I don’t understand.”

  Austin resumed pacing. “My brother loves you—that’s the problem. Loving you makes him vulnerable. He will fight my father in order to be with you. It could fracture our family. And that’s only one area where you expose him to weakness.”

  A dull headache formed in between my eyes. “What else? How else do I weaken him?”

  “Your life, in comparison to his, will be insignificant. And yet you’ll make him vulnerable, as a leader and as a man. The rebels could take you and kill you, or worse. That will cause another great war. So if you marry him, he’s either fighting my father or the rebels to protect you. Enemies at every turn, the way I see it.”

  My head throbbed. “Are you quite done?”

  “Not yet. Because even if that doesn’t happen—if he doesn’t have to rise up against our father, if he doesn’t have to bleed thousands of rebels in order to reclaim you—he’ll still lose you. You are human, and he is vampire. Your life passes so quickly. You will widow him while he’s still young. Why would you choose to put him through that? What’s the point?”

  My mouth went dry. “He said that…he said that we could have a life together, a child. And I’m still young. The years ahead of me might be insignificant to you, but I could live to be quite old, for a human.”

  “For a human,” Austin echoed. “This is what I mean. Our kinds mixing is madness. No good will come of it. I know my brother wants to marry you, but you will only bring him heartache.”

  I couldn’t get any words out. I stared straight ahead.

  Austin sighed and held out his hand. “Come. Let me return you to your friends. I am sorry to speak so harshly, but you’ve been living in a bubble with my brother. You don’t know enough to understand how easy it is to burst happiness like that. It’s not built to last, I’m afraid.”

  I wearily accepted his hand and followed him in silence down the path. “Austin,
I should thank you. You’ve given me much to think about, even if it makes me unhappy.”

  He nodded, stopping for a moment before we reached the others. “I could tell from the tapes I watched that you truly have feelings for Dallas and he for you. So even if he married one of these other girls, it would be better for him.”

  “Why?” It felt as though my heart were drying out and starting to crack.

  “Because he doesn’t love them. He loves you. Love makes you vulnerable, Gwyneth. And a king has no business being vulnerable.”

  I dragged myself through the rest of the day—another lesson from Ms. Blakely, followed by dinner—and retreated early to my room. I couldn’t get Austin’s words out of my head, and I didn’t know what to do.

  I heard a knock on the door. “Who is it?”

  “It’s me, and I have chocolate!” Blake called. “Open the door.”

  I groaned and let her in. “What’s going on?”

  “That’s what I’m bloody well here to ask you!” She flopped into a chair and put a tray heaped with brownies and cupcakes on the coffee table. “I brought emergency supplies from the kitchen. So tell me, what was with the moping all afternoon? You barely said a word, and you were white as a ghost.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I mumbled.

  “Here.” Blake placed a chocolate cupcake on a napkin and shoved it into my hands. “It has cream cheese frosting, and it tastes like angels made it. So eat up, and then you better tell me what’s going on. Tariq told me I’m leaving with the prince as soon as he gets back from Shaye’s. I can’t go unless I know you’re okay.”

  “I am not okay. But you’re right—this tastes divine.” I devoured the cupcake.

  “Tell me what’s bothering you.” Blake’s pretty face twisted with worry. “What did Austin say to make you so upset?”

  “Speaking of Austin, did I see you blush earlier today? You two were eye-snogging each other, and then he winked at you, and then you blushed. That was certainly unexpected!” I hadn’t dared to ask her anything in front of Tamara, but I’d been dying to know what she thought of the younger prince.