Vampire Love: Fated Mates and Paranormal Bully Romance (Supernatural Alphas)

by Marian Tee

  “What if it’s the baron?” Zari asked. “What if he’s the one making her do it?”

  “For what purpose?”

  She lifted her shoulders in a confused shrug. “I don’t know…I just feel like this girl’s so devoted to her Master…wouldn’t it seem like whatever’s caused her to do that, it would have something to do with the baron?”

  Someone knocked on the door.

  “Enter,” Erou said.

  The door opened, the assistant bowing before mumbling, “Another Master would like to use the room, milord.”

  “We’ll be out in a minute,” Erou said. “Thank you.”

  “Understood, milord.” The assistant bowed again before leaving.

  “We have to go,” Erou told her as he stood up and pulled her seat out for her. “This room can only be used by one Master at a time.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  The worry in her gaze prompted him to say, “I’ll have someone ask around about the baron.” His words had her brightening. The sight of her smiling was both a painful and joyous sight. Why, he wondered, did he have to feel this strongly for a girl who couldn’t be his?

  “Lady Zari…” He had been about to reach for the knob before turning around, surprising Zari into stepping back. The sight had his jaw hardening. This time, she was stepping back. It meant something had happened between her and the hunter – something that probably caused Zari to harbor false hopes again.

  “You know this won’t end well, don’t you?”

  She nodded.

  Frustration lined his voice as he demanded, “Then why? Why would you choose him?” He stepped towards her, something in him making Erou want to hold her---

  But before he could, the door opened.

  In front of him, Zari whitened.

  Even without looking behind him, Erou already knew there was only one person who could make Zari react like that.

  Chapter Five

  The moment Alexandru appeared in the doorway, a breathtaking smile broke over her lips, prompting him to ask teasingly, “Did you miss me?”

  Instead of answering, she asked, “Did you miss me?” She didn’t wait for his answer, running to him with a laugh. He caught her in his arms, his lips catching hers even as her legs went around his waist.

  He raised his head. “Does that answer your question?”

  She nodded.

  “Come with me next time and we---” He stopped since she had been shaking her head the moment he spoke.

  “You know I can’t,” she said softly. “You know you can’t. I will only be a distraction to you when you hunt, and I don’t want that.”

  “You’re not a distraction---”

  “No one will believe you even if it’s not true. You’re part of the ruling family, and I don’t want the day to come that your people will think you’ve failed them because of me.”

  Troubling reports from his men had Alexandru going to the library. Killing demons could be complex, depending on their position in the hierarchy. The demon he was hunting down was particularly high up in the rank, and the more information he had about his opponent, the better his chances of defeating the demon without any innocent bystanders suffering.

  But when he reached the library, all thoughts of demon hunting were forgotten when he saw his own pet entering one of the offices at the back with another man.

  It was Lord Erou of course.

  The library assistant approached him. “You would like to use the office, milord?”

  He nodded curtly.

  The assistant returned to him after a few moments. “They will only be a minute.”

  “That’s fine.” He walked towards the office, cracking his fists. He was supposed to be a cold-blooded hunter, but right now all he could think about was hauling the other vampire’s ass out of the office and beating him to within an inch of his life.

  This was not right. This feeling of obsession, of possession – he was not supposed to feel this way for his pet. It was a betrayal in every sense of the word, and he only had himself to blame.

  His powers muted, Alexandru was able to reach the office without either of the two being aware of his presence. He listened to them talk about the murder suspect, his body stiff with tension. He knew it was only a matter of time before the soldier would talk about something else.

  And he was right.

  You know this won’t end well, don’t you?

  A harsh smile touched Alexandru’s lips. Of course. A direct stab. He should have expected that from the ever-uptight vampire.

  Then why? Why would you choose him?

  If he was a good man, he would turn his back now and let nature run its course. Let Damaschin open his pet’s eyes to the truth – that she had no reason to choose Alexandru.

  But he was not a good man where Zari was concerned.

  He had always tried to be one, but with her, it was as if he was destined to sin. And he would keep sinning, Alexandru knew, if that was the only way to keep her as his pet.

  Alexandru opened the door, Zari paling at the sight of him. The younger vampire seemed to be as aware of his identity, murmuring “Lord Alexandru” even before he had completely turned around to face Alexandru.

  His gaze didn’t let hers go. He wanted her looking at him and only him. Alexandru offered his hand. “Let’s go.” His voice was neutral, but the words were a command nonetheless.

  When Zari took a step forward, Erou said bitterly, “I would have given her up, you know. I would never have made a move if I thought there was a chance you’d eventually admit your feelings for her.”

  Alexandru’s jaw hardened at the challenging words, but he didn’t let his gaze veer away from his pet. “Zari?”

  “I see it in your face,” Erou snarled. “You want her---”

  “Of course I want her,” he exploded, finally looking at the other vampire. “Would she be my pet if I didn’t want her?”

  Zari’s heart was beating faster and faster as she listened Erou and her Master exchange words. She didn’t know what to say or do, wasn’t even sure that she should interfere. But then she heard Erou say, “You want her more than that. Admit it.”

  Her head snapped towards her Master.

  His pet was looking at him now, her heart – fragile but brave all at the same time – in her eyes. In that moment, the weight of his past, all the memories, good and bad, collided with the present, which came with the most dangerous risks and the most wonderful promises.

  But in the end, he knew he could only make one choice.

  When Alexandru looked at her, Zari’s knees nearly buckled. Even though he hadn’t yet spoken, she already knew, just by the way her Master was looking at her with regret in his eyes.

  “I wish it was so, but she can only be my pet.” Before he was even done speaking, he was already striding towards Zari, the pain his words caused her something he felt as well. “Zari---” He reached for her.

  She pulled back unthinkingly, her heart breaking when her Master whitened at her rejection. “Master, I…” But she was still at a loss for words. What was there to say when he had good as killed all her hopes?

  “Look at me.” A command. “Is it that bad?” His voice was almost violent. “Tell me. Is it that bad, being my pet? Have I ever made you feel that you don’t matter to me?”

  He reached for her again, and this time she let him. But the moment their hands touched, she went still, her eyes turning completely white.

  Alexandru stilled as well, knowing that she was about to have another vision.

  ****

  Blue. So, so dark, but it was blue. The darkest shade of blue, like sapphires kissed by death.

  Choking. She was choking, and she was struggling against something. Not someone. Something. Inhuman. Too strong. Too fast. One moment, breathing was a part of life. The next moment, breathing had become a luxury.

  ****

  When she came back, she was in her Master’s arms, a place that was once her haven. But now?


  “Let me go,” she whispered.

  Because she sounded like she was so close to breaking down, he released her reluctantly. “What did you see?”

  Zari shook her head. Not meeting his gaze, she said, “Master, I had a vision when I touched you.”

  Alexandru’s face became expressionless. “And?”

  “Did you really come back mid-hunt because of me?” A little laugh escaped her, the sound tinged with hysteria. “You made me think it was because of me, Master. Please don’t deny it. Everyone thinks the same thing. Even Lord Erou.”

  “Zari---”

  “But you didn’t, did you?” Her eyes became glassy. “You came here because the hunt is here now. The demon you’re hunting is here now, and you couldn’t even be honest with me about it.” She took another step back, as if just his nearness now poisoned her. “Master, right now, I don’t even feel like I’m your pet.”

  “It’s not like that,” he gritted out. “Zari---”

  Her voice started to rise. “Right now, I can’t stop myself from thinking about why you were looking for me in the first place. God…” Her voice broke. “I just can’t stop thinking like I’m a tool to you. That you came back here because you might need me to see---”

  “IT’S NOT LIKE THAT.”

  “How can I believe you,” she cried out, “when I know that it’s for her you’ve become a hunter? That you want her to be proud of every successful hunt, that you want to prove everyone wrong, the people who stood in your way---”

  He hauled her into his arms. “It’s not like that.” He cupped her face, wanting her to see the truth in his eyes. “It’s not like that.”

  But she didn’t answer, and her body remained cold and unresponsive in his arms.

  ****

  “You don’t need to hide your sadness from me.” The practical advice came from Rhapsody as they headed to the dorm where Miranda Donnelly lived.

  Her Master had been gone for three days, hunting down the demon she had seen in her vision. If she had one iota of sense in her, Zari thought miserably, she wouldn’t care that Alexandru was gone.

  Zari heard herself asking, “How did you get to be so strong? How do you do it? How have you survived without your Master for so long?” Pained bewilderment had her shaking her head. “I mean, you’re under suspicion for murder and you don’t even seem to care.”

  “I don’t.”

  Zari’s jaw dropped.

  “I know I didn’t kill that man. The Master knows the same thing. He believes in me. That’s all that matters. He won’t let anything happen to me.” The other girl’s face remained expressionless all throughout, and her voice was a mirror of it.

  “I wish I could be as strong as you,” she muttered.

  “I’m not being strong, Lady Zari. I’m only being practical.”

  They stopped in front of Miranda’s dorm. “Well, what we’re about to do isn’t practical.”

  The tall girl beside her nodded. “I agree. So why are we doing it again?”

  “Because it’s the only thing we can do. We have no evidence against her, I don’t want to battle a demon, and I’m too impatient to wait for additional information about her Master. She’s our best bet.”

  “So we will be playing the good cop, bad cop routine?”

  Zari nodded. “It should work.”

  It didn’t.

  Fifteen minutes in the Madonna’s presence, and Zari and Rhapsody had only succeeded in making more enemies for themselves. Although Miranda had agreed to speak with them alone, she hadn’t really done much talking. Also, she wasn’t alone. Instead, the other girl only cried her eyes out and managed to look like the prettiest bully victim in school, the way her big blue eyes welled up with unshed tears.

  “I just don’t understand why you’re doing this to me,” Miranda sniffed. Her soft voice shook with every word, and around them Zari could feel the girl’s friends glaring even more malevolently at them.

  She said in a low voice, “We know it’s you who did it.” She added quickly, “And we have evidence.”

  A beat of silence before Miranda shook her head, her angelic face pale with hurt incredulity. “How can you utter such lies?”

  “It’s not a lie. And we just thought we would like to give you a chance to confess what you’ve done rather than have the enforcers take you away.” Zari paused before saying meaningfully, “Before your Master finds out the truth.” It was a shot in the dark. If Miranda’s Master was somehow behind the murder, then she had just given herself away.

  The other girl didn’t answer, simply shaking her head like a dejected pup.

  When Zari and Rhapsody turned away, Miranda’s friends immediately crowded around her.

  “They’re still glaring at us, aren’t they?” Zari said under her breath to Rhapsody as they reached the end of the road.

  Rhapsody nodded. “You lied to her, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. I did.”

  “Why?” The other’s girl was quizzical.

  “I wanted her to panic. Guilty people tend to give themselves away when they panic.”

  “Ah.” Rhapsody nodded. When they reached her dorm, the other girl gave Zari a curtsy. “Thank you for helping me, Lady Zari.”

  The sudden formality threw her off, and Zari hurriedly curtsied back. “It’s, err, no problem.”

  “I will write to my Master,” she told Zari in a still-serious voice. “I will ask him what I can do for you, as a way of showing my gratitude.”

  And then the other girl turned away and left before Zari could think of what to say. She found herself smiling as she walked back to her dorm. Perhaps…perhaps she had just made her first friend in school. It would come in handy, especially considering what had recently happened between her and her Master.

  On her way to the dorm, Zari noticed new announcements pinned to the community board. She stopped in front of it. The last time she had failed to read the latest news, she ended up violating a new rule and landed in detention because of it.

  Please Welcome Our New Doctor!

  Oh, finally, Mrs. Humphreys, the nurse at the infirmary, had an actual doctor to help her out. It was good news…until Zari saw the name of the doctor.

  Katarina?

  Surely…surely it was just a coincidence. Right?

  Chapter Six

  Demons surrounded them, waiting, hissing, glaring. In other words, it was just another day of hunting. Or it was except for the fact that this time, Alexandru was not alone. Accompanying him was the Duke of Brimstone himself, Silviu Draghici – the strongest half-demon in the world. And of course, where Silviu went, his Galeré went as well.

  “What,” Mihail, Alexandru’s brother, asked as he turned to the demon duke, “do you think about before you go hunting?”

  Silviu shrugged. “The usual. To kill as many demons as I can.”

  Mihail glanced at Adrijan, and the half-Cetus said, “That it will be over as soon as possible.”

  “Before you even ask me,” Ilie, the shapeshifter, drawled, “I always think of the same thing.”

  His friends said in unison, “You want to fuck.”

  Ilie’s sharp teeth flashed in the darkness. “Exactly.”

  Alexandru suddenly sensed all eyes on him, making him pause from wiping his sword clean. Without looking up from his task, he murmured, “Who else?”

  Mihail’s tone was careful when he asked, “You truly think of her that much?”

  “There’s never a second I don’t.”

  Another day of unsuccessful hunting comes to an end, Alexandru thought as his men came back to report to him. He had assigned each of them a part of the town to scour, hoping that their combined presence would force their target out of hiding.

  But looking at his men’s faces, he knew that none of them would have good news to share.

  Even so, he asked, “Not a damn thing?” This demon, whoever it was, might already be aware of Zari’s presence. And if that was so, then Alexandru would kill him, even if it
required him to go to hell and back. What mattered was keeping his pet safe.

  “It’s probably found a host,” one of his men answered.

  Alexandru nodded. “We’ll just have to try harder tomorrow.”

  His men bowed to him before they left, blending into the darkness before disappearing completely. In a second, he was alone in the forest, but Alexandru could feel it in his guts – the demon wasn’t that far away. Like sensed like, and they both shared the same beast inside them. The only difference was Alexandru had found a way to anchor himself in goodness. The demon, however, had allowed itself to be swallowed by its inner beast.

  Every time he finished hunting, he would call out to her. It had started as a way to reassure her he was alive. Eventually, it had become his way of staying in touch, one he continued to do faithfully throughout the centuries, even if she had never replied. Not after they had parted.

  I still haven’t found the demon, Kat. It worries me, but I do not let them see this of course. He spoke to her in Chalysian, his words becoming formal without Alexandru being aware of it. Back when they were young and the world was just as young, it had been the only way for them to talk. The more flowery the words, the emptier they were, and the simpler their language, the more they felt – but couldn’t express.

  I don’t know how or why, but I think it’s aware of Zari. Or at least it has an idea of what my pet is. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping again tonight. I need to be ready. I don’t want it to catch me unawares.

  Alexandru’s head bowed.

  Wherever you are, I hope you are all right. You are, as always, in my heart.

  ****

  Zari’s hand trembled as she knocked twice on the infirmary’s door. Mrs. Humphrey, the school’s human nurse, was the one to open the door, her face visibly surprised as she asked, “Don’t tell me you’re injured again?”

  Zari quickly shook her head, stammering, “I’m, umm…” She hadn’t really thought this through. Stuck for an excuse, she found herself clutching her belly. “I feel pain here.”