There was a pause before a deep male voice said, “Show her in.”
The guard stepped aside to reveal a tall figure, his face cast in shadow. I stepped into a grand high-ceilinged hall whose walls were covered with rich velvet tapestries. Now that Anselm had turned around, in the light of the torches, I was better able to make out his face and I immediately realized who he was. He was almost a splitting image of his father. He was the prince of this kingdom.
As he was royalty, his features and physique were very different from any usual ogre’s. His frame was tall, muscular but slender. While he had brown leathery skin, his facial features were more humanoid. His nose was thin and straight, his jawline sharp, and he had no tusks. He had a regal appearance and I found him almost handsome.
“Annora.” He bowed his head, reaching out a strong hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”
I shook his hand.
“Come sit.”
I followed him to the end of the hall where there was a long table and high-backed, cushioned chairs. He drew one up for me and took a seat opposite me. He reached for a jug of blood and filled two goblets.
Now that I was a human, the idea of drinking blood was vile. I wasn’t even sure what type of blood this was—human, I suspected, since that was a favorite of the royals’. I couldn’t make him suspect anything was different about me, so I took a polite sip of the cool liquid before setting the goblet back on the table.
“What brings you here?” He flashed me a charming smile, revealing a set of surprisingly white teeth.
“On behalf of my fellow witches, and to thank you for your loyalty all these years, I have come to offer a rare gift to your majesties. A human girl whose blood is one of a kind. It will taste unlike anything you’ve had before.”
Anselm looked at me expectantly. “Well, where is she?”
“She is in the human realm, waiting for you on the island we use to trade. Not far from the other side of the gate.”
He frowned. “Why didn’t you bring her with you now?”
I gave him a gracious smile. “Well, you see, this young woman really is quite a beauty. If you have room in your harem, before you taste her, I was thinking she would make an exquisite addition.”
He smirked. “My father and I always have room in our harem.”
I chuckled. “I thought as much. Then you can understand why I wanted to leave capturing her to you. I know you royals enjoy the chase…”
He licked his lips, his deep orange eyes gleaming.
“Indeed we do.”
Chapter 20: Rose
Annora still hadn’t shown up by the time night fell. Although we’d stayed around base camp in case she returned, we both wanted to take a bath before sleeping. We climbed down the tree and walked to the edge of the lake.
My mouth fell open as Caleb dropped his pants on the grass. He dove in and resurfaced in the water, flicking his hair back and looking up at me. He cocked his head to one side.
“What are you waiting for?”
Apparently too impatient to wait for my answer, he climbed out onto the bank and stood up. My cheeks ablaze, I kept my eyes fixed on his face as he approached me. He fingered my bra straps.
“This thing is filthy,” he said, looking it over disapprovingly.
Before I could respond, he reached around my back and unclasped my bra. He’d already seen what I looked like on the boat, but I still found myself blushing as his eyes roamed me. There was a warmth in his eyes as he smiled at my bashfulness. He caught my hand, pulling me toward the water. Scooping me up in his arms, he leapt, submerging both of us in the cool water.
I resurfaced, gasping for breath. Since my panties were half off already from the contact with the water, I just discarded them completely too. I threw them on the bank near my bra.
Caleb resurfaced a foot away from me, reaching out and pulling me against him. I shivered as his palms began running up and down against my skin, scrubbing me like a sponge. He breathed deeply into my neck.
“You always smell good to me,” he whispered.
I couldn’t help but giggle at that. “Would I still smell good if Annora dropped a pile of bird poop on me?”
He laughed, and I once again found myself looking up into his gorgeous brown eyes. They sparkled as they reflected the moonlight hitting the water.
“I guessed that was you,” he muttered, looking at me with mock disdain.
I considered pointing out that the crap and the spider were both a light punishment considering she’d tried to burn me alive in the submarine. But I was in too good a mood to bring up that traumatic incident.
I twisted around and began to run my hands along his muscular arms and shoulders, taking my turn to wash him. I swam toward the bank and grabbed a handful of clean grass. Bunching it up, I used it to scrub his skin. It was more effective than my palms, which weren’t rough like Caleb’s. I moved round to his sculpted back. When he felt me slowing down around the areas he had bullets embedded, he said, “It’s okay. Those parts are numb. They don’t hurt.”
Once I’d finished making my way around his body, I let go of the grass.
“Thank you, Princess,” he whispered, gathering me to him and claiming my lips.
“A-Any time,” I replied breathlessly.
My body responding to his touch, I shivered again. Mistaking my pleasure for coldness, he sped forward and carried me out of the water, back onto the bank.
That was the thing with vampires—there was barely a second to object between the time they made a decision and the time they executed it.
Still, with images of spending the night with Caleb in his bunk floating around in my head, I didn’t mind too much leaving the water so soon.
Gathering up my dirty underwear, I bent over the water and scrubbed them clean before laying them out on a stone to dry.
I dried myself with the shawl Caleb had found earlier. I turned around to see Caleb ripping off leaves from a cluster of bushes nearby. I walked over to him, eyeing him questioningly. He’d found the ripped pair of pants I’d discarded on the bank the day before and, removing the elastic from the waist, began to string it through the broad leaves to form a skirt.
I watched with fascination as his nimble fingers completed the garment. He looked up at me, beckoning me closer. He tugged away the shawl I was holding around my body and wrapped the skirt around my waist before knotting the elastic at the side.
I was impressed. It was long enough to make me feel comfortable wearing it, but not so long as to get in the way. The leaves were also softer than I’d imagined they would be. They felt almost velvety against my skin.
Using the piece of elastic he had left over, he began stringing it through two more broad leaves. Then he stood up, kissing me deeply as he reached around me and adorned my chest with the bikini.
“Wow,” I said, eyeing the complete result once I’d recovered from his kiss. I looked at him. “And what about you?”
I could see he’d been so absorbed in thinking about my own modesty that he hadn’t yet stopped to consider his.
He cast his eyes around the bank, an amused look on his face. “Do you think a skirt would suit me?”
I laughed. “Um. Probably not.”
He furrowed his brows. “Then what do you suggest I wear until my own pants dry?”
Still giggling, I picked up my torn pants. There was no elastic left in them, but we could use the fabric to string something together… I picked some more of the velvety leaves he’d used for my bikini.
“Can you rip three long strips off the fabric with your nails?”
He did as I’d requested and handed them to me. My skills weren’t as impressive as his, but after a few minutes I’d managed to fashion him something half decent.
I held it up to him.
“How about a loincloth?”
He grimaced as he took it from me and fastened it around his waist.
“Sexy,” I said, giggling as he finished putting it on.
He rolled his e
yes.
“How does it feel?” I asked.
“Stupid.”
I laughed harder. At least it was better than a skirt.
Picking up his own pants, he walked over to the water and washed them, laying them out to dry on a stone near where I’d left my underwear.
Then, bending down so I could get onto his back, he carried me back to the foot of our tree and climbed with me up to his bed.
I climbed up first, crawling to the edge to make room for him. He was about to follow when the inevitable finally happened. Annora returned.
Caleb’s and my eyes shot downward as we heard the creaking of a branch. I groaned internally as her dark head approached closer and closer until she had reached our level. Since she’d found me about to climb into Caleb’s bed, I expected her to throw me a deep scowl. She didn’t. She barely even looked at either of us as her eyes fixed on her clasped hands.
Caleb slipped off his bunk and stood up, staring down at her. “Where were you?”
Her voice was deep and cracked as she responded. “I thought we needed a time out… I needed some space to think about things.”
Caleb and I exchanged glances. He looked as confused as me.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Annora sighed deeply before finally raising her eyes to his.
“I’ve been thinking about you, about me… about Rose. First, I need to apologize to you, Rose.” Her gaze fell on me. “I was the one who set the submarine on fire.”
I gaped at her. Caleb exhaled sharply.
Why would she admit to that?
“I was so blind with jealousy seeing the affection Caleb held for you. I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m not sure that you’ll ever forgive me, but I’m sorry.”
She leaned back against a tree, clutching her left arm. Caleb and I remained speechless. “It’s not fair that I resent either of you. I neglected Caleb for many, many years. I can’t just expect things to be the same as they were.” Her voice trembled, and I thought she was about to break down, but she swallowed hard and continued. “I’m going to step back.”
I could barely believe my eyes as she gripped the engagement ring on her finger, pulled it off and handed it to Caleb. She had tears in her eyes as she looked at him, her chest heaving. “It’s better you have this back.” She reached for his hand and closed his fingers over the ring.
Then she turned to me again, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I won’t get in your way again. And I’m sorry for all the harsh words I spoke to you earlier. You didn’t deserve them. I just needed the time I spent apart to clear my brain and think things through. And as I did, I realized I felt like a monster for my behavior… So again, I’m sorry. I wish the two of you happiness. I’ll no longer be in your way. I suppose we’ll have to try to find a way to get off this island. When we do, you can drop me off somewhere and I’ll… I’ll try to start a new life away from all this supernatural craziness. Perhaps, in a few years, I’ll meet a new sweetheart of my own.”
Caleb’s mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. I was sure I looked like a drowning fish too as I tried to understand what game she was playing with us now. It felt like she’d just had a personality transplant. Or been possessed.
Eventually it was Caleb who managed to break the silence. “Annora, I… I’m glad you’ve come to this conclusion by yourself.” He paused, eyeing her steadily. “Because I can’t lie. What we had is gone. It died over the years we spent together in that frozen castle… I don’t love you any more.”
Her jaw twitched, tears looking dangerously close to falling. I expected to see at least some hint of jealousy or anger toward me. But I saw nothing but sadness and regret.
He gripped her shoulder. “Once we manage to get off this island, we’ll take you to the nearest shore and find you somewhere to stay. A hostel, a shelter for the homeless. You can start your life over and stay out of trouble.”
She nodded, then turned away and began climbing back down to her bunk.
I stared at the ring in Caleb’s hands, dumbstruck.
While every part of me wanted to believe that Annora had changed, somehow, I just could not believe it. I didn’t know what game she was playing, what this new change of tack was, but I didn’t like it.
It was somehow more unsettling than when she had challenged me outright.
Chapter 21: Aiden
Even though we still hadn’t managed to locate the bodies of Caroline and Thomas, we held a joint ceremony for them along with Yasmine. Yasmine’s parents were inconsolable. Derek and Sofia did all they could to apologize—but what were words in the face of the loss of one’s child? The death of Caroline and Thomas, and now the death of Yasmine, all within such a short period, sent shockwaves throughout the community of humans.
I’d noticed humans keeping to themselves more and eyeing vampires warily as they passed by. It seemed they’d developed a distrust of all supernatural creatures. This was something that used to happen in the old days of The Shade, before humans were made equal. To see us regressing toward such a state of distrust in such a short space of time was disturbing.
I looked around the moonlit courtyard outside the Sanctuary where we had gathered for the ceremony. The crowd of vampires seemed thinner than it should have been. Some of the most familiar faces were absent. There were a large number of humans attending—albeit sticking to one corner. There were also werewolves, witches, and Brett, who was wearing a new waistcoat for the occasion.
Derek and Sofia stood opposite me, next to Kyle and Anna. I noted Mona, Kiev, Erik and Saira standing in front of me. Matteo and Helina were a few feet behind. Vivienne, Xavier, Corrine and Ibrahim were missing, of course, and Eli was still recovering from the injury I’d caused, being nursed by Adelle. I wondered if that was why it looked emptier… No. As I looked around, I realized that six of our key council members were missing: Claudia and Yuri; Landis and Ashley; Gavin and Zinnia. As council members, they of all people should have been present.
As Yasmine was lowered into a grave by her parents and the ceremony came to a close, the crowds began to disperse. I walked up to Derek and Sofia, both looking far paler than even vampires should. Sofia had tearstains down her cheeks and her eyes were red from crying.
I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could say that could console her. So I didn’t bring up the subject of Yasmine. Instead I asked the question that had been nagging me.
“Why were so many vampires missing?” I asked.
Sofia looked so anxious, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d barely noticed. Derek, however, shared my concern.
“It’s odd that they would all be missing at once,” he said.
“Leave it to me,” I replied, pulling my cloak closer against me. “I’ll investigate.”
They had enough on their plate already. This was the least I could do to help.
Since Gavin and Zinnia’s home was nearest to the Sanctuary, I decided to stop by there first. I leapt up to their treehouse and knocked three times on the door.
A ginger-haired lad, Rose’s best friend, Griffin, answered the door. Worry marred his face and he could barely find it in himself to smile at me.
He raised a brow. “Aiden?”
“Where are your parents?”
He drew a sharp breath. “They’re here. Locked themselves in either side of the apartment.”
“Why weren’t they at the funeral?”
He grimaced. “They… they’ve had a fight.”
“Oh. I… I’m sorry to hear that… Now’s not a good time then.”
Griffin shook his head grimly.
I retreated and allowed him to close the door.
Gavin and Zinnia were known to have their disagreements. But from the look on Griffin’s face, I sensed that this was worse than usual.
I descended the tree and continued through the forest until I reached my next stop—Landis and Ashley’s tree. I stopped dead in my tracks as I reached the veranda. Ashley was sitting on the
floor, leaning against the wall, sobbing into a tissue.
I felt awkward encroaching on her during such a private moment. But she noticed me before I could retreat, so I found myself walking over and kneeling down on the floor next to her.
I placed a hand on her shoulder as she sobbed even harder.
“Ashley, what’s wrong?”
“Landis… he… he’s cheating on me.”
“What?”
“I saw him with one of the human girls.”
I was stunned speechless as I stared at her. “Ashley, are you sure?”
She nodded vigorously.
“I mean, are you one hundred percent positive? You definitely saw Landis? Are you sure it couldn’t have been someone else?”
“I have freaking vampire vision, Aiden. I know what I saw. It was him.” Her sobbing became harder and she stood up abruptly, running back into her apartment and slamming the door behind her.
What is going on?
As I descended the treehouse and made my way toward the final couple, trepidation ate away at me thinking what I might witness there. I didn’t know that I could stand seeing Claudia and Yuri fight. I’d grown too fond of them both.
As I reached their treehouse and began ascending, I could already hear an argument boiling up, the angry voice of Yuri drifting through the kitchen window. I didn’t need to enter the home to hear what it was about.
I stopped outside the kitchen window and stared through it. Yuri and Claudia were standing at opposite ends of the room. Tears streamed down Claudia’s face as Yuri shouted her down.
“I told you already, I didn’t,” Claudia cried. “I would never, Yuri. I swear—”
“Stop lying. Just stop it,” Yuri bulldozed over her. “What do you take me for? A moron? I thought at least that much had changed when you married me. Now I see that I was wrong.”
I couldn’t believe such harsh words were coming from Yuri’s mouth. He never spoke to her in this way. It was so unlike him.
Although it was none of my business, I couldn’t stand watching my best friend crush his wife like this. I hurried to the front door and pounded my fists against it.
A Shade of Doubt Page 10