I didn’t know her name, but I knew where to find her—at the pathetic little bar that the humans called the Tavern.
Annika
I served a Tavern customer one of the standard fares—beans with rice, and a pint of cheap beer—unable to keep myself from looking over my shoulder every couple of seconds. I couldn’t explain it, but I hadn’t been able to get rid of the feeling that someone was watching me.
It had started soon after Mike left for his job in the palace, and it was growing stronger and stronger each day. Even while I was alone reading.
I chalked it up to the fact that it was my first time since being kidnapped that Mike hadn’t been around to look out for me. Each day he was gone, I got more and more worried about where he was and what he was doing.
Now, on top of that, there was Jake.
After Jake had left last night, I’d climbed out of the window and come inside normally. The Tavern had been nearly empty since most people in the village had still been out partying. I’d gone to sleep before they’d returned.
But Jake was so strange and mysterious, and since he’d left, I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind. I was like an elementary school girl with a crush.
I hated how vulnerable it made me feel.
“Has everything been okay with you recently?” Tanya asked as I returned to my spot with her behind the bar. The lunch crowd had just finished up, so we busied ourselves by cleaning glasses.
“Yeah.” I forced a smile, but it felt fake, and I knew she could see through it.
“Are you sure?” she asked, softer now. “Because if you need to talk, you know I’m here for you, right?”
“I know.” I glanced around, but there were no new customers, and the ones I’d just served were taking their time with their meals. And Tanya did want to genuinely help.
Maybe it would be good to talk with her.
“I’m worried about Mike,” I started. “He’s been gone for so long, and I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“How long did the witch make it sound like he’d be gone for?” Tanya asked.
“She didn’t give a specific time frame,” I said. “But I assumed he would be back by now. It’s been nearly a month… I thought we would have at least heard from him.”
“If this job in the palace is as secret as it sounds, the vampires probably aren’t letting him contact us,” she said. “But he’ll be back soon. He wouldn’t leave us all here on our own forever.”
“I hope so.” I sighed and focused on cleaning the rim of a beer mug. The more days that passed, the worse I felt for not encouraging him to take more time to think about the offer.
“Hey.” Tanya placed her glass down and looked at me. “Mike’s tough. And his family’s been in the Vale for generations—he knows how to handle himself around vampires. He’ll be fine.”
“Of course he will be,” I said, as if saying it out loud could make it true.
“Worrying won’t change anything,” Tanya said. “So let’s talk about things you do have control over.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Like that mysterious guy you danced with at the Christmas party last night,” she said, a mischievous glint crossing her eyes.
Heat rose to my cheeks, and I picked up another mug, even though it was already clean. “What about him?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
“Where did you guys go?” she asked. “One second you were dancing with him, then the vampires showed up, and you were gone.”
“Why did the vampires show up?” I asked, since it had been nagging me since last night. If I knew why they’d showed up, maybe I would have a better understanding about why Jake needed to get away from them.
“They were checking to make sure we were all safe,” she told me. “They walked around the party for a bit and then they left.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Weird.”
She leaned closer to me, looked around the bar as if checking to make sure no one was listening, and lowered her voice. “A lot of people think it has to do with the wolves,” she said. “Everyone’s been on edge since the attack.”
“Did another one get in?” I asked.
“Not that I know of,” she said. “But after what happened, it makes sense to heighten security.”
“I suppose it does,” I said, although it hardly explained why Jake had such an intense desire to not be seen by the vampires. Something more was going on… and next time I saw him, I intended on finding out what it was.
“So, what happened with the guy?” she returned to the original subject. “Where did you two go all night?”
I couldn’t tell her the real reason we’d needed to leave, but she wasn’t going to rest unless I told her something, so I searched my mind for a plausible explanation. “We went for a walk,” I said, since it wasn’t a total lie.
“And…?” She raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.
“We talked,” I said.
“Did you kiss?”
I laughed, because of course that was what Tanya wanted to know. She’d probably been planning on asking since we’d started our shift.
“Is that a yes?” She brightened.
“No.” I frowned, since I’d wanted him to kiss me. At one point I’d thought he was going to… but instead he’d told me to forget we ever met.
It was so confusing.
I wanted to confide to Tanya about it—to get advice—but I couldn’t do that without telling her the truth of what had happened last night. And I didn’t want to get her tangled up in whatever trouble Jake might be involved in. I also didn’t want to betray his trust.
“Really?” she asked. “You were out with him for hours and you didn’t even kiss?”
“No.” There were no more glasses that needed cleaning, so I turned around and wiped down the back counter instead.
“But you wanted to kiss him,” she said, continuing before I could answer. “Are you going to see him again?”
I paused, not sure what to say. That was the same question I’d been wondering since last night. He’d gone from wanting me to forget him to promising we would see each other again, so I wasn’t sure what to believe.
I wanted to believe we would see each other again.
But who knew what would happen? I especially hated that even though it hadn’t been twenty-four hours since we’d met, my time with Jake felt like a dream that I would never be able to get a proper hold of again.
“Well, I guess we have your answer,” Tanya said, amusement filling her tone.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’ll never guess who just walked through the door.”
Jacen
She was the first person I saw when I entered the Tavern.
Her back was toward me, and despite her hair being pulled into a ponytail, I would have recognized her anywhere.
She quickly turned around, dropping her arms to her sides when her eyes met mine.
I’d spent all morning thinking about how to remove the wormwood she carried on her so I could compel her to forget me. And so, once coming up with a semblance of a plan, I’d put on the same jacket I’d worn last night—pulling the hood over my head to avoid recognition—and had headed out of the palace. It was a relief to not have to sneak around, since I could now come and go as I pleased. No one even asked where I was going. I was grateful to have the freedom I’d longed for since being taken here, but at the same time, it felt strange—like I was doing something wrong, even though I knew I wasn’t.
The only thing that felt wrong was knowing that soon, Annika’s memories of me would be erased—that she would only know me as a vampire prince of the Vale. As a stranger to be feared.
I walked up to the bar, my gaze locked on hers. “Annika,” I said once I was standing in front of her.
Her blonde friend muttered something about checking on the customers and hurried aroun
d the bar, leaving us alone.
“Jake.” Annika spoke my name—my fake name—with as much curiosity and intrigue as I’d said hers. Then she glanced around and tightened her ponytail, apparently remembering where we were. “Would you like a drink?” she asked me.
“No,” I said. “I want to talk to you. Alone.”
“I’m working,” she told me, her eyes suspicious. “But I suppose I can take a break for a bit… if Tanya doesn’t mind.”
Her blonde friend—Tanya—conveniently chose that moment to hop back behind the bar. “Of course I don’t mind,” she said with a smile. “It’s always slow around this time of night, anyway. I’ve got it covered.” She looked back and forth between me and Annika, clearly excited for what was about to happen.
Before being kidnapped to the Vale, I guessed that Tanya was the type of girl who loved to gossip.
Once I was able to compel Annika to forget me, it looked like I was going to have to compel Tanya to forget me, too.
Or I could compel Tanya right now. It would be a good test to see if she had wormwood on her as well. I guessed she did. After all, the most likely place for Annika to have gotten the wormwood was through the place where she worked and lived.
“Annika and I are going to go,” I told Tanya, meeting her eyes and filling my voice with the magic of compulsion. “Once we’re gone, you’re going to forget you ever met me.”
Her eyes dilated slightly—so slightly that a human wouldn’t have noticed—and she nodded.
The compulsion had worked.
Jacen
“What was that about?” Annika asked the moment we stepped into the alley behind the restaurant.
“What was what about?” I asked her.
“You told Tanya to forget she ever met you.”
“I did.” I nodded, and then I put the magic into my voice again, just in case she didn’t have wormwood on her today. “And you’re going to forget me as well.”
“I already told you I won’t do that.” She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t believe you want me to do that either.”
“Really?” I asked, unable to hide the amusement from my tone. “And why’s that?”
“Because if you wanted nothing to do with me, you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“I suppose not,” I said, since she would be right—if I were a human.
“And you wanted to get out of the town square so quickly after the vampires showed up last night,” she continued, watching me carefully as she spoke. “As if you thought they were looking for you.”
“Why would they be looking for me?” I asked, since I’d always found that the best way to avoid answering a question was to respond with another question.
“That’s what I’ve been thinking about since you left last night,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense. Unless…”
“Unless what?” I asked, curious to hear her theories. Even if she guessed correctly, I wouldn’t tell her, of course. But it would be interesting to hear her ideas.
She paused, as if wondering if she should continue.
“Go on,” I told her. “I want to know.”
“It’s just a thought, and I’m probably completely wrong,” she started. “But… wolves have been getting past the boundary and into the Vale.”
“I’ve heard that.” I nodded, since of course I was well aware of what had been happening—and also aware of the limited information given to the humans. “But it was only one wolf. And the vampires quickly took care of it.”
“You believe that?” She chuckled and shook her head, as if she found the story ridiculous.
“Don’t you?” I asked.
“Partly,” she said, and before I could ask what part, she continued. “But I think the wolves are becoming more of a problem than the vampires are letting on.”
“The vampires are stronger than the wolves,” I told her. “They have them under control.”
“That’s what they want us to think,” she said.
“Okay,” I said, intrigued about where she might be going with this. “So… what do you think the wolves have to do with me wanting to leave the square last night?”
“The wolves are shifters,” she started. “They can change into human form.”
“They only change when necessary,” I told her. “They prefer being in wolf form.”
Her eyes lit up, and I worried that I’d said too much. “How do you know so much about wolves?” she asked.
“People talk.” I shrugged. “We might be new to the Vale, but some of the human families have been here for generations. They talk, and I listen.”
“That’s all?” She raised an eyebrow.
“It is.” The lie tasted bitter on my lips. I hated lying to her, but I couldn’t let her get even more suspicious of me. “What more do you think is going on?” I asked.
“I think the wolves are trying to infiltrate the Vale.” She stood straighter, as if challenging me to tell her otherwise. “I think that at least one of them got in last night, and that the vampires were searching for him.”
“Interesting theory,” I said. “But if a wolf got in, surely there would have been an attack on the humans—on us?” I added, catching myself at the last second.
“Let me finish.” She held a hand up, and I was silent. “Let’s say a wolf got in, and they were there for some sort of bigger plan,” she continued. “If that wolf saw the vampires, he would want to get as far away from them as possible. And I’d never seen you anywhere in the village before yesterday—no one had. You came out of nowhere… or from the forests outside of the boundary.”
“Back up,” I told her, barely suppressing my laughter. “You’re not implying that I’m a wolf… are you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m implying,” she said.
I couldn’t help myself any longer—I laughed.
“What?” She placed her hands on her hips, glaring at me. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m not a wolf.” I shook my head, still amused by her accusation. “Your theory was interesting, but you’re entirely off base.”
“Fine.” She stepped closer, watching me in challenge. “Let’s say I believe you.”
“Let’s.” I nodded, waiting for her to continue.
“If you’re not a wolf, then why did you run from the vampires last night?” she asked. “And why are you here now?”
I kept my eyes locked on hers, not wanting to back down from her challenge. Electricity buzzed over every inch of my skin at the intensity of her gaze. My senses went on overdrive, and I was hit with an awareness of the blood pounding through her veins, the sweet scent of it making my fangs ache in my gums.
But I clenched my fists, controlling the urge to drink from her. Luckily I’d thought to feed before coming here. If I hadn’t…
I shook my head, not letting myself contemplate it further. Thinking about it would only make the urge to taste her blood stronger.
Instead I thought about how to answer her question. She was looking at me with so much hope—so much trust. Suddenly, I stopped wanting to taste her blood.
I wanted to kiss her instead.
Would she be looking at me like that if she knew what I truly was? Or would she think I was a monster?
After what she’d told me last night—about how she wanted to become a vampire—I didn’t know. But it didn’t matter. Because turning her wasn’t an option. Even if she survived the change, Laila would kill her for being turned without permission. She would never have her chance to escape the Vale.
Turning her would be condemning her to death.
Which was why I needed to stop thinking about pushing her up against the wall and crushing my lips to hers. I needed to remember why I was here—to have her remove her wormwood charm so I could compel her to forget me.
But if I flat out asked if she had access to wormwood, she would think I was using her for the plant. And that wouldn’t be true. Because in a different world—a world where we were both huma
n and unaware of the existence of vampires, witches, wolves, and all other supernaturals—I would have wanted to get to know her better. I would have asked her out on a date.
I definitely would have already kissed her.
But that world had been erased for both of us when we’d been taken here. We would never get it back.
There was no point in pining for what I’d lost.
Really, there was no point in worrying about hurting her feelings by asking her about the wormwood, either. Because soon I would compel her to forget me, and she would forget everything we ever did and all the conversations we ever had.
Whatever I said and did until then was irrelevant, because to her, it would all be erased.
“Well?” She crossed her arms, irritation crossing her eyes. “Are you just going to keep staring at me, or are you going to answer my question?”
“Your question…” I trailed, my thoughts having deviated so much that I’d forgotten what we’d been discussing.
“About why you’re here?”
“Right. That.” I swallowed and realized—to hell with it. I was just going to compel her anyway. She was going to forget everything, so until then, I might as well do I what I wanted. “I’m here for this.”
Before she could ask what I meant, I pinned her against the wall and crushed my lips to hers, losing myself in her kiss.
Annika
Kissing Jake felt as natural as breathing.
Everything in that moment felt right—the way our bodies curved together, the pressure of his lips, and the thrill that ran up my spine as his tongue brushed against mine. All the anger from fighting earlier morphed into passion, and I pulled him closer, never wanting the kiss to end.
Even if he was a wolf—which I still suspected he might be—I didn’t care. Clearly he’d never intended to hurt me. If he had, he would have already. All I cared about was that right now, he wanted me as much as I wanted him.
This was the best thing that had happened to me since being kidnapped to the Vale, and I intended to enjoy every second of it.
The Vampire Wish Page 9