It was all getting pretty promising, which was why, when he suddenly pulled away from me, I was left jarred and confused. “No,” Vlad said, his voice full of gravel. “We can’t do this.”
For a few seconds, I just stared at him, my mind still hazy with lust. “Why?” I finally managed to ask.
“Because…there’s a process to these things.” He cleared his throat and turned away from my naked body. “Please, understand.”
My heart clenched at the gesture of rejection. “But don’t you want me?”
Was it because I had bitten him earlier? Surely he couldn’t still be upset about that. After all, how was I supposed to react when I was thrust in such an unfamiliar situation? He couldn’t possibly blame me for my wariness. Right? Perhaps he didn’t like my secondary form. Unlike Vlad, I was pretty small in my human form—which made sense given my true nature. My ears were much tinier, but my fur had preserved its white color when it had turned to chin-length hair. Compared to Vlad’s dark good looks, I felt pretty inadequate.
At my uncertain inquiry, Vlad quickly looked at me again. “No! I mean…It’s not that. But you must realize that we don’t even know each other. What you feel right now is largely caused by pheromones. Goddess, we haven’t even properly introduced ourselves.”
“I’m Vesper,” I told him in response. “I’m a carnivorous white rabbit, and I’m your mate.”
“I am Count Vlad Dracula,” he answered, “and you know you are missing the point. Yes, you are my mate, but I most certainly am not one of your species. I am a vampire.”
I blinked in surprise. A vampire? Like the ones in Necro Valley? He looked nothing like my idea of the undead. In fact, he was warm to the touch, and I could distinctly hear his heart beating.
“I promise I will explain everything,” Vlad said, “but first, would you do me the favor of shifting back into your other form? I can’t think when you’re naked.”
I had a feeling Vlad didn’t usually lose his composure and his ability to concentrate, and admitted to it even more rarely. Also, I grudgingly agreed that what he said made sense. Yes, my instincts had identified him as my other half, but I still had no real knowledge of him, of his likes and dislikes. Goddess, I didn’t even have a clue where we were and how he had brought me here.
The thought reminded me of Dini and Larue, and my previous concern for them returned with a vengeance. Respecting his decision, I shifted into my bunny form and glanced up at him. “Vlad, what happened? Where are my friends?”
“I’m not sure right now,” he replied as he picked me up. “I’m afraid that I don’t control the spirit hunters. They decided on their own that I needed a mate. I imagine they must have done something similar with your friends. But we can find out soon.”
Petting my fur, he started walking back toward the castle. This time, I didn’t bite him. In Vlad’s case, I could make an exception to the no-petting rule.
Sadly, as we were about to enter the building, the four women from before manifested in front of us. “Vlad, you’re keeping him all to yourself,” one of them protested.
My senses started to warn me of imminent danger, but I didn’t get the chance to hide underneath Vlad’s jacket. Another of the women snatched me from his arms. I struggled and tried to bite her, but she’d been ready for it and managed to avoid my fangs.
“We’ll just take him for a bit,” she told Vlad. “After all, if he’s going to be a part of the family, we have to get acquainted.”
“Get acquainted?” I repeated in disbelief. “I don’t want—”
“Oh, he speaks even in this form,” the first woman said, interrupting me. “So cute. By the way, we’re Vlad’s sisters. I’m Monica, and these are Catherine, Veronica, and Mina.”
Each of the women waved at me as their sister introduced them. In my heart, I’d kind of guessed the relationship between them and Vlad, since the five of them looked a lot alike. Not to mention that I was used to big families, having lived in a large warren for my entire life. However, that didn’t mean I wanted to fall into the clutches of these ruthless females.
“Vlad, help me!” I begged my mate.
Glowering at his sisters, he reached for me, obviously intending to demand my release. Before he could free me, though, my captor, Veronica, pulled back from him, and one of her sisters leaned closer to me. “Don’t worry,” Catherine whispered. “We won’t hurt you. In fact, we’ll tell you everything you want to know about Vlad.”
At that, I instantly perked up. “All right,” I said, settling down in Veronica’s embrace.
Vlad shot me a concerned look. “Vesper?”
“Oh, stop worrying,” Monica said, her wide smile exposing strikingly sharp fangs. “We’re merely welcoming him.”
Giggling, the four women entered the castle, with Veronica still carrying me and Vlad trailing after us. I had the distinct feeling that I had been hoodwinked, but at this point, there was no turning back. Even so, in that moment, I thought that, as long as I could be with Vlad, I could handle any sort of abuse from his sisters. Or so I hoped. Gulp.
Chapter Two:
In Which There Are Familial Obligations and Sneaky, Green Hoods
Present day
Vlad’s castle had always been dark, but somehow not gloomy. In fact, more often than not, as soon as we stepped inside, it was filled with the sound of bright laughter and cheerful voices.
Today was no different, at least not with regard to the cheer. The darkness had been cast away by the first rays of morning light, and at this hour, Vlad and his sisters should have retreated to sleep. However, we had different plans for the day.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Mina inquired as we all gathered in the foyer.
Vlad shook his head. “It’s fine. I know daylight harms your makeup.”
The four women snickered at his comment, while I burrowed into Vlad’s embrace, enjoying the way he petted my fur. As a rule, I was pretty skittish and disliked that sort of thing, but I’d gotten used to it during my stay in Vlad’s castle. I still didn’t appreciate it when it came from Vlad’s sisters, but from him, it felt great. If I’d been a cat, I would have purred.
Veronica cooed at me. “Oh, look at that. He’s sleepy.”
I sniffed her in mild interest as she approached Vlad and me. I wasn’t exactly sleepy, more like…moody, for several reasons, first of which being the exact reason why we were going out today.
“Leave him alone, Veronica,” Vlad chastised my female attacker. “He’s stressed.”
“Well, of course he is,” Mina said. “But that just makes us want to spoil him more.”
“You can’t begrudge us that, brother?” Catherine asked. I could actually hear the pout in her voice, but I ignored it.
“No, he wouldn’t, but I most likely will,” I argued.
Predictably, they didn’t heed my warning. Veronica and Monica leaned in closer to pet me. A different time, I might have bitten them, but as much as I despised having my fur perfumed, I kind of liked Vlad’s family. They reminded me of my warren, but at the same time, they were closer to Vlad than I’d ever been to my parents and siblings. Or, maybe, to a certain extent, their affection made me recall my dear friends, Dini and Larue.
Through their friendship, Dini and Larue had supported me all my life. Now that we’d parted ways, it wasn’t easy for me to not be around them as much as before. But while Veronica, Monica, Mina, and Catherine couldn’t fill that gap Dini and Larue left behind, they nevertheless helped a lot.
And of course, there was Vlad, my count Vlad Dracula. Before meeting him, I had begun to lose hope that I’d ever find a mate, but apparently, I’d been very wrong. I couldn’t wait to spend more time with Vlad, to get to know him better, to learn from everything he knew. But for the moment, I had to set that aside. Today, Vlad had agreed to come to my warren to meet my parents. I didn’t look forward to it in the slightest.
We said our good-byes to Vlad’s sisters and left the la
rge castle. At this point, I was used to the process of traveling between the two realms of Merlinia. I couldn’t exactly use magic to return to my warren, since my abilities largely rotated around my shape-shifting and my connection with nature. Vlad, however, was very skilled in the arcane arts, and no sooner had we stepped out of the castle gates than we ended up in the Laughing Forest.
The Laughing Forest was, naturally, named this way because its trees often tended to find humor in the lives of the rest of its inhabitants. Even as Vlad started to walk toward my warren, its giggles reached my ears, making me twitch slightly. I couldn’t say I was nervous, but I didn’t exactly feel at ease either.
“Are you sure your parents want to meet me?” Vlad asked. “I don’t want to frighten them.”
If I’d been in my human form, I would have shrugged. As it was, I buried myself deeper in his embrace. As a rule, his body wasn’t as warm as mine, but he’d been careful to feed before we had left, so right now, he felt pretty hot to the touch. Well, Vlad was always hot, but in a different sense.
“Eh…We don’t frighten that easily,” I replied. “Besides, they refuse to believe I met a count and that he’s interested in me. It’s not like there’s any other way to convince them.”
Truth be told, a part of me was reluctant to go to my warren with Vlad. My parents always found some sort of fault in me, mostly because I’d never been as good at hunting as my siblings. Therefore, none of the members of my warren had ever considered me as a potential mate.
It had been a little lonely, but it wasn’t like I’d fallen for any of them. All this time, I had been waiting for Vlad, without even knowing it. Sadly, I was still waiting, because Vlad hadn’t actually claimed me yet. As a bunny, I had a very healthy libido, one which I hadn’t been able to really satisfy until meeting Vlad. We hadn’t taken things too far, because, as it turned out, Vlad was kind of old-fashioned and wanted me to take my time before I jumped into anything with him. I supposed I could understand that decision, taking into account that when we’d first met, I hadn’t really been all that happy about my new circumstances. That didn’t mean it didn’t frustrate me. Adding that to my imminent meeting with my parents…It was only by some sort of miracle that my heat period hadn’t started already, because once that happened, things would only get worse. But in any case, even now, I wasn’t a very happy bunny.
“Don’t worry about it,” Vlad said, as if guessing my thoughts. “No matter what happens, you’ll always have me.”
His words held so much heart that I would have never imagined he didn’t have a pulse, well, not always. Because yes, that was the main problem with Vlad. He hailed from Necro Valley, the land of the undead. I didn’t mind, because I could see past that. As a rule, it didn’t even matter, because when he fed regularly, he seemed like any other Merlinian. Nonetheless, I knew his undead nature was a sore spot for him, and I could only hope my family wouldn’t be rude to him because of it. After all, like Mina often said, undead had feelings, too.
“Let’s just go back,” I suggested. “I have nothing to prove to them, and there’s no reason why I should expose you to their attitude in the first place.”
Vlad just pet his fur calmly. “Please, my sweet. I’ve lived for too long to be too concerned about what everyone else thinks of me. To be true, since I found you, I’m feeling quite generous, so they could easily say whatever they like. I would not mind it in the slightest. Besides, they’re still your family.”
“I guess,” I mused. “I suppose that, like you said, I’m a bit moody.”
“Do you want to stop a bit before we meet them?” Vlad inquired, as always mindful of my comfort and wishes. “The past few days have been pretty stressful.”
I couldn’t say he was right or wrong in any particular way. It was just that, recently, something seemed off about Vlad’s lands. It had all started a little while back, when an earthquake had shaken the entire area. Even here, in the Laughing Forest, I could feel the residual magic energy of that event. I’d eventually learned that it had come from a fight of human prince Medwin with Lord Rumpel Stiltskin—and hadn’t that been a surprise? I just hoped it wouldn’t have any other effects we weren’t ready for.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I told Vlad. “I—”
Before I could finish the phrase, the ground started to shake. Vlad tensed, his hold on me tightening. My fur bristled as magical energy gathered all around them, like a peculiar wind that made the tree leaves rustle. “This isn’t safe,” Vlad said. “We have to return to the castle.”
I dug myself deeper into Vlad’s embrace, wary of these unexpected developments. My warren would be safe, but we were out in the open. We should have never left Vlad’s home knowing the instability of the Merlinian realms. “Yes,” I told my mate. “Yes, quickly.”
Vlad didn’t get the chance to use his magic and transport us back to his lands. Out of nowhere, an arrow swished toward us, striking Vlad straight in the shoulder. I released a startled yelp, distress and panic exploding through me. Vlad hissed and hugged me closer, protecting me in his arms as he summoned his magic. The bolt that had pierced his flesh slid out, but whoever had attacked us wasn’t done, not by a long shot. Several other arrows flew our way. Vlad managed to dodge this time, expertly evading the projectiles. I could feel our foe hidden in the bushes, and Vlad must have sensed him or her as well, because he directed several bolts of magic that way.
That might have actually helped, except all of the sudden, the ground beneath our feet opened up. Vlad managed to maintain his balance by levitating, but our opponent took advantage of the situation and struck once more. When the arrow hit Vlad, he lost hold of me. I tried to get my grip on him back, even shifting into my human form in an attempt to reach out to him. It didn’t work. If anything, it just made me fall faster—and fall I did, right through the sudden abyss in front of us.
The world went black, and for a few dreadful moments, I thought that I would die. I had never been afraid of death. When you were a bunny—albeit a carnivorous one—you were used to the idea, because a lot of species preyed on us. Yes, bunnies could get frightened, but in many ways, we’d learned to suppress those fears.
However, the terror that passed through me now had very little to do with my potential demise. Rather, it was the knowledge of the separation between me and Vlad that scared me, and the attack itself, the realization that I had left Vlad to face our mysterious opponent alone. Even as this thought passed through my mind, the strange darkness vanished, and I emerged in what seemed to be a forest.
I actually dared to hope that, by some miracle, I’d managed to evade falling after all. Of course, I was mistaken, because when I got up, Vlad was nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, the trees were nothing like the ones in the Laughing Forest. More importantly, there was a house in front of me, and a discreet sniff in that direction suggested it was made out of gingerbread.
Now, I might not have known a lot about other lands, but Larue had told me many stories, and he’d once spoken of a witch that lived in a gingerbread home. In my book, that was pretty bad, so I needed to get out of here at once.
Before I could do exactly that, the figure of a dark-haired woman appeared in front of me. She shot me a cold smile. “Well, well…It looks like my agent did a good job. Welcome to Grimoire, Vesper. I trust you’ll have a very unpleasant stay.”
* * * *
Vesper was gone. I still couldn’t believe my eyes. One moment, he’d been right there, in my arms, a warm, fuzzy ball of white fur so familiar to me by now it almost hurt. And then, the ground had opened up and swallowed him whole. The knowledge that I’d lost him refused to process. But no, it couldn’t be. I would have known it if Vesper had been killed. There was something more going on here, and it had a lot to do with the fools who’d dared to attack me.
Normal arrows could do nothing to me, but these particular projectiles had been enchanted, which was how I knew witches had to be involved. I’d had enough of them already.
Feeding my powers off my anger and hurt, I burst through the greenery and threw another spell at my opponent. I caught a glimpse of a man wearing a dark green hood before he slipped away, just out of my reach. But I’d caught his scent now, and no one, no one escaped one of my kind when we were in a rage.
Snarling, my vision red with fury, I chased the man through the forest. He was fast, I had to give him that, but I was determined, and also watchful. I could tell that he planned to lead me into a trap, and if I had to guess, I would say he had accomplices somewhere around me. Just as he veered around a tree, a few steps away from me, I caught sight of the trigger of the enchantment. Even without examining it closely, I could tell it was an elaborate spell that must have been set hours before Vesper and I had even gotten here.
I had two choices. I could stop pursuing the hooded man, in which case he would probably escape in the forest. I still had a chance to track down his accomplices, but they were carefully cloaked, and my senses hadn’t managed to identify their location just yet. Therefore, if I avoided the spell, I could easily lose the only clue I had to Vesper’s location. I couldn’t allow that. My bunny was missing somewhere, and I would have preferred taking a trip to the most arid wastelands in Avalon than to be without him. As such, even if I spotted the enchantment, there was, in reality, only one course of action for me. Without hesitation, I stepped right into the trap.
Instantly, the binding magic closed around me. I froze, the threads of the spell tightening around me and keeping me rooted in place. In spite of this having been a deliberate ploy, I couldn’t help a howl of frustration. I wanted to be free to tear apart the men who’d dared to separate me and Vesper. But pure anger wouldn’t help me. Using my own abilities, I focused on the spell, doing my best to figure out how to break it. I had faith that I would be able to do so, because otherwise, I would have never stepped into it in the first place.
Undead Have Bunnies, Too [A Tail Like No Other: Book Four] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Page 2