"Obviously, you would protect me," Rachel pointed out as she started to drive away. She threw a glance over at her friend. "Right Lizzie?"
"Of course," Lizzie said, nodding her head a couple of times. "But vampires are fast. I just don't want you getting hurt at all, Rachel."
"I know, I know," Rachel said with a teasing smile, rolling her eyes. "Okay, but you're going to have to tell me how, exactly, to get to this dress shop because, honey, I have no idea where I'm going and I've never heard of the town you mentioned before in my entire life."
"Apusul Soarelui?" Lizzie asked, pushing her brow up and tilting her head so she could get a good look at her friend. "Yeah, me neither, but I stumbled across it while I was out jogging. I got my dress that I wore on the Coran mission there. Did you know that the woman who owns the shop sews everything in there by hand? Even the modern stuff. Hell, even the old-fashioned stuff with the corsets and thick material…" She let her voice trail off, shaking her head in disbelief.
"So, is this place even going to be open?" Rachel asked, resting her elbow on her car's window frame after Lizzie had directed her to head south on the highway. "I mean, it's nearly seven, Lizzie. Stores close sometimes at six. And that's not even when it's a Sunday." She shook her head. Rachel hated when stores closed early. "But today is not Sunday." She looked over at her friend expectantly.
"Don't worry about it," Lizzie said, trying to reassure her friend. "This whole town is composed of vampires and humans. A lot of the time, the humans run on the vampire schedule because the business owners are predominantly vampires. It would be ethnocentric of us to think that just because there are more humans on this planet than vampires, every single vampire town should be on a day-night schedule."
"No need to lecture me, Miss Perfect," Rachel teased, giving her friend a flat look. "I was asking a simple question."
"You know that I majored in Sociology," Lizzie returned with a grin and a careless shrug. "It's hard not to point things out. I mean, different cultures, races, and species are so fascinating."
"Yeah, yeah," Rachel said with a roll of her eyes. "No more sociology mumbo jumbo. We are going shopping which means we need to get into a shopping mindset." She let a long breath slip out of her nose, as she tried to calm herself. "Okay. Now tell me what you want to wear to this masquerade so I can formulate a picture in my head." Rachel was notorious for formulating pictures of different articles of clothing and then somehow finding exact replicas. If Lizzie hadn't grown up with Rachel and known for sure that Rachel was fully human, she would have said she was some kind of psychic.
"I'm not entirely sure," Lizzie murmured after a moment. Rachel glanced over at her and gave a frustrated grunt. "Well, I'm sorry Rachel, but I've actually never been invited to a royal masquerade before, where they celebrate Halloween with more passion than Bridgette from the Girls Next Door."
"I love that show," Rachel said, momentarily distracted. "Except I don't like the new Girls. You just can't go replacing the old ones – the best ones."
"Didn't they all dump Hugh Hefner?" Lizzie asked with an arched brow.
"Stop trying to distract me," Rachel said, shaking her head firmly. "I don't care if you've never been to one of these things before. It doesn't matter. You need to be confident and alluring, honey. Who cares what fashions vampires are into now? You need an outfit that is comfortable enough to do your job to the best of your abilities. You're a sexy super-secret assassin spy, babe. You need to dress like one."
Lizzie rolled her eyes but a smile slid onto her face and she took a long moment before finally answering. Nobody had ever asked her what she wanted to wear for occasions such as these; she always thought it was safer to figure out what everyone else was wearing and get her ideas based on that because a similar outfit allowed her to blend in with everybody. But for this particular assignment, it wasn't necessary to be another face. She could stand out if she wanted to. She could wear whatever she desired, as long as it was elegant and sensual.
"Red," Lizzie began, leaning her head back down on the headrest. "Red. I know that green looks good on me and it brings out my eyes, but I've always wanted a red dress. I want it to be form-fitting on top, but it's necessary that the skirt itself is loose so if something does happen, I can run and fight with relative ease. I don't care about the length, but my instinct tells me it should be long. And I don't want it too low-cut and if I had to pick a part of my body to show off, it would have to be my back." She paused for a moment, wondering if there was anything she should add to her description. When she finally concluded that there wasn't, she gave herself a curt nod before looking at Rachel. "Well? Do you think that you can find something like that for me?"
"I'm sure we can," Rachel replied, her lips curled up into a smile as her eyes sparkled.
She already had a picture of the dress in her mind.
The two women arrived at the dress shop twenty minutes later. When the owner recognized Lizzie, she immediately got the two friends a cup of tea and allowed them to look around.
"The All-Hallows’ Eve masquerade is coming up," the shopkeeper informed them. "We have plenty of dresses for the occasion and matching masks that accompany them.”
As Lizzie tried on different dresses, Rachel was busy searching through racks and racks of gowns, trying to find the perfect one for her friend. "So honey," she murmured when her friend stepped out in yet another dress that looked good but wasn't perfect. "How's your little flirt with the prince of all vampires?"
Lizzie, for the umpteenth time that night, rolled her eyes as she peered at herself in the dress. "Please, Rachel," she murmured dismissively. "You know that I hate vampires, and even if I didn't, Nikolai Dragulia is engaged."
Rachel snorted. "Who cares?" she asked, standing next to a new rack of dresses. "You, my friend, are sexually frustrated. When was the last time you did it, anyway?"
"That's none of your business," Lizzie said as she headed back into the dressing room.
"With the way you are right now, it's everybody's business!" Rachel called, and when she turned her attention back to the dresses she was currently examining, her heart stopped. "Oh… My… God…" She grabbed the hanger of the particular dress she had found and held it up, trying to imagine Lizzie in something like this. Finally, a smile broke out onto her face. "It's perfect." She gave herself a nod. "Perfect."
17
Lizzie and Rachel spent a little more time shopping, and Rachel managed to talk her friend into buying the dress she had picked out for her. Lizzie, of course, was always the modest one, but Rachel was smooth and actually threatened to pay for the damn dress herself before Lizzie finally relented. She needed to get away from the castle, needed to get away from Nikolai and her bedroom and what happened between them.
When she finally arrived back at the castle, Lizzie and Rachel said their goodbyes and Lizzie carried her dress up to her room. Her stomach growled at that moment, and she realized that she had been gone longer than she originally intended. Walking into the kitchen, she wondered what she wanted when her eyes found a bundle of bananas. She smiled and grabbed one, tearing it from the stem before heading back into the dining room. The young woman started peeling the fruit, but suddenly stopped when her eyes saw Nikolai, sitting at the dining table, drinking a glass of red wine. Normally, she would have made some snide comment and walked past him, enjoying her food as she headed back up to her room. She wanted to slink off like a goddamn coward because she didn’t want him to throw it in her face that she and him had actually had sex.
Amazing, toe-curling, God-screaming sex.
Now, however, something stopped her, and she immediately realized that it was because of his eyes. There was sadness, maybe vulnerability, in his deep, blue eyes that she never thought she would see before. To be honest, she had always thought that Nikolai was strong because he was arrogant. In all honesty, he probably didn't expect her to be at the dining room the moment he was. Even so, the look on his face stopped her in her tracks and sh
e took the time to memorize it. She would never admit out loud just why that was, but it was simply because he looked beautiful.
After a small amount of time passed, she felt as though she was intruding on something she probably shouldn't be seeing, and cleared her throat with the intent to make her presence known. When Nikolai heard her, his posture immediately straightened, and he blinked, that vulnerability suddenly disappearing, probably, Lizzie guessed, for a very long time. She knew she was lucky to have seen it in the first place.
"Hey," she said, deciding to take a seat next to him before biting into the fruit in her hand. Her eyes took in the deep red wine in the transparent glass, idly wondering if the wine was actually blood, but decided the color wasn't rich enough. She refocused her eyes back onto Nikolai. "What's up?" He perked his brow, but didn't say anything, as though he wasn't sure what the question meant. "Well, you look sad, is all."
"I'm not sad," Nikolai said, and though he didn't snap, his tone was slightly defensive. "I'm just trying to calm down. You know, your presence here hasn't done me any favors." His dryness returned to his voice, and even though Lizzie knew he was forcing it right now, she didn't call him on it. "At least not with my fiancée. She still thinks you want me." The smirk on his face was definitely not false and already she felt herself throw her eyes to the ceiling in response to it.
"She should know I'm definitely not trying to take her place or anything," Lizzie murmured, getting frustrated that she had to explain herself all over again. She couldn’t tell him she would never sleep with him because she had and it was… Breath-taking. She didn’t even want to be around him in fear that he might smell her desire for him on her. "I'm never ever going to be with you because you're already taken and you're probably the most aggravating person on this planet that I have ever met."
Nikolai's smirk only deepened and he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Well, I do try," he said, and then raised his eyes to lock with Lizzie’s. Surprisingly enough, the two shared a smile before she took another bite of her banana. "So tell me, Tinkerbell, do you have a beloved?"
Lizzie didn't even bother to correct him for calling her anything but her name. "What's it to you?" she asked after swallowing, pressing her lips together. Now he asks her this? Now?
"Just trying to start a conversation," Nikolai said, devoid of any implications.
"Well, I don't want to talk about it," she said, almost as though she was trying to challenge him.
Nikolai thought about it for a moment before leaning in forward so he was only a few inches from her, and somehow, he caught her eyes within his own and refused to let her go. "Okay, then," he conceded, and tilted his head slightly to the side. "Tell me why you hate vampires."
Lizzie opened her mouth, ready to deliver the same exact response that she had replied to the first question, when she caught herself and clenched her jaw. Before she could stop herself, she said, "Would you like to know why I hate vampires? I'll tell you why I hate vampires. It is biologically impossible for your kind to be monogamous." She perked her brow, silently asking him to contradict her.
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience," Nikolai pointed out, but before she could retort something smart, he quickly continued. "So what you're telling me, exactly, is that you believe that vampires are incapable of falling in love?" He didn’t seem to be condescending or judgmental; he just sounded as though he was simply curious and was making sure that he had interpreted her question correctly.
"I'm not saying that," Lizzie said, shaking her head and leaning back in her chair though her eyes were still fixated in his. "I believe that vampires are capable of loving people. But I also believe that you are incapable of being faithful."
She seemed pretty sure of her conclusion. Nikolai, too, sat back in his chair and studied her. He responded to her attitude by furrowing his brow low and pursing his lips, clearly wondering just what it was she had experienced for her to have come to that conclusion. Though Nikolai himself had taken to being unfaithful every now and then, he didn't see it as too big of a deal. He knew that Marie didn't love him just like he didn't love her, and he truly felt because of that reason, it was okay. It wasn't as though she was completely faithful to him, either. Nikolai wasn't a fool; he knew that the only reason Marie let him get away with things like that was because she wanted the crown more than anything.
Tilting his head to the side, Nikolai wondered if Miss Grant was the same way, but he highly doubted that was so. In fact, if he was being completely honest, Elizabeth – had she been the woman in Marie's place – would probably break up with him if she had evidence of his infidelity, whether she had the crown or not. The corners of his lips quirked up as he regarded her, deciding he respected her even more than he already did.
Elizabeth Grant was quite a woman.
"I am going to have to disagree with you," he told her, his eyes still locked to hers. "However, I think I understand why you believe what you believe. It is true that many vampires are not monogamous, that we like to go from mate to mate, but biologically, that's what we're supposed to do. Even humans are programmed to jump from mate to mate. The feeling you associate with love fizzles out after eighteen months, and instead of being in love with a person, you simply love them. They are like family."
"Oh, and that makes cheating okay?" Elizabeth asked, arching her brow in disbelief.
"Hang on," Nikolai said, rising up a hand in a manner of defense. "Let me finish. Once that love fizzles out, people need to find a way to rekindle the flame. Vampires don't like working out a relationship if they don't love a person so they move on. Vampires take lots of time to actually fall in love, but when they do, they don't cheat. I can guarantee you that. A vampire's loyalty is never questioned.”
Elizabeth looked at him for a long moment. "How can you possibly love someone forever?" she asked.
Nikolai shrugged his shoulders. "I'll let you know when it happens to me," he promised. "But let me make something clear to you, Tinkerbell. I really do believe in the concept known as true love. I just don't think I have found it yet."
"That makes one of us," Elizabeth said before finishing her banana. Nikolai waited patiently until she finally decided to explain her meaning. "This whole concept of true love is bullshit. How can anyone believe in that when there are six billion people on the planet? What if you never find your true love? What if your true love dies? What, then?"
"I didn't say I could explain why I believe it," Nikolai corrected, finding it interesting that the woman before him wasn't as romantic as he thought she would be. Weren't all women supposed to be romantic? "I just said that I do believe it." His smirk littered his face when he suddenly got an idea. "And, just so you know, Tinkerbell, I'll get you to believe in the concept of true love, too."
Elizabeth gave him a pitiful look but allowed a smile to touch her face. "You can try," she told him, "but I highly doubt you'll sway me."
18
Nikolai's talk left Lizzie feeling flustered and confused even more than before. Had she really just encountered a vampire who actually wanted to find someone who he considered to be his true love? As she continued her jog the next day – twilight, to be exact – she couldn't help but ponder his words and analyze them more. Was he just saying things because he thought that was what she wanted to hear? But then that didn't make any sense at all because it wasn't very likely that Nikolai cared one way or another about her feelings. Yes, he cared that she was a good assassin, and if he wanted her around, he knew not to piss her off, but it was very unlikely that Nikolai wanted her to like him to the point where he would lie about his romantic principles.
This meant that Nikolai truly believed what he was saying.
Lizzie thought about it for a moment, feeling the cool, bitter air sting her skin as her long tresses bounced left and right from the high ponytail she kept her hair in. True love. She really didn't believe in such a concept; she had told Nikolai that much, but what if such a thing was true? Just because she hadn't
experienced it herself didn't necessarily mean that the notion was false in the same way that just because she hadn't seen a ghost before didn't mean that they didn't exist. It only meant that she hadn't seen one, and hell, she might never see one, but still believed they were there. Or people who believed in their religion, praying to whatever God it was they believed in. Just because they couldn't see Him, didn't mean He didn't exist.
But then again, some people felt just the opposite, and that was okay too. Logic and common sense seemed to win out compared to faith and intuition, which was somewhat sad. She herself believed more in logic than intuition, but her intuition was incredibly strong so it was hard for her to refute it. But even so, logic still won out at times. Maybe she should trust herself more. There were some things logic couldn't explain, and love was definitely one of those things.
So would it be fair to hold love under the same microscope if said microscope couldn't see it in the same way? Hell, maybe there really was true love out there. Maybe for it to happen, you actually had to believe in the concept itself. Kind of like positive thinking. If you believe in it, you can probably achieve it.
But just because there was a chance Lizzie might be a bit more open minded about true love didn't mean she actually believed in it. Yet. Nikolai had told her that he was going to change her mind about the entire situation, which was quite amusing to her the more she thought about it. How was Nikolai going to change her mind about something like that? He couldn't make her fall in love with anyone. She would have to do that one on her own – and it was highly doubtful that she would ever love a vampire again.
An Education in Royalty: A Somerset Novel (Somerset Series Book 1) Page 9