That was who Elizabeth Grant was in a nutshell. It was why he chose her out of everyone. At least, that was what he had heard, and upon meeting her, he realized that her reputation preceded her. She was so much more than just an amazing assassin. She was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever encountered in his life, and he had been alive for a pretty long time. She was sweet and compassionate when he didn't piss her off – and somehow he always managed to piss her off – and she was also funny. She couldn't dance very well, but he was certain that if she was determined enough to learn it, she would perfect it in two weeks tops. He had counted the freckles on her face at least three dozen times, and when he got bored of that, he turned his attention to her eyes, trying to count the colors in her irises. Unlike her freckles, the colors of her eyes were always changing, and it was hard to keep a regular tab on them.
He missed her. He missed the fact that she rarely ever addressed him as Highness even though his name sounded beautiful on his lips. He missed her scent, her beating heart, and her smile.
He loved her. With whatever heart he was deemed to have, beating or not, he loved her with every ounce of it.
The sky was a hazy grey, and there was a slight possibility that it would rain soon. He wondered if Elizabeth was the type of woman who longed to be kissed in the rain, as so many other women did. It was the media's fault for portraying an in-the-rain-kiss a romantic type of gesture, and yet he could see the draw to it. She probably was. Whether she admitted it or not, Elizabeth was a romantic at heart with a burning passion. At least that's what he had felt in their kiss. He so wanted to kiss her once more, and then another time after that, and then…
Her lips were soft, and the slender curve of her neck looked delectable. He wanted nothing more than to sink his teeth into her neck and claim her as his, transform her into what he was so she would live forever with him. If she refused such an action, and wanted to remain human, then that would be all right too. It would hurt to watch her die, but just being with her would mean more to him than… Well, than being immortal.
"You need to distract yourself before you start thinking about something that you might regret," Nikolai mumbled to himself, but even verbalizing his doubts didn't sway his determined heart.
He needed to see her one more time, to apologize, and if she still pushed him away and refused to be with him, then he would let her go. Nikolai was stubborn and didn't like to share what he believed was truly his, but if she wanted it, he would respect her decision and give it to her. Hell, if she asked for a star in the sky, he would personally reach up and pluck one down for her. An impossible feat, but somehow, he would do it, should she ever asked.
Somewhere inside of her, Nikolai knew that Elizabeth felt something for him in return, whether she wanted to admit it or not. The way her eyes shone a particular shade of green when she looked at him, the way her lips would unconsciously curl up when he made her smile, and the way she looked at him when she thought he wasn't looking. Why would she truly believe that he had set everything up and had been using her the whole time? Why would she think that of him?
Nikolai had to make everything right between them, no matter what it took. To start, he needed to know everything he could about this so called plan Lewis had spoken of. He ran his long fingers through his already disheveled hair and sighed through his nose. It was hard to believe that his own brother was behind the plot, but he needed to push family aside. He needed to get to the bottom of this in any way possible.
Torture it would be then.
A certain amount of silver would ultimately kill a vampire. Eight milligrams and a vampire would soon suffer a long, agonizing death. Because vampires were undead, if they ever were to die, it would be the most excruciating experience they would encounter. However, one could give a vampire just below eight milligrams of silver, whether by means of injection or through a beverage, and though the vampire would not die, he would surely be in pain as the silver had promised. With those thoughts, he began to set his plan into motion.
It wasn't long before Nikolai had Lewis strapped to a wooden chair, still in his brother's cell, four guards inside and two guards outside by the door. Once everyone was settled, Nikolai put the fatal liquid into a syringe himself.
"Let's see what one milligram will tell me," he murmured to himself before looking at his brother. "Lewis, you have one last chance to tell me exactly what this plan was to take out Elizabeth, who is involved in this, and what your reasoning is behind this little game you organized." He paused again, but though Lewis's face was taut, and he said nothing. "I will do it, Lewis."
"I know you will, Nikolai," Lewis told his brother, looking at the next prince expectantly.
Nikolai shook his head with disappointment and injected the syringe in Lewis' left arm, whatever vein the tourniquet had managed to find. It only took a moment before the serum seeped into Lewis's bloodstream and began to take effect. Lewis immediately groaned, and he would have keeled over had it not been for the fact that he was strapped tightly to the chair.
"Tell me," Nikolai said quickly, hoping the pain would begin to inspire his younger brother to talk. "Lewis, tell me everything or I will inject another milligram inside of you."
Lewis could do nothing; instead, he merely whimpered. Nikolai sighed, and began to fill the syringe with another milligram of silver.
Surprisingly enough, it took Lewis another two shots of silver before he finally told Nikolai everything, a total of three milligrams swirling around in his body. Lewis spoke of how those closest to Nikolai wanted nothing more than to ensure that no attempts would be made against his life as prince. To cancel out all possibilities, even an assassination attempt carried out by a human, they would take out the best to ensure his safety. Nearly everyone he knew had been involved including Lewis, his brother’s fiancée Karina, Karina's two brothers, and even Marie.
Nikolai tilted his head back and looked at his guards. "Arrest everyone," he ordered in a soft voice.
When the guards had disappeared, Nikolai turned back to look at his younger brother, but he couldn't decide how to feel about everything. He couldn't even understand Lewis's reasoning; there would be no reason for the NDS to assassinate Nikolai if he just abided by the Charter of Rules each species had to sign. It wasn't as though he was suddenly going to rule a different way; Nikolai had planned to respect what his father had done. There was a chance Lewis was lying, but Nikolai would never know. In some way, he really didn't want to know what was up his brother's sleeve, not after what Lewis had caused.
"We," Lewis began, wincing but straining his mouth with a determined grunt. He needed to say this somehow. "We were… only trying to… protect you." Then his whole face contorted into a scowl, his sapphire eyes flashing dangerously. "We didn't actually… actually think you would fall… in love… with that slut."
Without really thinking about it, Nikolai curled his fingers into a fist and punched his brother in the side of the face once again. The crunch of Lewis' delicate bone structure was one of the most satisfying sounds Nikolai Dragulia had ever heard.
28
It had been a good month and a half since Lizzie Grant had left Nikolai Dragulia's residence upon finding out that her presence there had been a ploy to kill her. Even today, she still wondered how she could have been so stupid as to actually believe that maybe he actually liked her. Not because she was good looking – if he even thought she was attractive – but because of the scattered and sometimes contradicting elements that made up her personality. He had promised he would show her that vampires can fall in love and be monogamous despite the impracticality of it when they lived forever, and she would never admit it, but she desperately wanted him to be right. Lizzie really did want him to show her that no matter how rare such a feat could be, a vampire could be all those things.
But he stepped on her hopes as he broke her heart.
She was a fool for actually believing that there was some way that Nikolai could actually be her fri
end and lover. Her thoughts often drifted back to her time with him in the small room, dressed up for the All-Hallows’ Eve Masquerade. Lip upon lip, fingers caressing flesh. She knew she would have gone all the way with him right there. She missed his touch, his mouth, the way he felt inside of her. She had craved him for the longest time and her passion for him overrode any logic. And more than anything, she just needed to feel him. That, and vampires always really did seem to be the best lovers, and in that time, she could simply pretend that he loved her.
It was delusional, yes, but it wasn't as though she was demanding any sort of relationship from him.
Lizzie wouldn't deny to herself that she was in love with him. In her weaker states, she would find herself staring out her bedroom window, looking up at the moon, wondering what he was doing at that moment and if he was thinking about her the way she was thinking of him. She only allowed herself a short time to pine and cry for him, allowing her heart to break just a little bit more before she pulled herself together and forced Nikolai to the back of her mind. Just because Nikolai broke her heart did not mean that her whole world had fallen apart.
In fact, it was Rachel that had helped her. They couldn't do much with her broken arm, but Rachel rented movies nearly every night with Clint Eastwood in them, and they would wish they had been born earlier, just on the off-chance of meeting the beautiful specimen. Though, if Rachel was being honest, she had always preferred Paul Newman, which was okay, because they could each pretend to have their men and that was that.
The day Lizzie got her cast off, Rachel took her to Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum where they posed with the wax figurines. (Molested was more like it, especially on Rachel's part.) It was probably the most fun Lizzie had had in a long time, and it really meant a lot to her that Rachel cared enough to make sure she was all right.
Currently, they were at the gym, their journey to the wax museum now two weeks ago. Both were on treadmills, jogging. Rachel was watching VH1's music video lineup on the television in front of them, but Lizzie found her thoughts wondering to a place where she didn't want them to venture. Nikolai had always been notorious for popping up when she was running, whether it was in her mind or right beside her. In fact, she was thinking so hard, she didn't hear Rachel say something to her until Rachel reached over and gently grabbed her arm.
"Sweetie," she said in a soft voice, her brown eyes looking at her friend with obvious worry. "Are you okay?"
Lizzie didn't stop her run, but tilted her head in Rachel's direction and nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I was just thinking."
Rachel knew better, and Lizzie knew that Rachel knew better, so the lie – however truthful it might have been – was unnecessary and almost insulting. Yet Rachel understood, and it was lucky for Lizzie that she was.
"You're not over him, are you?" Rachel said, releasing her hold on her friend and resumed her run. Her focus was still on Lizzie, and she knew better than to ignore the question.
"He's a vampire," she said while maintaining steady breathing. "He exudes sexuality, and I, like some hormonal teenage schoolgirl, got caught up in him. It's not serious."
"You know, you might believe your logic, but you should be aware that I don't," Rachel told her, arching a brow but keeping her face in front of her. "You don't have to deny that you had feelings for him. Why would you pretend that you loved someone, sweetie? Do you know how hard it is to drop your defenses and actually allow yourself to feel something for someone else, no matter how different the choice is, and how badly you don't want to like him? I wish I could fall in love with somebody."
"Love is the most painful feeling in the world," Lizzie said, though her eyes were fixated on the television set despite the fact she had no idea what was playing.
"Or the best," Rachel pointed out, a mischievous quirk tugging on the edges of her lips. "You get to choose how you feel about the situation. It's like answering if the glass is half-empty or half-full. It’s what you make of it."
Lizzie said nothing, but her mind did process Rachel's advice and tucked it away in a place where she could recall it if she needed to.
The next day was Lizzie's first day back as an assassin rather than someone doing desk work. She held the slip of paper from NDS' own physician saying her arm had healed enough so she could go back to work if she wanted to. And she did. She needed to focus on something – anything – in order to keep her mind from focusing on Nikolai Dragulia. While she had incredible fun with Rachel, her job called for a one-track mind if she wanted to be successful at it. At that moment, she was sitting outside Jackson's office, waiting for him to call her in. Though Lizzie knew he liked to make her wait whenever he could. Ass.
"Miss Grant?" the newest pretty secretary called.
Lizzie thought of Jackson's secretaries as Flavors of the Month only because there seemed to be a new one every month. Jackson's taste was always hard to pinpoint, but she liked to think that Jackson had a short attention span, and couldn't exactly handle a woman's sexuality.
"Mister Jackson will see you now."
Mister Jackson? Cute.
Lizzie had never called Jackson with any sort of prelude before his name in her entire time of knowing him. It didn’t sound right to her. As usual, Jackson's chair was turned so she couldn't see what he looked like, something he did with everyone, not just her. She liked to think that it was because Jackson thought he was James Bond.
"You know, Miss Grant," Jackson began, and Lizzie could hear the smile in his voice. "Only you could walk out of a vampire-infested castle after it turns out that you were the target after all. And come out with barely a scratch."
"My arm was only in a cast because some royal shot me," she muttered under her breath.
"Exactly," Jackson said. "Just a scratch." Lizzie rolled her eyes but smirked nonetheless. "I need to ask you a personal question, Miss Grant, and it would behoove you to answer honestly because it has to do with your next assignment, and I need to ensure that not only are you physically able to return to work – you can leave the physician's note on the desk, thanks – but you're mentally capable as well."
Lizzie rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. Jackson liked to play these silly games with her and her patience always ended up being the casualty.
"Did you fall in love with Nikolai Dragulia?" he asked in his usual blunt manner. And that was it; he didn't follow-up his question with a snide comment, but rather with a heavy silence.
Lizzie felt her heart stop upon hearing the words come out of Jackson's mouth. How could he possibly know…? Would Rachel –? No, Rachel would never betray her and tell such an important secret to Jackson. And plus, she was getting over it in her own way anyhow.
"No," she answered, hoping beyond hope that Jackson believed her.
"Good." Lizzie saw his head tilt down it what might have been a nod. "Good, because your next assignment is to kill Nikolai Dragulia, the next in line to the crown. That's not going to be a problem for you, is it Miss Grant? Because, quite frankly, the NDS doesn't liked to be used in order to get their top assassin killed."
Lizzie could swear that her heart stopped, but she was too numb to notice. "No," she murmured, looking at her folded hands resting in her lap. "No, that won't be a problem. I'll do it."
29
“So I'm going to have to ask you again, Miss Grant," Jackson said, his back still towards the young woman still sitting in his office. If he only turned around, revealing what he looked like, maybe then he would see the shocked look on her face, and how the entire situation was more than impossible for her. "Can you do this? Can you permanently end Nikolai Dragulia's, soon-to-be King of vampires, life? Or is there too much history between the two of you to do this particular job?"
Without realizing it, Lizzie scowled. Jackson was always prodding her like this, saying things about her ability and contempt for vampires in hopes that maybe it would piss her off enough to inspire her to do her damn job. But even though she was the best at her occupation and k
new it, Jackson's trickery and manipulation always seemed to work.
Even now.
Lizzie had to do her job, no matter what that work was. It didn't matter if her target was Nikolai. It was going to be more than a little upsetting, but she needed to remind herself that he had tried to kill her. The whole reason for getting her over to the castle was a complete and utter lie. Nikolai had never been in any danger - she had - and luckily, managed to escape.
If Nikolai was behind everything then why did he let you walk out of the house? A voice in her head inquired, almost challengingly. Why didn't he kill you at any other time? Why didn't he kill you when he had ample opportunity? Why did he wait? Why would he wait?
"Yes," Lizzie said, forcing the answer out of her lips before she could talk herself out of it. "Yes, I can do the job."
Though she couldn't see it, there was a smile etched out onto Jackson's face. "Somehow, I knew you would say that," he murmured. "There's a manila folder on my desk – I'm sure you've eyed it a couple of times, wondering what it is. Well, those are the papers signed by myself and the head of NDS approving of this mission, and this target, so any guilt you might feel can now diminish."
"When do I leave?" she asked, her eyes glaring at the folder since she couldn't exactly glare at Jackson.
"Good question," Jackson said. "There's a round trip train ticket in that folder. You leave in a manner of hours, so I'd suit up." Lizzie grabbed the folder and was about to leave when Jackson stopped her. "Oh, and Miss Grant. I don't have to tell you how sharp a vampire's hearing is, do I? Especially since you'll be the only thing with a beating heart in that castle."
An Education in Royalty: A Somerset Novel (Somerset Series Book 1) Page 14