by T. S. Ryder
“What do you think of your new home? That shack of yours is nothing compared to the luxuries you will enjoy here, even if my son does not select you as his mate,” Jennifer hummed in Alice’s ear as she forced the witch out of the carriage.
The sun had long since set over the coven grounds, making it the perfect time for the vampires to move around the grounds. Already, she could make out various shapes looming in the darkness. It was all very dramatic and gaudy. She had never liked the way that the vampires flaunted themselves as if they were better than those around them.
“Yes, it’s quite impressive, but not really to my tastes,” she quipped back, grimacing when Jennifer’s razor-like nails dug into her shoulder painfully. “I mean, I suppose under all the glitz and glamour it has a rather rustic appeal,” she continued, hissing when the woman shoved her forward.
“You’ll learn to adore it, I’m sure,” Jennifer huffed, not pleased with the lack of awe on Alice’s face. “You’ll live in the lap of luxury even if my son decides not to select you as his mate. You’ll just have to learn to play nice, because if you don’t, I promise, your life is going to be a lot more difficult.”
“You know, I wouldn’t have to play nice if you hadn’t kidnapped me,” Alice growled, grunting as she was led through an ornate entryway, her eyes locking with a few human servants as they scrambled to get out of the way of their mistress.
Clicking her tongue against her teeth in irritation at being manhandled so roughly, she promised herself she would figure out a way to get back at Jennifer. Stumbling up the stairs and down a hallway, she grumbled as they pulled to a stop in front of a large, oaken door.
“Try to look a little less like you’ve just caught a whiff of spoiled milk, would you? Most girls would kill for the opportunity to mate with the head of a coven as powerful as this one,” Jennifer ordered, glancing up at Alice and frowning as she looked her over.
“I will gladly switch places with those girls. Shall we go, then?” Alice demanded, cursing when the door opened and she was shoved inside.
The room was huge, scattered with couches and pillows that were occupied by a collection of women ranging in age, size, race, and even species. From where she was standing she could see humans, vampires and even Fae, who were all scattered across the room chatting softly with each other. She assumed that these were the concubines that Jennifer had mentioned before. She would have to do her best to help these girls escape when she left. She hated to think of so many young ladies acting as sex slaves for a vampire lord.
“You there!” Jennifer snapped at a particularly small human girl with huge blue eyes and short dirty blond hair. She was cute, with a boyish figure and a slender form. “Go fetch Matheus!” Jennifer ordered, earning a nod from the girl as she scrambled to do as she had been told.
“You know, a please never hurts,” Alice grumbled, swearing when she was smacked on the head. She didn’t have time to protest, though, because before she could turn on the woman, the girl who had disappeared returned with a man in tow.
What a man he was. Alice found herself a bit startled at just how attractive the vampire king actually was. His soft, short, golden hair waved lightly around his alabaster face. His eyes were the color of the ivy that curled up the side of her house. He was built like a warrior but carried himself like a lord. Power and grace seemed to emanate from the man with each step he took, and as he approached, a charming smile curled over his full, pale lips.
“Mother, I didn’t realize you’d be back so soon.” The man, who she assumed was Matheus Lindgern, smiled, his voice rumbling through the air warmly, a deep tenor that offset the sopranos and altos chirping around the room. “Who is this?” he asked, moving up to Alice slowly.
“This lovely woman is the witch that I spoke to you about. She’s lovely, isn’t she?” Jennifer hummed, her hands on Alice’s shoulders as her son studied the woman his mother had brought before him.
“Yes, she is,” Matheus chuckled, eyeing the woman in front of him, his eyes lingering a bit too long on her full curves for Alice’s liking.
“My eyes are up here,” Alice snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and ignoring the startled look of both of the vampires. They were obviously used to receiving at least some sort of courtesy from their servants and followers. Luckily for Alice, she was neither and had no intention of becoming one of their doting minions.
“You certainly have quite a bit of spunk, don’t you?” Matheus laughed, moving forward and studying her slowly. Seeming to like what he saw, he glanced up at his mother with a warm smile. “Thank you, mother, I’ll take it from here.”
“Are you sure? I could stay and see if we can’t control that mouth of hers,” Jennifer grumbled, and Alice wondered just how much she was regretting her decision to bring Alice back to the coven.
“Positive. Why would I want to control her mouth if I want to potentially take her as my bride?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at his mother. “I can handle things for now. I’ll join you later for dinner,” he promised, leaning in and kissing his mother on the cheek before turning his attention back to Alice. “Now, you’ve had a long journey. Would you like to bathe and get changed?”
“Already trying to get me naked, your majesty?” Alice raised an eyebrow, earning a chuckle from the prince, who shook his head.
“Only if you want to, my dear lady. For now, I think that I’ll send Lindsey here to tend to you.” His smile was charismatic as he waved the girl forward. “Please bring her back to my rooms once she’s done,” he requested of the blonde, who nodded and gestured for Alice to follow her.
“Right this way,” the smaller girl ordered, raising an eyebrow when Alice seemed to hesitate. “What? He’s not going to try anything. He’s a better man than you think. Now, are you coming? Unless you like smelling like horses and sweat.” She shrugged before moving towards another side door.
Grumbling to herself, Alice glanced after the vampire king, her eyes flashing as she relented and followed after Lindsey. At least this would give her some time to think of an escape plan.
Chapter Four
Sitting in the bubble-filled water a few minutes later, Alice allowed herself to sink into the warmth and groaned as muscles that had been tense for days finally relaxed. As much as she hated to let her guard down, a bath was definitely something she needed. Closing her eyes, she sank below the surface to let the warmth completely immerse her.
Popping back up only when her lungs began to scream, she wiped the water from her eyes and looked at Lindsey, who was sitting on a chair by the sink. She didn’t seem to be interested at all in the witch in the tub. In fact, she seemed far more intrigued by her own fingernails.
“How long have you been here?” Alice asked, scrubbing some soap into her hair as she spoke. Lindsey looked up from her nails with a confused look on her face, as if she hadn’t been expecting the woman to acknowledge her presence.
“Me?” she asked. When Alice nodded, she blushed and ran her fingers through her short hair. “About a year now. Madam found me when I was working in the fields of my parents’ farm. She took me back here and when Mat – I mean, King Lindgern rejected me, I just became another one of his concubines.”
“Does he, you know, sleep with you?” Alice asked, raising her eyebrow at the girl, who flushed and shook her head.
“I’ve slept with him a couple of times, but not more than that. He usually only sleeps with his favorite, Veronica. She sort of runs this place because she shares his bed. I don’t like her,” Lindsey admitted, looking up at Alice with a grimace. “Just keep out of her way and she’ll leave you alone. If you don’t, you’ll wind up working the bad jobs or worse.” She sighed, reaching up to run her fingers through her short hair again.
“Your hair, did she cut it?” Alice asked, rinsing the soap from her hair before glancing up at Lindsey, who nodded slowly.
“Yes, she cut it when I didn’t do something she told me to do.” Lindsey sighed, wrap
ping her arms around her knees. “Matheus might be the king, but she’s the head bitch in the harem. Matheus is too busy to notice what’s going on.” Frowning, Alice let the last of the soap run out of her hair as she sat up in the water.
“Well, I can promise you at least one thing, I’m not going to let anyone boss me around. Not Matheus, not this girl who thinks that she’s some big thing. She’s going to learn quickly that I’ve been alive long enough to learn a few things about her type,” Alice muttered, earning a shy little smile from Lindsey.
“If you could do something about her, anything at all, I would be so happy,” Lindsey laughed, an excited look on her face. “She’s been bullying the rest of us for too long.”
“Well, as long as I’m here, that isn’t going to happen,” Alice decided, chuckling when Lindsey’s face lit up with a beaming smile.
Lindsey reminded her of the girls back in her own town. She was sweet and country bred. She could swallow her pride and keep her chin up even in the worst situations. When Alice escaped, she would have to take the girl with her.
Sliding out of the water, Alice accepted the towel that Lindsey offered her and dried off her dripping skin. She had no desire to meet with the king, but it would be better to get it over with so that she could get back to planning her escape.
“Here, you can wear this until we can get you fitted for more clothes,” Lindsey said, handing Alice a lavender dress that hung a little loose around her shoulders but still managed to hug her hips a bit too snugly. It would have to do.
Trailing her fingers over the front of the dress to smooth out any wrinkles, Alice regarded herself in the mirror as Lindsey helped her brush out the tangled mess that her hair had become. It took a while to tame her unruly mane, but eventually they managed to get it to look presentable.
“I’m impressed. I can’t get it to behave most of the time.” Alice ran her fingers through her hair, marveling at the softness that Lindsey had managed to coax out. “Thanks. Now I’ll look good when I chew out the king.” She smiled, earning a soft sigh from Lindsey.
“He’s really not a bad man,” Lindsey said, helping Alice stand and smiling softly. “I think you might actually like him if you get to know him.” She shrugged, chuckling when Alice pulled a face.
“You know, I tend not to fall head over heels in love with people who kidnap me,” Alice pointed out firmly, hugging Lindsey gratefully before sliding out into the main room where the other members of Matheus’ harem were.
Moving up to Matheus’ door, she took a deep breath. She would not allow the man to seduce her. She would not allow him to flirt. She would make it very clear that she did not belong to him, and he was going to have to deal with it.
Closing her eyes, she knocked on the heavy wooden door, putting a stern look on her face as she waited for it to open. She was about to find herself face to face again with the same forest green eyes that had made her heart flutter before. Matheus’ smile might look innocent, but she knew that he was far from the sweet, gentle man he’d like her to believe he was.
When a call sounded for her, granting her access into the room, Alice sighed. Pressing inside, she braced herself for whatever it was that the king had planned for her.
Chapter Five
The king’s room was beautiful and far more conservative than the gaudy main hall. Draped in rich, warm crimson and gold, the bed at the center of the room drew her eye. The dark oak panels were carved with handsome designs of deer, bears, and wolves.
The rest of the room was warm and plain. It was simply furnished with bookshelves, a table and a large wooden desk that was carved to match the bed. Only the soft gold trimming on the curtains and rugs held any sort of glamour.
Matheus himself was seated at a small table in the corner. On the table was a vase filled with tiny yellow and pink roses not much larger than Alice’s thumbnail. Bread, wine, fresh fruit, and cheeses were resting on silver platters, spread out in an appetizing fashion.
“Come on in, Alice. Make yourself comfortable,” Matheus smiled, gesturing to the table she assumed he had set up for her. “You know, you didn’t tell me your last name if you’d prefer for me to refer to you that way.” He gestured for her to sit down on a couch and crossed the room to a bar in the corner. “Anything to drink?”
“No, thank you.” Alice shook her head, her hands resting on her knees as she sat down. “And I don’t have a last name. Last names give power to other witches and wizards. I haven’t used my last name since I was a child. There’s nobody alive who knows my last name, and I’d like to keep it that way.” She hummed, trailing her fingers through her hair.
“Very cryptic,” Matheus chuckled, pouring himself a glass of what appeared to be blood before sitting down at the table across from her. Noting her tense position, he smiled. “Relax, I won’t try anything, I promise. I just want to get to know you.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Alice said, her eyes focused on his face. The man didn’t seem bothered by her aggression at all, and instead seemed to be genuinely enjoying her company. “I’ve met men like you. Men of your status tend to do whatever they can to get what they want,” she pointed out firmly.
“I admire your resolve, but I promise that I mean you no harm,” Matheus insisted, holding up his hands in a submissive manner before smiling back at her again, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
She wasn’t sure what was going on, but as she watched him take a sip from his drink and wink playfully at her, she realized that she might be in trouble. The man was actually flirtatious and charming and seemed to be intelligent too. She would have to keep her guard up if she was going to keep herself out of his grasp. She knew how vampires worked and she didn’t trust him farther than she could throw him.
He might play a good guy, but deep down, he was a man whose only desires were power and status. She couldn’t allow herself to fall into his carefully laid trap. Trusting people had never been her strong suit and she wasn’t planning to trust the man whose mother had ripped her away from her home.
“I know that you don’t trust me, but I’d like you to know that I am not my father,” Matheus began, when he realized she wasn’t going to willingly take part in a conversation with him. “My father was not so much a king as he was a warlord whose goal was to conquer and destroy. It has ruined our civilization and left us on the brink of destruction. Our species were mistrusted before, and now, after so many years of war, we are seen only as monsters.”
Alice nodded, agreeing with the man. The creatures of the dark had been fighting with the beings of the light for centuries under the leadership of men like Matheus’ father. She had never tangled with Matheus’ father herself, but she had heard of him. Alexander Lindgern had been one of the last of the vampire kings attempting to take over the races around them. A stubborn and ruthless man, there had only been one way to stop his rampage.
His assassination had marked the beginning of the end of the war. With one of the most powerful heads of the Vampire Empire gone, the others began to crumble at the feet of the opposing kingdoms. The end of the war had been bloody on both sides, but the light had won. She was proud to have served in it.
“I never met your father. I would be a poor judge of whether or not you are like him,” Alice noted, taking a sip from a glass of wine before relaxing a little.
“I understand. I suppose that means that I have a clean slate?” Matheus asked, chuckling when she raised a well-groomed eyebrow at him. “I’m not a monster. I think that you’d actually like me if you got to know me,” he insisted, his gaze wandering over her body slowly.
“You just want to add me to your list of conquered women,” she said, not willing to let the other woo her. “I’m not a prize to be won.” She glared at him, lifting a piece of bread up to her lips and chewing pointedly.
“I never said that you were. None of the women in my harem fascinate me as much as you do. You’re different. You’re callous, independent, and power
ful,” Matheus explained, his hand reaching out to touch her slender fingers. Lifting them up to his lips, he pressed a fleeting kiss to her knuckles. “I want a woman like you as my queen. Someone who will rule and not just passively allow herself to become a figurehead.” Alice’s lips pursed at this and she looked up at the man through her lashes.
“You expect me to agree to marry you after you kidnapped me?” she asked, her nails tapping against the table slowly.
“No, I expect you to agree to marry me once I’ve won your heart,” Matheus hummed, reaching out and trailing his fingers over her cheek.
She didn’t know why, but she didn’t pull away from his touch. Whether it was to preserve her pride and show she had no fear of the man, or because she was legitimately curious about the man’s intentions, she remained still and allowed him to trail his fingers over her cheeks and lips. What she did not expect was the fleeting kiss that he pressed to her lips. His pale lips were cold, but soft and pliant against her own.
She pulled away before he could deepen the kiss, but made no move to scold him for the gesture. It was a sweet, innocent kiss and responding would just give him what he wanted. Instead, she merely continued to pick at her food, allowing herself to be dragged into his stories about life growing up in the vampire coven.
Despite her best attempts to keep her heart hard, Alice could feel a few cracks forming as she listened to the king speak. Deep down, she could feel an unfamiliar warmth flood through her each time his hand moved closer to hers. She wasn’t sure how to explain the deep longing she felt when his eyes locked with hers, but she did know that whatever was causing it was something far stronger than any magic she had ever known.
Maybe he wasn’t a monster after all.
Chapter Six