I raised an eyebrow.
Jealousy flashed across his face. "Never once did I have any feelings for anyone with whom I mated. Not that I can blame you for that, as I've already stated. That's why I'm going to beat George and Francine within an inch of death before sending them on their way. This is their fault."
I gasped. "You won't touch Cliff, will you?"
He made a disgusted face. "If you wish me to leave him untouched, I will."
"I do!"
"That's fine. I can't blame him any more than I can blame you. He was lied to also. I've watched him and I believe that if he knew that you were truly destined for another, he never would have allowed himself to fall in love with you."
"Can't you just kill off his parents and let him stay here?"
"No, my love. First of all, I want to eradicate the werewolves and she's rounding them up for me. Secondly, the two of you need your space so that you can cultivate the feelings that you're meant to feel."
"Toward you."
He nodded. At the same moment, the servant reappeared with George and Francine. Where was Cliff?
"Master Alrekur, the Montgomery's."
Alrekur looked at them, his face stoic. They bowed, Francine glaring at me.
"Take the Sonnast to her room. I have business to discuss with the Montgomery's."
The servant bowed and turned to me. I stood up and walked out with him, feeling the burn of Francine's glare on my back. When we arrived into the hall, I looked around for my parents. Where had they disappeared to? Weren't they supposed to be waiting for me?
As soon as the servant left me in my room, I opened my door into the hallway to look for Cliff. I wanted to see him one last time before he was sent away. My parents were walking down the hall toward my room.
They rushed to me and smothered me in a group hug.
"I'm so glad that he didn't touch you," my mother said.
"His servant made us leave his wing while you two talked," my father said. "Alrekur had demanded it, so we had to go."
"Why?" I demanded. "You're the king and queen, and not even vampires. You're one of the couples who created vampires!"
"It's as we told you, he's the true head of the castle, and the vampire kingdom. We've given up our roles as the Atcen and Asrai. We live as vampires."
"Will you let me go so I can see Cliff one last time?"
"He's with his parents, helping them to heal."
"Already?" I exclaimed.
"Alrekur's much stronger than any other vampire," my father said. "When you two were fighting, he either held back or you're much more powerful than we realized."
I frowned. "I'm supposed to be as powerful as the rest of the Fyrsturae. Or did you forget?"
"Of course not. We didn't expect you to come into your full ability yet."
"Why not? I'm fully transformed. I just need training—something I've had very little of since finding out that I was a vampire."
My mother made a face. "Let's not get into that again. You're upset about Cliff. Why don't you see if you can say goodbye? It's clear that that's what you want to do. Use discretion; they may need family time while they heal and prepare to leave."
"Yes, I know." I started to walk away and they swallowed me up in another hug, telling me how glad they were that I was okay.
When I drew close to Cliff's room, I could hear him talking with his parents.
"We told you not to let her defile you!" Francine hissed. She didn't sound like she'd been beaten an inch from death. They were probably healing already. "Why didn't you listen to us, son?"
"You should have told me the truth about the prophecy! Why did you pay for a false one?"
"It's always been our goal to get you on the throne!"
"Even if you had to use deceit? And lie to me? Were you ever planning on telling me truth?"
"Does it matter how we get there?"
"Yes! Look at you now—you guys are lucky that he didn't kill you! Truth be told, I'm surprised that he didn't."
"If we don't get off the castle grounds, he probably will. Finish packing your stuff."
"I'm packed. Just get some rest before we leave."
"Don't worry about me, son. Are you ready, George?"
"Give me a minute," he said, sounding weak. Alrekur must have given him the worst.
Standing about a hundred feet away from Cliff's door, I took off a shoe and threw it down the hall, hoping that the noise would get his attention. There was no way that I was going into his room with his parents there. A few seconds later, he poked his head out the door and looked surprised to see me. He appeared in front of me and wrapped me in his arms, kissing the top of my head. "Alrekur beat them badly and gave us an hour to get off the grounds," he whispered. "I'll find a way back to you somehow. Just take care of yourself and our baby. Don't worry about me. Please."
"Clifford?" Francine called. "What are you doing out there? We need to leave."
"Coming, Mother!"
He looked me in the eyes. "Promise me one thing."
"What?" I asked, clinging to him.
"Don't fall into depression. Get outside every day, eat good food, have fun. It would make me happy to know that's what you're doing. Will you promise?"
A lump grew in my throat as tears filled my eyes. "I'll try."
"No. Promise."
I sighed. How could I promise that? Becoming depressed was just what happened whenever he was out of my life.
"Please," he begged. "I have to leave and I need to know that you're going to be happy."
"Clifford!" bellowed his mother.
Looking into his eyes, I couldn't say no. "Okay. I promise."
"Thank you! I'll be back as soon as I can," he said and placed his lips on mine. "I love you."
"I love you too."
He returned to his room before I saw him move.
"What were you doing?" his mother yelled. I heard a smack and a thud.
"Mother!"
"You will honor me and do as I say from now on! Do you understand me? You did this to us!"
I heard a loud crash. I ran to the room and by the time I got through the door, it was empty. There was a table that had been knocked over with something red next to it. I dipped my finger in it and smelled it. It was Cliff's blood. I recognized his scent. I could feel my eyes turning red as I seethed with anger. How dare she hit him! I wouldn't give Alrekur a chance to kill her. I would do it myself!
THIRTEEN
As the months went by, I did my best to keep my promise to Cliff. I went outside every day and started eating again once my appetite returned—and it returned with a vengeance. Brooke and Mattie did their best to keep me busy so that I wouldn't fall into a depression. My parents were worried that I would as well, so they sent for Karlie as soon as the Montgomery's had gone.
I wanted to prepare for the upcoming war, but my parents would have nothing to do with that. I wasn't allowed to touch any weaponry. I tried to talk my friends into letting me train anyway, but my parents' word was law.
Shortly after Cliff's family had been banished, my parents took Alrekur and Halldor on the important mission of awakening Dagur. When the Fyrsturae came back, I went out of my way to avoid Alrekur's wing as much as possible. I steered clear of all of the Fyrsturae when I could because I wanted nothing to do with any of them. In my mind, they were all associated with Alrekur, the one who had killed Tanner and banished Cliff from the castle.
I did spend some time with Halldor and Dagur, however, because I thought that it would get under Alrekur's skin. He hadn't wanted to bring them back to life. He had killed them with joy, as he liked to admit. It did get to him, but soon I grew tired of annoying him.
As I watched my stomach grow, I would spend time in my room looking at the bulge. There were times when I sat so long that I swore I could actually see the growth before my eyes. Mattie had said that I should try to bond with the baby. At first, I felt nothing short of ridiculous talking to my stomach, but it didn't take long bef
ore I felt like I was actually communicating with the baby. With all of my specialized vampire senses, I may have been.
The first time that I felt movement, I was thrilled. I wanted to run and tell Cliff so that he could feel it too. I hated Alrekur more than ever at that moment. Cliff should have been with me, but he wasn't and it was all Alrekur's doing.
Mattie walked into the room and looked at me in surprise. "What's the matter?"
"I want to stake Alrekur—and make it permanent this time! It's his fault that Cliff isn't here with me."
She sat on the bed and placed her hand on mine, giving me a calming feeling similar to the one Cliff always gave me. "You've got to let go of your negative feelings, dear. It's not good for the baby, you know. In his development, you want to surround him with peace and love."
I frowned. Was she making that up or was it true? "That won't bring Cliff back though."
"No it won't. But all this hatred isn't good for you either. Think about what you can do. Try to find a way that you can locate Cliff."
"Without leaving the castle grounds? I'm like a prisoner here, not allowed to go anywhere."
She patted my hand. "I'll bet that Cliff is trying to find a way to get back here before you have the baby. Had you thought of that?"
"Even if that were the case, nobody would let him back in."
Mattie sighed in frustration. "Maybe you'll feel better after a nap." She got up and fluffed my pillows.
"Now you're going to make me take a nap?"
"If you're going to have a pity party, then yes. I'm sure that Cliff will find a way back, and in the meantime, you have a lot to be happy about. You're living in a magnificent castle surrounded by beauty that humans will never see, you've been reunited with your birth parents, your childhood best friend and caretaker are here taking care of you, you have a very healthy pregnancy, and you have a doctor here on call just for you."
"Yeah, you're right. But Cliff should still be here; he's missing out on so much. I felt the first movement today and he—"
"You felt the baby move?" Mattie asked, her face lighting up.
I nodded.
"Where? Let me feel."
"I haven't felt anything else since then."
"Because it knows that you're upset. Show me where you felt it."
Rolling over onto my side, I rubbed the spot. I felt another movement and my eyes widened. "There it is again!"
"It likes that position," she said smiling. Mattie moved my hand and rubbed around and the baby moved again.
"Did you feel that?" I asked.
"Of course! This is so exciting. Enjoy these moments; it won't be long before they're gone."
As time passed, I focused my attention on the baby and tried not to think about Cliff. When I inevitably did, I told myself that Mattie had to be right: he would find his way back to me. Feeling the baby move had turned into a game and became the highlight of my days.
During one of my weekly ultrasounds, Dr. Robinson told me that he could tell the baby's gender. "Do you want to know?" he asked, and smiled.
I wished more than anything that Cliff could be there to find out with me. However, I knew that I probably wouldn't see him before the baby was born. "Yes, please tell me."
"The first baby of the tenth line is…a boy."
My eyes widened with excitement. I hoped that he would look just like Cliff.
By the time June rolled around, my mother was anxious to find and awaken the rest of the Fyrsturae.
One afternoon, my parents and I were sitting in the library of our wing. The room was filled with bright, cheerful art and the sun was shining brightly through the windows.
My mother's eyes flashed a color of red that I'd never seen them turn before. It wasn't the dark color of the Fyrsturae, of course, but it still surprised me. "We need to awaken the remaining Fyrsturae! We're not prepared for the war that the Montgomery's are waging. We don't have enough Fyrsturae!"
"Calm down, Caitlyn," my father said, sighing. "We'll get them. We only need four more. We're already more than halfway there."
"I know that!" my mother snapped. "And don't tell me to calm down."
"Alrekur and Baldur are both eager to bring back their siblings. It won't be much longer. It took us seventeen years to find Alrekur, and it's only taken us eight months to find the next four."
"Right—but Alrekur hid two of them himself!" she said, narrowing her eyes.
"Halldor knows where Soren is," my father reminded her. "Once we get Asdis, we will go straight to Soren. Then Dagur will lead us to where he left our daughter. Asdis, Soren or Ida might know something about Hella's location."
"I hope so."
"Darling, soon Ida will be found. We'll have both of our daughters with us and our family will finally be complete."
"Of course! But how long will that take? Every moment we lose, more werewolves and common vampires are added to Francine's army."
"Don't forget that we have some werewolves on our side too," I said.
They both looked at me like they'd forgotten that I was there.
"You mean the peace-loving werewolves?" my mother asked. "They're not going to be much help. They don't want the war."
"They will help if they need to!" I insisted.
"Daughter," my father said, "you should go to your room and rest. I don't want you worrying about this."
"I'm the Sonnast! My presence is more needed in this war than it was in that little battle with the Moretti's!"
They both stared at my bulging midsection. I looked like I was going to burst any moment.
"What you need right now is rest," my father said. "You don't have much longer to wait and you need to take care of yourself. Then you'll be able to prepare for battle and possibly aide in finding the rest of your Fyrsturae brothers and sisters—once you've recovered. We can't risk anything happening to you. Mattie will be the child's watcher, so he'll be in good hands. There is no other that we could possibly trust more than her."
I could feel the boy moving around, as if he knew that he was being talked about.
"I'm not an invalid," I exclaimed. "There's plenty that I can do now, even though you two won't let me practice for battle."
"You're in a weakened state," my father said. "Temporarily. As soon as you're ready, you'll begin training again. We do need you for the war."
"I have plenty of strength to exercise! You don't have to put me in front of one of the Montgomery's werewolves. I'm the Sonnast; you don't need to baby me." I folded my arms.
"No," my mother said. "But you have a baby to think of as well as yourself."
"He's a vampire baby! He's also the son of a Fyrsturae and a royal. He's going to be very strong himself."
"We won't have you risking either him or yourself," my father said. "We're done with this discussion. Again."
I picked up a book from a table and threw it across the room. "You two never listen to me!"
My father suddenly appeared an inch in front of me. "Do I need to get Alrekur involved? He doesn't want anything happening to you either—and I guarantee he won't be as kind as I've been."
I gasped. "You wouldn't."
"I'm going to send for Mattie to take you to your room," my mother said. "I don't want you getting yourself worked up."
"That's a joke! I'm going to take a walk through the gardens. Unless you think that would strain me too much." I glared at them.
My mother stifled a smile.
"You don't need to get sarcastic, daughter," my father said, irritated. "I'm only looking out for you. Take a walk. Enjoy the beautiful day. I know how much you've always loved the gardens. Which gardens will you go to?"
"Who are you going to send to watch over me?"
"I want to know where you'll be if we need you for any reason. Also, it would be good to have servants nearby in case you need something. We don't know when the baby will arrive."
"I know, I know," I said, sighing. "Vampire babies are born anywhere from five to seven mont
hs along. I'm barely at six months so it could be any day now. You don't have to keep reminding me. It could also be two months away if he comes at the end of seven months."
"You're the Sonnast," my mother said for the five hundredth time. "You haven't done anything by the book yet, so we have no idea what to expect with you. You can't blame us for protecting you."
"If you really cared about me, you wouldn't have let Cliff be sent away! He's the one that I love and he's the baby's father. No one can change that!"
"Don't act like we're the ones who sent him away," my father said.
"You should have sent Alrekur away! I'd like to rip his heart out!"
"Alexis, you know we can't send him away. He's the most powerful vampire and we still need him to get the rest of Fyrsturae. We need all ten of you to win the war. You know that."
I glared at them. "I'm going to the gardens. You're stressing me out."
"Enjoy yourself," my father said. "Which gardens are you going to?"
I sighed. "The gardens at this wing. I don't want any of the Fyrsturae watching me walk around outside of their wings."
"That's good," my mother said. "We don't want you walking too far."
"Maybe I will go to another wing," I muttered.
"You definitely hate being told what to do," my mother said, trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile.
"Of course I do! I'm my father's daughter. Right?" I shot him a disgusted look.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "Take your walk, daughter."
I stormed out of the room and easily found my way to a door leading to the outside. After spending a little more than six months there, I knew my way around much of the castle. Because of my pregnancy, I hadn't been allowed to travel for the awakening of my "brothers and sisters" around the world. I was glad for that. Bringing back a one-thousand-year-dead vampire had been more than enough for me. I could feel the fury building as I thought about it, so I tried to think about something else.
I looked around at the beauty of the garden only to be filled with memories of Cliff. Hot, angry tears spilled down my face. I was supposed to be with him. That's what we'd been told since I was born. It was what we both wanted, and I was carrying his baby. Let Alrekur rule with someone else. I didn't care. I'd live in an apartment if that's what it took to be with Cliff. I furiously wiped at a tear was running down my chin.
The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5 Page 84