“Of course I didn’t forget.” I scoffed, since it had happened only moments ago. “But I don’t think you realize that Annika has a weak spot—for me. She disguised herself as a vampire princess and tried to marry me. Clearly, she’s interested.”
“She disguised herself as a vampire princess as a ploy to kill the queen.” Camelia sneered.
“She did.” I nodded. “But her feelings for me are real. If there’s anyone who can loosen her up and convince her to leave the Haven, it’s me.”
“She’s a con artist.” Camelia crossed her arms, looking like a toddler who’d been denied her favorite toy. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d stomped her foot as well. “You can’t believe anything she said or did while here.”
I turned to the guards. There were five of them in all, and they stood alert and ready, waiting for a command. “You all saw the way she looked at me,” I told them, adding in a conceited smirk for good measure. “Was it or was it not the way a woman looks at a man when she’s already half in love with him?”
I wasn’t proud of the words—I knew how arrogant I sounded. But before being turned into a vampire prince, I’d been a well-known athlete on my way to the Olympics. I’d competed in major cities all over the world, hitting up bars with my team members where we’d been surrounded by adoring fans. I certainly wasn’t inexperienced or unknowledgeable when it came to women. Quite the opposite, actually.
I needed to harness as much of that arrogance as I could if I wanted to convince Camelia to go along with my plan.
“I agree with the prince.” Thomas, the highest in command of the guards in the room, stepped up and faced Camelia. “During the selection, the princess—I mean, the Nephilim—looked at Prince Jacen the way he claims she did.”
“She was acting,” Camelia hissed. “She had to pretend she cared for the prince if she intended on remaining in the palace.”
“What about her final moments here?” I asked. “Her deception had been revealed—there was no need for her to act anymore. Yet, before she flashed out with Geneva, it was me she looked at with her heart in her eyes. You were standing near her—I know you saw it, too.”
The guards were silent as they waited for Camelia’s reaction. A few of them nodded in agreement to my statement.
“Perhaps,” Camelia said, her fingers twisting around the wormwood pendant she always wore around her neck. “But she’s a Nephilim. Her kind kills supernaturals—they certainly don’t love them.” She said the last part in disgust—as if a Nephilim and a vampire falling in love was the most heinous act ever.
“We all know that Nephilim are killers,” I said, since if I wanted to gain their trust, I had to be convincing. “That bitch just killed our queen, and she used my selection to do it. She lied to me and played me for a fool. She needs to die for that. It’s our job to see that done, and if she has a weakness for me, then I’m damned well going to exploit it. I’ll trick her into trusting me, lure her away from the Haven, and kill her. A stake in the heart will be a deserving end after what she’s done. Or do you not also want to avenge Queen Laila?” I stared at Camelia with fire in my eyes, daring her to go against me.
“Of course I want to avenge our queen.” She dropped her hands to her sides, her eyes aflame. “But killing a Nephilim is far more difficult than you seem to realize. They’re as fast as vampires, they’re natural hunters, and they’re immune to compulsion.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow, since that explained how Annika had resisted my compulsion back when I’d tried to compel her to forget she’d ever met me. I’d assumed she was wearing wormwood—the only plant that when worn, could negate the effects of compulsion. She’d sworn she wasn’t.
I supposed that was one time when she’d been telling the truth.
“Yes,” Camelia answered. “Nephilim are the only supernaturals who are immune to compulsion without the assistance of wormwood.” She reached for the green pendant around her neck, as if to remind herself that her protection from compulsion was still there.
The witches of the Vale were the only ones in the kingdom permitted to wear wormwood. For all others, it was forbidden.
“She’s also in control of Geneva’s sapphire ring,” Camelia reminded me. “You’re one of the strongest vampires in the world, but even you’re not strong enough to take down a Nephilim who has command over Geneva. No vampire could take her down alone—not even the originals themselves. What happened to our queen is proof enough.”
“Our queen was caught off guard.” I gazed solemnly at her ashes, as though pained by her death.
In reality, I couldn’t be more thrilled that she was gone.
“Annika will be caught off guard as well.” I ripped my gaze away from the ashes and clenched my fists to my sides, making sure to appear revved up and ready for revenge. “She might be a Nephilim, but she’s also a woman. I’ll tell her what I know she wants to hear—that I fell in love with her during the time we spent together in the palace, and that I’ll do anything to be with her. I’ll ask her to run away with me. Whatever it takes. Then, once we’ve crossed over the border of the Haven, my stake will be through her heart before she’ll have time to touch the sapphire ring and beg the witch to save her.”
“A decent plan,” Camelia said. “But there’s one major flaw in it.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You can’t kill Annika while she’s wearing the sapphire ring. We need that ring to protect the Vale. If she dies while wearing it, Geneva will die with her, and then we’ll be at the mercy of the wolves without Geneva’s help.”
“Right,” I said, having completely forgotten that small detail. “Perhaps you’re right and I’ll need backup. We’ll station guards at an agreed meeting spot outside of the Haven.”
“It’s not a bad plan,” Thomas said. “I believe we can work with this.”
Camelia whipped her head around to glare at him. “Did the prince or I ask for your opinion?” she asked, eyes blazing.
“The guards are experienced fighters,” I told the witch, and then I turned to face Thomas, dismissing her. “Please, continue.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” He cleared his throat, looking at me and not Camelia. “Your plan has a good chance of working, except that the Nephilim would surely catch our scent, which would ruin our element of surprise. But the wolves who attacked the Vale wore concealment charms that hid their scent from other supernaturals.” He turned his gaze to meet Camelia’s. “Can you create similar charms for us?”
“I cannot,” Camelia said. “Those charms were created with dark magic. But Laila kept the charms that those wolves used, in case we had need of them again.”
“Find them,” he said. “Once you do, we can plan the specifics of the mission. If our prince truly has command over the Nephilim’s heart—which I believe he does—then this might work.”
“I’ll find them,” I promised. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Of course, I didn’t intend on it getting that far. I had no idea what Annika’s motivations were, but I didn’t want her dead.
I just wanted to talk with her. We could do that safely in the Haven.
After all her lies, I wasn’t sure if I could ever trust her again, but I needed to at least try to discover the truth. I knew she was Nephilim and that Nephilim hunted vampires, but I’d meant what I’d told Camelia and the guards—I believed her feelings for me were real. Her emotions had been plastered all over her face in those last few seconds when she’d looked at me. Pain, regret, and heartbreak.
That wasn’t the look of someone who wanted me dead.
And while it would be all too easy to allow myself to be consumed with thoughts of Annika, I also needed to ensure that I kept my authority in the Vale. Because the wolves were coming—they were figuring out a way to get past our boundary, and the citizens of the Vale had no way of fighting them. The wolves had proven that when they’d attacked the town square. Yes, we had our guards, but they were far outnu
mbered by the wolves.
When I’d met with Noah—the First Prophet of the wolves—he’d told me all about how the wolves needed the vampires to leave the Vale so the wolves’ Savior could rise. The wolves were determined to kill all the vampires to make that happen.
But there was another way. I could lead the vampires out of the Vale. When Noah had first proposed that idea, I’d thought it was ridiculous. Queen Laila would have never allowed it.
With Queen Laila dead, this was a new game entirely. I wasn’t sure of the best way to play my cards yet, but given some time, I would figure it out.
Until then, I needed Camelia and the guards to believe I was on their side. Long-term thinking was crucial if I wanted myself, Annika, and the vampires of the Vale to get out of this alive.
The more trust I had, the more I could get away with when the time came to act.
“Very well,” Camelia said. “In the meantime, it’s the best interest of the Vale for us to not let anyone else know what happened today.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” I pointed to the ashes. “Our queen is gone.”
“And if the citizens of the Vale find out, there’s no telling what they’ll do,” she said. “We must keep this secret until we establish a new chain of command. Your brothers can know, of course, but until we figure out how to spin this, the truth can’t leave this room.”
“Fine,” I said, since with everything going on, it wasn’t worth it for me to argue with her about this. To keep her placated, I faced the guards, pushing magic into my voice. “Until I say otherwise, you’re to tell no one that Queen Laila is dead and that Princess Ana wasn’t who she claimed to be,” I said. “Understood?”
They all nodded, their faces slack from the effects of the compulsion, and said that they understood.
“Good,” I said. “Now, clean up this mess and find Princess Karina. I need to make sure she knows the plan and follows it as well. In the meantime, I’m going to Queen Laila’s quarters to locate those concealment charms.”
I stormed out of there, determined to find those charms.
Once I did, I would be one step closer to learning the truth about Annika’s intentions once and for all.
Karina
“I’ll go with you,” Noah promised, his hand resting gently on mine. “We’ll get Geneva’s sapphire ring. Together.”
Tears filled my eyes at his generosity. Noah owed me nothing, and yet he was offering to help me with no strings attached. Words couldn’t say how grateful I was. Especially since I’d never imagined when I’d woken up this morning that so much would change so quickly.
After Annika had killed Laila, chaos had erupted in the throne room. I’d used the moment to slip out of there and run to the wolves’ hidden camp—the camp that I knew the location of because I’d been secretly working with the wolves the entire time I’d been in the Vale.
My king—King Nicolae of the Carpathian Kingdom—had sent me to the Vale the moment he’d received the letter requesting he send two princesses to compete for Prince Jacen’s hand in marriage. But he hadn’t sent me to become the prince’s bride.
No—the king had other motives. He wanted me to work with the wolves in their quest to bring down the Vale. He believed that once the Vale was brought down, Queen Laila would have no choice but to come crawling to him, desperate and homeless and looking for someone to take her in.
Nicolae had been obsessed with the queen since before I was born.
In return for my help, he’d promised that he would allow me to make a wish on Geneva’s sapphire ring—an object he was confident Laila possessed.
But he’d been wrong. Annika possessed the sapphire ring—not Laila.
The moment the Nephilim had driven the stake through the queen’s heart and Laila had dissolved into ashes, I knew deep in my soul that Nicolae would never forgive me for the queen dying on my watch.
The Carpathian Kingdom was my home, but I would never be welcomed there again.
So I’d run straight to Noah—the wolf shifter who was known in camp as the First Prophet. The moment he saw me run into camp, he’d been quick to let me into his tent.
“Why are you helping me with this?” I asked him. “You have no reason to want me to bring Peter back.”
Peter was my soul mate. We’d fallen in love over a century ago, and with his permission, I’d turned him into a vampire so we could have an eternity together.
A few years later, he was killed in the Great War.
His loss had shattered my heart. I could never be whole in a world where Peter didn’t exist.
But he might not be gone forever. Because Geneva was the most powerful witch in the world—she was so powerful that she’d scared other witches to the point that that they’d banded together to lock her inside the sapphire ring. She was the only one who might have magic strong enough to raise the dead.
Whoever owned the ring had command over Geneva.
Which meant if I wanted Peter back, I needed to get control of that ring.
“I might not have a reason to want Peter back.” Noah was so earnest when he looked at me—this man would truly do anything for me, even if I didn’t ask him to. “But I have many reasons to want you to be happy. If that means helping you get this ring so you can bring back Peter, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Are you sure?” Guilt wracked my soul, because I recognized the way Noah was looking at me—he was looking at me like a man in love.
I trusted him, yes. And there was no denying that I was attracted to him. I would have to be blind not to appreciate his rugged good looks.
But I could never love him, since my heart would always belong to someone else.
“I’m sure,” he told me, his eyes firm with resolve. “And we shouldn’t wait. So let’s get Marigold in here so she can get us to the Haven.”
Karina
“Absolutely not,” Marigold said after we’d told her our request. She was a young witch, and frail as well, so her firm resolve had caught me off-guard.
“Why?” I asked. “Geneva’s ring won’t just help me—it’ll help all of us.”
“Transporting both of you halfway around the world will use up a significant amount of my magic,” she explained. “And unless you’ve forgotten, I’m the only witch at camp helping the wolves. My magic is keeping us hidden from the vampires so they can’t use their witches to track us and kill us in our sleep. If I use up my magic by taking you both to the Haven, I won’t be able to protect the camp until I’ve recharged. It’ll leave us too vulnerable. I’m sorry, but I must stay here.”
“Fine,” I said, since her answer made sense, and the last thing I wanted was to leave the wolves vulnerable to an attack. “Then I suppose we’ll have to travel the human way.”
“Maybe not,” Noah said. “I have a witch contact at the Haven. Perhaps she can take us.”
“Which witch?” I asked, since during my many years, I’d naturally come into contact with a few residents of the Haven.
“Shivani,” he answered. “I got in contact with her after the last time we spoke—when you advised me to reach out to Prince Jacen to discuss the possibility of his convincing the vampires to leave the Vale. I was going to tell you the next time we saw each other, but then you came running into camp this morning…” He shrugged, and I easily picked up the pieces of what he was going to say next—me catching him up on what had happened in the Vale had taken priority.
Marigold crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t move forward to talking with the prince, did you?” she asked Noah.
“I did.” He stared at her, not budging despite the irritation in Marigold’s eyes. “Is that a problem?”
“Of course it’s a problem.” She huffed. “The vampires of the Vale cannot be reasoned with. You and the others know what our Savior has said—the vampires of the Vale must be cleared from the land in order for Him to rise.”
“I know this as well as anyone.” Noah didn’t break his gaze fr
om hers. “I was the first one to receive a dream from Him, as you and everyone else knows. But if there was a way to work this out with the vampires without killing them—if I could convince them to leave the Vale voluntarily—then I had to try.”
Relief flooded through my veins at the possibility of Noah having spoken with Jacen, since the last thing I wanted to do was have been a part of killing members of my own species.
I’d hated what I was doing from the beginning.
But I’d done it, because I would do anything for the chance of getting Peter back.
“You spoke with the prince?” I asked Noah, so excited at the possibility that I jumped straight ahead. “How did it go?”
“I did.” He nodded. “The prince listened to everything I said, and seemed to understand. He said that he’ll try his hardest to convince the vampires to leave. But he isn’t the ruler of the Vale—Laila is. Well, Laila was. Now that Laila’s gone, I assume much has changed.”
“Everything has changed.” I ran my hands through my hair and paced around the tent, frustrated at how out of control this situation had become.
A part of me wanted to return to the Vale and help Jacen convince the vampires to leave. The more lives I could help save, the better.
But Annika had Geneva’s ring, and she’d taken the ring to the Haven. Who knew how long she would be there? The faster I could get to her, the better.
Until I had the ring—and until Peter was back—everything else would need to wait.
I stopped pacing and faced Noah. “Shivani won’t take us to the Haven,” I said, returning back to the original point of this conversation.
“Why not?” Noah asked. “She brought both me and Jacen there so we could have our discussion.”
“She brought both of you there for the purpose of establishing diplomacy within the supernatural world,” I said. “That’s why the Haven exists. By bringing you both there, she was doing her job. The reason I want the ring is personal—it has nothing to do with diplomacy. The witches of the Haven will know that, and they won’t help me. Which means I need to get there myself.”
The Vampire Wish: The Complete Series (Dark World) Page 46