by Ana Calin
“I want to marry you, Juliet,” Radek says as he strokes the blonde, “but not on the terms we had until now.” He looks me straight in the face. “I want an open relationship.”
A sharp pain goes through my heart, heat flushing to my cheeks. I hear my mother’s words in my head, words she told my sister and me a felt lifetime ago. ‘Life will kick us in the face. And our lovers. Our lovers will kick us in the face.’
I stare from Radek to the blonde, who now leans against him, massaging her own tits and looking provocatively into my eyes while Radek watches what she’s doing over her shoulder with an I’ll-do-your-every-hole grin. Her lascivious stare tells me, ‘He prefers me, boring long-time girlfriend’.
On the outside, I remain calm. On the inside, I’m on fire. I square my shoulders and push out my chin, placing the glass of wine gently on the medieval desk—ignoring the part of me that’s raging to throw it into Radek’s face.
“I’m not in the mood for wine today. Or a threesome. Radek, I would like to leave the castle now, and I’d like to find my way easily.” This means no games with the dimensions like before.
He looks me in the face, his stare growing deep and hard. It’s like he wants to carve my features into his memory. Is this what he wanted all along? Was he determining me to leave him so that he doesn’t have to be the one walking away?
“Are you sure about this, Juliet?”
I snort and smile. “Hypocrite.”
We just look each other in the eyes for moments. He doesn’t even blink, his feelings unreadable beyond the fact that they’re intense, while my heart is crumbling to pieces. My skin burns all over, but the rage of the moment enables me to keep my ground, which I’m mighty grateful for.
“I will ask Lazarus to come get my things later.” I look them up and down one last time. “Ask the housekeeper to have them ready. It’s the last thing I ask of you.”
Radek’s voice stops me as I head to the door.
“I have a final request from you as well.”
I glance over my shoulder. “Yes.”
“It’s about our other arrangements.” He leaves the blonde by the desk, walking towards me. “I’m still willing to honor all our other plans besides the wedding. I’m willing to buy Herald Gruff’s e-zine, which you will then run. Of course, in exchange for you building a credible and likeable public persona for me in Germany, securing me people’s approval.”
“And influential people’s trust,” I finish in his place.
I feel him close behind me, but he doesn’t answer. With a bleeding heart and a huge lump in my throat, I walk out the door. Soon after that I’m running out into the night, the white silk robe floating behind me as hot tears stream down my face. I run until I fall to my knees at Magda’s door, sobbing hard, bracing myself as if to keep my body from crumbling to pieces.
Radek
I STARE OUT THE WINDOW, leaning with my hands on the sidewalls. It pains me to have hurt the woman that I owe my life and my very humanity to, but it was for her own good.
“You think she’ll still help you in the Western World?” Irina asks from behind me. She’s laid down on Juliet’s bed.
“Get up,” I say evenly.
“I will,” she says seductively, “but only if you turn around to watch me do it.”
Anger grips me, but I manage to keep my tone calm. “You, in her bed. It’s a sacrilege that I don’t want to witness. Get up.”
“You really do love her,” she whispers.
“Lord Dracula was right,” she continues when I don’t answer. “You were truly marrying her for love.”
I ponder. How do I put this? “If you look into the life Juliet and I led together this last month, you’ll find out that we grew apart before my meeting with my brother tonight.”
“But she is important to you.”
“Of course she is important to me. She healed me of the midnight monster, and used intense love to do it. I’ll always be grateful to her for it, and in her debt.”
“But do you love her back, prince?” Her voice is pleading, making it clear she’s desperate for me to deny it. Given that she’s one of Vlad’s vampires, I better play along.
“Not enough to tie my life to hers forever,” I say, turning around to find her now sitting on the bed like an unhappy child. “She will be useful to me in the Western World because she wants to make sure I’ll honor my promise to her friends, the witch Magda, and Lazarus. I promised that I’d fight for the good guys, and use my power to back them up in the war against evil. Lazarus is also a vampire, by the way.”
“I know. I was one of those who bit him in the final battle three months ago.” She licks her lips, remembering the taste of him on the one hand, and trying to seduce me on the other. The strategy flops miserably.
“That’s not why I brought you here, Irina.”
She pouts playfully, but I can tell her disappointment is real.
“Too bad,” she says. “I have talents, you know. You would’ve liked them.”
“This isn’t about me.” The problem with living forever is that you come to see straight through people. “This is about you wanting to feel more valuable than Juliet. But, to me, no woman has ever been more valuable. She’s unique, and special. I may not desire her the same way I did in the beginning, but she’s still the only woman that’s worth something in my life.”
Only part of that is true, but I manage to mask it well. Another thing that comes with an unnaturally long life is a strong grip on the display of one’s emotions.
Irina keeps sitting on the bed, doing nothing to signal an intention of leaving. I exit the room without giving her another glance, making things as clear as they get. I may still need her later, but right now the least I can do for Juliet and my own aching heart is not giving this lustful vampiress satisfaction.
CHAPTER II
Five years later
Juliet
The office door still makes that swishing sound from Herald’s day when it opens. The bustling sound of busy e-zine work—typing, skyping, yelling, cursing—floods in along with Ellis, my assistant.
“Juliet, someone is here to see you.” She stumbles as she hurries with wide eyes towards my desk. I usually just glance up from the computer screen when she comes in, but this time she seems downright terrified, so I watch her as she approaches.
A man walks in as if this office—the CEO office at the European Hellhound—is his home. It takes a few seconds to recognize Herald Gruff, my former boss, so I guess this sort of is his home.
“I told you I didn’t need introduction,” he grunts at Ellis as he pushes the door back shut, insulating us from the bustling activity outside. “I used to be the boss here, until this witch stole my place.”
Ellis grips the back of my swivel chair and makes herself small between it and the window. Herald stomps to my desk and stares me down.
I barely refrain from bursting into laughter. There’s hardly anything left of the big boss Herald Gruff I used to know. Or maybe the strength and authority I saw in him was a simple mirage of my young mind. Because the man standing in front of me seems a beggar with baggy trousers, his anorak stained with what appears to be mustard and ketchup. I motion flowingly to one of the leather chairs on the other side of my desk.
“Please, Herald, have a seat.”
“I prefer to stand, thank you.”
“Unless you’re here to curse me and then slam the door behind you, I suggest you sit down and make yourself comfortable.”
He grins, displaying bad front teeth. Shit, he can’t even afford dental anymore? “When you find out what this is about, you won’t want me to get too comfortable, believe me.”
I refrain from rolling my eyes. This isn’t the first threat he’s come with since the day Radek’s delegate walked into this office and fired him, saying I would be running the e-zine from now on because Radek bought it for me. He attacked every article I wrote on Radek, but pretty much only like a stray dog barking at a speed
ing BMW. Without the e-zine’s investors to back him up, his opinions didn’t matter.
I look him up and down, leaning back in my boss chair, hands on the arms, relaxed and powerful in my black outfit. His eyes slip to the hint of a cleavage between the sides of my jacket, the small dip into the tight white top underneath. I grin—No, I’m not going out of my way to hide my ‘bumps’ anymore.
“Some people said you were doing field work now,” I say. “Do you have a fixed job, or are you still freelancing?”
He grins as if he has me where he wanted me. “Actually, that’s why I came to see you. I got a story from the field that you’ll surely want before anyone else.”
“I doubt it. I have good informers. Whenever there’s a good story, they’ve already got it.”
“Overconfidence killed the cat.”
“No, curiosity did, but I have no reason to be curious. I have every reason to be confident, though. My head of sources, Lazarus Raica, is a true hellhound. He never misses a good story.”
“It’s about your sweetheart, Prince Radek Basarab. He’s got secret dealings in Berlin—yes, I know. You wouldn’t want the info getting out to the competition, right?”
Fire runs through my heart, and my hands white knuckle the chair arms. “Ellis, please leave us.”
She lingers. I think she’s curious enough to disobey.
“Now,” I prompt.
She flinches and hurries out of the room, while Herald takes a seat, grinning at me.
“See, Juliet? Power corrupts. You thought me a jackass, and look at you now, snapping at your assistant. You’ve turned into me.”
“No, I haven’t.” I push myself up from the swivel chair and walk to the liquor cabinet in my elegant leather high heels, hiding my face from him. I must be turning red as a lobster, hearing Radek’s name after so much time. “But what you have to say is not for everybody, and you damn well know it.”
I can feel his eyes roam all over my body. I groan to myself—was I ever really into this guy?
“Can’t say I don’t see what made Prince Radek put you in charge here. You have strong arguments.” I know he means my breasts.
“I did have arguments when he put me in charge. But they weren’t my boobs.”
“Like hell they weren’t. You slept with him, Juliet, and everybody knows it. He bought the European Hellhound for you as a present when you returned from the Carpathians.”
“The Carpathians—you sent me there, remember? Knowing it was a dangerous place. You practically did this to yourself.”
“I sent you there with a purpose.”
“Yes, with a very selfish one. You knew it could mean my life. You used me without second thoughts, you brutally took advantage of my crush on you.” I look over my shoulder, trying to mask my disgust. Love isn’t only blind, it’s also stupid.
I sway my hips in a certain way as I walk back to him with two glasses of whiskey. His shoulders slant a bit, and his eyes trickle down the shape of my body. Saying that I don’t enjoy the way men stare at me when I walk down the street in my dark fitted suit—jacket and pencil skirt—and high leather heels would be a lie. I discovered the effect I can have on them after the man of my life hurt me beyond repair, and you know what? I’ll never deny myself this ego boost again.
“I wasn’t aware you had a crush on me,” he says, this time warmer.
I hand him the whiskey and sit on the desk in the same seductive way Radek used to do it.
“Maybe you didn’t have eyes to see it. I wasn’t exactly your type back then.”
Herald becomes instantly self-conscious, and shifts in his seat—straightening his back, glancing at his clothes. I try not to smile, but a corner of my mouth quirks up. I’ve changed a lot since I used to work for him, that’s a fact. The white-blond halo of curly hair is now much longer, right now up in a rich, loose bun; the eyes he referred to as ‘too pale, like a corpse’s’ are now framed by dark makeup, causing the blue to stand out.
“You’ve always been a strong woman.”
No shit. Only a minute ago I was barely more than a piece of ass. I give Herald a relaxed smile and lean on my hand on the desk, taking the glass of whiskey to my mouth. As expected, he mirrors my actions and does the same.
“Now, believe it or not Herald, I wasn’t aware that Radek returned to Berlin. To tell you the truth, we split up long ago, and we don’t keep in touch. Care to tell me what his secret dealings are?”
His face changes to that of a cunning fox again, so I hold up my index finger of the hand with the glass to stop him.
“Sell, not tell, I know,” I say. “Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to give me anything for free just because we find each other attractive. If this info rocks my world, I’ll buy it. Just give me the general lines, keep the juicy details.”
His gaze hangs on mine—again, as expected. His sunken, grey cheeks become slightly redder. “We find each other attractive? Still?”
I pretend to sip from the whiskey, looking at him over the glass. Again, he mirrors my actions, but sips for real. I guess he hasn’t had a meal in a few hours, and the stains of mustard and ketchup are old, because he already begins to relax more than he planned to.
“Ah,” he says. “What am I thinking? How could you ever consider me a potential partner—in the end, that’s what attraction is, isn’t it? Identifying potential partners.”
I cross my legs on the desk, glass of whiskey in my hand. I look at Herald with hooded eyes from higher ground, and I think I notice a bump rising between his legs. By the way he shifts, trying to mask his awkwardness, he must really be fighting a boner.
“Remember our kiss? Right in the corner of this office?” I glance towards said corner where he tried to get me for a quick fuck, drunk and horny. “I never forgot it.”
Herald swallows hard. “Me neither.”
I shake my head, pretending to force myself to snap out of pleasurable melancholia.
“Can I tell you a secret, Herald? I really hope you have something juicy on that bastard Radek. I never told anyone, and I hope this stays between us, but—” I look down at the whiskey and twirl it in my hand, going introspective. “He took advantage of me, you know. He made me believe we had a relationship when, in truth, he only wanted to fuck me.” I glance up at him. “Back at his castle, he loved to bend me over a medieval desk and pump me from behind. He wore leather. I watched the whole thing reflected in the window. He’d put drugs in my drink to turn me into a sex slave, and then he’d pump me so hard the desk knocked against the wall.”
Herald swallows audibly, shifting his legs, his boner growing. I bite my lip to keep from grinning. “Aw, how I hope you got something really good for me.”
“Oh, you’ll like this.” Red in the cheeks and already sweating, he licks his lips and takes another sip of the whiskey. “Listen.” He bends forward, and I do as well, allowing him a deeper view into my cleavage.
“Prince Radek Basarab is bidding for a very special property in Berlin.” He looks over his shoulder at the door as if he’s afraid someone might overhear. “I wasn’t going to give you the exact place and time, but maybe you should know. There’s going to be an auction, in three days. It’s closed circle, with few attendees, all of them Radek’s people so no one bids more than him.” He pauses, uncertain whether he should give more details. He’s losing resolve, so I have to prompt him.
“What’s the location? Please, Herald, I’m almost coming here, you have to tell me.”
He takes his hand to his crotch, desperate to rein in his erection. “An old orphanage that Hitler’s twisted doctors used to experiment in,” he says hoarsely. He also gives me the name of the place.
The information crashes through my brain like a derailed high-speed train.
I really want to straighten up, arrange my suit jacket, and call Lazarus to throw this bastard out, because I’m done with him. I got what I wanted. But I can’t afford hot-headed decisions, and Herald Gruff might still be useful.
Juliet
I TRY TO HOLD IT TOGETHER at dinner with Lazarus and Isolde, my sister. She went out of her way to prepare the meal herself, and I don’t want to spoil this for her.
Isolde is happy with our new life in a luxurious villa in the Green Forest of Berlin, right by a lake, big baroque windows, tall rooms and all. Me—I’m not so sure. The villa cost Radek a fortune five years ago, but he didn’t even flinch when he signed the contract in my name—the last time I saw him. The place is mine now. Isolde, Lazarus and I occupy the highest floor, which is more than enough for the three of us. So I rented out the lower floors to ambassadors and rich tradesman families, which means we could be living the good life on the rent alone, but the e-zine is going fantastic as well.
Beautiful, always smiling and good-hearted, Isolde is the kind of woman I feared Lazarus would fall for. She’s even got her own home for the elderly, and I really thought her virgin beauty, loving nature and dedication would knock him off his feet. I didn’t exactly like the idea of them coming together, him being a vampire and all, but no worries, that didn’t happen. He’s still only got eyes for me. Even now, while Isolde tells him about the new people she hired from the Ukraine, he keeps glancing at me over the vase of flowers on the table.
What can I say. I got everything a girl could want, right? I’ve got an amazing career, admirers, not to mention I’m filthy rich. Yes, filthy rich, richer than I ever dreamed I’d become. But I paid one hell of a price five years ago, when the fake veil of what we call reality lifted, and I opened my eyes to the dangers of the Hidden World—the true real world. I paid with my soul. I left it in that dark castle deep in the Carpathian forest, at Radek Basarab’s feet.
“Everything all right?” Isolde’s voice reaches me as if through a dream. I emerge to the surface of the moment, finding myself at this dinner table, with its soft lights and the rain pattering against the windows. “You haven’t been yourself since you came home, did something happen?”