The Vampire Queen

by Brandi Elledge

I nodded, knowing better than to turn down a free gift, even if I had no intentions of quieting my beautiful singing voice. I mean, I didn’t expect birds to be landing on my arm in an open field while seven small-statured men worked around me, but my voice couldn’t possibly be that bad. Then again, I was tone deaf, but that wasn’t my problem.

  His light brown eyes narrowed. “Do you understand that I’m trying to train you, so you are not completely helpless, Tandi? There is a war that is imminent—”

  I threw a hand up, cutting him off. “Just stop.”

  I was so tired of hearing about this stupid war. A war no humans were allowed to know about and yadda, yadda, yadda. It was the same ol’ same ol’. Bad guys versus good guys. They were all fighting over some stupid keys that opened up portals to this world. The good guys didn’t want to let the bad guys have the keys because they would make earth their playhouse, where they would pilfer and cause undoable havoc, and earth would be destroyed. Was it important that they not get their grubby hands on those keys? Hell, yes. Was it important that the good guys find the remaining keys before Team Craptasic did? Duh. But for one hour of the dang day, I didn’t want to think about a war that would eventually come to our doorstep. And I sure as Hades didn’t see how eating Bambi was going to help me prepare.

  “Because, Tandi, Greta is not always going to be around to hand you a pint of blood when you’re feeling hungry. You have to be able to survive on your own.”

  Shoving him, I shouted, “I’ve told you to stay out of my head!” Since this arrogant piss-ant had made me, he had proven that not only could he pick up on my emotions, but he could hear my thoughts as well. Which was a little embarrassing, considering how often I thought how good his butt looks.

  “And I’ve told you that I have better things to do than spy on your trivial thoughts, but when you broadcast them as loudly as you do, it’s hard not to hear what is being shoved in my brain. If you would practice mentally throwing up your walls, then you wouldn’t have to ever worry about me hearing what outfit you are going to wear that day.”

  Before I could shove the arrogant ass in the chest again, he moved and appeared behind me, whispering, “Not allowing me into your thoughts by blocking me is parlor tricks; ones that you should be able to do by now. Stay in your room and work on building your shield with your mind, and until you’ve made headway, there will be no food for you.”

  I glared at his retreating back. Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew he was disgusted with me. You don’t get to be Prince of the freaking Vampires by donating to the Girl Scouts of America, but by being a totally ruthless, conniving, barbarous bastard, and that was a triple check for him. He was annoyed with me, but I found it hard to believe he would let me starve to death if I didn’t at least improve a smidge. As I kicked a pebble, I wondered why the deer couldn’t have been an opossum. No one likes opossums. I could have so gone all badass and drained an opossum. There I went, lying to myself again. I swear I could hear Bambi out in the woods laughing and sputtering, “Sucker.”

  I practiced putting up my mental shields for hours until sweat dripped down the back of my neck, and my head felt like it was about to explode. I was proud of myself for my improvement, not only because of the dinner I was about to devour, but because now I was one step closer to having Stephan out of my head. A girl needed her privacy.

  After taking a quick shower, I slid my pink baby doll dress over my head because a girl needed pink, too. I guessed I should thank Stephan for all the clothes he had put in my closet. Being born a fashionista, clothes were one of my weaknesses, and he did such a wonderful job picking out my entire wardrobe. Had to give the Devil his due. Perhaps I would thank Stephan after he allowed me to eat. Ha! Allowed. I couldn’t believe he had resorted to withholding food from me to get me to train. He would be better off giving me an incentive like more clothes. Humph. Maybe I would thank him with a high five to his pretty boy face.

  I did a little spin in front of my dressing mirror, smiling at my reflection. Who would have thought that being turned into a vampire would make you this dang hot? I mean, there was always the potential there, but if I was really honest, there were a few things that I was self-conscious about. All right, maybe more than just a few things with my weight making the top of that list. However, being made into a vampire ripped right through that self-pity list.

  My green eyes were still the color of jade but brighter, and I swear my eyelashes had grown and thickened as soon as I was brought over to be part of the Children of the Night club. My lashes were the only thick things left on my body. I was no longer chubby. That in and of itself deserved a fist pump. It was hard to remain depressed when you looked in the mirror and got all excited over the fact that you had freakin’ cheekbones. They were defined and everything.

  Being a vampire had its pros and cons just like anything else. I was alive, and unless I stood too close to a bonfire, suddenly found myself without a head, or ventured out into the sun, I was immortal. Major plus. But I did miss the sun. I also missed my small hometown and everything that was familiar to me, from the Cyprus trees to the smell of cooked crawfish. I missed being human, but I was extremely appreciative that Stephan gave me a second chance. I wasn’t pushing up daisies, and that meant that one day I would get to feel the cool moss under my feet again. I just wished for two things: that my time here in Georgia was limited, and that Stephan wouldn’t treat me like an incompetent, worthless being. Maybe the pros would keep coming.

  Sometimes, I would catch him gazing at me as if he was trying to memorize everything about me. A hungry look. Like he was a chocolate addict, and I was the last Reese’s cup on earth. Those looks always made me a little warm. When he realized I had caught him staring at me, he would usually say something about my uselessness before storming off. I could never get a good read on him, and his mood swings were starting to tear at my sanity, which made me miss the smell of the bayou even more. Louisiana was my calm.

  I shook myself from my depressing thoughts. They would get me nowhere. Checking out my reflection one more time, I forced a smile. Another pro of being a vampire was my long, blonde hair was no longer coarse but hung to my waist in silky, shiny waves. It was a shame that I didn’t have a good curling iron and hairspray. In the South, one teased their hair within an inch of its life. The bigger the hair, the closer to God and all that. The things I could accomplish with a can of Aqua Net.

  My best friend, Charlie, was transitioning into her new life as well. She had a bit of a shock when she learned that she and her brother were part of the supernatural world. She was a fantastic witch in my biased opinion while Wes, her brother, was death reincarnate. The grim reaper. With our new hectic schedules, I’d only been able to talk to her a few times since I’d been here, but she had expressed how concerned she was with my sanity. Other than me trying to take a bite of her on first arising I didn’t know why she’s all worried that I wouldn’t be coping with being a fanger. I mean, obviously, I had a setback with the whole fawn thing in the woods. But if I had known that the best boot camp in the world couldn’t touch on what being a vampire could do for your body, I would have run around the streets years ago, screaming, “Free blood, come getcha a bite,” to any pale face I could find. That perhaps was a flat out lie, but whatever. It helped to cope with the unfixable. I’d noticed that there were only a few downsides so far to being undead. The whole drinking blood out of a bag for dinner was totally gross, not to mention the fact that I was having a hard time being what was construed as a “normal” vampire. My eating habits were inconsistent, and it seemed as if I could go longer than most new vampires before eating. This should be another tally on the pro side, but Stephan ruined that with his confused looks, which were a step up from the disdainful looks I usually received because my hunting skills weren’t up to par.

  Maybe I’m being selfish and that’s why I’ve been lying to myself. I really do understand why Stephan whisked me away from my family and my B.F.F. to take me to another podun
k town, so that he could train me. No matter how much I thought I could control the hunger when it actually hit, I couldn’t. When it was chow time, I went a little cray-cray. And the thought of hurting my best friend, Charlie—who was more like a sister to me than anything—left me feeling sick on the inside.

  The sad truth was I couldn’t go home. Not yet. I was stuck here with Mr. Mood Swings. The end game was to learn from Stephan how to not turn into a raving lunatic when it was feeding time. And possibly learn how to source for food, if marrying the owner of a blood bank was not an option. Once I mastered those tiny skills, I could go back home. I would be home before I knew it—I was determined.

  Chapter Three

  Two weeks later…

  “Yo, Stephan, buddy, how much longer do you think I’m going to be stuck here in Georgia? Not that I don’t like the state or anything, but if we’re being fair, how would I know what it even looks like since I have to stay on your property? Also, I heard from Greta that you can stroll out into the sun because of that handy dandy metal cuff you wear. Why won’t you give me one of those?” Honestly, the man was selfish. “If I am to stay here longer, I wish you would take into consideration that I haven’t seen another person other than you and Greta in more than three weeks. That is so not good for my social welfare.”

  Stephan closed the book he was reading and sat up on the antique couch he was lounging on. He closed his eyes briefly. It was possible he could be tired, or he could have been praying for patience. Either way, as we say in the South, “It didn’t comfort me none.” I tapped my teal green nails on the wet bar, waiting for him to answer me. I swear the man was slower than molasses.

  His eyes, the color of Tennessee whiskey, met mine as he ground out, “And I’ve told you several times, Tandi, once you have mastered all the skills it takes to survive, and I know for a fact that you won’t draw attention to yourself and let humans know what you are, or worse, lead them back to me, then I will gladly let you go. In fact I will be so happy to see you leave, I will throw you a going away party. The whole room will be decorated in pink, and there will be enormous amounts of tacky glitter everywhere. Your life will be complete.”

  Rude much? My eyes narrowed. This man was so damn good looking it almost hurt to glance at him, but manners? Sheesh. His hotness didn’t make up for his butthole-ness. I blamed it on his mother. She should have raised him better. Why just the other day, he let the back door slam in my face, and when I told him a gentleman not only held the door open for a lady but let her enter first, he dared to ask, “There is a lady nearby?” Humph. Bastard.

  The fire roaring behind him cast a warm glow on his striking features. I rubbed my chest as I felt that familiar pull again. Never in my life had I ever seen a more perfect male specimen, and yet he had to go and ruin it with his grouchy attitude. I must have been frowning because he asked, “Tandi, are you truly that unhappy here?”

  Feeling bad for how ungracious I’d been, I went to sit beside him on the couch. I pulled my knees up underneath me. “I’m a brat and I’m sorry.”

  He raised one eyebrow, an exasperated expression on his face that said that might have been the understatement of the year.

  “But you haven’t been no Georgia Peach yourself, mister. Let’s just say this is an adjustment period, and I might be struggling a tad with being a vampire.”

  He threw an arm over the back of the couch and leaned back with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “A tad, Tandi? You are the prissiest vampire I have ever met. In fact, it’s like you have put a lid on every vampire instinct that you possess. Greta said yesterday she caught a rabbit for you and was going to see if you could break its neck and feed off it. But when she went to answer the phone, she came back to an empty pot, and you were sitting there pretty as you please, swinging your legs on a barstool in total innocence. When she asked you where the rabbit went, you said it escaped. It’s funny how smart rabbits are nowadays. He knocked off his lid, crawled out of the huge pot, and somehow managed to open the door to the great outdoors.”

  “First of all, it was a bunny, not a rabbit, and it was snowy white and cuddly. And secondly, that is why magicians use bunnies because they are known for their trickery.”

  “You know I can tell when you’re lying, right?”

  Dang. Must be another one of those “I’m your master” thingies. Then again, maybe he was lying about knowing about my lying. In that case, it was best to deny.

  “How the heck should I know how the bunny escaped? All I know is that it wasn’t in the pot where crazy Greta said she left it. The woman is coo-coo, if you ask me. Maybe she has dementia. That would explain a lot.”

  He smiled. He actually smiled.

  My heart tightened a little. “Back to your original question before you got sidetracked, like you usually do—"

  “You have that effect on people, Tandi.”

  “See? There you go again.” He wasn’t smiling, but I could tell he was trying his hardest not to. “I do miss my best friend. We have been together since kindergarten, and she is the honey to my comb.”

  He ran a hand through his shaggy hair. “When you become a vampire, everything is different, and you have had a lot of things changed for you. I know that you feel like you are missing out on things—”

  “Um, hello, I’m missing the last part of my senior year. Like prom and graduation. Pretty big deal.”

  “Prom? Let me guess. You had a hot pink dress with feathers or sequins already picked out.”

  No, it was black and flattering, considering I used to weigh the same amount as a small submarine. If I had worn a pink dress with feathers, I would have looked like a flamingo that had swallowed an alligator. My weight was a constant disappointment for my mother. She wanted me to be a size two debutante. But I refused to go down that twisted road. At least not while I was enjoying this easy banter between us. “You know it, buster, and I would have totally rocked it.”

  Holy hell. Another grin. “I’m sure you would have.”

  Pretending as if I’d never noticed before, I said, “Why, Stephan, you have dimples. Who would have ever noticed that with all the scowling you’ve been doing?”

  His eyebrows came together as he gave me a disgruntled look. “We’re not talking about me. We were talking about your transitioning and your family, and speaking of family, I have a sister who is bored out of her mind, blowing through my credit cards while shopping in Paris for the latest trends. I have asked her to come here for an extended stay. I thought that you might enjoy the company.”

  He said the last part almost as a question. “Stephan, I think that is a wonderful idea. When will she be here?”

  “Tomorrow night, if that is okay?”

  “Of course, it is. This is your house, and just because you’re stuck with me until I can figure out how to work this whole vamp thing, doesn’t mean that you have to ask me for permission when it comes to inviting your sister to your home. And no offense, but I’m kind of excited to have another female around here other than Greta. Don’t get me wrong; Greta is my homegirl, and she treats me better than my own mother ever did, but the downside to that is Greta treats me like her daughter. Last night we were sitting on the couch watching an MMA fight. By the way, all that blood made my fangs grow in more ways than one, and she said if I made one more sexual innuendo, that she was going to send me to my room.”

  Stephan’s eyes narrowed. “Well, I have to admit, I’m with Greta on that one.”

  “Listen, we are talking about Greta being a motherly prude, not about me being all hot and bothered over an eight-pack. Even though you look twenty-ish, I’m sure you’ve probably been here since the dinosaurs roamed, so why is it so shocking to you that a young girl… what do you old people call it, swoons over a hot guy?”

  “Tandi, we won’t be having this conversation.” He grimaced like he was in pain. “In fact, I think it’s my cue to leave.”

  It was the longest discussion we’d had without snide remarks t
o each other, and I was reluctant to let the almost pleasant conversation go. I grabbed his arm to stop him from standing. “Remember, I’m a lonely girl in need of friends, so you deserting me right now when I’m wide awake will force me to go through every drawer in your desk. Just sayin’.”

  Stephan looked around his study before his eyes settled back on me. “Just so we understand each other, if you touch any of my things in this room, I will cut your fingers off.”

  And we’re back to his ostentatious, overbearing, and ill-tempered ways. Must be Monday.

  I shrugged. “It’s cool. They’ll grow back.”

  “Tandi, you could try the patience of a saint. Is this where we play twenty questions, and I dodge and refuse to answer at least half of them?”

  “What a good idea. Ladies first…” I paused to see if he would contradict me. After no smartass comments or defamation of my character came my way, I cleared my throat. “Hmm, let’s see. What does one ask the Prince of Vampires? How about why are you the Prince and not the King?”

  “Leave it to you to go straight to status ranking.” His eyes were playful as he said, “Because I’m not the original vampire but the second that was made.”

  My eyes widened. I was made by not just a high-ranking vamp but by a primordial. I was half joking about my prehistorical comment, but it looked like I hit the nail on the head. “The second ever made? So, you are Dracula’s baby?”

  “Yes, and Akeldama would skin you alive if she heard you calling her Dracula.”

  “Okay, so the woman that made you can’t take a joke and has a strange name. Interesting. Why you? What made you be the first she turned?”

  “A stranger name than Tandi?” At my glare, he smiled. “Her name is very fitting, considering it means ‘Field of Blood.’” A shiver ran through my body as he looked off into the distance, no longer seeing me beside him. “Anyone that is unlucky enough to make an enemy of her or catch her on a bad day is incinerated on the spot… if they are fortunate. The unfortunate ones are played with sometimes for years before she turns them to ash. She made me because she wanted me. Wanted me for an eternity.”