Wicked Vampire Prince by Bella Klaus
Chapter Three
Hours passed. I wasn’t sure how many, but the darkness stretched for what felt like a day and a night. Further tremors cracked the TV set, rendering it useless, but one of Caliban’s friends projected his smartphone on the ceiling to play newsflashes.
I slumped on the velvet sofa and stared up at the black screen. There was no sight of the Witch Queen since the first announcement, and the Angel King had stopped appearing on broadcasts warning us not to leave our buildings. Perhaps he had left to fight with his monstrous brethren against the hordes of humans battering our wards.
Ominous streams of light continued to seep through the gaps in doors, accompanied by the continuous scent of ozone that made my temples pound. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to will away a tension headache, but the effort was futile.
Mother Hecate stood in the middle of the room, holding aloft her torch and leading us in rounds of Goddess Preserve Us. The cushion at my back felt too squishy, the seat too hard. Willa huddled on my right and Richelle on my left, both young women trembling.
I should have been scared. The announcements blaring through the phone’s speakers were vague enough to hint that we were losing the battle against the humans. Apart from the initial bout of terror when the tremors first started, my nerves had calmed, and all I could do was wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Apprehension wrapped around the base of my neck like a noose, and it had nothing to do with the impending fall of Logris. The locket I had carried around since the night of my abduction had cracked, releasing the preserving charms on a piece of magic I would kill to keep a secret.
If anything happened to it, the least of my problems would be Mother Hecate’s wrath.
That magic was the only thing standing between freedom and becoming a blood slave, and there wasn’t a single person who knew what I had done.
Richelle rocked back and forth with her hands curled into tight fists. “What are they doing?” Her voice trembled with sobs. “When will this battle end?”
“Cheer up, love.” The vampire with the smartphone gave her what he probably thought was a hopeful smile.
“How can you stay calm at a time like this?” She gave me a sharp nudge in the elbows.
I flinched away from her and scowled. “Not all of us display our nerves through loud gibbering.”
“Excuse me for showing a bit of emotion,” she said with a huff. “Not all of us are as distant and uptight as you. Not all of us hold secrets.”
“What are you talking about?” I spat.
“Do I need to bring up that night?” she said.
“Hey.” The vampire with the smartphone swaggered forward. He was a dark-haired male whose slicked-back hair shone in the light of Mother Hecate’s torch. From the way he acted, I suspected he’d recently graduated from the academy. Or perhaps they’d held him back a few years. “Are you about to break the sexual tension with a nun-on-nun catfight?”
I turned to Caliban in the far corner, the only person sitting with his crotch glowing aflame. “Please tell your associate to leave us alone.”
Caliban’s pale features glowed in the light of my holy fire. He glared at me through narrowed eyes, his nostrils flaring. From the way his mouth twisted, he looked about to say something scathing. One of his friends gave him a pat on the arm, presumably reminding him that I held the power to turn up the heat. He smoothed out his expression and sat straighter.
“Back off.” He waved an arm for emphasis. “One of those nuns in particular is more frigid than the corpses in my family crypt. She’s likely to turn your manhood to dust.”
Irritation crawled across my skin, and I pushed a touch of magic into the flames.
“Shit.” Caliban grabbed his crotch. “Get back before she barbecues my junk.”
“Fine.” The vampire sloped back to his corner.
I sat straighter in my seat, feeling strangely less anxious since my enchanted locket broke. As much as I complained about them, these vampires weren’t so bad. Not when there were more monstrous creatures out there in the dark. And, no, I wasn’t talking about the angels spreading mayhem among the attacking humans.
This supernatural disaster had just freed something far worse from its enchantment.
My hand drifted to my neck to loosen an imaginary noose.
“Are you alright?” Willa leaned into my side.
“Just thirsty,” I rasped. “And my collar is getting a little tight.”
“Want something to drink?” The vampire with the smartphone rose from the sofa and grabbed his crotch. “I’ve got all you can swallow right here.”
“Bring it.” I held out a flaming glove.
He snickered and thrust out his hips.
“Sister Yana, will you stop?” Richelle snapped.
Rearing back, I twisted in the seat and stared at my fellow novice. “What are you talking about?”
“All you’ve done with them is flirt.” She stuck her nose in the air. “One would think you desired vampires.”
Gasps filled the air, and prickly heat rushed across my skin. I glanced around the sofas, meeting the eyes of a dozen veiled Sisters, looking to me for answers. My pulse fluttered like a trapped butterfly. I’d never in my entire life found a vampire attractive. Nor had I ever desired one.
My lips tightened into a thin line. That shirtless fiend hadn’t counted because he’d been half naked. I’d only looked at him because of his strange behavior. Besides, he was a thief.
Richelle looked me full in the face, her brows rising. “Well?”
“Take that back,” I hissed.
“What really happened the night you left me alone in that salon?” she asked.
Silence spread across the room, and every gaze pressed down on my conscience. Mother Hecate’s torch flickered in my periphery, and I didn’t dare to turn my gaze in her direction. Sweat broke out across my skin and my breaths turned shallow. This was the reason for the distance between me and my Sisters, the reason why I despised vampires with a venom. I had sworn never to repeat those events. Not even in the sanctity of my own mind.
“Well?” Richelle’s voice sliced through my thoughts.
Willa squeezed my hand, her touch more comforting than words of support. If she could forgive me for abandoning her in her hour of desperate need, then I wasn’t completely irredeemable.
“It was years ago,” I said. “And I already explained myself to Mother Hecate.”
Nobody spoke. Not even Mother Hecate to corroborate my words, because I’d lied to her, too. Deep down, she had to know I hadn’t told her the truth. Everyone had heard that I had run from a blood salon, leaving Richelle all alone.
For weeks after that incident, they’d called me a coward, and I hadn’t said a word to make them believe otherwise. Any idiot could see that I wasn’t scared of the average vampire. I suppose this was the reason why Mother Hecate was so disapproving.
“Thank you all for your patience.” The Witch Queen’s tinny voice streamed from the smartphone’s speakers. “The threat to Logris has now been neutralized, and our angel protectors have returned to Heaven. You are now free to open your windows and rebuild.”
She said something else, but the vampire turned off his smartphone and slipped it into his pocket.
Relief whooshed out of me in an outward breath. Finally. I rose off the seat, but a hand grabbed at my arm.
“We haven’t finished our conversation,” Richelle hissed.
I turned to meet her pale eyes, which glinted in the dim light with the force of her resentment. “How many times will I need to apologize before you finally accept that I’m sorry?”
“Maybe if you told the truth—”
“I didn’t lie.” I yanked my hand out of her grip.
Richelle shot out of her seat. “You liar—”
“Daughters,” Mother Hecate said, her voice weary. “The people of Logris will need our Sisterhood now more than ever. Let’s approach them and each other with love, fellowship, and the way of the light.”
My shoulders sagged, and I turned to meet her eyes. “Of course, Mother. I’m sorry.”
Her curt nod told me that she agreed with everything Richelle had said but was too merciful to carry out an interrogation. I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. One day, I would do something for the temple that would make up for my sins. Until then, I had to endure.
Someone cleared their throat. I cracked open an eye to find Caliban standing out of reach with his hands clasped to his chest. “Sister Yana?”
I leaned away from the vampire and frowned. “What do you want?”
“My cock.”
A snarl reverberated in the back of my throat. “I beg your pardon?”
The vampire pointed at his glowing crotch. “Your holy flames are still lapping at my meat and two veg.”
Heat rose to my cheeks. “Oh.” I waved a hand and doused the holy fire. “There. Problem solved. Now, go away.”
He spread his arms wide and dipped into a mocking bow. “Mark my words, little nun. Things will be different the next time we meet.”
Willa stepped forward and extracted her baton. “You assaulted an enforcer of the law and threatened a young woman. What’s your last name?”
“Keegan.” He turned to the door with his small entourage of vampires at his back. “Next time the world’s about to end, let’s stay inside for a rousing game of bridge. Anything’s better than being stuck in a confined space with so many starched cunts.”
I ground my teeth. “Fine words from a vampire whose dick is smaller than a baby carrot.”
Caliban paused by the door and grinned. “I look forward to our reckoning.”
As he stepped out into the dark, a shiver ran down my spine. Not because of him, but because the absence of his annoying presence brought back a painful reality.
The enchantment was totally and utterly broken, and if I didn’t get back to check on the item I’d hidden in my chambers, I would be worse than dead.
I turned back to Mother Hecate with a forced smile. “Shall we return to the temple?”
She hesitated for a moment, staring down at me as though trying to puzzle out my secret. By now, even Mr. Rudo’s demon security guards knew I was hiding something, but I was past caring. I needed to get back, and I needed the safety of my Sisters to reach the temple in case Caliban decided to carry out his threat.
“Don’t you think our congregation will turn to us for comfort?”
With a sigh, Mother Hecate waved a hand, indicating for the other nuns to rise. “Yana is right. Let’s go.”
The Temple of Light stood on a tall platform and was more majestic than the palace of the Witch Queen. It was surrounded by a grand colonnade of a pitched roof supported by thirty-foot-tall limestone columns. Flaming torches dotted around the gardens made its white exterior shine like gold.
I placed a hand on my chest and sagged at the sight of the temple. It had weathered the earthquakes, and not a column was out of place. The gardens, however, seemed to be in disarray.
Richelle drove through the gates, where a small crowd of worshippers stood beyond the iron fences that bordered our grounds, holding aloft replicas of Mother Hecate’s torch. At a time like this, people needed answers—me more than anyone else.
As we streamed out through the back doors, we found priestesses were directing novices to clear up the mess of broken lampposts and fallen trees.
Mother Hecate swept out an arm, floating all the debris to the outer edges of the gardens. When the path for the worshippers was clear, she hurried up the stairs that led to the colonnade. I stared after her, and marveled at her power. It looked like she was preparing for an emergency service.
“You lot.” One of the priestesses beckoned us over. “Help us sort through what we can salvage and what we need to scrap.”
With a groan, my Sisters trudged from the path toward the gardens. My gaze darted toward the building.
Now was the time to check on my secret.
Now, while Mother Hecate was busy tending to the frightened congregation, and while the other nuns were clearing up all the mess. I ducked around the ambulance and followed the building’s perimeter until I reached the side entrance that led to our cells.
All the lights were still off and the hallway plunged into darkness. I expected the light bulbs had blown during the energy surges but didn’t generate any illumination with my magic. At least not until I reached the top-floor hallway and counted the doors to my room.
I pulled down the handle, cringing as the door opened with a loud creak. This was such an asshole move—ditching my Sisters while they cleaned up the wreckage, but the danger facing us was a hundred times worse than the idiot vampires who had tried to harass us in Salon Sinn.
With a flick of my wrist, I produced a beam of light from the white fabric that wrapped around my face. Everyone else called it a coif but I called it a pain in the ass. It flooded my little room with illumination, letting me know that the debris hadn’t just affected the garden.
All my books had fallen off their shelf and now lay strewn on the floor, and most of my artwork had slid off the wall. Broken picture frames formed a pile of rubble among fallen plasterwork and smashed glass, making me rub the back of my neck through my veil.
I could fix this mess with a bit of magic and a lot of determination. However, if the magical disturbance had broken that thing…
My mind went blank. The consequences were unthinkable.
“Show me.”
I spread out my arms and raised one end of the bed, revealing the rug I’d crocheted in needlework class. With a curl of my fingers, the cloth peeled backward and exposed the barely visible marks I had scored into the floorboards.
“Rise.”
Tiny streams of light rose from the seam, and the wood worked its way free, revealing the wax doll lying within a makeshift coffin.
I stepped forward on trembling legs, my heart pounding loud enough to reach the congregation on the other side of the gates.
“Please let it be intact,” I whispered to any deity who would listen to my prayer and not immediately divulge my horrible secret to Mother Hecate. “Please don’t be broken.”
My magic had pushed the bed flush against the wall, with the rug completely rolled to the side. I dropped down on my knees and examined the doll.
Voodoo.
Some might call what I did sympathetic magic, but it was a corruption of Mother Hecate’s gift of healing. A splinter of wood had worked its way free from the floor and pierced the doll’s heart, and all the blood I had once collected had spilled down its side. Its hair was still intact, and the wax still a brilliant white, indicating that the semen sample was still viable.
I blew out a long breath. “Two out of three isn’t bad.”
Most spells that required bodily specimens worked well enough with just hair, but I hadn’t spelled an average blood sucker. He hadn’t been anything like Caliban or his lecherous friends. He hadn’t even been as terrifying as the Vampire King.
Thinking about the monster made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
I picked up the doll, revealing the photo I had ordered from the Royal House of Sargon’s official website.
The monstrous vampire was so old that his features had taken on the look of a waxwork.
“His Royal Highness, Prince Draconius Sargon de Akkadian of New Mesopotamia.” I read its inscription, the words feeling like ashes on my tongue. “Great Steward of our Royal and Most Ancient House.”
My lip curled. There was very little difference between the doll and the creature in the photo, apart from their sizes and immense differences in power. I suppressed a shudder. That wretched thing had abducted me, bitten my neck, and tried to make me his bride.
“Scum.” I lifted the picture from its resting place, making sure not to disturb any of the dried blood.
Maybe I could pick it off, place it back into the doll’s chest cavity, and strengthen it with a new enchantment. I couldn’t leave the magic to chance. Prince Draconius made the likes of Caliban look like children.
He had probably returned to New Mesopotamia shortly after our encounter, and with any luck, he was far away from Logris. Even if the control I had over him all these years had loosened, there was plenty of time for me to strengthen the doll, restore the preserving charms, and stick him back into the recesses of my memory.
A door slammed, making my pulse leap, and a gust of cool air swirled around the room. I whirled to the exit, finding it closed, and exhaled a long breath. Maybe someone else had skipped cleaning duty and also returned to their chamber.
“Playing with voodoo dolls?” said a cold voice that curled around my senses and chilled my blood to ice.
My breath hitched. I glanced from side to side. Was this going to be my reckoning?
“Who are you?” I snarled.
A low, deep chuckle resounded through my ears. “Yana, you’ve been a very naughty girl. One who is about to be punished.”
I pulled out my wand and charged it with my strongest extermination spell. “Come out of the shadows, you coward.”
“As you wish,” he replied.
Every muscle in my body tensed in readiness for an attack. I glanced around, my coif illuminating patches of the room. The vampire hiding there moved faster than the speed of a nun’s enchanted light.
A strong arm pulled me into a large, hard body. “Got you.”
Tingles spread across my skin, mingling with my terror, and the doll dropped from my fingers with a thud. I grabbed the arm, shot the spell into his flesh, and waited for the resounding scream.
The vampire grunted. “Isn’t it enough that you enslaved me with that doll?” His hot breath fanned against my ear. “Now you want to put me down like a rat?”
All sensation drained from my face and into my sputtering heart. “Wait.”
“Yes?” He elongated the syllable in a languid drawl.
I swallowed over and over, letting his words run through my head even faster than the beating of my heart. The vampire was exaggerating. I hadn’t enslaved anyone—not even Prince Draconius. Perhaps I’d messed with one tiny aspect of his free will, but the blood-guzzler hadn’t understood the meaning of the word no.
My captor loosened his grip, allowing me to turn around. Instead of the waxy features of Prince Draconius, I met the brilliant turquoise eyes of the shirtless vampire who had stolen those bottles of blood.
A frown pulled my brows together. “You’re not him.”
He stared down at me with a malicious grin of gleaming white fangs. “Your fated mate? The vampire who offered to pluck you from obscurity and elevate you to the status of a princess?”
His bare chest reverberated with a growl that made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “The same vampire you ensorcelled with the darkest of arts?”
I shook my head. “But you’re not—”
“Silence.” He raised a hand, making the door close with a bang. “By the time I have finished with you, you will regret ever having toyed with His Royal Highness, Prince Draconius.”
