Wicked Vampire Prince by Bella Klaus

Chapter Seven

Istepped out of the hospice, inhaled two lungfuls of fresh air, and then ran down the path that led back to the temple. Thanks to the bowl of soup, my magic and energy levels weren’t so dangerously low, but I was in no position to perform anything but the most basic concealment charms.

My footsteps pounded on the hard paving stones, and I took the steps two at a time. There was no telling when the Witch Queen would get sick of bickering with Mother Hecate and send out her enforcers to inspect the cells.

Nuns streamed through the doors, seeming in a hurry to return to their rooms—white habits, purple habits, and even the priestesses, who wore black. I doubted that any of them had anything worse than a few naughty novels. I doubted that the enforcers would report something so innocuous to the Witch Queen, but they were hardly suitable for women committed to a life of chastity.

I followed my fellow Sisters up the stairs until I reached the top floor, which was a flurry of activity. Novices darted in and out of their doors, clutching armfuls of dirty linen. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, wishing my worst secrets involved not having laundered my sheets.

“Yana?” Richelle emerged from her room and blocked my path. “Sister Mariah said you would be busy with the Goddess Mother, so I tried to enter your room to straighten up before the inspection.”

“What?” I hissed.

“Why do you keep your door locked?”

A few of the nuns dashing around us slowed their steps.

“What are you talking about?” I said. “There are no locks on our doors.”

“That’s what I thought.” She raised her shoulders, her gaze drifting around what was now becoming a crowd. “But imagine my surprise when I tried to help out a fellow Sister and found that she’d sealed her door with magic.”

“Let me see.” I shoved past Richelle, who stepped back with a feigned shriek.

My fingers touched the handle, and magic pulsed against my skin. Shit. She hadn’t been lying.

“Go on, then.” She drifted toward me.

“It wasn’t me who sealed my door.” I pulled my hand away.

“Then how do you explain that magic?” she said with a pout.

The crowd closed in on us, and my vision filled with dozens of expectant faces, each of them seeming to ask the question of what I was possibly hiding.

Shit.

“Are you alright, Sister Yana?” Richelle’s voice danced with mockery. “Underneath that dark coloring, you’re looking rather flushed.”

“That’s because I’m out of breath,” I said from between clenched teeth. “The Witch Queen sent two of her enforcers to inspect the cells, and I rushed ahead to change my pillowcases.”

The nuns scattered back to their rooms, down the hallways, or wherever else they needed to stash their contraband. Only Richelle and a few others remained, each of them standing with their arms folded and glaring.

“Excuse me.” I pulled down the door handle. “Some of us have better things to do than stir up trouble.”

They hung around the hallway, desperate for something to quench their thirst for gossip. With the last of my magic, I jammed the door so it would only open enough to let me squeeze through while still concealing the opening I’d made in the floorboards.

As I stepped inside, Richelle pushed on the door’s wooden panel, but it jammed. I shot out a blast of pepper spray through the back of my veil.

She staggered back with a slew of coughs.

“Sorry,” I slammed the door shut. “There must have been too much spice in my soup.”

The room was dark, with only the barest trace of light streaming in through the window. I flared the light in my coif to find my bed was no longer upturned as I had left it. A pale quilt shimmered atop it instead of the usual woolen blanket.

I squinted in the semi dark. “Is that… silk?”

“Looking for this?” asked a cold voice.

A tight fist of alarm clutched at my lungs, squeezing out my breath. I turned toward the tiny wet room to find Prince Draconius taking up the entire doorway. Light streamed in from behind him, turning the ends of his mahogany hair a deep shade of copper.

He wore a silky black kimono with golden dragons embroidered on its lapels. The garment hung open at the waist, but I wasn’t looking at his bulging pectoral muscles. Nor did I let my gaze linger on his tantalizing café au lait skin.

My entire world concentrated on his right hand, which held the voodoo doll.

Cold, white panic exploded across my chest. I lurched forward, my arms outstretched. “Give me that.”

With a snarl, Prince Draconius held it over his head, out of reach. “No shock, no apology, no oh-my-goddess-what-are-you-doing-here?”

“The Witch Queen brought a bunch of enforcers.” I placed a hand on his shoulder, tried to scale his huge body and snatch the doll, but his silk was too slippery. “They’re going to inspect our cells.”

“That is your biggest fear?” he said, his voice flat.

There was probably a point to his line of conversation, but I was too flustered to puzzle out what he was trying to say. “Keep your voice down,” I hissed. “The hallway is filled with nosey nuns.”

The air thickened, and an invisible force pushed me to the center of my room, giving me a view of Prince Draconius’ face. His irises were the color of blood, his face twisted into a mask of rage that exposed his huge fangs.

Adrenaline raced through my system, followed by a bout of unshakable terror that seized my muscles and made me go rigid. My lips parted, but I couldn’t even gasp.

Oh, shit.

Putting aside the impending raid, the return of my voodoo doll and the annoyingly beautiful vampire, I was still in the presence of the powerful ancient who had once injected me with thrall.

“You would dare to dismiss your mate?” The ice in his voice froze the outer layer of my skin.

My insides cringed, and I suppressed a shudder. I wanted to tell him that he was mistaken, fate was mistaken. It had all been a terrible mistake, but there was no denying the effect he had on me when we were close. A connection thrummed between us, letting me know that no matter what, this vampire would never leave me alone. Not unless I took action and put him down before I became his slave.

“This is how things are going to work,” he said in a voice used to commanding underlings. “You will shelter me until I can find safe passage from Logris. You will keep my presence here a secret. And you will perform a number of tasks to enable my departure. Is that understood?”

Some of the pressure around my chest eased, letting in a slither of hope. Prince Draconius wanted to exit Logris, and I wanted him on the other side of the Supernatural World. It was a win-win.

My eyes narrowed. What was the catch? Knowing my luck, I’d heard him all wrong or he’d phrased it in vampire legalese.

“You want me to help you leave the city?” I asked.

“That is correct,” he said. “Are we in agreement?”

I was about to nod when my mind caught up with the rest of his message. “It’s one thing to help you bugger off, but I’ll be damned if I let you stay here.”

“And why not?” he asked.

My gaze darted around the ten-by-ten-foot space that had been my home since I graduated from the temple’s academy. “There’s only one bed.”

Prince Draconius stalked toward me, his scarlet eyes darkening. “I have no objection to sharing.”

“But it’s mine.”

“Ours.” He raised a hand, filling the room with light.

It came from an eighteen-inch-wide chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Its chains and canopy and column were gold, and its crystal prisms were as long as my finger.

I don’t know when or how or why, but Prince Draconius had decorated my entire room with mauve and ivory silk furnishings, and a flat-screen television set hung on the wall opposite my bed. It was now a foot wider, with four cushions arranged in front of a quilted headboard. The crochet rug I’d made in needlework class was gone, replaced by something that looked like it had been skinned from a polar bear.

“Where did all this come from?” I asked, my voice breathy.

“The Hatch,” he said.

My gaze wandered around once more. Prince Draconius had replaced everything except for my books and my uniform. “But how?”

“Some of the vendors offered installation services,” he said with a proud smirk. “The imps did most of the work, but I directed their efforts.”

The room was more like a blood salon boudoir than the quarters of a nun, and it made Willa’s enforcer barracks look bleak in comparison. I was no expert on luxury goods, but this had to cost hundreds of gold coins.

“Your life has already improved with my influence,” he said in the benevolent tone a person would use when feeding a stray cat. “Your last few days in Logris will no longer be in squalor.”

Cold dread rolled in my gut. Part of me already knew the answer, but I had to ask, “How did you pay for all these goods and services?”

Prince Draconius leaned back a few inches and frowned. “You gave me your Hatch password.”

“But I don’t have that sort of money in my account,” I said.

“Have you not heard of overdrafts and loans?” he drawled.

I spluttered. “You put me in debt?”

“Nothing serious,” he said with a dismissive wave. “A few hundred gold coins.”

My knees buckled, and I reeled forward. If he hadn’t been keeping me suspended in a pocket of air, I would have tumbled to the floor. Some of the people we took care of in the hospice were victims of faerie loan sharks. The fae specialized in offering people things they didn’t need in exchange for things they couldn’t live without.

Women bargained for beauty but did so at the cost of their youth, men made deals for more power but paid with their lives. Those who accepted offers of loans with low, low interest rates soon discovered the deadly catch.

I swallowed hard. Every stipend I had received since I first started receiving them wouldn’t even cover the first interest payment.

“How on earth do you expect me to pay such a large debt?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed. “You would dare to question your mate?”

“We’re not—” I clamped down on that sentence.

Prince Draconius was already in place for my plan to get rid of him. The vampire was probably too arrogant to think I would make another attempt at a voodoo doll. This time, when I ensorcelled him, I wouldn’t feel an ounce of guilt. The bastard had just gotten me into even more trouble.

“Could you please release this magic on me?” I asked in my sweetest voice.

His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“So we can talk about how you intend to pay off my debt before the faeries come to harvest my organs.”

The vampire’s deep chuckle swept over my skin like a caress. “You are as amusing as you are cunning. I shall enjoy bringing you to heel.”

I clenched my teeth hard enough to grind them into dust. “Please answer my question.”

“We’ll have left Logris before the first payment is due.”

I stiffened, and my breaths turned shallow. Every instinct in my body wanted to lash out at the vampire, but my magic was low.

“What makes you think I’m leaving town with you?”

He stared down at me as though I’d asked him something stupid. “You’re coming with me to New Mesopotamia,” he enunciated. “Where you will become my consort.”

A knock sounded on the door. “Inspection.”

My heart threw itself against my ribcage and sobbed. Borrowing money I had no intention to pay back was tantamount to theft. Harboring dark artifacts could get me arrested and using them would get me killed. And I wasn’t going to mention the half-naked vampire holding a voodoo doll in his effigy.

“Ask who is there,” he said in a low voice.

“It’s probably one or more of the Witch Queen’s enforcers looking to condemn us all for my illegal acts of magic,” I blurted.

He lowered his hand and set me on my feet. “Let me deal with them.”

“Don’t.” I lurched forward and grabbed his bicep.

Prince Draconius glared at my hand. It was one of those how-dare-you-restrain-my-royal-person glowers that made me release my hold and want to beg for forgiveness.

My jaw tightened. If he wanted me to keep my hands to myself, perhaps he should have found another nun’s room to haunt. Or remained in that dingy hotel.

A fist slammed on the door, making my insides shudder with cold dread.

“There’s also a crowd of nuns in the hallway, waiting for an opportunity to discover what I’ve hidden.” My voice trembled.

This vampire didn’t seem to give a damn about getting me into trouble. But then he’d already told me a dozen times that he would punish me for my transgressions.

“Please.” I clutched my hands together. “Let me go to the door.”

“And you intend to deal with the enforcers how?” He raised his brow.

“Jump out on them and use your mesmerizing magic.” I wiggled my fingers to demonstrate.

“In all my millennia of existence, I have never heard vampiric mind power given such ridiculous nomenclature.”

“Excuse me for not caring what you call it in New Mesopotamia.”

The knock sounded on the door twice as loud. “Sister Iyana Torchbearer, open the door!”

“Please, Your Highness,” I said in my most subservient voice. “It’s going to be bad enough to explain away the luxury furnishings and fittings, but if anyone suspects me of harboring a man, let alone a vampire—”

“Say no more.” He sounded unusually chivalrous for a man who had been the root cause of all my problems. “I will safeguard your honor.”

The hypocrisy of those words rasped against my nerves like a grater, but I offered him a tight smile. As soon as I had him under control with the voodoo doll, I would make him return this expensive junk to the stores and sign as a guarantor for my debt to the faeries. I gave myself a firm nod. And the next time, I would hide my dark magic in a place where it would never be disturbed by a supernatural disaster.

A heavy fist pounded again on the door.

“Alright, I’m coming.” I yelled at the top of my voice. To Prince Draconius, I said, “Fly out of sight.”

He bared his teeth. “I am neither a preternatural nor a bat. What in Tartarus did they teach you at the academy?”

“I didn’t go.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Iyana Torchbearer,” the enforcer yelled.

“Go.” I shooed him toward the bathroom and jogged to the door.

When I cracked it open, it was to find a pair of women in black armor surrounded by every novice from the top floor and some from downstairs.

“Officers?” I croaked.

“Step aside,” said the shorter enforcer.

I moved a pace to the right, giving them just enough space to enter the room single file. As they stepped inside, the other nuns crowded forward, desperate for a peek. I pushed the last remnants of my magic into the door, making it move no further than I’d opened it.

Richelle rose to her tiptoes. “What are you hiding in there?”

I slammed the door in the nuns’ faces and turned to the enforcers standing on the other side of the room.

Prince Draconius had already trapped them in his gaze. His silk dressing gown hung open a few inches past his belly button, showing his chest and abs and the beginnings of a dark treasure trail.

“Sister Iyana Torchbearer answered the door late because she had been taking a shower at the time of knocking,” the prince said. “Except for a few purchases she made from the Hatch, her room was nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” they chorused.

On instinct, my lips tightened at the sight of vampire mesmerism, but I pushed down my disapproval. It had been my suggestion.

His crimson eyes glittered with satisfaction. “If you hear any reports of His Majesty Prince Draconius, mention that you saw him entering a stairwell in the Supernatural Council building.”

The enforcers nodded. I couldn’t see their faces because I was standing behind them, but their expressions had to be blank.

“You will work for me until further notice, and spread subterfuge across the Council about my whereabouts.”

“Yes, master,” they droned.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

He stared down at me over their heads. “Jealous?”

“Of course not,” I said with a splutter. “But you can’t tamper with their free will.”

He curled his lip. “And I suppose you have justification for interfering with mine?”

“That was self-defense,” I snapped.

Prince Draconius turned his gaze from me to the enforcers. “Send insider updates on the lockdown to Sister Torchbearer’s handset. I want to know which routes out of Logris are open, their security parameters, and the location of any breaches in the wards’ magic.”

I leaned against the wall with a hand over my mouth, not knowing if I should help the women or stay quiet. I needed Prince Draconius to leave our Supernatural City without me, but the thought of him keeping two innocent women enchanted filled my mouth with bile.

“Return to your duties and act as normal,” he said.

They swept into low bows, turned around and marched to the exit. I held open the door wide enough for them to squeeze through without revealing too much of my room’s interior to the nuns in the hallway.

Shit.

This situation was getting worse.

And this wretched vampire was making me even more corrupt.

I stalked toward Prince Draconius with my hands curled into fists. “You’re going to release them the moment you leave the city.”

The corners of his lips curled into a seductive smile. “How will you persuade me?”

Heat rose to my cheeks, and my coif was suddenly too thick, too tight, too rough. Sweat beaded across my skin as the temperature rose twelve degrees, and the air became thick with tension.

I swayed on my feet and had to brace a hand on the wall to stay upright. Prince Draconius was a hundred times more bearable when he wasn’t trying to be charming.

“What are you hiding?” I rasped, trying to change the subject.

He snorted. “For someone who hasn’t even reached their quarter-century, you certainly have a crypt full of skeletons.”

“Why did the Council declare you dead?” I asked.

“It was my Royal House, and until we’ve cemented our bond, it’s none of your business.”

My eyes narrowed. “It sounds like you’re a preternatural.”

“Wait until sunrise.” He placed his large hands on my shoulders and kneaded my aching muscles. “You’re tense. Allow me to help you relax.”

I tried to rear back, but Prince Draconius pulled me to his chest.

“You’re only delaying the inevitable.” His hot breath warmed the shell of my ear, and his deep voice formed a tingle in the juncture of my thighs. “The sooner you take your punishment and accept that we’re mates, the sooner we can continue with our escape plan.”

He was right about the plan part. There was a vial of liquid anti-iron in the hem of my tunic. According to the dark tomes I had read, iron was the fuel of vampire magic. They burned through the mineral at ten times the rate of regular supernaturals, which was why they needed to drink blood.

Anti-iron would turn into a gas that would neutralize a vampire’s magic, rendering them unconscious for hours or until someone gave them a shot of blood. That was plenty of time to replenish my power, extract more samples from Prince Draconius, repair the voodoo doll, and make him forget he’d ever had a fated mate.

I fluttered my eyelashes. “What kind of punishment?”

He stared down at me with a broad grin. “Nothing I won’t thoroughly enjoy.”

“Alright, then.” I shouldered off my mantle, letting the thick cloak fall to the floor.

Amusement danced in his eyes. “Just how much of that habit will you take off?”

“That depends on which part of my body you want to punish,” I murmured.

His gaze fixed on my neck. “Take off the veil and coif.”

I placed my hands on his hard chest. “You’re not biting my neck.”

“Not yet.” He licked his lips. “But if you lift up your tunic and skirts, I’ll give you something that will make you moan for more.”

My pulse quickened. Part of me wanted to know what he’d planned, but my voice of reason ordered me to focus on getting Prince Draconius under my control.

I gave his pec a squeeze. “Excuse me while I disrobe.”

He rewarded me with a deep chuckle that I felt between my legs. “Don’t take too long, mate. I’m aching to put you over my knee.”

With a shiver, I bent down to the hem of my tunic, wishing I’d placed the anti-iron somewhere more convenient, like inside my sleeve. As I distracted the vampire with a flash of my boots, I tore off the vial and pushed my thumb on the cork.

Prince Draconius encased the hand holding the vial with a tight grip. “What is the meaning of this?”

Shock barreled through my gut, and I stared at him through wide eyes. “What are you talking about?”

He forced my hand open, plucked out the glass vial, and glowered at me through red irises. “Anti-iron?”

Palpitations took control of my heart. This was it. This was the moment he mesmerized me or injected me with thrall. I would be powerless to resist his command, and by the time I regained a semblance of control, I would be somewhere on the other side of the Supernatural World.

“I blame myself for being far too soft-hearted.” His magic pressed down on me with the force of a hurricane, and he backed me against the wall. “I treated you like a mate, but it would seem that you would prefer to become my minion.”

Shudders ran across my body. “Please don’t—”

“Silence,” he hissed. “And say goodbye to your free will.”