by A M Proctor
He glared at me. “Wake up, girl. Your queen of nothing. Your merely hiding your precious womb until your king returns.”
My lips pursed before I choked out. “And you’ve found that womb. Nourished it. Fucked it. Now what? You think you have breeding rights now?”
He sneered at me. “So I can be saddled with young? Hell no.”
Inara whimpered, and I shushed her and kissed her tiny head. He continued, “You claim to love them so much and yet you’re doing nothing to protect them. They can’t live the rest of their lives in the God Realm.”
I growled, “What would you have me do?”
He moved to the window and leaned against the sill with a heavy sigh. “I was there. I received my tribute of blood from your king.”
I sat up abruptly. “What?”
Inara complained at being jostled and I patted her back gently as I focused on Ryzier’s heavy shoulders. “You were at the Blood Court? You helped them drain Alexei?”
He looked over his shoulder at me. “You didn’t feel his sacrifice as you drank from me?”
Holy shit! I felt Alexei keenly as I fed from and fucked this demon. “How could you?”
He smirked. “Because it’s my right and duty to accept his sacrifice. My honor to present it to you, his mate and my queen.”
“Bullshit.”
His smirk grew. “Yeah. Bullshit. You know what else is bullshit? You. You’re bullshit, Nevaeh. Queen of Nothing. Mother of tributes. You know what else? You aren’t the only one. He’s already impregnated two more females. They were present at his sacrifice. Proudly displayed, naked and chained with their handlers. Or you’d call them her harem now, wouldn’t you?”
I wanted to deny it. Say bullshit again, but I knew already that if Alexei found the other females that were supposedly at the Blood Court, he’d breed them. It was his right and duty to strengthen the species. No matter how much it hurt. I’d always have to share my king with his brethren.
I looked away, and he turned around and leaned against the windowsill. “They have children there already. The Blood Court’s get. Boys, though. Alexei is a proven provider of girls, twin girls. He knows what you did. He knows exactly where you are. You know what he said?”
I shook my head slowly. His lips twisted up. “Good. At least her womb is safe until I’m released to claim it once again. He cares only for your ability to produce offspring.”
“I don’t believe you. Alexei loves me, loves our daughters. It’s why he left me at the mansion.”
He smirked again. “Your right. I’m a demon. I play games better than any vampire alive. I could be manipulating you right now. Do you see me now? Hmm?”
He turned back to the window and whispered, “Gregory and Narella send their love, by the way. He’s eager to plant his seed in you. Swears that you’ll fall to your knees before him and kiss his feet. Says Alexei has already promised him one of your twins. Says he will train her as he trained you. Bet you didn’t see that in the blood.”
“Why are you saying this to me?”
He whirled on me. His face a mask of darkness. “Because, if you return weak and meek, stupid and naïve, you’ll lose everything you fought for before you left the Human Realm.”
I laid Inara on the bed carefully. Pulled a blanket and wrapped it around me. “You’re trying to hurt me, Ryzier.”
He asked. “Is it working? Does the fact that you’re allowing these males to treat you like a broodmare hurt?”
He didn’t need an answer. The blood tears that were forming in my eyes told him enough. He sighed, “Good. You can’t trust them and you most definitely can’t trust me. No male will save you. Not even your precious Lukenon.”
I asked urgently. “You saw Luke?”
He rolled his eyes. “Saved the idiot from killing himself. He’s fine. Knows you’re fine too. Back in the Fae Realm and not food for the pissy vamps you left behind.”
Okay, he’s making no sense now. “What?”
He glared at me like I was the one not making sense. “When you stopped responding to his messages. He left the Fae Realm and went to find you. When I went to deliver your message, his mommy informed me what happened. Lucky for them, I can walk through space, distance and portals with a thought. Because I’m linked to your precious Alexei by blood. I popped in just in time to stop old Lukenon from busting into the mansion and serving himself up for dinner to Gregory and friends.”
I just stared at him, jaw unhinged. “He came to rescue me?”
He closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. “He did. He truly loves you, Nevaeh. Yet, here you are. Living in a fantasy that when Alexei gets back, he’ll fix everything.”
I frowned. “Lukenon and I can’t be together. He might not be in danger from me, but in the Human Realm, he’s in danger because of me. Other vampires will hunt me, even crows. So what do you suggest, Demon?”
He sighed again. Voice sounded defeated. “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m pointing out that your loyalty to your mate is misplaced. I’m pointing out that you are just hiding from your problems. Sticking your head in the proverbial sand when you need to be using this time to form a plan that doesn’t include some asshole risking his life to save you. No Prince Charming is coming to your rescue.”
I wiped at the blood tears that streaked down my cheeks and he winced. “I see you, Nevaeh.”
I jerked my gaze back to his, and he said, “The blood doesn’t lie. You’re a mighty queen. Strong enough to protect your family from those who want to use you and them. Smart enough to fight this fight without a male to save and guide you. The family you yearn for is right here with you.”
He strode over to me and knelt down in front of me. “Yes, that includes me. I’m not worth much, but I’ll support you… serve you because I can’t walk away from you. It also includes Lukenon and that stone beast outside, those two nymphs, your daughters but mostly… family starts with you. So step up and lead this ragtag group. Step into your power, Nevaeh.”
He stood up and said, “It’s time for me to go. I’ll return next week.”
I shot up and threw my arms around him. He’d essentially cut me into tiny little pieces just now. Beat the fuck out of me emotionally. Reduced me to blood tears. But damn him, he did it from a place of love. He stiffened, but then his arms came around me slowly. He sighed heavily as he nuzzled against my head. I held onto my emotions as we held each other. Ryzier had a hard time with soft emotions.
The blood doesn’t lie. His told me just enough about him that his jagged pieces had worn edges. They will never fit back together perfectly. His walls are thick. The lies he believes about himself, deeply ingrained in his psyche. The damaged parts of him might never be repaired. Yet he stands here, delaying his quick retreat to hold me. To almost press kisses to my head, because I needed him to.
He pulled back and stared down into my eyes. A blood tear fell from my lashes as I looked up at him. He winced and caught it with his thumb. He narrowed his gaze and said darkly. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and fight back.”
He popped his thumb into his mouth and sucked the blood drop off it. His gaze met mine once more. “Hmm. Interesting.” Then he waved a hand and stepped through the portal he created without another word. I knew what my blood tear told him. I loved him despite his flaws and crass ways.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A Dragon Deity
No plan formed in my brain that didn’t include Alexei helping me. After what Ryzier told me, I knew I couldn’t count on his support. The more I tried to formulate a feasible plan to reform the Blood Court, the less my brain helped me. It just kept going back to Alexei as my answer.
I spent hours meditating and the only message I received was to look within myself. Shit, isn’t that was meditation was all about? I was looking within my higher self for answers. By day two I was so damn frustrated I stormed out of the manor house and into the woods. The longer I walked, the more relaxed I felt.
I needed to connect with somethi
ng. I had no idea what. I just needed some guidance. To find what? My powers? How do I find powers I don’t believe I have? Even if I did how some goddess magick, how would that help me solve my vampire problem? Fuck my life! How did I get here? A vampire with a vampire problem. Who lives like this?
Why couldn’t I be a normal human with a normal nine-to-five job? Normal worries, like how am I going to afford that new car I want? When is that movie I want to see coming out on Netflix? How can I improve my credit score? Is my boyfriend cheating on me?
No. I got problems like, how do I fix the plight of female vampires? And… I know my mate is not only fucking others but making babies. I knew I’d have to share him as much as he’d have to share me, but damn. He has a harem at the Blood Court. No wonder he didn’t want me there. He lied to me. That was worse than anything else. Alexei lied, and I was stupid enough to believe him and naïve enough to trust him.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself and fight back.” I repeated Ryzier’s last words to myself out loud.
“How? How do I fight back?” It’s the ultimate question, and I was coming up with excuses. I can’t fight back because there are more of them than there are me. I can’t fight back because I’m literally the youngest natural born female vampire that exists.
I paused my mental tirade and looked around the forest. “Fuck. I’m lost.” Literally and figuratively.
“Well, isn’t that just perfect?”
The forest pressed close, but there was the light of a clearing not far to my left. Might as well head that way. It was a large clearing with a wide, slow river flowing through it.
As I approached the river, I heard a loud splash but found nothing in the waters. I sat down on a boulder and sighed. This was a lovely place. Maybe I need to get out of my head and just be grateful for the opportunity to be here.
I pulled my legs up, crossing them, and closed my eyes. Breathe. Quiet. Breathe. Quiet. No questions, no purpose. No worries. No future. No past. Just be here, in this beautiful place. Alone with just my breath. In, out. Relax. Let it go. Let it be. Just be.
“Sssuch a heavy sssoul.”
I jerked out of my meditative state. My fangs descended the moment I found the voice. They do that sometimes when I’m startled. I was startled by what I found.
“What are you?”
I asked the question even as my brain quickly put the pieces together. The female in the river was most definitely some lizard or crocodile goddess. Maybe dragon? Her iridescent greenish purple scales covered her arms and torso but seemed to fade into tinted skin at her chest and face. Her hair was short, curly and a darker iridescent purple. Large reptilian eyes also tinted purple with green highlights around that slit of an iris. Her mouth was wide, lips thin and as she smiled up at me, full of sharp teeth.
I amended my question quickly. “Who are you?”
She stood up and walked up the bank slowly, gracefully. Her back had ridges like one would see on a crocodile. She even had a wide thick tail as they continued down, except the bottom of her tail had white spikes.
I bared my fangs with a hiss when she got too close for comfort. Also, an instinctual response which I had no control over. This creature truly frightened me to the core.
She paused at my hiss and laughed elegantly at my display. “Oh ho, ho. No need to fear me girl. I don’t eat your kind.” Did she know what I was?
She turned her head slightly, peering at me curiously from one eye. “Why do you carry sssuch a burden on your sssoul?”
My gaze narrowed on her with suspicion. “If you know my kind, then you know I don’t have a soul.”
Cocking her head to peer at me from her other eye eerily. “You breathe, you fear, you're not dead… you have a sssoul.”
I glanced around the clearing to make sure we were still alone before returning my gaze to hers. “I had a soul before my transition. I traded it for eternal life.”
She smiled again, this time she tried to keep her thin lips over her fearsome teeth. “You traded your immortal sssoul for an immortal life. You didn’t lose your sssoul entirely my dear. You lossst your humanity is all.”
That felt right. Alexei never told me outright that we didn’t have souls. I just assumed that vampires lost their soul when they transitioned. I retracted my fangs and dipped my head slightly. “I’m Nevaeh.”
“Halia.” She moved forward and sat on a boulder across from me. Scaled legs pulled under her, tail curled around her. She was smaller than me, lithely built and petite even though she had slightly feminine curves. “I’ve traveled far to sssee the vampiress who fled her mate.”
Suspicion rose once more. “Why?”
She shrugged and inspected her claws. “Why not? Not much exciting happens here thessse days. When Hypnos sent Hermes to the Olympians, word ssspread through the realm like wildfire. I won’t be the last deity to visit you, I’m sssure.”
Great. My dream of living in the peaceful enchanted forest is shattered. At this point in my life, I’ll settle for some peace and quiet. I want to bury my head in the sand and let the worlds go on without me. Why can’t the world just leave me alone?
I sat with Halia and told her my story, the reason I was hiding in the God Realm and my dilemma. Like the fae, these gods and goddesses seemed to love a good story. According to the high fae, these creatures in this realm were just like them but had magic they’d kept from the worship they’d once received. Maybe the high fae were jealous because in the Fae Realm, they had no magic. They only became magical in the Human Realm. Even then, it was limited to shape shifting and charming.
Halia grunted when I’d finished my story. I said, “Now I need to make my realm safe for my daughters. I just don’t see how I can do that when the moment I appear in the Human Realm, I’ll be hunted by every male vampire wanting to possess the queen and her princesses.”
Halia offered. “It ssseems like Alexei loved you. He provided for you, ensured your sssafety in his absence. Gave you offspring. I don’t see why you weren’t happy with your sssituation as it was. Even if he brought his new femalesss home, you’d surely be their queen. It sssounds to me like you got the family you were sssearching for but then decided it wasn’t enough.”
I searched her face for a moment. Her face remained neutral. I couldn’t tell if she believed what she said or was she merely doing what these gods do when they are trying to get you to make your own self-discovery. “It wasn’t worth my freedom.”
She sat back on her heels and said, “Ah, but what’sss freedom without direction?”
“So, you think I should have stayed at the mansion, consumed my friends and allowed Gregory to put me in a cage under the mountain?”
“But they hadn’t caged you yet, had they? You had full reign of your domain and it sssounds to me like your harem had no intension of imprisoning you unlesss they had to. You were the one who chose to upssset the apple cart. Why?”
I looked down at my lap. “Maybe I felt trapped. Maybe I didn’t want to see my friends die at the hands of that bitch Narella. Yes, I was jealous of her. Even from her cage, she controlled everything. Gregory and Emilio did her bidding over mine. I had no control over my life, but I could do the right thing for those fae. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt, especially Emilio. I just wanted to free my friends.”
“What was your mother’sss name again?”
“Greisha. She grew up in Poseidon’s palace with her sea nymph mother. I don’t know her name or the name of the witch she studied under.”
Halia cocked her head and pulled at one of her purple curls. “I wonder if by uncovering the myssstery of your lineage, you might find your own purpose?”
I smiled knowingly at her when she glanced up at me. She was doing that god thing by telling me in a roundabout way what she thought I should do. “I came here hoping I would develop my goddess gifts.”
She smirked, or what I assumed was a smirk. Her reptilian face was hard to read. “The greatest gift of all is life, love and happine
ss. I hope you find all three in abundance, Nevaeh.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A Jealous Goddess
It was dusk by the time I made my way through the garden gate at the manor house. Mason wasn’t at his post by the door. I glanced up and saw him fly over the house. I waved at him, once again feeling a longing to communicate better with him.
He landed with a thud and greeted me with a snarl. He seemed pissed off. Okay, he always seemed pissed off, but today I felt relief push forward.
I left the gate and met him in the clearing. He lowered his nose and sniffed my hair. I reached up and let my fingers tangle in his golden mane. “I’m all right, Mason.”
He blew out a snort, blowing my hair back off my shoulder. “I’m sorry I worried you. I got lost but found my way back.”
He raised back up and scowled at the manor house before taking to the air once more. Atalanta, Jah and Rah came rushing out. Mason didn’t like Atalanta. I wish I knew why. I really needed to spend some more time with him alone.
I turned to face my frantic friends. After reassuring them I was fine and telling them about meeting Halia, we settled down to eat dinner together. Atalanta said, “Halia is a foul creature. Did she tell you about her children?”
Atalanta pushed a stray lock of hair over her ear. “Well, she’s the daughter of Sybaris…”
She glanced at my blank stare and explained. “Sybaris was a horrible dragon who lived in a cave on Mount Cirphis. No one knows who fathered Halia, but supposedly Sybaris raped one of her offerings instead of eating him like she was supposed to do. When Eurybarus killed her, it’s rumored that he took the newly hatched Halia as a trophy. Some say he loved her, but I happen to know that Eurybarus only loved one person. His name was Alcyoneus. They raised Halia in secret because… well, you saw her.”
I nodded even as I felt uncomfortable for doing so. Halia wasn’t grotesque, she was just… different. Humans might flee in fear from her, but not the fae.
