by Cege Smith
“I have forgotten my manners, Princess. I brought some food for our journey,” Connor said, kneeling down next to a sack that lying against the wall.
Suddenly Angeline felt ravenous, but she had no idea what he’d pull out of the bag. She hoped he wasn’t going to try feeding her something closer to his preferred sustenance. She had no idea how far she was from the closest town, and trying to escape on an empty stomach didn’t seem wise. Plus the bump on her head was starting to give her a headache and she felt a bit lightheaded. She decided to sit down before she fell down.
She watched Connor dig through the bag. His hands withdrew and when he turned his head and saw that she was seated he seemed pleased. He stood and moved toward her, and she had to will herself not to move. He said he wouldn’t harm her, but she had no intention of leaving herself vulnerable based on that flimsy promise. When he was within a few feet of her, he dropped to his knees. Then he opened his hands. In one there was a perfect red apple, and in the other some grapes.
Angeline’s stomach growled again and she swiped the fruit from his hands. She considered trying to be ladylike for all of a second before biting deep into the apple. As the warm juice flowed into her mouth she started to feel better.
“I’m sorry I didn’t pack any meat, but I knew I’d be able to hunt along the way,” Connor said as he watched her closely.
Angeline was uncomfortable with what his idea of hunting probably entailed. She felt the weight of his stare but she refused to let him make her squirm. “Don’t you have something else to do? Like stand guard in case Rhone comes looking for me?” she said with a full mouth. Normally she would be mortified, but she wasn’t trying to impress him with her table manners.
“We are many miles from where we left your escort, Princess. And I’d be able to hear them coming long before they got here. Humans don’t try to hide their movements much,” Connor said as he sprawled out on the ground in front of her and put a hand under his head. “I haven’t been around a human like this in many years. I find it strange and fascinating.”
With the little bit of food in her stomach, Angeline was feeling bold. “That seems hard to believe. I mean, WE are your food right?”
She saw that flicker cross his eyes again and she wondered what thoughts danced behind them.
Connor grimaced. “We are what we are, Princess. We all have our duties and responsibilities, but the most basic instinct is survival. I do what I must to live, but only when necessary. If it makes you more comfortable, you should know that I haven’t drunk human blood in many years.”
Angeline wrinkled her nose and shuddered. The idea of drinking blood made her feel sick. She couldn’t believe she was sitting there having what felt like a normal conversation about such a perverse topic. She remembered him smelling the wound on her forehead, and she felt queasy.
“Are you cold?” Connor sat up, looking concerned.
“Why do you care?” Angeline snorted. “At any moment you may get a little peckish and decide I would be a good snack after all.”
Connor crossed the distance between them and Angeline found herself staring deeply into his eyes again. Her chin was cupped in his hand, and Angeline felt a white hot cold sink into her skin.
“Despite your legends to the contrary, human blood is not something that I desire. I know I’m revolting to you, Princess, but at this point I really should be the least of your concerns.”
Angeline’s breath caught and she swallowed hard. This wasn’t like it was when he had compelled her before because her thoughts were clear. She could tell that he wasn’t using any of his vampire charm on her. The intensity in his eyes pleaded with her to believe him. The most disconcerting thing of all was that she wanted to believe him. He was nothing like what she expected.
“I don’t find you revolting.” The words slipped softly from her lips.
Connor looked shocked and then confused. He pushed away from her and stood. He backed up to the entrance to the cavern. “It’s been a long night for you. I am sure you are tired. You should get some sleep. There are extra blankets in the corner if you are cold. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow. I will be just outside around the corner if there is something you require.” Connor turned and disappeared.
Angeline was left feeling unsettled. Her reaction to this supposedly murderous creature was vexing. She had to think what it meant. But her eyes felt heavy and she realized that she was tired. She bundled her cloak into a makeshift pillow and arranged the blankets around her. She fully intended to use the quiet time to think, but was asleep within moments of her head hitting the pillow.
CHAPTER FIVE
Connor was troubled. After leaving Angeline to rest, he paced underneath the low overhang that led out of the cave and into the heart of the valley. To call it a valley was generous. Many years ago, a mighty river had flowed through this piece of land and had worn a deep chasm into the ground. Then the river dried up and left the crevice brown and barren. But it had borne the name Solera Valley for so long that no one thought to change it.
Solera Valley had hundreds of caves just like the one where he hid with Angeline now. Shortly after his change, he had wanted nothing more than to escape his fate. He spent every free moment exploring the nooks and crannies of Solera Valley while hiding from his sire. Of course, Monroe would eventually find him and forcibly drag him back to the Master’s compound, but he still used the caves on occasion when his work brought him closer to the human’s boundary. That knowledge of the cave systems came in handy now that the game was officially afoot.
Taking Angeline had been easier than he had anticipated. All he had to do was kill a few of the horses, show his true face to one of the unsuspecting guards, and all hell had broken loose in the camp. Then it had been just a matter of slipping into her tent and spiriting her away. What he hadn’t expected was to find was a woman who showed bravery in the face of a long-forgotten enemy.
Stories of the lovely Princess Angeline had made the rounds even within the Master’s coven, but Connor always scoffed at them. He had lived a long time and had been with many beautiful women, even before his change. Perhaps it had been the defiance he saw in her violet eyes when he saw that she was ready to fight alongside her men or the way her pink skin glowed with life, but she had intrigued him. While she lay unconscious in his arms as he escaped from her camp and brought her to the valley, he had felt her smooth and supple skin. Tendrils of her long dark hair came loose from the bun at the base of her neck and fell in soft waves around her heart-shaped face. Even to Connor’s jaded eyes, she looked like an angel.
She had shown just the slightest sliver of fear in the cave. Knowing what he was, and what he was capable of, a normal woman should have been a quivering hysterical mess. The humans no longer believed in his kind, but the legends still stretched across the years. The Robarts would have known better than anyone else how close things three hundred years ago had come to ending in a much different outcome. But Angeline had looked him the eye and didn’t back down. He thought she would make a good queen.
Of course, that would only be if that was the fate the Master decided for her. Unhappily, Connor thought about the conclusion of this task, but he had no other choice but to take Angeline to him; not if Connor wanted to win.
He still heard her final words whispering in his mind. I don’t find you revolting. Of course, he must have loosened some compulsion on her without realizing it. No human woman, especially a woman like Angeline, would find a creature like him anything but revolting. He was revolted by himself.
A small scrape and a loose pebble dropping next to him was the only indication that he had that he was no longer alone. His thoughts had been distracted by Angeline, so he hadn’t been paying attention for signs that his own kind was afoot. Biting back a curse, Connor sunk deeper into the shadows of the cave. He knew that the light from the torches inside the cave were too far in to be seen from the entrance, but he still silently slid a wooden stake out of his belt.
“You sure he came this way?” he heard a low voice growl.
“Saw him,” was the wooden reply.
“Well then where are they?”
The voice was familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place it. Nonetheless, it appeared that someone had seen them. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. Given the game rules, he had thought for sure that there were many who would sit back and wait for the potential victor to get close to the Master’s compound and then spring an ambush to take Angeline for themselves. Most members of the coven were lazy and content with their lives, so he didn’t expect anyone would be willing to go to the same lengths that he was, if they tried at all. He certainly hadn’t planned on running into anyone so soon.
“Almost dawn,” the monotone voice replied. “It's too late to find them now.”
Connor tried to place where the voices were coming from. He thought they might be right above him. There was a small ledge that ran about three-quarters up the valley wall for several miles. Connor used it often. It was about ten feet above him.
The other voice that appeared to belong to the one in charge growled in frustration. “They’ll end up miles ahead if we don’t catch them here in the valley.”
The other voice didn’t reply.
“Fine! Let’s go. But we’re coming right back to this spot at twilight. We may get lucky and catch the bastard coming out of hiding.”
Connor heard the low voices moving away. From here on out he’d have to take every precaution. Otherwise both he and Angeline would in great danger.
CHAPTER SIX
Angeline awoke to the succulent smell of roasted pork. Her stomach seemed to be an empty gnawing hole in her middle and she sat up, disoriented. The sparkling green eyes that met hers across the top of the flames of a small fire slammed the memories back into place. She wondered if her father knew yet that she was gone and if Rhone and his men were looking for her. She felt homesick in a way that she had never felt in the convent. She didn’t want to be here in this dank cave with this strange vampire who had appeared in her life out of the stories of legend. Her life a day ago had been so simple, and now it seemed so complicated.
“I was worried that you were going to sleep the night away, Princess. We have far to travel and we must get going as soon as the sky turns to twilight,” Connor said, watching her carefully.
He was probably trying to determine if she was still a flight risk, which actually was smart because she was. Angeline knew the first opportunity she had she’d run away from him as fast as she could. It was by far the wisest thing to do, because although she refused to admit it, there was a piece of her deep down inside that was fascinated by him, and that scared her to death.
She wanted to know more about him and where he had come from and why the legends declared them monsters. If they were civilized like Connor, then why had they been driven to the point of extinction? What secrets were the histories hiding? Angeline had always been inquisitive and she didn’t like puzzles that she couldn’t figure out. She wondered if her father knew that vampires still walked in Altera, and if he did, why he hadn’t told her. It seemed prudent to gather whatever information she could about things that put her people at risk.
“I warmed some water for you if you'd like to wash your hands and face,” Connor said, pointing to the small bucket near her feet. “I will give you some time to clean up and eat, but then we must be on our way.” He gestured to the pork loin on a spit over the fire and then he stood and left the room.
Angeline did feel grubby and dirty. Connor said they had traveled many miles from her camp, and she was sure her hair was matted down in a most unbecoming way. She crawled over to the bucket and found a small bar of soap and a tiny bottle of lavender oil; her favorite. She looked at the oil and felt chagrined. This man acted much too casually, as though he knew her, which made her wonder what other knowledge he had uncovered about her and would use to try to gain her trust.
Outside of compelling her to prove a point, he had been true to his word so far and had not done anything to harm her. Although she was clearly his captive, he was being kind to her and seemed concerned about taking care of her. It made the situation all the more confusing.
She thought about her father as she slowly cleaned her face and ran her fingers through her hair. Angeline’s mother passed away when Angeline was five, and she knew that her father had almost died himself from grief. He had shown no interest in finding a new wife, even though by doing so he put the kingdom at a succession risk. Instead he turned his attention to grooming Angeline to take the throne as the first bloodborn Robart queen. Her father felt that by betrothing his Chief Advisor and his daughter, the people would feel assured that the kingdom was in the best of hands.
Malin. Angeline was very unsure of her father’s Chief Advisor. Malin was five years her senior, the son of her father’s best friend from childhood. Angeline had always looked at Malin like an older brother, a distant one at that, until the night before she had left for the convent. She had just turned sixteen.
She had been wandering the halls and it was late, but she was feeling upset about leaving Brebackerin. Her father had been insistent that she complete her schooling outside of court and out of the public eye, but she had felt like he was packing her up to hide her in the middle of nowhere for no good reason. No amount of cajoling or tears would convince him to change his mind.
She couldn’t sleep, and she had finally found herself sitting on the window seat in one of the old palace turrets. It had been her favorite place to hide away when she was a child, and she had spent hours there reading by herself after her mother died. It was there, as she was staring out at the moon desperately wishing she could stay, that he found her.
“Princess?” she heard a voice behind her say softly.
Angeline jumped and whirled around. She had been surprised to see Malin standing there.
“I’m sorry, Majesty. I didn’t mean to startle you. Your attendant told me that you had gone missing and before she woke the castle I offered to help find you,” he said, as he stepped into the light. “I recalled that you were often found here when you were younger.”
Angeline had noticed the other ladies in court taking a great deal of interest in Malin recently. She was surprised to feel a tiny bit of jealousy as she watched them, even the older noblewomen, fawning all over him at the various court events. She had never thought of him romantically before, even though it was common knowledge that they would soon be betrothed. In fact, Angeline had never given boys much thought at all. Her father was the man in her life, and everything she did she did to please him.
But Malin had grown from the boy she knew in childhood into a devastatingly handsome man. In that moment, his blond hair shone like silver threads in the moonlight, and his deep blue eyes held hers with a shocking intensity that she had known was there but which had never been directed at her before. Malin had always been polite and courteous but she believed that he had not thought of her romantically either.
His broad shoulders and trim waist spoke to hours spent on the training field. Although he served the king in an advisory capacity, Malin had never stopped training with Rhone and his soldiers. Angeline often wondered, if he could have had things his way, whether he would have chosen to become Rhone’s successor rather than marry Angeline to ensure the continuation of the Robart bloodline.
“I’m sorry to have been a nuisance,” she said faintly. She knew that Malin hated frivolity in all of its forms. Sitting there wallowing in self-pity was the act of a bubbleheaded girl, not the future queen. “You have a good memory. This place always brought me peace when I was a child. I was just remembering simpler times.”
She was surprised when Malin gestured to her for approval to sit beside her. She nodded and then found herself looking into his eyes once again as he settled next to her.
“Your father feels that completing your education with the Sisters of St. Abeth is a great privilege. They only allow
three students per year into the program and this opportunity will not come again.”
Angeline sighed. She had no wish to go into the same argument with Malin that she had had what seemed like a million times with her father. “I know. I find it hard to believe that my studies here are inadequate, but I will do as my father commands.” She looked back out the window.
She felt warm fingers grasp her own and her attention was immediately drawn back to Malin. He had never touched her before, and she felt a strange heat emanating from his skin.
“I fear that I am the one who caused you this distress, Princess. I advised your father of the program and carried on a correspondence with the Mother Superior about you. I had noticed, like your father, that you were bored with your classes. I thought that you would enjoy a more challenging curriculum and so I recommended you. I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds, but I thought it was important that you have as much knowledge as possible before you ascend the throne,” Malin said, staring deeply into her eyes.
His confession should have made her angry with him, but as he spoke he had begun to gently knead her palms and she felt a flush rise up her cheeks at the intimacy of his touch.
“Well, that was thoughtful, Malin,” she finally managed to say. “I had no idea you thought so highly of me.” I had no idea you thought of me at all was what she almost said but she bit her tongue.
“Of course, Princess. I should not be so forward to say so, but I will be honored to stand next to such a wise and educated queen when it is time for us to marry,” Malin’s voice was hypnotic.
Angeline felt like she couldn’t catch her breath so she dropped her eyes. Then she felt his hand beneath her chin as Malin leaned forward.
“Have I upset you, Princess? Does the thought of being betrothed to me bother you so terribly?”
“N-no,” Angeline whispered. She would have shaken her head but he held her chin firmly.
