Raven
I followed Thomas into a large room that was obviously a media room. The television was bigger than any I’d ever seen—it took up nearly the entire wall it was on.
Actually, calling this a media room was a disservice. It was more like a home theater.
A plush white sofa faced the television, and I walked toward it, unsure if I should sit or stand. I decided to remain standing until seeing what Thomas chose to do.
Thomas closed the door with a resounding click and turned to face me. “Raven Danvers from LA,” he said my name like it was some kind of joke, eyeing me up like he’d trapped me. “Or do you prefer to be called Princess Ana of the Seventh Kingdom?”
“What?” I backed away, confused—and also scared. I stumbled into an end table, but my temporarily heightened vampire senses stopped me from falling over and making a total fool of myself.
I rightened myself and looked around. The only way out of the room was from the door Thomas was currently blocking.
“I couldn’t be sure given the condition you were in when you arrived,” he continued—either not believing my confusion or ignoring it. “You were so burnt that it made you nearly unrecognizable. But now that you’re healed, I see my suspicion was correct. So, tell me. What’s the infamous Princess Ana of the Seventh Kingdom doing traveling with Sage Montgomery and the First Prophet of the Vale?”
He looked so sure of himself—like he was catching me in a massive lie. Judging by the way he crossed his arms and blocked the door, he didn’t want me leaving this room until I confessed.
The problem was, I had nothing to confess to.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I leveled my gaze with his, not wanting to let him know how scared I really was. If worst came to worst, I had my temporary vampire strength, and I knew how to defend myself thanks to the lessons Noah had given me. I glanced around for an item I could use as a weapon. A lamp, a glass centerpiece… there were definitely a few items in here I could work with.
“Relax,” Thomas said, his eyes dancing in amusement. “If I was going to attack, I would have done it already. And you certainly wouldn’t be able to defend yourself against me with a lamp.”
My cheeks heated with the realization that he knew exactly what I’d been thinking.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he continued. “I just want to talk.” He paused to size me up. “Are you ready to answer my questions?”
I took a few deep breaths to center myself. It was clear that Thomas was extremely perceptive and manipulative. But he’d also just saved my life. Surely he wouldn’t have saved my life if he wanted to hurt me?
He was also the leader of a vampire coven in one of the biggest cities in America. I had no idea what he was up to, what he wanted, or what he would do to get it.
But there was one thing I did know—I didn’t have the answers he wanted.
“I can’t answer your questions, because I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, the words coming out in a rush. “I don’t know who Princess Ana is. I don’t know what the Seventh Kingdom is. And I don’t know who the First Prophet of the Vale is.” I threw my hands up in the air, wishing I could give him more. Then maybe he’d stop looking at me like he thought I was lying scum. “I’m just a human girl who got lucky by being saved by two shifters and now has a chance to save my mom’s life. I didn’t even believe in the supernatural a month ago.” My voice faltered—I was getting desperate now. “I can tell you don’t believe me, but it’s true. I swear it.”
He didn’t reply. Instead he just watched me, studying me with eyes that gazed at me like a hawk.
I stood still, afraid to move. Afraid to breathe.
After what felt like the longest few seconds of my life, he finally gave me a single nod.
“Very well.” He motioned to the couch that faced the television. “Then please, take a seat and allow me to refresh your memory.”
Raven
My memory.
Could that be what this was about? My missing memories?
Curious, I sat on the sofa where Thomas was motioning. He did the same, sitting on the opposite end and grabbing a tiny remote from the end table.
The television turned on, and the lights in the room dimmed. Then, a scene on the television started to play.
Thomas hadn’t pressed any buttons on the remote—which seemed strange—but I was too stunned by what I saw on the screen to ask any questions.
Because what I saw was… me.
I was barging through the doors of a palace throne room, wearing a long, fancy dress and looking every bit like royalty. There were two people on the throne—a petite woman with long, dark hair and a crown on her head, and a handsome man who looked eerily similar to that famous swimmer who’d died in a hotel bombing in Toronto right before his big Olympic break. I wasn’t usually one to follow sports, but photos of those swimmers had been all over the news. His photo had always been shown the most.
In the scene playing in front of me, people lined the sides of the room and gasped when I entered.
“Who are you?” the woman on the throne asked. Her eyes shined with distrust, and everyone quieted as she continued. “Why are you barging into our ceremony unannounced?”
“My name is Princess Ana.” I watched as the girl who looked exactly like me held onto her skirt and lowered herself into a curtsy. She addressed the man—not the woman who had questioned her. Her eyes didn’t leave his as she spoke. “I’m from the Seventh Kingdom, and I’m here to compete for Prince Jacen’s hand in marriage.”
The scene paused, leaving me looking at a still image of myself. It was beyond eerie to look at. Because it wasn’t just that she looked similar to me.
She was identical to me.
The lights brightened again, and Thomas turned in my direction. He looked exceedingly proud at himself—like he’d just bested me in a competition and was ready for me to admit my defeat. “Either you’re Princess Ana, or you have an identical twin,” he said, studying me. “From the look on your face, I’m starting to wonder if maybe it’s the latter.”
“I don’t have a twin,” I said. I’d seen videos of my delivery—my grandparents had been a bit obsessive when it came to documenting my childhood. There was no twin, and twins didn’t run in my family. “But that wasn’t me,” I repeated. “Unless…”
“Unless what?” Thomas didn’t move, waiting for me to continue.
“When was that recording from?” I asked.
“Right after the new year,” he said. “January third, to be precise.”
The moment he said the date, the world stilled around me. Because my suspicion was correct.
That scene I’d just watched had happened during the time that my memories had been erased and replaced.
“You look like you just saw a ghost,” Thomas observed, lounging back in the couch like this was a completely normal conversation. “Either that, or you had a startling realization. Care to share what it was?”
Even though he’d asked politely, I could tell I didn’t have much of an option—at least not if I planned on leaving this room anytime soon. Plus, he had just saved my life. And Sage had trusted him enough to bring me here, and she and Noah had agreed to let me have this talk with Thomas in the first place.
But still, my memory loss was personal. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him, or if I did, I wasn’t sure how much I should tell him.
“You can either be honest with me, or I’ll give you truth potion to find out what you know,” he continued. “I recommend that you’re willfully honest. I know you don’t know much about me, but I’m a valuable ally. You want me on your side. But first, I need to know I can trust you.” He glanced at the frozen image of me on the screen, and then looked back to me. “Can you help me do that?”
I swallowed and wrung my hands in my lap. He was coercing me—threatening me with telling me he’d just give me truth potion anyway—and I didn’t like that. It was cunning and manipulat
ive.
But it had only been a few minutes, and I already had more information about my missing memories than anyone had been able to give me so far. He had recordings of what I’d done during that time. The answers were literally right in front of my face.
I had to tell him. I needed to know the truth. I was the girl in the video, and while I had no idea why I’d pretended to be this Princess Ana of the Seventh Kingdom, I was ready to find out.
“I traveled around Europe for a few weeks this past winter,” I began, keeping my gaze steady with his as I spoke. “But the trip never made sense—it wasn’t like me to pick up and leave without telling anyone. And the memories of my time there were always hazy, like I was seeing through someone else’s eyes and not my own. Which I recently learned means I’d been given a memory potion—one strong enough to erase weeks of memories and replace them with others. In my case, a trip to Europe that never happened.”
“A human shouldn’t have the strength to see through a memory potion strong enough to erase weeks of memory,” Thomas said. “I can’t smell your scent thanks to the cloaking ring you’re wearing, but I know you’re human. Your body would have rejected my blood otherwise.”
“Why?” I asked. Sage and Noah apparently hadn’t gotten that far in my supernatural lessons.
“Supernaturals can’t drink vampire blood,” he answered. “Just like vampires can’t drink the blood of other supernaturals. If we try, it makes us sick so we expel the blood. Therefore, I know you’re human, since you drank my blood and it healed you. But Princess Ana is a vampire princess. Watch her prove it to Queen Laila.” He glanced back over at the television, and the scene resumed.
I watched as Princess Ana and the petite vampire on the throne beside Prince Jacen—Queen Laila, according to Thomas—discussed the Seventh Kingdom. Queen Laila doubted Princess Ana was who she claimed to be. She didn’t believe there was a Seventh Kingdom at all.
Princess Ana proved she could use the royal vampire ability of compulsion by compelling one of the vampire guards to remove his clothing and do a headstand in the center of the room. He removed his pants and his shoes, but Queen Laila used her compulsion—which was stronger than Princess Ana’s, since she was a queen—to stop the guard from continuing.
How disappointing. It would have been funny to watch the guard complete Princess Ana’s command.
It also would have been very unlike me to prove I could use compulsion by forcing a random guard to embarrass himself. Surely I could have proven myself without making an enemy of one of the vampire guards of the Vale in the process?
Princess Ana might have looked identical to me, but she certainly wasn’t behaving like me.
What must have happened to me in those weeks I’d forgotten that would have made me act like that?
The possibilities were disturbing, to say the least.
Thomas stopped the recording—I wasn’t sure how, since I didn’t see him press any buttons—and turned back to me. “As you just saw, Princess Ana is a vampire princess,” he said. “Now here you are—the same girl—as a human.”
“So… you think someone turned me into a vampire princess, then turned me back into a human and erased my memories?” It sounded crazy, but my life had been so crazy recently that I was beginning to just accept it and go with it.
“It’s impossible for vampires to turn back into humans, or even to disguise ourselves as humans,” he said. “We can use cloaking rings to disguise our scent, but those just hide our scent—they don’t make us smell human. Which leads me to believe…” he trailed off, as if trying to decide if his guess was accurate enough to share.
“What?” I sat forward, eager to know his thoughts.
“You must have been drinking the blood of a vampire royal, which would have made you appear—and smell—like a vampire to everyone you encountered,” he said.
“Like I did just now, with your blood,” I said, and he nodded. “But you said the vampire blood would only stay in my system for twenty four hours.”
“It will,” he said. “And Princess Ana was in the Vale for much longer than that. Which means—”
“I must have been working with someone,” I cut him off, the pieces quickly coming together in my mind. “And that person was able to get me fresh royal vampire blood to drink each day.”
Raven
“Bingo.” The corner of Thomas’s lip curved up into a small smile. “For a human, you’re much quicker to catch onto all of this than I anticipated.”
“Apparently I’ve been through all of this before.” I leaned back into the sofa and sighed, purposefully ignoring his jab at my being a human.
“You have,” he said. “But I can’t imagine which vampire royal would do this, or what their motives would be. It makes no sense.”
“Do you have more videos from my time in the Vale?” I asked. “Maybe we’ll get answers there.”
“I do,” he said. “As you saw, this winter Prince Jacen had vampire princesses from the different kingdoms come to the Vale in a competition for his hand in marriage. Queen Laila decided it would be fun to broadcast the competition throughout the Vale—like a reality show. I have footage from all the broadcasts.”
“How?” I asked. “I mean, you said it was only broadcasted to the Vale. So how do you have it here, in Chicago?”
His eyes gleamed with mischief. “I have my ways,” he answered, clearly not wanting to give any more information than that. “Anyway, Princess Ana made it to the final two in the competition, so she was in it until the end. I have enough footage of her to keep you entertained until the effects of my blood wear off.”
“You mean I almost married the prince of the Vale?” I frowned, unable to imagine myself with anyone other than Noah. Despite how attractive Prince Jacen looked in the footage I saw of him, the knowledge that I might have been intimate with him and then had those memories wiped made me feel dirty, like there were bugs crawling all over my skin.
I rubbed my hands over my arms, but it didn’t help me feel better.
“Yes.” Thomas nodded and rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure what would have happened if Jacen had chosen you. I can only suspect that the vampire royal you were working with had a mission they wanted you to complete in the Vale. The only way to figure out what that mission was is to find out which royal you were working for.”
“You’ll help me do that?” I asked.
“No.” He chuckled and sat back, like I was a pet that had amused him. “It wouldn’t benefit me to potentially make an enemy of another royal vampire by sticking my nose in his or her business. This is something you’ll have to figure out on your own.”
I nodded, my mind already wandering to the many other problems this new revelation could have for me. “Sage, Noah, and I are heading to Avalon,” I said slowly, dread creeping into my stomach. “Prince Jacen is there. When he sees me, he’ll recognize me. Not as me, but as Princess Ana.”
“He will,” Thomas said. “As will everyone else in the Vale, which is where you need to go to get vetted and transported to Avalon.”
“I’ll need to disguise myself.” I sat forward, the perfect idea popping into my mind—thanks to everything Sage and Noah had taught me during our drives. “I can take transformation potion before getting to the Vale. Then, once I’m in Avalon, I can reveal myself to Prince Jacen and tell him the truth about everything. I bet he’ll want to figure out who was behind this just as badly as I do.”
“I’d say so,” Thomas said. “It’s not a bad plan, little human. Good job.”
I huffed—I hated when supernaturals called me “human” instead of referring to me by my actual name.
I would have said something to put him in his place if a more important realization hadn’t come to me at the same time.
“I’m confused about something,” I said instead.
“Given everything you’ve been through, I’m sure you’re confused about many things,” he said.
I glared at him, annoyed that
he kept talking down to me. Being human didn’t make me less than him or any other supernatural, and I wasn’t going to let it slide again. “Given what I’ve been through, I think I’m handling everything pretty well,” I said, throwing his words right back in his face. “I’ve done a lot despite having no supernatural abilities. Including slaying a demon with a weapon that nearly killed me, in case you’ve already forgotten about that.”
He said nothing, which I figured was as much of an agreement as I was going to get from him. I also figured it meant I could continue with my question.
“Prince Jacen was holding a competition to choose a vampire princess from another kingdom to marry,” I said, returning to where we’d left off. “I came in second place—which means he chose one of the other princesses. But Noah and Sage told me that Jacen’s in a relationship with the Earth Angel in charge of Avalon. Annika.”
“That’s all true,” Thomas confirmed.
“So what happened to the vampire princess he chose as his bride?”
“Princess Karina,” he said, as if I should recognize the name. I didn’t. “She fled from the palace after Annika killed Queen Laila. But I’m sure Noah can tell you far more about her than I can.”
“Why?” My stomach swirled. From the dark tone in Thomas’s voice, I didn’t have a good feeling about where he was going with this.
“Because Noah used to go by another name—the First Prophet of the Vale.” From the way Thomas smirked, I had a feeling he’d been waiting to tell me this since getting me into this room. “He lived in the Vale and worked with a powerful witch to lead the wolves there to war against the vampires. When Karina fled the palace, she ran straight into Noah’s arms—and she stood by him until the witch cast the spell that opened the Hell Gate and released the demons upon the Earth.”
The Angel Trap (Dark World: The Angel Trials Book 3) Page 4
