by Anna Santos
“I didn't see you drink alcohol. This is not normal, Jessica. You need to see a doctor.”
“I'll be fine. I've just been having this...” She stopped talking and released herself from his embrace. “I just need to drink my tea. It will calm me down.”
“Your heartbeat is erratic,” he declared.
She said nothing as she reached for the glass and drank. It tasted awful, but she needed that more than ever.
“Dad, Kevin wants you to keep your promise and go with him for a ride in his new car.” Eric stepped into the kitchen and halted a few steps from them.
“If I must,” the king said as he released a sigh.
''I'll help with the dishes, Jessie. We'll eat dessert later in the evening,” Eric suggested.
The king tilted his head to his son. “Aren’t you coming with us?”
“I've seen Kevin drive. I'll sit this one out,” his son replied with a grin. “He's waiting, you better hurry up.”
The king strolled his way to the garden but he looked one last time at Jessie who was trying really hard to ignore his gaze.
“Why the gloomy face, Jessie?” Eric asked as he drew closer.
The witch shrugged. “I'm just tired.”
“Anna and Shane are talking with Sebastien. Dad and Kevin are going for a ride. I believe this is the perfect time for you to show me the story you were telling me about the other day. It's been ages since I heard it. Mom used to tell me before bedtime. It was one of my favorite.”
“It's upstairs in the library. I'll be more than happy to read it to you, and then you can tell me all about the new building you are planning to restore.”
Eric offered her his arm to escort her to the library. “I think I'll need to look for a new interior designer. Too bad that you are occupied with your book project. You have exquisite taste. I loved all your suggestions for the master bedroom.”
“I know nothing about construction,” Jessica said as they climbed the stairs. “I'm learning a lot with you. I can help with suggestions, but you need to find a professional who can be there for you all the time. Besides, I plan to go back to Boston once this situation with King Francesco is resolved.”
“Why?”
“There's nothing for me here, and I don't want to prolong my staying at Anna's place.”
“You could move in with me. There's plenty of space in my home.”
“As much as your offer is tempting, I feel like I would only be postponing the inevitable. I love it here, but I have my life to go back to.”
“Anna and Kevin are here. Jason is still in London with Sasha. Are you going to join a new group of hunters?”
“I still need to find my mate, Eric. I can't do so if I stay here, away from civilization, and occupying your father's library.”
“I think dad is getting used to having you around. He has been nicer to you, has he not?”
Jessica puckered her lips before answering, “It's complicated.”
“He's happier, though. Have you noticed?”
“He's rather excited about his new project.”
“The new book cover?” Eric asked, opening the door to enter the library.
“Oh no. Finding the kingdom from the ‘Tale of the Cursed Prince’.”
“Does he believe it is real?” Eric frowned as he placed his clasped hands behind his back and walked to the desks.
“Yes. My grimoire has a map with the location of the kingdom.”
Jessica arrived at her desk and searched for her backpack where she kept her papers. “I left it here with my book the other day. Your dad was sketching the map. I was planning to copy the tale tomorrow. My ability to write in cursive has improved. Do you want to see it before I read to you?” She looked around and saw the book on the king's desk. “He must have been working on it.”
Jessica marched to the desk and grabbed her book.
“I'm just glad you liked the book I made for you,” Eric said as she skimmed the pages.
“It's beautiful.” Her eyes were drawn to the king's handwriting. “Your dad has already begun copying it. Sit down and I'll show you all our progress.”
“What about Kevin's tattoo?” Eric sat on the loveseat next to one of the bottom to ceiling windows.
“I have been browsing the books with the witches' emblems. But so far no luck.”
“He seems fine. Maybe, he's not meant to understand what his tattoo means, yet.”
“Here it is,” Jessica said, grabbing a stack of papers. “Oh, your dad has already finished copying the translation to the new grimoire. Do you want to see how pretty it looks? He drew vines and flowers around the text and sketched a fairytale palace on the corner.”
Jessica rushed to Eric's side and sat beside him with the book and the papers in her hands.
“It looks beautiful. I'm glad that Dad found something to make him more active around us. Your presence here is helping him be less reclusive.”
Jessica changed the subject. “Here's how the story starts: Once upon a time, there was a handsome prince who was the heir to the throne. He was so good-looking that tales of his beauty spread across the borders and reached the kingdom of a powerful witch. Being the queen to her people, she was seeking a husband to prevent her bloodline from disappearing...”
* * *
THE KING
When the king arrived from his ride with Kevin, he hoped to find Jessica in the kitchen so they could continue their conversation. But she was gone, and Anna didn't know her whereabouts. Meanwhile, Kevin and Sebastien grabbed their motorcycles and decided to go for a ride in the woods.
The king entered the palace, dwelling on the serious decision of rejecting Jessica. He needed to talk to her about it. He was sure that he didn’t want a new mate. Yet, Jessica had the right to have a mate. It just couldn't be him. Prolonging the inevitable would only make everything harder on both of them. He needed to reject her and explain to her why. He would have to break her heart and ignore the new bond that the gods had given him.
Upset, he climbed up the stairs, lost in thought. Things couldn't go on like they were. The attraction was becoming too much to bear. He had to let her go. He already had a mate, and he had told her that it was forever. He wasn’t going to break his promise to Isobel and replace her with a new mate. No matter how gorgeous the witch was, and how good she smelled to his vampire senses.
In his mind, this point was not even open for discussion.
Reaching the library, he heard her voice reading. Puzzled, he entered the room, only to find Jessica and Eric really cozy and friendly, seated on a loveseat. Or, rather, Jessica was seated and Eric had his head on her lap as her fingers brushed his hair.
Narrowing his eyes and clenching his jaw, the King marched to them. “What is the meaning of this?”
The silence was brief as Eric raised his head and frowned at him. “Jessica is reading to me.”
“I can see that. But why?” His voice came out dry since there was a lump in his throat and knot in the pit of his stomach.
Jessica placed the papers on her lap and turned to look at him. “Why what?”
Balling his hands, the king breathed deep to control the boiling rage. His sight blurred. “How long have you been lovers?” The question slipped through his lips.
“What?” Jessica gasped.
Eric rose up. “We aren't lovers. Only good friends.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“We aren’t lying,” Jessica declared with widened eyes. “I was reading the tale you translated to Eric. It was his favorite bedtime story.”
Narrowing his eyes, the king looked from Jessica to Eric. His son nodded. “I want you out of my library!” The king ordered as he pointed his finger to the exit.
“Have you gone mad?” Jessica slammed the papers against the seat and got up with her hands on her hips. “Are you listening to what we are saying?”
The king looked down at her face with a perky nose and raised chin. Her plump lips were pursed as her eyes
threw daggers at him. “No, I haven't gone mad. But you believe that I'm stupid. Eric and you have been flirting the entire day. You missed coming yesterday after going on a date with my son. I can put two and two together, and I won't tolerate this behavior under my roof. Leave and take all your things with you!”
He lowered his hand and relaxed his back when her eyes became shadowed by sadness. That wasn't the reaction he was expecting, and that was not the way he wanted to tell her that she needed to leave. But maybe it was for the best. It was better if she was gone from his life, for good.
Eric pushed Jessica aside and faced his dad. “What is wrong with you? Why are you talking to her like that? She has done nothing wrong. We have done nothing wrong.”
Jessica put her hand on his shoulder. “Forget it, Eric. He’s clearly being irrational, and I don't want to be where I'm not welcome.”
Eric turned to face her. “You were just reading to me!”
Jessica walked to her desk and began packing her books and papers as Eric rushed to her side and tried to unpack them.
The king stared at Isobel’s painting hanging in the library and sighed in pain. He missed her. He loved her. So why did he feel a new bond with this girl who looked nothing like his beloved wife? They couldn’t be more different. In fact, they were the total opposites. Isobel was calm and polite, a delicate flower. Jessica was wild and full of energy like a hurricane. He couldn’t be with the witch and he couldn’t stand seeing her with someone else.
His son and the witch grew silent which made him look. They were staring at him.
“Dad, please tell her that you didn't mean what you said. That she doesn't need to leave,” Eric pleaded in the soft voice he used to use when he was younger and wanted something really bad.
He couldn’t. He shouldn’t. He had to break their bond, and she needed to be gone. Plus, he wouldn’t tolerate his new mate all cozy with his son.
“Jessica needs to take care of her problems on her own,” the king answered, sparing a look at the girl who had a hopeful look on her face and a nice shade of red on her cheeks. Her eyes seemed to lose their brightness at his cold answer, though.
Looking down, the witch removed something from her journal. “Don’t bother, Eric. Your father is just being as he always is,” she said, folding what the king could see were his letters to her.
“What is that supposed to mean?” the king asked with narrowed eyes.
She ignored him and put her journal inside her bag and the letters inside an empty drawer in her desk. Leaving them behind like they weren’t important. This gesture hurt him deep inside his chest, more than he expected.
The witch hung the bag on her shoulder and walked his way. “I won’t disturb your peace anymore, Your Majesty,” she said bitterly. “You have the library all to yourself again.”
The sound of her high heels bouncing on the wood echoed inside the king’s mind as he noticed Eric following her like a sad puppy.
“I want you here. I don’t care about what my dad says. You can come and live at my home,” Eric said, holding onto her arm with pleading eyes.
“She will most definitely not!” the king snarled, outraged, as he turned to face the couple.
“Why not?” Eric asked in a defiant tone. “I have plenty of room, and she can use my library there. I don’t mind having company.”
“She will not move to your house,” the king said once again in a commanding tone as he walked to their side.
“Do you forbid me to stay in Anna's place too?” Jessica asked, aiming her piercing eyes at the king’s face. “I don’t want to go to your house, Eric. That is nice of you and all, but I don’t want anything to do with this palace anymore.” She gestured around herself.
“This is ridiculous,” Eric said, grabbing Jessica's hand. “You are moving in with me, and I'll help you with your book.”
The king lost control. “You are not her mate.” He pushed Jessie away from Eric. “Whatever is happening between you two needs to stop.”
“Nothing is happening,” Jessica said, upset as she shoved the king’s hand away. “Eric and I are just good friends. Besides, I don’t need your permission to have a relationship with your son. And you don’t get to decide who I screw around with, either!”
“Watch your tongue, little girl!” the king snarled, making his eyes grow purple and his fangs come out.
Eric gasped at the sudden transformation.
“Who are you calling little girl?” she asked angrily, not even blinking at the sight of his fangs. “You know nothing about me. Don’t think you can judge me by my appearance or what I say. I’m not a little girl, and I can curse as much as I want. And you can drop the vampire form because it’s not going to scare me away. I’m a strong and deadly elemental witch. I could burn this place down with a blink of an eye. And I’m getting really tired of dealing with your biased behaviors and random outbursts. I’m a grown up woman, and I do whatever I want with my life. Do I make myself clear?”
The king raised an eyebrow at her. She was brave and proud and clearly not afraid of him. It was rare to meet someone who was that courageous, apart from his family. Isobel had never been afraid of him. She always looked him in the eye and stood her ground. Jessica insisted she was not a child; her hard stare was making him see that she was right. There was nothing childish about her. At best, it was a hell of a turn-on.
“Do you realize you were just disrespectful to your king and I could put you in chains?”
“In what century do you think we live in?” she huffed, balling her hands and rolling her eyes. “You should have a reality check and come out of your tomb once in a while! The times have changed. Or are you just trying to make another of your sons run away to be happy? Are you going to tell his mate to stay away from him, too, if she is not a vampire like you?”
“That is not why I want him away from you,” the king retorted in anger. She was pushing her limits. It was one thing to stand up to him; it was another to dredge up the past to torment him. He was not proud of his decisions about Anna’s father and regretted them. But he had changed.
“So it's not because I'm a witch?”
“No!”
Jessica narrowed her eyes, not appearing to be convinced.
Eric placed Jessica behind his back, apparently worried about her safety. “I thought you couldn’t change to a vampire anymore, Dad!”
Eric's hands on Jessica angered the king once again. “I don’t want you near her,” he warned his son, pushing Eric away from the witch. “You are going to obey me!”
“We are just friends,” Eric claimed with an exasperating voice. “What is wrong with you?”
“Jerk,” Jessica muttered.
When the king looked over, she was walking toward the door.
He sped across the room and shut the door before she could walk away. “Where do you think you are going?” he asked with a deep voice and speeding heart. Anger was being replaced by lust. Her scent was enticing and alluring. He wanted to drink from her so badly that it was making him lose all reason. She looked scared when he lifted his eyes from her jugular to look into her face.
The king cornered her against the door and breathed down on her face. “Where do you think you are going, witch?”
“Away from here,” she answered, drawing back against the door but without trying to pull him back. “Wasn’t that what you told me to do?”
“I didn’t give you permission to leave, yet.”
“Are you insane?” She faced his gaze, only to mutter, “I really don’t need permission from you!”
“Yes, you do!”
“I do not!”
“Dad, you are scaring her,” Eric warned, appearing next to them and pushing his father away, who was hovering over Jessica like a predator ready to attack. “You better go downstairs and drink some blood. We don’t attack humans, remember?”
“Don’t treat me as if I’m senile,” the king growled, shoving Eric back with more strength than he intend
ed because his son bounced against the wall.
“Eric!” Jessica cried, pushing the king back and running to Eric’s side. She kneeled and helped him up. “You brute!” she accused the king, glaring at him.
“I’m fine.” Eric had a gentle smile on his lips when he stood up. “We should get you out of here,” he said. “He's not himself. He's probably hallucinating again.”
Jessica grabbed his hand with worried eyes. “Did he hurt you?”
“I promise you, I’m fine. Dad is just a bit confused. Don’t be scared. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“She is staying,” the king commanded, reaffirming his authority even as he felt angered by the witch’s concern and tenderness toward his son. He could tell that they were clearly growing attached, possibly even sleeping together even if they claimed they were not.
His son faced him with a serious face. “Not if you are losing control like that. You should have told me that you could still change into a vampire. I thought...How can it be possible?”
“Jessica is staying,” the king repeated once again, stepping closer to them with menacing eyes. “You are not taking her away.”
“No one is taking me anywhere. I’m going out of my own free will,” she grumbled as she turned to face him. “So let me pass or I’ll make you move.” She straightened herself up. “I’m not warning you again.”
“He is not himself. Please, Jessie, don’t move. Let me talk to him.” Eric laid his hand on Jessie’s shoulder just as the king roared. “What the hell, Dad! Don’t make me hurt you.”
“Don’t touch her!”
“You are the one who looks like you are going to harm her, not me,” Eric retorted.
The king lunged forward as he snarled, “I don’t want you touching her. I don’t want you near her. I don't want you in the same room with her.”
“Are you losing your mind?” Eric drew back because of his father’s angry words and deadly eyes.
“Eric,” Jessica called, placing herself between them as she pushed the king back. Her hand splayed on the king’s chest made him look down at her. He noticed her shiver as she squeezed her eyes, before gasping, “I think—”
