The Witch and the Vampire King (Immortal Love Series Book 2)

by Anna Santos

  The king nodded, memories too painful to remember. His throat felt dry like the desert when he tried to swallow and chase away the tears.

  “Did I fall or did someone push me?” She held his hand tighter. “Why is there so much pain inside my heart when I try to think about it?”

  His voice came out husky, “We will talk more about that later. You should get some rest. You had a stroke possibly more than one. Anna had to feed you her blood to heal you. Do you remember what happened?”

  Her hand tensed against his as she lowered her thick lashes and whispered, “I remember you didn’t recognize me and thought I was lying to you. You accused me of putting some sort of spell on you. It hurt...feeling your rejection. Are you going to reject me?”

  “I am so sorry about that,” he mumbled, caressing her face. “I couldn’t comprehend that...That you were Isobel. I’m...still really baffled about all this. Anna tried to explain it to me, and I read about reincarnation. But it is so...astonishing, Jessica.”

  She gasped and leaned forward with widened eyes as she gushed, “I know, I’ve been living with people saying I’m mentally ill and deranged all my life. I just didn’t expect you to...not recognize me. You said I was yours. I remember everything more clearly than ever now. I have all these new memories of us in my head. It’s overwhelming. I can prove it to you if you have any doubts about me.”

  His hands caressed her face. She reclined back on the bed while imprisoning her lower lip between her teeth. “Don’t worry about that now. You’re still weak and need to get your rest.”

  “I don’t want to rest anymore. I want...I want to explain everything to you. I want you to believe me,” she said, panicked. “Because I see it in your eyes that you’re still unsure about me...us. You are trying to find some logical explanation for my memories, for the strong pull of the bond you feel for me. But I can prove it to you that I’m me, that I’m her.”

  “Jessica,” he breathed out.

  He closed his eyes until he could get his thoughts organized. He wanted to be able to talk to her in a manner that wouldn’t upset her further. He could hear that her heartbeat had increased and the sense of panic in her voice. He didn’t want her to have another seizure because of him.

  “See, you call me Jessica. There is no hint of kindness or love in your voice. You don’t call me by my nickname anymore. Why? Don’t you want me anymore?”

  The king concentrated on the stream of tears that fell down her cheeks as her voice became filled by the pain in her very soul. His heart clenched in his chest as he experienced physical pain in response to her tears.

  “Please don’t cry, honey,” he pleaded, brushing away the tears with his thumbs. “It breaks my heart to see you crying and knowing I’m the cause of your despair.”

  “How can I not be miserable if you are not responsive to me? Why should I be joyous if you...If you are not even able to recognize me? Worse, if you don’t believe this to be the truth!” Her voice trembled with an anguish that formed a knot inside the king's chest.

  “It is not that I don’t believe you.” He sighed.

  She gazed up at him with widened eyes. “Do you believe?”

  “Anna did a satisfactory explanation about what was going on and assured me that everything you said was true, and that you were speaking with honesty…Plus, I read your diary,” he confessed, a bit ashamed by his intrusive manners.

  “You did?” She blushed and nibbled her lip with shiny, hopeful eyes.

  “The correlation is mind-boggling.”

  “They aren’t coincidences, they’re memories,” she gasped. Her hands balled into fists.

  “Fine. Your dreams look a lot like my...life with Isobel, meaning...with you.”

  Jessica narrowed her eyes and reached her hands to touch his cheeks. She held his face and he felt as if she was trying to delve inside the fabric of his very soul.

  Her voice came out vulnerable, “I wish I could read your thoughts. I want us to go back to what we were before…I died. You need to realize that I’m your wife and I’m not trying to fool you. I know you…you are still doubting.”

  “It’s hard to believe,” he confessed.

  “Marcus...I know that I don't look the same. I know that I don't sound the same, but you need to accept that it's me. Stop fighting your instincts. I'm Isobel, and I came back for you and only you.”

  His lips curled into a slight smile, though his eyes remained somber. He brushed her hair back from her face and caressed her cheek with his fingertips.

  “I don't know what to think, Ellie,” he mumbled, his voice constrained by emotion, disclosing the intense feelings coiling inside his chest. His eyes shone wet with tears and his hand trembled as the tears ran down his face.

  “What is wrong, my love? Why are you crying?” Jessica asked him, kneeling on the bed. Her hands caressed his hair and face as her eyes blinked in apparent confusion.

  “I'm happy,” he mumbled. “But I'm bewildered and...I missed you. And even in my bewilderment, my heart keeps pounding too fast. I recognize you as mine, but it hurts...”

  “What hurts?” she asked, also crying.

  “Loneliness hurts. Everything hurts.”

  Jessica laced her arms around his neck, and they hugged each other sobbing, letting their tears cleanse their souls of all the pain from the time they were forced to be apart.

  * * *

  JESSICA

  The embrace became more possessive, and Jessica rubbed her soft face against his and felt his beard brush her softly. It tickled her and reminded her of how much she had missed touching him. Before they realized it, their lips were sliding down each other's cheeks, tasting the salt of the other’s tears. Then, their kiss became more sensual, and it deepened as their bodies lusted for intimacy and relief. Yet, the king tempered his urges and broke their embrace and kiss.

  “What?” she asked breathlessly as he captured her face between his hands. She noticed the pain as it washed over his face and remained in his eyes.

  “We need to have a serious conversation,” he explained.

  “We have all the time in the world to discuss anything you want. Now, I miss you...”

  “Jessie,” he said with desperation.

  Her left hand grasped his coat as she concentrated on containing the heat that sizzled down her body and engulfed her very soul.

  “Tell me what's troubling you,” she inquired, caressing the lines that the torment and centuries etched their way around his eyes. “Why aren't you happy, Marcus? You should be overjoyed. I found you and have come back to you, my love. So why is sadness still darkening your soul?”

  “Because I’ve aged, Ellie. I’ve been in seclusion for far too long. I wasn’t even able to distinguish it was your soul inside this body. It was in my mind to reject you.”

  “But why? Why would you reject your wife?”

  “Because I was unaware that it was you. I didn’t want another mate.”

  “You didn't get another mate. You got joined with me forever, remember?”

  “I remember. There was not a day that I didn’t remember, I lived on memories. But I’m old now and you...are so young and beautiful. You deserve a younger, better mate.”

  “What?” Jessica blinked several times. His words made her suddenly dizzy. “No!” she protested. “I don’t want another mate. I want you.” Her voice shattered with the sadness. “And if you reject me, I’d rather die all over again. I’ve kept on living just to find you. You’re really breaking my heart and shattering my soul. If you turn me away, I won’t want to live any longer.”

  “Of course I want my wife back, but will she want me like this?”

  “I’m your wife. I want you. I would want you even if you were a wrinkled old man unable to care for yourself. Besides, you don’t look that old. You are still a handsome, virile, and charming man,” she assured him, holding her hands to his face and rubbing his temples. “You just need a haircut, shave, and clothes from the twenty-first-century.
”

  “That’s all I need?” he asked, smiling even as tears threatened to fall.

  “No, you also need to hold me and hug me tight, so I won’t feel this sharp pain radiating through my chest. Lie down with me and hold me,” she pleaded, and after taking off his heavy coat, he obeyed.

  As the king lay down, he embraced Jessica in his arms, nuzzling her hair.

  “Is Anna mad?” Jessica inquired, turning to study his expression.

  His eyes focused on her. “No.”

  “Is Eric mad? I love him so much! He was always so considerate of me. He was too young when I died.”

  “He is happy. Everybody is happy.”

  She rubbed her face against his chest. “Are you happier now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why don’t you sound happy?” She listened to his heartbeat and softly trailed her fingers on his muscles.

  Sighing, he admitted, “I’m...still perplexed. It is a lot to reconcile within one day.”

  Jessica rolled to the side of the bed. Her eyes focused on the ceiling above them. She placed her hands clasped over her stomach and asked him, “Don’t you like my new body? I’ve just realized today that my appearance was different than it used to be. When you didn’t recognize me, I suddenly understood that if I was your mate, that I was Isobel.”

  “Let’s talk about this tomorrow.”

  She turned her head to see him. “Do you find me unattractive? Was that why you treated me distantly and wanted to reject me?”

  He promptly replied, “No.”

  “Then what? I can’t read your thoughts anymore, Marcus. You need to tell me how you feel!” Jessica insisted, frustrated by his hesitation to accept her.

  He turned to face her and explained, “You just appear and act differently.”

  She sat up and narrowed her eyes at him. “I am different. I’m a new person. I have a new life, new parents, and new memories. We live in a new century, different millennium, as a matter of fact!”

  He propped himself up on his left elbow and rested his head on his hand. “You didn’t use to argue with me and question my decisions.”

  “Well, you didn’t use to withhold anything thing from me before, nor were you rude and abrupt with me.”

  His lips curled into a genuine smile that reached his eyes and made Jessica relax a little. She lay back with a sultry look in her eyes and turned to watch him as her fingers toyed with the open collar of his shirt that had laces at the neck. She smirked when he grabbed her hand to stop the contact.

  Leaning forward with a sultry voice, she whispered, “I won’t be fighting with you anymore. You just need to be nicer to me and...kiss me.” She looked at him with hopeful eyes.

  Marcus arched an eyebrow. “Are you really that easy to please?”

  He looked serious and that made Jessica sad. There was no look of love in his eyes for her at all. He looked uncomfortable and averse to touching her and to let her touching him.

  She sighed and let her hands fall back on the bed with a dramatic declaration. “I don’t please you anymore.” She pouted with the troubled thought that haunted her mind. “We have been apart from each other for more than two hundred years…and you don’t even want to kiss or touch me.”

  Silence.

  She glanced to see his vacant expression. “Maybe you just don’t feel love for me anymore.” Her eyes burned with defection. She needed him to refute her accusations, but he didn’t. “Don’t you love me anymore?” Her voice came out broken with grief. Her hands clutched against her chest as she nibbled her bottom lip until it almost bled.

  “Don’t cry, Jessica. Please don’t cry,” he mumbled.

  She shook her head to lessen the grief and swallowed. “Why don’t you love me?”

  The king sighed deeply, massaged his forehead, and then rubbed his eyes. “It’s not that I don’t love you. It’s just that I don’t know anything about you. You claim to be Isobel, but you do not resemble my Ellie. You may have more of her mannerisms since you woke up…but still. I need time to adjust. I need to sleep on it. Maybe things will feel more real in the morning, and I can wrap my head around this. Then we will go from there.”

  Fisting her hands, she complained, “You are so insufferable! Even after all I said, you still don’t trust me. What do you want me to do? Don’t you feel our bond?”

  He remained calm in comparison to her exasperation. Then he spoke, “If it makes you feel better, I find you intriguing and beautiful. We have a strong bond, very strong. So, please, don’t feel despair. But it’s…different. You don’t have her body, cinnamon hair, perfect skin, and her lovely, sweet, and dark eyes. You have new eyes, blue…and you look nothing like my wife.”

  “So…you don’t find me attractive now,” she breathed out as her heart cracked in her chest.

  “Jessica, you are being melodramatic,” he said.

  His patronizing tone irritated her. “Or maybe you’re just in love with a painting on the wall. You love those memories that you dwell on in your head. But you don’t love or want me,” Jessica said, accusingly.

  She shot up from the bed and straightened her clothes. “It’s clear that I don’t belong here anymore. You’re stubborn and you don’t want to believe that I…I don’t even want to say it anymore. I’m tired of having everybody questioning me. I just…I didn’t think you, of all people, would doubt me. Maybe at first, but not now that I can prove to you that I am who I say I am.”

  The king had sat on the bed with tired eyes. He ruffled his hair as if trying to follow her train of thought. “Jessie…”

  “Don’t give me any more of your justifications,” she cut him off by putting her hand up to halt his speaking. “I promise you, if you let me walk out that door, I will never return again.”

  She walked to the door, upset. She expected much more of him. She had cherished their love. She thought he had loved her as much as she loved him. Suddenly, all that she had endured getting there seemed inconsequential. Her life was irrelevant. Pain encased her heart and squeezed tightly.

  But just as she was about to depart for good, he wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his nose in her hair to inhale her scent. He kissed her sensually on the nape neck. “You were always so dramatic, Ellie,” he whispered tenderly. “And you would always make me pursue you. I don’t mind begging you to stay, still, we need to take things slowly. Be patient with me and let me adapt to this new situation.”

  “I thought you would be ecstatic to have me back,” she mumbled, letting the pain dissolve in the tears she didn’t know she was holding. She sobbed, “But you do not find me attractive. You liked me better as I was before.”

  The king sighed deeply as he turned her to face him, “Do you remember when you had become jealous because I was looking at the tall, blonde vampire princess? Back at Gerald’s palace?”

  “No!”

  “You complained saying I liked blondes better than brunettes.”

  “And do you?”

  “She was a pretty woman. Nice to look at, but I was staring at her because I was hoping she could be George’s mate. For me, you are the most beautiful creature ever born. You will always be the most beautiful, no matter what image you project. You are mine, Ellie. There is no way in hell I’d let you walk away for me. I won’t lose you again.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere else,” she sniffled through her tears. “And I like my new curves. I’m quite hot, as a matter of fact!”

  “Yes, you are hot, and you are beautiful.”

  “And do you still love and want me?”

  “I do. Even more, now that I know you are Isobel.”

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. He was strong and really tall. “Let me just say that it is totally unfair how much taller you are than I!”

  “I like it like that. I like to bundle you and cocoon you inside my arms.”

  “It gives me pleasure, too,” she whispered, smiling. He was talking romantically to her and h
is eyes were tender and showed his feeling of euphoria. “But I am taller than I used to be. I am such a contrast to what I was before. No wonder you don’t find me attractive!”

  “Don’t be preposterous. I’m madly in love with you. I promise I will show you I love you even more now. I would like you even if you were a little sparkling fairy.”

  “You are just saying that to please me,” she challenged.

  “Oh no, you are not going to trick me into telling you that I like you better this way. I’m not allowing you to entrap me with that one, Ellie.” He furrowed his eyebrows with a smirk, as she rolled her eyes and pouted her lips. He placed his forehead against hers. “Let’s go to bed, honey. We are both exhausted. We will discuss and deal with all this tomorrow. We still need to sit down with our children. We will have an exasperating day ahead of us.”

  “Sleep?” she asked, nibbling her lower lip seductively.

  “I’m tired,” he whispered, closing his eyes and sighing. Jessica sighed with disappointment. “We need to take things slow.”

  “Why? It’s not like we haven’t been with each other before.”

  “We are not married anymore. We need to fix that.”

  She raised an eyebrow in shock. “What?”

  “We need to assess what happens from this moment on. We need to be married again, of course. And we need to inform our daughter and grandchildren of this new development. There are a lot of things to...address.”

  “Address? Marcus!” She sighed and threw her hands up trying to determine the correct wording to make him understand. They were reunited now and still bound together, the rest of the world could implode for all she cared, he was all she longed for.

  “We will do things properly. No skipping ahead,” he said, his face taking on a serious look.

  “I had forgotten how virtuous you were,” she grumbled. Then she smirked. “But I will do things however you want. Let’s see how long you can resist me.”

  Sashaying over toward the bed, she slowly removed her sweater, allowing only her bra to remain on her ivory skin. Then she sat down and waited for him to come as she loosened her blonde hair around her face.