by T. S. Ryder
"Gavin, what are you—"
"You're pregnant?"
Aria closed her eyes briefly. She nodded. "Yes. I am. But—"
"So you betrayed me. You betrayed our agreement." Gavin was surprised at how flat his voice was compared to the anger and hurt waging inside of him. He wanted to grab Aria, throw her over his shoulder and take her back to the palace. He knew why he couldn't, though. He couldn't even touch her. "You betrayed me," he repeated.
Aria backed away from him, her arms wrapped around her middle. Her chest heaved and tears glimmered in her eyes. "I betrayed you? No. I didn't. I owe you nothing."
Gavin advanced on her until they were nose-to-nose. "We are still under our agreement. You will return with me to the palace at once."
Chapter Seven – Aria
Aria stared up at Gavin's glowering eyes. Part of her wanted to tell him what happened, to beg him to listen, to run tests or whatever it would take to convince him that the child she carried was his. But the larger part of her said that he would never believe her and that it wasn't her job to make him see reason.
"I'm not going anywhere," she said.
"Yes, you are. You're coming home with me."
"I am home."
Gavin narrowed his amber eyes. "Aria—"
"No." She tried to stay strong even though she was crumbling inside. "No, I am done. All I am to you is some sort of blood prostitute."
"That's not—"
"I know you wiped out my father's debt when we slept together. And you didn’t tell me. You wanted to keep me around because you think you own me. But you don't."
The king stepped back. A flash of regret crossed his face and he shook his head. "Aria, no, that's not what I meant. I'm…"
She held her breath, waiting. Was he going to apologize? If he did, then whatever was happening here… whatever he did, whatever she had said… Then maybe there was a way past all of that, and they'd be able to move forward together. Somehow. Her heart thumped hard as she realized how much she wanted that. Not to be bound by some agreement, but to be together because they wanted to be together.
Gavin's face closed off. "You're the one who said that you'd only sleep with me if the debt was wiped out. I thought it was obvious what I was doing when I took you, Aria. I was buying you since that was the only way you'd have me."
Her chest hurt. If she looked down, she was certain she'd see blood pouring from a gaping wound.
"I didn't tell you your father's debt was wiped out because I thought it would be obvious. Just because you let emotion cloud your judgment—"
"No, you just didn't want me to leave. Our agreement was that I would stay with you and give you blood only as long as it was necessary to pay my father's debt. Well, it's paid."
Gavin swallowed. Uncertainty clouded his eyes again. "Aria… What are you saying?"
The arrogance that had been there moments ago was gone. Did he want her to stay with him?
No, I can't think like that. There was nothing she could do to stop the tears, but she wasn't going to break. Not now. Not when he had never apologized for a word he had said, or done anything to make her think that he thought of her more than his paid woman. If her feelings had gotten the best of her before, they weren't going to defeat her now.
"I'm saying that our agreement is over. And I expect that you'll pay me for all the blood that you took from me after the debt was paid off."
Gavin's head dropped to his chest. He took a deep breath, his nostrils flaring, and when he looked back up, that spark of vulnerability was gone. He nodded, his face as expressionless as the day she had met him. "Fine. If that is what you want. I will have the funds transferred to your bank account as soon as I return to the palace. If you want the gifts I gave you, you'll have to make arrangements to pick them up. I hope you have a long and happy life with the man whose child you carry."
"Wait." Sonya stepped between them, holding her hands up. "No, wait. This isn't you think, your majesty. She didn't—"
"Vampires and humans can't have children together," Aria interrupted. She glared at her friend, warning her to be silent. "The king told me that himself just an hour ago. And he also told me that any human who claimed to be pregnant by a vampire was lying."
Sonya's shoulders slumped as she turned towards Aria. "Don't do this to yourself."
"Do what? Stop being his hooker? The only reason I agreed to any of this in the first place was for my father. Well, it's over, so I'm done." She leveled her chin at Gavin. "Goodbye, your majesty. You'll never have to see me again."
He was still for a moment, then slowly nodded. He stepped towards her again and took her hand in his. He rose it towards his mouth, and for a moment thought that he was going to take one last taste of her blood. In fact, she almost hoped for it. But he didn't go for her wrist. He pressed his lips to her hand, then dropped it. He didn't look at her as he left.
Sonya put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Aria. "What are you doing?"
"Getting out before it's too late."
"Honey, no." Sonya sighed, annoyed, as she embraced Aria. "You love him."
Aria struggled not to burst into tears. Her lip wobbled, a lump in her throat choking her. She closed her eyes tightly. "I don't… Maybe I do love him. I don't know. It's just so confusing. But it doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter if I love him or not because he doesn't love me. He just thinks he owns me. And I am not going to be the woman who… There is just no point in loving him. I don't want to talk about this."
She pulled away from her friend, determinedly not looking at Sonya. She knew what to expect there. Sympathy. Maybe even pity. She couldn't deal with that right now.
"Okay. Okay," Sonya repeated. "We don't talk about this. I know what you're like. You have to have emotional distance from things to work it out. Plus you've been hiding this pregnancy of yours for months. So, how about instead of doing what I'd do—"
"Grab ice-cream and cry," Aria supplied.
"Exactly. Instead of that, we go out. We go to a great club or something and dance until dawn and drink non-alcoholic beverages."
Aria smiled. She turned back to her friend and nodded. "Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Let's do it. All partying, no crying."
"And maybe by the time we're both half-dead from exhaustion, you'll want to talk."
Aria rolled her eyes. "Maybe. I doubt it."
***
"My feet are going to fall off," Aria groaned, hobbling as she and Sonya leaned against each other for support. They had been going from club to club, dancing for hours. She didn't even know what time it was anymore. "I shouldn't have worn heels this high. It was a bad idea."
Sonya giggled, turning her face into Aria's shoulder. "I know! Me either. Now, look at us. We're stumbling around like a couple of drunks. It's time to go home, isn't it?"
Aria nodded. She was sufficiently exhausted that she might have the strength to face what was going on in her tangled love life. The two women made it to the curb and hailed a cab. Still laughing, they climbed in and collapsed onto the soft leather seats.
"Oh, I think I could sleep for a month," Sonya said with a sigh.
"Me, too." Aria leaned forward to the cab driver. "Hey, so—"
The driver turned and smiled. Twin fangs flashed. "Goodnight, ladies."
Before Aria could even register that there was a vampire in the front seat, her lungs started feeling like they were filling with water. She clutched her chest. Her head spun. Black spots burst before her eyes. Sonya grabbed her arm and gasped. Aria struggled to think clearly.
The last thing she thought before she fell unconscious was that she hoped that this wasn't Gavin.
Chapter Eight – Gavin
Gavin roared, overturning his desk. Computer, papers, pens, and photographs flew every which way. The human police chief flinched back from him, face paling, and the two vampires that were in the room with them subtly shifted, shielding the fragile human. The king slammed his fist into the wall, cracking his knuck
les.
"Are you certain?" he growled.
"M-my lord, the proof is undeniable," the chief stuttered. "Queen Monique is behind these kidnappings."
"That wretched, twisted, evil —" Gavin forced himself to still.
He inhaled deeply, trying to calm down. The scent of the human's blood made his stomach gurgle, reminding him of how long it had been since he'd drunk blood fresh from the vein. Two weeks. It had been two weeks since Aria left him, and he hadn't even visited the humans that lived on palace grounds for the lower-ranked vampires to drink from. He'd been subsisting off of the bagged stuff, and it honestly just wasn't good enough.
But the thought of drinking from anybody but Aria made his stomach churn.
"If you are wrong, there will be severe consequences."
"We have tracked the kidnappers to her kingdom. Our undercover agent saw her himself. We haven't heard anything from him since he reported it. We fear the worst."
Gavin nodded, his rage turning cold in his chest. Monique had made a terrible mistake. He looked at one of his vampires. "Mobilize the army. We will not let her kidnap our people without repercussions. We move out in four hours."
"Sir, that might not be enough time—"
"Four hours." Gavin pointed at the door, silently dismissing them all. The vampires all bowed and left. In the case of the police chief, he all but ran away.
The king closed his eyes once the door slammed shut behind them. He needed blood. Living blood, none of this bagged crap. Maybe if he went to Aria and told her the truth… Maybe if he told her that she was the best thing to happen to him and that he was sorry for the way he acted…
A gentle rap on his door made him snarl. "What?"
The door opened and one of the cleaning women poked her head in. Her eyes were like saucers, one of her small fangs worrying her lower lip. "M-my lord, there is a human here to see you."
"Why would I want to see a human? Send him away."
The door slammed open, revealing Aria's father. The king narrowed his eyes at the man. What was his name? Gavin could only remember his surname, and that was only because it was the same as Aria's. "Mr. Taylor. What are you doing here?"
"I want to see my daughter." The human marched up to the king, eyes blazing. A throbbing vein popped out of his forehead. "I don't care what your rules are, you have no right to keep her from calling me! I am her father."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Gavin was tempted to just throw him out the door. "Aria isn’t here. She left two weeks ago. Didn't even come back for her things – she just cut off all contact."
Mr. Taylor's brows furrowed. His hands clenched. "What are you talking about? The last time I spoke with her, she said she was pregnant and didn’t know how to tell you. But she didn't want to leave. No matter what excuses she gave me —"
"She didn't want to stay, she —"
"She loves you. I don't know why, but she does."
Gavin stared at the little human. Aria's father thought that she loved him? But that was impossible. If she loved him, why would she leave?
Okay, that one might be obvious.
The king turned away. He had acted immature, like he owned her. A girl like Aria wouldn't stand for that. But that didn't explain the pregnancy. Vampires simply couldn't father children.
"She doesn't love me. She slept with another man."
Mr. Taylor snorted. "My Aria sleeping around? No. What makes you think she did that?"
"She's pregnant. Humans and vampires cannot have young together."
"Why not?"
"Because vampires are the undead." Gavin took a deep breath, the pain of Aria's betrayal ripping yet another hole in his heart. He hadn't even let himself hope that somehow the child she carried was his. Hoping was too painful. "Vampires don't have heartbeats. We don't have blood. Both are necessary components to the whole process of pregnancy."
He turned back to see Gavin staring at him with a puzzled look. "Both are necessary for sex. Yet Aria made it clear that you two…" He flinched. "As much as I hate to think of her… doing that, you did, didn't you? So why not whatever process that allows that to happen also allows a pregnancy to occur? I know my little girl. She would never sleep with someone she didn't love. And she loves you."
"Me." Gavin wet his lips.
What Aria's father was saying couldn’t be true, could it? For the past two weeks, he'd been angry and hurt, wondering over and over again what he could have done differently. Could it be that all he needed to do was listen? Put aside what he thought he knew and be open to the impossible?
She had tried to tell him. Sonya tried to tell him, too. But he hadn't listened. He didn't want to listen, and Aria had known that. That was why she cut him out of her life. Because if he wouldn't listen to her when it mattered most, what use did she have for him in her life?
The revelation made his heart rise even as his stomach clenched. He had a chance now. He knew what he needed to do to make this right. At least, he knew how to ask her to come back to him. Whether she would or not was uncertain… but he had to ask.
He focused on Mr. Taylor again. "You said that you haven't heard from her in two weeks."
"I thought that you were stopping her."
"Why would I—" The king shook his head. Humans knew too little about the vampires who ruled them. That had to change. "The last I saw her, she was at her friend Sonya's house. I thought that they might be… getting back together."
Mr. Taylor narrowed his eyes. "Just because she is bisexual doesn't mean she's going to sleep with everybody she finds attractive. If you can't see that she would be monogamous to you —"
"I was an idiot, I know that." Gavin held up his hands. "But the pressing concern is where she is."
The human nodded. His brow furrowed. "I haven't seen Sonya for a while, either, come to think of it. But if you and Aria had a fight, then chances are they would have gone clubbing or something. That's what they always did when Aria had a disappointment."
"That doesn't explain why neither of us has heard from Aria in two weeks."
"If they were out all night… Do you think something happened to them?"
Clubbing.
A ball of dread slipped into the pit of Gavin's stomach. He leaped over his turned desk and grasped the files that contained the missing persons that Monique had taken. All had disappeared from clubs or bars. Bile churned in his stomach as Gavin stood again. Sonya and Aria had most likely gone clubbing and now they were missing. Two women, alone, vulnerable. The perfect targets. Monique's forces must have taken them.
"I think I know where they might be," Gavin growled. He turned towards Mr. Taylor. "I'll get somebody to set you up in a room here so you can stay up to date with what is happening. I promise I will bring her back."
"Where is she?"
Gavin headed for the door. He would get Aria back. And he would get his people, his subjects, back. Monique would rue the day she chose to abduct humans from his kingdom. They were not cattle to be traded or stolen. He was their king and protector. He would get them all back, no matter what it took.
Mr. Taylor jogged to catch up with him. "Where is she?" he repeated.
Gavin's face was grim. "Paris."
Chapter Nine – Aria
The thin crack from the trap door in the ceiling cast a watery beam of light over Aria's face. Occasionally, a shadow would pass over it, but there was no telling what lay beyond the crack. She huddled close to Sonya, trying to borrow a little warmth from her friend. Darkness and bars surrounded them. Somewhere beyond the bars were more bodies, and sometimes they would whisper to each other or cry, but other than that, everyone was silent.
"How long do you think we've been here?" she asked Sonya for the millionth time.
"I don't know. How often do they feed us?"
"I don't know."
They fell back to silence. The only comfort in this place was that Aria knew now that this wasn't Gavin's doing. Her suspicion of him ate a deep hole in the pit of
her stomach, but Sonya had overheard somebody talking about Monique when she first woke. And if this was the queen's doing, then Gavin would be here soon to save them… Wouldn't he?
The trap door above them was suddenly thrown open. Aria flinched as the light stabbed her eyes, but she greedily drunk it in at the same time. Her eyes adjusted enough to see a ladder extending into the pit. A vampire jumped in and grabbed her.
"No!" Sonya shouted, grasping Aria's wrists.
The vampire shoved Sonya away. "Quiet."
Aria struggled against him, but his grip was like steel around her waist as he dragged her up the ladder. He tossed her onto the floor. When she looked up, she found herself staring in Queen Monique's face.
"Get her cleaned up," the queen ordered, her delicate, pretty face twisted in fury. "Stealing Gavin's human. This could end all my plans. You!"
Aria flinched as Monique grabbed her arm and shook her.
"Was this your trick? Did you plan to force Gavin's hand? He may be on his way with his armies to retrieve you, but if you breathe a word of what you saw here, your pretty blonde friend down there and all the other humans I gathered will be killed and their bodies fed to sharks."
Aria tried to pull her arm away, but Monique's grip was too tight.
"Do you understand me?" the queen snarled.
Aria glanced down at Sonya's terrified face as the trap door was shut again. "I won't say anything."
The queen relaxed. "Good. Now be a good girl and don't fight my people as they clean you up. I have to phone Gavin and do some damage control. I depend on idiots."
A blindfold was wrapped around her eyes. Aria opened her mouth to demand that Sonya is released as well. Maybe if she threatened to expose Monique's actions, the queen would let her friend go. But what if she didn't? What if she only hurt Sonya for it? Aria closed her mouth again and let herself be pulled away by the vampire attendants. She thought furiously as they scrubbed her skin, brushed her hair and dusted makeup over her cheeks. There had to be a way to tell Gavin what she knew without putting Sonya at risk…
