When we were done and the sun was just starting to paint the sky a shade a light blue I finally asked, “do you think they’ve drunk it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Drop the illusion Rose, let me look at you. The real you.”
I was afraid to do that. Afraid that I would be so transformed that he would not love me again. Afraid that I’d have rotted teeth and liver spots, wisps of silver hair upon my bald head, and that I’d be covered in warts.
He brushed his fingers down my face, his eyes imploring me to believe him. “Let me see you, my love.”
It was his quiet plea that undid me and squeezing my eyes shut I dropped the illusion.
Holding my breath as I waited to hear his intake of shock. But when that didn’t come I opened one eye, still squinting and ready to see the disgust burning in his gaze. But there was only a gentle smile on his face.
“You’re still you. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever known in the entirety of my existence.”
My shoulders slumped with both a mixture of relief and also worry. “Did they toss the bottle? Did they not drink it? Did I do something wrong? If they don’t drink I might never be, Dracula. I know how to make the potion now, should we go back and make them drink it again?”
The sky was now lighting at a rapid pace. And I knew we’d have to get him to darkness soon.
He shook his head. “Give me your hand, dragā. We must go home now.”
And I knew he was right. We were both exhausted. Mentally and physically.
Taking his hand I let him help me to stand. He kissed me soundly and then we quickly dressed ourselves. We returned to his cottage, which now felt like home to me, and made our way to the bedroom.
Neither of us were all that tired, but we didn’t have the energy for much else. We lay in one another’s arms, him strumming my shoulder and me wrapping him around me as much as physically possible.
Hours later, though I wasn’t sure exactly how much later, he murmured. “They drank it, Rose.”
“What?” I instantly sat up, turning so that I could look him in the eye. “How do you know?”
His lips thinned. “Because I remember. It happened. She dies in my arms two nights from now. It’s all the same. Every painful memory, they’re all there. We did it.”
I frowned and glanced down at my body, then hopped to my feet and ran toward the warped looking glass. It wasn’t as nice as a mirror in my time, but I could see my reflection easily enough. Holding out my arms I twirled from one side to the next.
“But I’m not changed. I look the same. How did this happen?”
He came to stand behind me and laid his hands on my shoulders. Shaking his head, he whispered, “I don’t know. But it’s time to go home, my love.”
The enormity of what he was saying suddenly struck me like a hammer-fisted blow to the chest. I gasped and covered my mouth with my hands.
“It’s done, Dracula. This curse, it’s really actually done?”
Leaning forward he softly and sweetly took my lips and kissed me. I moaned as I leaned into him, feeling a hope and joy I’d never thought possible before.
With a flick of my wrist I packed up what meager belongs I’d brought with us, never breaking from my kissing of him. Aziria had taught me a lot, especially how to harness my magick without the use of a wand. I was stronger. Sharper. A better witch and so much of that was because of her.
I also made sure to pack up the herbs that I would not be able to find in my time.
Still without breaking the kiss I opened a time portal and sailed with my dark lover for home.
When we got there it was night and we were back in his room, everything looked exactly as it had when we’d left it.
He stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. “Are you ready?” he asked with a soft growl and I nodded.
He held me as I mixed the potion together. Refusing to budge from my side even once.
In minutes it was done. Scooping out two ladleful’s I turned toward him.
“To break the curse I must do it in the reverse order that she did. So first we drink and then I will speak the incantation backward.”
He nodded.
First time we’d drank this stuff it had been the start of all our nightmares. But now as the coolness of flowers and herbs slid down our throats I felt hope. I felt joy. Holding his hands, I spoke the curse backward and the very moment I uttered the last vowel I felt the shackles fall free.
With a whoop Dracula wrapped me up in his arms, and danced with me. Joy like neither of us had known in so very, very long suffused our bones. He kissed me with all the passion in his soul and I kissed him right back.
“It is over, Rose. It’s over. It’s over. This is done. And I love you more than ever.”
I laughed even as I cried. “And I you my dark prince. Forever and always. And all I ask is one thing.”
“Anything.”
“Bite me. Make me yours forever. Bond me to you always. I wish never to be departed from you ever again.”
He trembled. “I will, if you would do me one honor.”
I smiled. “What?”
“Marry me.”
I nodded, not even one doubt in my mind. “When?”
He laughed and then he kissed me again and soon it turned heated and hot and we were back on that bed and his fangs slid into my vein just as he slid his slick, beautiful body deep into me.
I was his forever and he was mine.
Always.
Epilogue
Rose
It had been a month since our return home. I’d reunited with my sisters and told them of all my adventures. Generva hadn’t believed me at first, until she’d met Dracula and then had remarked that no one who saw us could ever doubt our great and eternal love for one another.
Tonight, we all three married in a simple but elegant ceremony in the woods. Property of Generva’s mate, Connor. There were so many shifters I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Rowdy and boisterous they were a lot of fun. Siren folk abounded as well. I was sure I even spied some royalty in attendance. And so many vampires that Myrtle had teased we were what’s for dinner tonight.
Ridiculous, of course. Vampires had stopped feeding on humans ages ago, most of that due in no small part to my mate’s own stance on the matter. It was strange, knowing that Myrtle and I were now royalty, of a sense. Crazy Handsome, aka Myrtle’s mate Adam, had actually abdicated his throne for her, but he was still treated with difference and great respect by his peers.
But Dracula, he was king of the vampires, which therefore made me his queen and theirs.
It was strange, this new role I now assumed, but also a familiar one. Daily my lives were being remembered by me and I was seeing all the different times when I’d risen to the challenge of being mate to such a potent male and the times when I’d failed him and myself.
I sipped on my blood wine, enjoying it more than I ever had before. It was strange the emptiness I felt in me when it came to food now. Considering how important it had once been to me, but I still had a passion for cooking and needless to say my sisters and I had a very healthy and robust catering business going now. The males were our partners in every way and we were definitely carving out our own niche with The Witches’ Dishes.
As a wedding gift to me Dracula had gifted me Petey. I don’t know when or how he’d found the eternal bird, but I was glad that Petey would never be abandoned again. I gently stroked his feathered head. It had gladdened my heart exceedingly when Petey had recognized me.
And seeing how well taken care of he was, I knew he must have once known great love. I’d like to believe that Aziria had cared for him until her very end, a changed woman in all ways. Finally at ease in her soul and content.
“Look at them,” Generva murmured fondly and we stared at the dance floor where our men took turns dancing with anyone who requested a turn about the floor with them.
Connor howled with laughter at something his current partner said. Adam wa
s crafting a net of glittering watery pearls and draping them around an adorable child’s body, his current partner. And Dracula was elegantly gliding a male partner around the floor.
I sighed, my heart so full with joy that I almost felt I might burst from it.
“It’s strange though,” I finally said a moment later, “I never changed. It’s the one hitch in all of this that makes no sense to me. I cast a curse. My first curse and I remained the same. That goes against everything we’ve ever learned about magick, doesn’t it?”
I asked my sisters. I’d caught them up weeks ago on everything that I’d done and what had happened to me.
Myrtle pursed her lips and nodded. “You know, Rosie, I’ve been giving that a lot of thought and Adam and I had a thought the other night. What if the reason why you didn’t change was because it wasn’t actually a curse?”
“But it was.” I frowned. “I’ve died countless times.”
Generva hmm’d. “You know, Myr, that actually makes a lot of sense.” My eldest sister mumbled thoughtfully. “I mean, think about it. A curse is generally done with malice in one’s heart, but you didn’t have that emotion, Rosie. Maybe, because of your great love as you did it, you negated the negative effects of such a curse.”
I blinked. “I never thought of that. Do you really think that’s possible? That it’s not so much what’s done but the contents of ones heart that actually shapes us into the best or worst parts of ourselves?”
They both shrugged. “Makes as much sense as anything else.”
“Hmm.” I sipped my wine, rolling the robust flavors around on my tongue. My senses had heightened exponentially once Dracula had turned me. “Hmm,” I said again with a light shrug. “Guess, we’ll never know for sure.”
“Just be grateful,” Generva said gently laying a hand upon my own, “that everything turned out for the good. In the end that’s all that really matters.”
I instantly thought about Aziria’s blessing right before I left her forever and wondered if maybe her blessing had also helped. Maybe the darkness hadn’t been able to bind itself to me because in her own way she’d absolved me.
My story would never be told the same way again, if Dracula and I were ever blessed with children I would tell them how their daddy and I had met and I would also share with them the truth of a complicated woman who’d meant a great deal to me in the end.
Suddenly Myrtle tittered. I looked up. Noting all of our men were looking directly at us, a gleam twinkled in Dracula’s eyes.
“I do believe our boys are impatient for their brides. Shall we put them out of their misery?” Generva asked teasingly.
“Mm. Let’s, sisters.” Myrtle agreed with a nod.
I felt myself moving toward Dracula with nary a thought. Wanting to be with him just as badly as he wished for me to be by his side. Setting aside my goblet of wine, I also gently set Petey beside it. He sipped at the wine with his long beak. He and I were really going to need to talk about his wine habit.
But later.
Much later.
Now I had a dance.
I took my mate’s hand and sighed when he gently squeezed my fingers.
“Are you happy, my love?” He asked me tenderly, his warmth breath fanning the shell of my ear as we glided effortlessly around the dance floor.
“So much. So very much. Sometimes I can’t believe it’s really over.”
He chuckled and stroked my inner arm. “Not over, my dragā. Our story has only just begun.”
And he was so right.
We kissed and never stopped kissing for all eternity.
* * *
THE END
* * *
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Other books by Jovee Winters
Cookies, Curses, and Kisses, Book 1 of Blue Moon Bay
* * *
Welcome to Blue Moon Bay, a little seaside town full of vampires, shifters, witches, and ghouls. A town with a dark secret. A town that was once cursed by a black witch to be forgotten by the rest of the world except for once in a blue moon.
* * *
Zinnia Rose is a hearth witch who has no desire to ever find a mate. See, she's got a little problem—one she's sure no man would ever understand.
* * *
Zane Huntington is running away from his past. Stopping in Blue Moon Bay for dinner may be the biggest mistake of his life, or maybe it's the beginning of a brand new adventure…
Untitled
Kingdom Books written as my other pen name Marie Hall
(The Kingdom Collection: 1-3)
Her Mad Hatter
Gerard’s Beauty
Red and Her Wolf
Jinni’s Wish, Book 4
Hook’s Pan, Book 5
Moon’s Flower, Book 6
The Huntsman’s Prey, Book 7
Rumpel’s Prize, Book 8
Hood’s Obsession, Book 9
Her One Wish, Book 10
A Pirate’s Dream, Book 11
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Book Listing for Dark Kings and Queens (Kingdom spinoff series) written as Jovee Winters:
Sea Queen, Book 1 (Caly and Hades)
The Passionate Queen, Book 2 (Queen of Hearts)
The Ice Queen, Book 3
The Magic Queen, Book 4 (Baba Yaga)
The Dark Queen, Book 5 (The Evil Queen)
The Fairy Queen, Book 6 (Galeta)
The Centaur Queen, Book 7
The Bewitching Queen, Book 8 (The Pied Piper)
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The Mad King, Book 1 (The Mad Hatter)
The Jaded King, Book 2 (Beauty and the Beast)
The Magic King, Book 3 (Rumple)
The Wolf King, Book 4 (Big Bad Wolf)
The Death King, Book 5 (Hades)
The Forge King, Book 6 (Hephaestus and Dite)
UPCOMING Titles in no particular order
The War King: Ares’ story
The Pirate King: Hook’s story
The Fire Queen: Fiera’s story
Other books by Jovee: Blue Moon Bay cozy pnr mystery romance
Cookies, Curses, and Kisses, Book 1
Holly, Curses, and Hauntings, Book 2
Cupcakes, Curses, and Spirits, Book 3
Hidden tales of Blue Moon Bay
Midnights and Howls, Book 1
Rivers and Moonlight, Book 2
Fangs and Stardust, Book 3
My Book Page 12
