The Vampire King's Mate

by C. A. Worley

  Viktor did his best to hide his tension, but Eden could sense it, just as he could sense when she was out of sorts. There was no hiding such things when one was soul-bonded.

  She didn’t pry and he appreciated it. He would not lie to her if he could avoid it. He just needed more time.

  He might try once more to ask her to stay here. Perhaps she would be more inclined once she saw her sisters.

  Brushing aside his worries, he focused on his mate, who needed a second after teleporting. It always made her a little dizzy and he kept ahold of her shoulders until she was steady on her feet.

  “Better?” he asked once she stood straight.

  “Better.”

  He offered his arm and she took it. They walked in tandem from the small clearing towards the temple. She slowed the closer they got.

  Viktor put his hand at the small of Eden’s back and nudged her towards the stairs. She allowed him to lead her up the steps and into the temple.

  “I’m almost afraid to see them,” Eden confessed.

  “Nothing here will harm you, Eden.”

  “No, it’s not that,” she insisted, “it’s just … seeing Nora solidifies the news. It’s all real. We were betrayed. We are still being betrayed. I can defend myself. Evelyn, can as well. Nora’s never had magic so she’s practically helpless.”

  A twirling gust of wind appeared suddenly, surrounding Eden and lifting her slightly off the floor. Viktor growled and turned to face the threat, straightening when he saw the perpetrators.

  Nora and Kellan were standing at the edge of the hall that led to the library. They both wore toothy grins.

  “Nora? Is this—is this your magic?” Eden asked suspiciously.

  “Yes,” Nora laughed. “Do you like it?”

  Eden shook her head, her jaw almost dragging the floor. Nora had never been able to control magic. Her entire life, she’d had to syphon it from her surroundings to continuously replenish her life force.

  “If you don’t mind, please release my sieva before explaining,” Viktor requested sternly.

  “Oh, you’re no fun,” Nora pouted.

  He lifted a brow. All three sisters spoke to him as if … as if he wasn’t the Heartless King.

  “Wife, I think you’ve had your fun,” Kellan chastised slightly, kissing the crook of her neck.

  Nora sighed and released Eden from her hold. Eden dropped back to the ground. Thankfully, she’d only been a couple inches up.

  “Sorry,” Nora apologized running to hug her sister. “I’m still working on control.”

  Eden squeezed her hard. “No apology needed, Nora. I’m thrilled for you! The mating worked, didn’t it?”

  Nora nodded enthusiastically. Not only had mating with Kellan repaired her soul, it had brought forth her magic.

  They grinned at each other. Viktor watched, fascinated. The sisters loved one another and were treasured by their father. They were the epitome of familial love.

  He scratched at the area over his heart, unsure what he was feeling. Had he and Luka ever been this close?

  Eden spun her sister to face Viktor. “Sister, I’d like you to meet The King of Prajna. Viktor, this is Nora.”

  “A pleasure to meet you,” Nora said as she curtsied.

  Viktor bowed to Nora in response, then turned his attention to the wolf.

  “Viktor, it’s been a while,” Kellan stepped forward and they shook hands.

  “Yes, it has …” he trailed off, watching as a flash of dark red hair went flying by.

  “Slow down!” Nora shouted a second before Evelyn barreled into her sisters, hugging them tightly. The three of them giggled like little girls and Kellan’s mouth quirked.

  “She-wolves do not act like this,” Kellan commented, tilting his head while observing the trio hop around with joy.

  “Neither do female vampires.”

  “I feel like I’m intruding,” Kellan bluntly admitted.

  “I feel the same,” Viktor agreed, noticing how young Eden looked surrounded by her sisters. Or was he just old?

  “Well, come on then, men,” Theron called from down the hall. “I’ve got whiskey.”

  “Thank the Goddess,” Kellan mumbled. “Come on, Wife.”

  Nora immediately turned from her sisters to clasp Kellan’s hand. Kellan nuzzled the crook of her neck, inhaling sharply, then straightened and led his mate down the hall.

  Viktor reached for Eden with his left hand and she readily took it. A small hand snuck into his right. He looked up the length of the arm to its owner.

  “What?” Evelyn asked innocently. “I’ve no mate or husband to speak of, but now I’ve got two brothers. Don’t you know siblings hold hands?”

  Viktor blinked.

  Evelyn waved a hand in front of his face. “Are you okay up there?”

  Eden pressed her face to his arm. He could feel her shaking with laughter at Evelyn’s antics. She must be the mischievous sibling. One who now thought of him as her brother.

  He cleared his throat, shocked by his reaction to her previous statement. Brother. She’d claimed he was her brother.

  He’d never had a sister and he hardly knew this female aside from a two-minute introduction. Yet, here she was calling him family despite his not being married to Eden.

  “It’s okay, Viktor. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Evelyn started to pull her hand out of his, but he held firm.

  “I’m not scared of you, little one.”

  “Really?”

  “I’m terrified.”

  The sisters laughed and Viktor felt his chest tighten as he escorted them down the hall.

  * * *

  “This is insane,” Evelyn announced to the group.

  The jovial reunion had turned somber in the past hour while Nora and Kellan recounted the events having occurred since Nora had gone off to live in the Northland.

  Most of the information they already knew. What Viktor was surprised to hear was that a second vampire’s scent was picked up when Kellan’s men found the wolf who had poisoned Nora.

  It seemed that the she-wolf, Isla, had been under compulsion from the demon named Bogdan. At least Kellan could take comfort in the fact she hadn’t acted on her own accord. Betrayal was a bitter pill to swallow.

  “What’s our first move?” Eden asked.

  “I need to find Agatha,” Kellan replied. “I’d also like to bring my trackers to the Eastland, the ones who have scented the vampire involved in the attack on Edward, as well as the vampire from the area where Isla was found.”

  Viktor knew this was coming. Only the wolves knew the scents of the two Prajna. It only made sense they would be the ones to track them down.

  It wasn’t Kellan’s request, though, that was bothering Viktor. It was the fact there were two different suspects from his kingdom. The likelihood of it being mere happenstance a vampire stumbled across the area where Bogdan and Isla had ended up was next to nothing.

  Sephtis Kenelm had never deviated from its original grouping of only four members. He would have to start dedicating his time to finding the perpetrators instead of remaining holed up in his chambers with Eden.

  “I’ll allow it,” he told the Wolf King, “but you’ll have to have either myself or a Prajna of my choosing escorting you.”

  Viktor worried his people wouldn’t take kindly to wolves running free across their land. Plus, if they did come across the vampires in question, Viktor wanted to be the one to deal with them.

  “Understood,” Kellan responded, pleased Viktor was being accommodating.

  “Does anyone have any good news?” Evelyn griped. “All this doom and gloom is extracting any happiness I might have right out of me.”

  “Well,” Nora hedged, glancing at her husband, “we might have come across something positive.”

  “You are with child?” Evelyn probed hopefully.

  “What? No!” Nora exclaimed, her cheeks reddening.

  Evelyn shrugged. “Worth a try.”

  Kellan an
d Theron both chuckled while Viktor shook his head. Evelyn was a very strange female. If not for her exquisite looks, Viktor would believe she was a juvenile male with the way she spoke and behaved.

  Nora rubbed her forehead. “What I was going to say was we’ve received reports from the far north that some of the forest is recovering. Rather quickly, in fact.”

  “This is wonderful news,” Eden replied buoyantly. The drain on Gwydion’s powers had ceased and the forest of Burghard had experienced some degree of recovery. With any luck, these were signs the tide was turning.

  She reached for Viktor’s hand and squeezed. He was the first vampire to find his sieva in a century. She hoped their mating was the first of many and that some vampire pair would finally be blessed with a child.

  Viktor returned his mate’s warm grasp, but he didn’t allow himself to read into this new information. Ever the cynic, he refused to allow false hope to bloom. It made avoiding disappointment much easier.

  “Let us hope the healing of your land continues,” Viktor toasted, raising his tumbler towards Kellan.

  “Thank you.” Kellan lifted his glass in response.

  “Well,” Theron said, “this seems like a good time for a break. I’ve had brunch prepared in the dining area, so let us finish this discussion with full bellies, hmmm?”

  “Thank the Goddess, I’m starved,” Evelyn proclaimed, dragging her sisters out the door.

  Kellan and Viktor made to follow when Theron reached for Viktor’s elbow.

  “A minute, if you will?”

  Viktor eyed the old man, then nodded.

  “Kellan, please inform my mate I’ll be along shortly.”

  “Of course,” he said and exited the study.

  Theron closed the door and moved back to his chair. Viktor moved to the closest seat across the desk. The priest’s multi-colored irises swirled and spun as they stared at one another.

  Viktor held very still, in that way only the Prajna could do. They could become motionless, even in respiration, when sensing a threat. Theron wouldn’t attempt to harm Viktor, but the priest often saw too much and Viktor suspected he wouldn’t want to hear whatever Theron was going to say.

  “I am pleased you have found your sieva, Viktor. Happy for you, even.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Are you happy you have found her?”

  A crinkle formed across Viktor’s brow. “I do not understand what you’re asking.”

  “It wasn’t a difficult question.”

  “No, but it was an unnecessary one. What vampire would not find happiness in bonding with his mate?”

  “Oh, I could name at least one,” Theron replied giving the king a pointed look.

  “She pleases me, immensely.”

  “I’m sure. But there is more to it, is there not?”

  Viktor leaned forward, putting his elbows on the desk. His hulking form did nothing to intimidate the old man.

  “What do you know, Theron?”

  “I know you cannot continue the path you are on.”

  “And what path might that be?”

  “The one where you keep secrets from the other half of your soul.”

  Viktor’s teeth ground.

  “You need to tell her and you need to tell her soon.”

  Viktor exhaled a harsh laugh. “Right.”

  He started to pull away from the desk when Theron’s bony hands reached for his, holding him in place. The priest was much stronger than he appeared.

  His eyes were eddying like the whirlpools near the cliffs. Viktor tensed but didn’t fight him, caught in the hypnotic hues of Theron’s gaze.

  “Truth is the way forward. You cannot see it, but I can. Tell her. Before the next blood moon. No matter what course you end up taking, Eden must know the truth.”

  Viktor jerked away, needing reprieve from Theron’s probing stare. The King was rattled. Theron had never touched him before, nor had he ever used whatever powers he possessed to force Viktor into anything.

  It had felt like the priest was attempting a sort of compulsion. No one had been able to compel or hypnotize Viktor, not even his own father who matched him in strength.

  He wanted to retaliate, or at least rage against the male, to force him to agree never to do such a thing again. He knew he could not, not here on hallowed ground where Theron ruled.

  When Viktor felt a little more in control, he met Theron’s eyes, which had softened.

  “The future is not a fixed point on a predetermined line, Viktor. Every decision affects the trajectory of what is possible. I cannot always see clearly, and I can rarely intervene. But in this, I advise you to listen or be prepared to lose.”

  “To lose what?” Viktor asked.

  “Everything.”

  Chapter 19

  The sun was setting. The ocean below had turned to wondrously bright shades of orange and pink, courtesy of the fading light. Viktor was sitting in his usual chair on the balcony, with Eden in his lap.

  To their right was the chair he’d had made for her. It was a cushioned lounger and far more comfortable than his own. Eden glanced at it, thinking Viktor should have sat in it instead of his iron one with no padding.

  She’d yet to sit in hers for longer than a few minutes. Each time they came out to the balcony, Viktor would grow impatient with mere handholding. He’d scoop her up and drop in his chair, sighing contentedly as they watched the waves crash into the shore.

  When Eden suggested a larger chair, built for two, he’d gotten a novel idea. He told her he’d have an outdoor bed made and they could make love on the balcony.

  Eden’s eyes twinkled when she’d replied, “We don’t need a bed for that.”

  That was the first time he’d taken her against the wall, right there on the balcony. He informed her he was still going to have the bed made because it was good to have options.

  Eden smiled thinking back to his jest from two evenings ago, having very much enjoyed the cold stone at her back and the hot vampire at her front. He was turning her into a lustful creature.

  She’d considered offering to go into his feeding room. Each time, however, she couldn’t bring herself to be in a place where he’d had so many others.

  Judging by the apparatuses in that room, she knew he must have enjoyed acts she had long thought taboo. Being intimate with him so many times now, she no longer thought the contraptions distasteful.

  A sort of morbid curiosity had been niggling at her more and more. Eden wanted to fulfill those needs for him. She need only be brave enough to voice it.

  Eden also wanted to tell him how she felt. He’d stolen her heart and she’d gladly relinquished it. Viktor had never professed his love, but she could feel the connection to his soul and knew he cared for her deeply.

  Several days had passed since their trip to see Eden’s sisters. After they’d returned, Viktor had been even more attentive than before.

  When she’d asked him if he needed to be somewhere else or preparing for the hunt, he’d told her he was where he needed to be. Soon he would be meeting Kellan at the border to start tracking and he wanted to spend every second he could with Eden before he left.

  They hadn’t been apart since the day they’d met and Eden found she didn’t want to be apart from him, either. She didn’t think it was normal to crave someone in the way she craved Viktor, and not just sexually.

  She loved waking up with his large body wrapped around hers. He was overly affectionate, especially when they were alone, like now while they were sitting on the balcony. He made her feel safe and adored.

  They hadn’t been around the other Prajna since that day at court. At dinner tonight, Eden asked Viktor if they would be returning to the throne room anytime soon. He responded that he wasn’t ready to share his time with anyone else besides his sieva. Eden worried he was sacrificing important duties in order to be with her.

  She also had a hunch he believed himself to be protecting her. He’d been disturbed by the news of two possible sus
pects from his kingdom.

  Not wanting her own anxieties to push through their bond, she concentrated on how much she enjoyed the past couple of days.

  Viktor had started taking her on walks in the surf, telling her about Prajna. He promised he would take her around to his favorite places once he was sure the danger had passed.

  It was the one blight on her happiness. Eden was beyond content here in Prajna. She missed her family, but she wouldn’t give up Viktor for anything, not even for some sinister group who may very well be trying to kill her solely because she was his mate.

  Her muscles must have tightened because Viktor shifted to get a better look at her face.

  “What is it?” he demanded.

  “Nothing.”

  “Your entire body is stiff as a board, mala vestica.”

  “Nothing, I just was thinking.”

  Now it was his turn to go rigid. “About?”

  “Sephtis Kenelm.”

  He growled. “Do not waste your precious thoughts on such things. I will take care of it.”

  She nuzzled his jaw.

  “I know. I’m not exactly worried. I feel better now that Nora has some ability to protect herself. I just want it to be over, so everyone can go on with their lives. Also …” she paused.

  “Also?”

  “As much as I love being alone with you, it would be nice to feel safe enough to walk around by myself. Or to see something outside of your chambers.”

  “Our chambers,” he corrected.

  She laughed. “Yes, I meant our chambers.”

  Viktor slid his lower lip across his upper teeth. It was something he often did when thinking through a problem. Eden didn’t think it was very kingly, but she liked how it made him seem more approachable and less intimidating.

  “You’re right. You shouldn’t be cooped up in here.” He stood with her still in his arms.

  “I shouldn’t? I thought it was too dangerous for me to explore.”

  “It is, but I think I know something you’ll like and it’s not a place where anyone lives or would likely be visiting.”

  He ported them away and Eden closed her eyes. It always made her so dizzy she worried she’d get sick.