The Vampire Wish: The Complete Series (Dark World)

by Michelle Madow

  I couldn’t lose him. I refused to lose him.

  I was so turned around that I didn’t know which way was up, but the life vests pulled both of us back to the surface. Once there, I sucked in a deep breath, the icy air sharp as it filled my lungs.

  I checked Jacen—he was still unconscious, but breathing. Thank God. I didn’t know what I would have done otherwise.

  I swam to the shore, hauling Jacen and the sword along with me. As I swam, I stayed focused on the Tree. But the icy water was sapping my energy quickly.

  To keep myself going, I reminded myself what the vampire seer Rosella had told me before sending me on this journey. According to Rosella, a dark force—darker than anything the world had seen in centuries—was coming. I, the only known Nephilim on the entire planet, was prophesied to retrieve the Grail from where it had been hidden inside the Tree of Life to stop this force.

  I’d been shocked—I hadn’t thought the Holy Grail had existed until then—but I trusted the seer. Then she’d had another vision and wrote down the coordinates to the Tree of Life. She’d told me that I could select only one person to bring with me on my quest. Select the wrong person, and I’d die. Select the right one, and I’d live.

  I knew in my heart that Jacen was the correct choice. I trusted him with my life, and after this, I assumed he would trust me with his. We weren’t going to sink into an icy grave together. We’d been through too much to have it end like that.

  And so I paddled on, relief coursing through my veins as I pulled both Jacen and myself onto shore and collapsed into the warm, dry sand.

  Annika

  I woke to warm, strong arms encircling me.

  “Jacen?” I whispered his name, glancing up at him.

  “Hey.” His voice was weak, but he managed a smile. “How do you feel?”

  “I feel…” I paused, taking a moment to fully assess myself before answering. Given all the blood that I’d lost—and the fact that I’d swam through water in the arctic—I should have been dead.

  No—a human should have been dead.

  But I wasn’t a human.

  I was Nephilim.

  Neither of us were wearing our life vests anymore—he must have removed mine while I’d been sleeping. But he’d left my sword in the sheath on my back.

  With Jacen’s arms around me and my sword strapped on my back, I felt safer than ever.

  “I feel good,” I answered honestly. “Great, even. How long was I asleep?”

  “A few hours,” he said.

  “You’ve been up this whole time?” I gazed up at him, annoyed that he hadn’t woken me sooner. Waking naturally in his arms had been amazing—heavenly, even—but we had a quest to accomplish.

  “Only for about ten minutes,” he said. “You were sleeping so peacefully that I wanted to give you a bit more time to rest.”

  “Now isn’t the time to rest,” I reminded him. “We have to get the Grail.” I stood up and brushed sand off my clothes, realizing for the first time that they were no longer sopping wet. In fact, even though it was nighttime and we were in the arctic, the island itself was the perfect temperature.

  “We do,” he agreed. “But first we need to find out if there are any animals on this island.”

  “Why?” I asked. “Do you think they’ll be dangerous?”

  “I have no idea,” he said. “But dangerous or not, they’ll have blood.”

  I glanced down at his healed legs, remembering all the blood he’d lost earlier. “You need blood,” I realized. “And your supply drowned with the boat.”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “But there are tons of shed antlers past the beach. And where there are antlers, there are stags.”

  I looked to where the beach met the grass, seeing the antlers he was talking about. There were tons of them.

  But they would hardly solve his problem.

  I sat back down, realizing why he still wasn’t standing—he couldn’t afford to squander any more energy than necessary.

  “Animal blood won’t give you your full strength back,” I said, since I’d learned as much when I’d lived in the Vale. “It’ll only give you half the strength as human blood would.”

  “Half strength is better than nothing,” he said. “The vampires at the Haven survive on animal blood, and they’re just fine.”

  “Because tiger shifters protect them.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, but I continued before he could.

  “We don’t know what we’ll find on this island,” I said. “We might need to fight another monster, or we might not.” I hoped not, given how our fight with the sea creature had turned out, but I didn’t want to say it and jinx us. “You should be at your full strength regardless.”

  “I’m strong,” he reminded me. “The strength I’ll gain from the animal blood will be enough.”

  “It won’t be as much as you would get from human blood.” I jutted my chin out stubbornly. “We need to be ready for anything.”

  “So what are you suggesting?” he asked.

  “Drink from me,” I said simply.

  “But you’re not human.” He pulled back, narrowing his eyes. “You’re Nephilim.”

  “When I appeared in the Haven, the vampires there were overcome with bloodlust.” I leaned forward, as if daring him to challenge me. “I assumed that meant that I smelled the same to them as a human.”

  “You don’t,” he said.

  “Oh.” I tilted my head, looking at him thoughtfully. “Does my blood smell better than human blood?”

  If it did, it meant Jacen was fighting his instinct to feed from me even more than I’d realized—especially now that he was thirsty.

  “It does,” he confirmed.

  Despite the scent of my blood being clearly out of my control, I felt guilty for unknowingly tempting him. But I pushed the guilt aside. Because he needed my blood to be at full strength, so the temptation would be an advantage to me right now.

  “Usually supernatural blood is only slightly more appealing than animal blood, which means it’s not tempting at all,” he said. “That’s how vampires at the Haven live with witches and shifters without the urge to feed from them. But your blood…” He trailed off and pressed his lips together, as if hesitant to continue.

  “What about my blood?” I crawled closer, wanting him to think about it. For him to want it.

  His eyes dilated at how close I was, but he didn’t move away. “It smells sweeter and purer than a human’s ever could,” he murmured, his eyes traveling to my neck with so much precision that I could practically feel it.

  “My blood will give you strength.” My breathing slowed under the intensity of his gaze. “Drink. Your being at full strength could save both of our lives.”

  “Or I could kill you.” He backed away, shaking his head as if pulling himself out of a daze.

  “You won’t.”

  “You don’t know that,” he said. “You only met me once I’d gotten control of my bloodlust. Before, when I was newly turned…”

  “You lost control, went on a rampage, and killed dozens of humans in the Vale,” I said bluntly. “I know this. But I also know you. You threw yourself into the jaws of a sea monster to save me. You didn’t risk your life back there to just kill me now.”

  “I’ve never tasted Nephilim blood before.” His gaze was hot as he looked down at me. “Neither of us know what will happen if I do.”

  “You’ll be able to stop yourself from killing me.” I spoke strongly, as if that could force him to believe me. “Yes, trying might be dangerous. But if you drink animal blood instead, you won’t be at full strength, which could put us both in danger. How do you think that fight with the sea monster would have gone if you’d only had animal blood beforehand instead of human blood?”

  “You would have fought it off yourself,” he said after a short pause. “You’re strong, Annika. Stronger than you even realize.”

  My lips parted—his belief in me had caught me off guard—but I forced mys
elf to focus. “I needed your help in that fight,” I said. “I needed your help at full strength. Without you, we both would have died, and you know it.”

  He said nothing, which I assumed meant he agreed with me.

  “I’d drain some of my blood into a cup for you, but we lost our dishware with the boat.” I pulled my hair away from my neck, leaning closer to him. “So we’re going to have to do this the old fashioned way.”

  He ran a finger slowly down my cheek, his eyes not leaving mine. Then he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine.

  It hadn’t been where I’d expected them to go, but I sunk into his kiss anyway.

  When he pulled away, his eyes were fierce with desire—and with determination. “If I kill you, I’ll never be able to live with myself,” he said. “I’ll take one of those antlers and drive it straight through my heart.”

  “No you won’t.” I took his hand and squeezed it with mine. “Because you won’t kill me. I trust you, Jacen. Plus, I’m a Nephilim now. I’m strong. If you take too much, I’m pretty sure I can fight you off.” I smiled, although he was too solemn to return it.

  He simply nodded before pressing his lips to mine again. But instead of deepening the kiss like he had last time, he trailed the kisses down my chin, all the way down to my neck.

  He lingered there for a few seconds, and then I gasped as his fangs pierced my skin.

  Karina

  I sat in one of the hard chairs at the Dublin airport, waiting for my flight back to Canada to board. There had been no more first class seats left on the plane, and compelling the airline attendant to bump someone out of first class so I could take their place would cause too much of a scene, so I was stuck in coach—again.

  But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting back to the Vale so I could tell Noah how I felt about him.

  It was unheard of for a vampire to feel this way about a shifter, but I didn’t care. Because the entire time I’d been a vampire, I’d been empty and floundering. Noah was the first person who made me feel grounded and alive. He was my anchor.

  He deserved to know that.

  Hopefully he could also tell me why I’d gone to the fae. I couldn’t remember, which made me think I must have made a deal with the fae that involved them tampering with my memories. Perhaps it had been something to foster peace between the wolves and the vampires of the Vale? After all, I didn’t want the vampires—my own species—to die. But I also understood why the wolves wanted them gone. The wolves had suffered centuries of poverty and war amongst their packs, and their Savior was finally ready to rise. He’d given many wolves visions of his upcoming arrival.

  But there was a catch with His rising—it could only happen if there were no more vampires left in the Vale. But centuries ago, the wolves had signed away the portion of their land in a peace treaty with the vampires. So if the wolves wanted their land back, it meant declaring war by breaking the treaty.

  Given the promises of their Savior, they were preparing to do just that.

  It was one massive mess, and I had no idea who was right and who was wrong anymore. All I knew was that I couldn’t wait to return to Noah so he could help me work through exactly what had happened with the fae.

  In the meantime, I was too anxious to focus on reading a book while I waited for the plane, so I stared at the television ahead.

  “In a unique development, a man has been arrested after biting multiple people in a public park overnight,” the generically pretty blonde newscaster announced. “He ran from the scene of the crime, but several onlookers caught pictures of him on their phones, so he was later found and detained. He claims to be a vampire from the 1920s who believes he’s wrongly ended up ‘in the future.’ He’s demanding to be taken to Romania to speak with a ‘King Nicolae’ to sort everything out. We’ll keep you updated with an official picture of the man on the hour.”

  The story, of course, caught my attention. It was the sort of thing that happened sometimes—a rogue vampire getting loose, losing control of their bloodlust, and attacking humans publicly. Non-royal vampires didn’t have the ability of compulsion, so they had to be extremely cautious when they fed. It was why the kingdoms were created in the first place, and why all vampires were required to have an allegiance to a kingdom—to keep them in line.

  Whoever this vampire was, his mention of King Nicolae made it likely that he was from the Carpathian Kingdom.

  As always when something like this happened, the royal vampires would band together, travel to the location of the incident, compel those who’d been directly impacted by the vampire, and do what they needed to do to keep the vampire in line. Unlike the Vale, the Carpathian Kingdom didn’t kill rogue vampires like this on the spot. They were held to fair trials and sentences. Sometimes that meant a stake to the heart, sometimes not.

  The human world would go on as normal, using logic to brush off the incident and move on with their lives.

  As a royal vampire, I normally helped compel away memories from witnesses. But not this time. Because with Laila dead, I would no longer be welcome in the Carpathian Kingdom.

  I’d been sent to the Vale in the first place because King Nicolae had wanted me to work with the wolves to help the Vale fall. He’d been obsessed with Queen Laila for centuries, and this was part of his “great plan” to make Laila lose her kingdom and come crawling straight into his arms.

  I knew King Nicolae, and because of that, I knew he would blame me for her death. I couldn’t risk returning there.

  I was going to the one place where I felt safe—to the Vale, and more importantly, to Noah.

  Once my boarding group was called, I gathered my belongings and got in line for the plane, not looking back as the newscaster broadcasted the picture of the rogue vampire.

  Camelia

  I woke before sunset to remove my stash of wormwood from its spelled hiding spot and take a swig.

  Soon after Prince Scott had declared himself acting king of the Vale, he’d forbidden the few witches that lived here to wear the wormwood stones around our necks that we always wore for protection. Wearing wormwood made us immune to vampire compulsion, and being allowed to wear it was a way the vampires showed that they trusted us as equals.

  I’d done as Scott had commanded and had handed my amulet over to him. What he didn’t know what that I’d been taking a dose of wormwood each morning as an extra precaution. The spell around my stash stopped anyone from stumbling upon it, and once the wormwood was in my system, the vampires couldn’t smell it.

  If they tried to compel me, I’d have to pretend to be affected, but I wanted all the control I could get. Because there was no way I was going to let Scott become king.

  Which meant that on the next full moon, I needed to go to the fae and bargain with them to become an original vampire.

  But first the Vale needed Geneva’s sapphire ring. Because if I became an original vampire, I would no longer have my magic. Which meant the Vale would need another witch to hold up the boundary. Geneva was the best for the job, since she was the strongest witch in the world.

  It was the perfect plan… except for one major problem.

  There was a chance I’d gotten pregnant during my previous encounter with the fae.

  I’d gone to the fae to ask how to find Geneva’s sapphire ring, and was met by a fae by the name of Prince Devyn. He was willing to answer my question—for a price, of course.

  That price had been my virginity.

  On top of that, another bargain is also necessary before striking a deal with the fae, simply to pay them for crossing over to Earth from their home in the Otherworld. For that payment, I’d promised Prince Devyn my first-born child once he or she came of age.

  I thought I’d been so smart in that promise, since I intended to become a vampire, which meant I’d never be able to have children.

  I supposed it had been arrogant of me to think I could manipulate the fae so easily.

  That arrogance had cost me. Because wh
ile it was still too early to prove, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was pregnant.

  I’d created a potion to get rid of the baby. But I’d hidden it away, unable to drink it. Because the more powerful a witch is, the more difficult it is to get pregnant. I also had no more blood family left in the world.

  I wanted to keep this baby.

  Yes, the child was promised to the fae. But Prince Devyn only wanted the child once he or she “came of age.” Which meant I had years to find a solution to that problem.

  Right now, I needed to make sure the vampires still thought I was able to become an original vampire.

  Because if they knew the truth—that I couldn’t become an original vampire until after this baby was born—Scott would officially declare himself king, and who knew how far he would go in his twisted efforts to protect the Vale from the wolves.

  Camelia

  I gathered in the meeting room with Prince Scott, Prince Alexander, Princess Stephenie, and a few vampire guards.

  “We’ve located the wolves’ camp,” Scott began. “Hopefully you’re pleased that my brother convinced me to send vampire guards for this task instead of civilians.” He directed the final part of the commentary to me.

  “I am.” I nodded, wondering what Alexander had said to his brother to convince him to come to his senses. But we had no time to discuss that right now, so I turned to the guards and asked, “What did you find?”

  “Their numbers are greater than we’d previously imagined, and they’re preparing for an attack,” the head guard, Thomas, spoke. “We’re outnumbered. Even with all our guards ready to defend our land, we don’t have enough trained fighters to beat them.”

  “So you’re suggesting what?” Scott snarled, banging his fist against the table. “That we give up?”

  “Perhaps we should try talking to them.” Alexander’s voice was soft compared to his brother’s. “See what they want, and ask why they’ve chosen now to break the treaty.”