The Dark Princess (The Balance Series Book 3)

by Janelle Stalder

  “You were attacked before this?” Mom said, her voice rising higher than I think I’d ever heard it.

  “You were in the demon realm?” My father said at the same time.

  “None of this is important!” I shouted. “We need to get to Cillian before they kill him.”

  My father held up a hand. “Alexej would never kill Cillian, he’s not that stupid. Collin,” he said, turning to the other man, who must have been a relative because they bore way too many similarities. “Go deal with Alexej and get C. You were always better at dealing with the blood sucker.”

  “Probably because I don’t refer to him as a blood sucker,” he muttered, before turning and walking down the driveway.

  “Wait,” I said, going to move after him, but my father held me back with a gentle hold on my shoulder. “Where is he going?” He was just calmly walking down our driveway. How did he expect to get to Cillian that way?

  “Don’t worry about him, or Cillian,” he added. “It will be handled. Now, I want you to explain to me what’s happened, and I want to hear all of it.”

  ***

  Mom and I retreated to the kitchen while my father took care of the goat man outside. Apparently, he was a lesser demon who was known to be something of a mercenary. My father didn’t look happy to know he’d come there to attack us, to say the least. I had watched as his eye had turned a deep red, before Mom had quickly ushered me away.

  I had grabbed the first aid kit from the powder room, and was patching her up just as my father came in. I couldn’t stop looking at him, as though I were afraid he’d all of sudden disappear from my life again. He looked so much like me, or I him, that I couldn’t imagine what it had been like for my mother to see me every day, and see him as well.

  “I’ll have someone come and fix the front door first thing tomorrow,” he said.

  Mom nodded, her eyes that swirl of emotions still. I suspected they would always look that way when he was around. “Now,” he said, turning to me, “tell me exactly what has happened. From the beginning.”

  So I did.

  Everything from the hound attack, me blowing one up, Cillian getting a lead, our adventure through the seventh plain and me sensing the tear, to everything that had happened afterward. Mom nearly had a heart attack through it all, especially when I described the ambush in the forest. My father simply listened with a stoic look, and lowered brows, his arms crossed over his chest. The only thing I might have left out was our trip to the mansion, and everything that happened there...ie. the kissing. I didn’t think they needed to hear that.

  “I can’t believe someone has been attacking you, and you didn’t tell me,” Mom said, pacing on the other side of the island. “You let me go out of town, knowing full well you were in danger!”

  “To be fair, I didn’t really up to that point,” I said.

  “You didn’t call me and tell me to come home!”

  True.

  “We were handling things...” I said weakly.

  “I’m going to kill Cillian, if Alexej hasn’t already,” Caleb said.

  “What? Why?” I said, my voice squeaking.

  “You should have never been in those places, and he should have told me the moment those hounds attacked again.” Now he was pacing.

  “Do you know who could be doing this?” my mom asked, her eyes following his every move.

  He shook his head, his gaze intent on the floor. “There are very few who would risk my anger this way,” he said.

  “Why?” I asked, my heart speeding up at the thought of finally getting some answers.

  He paused, his eyes going from me to my mom, a silent question in them I didn’t understand. I slid to the edge of the stool, gripping the counter.

  “Cillian made some comment about people would know who I was because of you, and that some were even afraid of me because of that. Why is that? Who are you to them? Is it why Mom kept you away?”

  “Hope,” Mom said gently.

  “I want to know,” I snapped. She flinched as though I’d struck her. “Please,” I said more gently. “I deserve to know.”

  She sighed. “I think it’s time for you to go to bed. It’s been an - exciting night.”

  I sat up straighter. “I can’t go to bed now, what about Cillian?”

  “Cillian will be fine,” he assured me. “Cillian is the best of the best. There is not one soldier out there like him.”

  “But, he got caught,” I pointed out.

  “Alexej would have used spells that even he cannot break, but don’t worry, nothing that they do to him will make him suffer long term.”

  I grimaced. Long term? As if a short whipping was okay?

  “Collin will have him out of there in no time. Your mother is right, you need rest. Especially after the amount of power you used tonight. Your body is likely ready to collapse if you don’t let it recoup.”

  He was right, I was feeling more exhausted than usual. Not that I would have admitted it to either of them right then.

  “What about the answers to my questions?” I pushed.

  He gave me a slight smile. “You’ll get them, in time.”

  Swallowing my disappointment, I got up and started for the stairs, freezing at the doorway before turning and giving him another hug.

  “I’m glad I finally got to meet you,” I said, my voice muffled against him.

  “Me too,” he replied, squeezing me tighter. “More than you can know.”

  With that, I let go, keeping my gaze away from them so they wouldn’t see the unshed tears, and rushed upstairs.

  Fifteen

  The Devil’s Daughter

  It was only when I got to my room that I had realized I was still covered in blood from the hounds in the forest, and all sorts of other debris. I’d stood under the burning hot water until I couldn’t stand it anymore. My mind was a flurry of thoughts, most of them centred on Cillian and what would have happened to him after Luis brought me home. I felt like a walking zombie as I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me, heading to my room.

  Pulling on my sleep shorts and tank top, I crawled into bed and stared at the ceiling. How was I supposed to fall asleep after everything that had happened? My body was exhausted but my brain was going a mile a minute.

  A soft knock on my door had me sitting up. Mom popped her head in. “Hey,” she said with a smile. “Mind if I come in?”

  “Of course not,” I replied, shoving over to make room for her. She plopped down beside me, the same as she’d done a million times, the two of us leaning against my headboard. I couldn’t remember every conversation we’d shared this way, there’d been so many. How many times had we laughed or cried together? How many nails had been painted or face masks had coloured our skin as we made fun of one another? Now, a heavy silence hung between us as we both stared at our toes.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the attacks,” I finally said.

  She reached out and gripped my hand. “I didn’t come here for an apology, but I appreciate it. I don’t want there to be secrets between us, especially life threatening ones, but with all things considered...I guess it’s pretty hypocritical for me to say that,” she said. She took a deep breath. “It’s me who owes you an explanation. There’s a lot I can’t tell you, at least not right now. But I can tell you the things you need to know...what you have the right to know.”

  “Okay...” I said, holding my breath.

  She didn’t look at me as she started to tell her story, her eyes riveted on our entwined hands. “I met your father when I worked for his dad. It was...I don’t want to say love at first sight, but I knew there was something about him that drew me to him. We fell in love quickly, and then I found out we were mated.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Mates are like soulmates, I guess. Fate, the universe, whatever you want to call it, paired us together. It’s like being two halves of a whole. You’re not fully
complete until you find that other half. It’s why I was able to conceive you. Demons can only have children with their mates. It’s why I will always have a connection with Caleb.” She took another deep breath. “It’s also why there were some people out there that wanted to separate us, and managed to for a while.”

  I squeezed her hand. “What do you mean? Separate you how?”

  “That’s the part I’m not sure I’m ready to share. But let’s just say, it wasn’t easy. When we found each other again, well, it wasn’t easy either. Not with him, loving your father was always easy. He’s...everything I could want. And no matter what else was happening, I knew he loved me with everything he had. Would do anything for me...” I heard her swallow, could tell she was struggling with some difficult memory, and suddenly I wasn’t so sure I even wanted to hear their history. I’d seen enough of the demon world to know it wasn’t pretty.

  “When your father’s father -” she let out a harsh laugh. “Your grandfather, I suppose.” She seemed to shudder at that. “When he - died, well...” She turned to me, offering a weak smile. “The thing is, in our world, there is a delicate balance between good and evil. Without one, there can’t be the other, so even though they are opposite, they need each other in order to exist.”

  “Okay...” I said.

  “So, when your grandfather died, it left his - position, open. In order for things to remain balanced, someone had to take his place. Someone who was as strong and capable of handling the position as he was.”

  “My dad?” I guessed.

  She nodded. “Exactly. With Dermot, your grandfather, dead, your father became what he was, and that was when we separated again. It was only after I left him that I found out I was expecting. And after...everything that had happened with us, I just couldn’t bear you being in that world. It wasn’t an easy decision, by any means, but at the time, I felt it was the best.”

  “I don’t understand though, what was so bad that you couldn’t stay with him? Did you not know he was a...demon?” I asked, tripping over the word.

  “I did...” she said, looking down again. She was quiet for a moment before she asked, “do you know how that vampire said he was the king of vampires?”

  “Yes...”

  “Well, that’s basically what your father is, but of demons.”

  “He’s the king of demons?” I asked, disbelievingly.

  She nodded, her eyes wary.

  Wait. If he was the leader...

  Oh my god.

  “Is he...the devil?”

  She let out a slow breath. “It’s the human name for him, but yes.”

  My father was the devil?

  I was the daughter of the devil?

  That handsome, well-dressed man who had just promised to fix our door was the devil?

  It seemed so preposterous.

  “That’s why he kept calling me princess,” I muttered.

  “Who?”

  “The vampire king. I thought he was just being facetious.” I really was some dark princess. My head ached with all this new information.

  “I just wanted you to know,” Mom was saying as I stared off, trying to make sense of it all. “I don’t think he wanted to be the one to tell you.”

  “In case I rejected him too?” I said, turning to her.

  Her eyes looked sad as she nodded.

  “Is he really that bad of a person?”

  A tear slipped from her eye. “He’s wonderful,” she said, her voice cracking. “But that doesn’t change what he is....he’s not - a person.”

  I flinched. “So what does that make me?”

  “Oh, Hope! I didn’t mean...I...” She shook her head, burying her face in her hands. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I’m sorry. Maybe...maybe I didn’t make the right choice all those years ago...maybe...” she looked up, more lost than I’d ever seen her look.

  I gripped her hand. “We’ll figure this out. Together. Just like we always do.”

  She squeezed me, her smile shaky. “Right.”

  “I think...I need to go to sleep and let this all sink in.”

  “Of course.” She got up, wiping at her wet cheeks. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Mom,” I called out as she reached the door. “Do you still love him at all?”

  “He’s my mate...”

  “That doesn’t answer the question.”

  “It’s all I can say right now,” she said. “If you ever find your mate, if he exists, you’ll get it. Love...it’s a human word, I think.” She gave me another one of those sad smiles and said, “Go to sleep now, Hope.”

  “Night, Mom.”

  Vivian walked down the stairs, the weight of that conversation heavy on her shoulders. Hope was everything to her. There wasn’t one day that had gone by in the last seventeen years that she regretted having Hope, or making the decision she had made. Tonight, was the first time she had really seen the impact of those choices though. Tonight, she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d made the right one.

  She’d robbed Hope and Caleb of a relationship that they both clearly longed for, and she had insinuated that Hope was somehow not a person either by saying Caleb wasn’t. Which was not at all how Vivian viewed her daughter. She was perfect to her, everything a mother could wish for in a child. She was beautiful and kind, smart and clever, caring and nurturing.

  And part demon, that tiny voice at the back of her mind reminded her.

  Demon. Just like Caleb. Who was also all of those things, but she hadn’t been able to stand by him. Instead, she’d tucked herself away from anyone and everyone she’d known back then, only keeping tabs on him from a remote distance. To what end? Hope was now being pulled into the paranormal world Vivian had tried so hard to keep from her. Someone was actually trying to hurt her, if not worse.

  With shaking hands, she descended the stairs, her eyes picking up the shadow of Caleb out on the front porch. The porch where there had been a terrifying creature not too long ago, one that had brought back memories Vivian had never wanted to remember again.

  Hope had saved them though. Hope. The girl who had cried when a bird had flown into their window and broken its wing when she was younger. The same one that hated to kill spiders, that instead would go to the effort of trapping them under a glass, and taking them outside. She had fought and killed tonight as if she’d been born to do it. Maybe she had, Vivian thought with a heavy heart. Perhaps there was no denying who and what she was. All she had done was hide her away, making her weaker because of her ignorance of the truth.

  Taking in their ruined front foyer, Vivian couldn’t imagine how their life was going to change from this night on. When she had arrived home from her trip to New York, all she had expected to do was eat ice cream and tell Hope all about it. She definitely hadn’t been prepared for this. Any of it. Including the man currently outside, his tall form leaning against one of the posts, his jacket now off, the sleeves to his collared shirt rolled up to his elbows as he talked in the phone.

  Stepping outside, she heard him say something quietly before he hung up. Caleb turned to her, his eyes going toward the upstairs. “Is everything okay?”

  Guilt ate at her as she recognized the cautious look in those crystalline eyes that had never left her mind. She knew he was half expecting her to tell him to leave again.

  “She’s fine,” she said. “Just tired. But...she’s fine...with everything.”

  He looked stiff, his gaze searching hers. “She knows?”

  Vivian nodded. “She’ll be okay, Caleb.”

  His shoulders slumped forward, and suddenly she could see the weariness in them and in his face, as though he’d been preparing himself for the worst. “Good. That’s good,” he said, almost as if he were talking to himself. “She’s...”

  “Wonderful,” she supplied.

  He met her eyes and smiled ever so slightly. “She is. She reminds me a lot of you when we first met, that open, c
aring nature.”

  She tucked a hair behind her ear, clearing her throat. “What about the other guy?”

  “Cillian?”

  She nodded.

  “Collin will have him back soon. He’s just having a few drinks with Alexej and then they’ll be home.”

  “Drinks? With the man who just tortured your friend?”

  He rubbed a hand through his dark hair. “Yeah, well, things are always slightly complicated when it comes to the vampires. Technically I still reign over them, but they like to have their own king, and we like to make sure he still feels important to avoid any - issues. Plus, Cillian will be fine. I’ll meet with the two of them later to go over everything.”