by Anna Santos
She nodded.
“Sometimes, I think she doesn’t fully understand what I’m asking from her. She still holds on to her human life as if she’ll be able to continue to have a normal life after our final bonding. She won’t. I can’t have a normal life either. I’m the prince, and we’ll be the rulers of our people. We’ll both have responsibilities, duties. We can’t be selfish. We need to give up a part of ourselves to make others happy. I’m aware that she’ll have to give up of a lot of things, but I had to give up things, too. I’d be ecstatic if I didn’t have the weight of my kingdom on my shoulders. But I do, and I’m not going to run away from my responsibilities and hide the sacrifices we’ll need to make from her.”
“You’re too stressed.” Camille rested her hand on the chair. “Is something bad happening?”
“I had a long talk with the British rulers. Charlotte’s parents were extremely tiring. I tried to be nice to them. But they’re delusional if they believe I’ll give up Aria because they think there’s a slim chance that their daughter and I have a suitable bond. Besides, I’m falling for Aria. I don’t want Charlotte.”
“They asked you to break your bond with Aria?” Camille sounded shocked.
I gave a curt nod.
“What did you tell them?”
“Aria’s mine and I’m in love with her. They can go and look for another candidate for their daughter somewhere else. I also expressed my rage at the selfish request. Things are messy now. They’re upset. I’m upset. Charlotte is a spoiled brat, and I’m sick of this.”
“I’m baffled,” Camille said. “That was really selfish of them!”
“They’re only thinking about what’s best for their kingdom. But I couldn’t care less about what’s best for them. Their daughter isn’t my problem. Their fate isn’t my problem. I need to take care of my subjects. I won’t give up on Aria because they want me to. They don’t rule over me. I’m simply livid.”
“That’s completely crazy. I never would have thought that angels could be so…selfish.”
“They are. But I’m selfish, too. Aria is the most important thing to me now. She’s my future queen. She’s my everything, Camille. I won’t give up on her. My kingdom has been without a queen and a king for more than fifty years. If I die without leaving an heir, it’ll be a catastrophe.”
“William is the next in line,” Camille reminded me.
“He doesn’t have a mate. He isn’t looking for one, either.”
“True.” It was her turn to cross her hands behind her back and pace in front of me.
I leaned back against my desk, sitting down and trying to relax.
“Aria was a blessing for us all.”
“I need her. She’s perfect, and I’m falling hard. I’ll be crushed if…she chooses Philippe instead of me.”
Camille’s stare lingered on mine. “Then you’ve got to fight for her love. Philippe is her ex-soulmate. They have chemistry. You need to stop putting your job before your love life. Your royal subjects will have to wait. Breaking your curse and giving your full attention to Aria comes first.”
“I know—thanks for pointing out the obvious. However, I couldn’t ignore the meeting with the king and queen of London’s angels and gargoyles. That meeting was scheduled well before Aria’s parents showed up.” My tone was a bit too harsh.
“I understand, but, you have to see that Aria’s parents are important to her, so you need to win them over.”
“I’ll need your help with that.” I remembered the dinner planned for the following night.
“How come?”
“Aria’s parents are invited to dinner tomorrow at our home, and I need your help with it. Do you mind taking care of it? I don’t really know what to prepare for them.”
“Of course, no problem. Do you want us to leave the house when you and Aria receive her parents?”
“No. I’ll introduce you as my sister. Make sure the angels stay away from the house while her parents are there. I need to make them happy because having them against my relationship with Aria doesn’t help my plans. So, will you take care of things for me, little sis?” I begged, making puppy eyes to convince her.
She laughed and the tension seemed to disappear between us. Camille reminded me a lot of Lilly, my real sister. She was kind and sweet like her.
“Of course, I’ll take care of everything. And, Cedric, I know they’re just human, but please make an effort to keep Aria happy and win her parents’ affection. Her human side will always love her parents and care for them. And she won’t need to be apart from them right from the start.”
“Yes, I know. I know, but I appreciate your advice.”
I smiled at her and turned around to face the window. There was still a lot of humanity in Camille, even if she’d been an angel for almost four years. Camille had mixed her angelic personality and her previous one flawlessly. She had a kind and brave heart. Nothing was lost in the symbiosis. Jacob had an amazing soulmate, and I hoped I would have the same luck. Even young, Aria was remarkable.
“Cedric, Aria loves you.”
“I know she does.”
“Please, don’t be so worried about her. She has a good head on her shoulders. She won’t do anything to hurt you.”
“I’m worried that, somehow, Philippe will win her heart.”
“And if he does?” Camille asked me the question that I feared the most. “What will you do?”
“I don’t know.”
After an awkward moment of silence, Camille said, “You should call Aria.”
“I can’t. I have one last appointment. Even if I would like to join her, I don’t know how long I’ll take here. Besides, she’s with her family. Although I don’t like Philippe, I know that if he’s trying to win her heart, he’ll be cunning enough to pretend to care about her and won’t let anyone harm her. I’m not so sure about him not harming her. But, she has her angel to protect her. She is powerful. I need to trust her.”
“Yes, she’s extremely powerful. She doesn’t know how to control her powers, at least, not yet. I’m sure her angelic personality will kick in if anything threatens her life.”
I spun around. “I hate this. I want to be with her. I want to keep her safe. My heart is racing.”
“Am I interrupting something?” a female voice asked.
I aimed my stare at the door and saw Josephine. Our eyes locked when she entered. My conversation with Camille would have to wait.
“Not at all. Camille was about to leave,” I told her.
Camille frowned at me before asking, “Is she your appointment?”
The female vampire smiled. “I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you before. I’m Josephine.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Josephine,” Camille said, holding on to her hand. “I’m Camille.”
“Do you want me to wait outside while you finish your conversation? I saw the door being open… I was planning to knock.”
“No, it’s fine.” Camille smiled at her. “I’m sure you and Cedric have important business to take care of. I was leaving anyway.”
“I’m sorry for prying, but are you siblings?” Josephine asked.
“No. Sometimes, I act like his conscience. Other times, like his mother. But we’re simply good friends.”
Josephine laughed, apparently amused. “I understand you completely. I’m also like that with my vampire children.”
“You’re a vampire! I rarely meet vampires. You’re so pretty!”
I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt your little chat, but I have other matters to take care of with William after this meeting.”
“Yes, I ought to go,” Camille said as she looked at me.
“Camille, could you see to the arrangements for tomorrow?” I asked since I didn’t want her to forget the dinner. “Josephine, could you take a seat?”
“I’ll take care of everything for tomorrow, Cedric. It was nice to meet you, Josephine.”
With that said, Camille disap
peared and I was left alone with the vampire.
My eyes landed on her as I pressed my hands on the desk. The vampire female was wearing a blue silky and long dress. It molded to her curves perfectly. Her long, raven hair framed her pretty face, enhancing her red lips and pale skin. I wondered what she could possibly want from me that had made her insist we meet privately. If anything, I was sure that behind all that glamour there was a clever and astute woman who didn’t mind using the beauty God had given her to get what she wanted. I just didn’t know what that was yet.
Josephine glided her way to the seat in front of my desk and with her eyebrows knitted together, she asked, “Is everything okay with you?”
I waved at her in dismissal, but my jaw tensed. “Please, sit down.”
Nodding, she complied, and I could finally sit back and relax my limbs.
“I truly appreciate this audience, Your Majesty,” Josephine said.
I frowned. A vampire acknowledging my title wasn’t something I had experienced often. “I have to confess, I’m curious about what brings you here.”
“I hope you have time for our meeting because it may take a while.”
“We better get started then,” I urged her.
CHAPTER NINE
CEDRIC
Taking a pen between my fingers, I jiggled it up and down, staring at Josephine’s serene face. I was wary of her intentions. No good ever came from vampires.
“What’s making you tense?” she asked with her honeyed voice.
“Life,” I answered, not falling for her fake concern and putting down the pen. “Now, could you please tell me what you want from me? My time is precious.” I was being rude, but I didn’t have the patience to play games.
“Interesting,” she declared, putting a smile on her red lips and crossing her legs. She leaned back in her chair, hands on her lap, looking like an Egyptian queen. “You really don’t like us.”
“Us being who, vampires? Then no, I don’t. I like you even less now that I know you were the one to sire Philippe.”
“That’s a real shame,” she whispered with that eternal smile on her lips. “I find you rather pleasing to the eye.”
I frowned and locked my hands together over the desk. “Did you come here to hit on me? I have to warn you that you’re wasting your time. I have a mate, a truly beautiful and amazing one.”
“Oh, no darling,” she interrupted me. “I’m not going to waste my time with that.” She chuckled, and I arched an eyebrow. “I was merely stating a fact. And I know how you angels are faithful to your mates. I like that about you.” Sighing nostalgically, she uttered as an afterthought, “I miss that.”
“Now we’ve cleared that up, what do you want from me?”
Her face became serious as she leaned forward and voiced her request. “I need help. But before I ask for it, I need to tell you my story about my quest for a spell to set right a terrible mistake I’ve made.”
Her words baffled me as the sadness that clouded her eyes became an enigma to me. Her hands tensed on her lap. I had to wonder if her previous smiles were just an act. Something seemed to be consuming her.
“I’m in no mood to listen to stories,” I shared my thoughts without thinking. It annoyed me to feel any kind of empathy for one of these beings.
“Please, I need you to listen to me,” she said, leaning forward, afraid that I might send her away, no doubt.
I considered it for a second, then noticed her pleading eyes.
“I’m tired and I need to be somewhere,” I said.
“It won’t take too much of your time. I’ll be brief. But you’re the only one who can help me.”
“I don’t trust your kind. You know that, don’t you?”
She leaned back and blinked as if she were decoding my words.
I pursed my lips and waited for her to speak again.
“This has nothing to do with my kind, and I’ve never done you wrong. What I’ll ask of you will be for the good of your own kind. I’ve researched for many decades. The least you can do is let me tell you what I need from you.”
“You have ten minutes.”
“I can work with that.” She sucked in a breath. “Then I guess I’ll tell you my story from the moment I became one of you. It all started after my mate of several centuries decided that he’d had enough of me and rejected me.” She paused to watch my reaction.
I had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to reject her. “It was his loss, no doubt.”
A smile played on her lips as her hands caressed the fabric of her dress and her eyes avoided mine.
I gulped when I noticed the shade of red coloring her cheeks.
“Once you were rejected…were you claimed by one of my ancestors?” I questioned, wanting her to continue to tell me her story.
“Yes. I was taken to the other realm and one of the gargoyles was suited to be my mate.”
“So what went wrong?”
“At first, I didn’t want a new mate,” she said. “I was deeply in love with my former mate. I couldn’t understand his actions. I was in shock, hurt and terribly confused. I didn’t know gargoyles could claim other souls. I didn’t know vampires could become angels. Everything was new and challenging. I liked being able to walk in the sunlight, though. It was exhilarating to touch the sun streaming through the window and see the landscapes bathed by the light. I miss that the most.”
I nodded, under the spell of her honeyed voice. Then, reality sank in. “Since you weren’t keen on accepting him, he had to reject you,” I finished her story. “I’m sorry, but there’s no way to find you a new mate. You’ve lost your chance. I can’t help you, Josephine.” I made a movement to get off my chair, annoyed that I’d wasted my time with that vampire female.
She was quick to slam her hand on my desk. “He didn’t reject me.”
My heart leaped because what had happened was worse than I’d expected. “You failed the trial.”
She stared away with watering eyes.
“I begged him to reject me,” she told me, her voice trembling. “I swear I did.”
Vampires were cunning liars. Yet, I believed her words and grief.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to seem…so weak,” she said as she cleared away the tears with the tips of her fingers.
“I don’t understand what you want from me. If he’s turned to stone, there isn’t anything else we can do. It’s already too late. And it’s been how long since that happened?”
“More than two hundred years.” She held her hands together and squeezed them tight.
“I wasn’t even born yet.”
“Your grandfather was the king. He was…strict. They didn’t want former vampires among their ranks.”
“Yes, we’re more tolerant now,” I agreed, even if I understood my grandfather’s point of view.
“It didn’t matter. Oliver didn’t give up on me. He wanted me and treasured me. I grew found of him.”
“Apparently not enough,” I said, only to regret it because her eyes became sadder and her cheeks got redder. “I’m sorry. It’s not my place to judge you.”
“It’s hard to fall in love again. It’s even harder when you’re in love with someone else who broke your heart.”
“I couldn’t say.”
“The worst part was that my mate had a devious plan, and he didn’t reject me for the pleasure of being evil or to punish me for my disobedience. He had a wicked plan that he put into action as soon as I was one of you.”
“Josephine, that’s all really intriguing, but I don’t see the point of knowing the tragic story of how you could have become one of us but blew it. I’m tired and there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“But you can,” she said, apparently immune to my grumpy demeanor.
“I can’t.”
“You can, because I’ve found it, Cedric. I’ve found it.” She leaned forward onto the desk with enthusiasm in her voice.
I frowned at her attitude, finding
a glint of madness in her eyes. I had no idea what she was talking about. Maybe she was completely crazy. Time could do that to a person. She was an old vampire woman. Maybe she was becoming senile. Vampires didn’t get physically old, but their brains could deteriorate if they lost the will to live.
“What did you find?” I asked to indulge her madness and then get rid of her.
“The spell to unbind the curse. I found the spell that God dictated to one of the prophets and that Gabriel hid from you. I have it and I want to use it. I’ve searched for more than two hundred years for it—to save Oliver.”
“That’s a myth,” I said, skeptical.
“Every myth is born from something.”
“Or from the head of someone with a vivid imagination. It’s a fairy tale. Many before us have looked for it and never found it.”
“Well, I found it and I can prove it. I want to prove it. I want to cast the spell five days from now. That’s why I was in such a hurry to speak to you. I need you to let me enter the other realm, to be face to face with Oliver’s statue. I need to say the spell under the full moon of this world and the other.” She talked fast, extremely caught up in her need to share everything with me. Then, she looked at me with hopeful eyes, breathless and biting her lip.
I sighed deeply. I didn’t want to doubt her words because she looked so sure about what she was claiming to have that I thought it would be rude to question her sanity.
“I’ll need to see the spell,” I informed her.
She nodded immediately.
“It’ll have to be tomorrow, not today. I need to speak with someone else about this, to prove the authenticity of it. I’ll bring down one of our older gargoyles to talk to you and see the spell.”
She nodded again.
“How does it work?” I asked, since it would be a great discovery to my people if what she was saying was true. She could also think that she had the real thing but someone had played her and tricked her with some fake imitation. “How much money did you spend on this quest of yours?”
“A lot,” she whispered as she leaned back, more relaxed. “I had many trying to trick me. I spent a lot of my immortality researching and looking for it. That’s how much I regretted having turned Oliver to stone. That was never my intention. I wanted to love him. I did. Especially after finding out why I was rejected and understanding how vicious and evil my former mate was. I wanted to love Oliver. But the love I had wasn’t enough.”
