I wanted to run between the two vampires and beg them to calm down, but I couldn't, in part because Lucius was almost strangely composed as he leaned close to Claudiu and warned, showing those teeth that could be so beautiful and so menacing, "The words you speak are treason. Remove yourself, and be grateful that I do not destroy you, before you can even face the trial which you are due under laws that I WILL ABIDE BY—even though I am strongly inclined to take your existence, and the sight of you tests my resolve to stay my hand."
Claudiu hesitated for a moment.
"Leave now, " Lucius growled again.
"Fine. I will go," Claudiu finally agreed. But as he left the room, he still dared to turn around and snarl, "This is not over, Lucius."
The two vampires faced each other for a long moment.
And when Lucius finally spoke, of all the words he'd uttered during that meeting, none seemed more ominous, somehow, than the ones he said now, with his calm façade completely restored and his fangs gone: "Indeed it is not, Claudiu."
As his uncle slunk out the door, Lucius took his seat again and looked around the table, silently challenging any other vampire to defy him, and I got the sense that all the other Elders felt the same way I did.
What had just passed between Claudiu and Lucius ... it wasn't just about Lucius protecting me or my right to rule. It was rooted far, far in the past, in both a feud between clans and a personal grudge between two powerful vampires: one who had tried to train a prince to do the bidding of the Elders, and that prince, who had grown too strong to be controlled.
And trial or no trial, it was not over.
Chapter 16
Lucius
To:
[email protected] From:
[email protected] Raniero—
Needless to say, I am disappointed by your decision to remain in California, especially as things grow more complicated in Romania.
I seem to have the inconvenience of a minor revolution on my hands. An uprising of one, which leaves me faced with the unhappy prospect of a trial for nothing less than treason. And we both know how that must end—for Claudiu.
Honestly, dealing with our Vladescu uncles is not unlike riding your beloved, battering waves. One struggles to handle Vasile until the huge, inevitable crash, only to turn around and discover that Claudiu is looming on the horizon, and after him, Flaviu.
I could use, if not a soldier, an experienced surfer here.
And while still not issuing a direct order, I reiterate that it is time for you to stop running from the past. You are a warrior, Raniero, and you know that someday you will have to engage the enemy that is yourself——and on this field, where your memories have such a stronghold. If when that battle is concluded, you choose to return to your life on the beach, I will respect that decision. I will accept that you are the world's first Buddhist, vegan, pacific-as-your-ocean Vladescu vampire (the son-in-law who Ned Packwood no doubt secretly wishes had joined his little army of lambs, chicks, and calves, instead of me—as I do not hesitate to consume my fellow conscripts!). But until that confrontation occurs, are you not just hiding behind your tattoos and cowering in the waves?
And you are not one to cower, brother.
Lucius
P.S. Of course I will protect Melinda, should she arrive here. But would it not impress her more if you were to perform that task? Preferably while wearing pants?
Chapter 17
Mindy
"FLIGHT FOUR SEVENTY-THREE to Bucharest now boarding priority travelers."
I checked my ticket for the millionth time, 'cause I'd never traveled priority in my life. The four times I'd been on a plane, I'd had awful seats in coach with views of the wing.
But nope, there it was, my spot right up front, where Jess promised they'd give me a drink before we even took off. I'd be able to stretch out on a recliner, sipping fresh-squeezed orange juice while everybody else schlepped their bags back to the cheap seats.
Standing up, I grabbed the handle of my Gucci-look-alike carryon—the one I wouldn't want to get lost if my luggage went to Rome or something, 'cause you could mix up the two places—and headed toward the plane.
In a few hours, I'd be, like, a thousand miles away from Lebanon Valley Community College, which I'd ditched before finals even started. What was the point of trying for F-pluses?
And I'd be too far to hear my mom screaming again about how I wasted a few thousand of her dollars on tuition and should just forget the bum who reminded her way too much of my drifter dad—and who she woulda hated even more if she knew he was a vampire, for crying out loud.
I'd be in a castle full of servants, flopped down on a huge bed and eating half the Tastykakes I was taking Jess 'cause you couldn't get them in Europe for some reason.
And most of all, I'd be in a country that scared the shorts off my ex-boyfriend, even though he was undead, like half the people in Romania. I was pretty sure Ronnie wouldn't even call me over there, 'cause he'd texted me like twenty times begging me to stay home—and then just disappeared. Finally.
I gave the lady my ticket and dragged my suitcase down the tunnel toward the plane.
Yup, it was all first-class for me for the next couple weeks. First-class and deadbeat bloodsucker–free.
I bumped my carryon over the gap and saw those big leather seats waiting.
So how come I wasn't more excited?
Chapter 18
Antanasia
"IT WASN'T that terrible," Dorin insisted. But he was wringing his plump hands and hovering around my desk. "I've seen worse incidents at meetings of the Elders!"
I had my head buried in my hands, but I looked up to give him a skeptical glance. "Really? You've seen something worse than one of the most powerful vampires committing treason by directly telling a princess she's unfit to rule? Something worse than the way I didn't even defend myself ?"
"You're being too hard on yourself." Ylenia chimed in from her perch on the couch. "You've only been meeting with the Elders for a few months. You can't fight them!"
I shot her a grateful glance. "You're right. I don't know how I could."
Then I turned back to Dorin, who was searching his memory for something worse than mutiny. "There was a time, years ago, when two Vladescus staked one another, right in the meeting hall." He waved his hands. "Not that I looked! Kept my head down on that one!"
I sighed. Yes, of course he did. Because we're Dragomirs.
"Lucius says there'll be another trial," I said glumly. "That treason is punishable by destruction." Like pretty much everything in the world of vampires.
"Where is the boy?" Dorin glanced around like Lucius might be hiding in a corner—as if that would ever happen. Then my uncle poured us all some of the tea Ylenia had called for. "What's he doing?"
"You know Lucius." I took a sip, wishing I could get tea whenever I wanted it. It reminded me of being home with my dad, who answered every crisis with chamomile. Unfortunately, I always forgot the Romanian word "ceai," and the one time I'd tried to boil water myself, the old cook shooed me out of the kitchen, practically yelling at me. "He wanted some time to pace alone in his study and read his law books." I glanced at my own shelves, filled with my birth mom's books. "I should be reading the law, too."
"I can translate for you," Ylenia offered. "Just tell me what you need to know."
I tried to smile. "Thanks." But did I even know what I needed to know?
"Try not to worry, Antanasia," she added. "It sounds like Lucius handled everything."
"Yes, he was quite ferocious," Dorin confirmed, with a shudder. "If I were Claudiu, I'd be watching my back!"
"Yeah..." I corrected myself, trying to sound more "royal." "I mean, yes, of course Lucius took control." I slumped behind my oversized desk, which had also been brought from the Dragomir estate, back when I'd foolishly been excited about the idea of being a princess.
"We should go now," Dorin noted, and I glanced at my clock, surprised to see that it was almost mi
dnight. "Antanasia will have a busy day tomorrow." He looked at Ylenia. "And we have a long drive home."
I set down my teacup, realizing I'd been rude to keep them so late. "Why don't you stay here tonight?" I offered. "There are dozens of bedrooms." Maybe hundreds? "And that drive down the mountain is so dangerous in winter."
Dorin and Ylenia exchanged glances, and both seemed relieved. "If you're sure," Dorin said. He blanched a little. "If Lucius would not mind..."
"Yes, it's fine," I promised them. I might not be able to fight my enemies, but I could at least protect my friends from a drop off a cliff. "Please, stay." I addressed Dorin. "You know where the guest rooms are."
"Yes, thank you, Antanasia," he agreed. "I'm very familiar with the castle!"
"Thanks so much," Ylenia added.
"No problem." I stood up and felt almost lightheaded, probably because I hadn't eaten anything since that morning. And I had a sudden urge to see Lucius. It seemed I was always nervous in that castle, but right then, it was gelling into a powerful uneasiness, almost like a ... premonition.
But I don't believe in premonitions. Do I?
All at once, I wasn't sure.
"Ylenia? Would you please tell Emilian that I want to go to Lucius's office?"
"Are you certain you shouldn't go straight to bed?" she suggested. "You seem pretty exhausted."
"No, I really want to see Lucius." I need to see him.
Okay," she agreed, but with a strange look on her face. "If you're sure." She went with me to the door and directed Emilian, "Prendere Princess Vladescu Antanasia al principe della biblioteca."
I left my relatives with a quick exchange of good-nights, and as Emilian and I made our way through the dark hallways, my concerns seemed to grow with each step I took. But when I got to Lucius's study and opened the door, my husband wasn't pacing, like I'd expected. A fire burned in the fireplace, his laptop was open on his desk, and his basketball trophy glittered on his bookshelf.
But Lucius was nowhere to be found.
Chapter 19
Antanasia
I COULDN'T DECIPHER my mother's Romanian law books, but I could read the journal she'd left for me, and even though I was incredibly groggy, I took out the little book, hoping to find something that would ease the strange fear that was starting to suffocate me.
Where is Lucius?
Stretching out on the bed with my head toward the fire, I lay down, reading sideways, because I felt like I couldn't even sit up. And my curious mixture of worry and overwhelming fatigue made the words blur on the pages.
"Trust no one..." "Blood is both life and an inevitable part of death, for vampires..." The strange word "blestemata," written next to an even stranger symbol drawn in the margins...
Where have I seen that before? And why did Mihaela write that in Romanian?
And then it happened, just as I completely lost focus and my eyelids began to flutter closed.
I saw the stake again. Lying right in front of my face on the bed.
Recoiling, I squeezed my eyes shut.
NO. IT ISN'T THERE! I'm NOT going crazy!
I felt my chest rising and falling hard, but I refused to open my eyes. Refused to let them trick me again. But of course, I had to look...
And when I did, the stake was gone. And somehow, because I was so incredibly tired, I closed my eyes again and fell into a sleep that must have been very, very deep, because when I woke up, my head was on my pillow. And Lucius was next to me, sound asleep, both of us on top of the covers. He wore jeans and a T-shirt, like he'd been exhausted, too, and hadn't even bothered to get undressed before coming to bed.
I checked his face by the firelight and he looked fine, but I wrapped my arm around him anyway, reassuring myself that there was no blood on his chest, like the last time that stake had appeared so vividly before my eyes. But even feeling him breathing wasn't enough for me to shake the lingering sensation that something was wrong. "Lucius..."
I was just about to wake him up when there was a knock on our door, and his eyes opened right away, like he hadn't been sleeping after all. He was usually quick to wake at any strange noise, but that night I actually jerked back at how fast he'd reacted. "Lucius?"
The knock sounded again, and he stood up, telling me calmly but firmly, "Stay here."
I sat up, confused. "Are you expecting someone?"
"No. I'm not."
That worried me more. And as he went to the door, he looked over his shoulder and compounded my fears. "Do not move unless I tell you to. But if I tell you to leave the room, you know where to go. And quickly."
It wasn't until he opened the door that I realized Lucius was dressed and alert because he thought somebody might be coming for us. Or for me.
Claudiu. Maybe with other Vladescus he's rallied. They're going to finish the plot that Lucius wouldn't carry out. They're going to destroy me, because they can't live under Dragomir rule. That's what he's ready for.
I barely had time to be terrified, though, before I heard Emilian's familiar voice and took a deep, calming breath.
"...este mort," I heard Emilian say.
"Unde? Cum?" Lucius replied.
I caught the words "where" and "how"—but nothing else.
A moment later, Lucius closed the door and came back to bed. But he didn't go to his side. He sat down next to me and took my hand, saying, "You need to get dressed, Antanasia."
I searched his face, but it was almost like there was so much going on in his head that I couldn't keep up, and my fear came creeping back. He'd used my formal name, too. "Why should I get dressed?"
Lucius's eyes were impossible to read, but his mouth drew down into one of the most severe frowns I'd ever seen as he informed me, "Claudiu is destroyed. We need to go. Now."
Chapter 20
Antanasia
I CLUTCHED LUCIUS'S hand as we made our way through the halls, heading toward the foyer, where Claudiu's body waited. Even in a crisis we didn't rush, because royalty never hurried, and when we passed by one of the thick leaded windows, I had a second to notice that it was already dawn.
I stole a look at Lucius's face. How late was he out? Where was he? And how did I not even feel him shift me on the bed and put my head on my pillow?
I wanted to ask all of those questions, but he looked very preoccupied—and of course Emilian and the guard whom Lucius seldom bothered to use were both close on our heels, so I stayed quiet.
It was Lucius who spoke first, when we came to another corner. He looked back at the guards, ordering, "Ramaneti acolo."
They stopped in their tracks, and he led us a few more steps forward, then bent to speak to me in private. "I need to release your hand now. You will look stronger standing on your own."
I nodded. "I understand."
Lucius's dark eyes met mine, like he was trying to shore me up. "And there may be much blood. Be prepared for that."
I nodded again. "I know." My birth mother's journal warned me. "Blood is ... an inevitable part of death, for vampires." "I'll be okay."
I promised him, but when we stepped around the corner into the huge foyer where Lucius had once named me the first prisoner in a war he'd declared on my family, I did press my hand against my mouth and nose, not at the sight of the body, but at the smell.
Chapter 21
Antanasia
SEVERAL OF THE Elders had already gathered, and at first I couldn't even see Claudiu, because I was short and the older vampires, who formed a circle that followed the curve of the walls, were almost uniformly tall, with the exception of Dorin, whom I spotted looking nervous and even paler than usual, with his black coat buttoned to his throat.
Ylenia was there, too, bundled up like Dorin, and at first I couldn't figure out why they were in the estate at dawn. Our castle was so big, like a self-contained city, that the Vladescu Elders roamed at will and often stayed for weeks at a time. But my Dragomir relatives almost never slept there.
Then I vaguely remembered inviting them
both to stay the night. I had been so wiped out that I barely recalled making the offer.
Forcing myself to pull my hand away from my face, I gave my uncle and my cousin a small nod as the Elders parted to make way for Lucius—and me, although I barely squeezed through before they closed ranks again.
"What has happened here?" Lucius demanded, heading directly to the center of the floor and kneeling down. Not sure about my role, I stopped short and struggled even harder not to gag as the familiar—and this time repugnant—smell got even stronger.
Blood.
Ever since becoming a full vampire, I—like every member of the undead—had developed a keen nose for blood. The scent of it was as distinctive, to vampires, as fingerprints or DNA. And Claudiu's blood stank like ... Claudiu.
While Lucius's blood smelled sweet and intoxicating, Claudiu's smelled like decay to me. Like he'd already been rotting before he was even destroyed. The scent nearly took over the room.
Still, I mastered my gag reflex long enough to finally look down at Lucius's uncle, and although I wanted to be strong right then, I was as much the product of a kindhearted vegan family as I was a vampire princess—probably still more vegan than vampire—and I covered my mouth again when I saw the body that lay in my husband's shadow.
Then I looked from the corpse to Lucius, who was kneeling next to his uncle, and that urge to get sick intensified when I remembered how Lucius had very publicly threatened Claudiu's life, not a day before.