Filed to story: The Vampire Prince’s Bride
What did I wish for?
My two closest friends were gone. My family was gone. My grandparents had been dead for years, and both of my parents had been only siblings. So I didn’t have any extended family who might want to care for me. And even if I did, I could never go back to living a normal life. Not after everything I now knew existed.
I wrapped my arms around myself, my chest feeling hollow, and it hurt to breathe. Because there was no one left who cared about me. No one left who loved me.
I was alone in the world.
My thoughts wandered to Sean-to the person I thought he’d been when he was trying to help me escape. During the time we’d been together, I’d actually let myself feel something for him. I’d thought he’d felt something for me, too. But I was being desperate and foolish. Pinning any bit of hope on a person I’d just met. A person who apparently had eventually planned on murdering me.
I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
So what did I want right now?
I wanted revenge.
Revenge on the vampires of the Vale-all of them. They’d ruined my life in every possible way. And not just my life. They’d ruined countless lives. They needed to be stopped. The humans who were trapped in the village needed to be freed.
I wanted to destroy the Vale… but how? It was so carefully guarded, not just by vampires, but by wolves. The vampires never let anyone inside the palace except for their own.
Even Geneva’s magic couldn’t possibly save me from an entire kingdom of supernaturals set on destroying me.
But then I smiled, remembering the rest of the conversation Sean had had with Laila after telling her he would have drained me dry. Specifically the part where he’d said he was going to welcome vampires from across the world inside the palace.
That was my way inside the palace-as a contender for his hand in marriage.
It was the only way to get close enough to all of them and remain undetected so I could figure out a way to destroy them.
“You look like you have an idea.” Geneva rubbed her hands together, clearly ready to get started. “Please, do tell.”
“I want you to turn me into a vampire.” I stared her straight in the eyes, wanting her to have no doubt about my conviction. “And not just any vampire. I wish to be a vampire princess.”
***Book 3 Starts***
Scarlett
“I want you to turn me into a vampire.” I stared at Geneva straight in the eyes, wanting her to have no doubt about my conviction. “And not just any vampire. I wish to be a vampire princess.”
“An interesting wish,” she replied with a knowing smirk. “But one that I’m afraid I cannot grant.”
“How come?” I crossed my arms, frowning. “It doesn’t go against any of the limitations you told me about before.” I ran through the limitations in my mind again just to make sure-she couldn’t bring anyone back from the dead, she couldn’t travel through time, she couldn’t murder anyone, and she couldn’t make anyone fall in love. She definitely never said she couldn’t turn someone into a vampire.
“It does,” she said. “I can’t kill.”
“I didn’t ask you to kill me,” I said. “I asked you to turn me into a vampire.”
“Vampires aren’t alive.” She blew out a long breath and rolled her eyes, clearly frustrated. “They’re dead. To turn you into a vampire, I would have to kill you. So I cannot grant your wish. But I must ask, simply out of curiosity- why do you want to become a vampire? Specifically, a vampire princess?”
“Because I hate being human,” I said darkly. “Being a human means being weak. Helpless.”
“Bad experiences with supernaturals?” Geneva leaned back against the wall and watched me, clearly curious to hear more. I supposed I couldn’t blame her. According to her, she used to be the most powerful witch in the world. Another group of witches wanted to kill her because they feared her power, but they couldn’t kill her because she was so strong, so they’d stuck her inside of this ring instead. She’d been trapped inside of the ring for decades. I imagined she must have been bored to tears during all of that time.
I didn’t know much about how the witches had managed to trap her inside, but I did know that she was bound by the spell to do the bidding of whoever wore the ring. Since the ring was created, it had been locked inside of the Crystal Cavern-the cave I was in right now, which was where witches sent powerful objects so they wouldn’t get in the hands of the wrong people. No human or supernatural was supposed to be able to enter the cavern and survive.
But the witch Camelia had seen a vision that I would be able to enter the Crystal Cavern and retrieve the ring. I didn’t know what made me so special to be able to do this, but here I was, inside the Crystal Cavern and still alive. Unfortunately, the cavern had caved in the moment I’d touched one of the other objects in the cave-a fancy sword-and now I was stuck here.
Without any help, I would surely die here.
But now I wore Geneva’s ring. With her powers on my side, I could escape.
I could do more than escape… I could finally get revenge on the vampires who had taken everything from me that I’d ever loved.
“Last year, vampires murdered my family in front of me and kidnapped me to become a blood slave at the Vale,” I told her, trying as hard as possible to keep the emotion out of my voice when I spoke. The past was the past-there was no changing it now. “There was nothing I could do to stop them. I tried to attack one…” I chuckled, remembering how I’d tried to hit one of the vampires with my ski pole. It had bounced off his back without bothering him in the slightest. “You can imagine how that turned out.”
“It’s a miracle that you’re still alive,” Geneva agreed.
“It was right after Sean was turned and went on his murder spree through the village.” I swallowed, barely able to say Sean’s name without crying again. The vampire prince had tricked me into trusting him-into caring for him-and then he’d left me for dead. I felt like such an idiot for falling for his trick. But I’d been so desperate for a way to escape the Vale that I probably would have fallen for anything. At least I knew better now. I would never trust a vampire from the Vale again. “They needed to replenish their stock.”
I shuddered, hating that as a human, that’s what the supernaturals-especially the vampires-would always see me as. Food. No better than livestock to be consumed so that they could stay alive.
“Sean,” Geneva repeated his name, glancing at the crystal on the ground between us. “Your prince with the silver eyes.”
“Not mine.” I forced my voice to remain steady and calm, despite the gaping hole in my chest that made it hurt to breathe. “He was never mine. He was using me. You heard him.”
I glared at the crystal, remembering the scene Geneva had shown me moments before. The one where Sean had been presented with my dead body. The body hadn’t really been mine, of course, but my friend Tanya. She’d been tricked into consuming a transformation potion to make her look like me before being drained dry. But no one who had been there knew that. They all thought I was dead.
Now I carried the guilt of Tanya being murdered because of me. All at the hands of the vampires. Add her to the list of the things the vampires had stolen from me.
Sean had just gazed upon the body emptily, not caring in the slightest that I was gone. After everything we’d been through together-after he’d tried to help me escape the Vale and made me believe he’d actually cared about me-he’d just shrugged off my “death” and said that he would have eventually tired of me and drained me dry anyway.
I hated vampires. They’d destroyed everything I loved. My family was dead because of them. My freedom had been snatched away the moment I’d been made a blood slave in the Vale. Just the knowledge of their existence had destroyed my life as I’d known it. I could never go back to being the person I’d been before that fateful day when they’d murdered my family and taken me as a slave.
“He was using you,” Geneva confirmed. “Typical behavior for a vampire. They’re cold and heartless. Dead both outside and in.”
“They are.” I clenched my fists, her words further fueling my anger.