Filed to story: The Vampire Prince’s Bride
“What kind of cost did they require of you?” I asked. “To provide you with the immortality spell?”
“Their cost was high.” Laila’s eyes went far off, and she stared out the window, showing a rare display of emotion.
“What was it?” I asked again, softly. “Knowing will help prepare me for what they might ask of me.”
She blinked and returned her gaze to mine, the small display of tenderness from earlier gone. “They asked for my memories,” she said simply.
“Which memories?” I asked.
“All of them.”
“What?” I blinked, making sure I’d heard her correctly. “How could they ask for all of your memories?”
“Not just mine,” she continued. “But from each of the original vampires. We were witches at the time, but as you now know, none of us have any memories of our time as witches.”
“So you have no memories of your time before the fae provided you with the spell?” I asked, baffled by this news.
How could they take away someone’s entire life like that?
“None except for our desire to become immortal,” she said. “They let us keep that memory-if you could even call it a memory. The first thing I remember in life is being with the other six originals in a field with the fae, each of us with an unquenchable urge for immortality and the knowledge that the fae had just provided us with the tools of how to do that. The fae told us what we had done, and we all figured that we must have desperately wanted this spell to give them our memories in return.”
“Wow.” I shook my head, taking it all in. Could I do what Laila and the others had done? Give up my memories-basically, kill who I’d been up to this point in life-in exchange for a spell? And not just a regular spell-but a dark spell that hadn’t turned out to be the exact spell that they’d wanted, since it had turned them into vampires instead of pure immortals.
At least it finally made sense how their immortality spell had gotten so twisted. Because it had been provided by the fae. The fae never did anything at face value. With the fae, there was always a catch.
Which was why every supernatural on Earth was glad that the fae rarely ventured out of the Otherworld, since it was where they belonged.
“You seem displeased,” Laila observed.
“Doesn’t it bother you?” I asked, not stopping to confirm her statement. “Not knowing who you were before becoming a vampire?”
“Sometimes,” she admitted. “But I know that in order to have paid such a price, I must have wanted immortality with every piece of my soul. And the life I’ve been able to live because of the spell-the centuries I’ve experienced-are certainly worth the price of the first twenty years of my life.”
“I suppose so.” I nodded, although I couldn’t bring myself to completely agree. Because Laila had no idea who she’d been before the spell. She had no way of knowing if it had truly been worth the price or not.
Paying such a price was the same thing as paying with your own life.
“You hesitate,” Laila observed. “Do you not wish to give the fae a sacrifice in exchange forGeneva’s ring?”
“It would depend on the sacrifice,” I answered honestly. “But I could always speak with them and refuse to give them what they ask if I believe it’s too much, right?”
“Wrong.” Laila shook her head. “The fae demand payment simply for summoning them. Then they’ll demand a greater payment for what you want them to do for you. That payment will depend on the request, of course. The greater the request, the greater the payment.”
“What was your payment for summoning them?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I lost that memory with all of the rest.”
“Oh.” I went silent, staring out the window and into the town. It was the night of a new moon, and the buildings were blanketed in the darkness. Witches were affected by moon cycles, and I never liked the nights of the new moon-the presence of the moon made me feel stronger and more powerful. Tonight, I was at my most vulnerable. I felt the vulnerability down to my bones.
But the new moon also gave me hope-because it gave me the luxury of time.
“The fae can only be summoned on the night of the full moon, correct?” I asked Laila, even though I knew it to be true. Witches weren’t taught much about the fae, since we were supposed to avoid dealing with them at all costs-but we’d always been taught to be cautious on the night of the full moon. Because the power that we have on the night of the full moon is the residual effect of something else-it’s the night when the wall between our world and the Otherworld is the thinnest.
“Correct,” Laila said. “Which gives you approximately two weeks to prepare yourself.”
If I decide to go through with this, I thought, although I didn’t voice my feelings out loud. Because the idea of being required to give the fae something simply in return for summoning them scared me. The fae were merciless, cold creatures. Whatever they desired from me would surely be something I didn’t want to give.
“You’re scared,” Laila observed, tilting her head in that typical cunning way of hers. “But I must ask you, my dear Camelia-what scares you more? The thought of giving the fae payment for the information you seek? Or the thought of never being turned into a vampire-of growing old and dying? Especially because the amount of magic you have to constantly use to keep the boundary up around the Vale will surely quicken your aging process. If Geneva cannot take your place, it won’t be long until I’ll need to find a strong male witch for you to breed with. After all, we need a witch to continue keeping up the boundary once you’re gone…”
I flinched at her words. An image filled my mind of myself as an old woman, unable to get around for herself, while all of the vampires that I thought of as my family and friends were just as sprightly and beautiful as ever. Of Sean, still in his prime, gazing down at me in pity for the pathetic old woman I’d become. And worst of all, being matched with a male witch so I could breed with him to produce a daughter who could keep up the boundary around the Vale afterI died.
“You truly wouldn’t turn me if I didn’t go to the fae?” I asked. I didn’t want to believe Laila would be that cruel-Laila had raised me. My father had left my mother after she found out she was pregnant, and then my mom had died when I was young. I’d always felt that Laila had taken over the role of mother in my life.
“If you cannot do this for me, why should I turn you?” she asked with a shrug. “I’ve raised you into the most powerful witch in the entire continent. Only a witch of your bloodline can keep the barrier around the Vale up on its own, and you’re the final witch of your bloodline left. Thus why we’ll need to find a male witch for you, and soon. If I turned you, you would lose the ability to do magic and I would need a circle of witches to maintain the barrier-like the Carpathian Kingdom must do. And I hardly see the advantage of that… don’t you agree?”
“A circle of witches can create a barrier of the same strength as mine,” I told her. “The Carpathian Kingdom is well protected.”
“And if any of those five witches are harmed, the entire barrier will be weakened,” she said. “The Carpathians must worry about protecting not just one witch, but five. I much prefer only worrying about the protection of one. Of you. But,” she continued, not giving me a chance to speak. “Geneva could certainly maintain the barrier on her own. With her here, I would then be free to turn you.”
“IfGeneva even wants to help you,” I said, although I wished I could take back my words immediately after. It hardly benefited me to make Laila doubt her plans.
“Geneva will help me.” Laila smirked, her eyes filled with a knowing gleam. “Trust me, you don’t need to worry about that.”
I nodded, assuming that Laila had some way of blackmailing Geneva into protecting the Vale-and also knowing that she certainly wouldn’t share those details with me.
“The first payment to the fae is never anything huge.” Laila held her gaze with mine, speaking softer now. “Of course, I don’t remember what they required of me, but those sort of small payments pale in comparison to what they’ll ask for a true favor. But the ball is in your court, Camelia. What do you wish to do?”
I stayed calm and steady under her gaze, knowing what I wanted. I wanted to be young and beautiful forever. I didn’t want to be stuck breeding with a male witch assigned to me, all so I could pass on the strongest magical genes possible so my future daughter would be raised in the Vale-raised to constantly use her magic to keep up the boundary and thus be doomed to die an early death like me and my mother before me.
I wanted to be a vampire.
Becoming a vampire was the only way out of my servitude as a witch to Queen Laila and theVale.
Yes, the payment required of the fae scared me. If they asked for all of my memories, as they’d asked from Laila and her coven, I wasn’t sure I would be able to go through with it.