The Vampire Queen's Resurrection

CHAPTER THREE: FRENCH FRIES

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Aaliyah scolded, but she was unable to speak another word as a bout of nausea gripped her. Had she eaten anything, she would have retched the content of her stomach right then. “Don’t ever…E.V.E.R do that to me again! Jeez, I feel so dizzy!”

“Relax, we just teleported ourselves from one place to another. It’s faster,” he replied lazily, flexing his shoulder as he opened the door for her. “You still craving those French fries?”

It took her a moment to realize that she was standing right in front of a McDonald’s outlet. Right on cue, her stomach growled loudly to embarrass her, and she blanched slightly at the impish grin from Emir. She remained rooted to the spot as she witnessed the magical transformation.

The smile completely changed his harsh planes into softer features which made him terribly handsome. Well, more than he actually was. And suddenly, she had a feeling that French fries were not going to be enough to quench her hunger.

Dazed, she looked away and swallowed down her newly discovered feeling. “So,” she occupied a seat right opposite him as they waited for their orders to arrive. “Where are we actually?” She noticed that people was staring impolitely at them with odd expressions.

“We’re in upper Manhattan right now. I live in Lennox Hill some twenty minutes from here. Let’s have your fries before we head back.”

She preened towards him cautiously. “Are my fangs showing?” she murmured conspiratorially at him in a very dramatic stage-whisper.

“What?!!” he seemed taken aback and threw glances over his shoulders to make sure nobody had heard her absurd comment. When he was reassured that there was no one in close vicinity to overhear them, he turned back to her with a grim frown.

“Alright, we obviously need to establish some ground rules. No mention of the v-word in the human world,” his hand waved to mimic the action of cutting his throat. “Are we clear on that?”

She couldn’t resist. “V-word?” she played the dubious fool to the perfection, pretending not to understand that he meant vampires. “You mean virginity? Are you a virgin?!” she asked loud enough for a few people to catch her words.

Emir spluttered in outrage as the waitress approached them with their orders. He responded to the blonde bombshell with an apologetic smile, and in return blondie seemed to pick it as an invitation.

“You look familiar. Aren’t you Emir Royal by any chance?”

“I am. I am,” he replied evasively, burying his face into his large cup of Coca. The waitress didn’t seem to pick the cue, and Aaliyah’s interest was piqued despite herself. He was clearly quite famous around. That explained the curious stares from the other occupants of the restaurant.

At the beginning she’d thought it was because of her bizarre clothes, but they were properly hidden where they were seated.

“Can I have your autograph please?” the blonde thrust her D-cups right into Emir’s face. Had her buttons popped open by magic? Aaliyah wondered with an amused smile.

“Sure,” he responded perfunctorily, before taking the pen which had been given by the waitress and signing a piece of paper. “Would you mind keeping it discrete please? I am having a private moment.”

The waitress winked at him with a naughty smile before turning to Aaliyah to whisper in her ears. “You lucky girl! Enjoy yourself tonight darling. Virginity is going to be last on your mind when he f*cks you.”

Aaliyah smiled politely to the stranger, not comfortable with her brazen behavior. She was sure that blood had rushed to her cheeks, a reaction that her words had provoked.

The honeyed-topaz golden flecks stared at her intensely before he stole a potato chip from her and popped it casually in his mouth. How on earth had fries-eating become sexy? She gulped.

“What’s she saying?” he drawled in that sexy bedroom voice of his, the octave rising a few notches as it took a huskier tone.

“Forget her,” she replied, focusing her full attention to her chips as she drowned them with ketchup. If she looked at him any second more, she would probably straddle him and ride him right in that cheap sleazy McDo’s outlet. “How does she know you?”

He shrugged. “Everybody knows me around here. I am an actor.”

Her first chip to her mouth stopped in midair as she stared at him in utter confusion and stupefaction. “Come again?”

“I am a movie star. I work in movies,” he enunciated like he was talking to a child, and not a very bright one at that!

She placed her potato chip back in the carton box, and hysterical laughter bubbled through her lips. When she could speak, she wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes. ““You’re a movie star?! Oh f*ck! I’m going to enjoy myself immensely,” she exclaimed with a snort. “What a great smokescreen,” she continued energetically when he didn’t react to her comment.

“I don’t see how this is funny,” he frowned in confusion.

She moved her index finger from her to him. “You are a v! So, you’re supposed to stay hidden, right? But you’re an actor!!”

“What better way to stay hidden than being in plain sight?” he drawled silkily, and Aaliyah burst into another fits of hysterical laughter.

“At least one of us is having fun,” he retorted in the same indolent tone without joining in. She rolled her eyes playfully at him. What a grumpy vampire!

“Well, yeah. I think you’ve eradicated the word from your dictionary,” she countered back, and pushed one crisp potato fry in her mouth and closed her eyes to better enjoy the taste. It melted against her tongue like sweet candy.

“Hmmmmm,” she murmured appreciatively. “This is lit!” she licked her fingers to clean the splashed ketchup.

When she opened her eyes for another one, she stopped abruptly to find the gorgeous eyes glaring at her with a fierce intensity which set her hormones on fire. His eyes were so expressive that she would never have guessed his feelings by his nonchalant stance.

“Sorry,” she apologized sheepishly. “I tend to go overboard sometimes.”

“I can see that,” he grumbled nastily, and Aaliyah dropped her shoulders drastically against his morose mood.

There was no getting to him – he seemed as cold and unmovable as a block of ice. He probably had a moment of weakness a few minutes back, but he was not going to be carried away by a moment of insanity. Emir Royal was after all in no way lacking in women or conquests. That blonde waitress was a hands-on witness to how easy he could have any woman he wanted.

Sighing, she devoured her French fries greedily, oblivious to whatever was going in his mind. He was going to judge her by her past actions, and there was nothing she could do to help it. She couldn’t change the person or vampire she’d been.

All she knew was that now life had given her an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, and she wasn’t about to let herself down.

“Are you done?” he asked roughly, and she nodded despondently, somehow feeling a little dejected at his rude behavior. It was crystal clear that he didn’t want her around, so she won’t be bothered about him anymore. She didn’t appreciate the fact that he was treating her like a monster with his holier than thou attitude.

“Yeah, let’s go,” she said readily, wishing that she’d taken the time to change before coming here. Everybody was staring at her old-fashioned clothes with nasty smiles and snickers as she passed them. She’d removed the apron, but the flannel material looked centuries old, not to mention that it covered her from head to toe.

“Come,” Emir simply covered her with his black leather jacket, and there was a grey Porsche waiting for them at the parking lot.

In a borough as vibrant and busy as Manhattan, it was hard for her to imagine anyone living there. Fifth Avenue was lined with historical landmarks and huge building like the stately mansion of Edward S. Harkness House. On the block east was Madison Avenue, lined with famous boutiques and stored of luxury brands.

They drove through the city’s excitement until they reached Lenox Hill.

Once off the major avenues and downside streets, the surroundings were less hustle and bustle and more residential neighborhood. Aaliyah was concerned that she had memorized every detail of the area. Which got her thinking.

“Have I lived here before?” she asked the man who was driving in grim silence, his hands clutching the wheels so tightly that they looked white.

He barely acknowledged her question, and she was about to explode when he finally replied. “Yes. We lived here together for a few years.”

She nodded. It made sense to her that she knew the neighborhood so well in that case. “How long ago was it?”

“Five years ago,” he said in clipped tones, like it was painful for him to rehash the past. Aaliyah felt bad for questioning him, but she had to understand the timeline if they wanted to keep up a good story.

“So, it’s five years since I died?” she asked curiously, trying to keep her voice casual and light-heartedly.

He spared her a fleeting glance. “No. Three years since you died.”

She sighed, refusing to back down at his indisposition. “What happened for the two years then? We shifted? We moved to another place?”

“No, you left.”

That was it! The reason why he was so hostile towards her. She’d left him. Well, the vampire Aaliyah had left him. She must have good reasons though. Who would have left a man who looked like him? And by the looks of it, he seemed to have loved her, at least that version of her.

There wasn’t any point questioning him further, he wasn’t about to humor her. She had to find out on her own why the vampire Aaliyah had escaped her chic life in Manhattan. She gasped audibly.

Emir screeched the car to a halt. “What now?” he roared angrily.

Her hands flew to her mouth in bewilderment. “Vampires aren’t supposed to die, right? If I’ve lived for three hundred years, that means that I was immortal. So, how did I end up dead?”

There was a hiss from him as he grabbed the wheels tighter, his grip so compressed that she felt he would burst. The veins of his face was palpable as he fought to control his vampire urges to finally blurt out.

“You were killed.”