The Bride of the Vampire King

No Strings Attached

Aneela

Vampires were not supposed to drink wolves’ blood and survive, but this one here had threatened Twyla to do it to someone important to her.

Aneela couldn’t believe her ears.

Instead of attacking, she stepped forward. He wanted her, after all, didn’t he?

“Sire, we need to go further with the plan, there is no time!” Another vampire, a female this one, tall and slim and deadly just like the rest of her kind, interrupted.

The wind swayed the female vampire’s long hair around her face, bringing her stench to Aneela, who suddenly had stopped in her tracks. The female looked too confident, too beautiful to be accepted by nature herself with her pale porcelain skin and her elegant figure and clothes. She looked… royal? Whatever that even meant. Aneela’s teeth bared, and a low growl escaped her throat. Rival, her wolf grumbled.

For a moment the male vampire didn’t answer. His dark eyes traced Twyla’s face, and for just a glimpse of a second Aneela could swear he sniffed her.

His slim fingers still held Twyla’s arm, the maid’s grim expression contorted with pain and fear. What in gods’ name had this i *diot gotten herself into? And who was this 'he' she was so afraid to lose? Why did Aneela hear about him for the first time tonight?

The vampire then smiled slowly, looking directly in the maid’s eyes, his gaze deadly and piercing. The smile didn’t hold the place, it turned into something vicious and bloodthirsty in the span of seconds. His free hand reached Twyla’s throat. He shoved her towards himself and dug his sharp teeth in her throat.

Twyla screamed in pain. Aneela could hear the hiss of scorned skin mixed with the suck and pull of his lips, the blood flooding his throat. Frozen, she just stared with wide eyes.

A swift motion of the vampire’s smooth hands later and Twyla’s neck snapped loudly. Her eyes remained open, suddenly finding Aneela’s in the shadows, a warning frozen on her lips. Blood, red and warm, seeped down the vampire’s mouth and chin, and all over Twyla, staining her skin and hair, and her dress, when he tossed her at his feet like her body was garbage.

The vampire stepped over the lifeless body then and turned toward his companion. “The werewolf princess is in her room, go get to her. I want her unharmed,” he ordered the female vampire, reaching for the delicate white handkerchief she was giving him.

All Aneela could do was hide in the shadows when they walked in her direction, him cleaning his face casually with a silk cloth as he spoke, the woman smirking, while her eyes scanned the perimeter for enemies.

“All direct members of the royal families in one place.” He said with satisfaction. “The night keeps getting better and better.”

“I believe the odds are indeed in our favor, my lord. A good night for rebellion, after all,” the vampire woman replied with her sweet absent voice.

Aneela didn’t hear much after that. Heartbroken for her friend, she had only one thought in her mind. Find Mother. It was sheer will and stubbornness that kept her from shifting right now and there. The gods only knew her wolf was as eager to go out and seek vengeance for their lost friend, but they needed to be smart about it.

Aneela followed the two vampires, memorizing their smell, the female reeking of death, and roses, and… desperation?, and him with his fine masked scent of dark spices and fresh night air after the rain. They owed her Twyla’s life and they would pay for it. But first, she had to warn Rumiana. These two had something planned, and damn her if she let them carry it through.

The two entered the ballroom again, candlelight in all colors spilling over their dark heads, the crowd swallowing them, while some stupid human song echoed through the walls.

When Aneela entered around twenty steps later, she didn’t like the crowd any more than she did when she first was there. All thoughts of the vampire king and his help had vanished from her head. She found the first servant available and yanked him towards her.

“Find the queen and Darren,” she ordered, not even bothering to explain who she was to make such demands. If he didn’t recognize her now that she showed him her true face and the true power behind her grip, he had no business here at all. “The vampires are brewing something.”

“Miss…” The old man squeaked, confused, barely daring to look back.

Aneela rolled her eyes impatiently.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, omega,” she added a growl to her voice, reminding him just as fine why she was the queen’s daughter. She hated to use that tone, and enforce the bond of the alpha blood when speaking to others, but there was no time to lose in explanations. Where are you, Mother?

The moment the servant felt the connection, her wolf commanding his without words, he composed himself and only nodded. “As you wish, my lady.”

He turned around and lost himself in the crowd, seeking the queen, while Aneela tried to catch the scent of the vampires and trace them, but here it was harder to do it with all the people. There were just too many of the bloodsuckers around to distinguish them from each other. Instead, she raised her head looking further ahead, among the sea of people and smells, trying to spot the guards.

Suddenly, she froze. There was nobody. There were no f*ucking wolves at this place, no one else but her and that servant. What?

Ignoring the icy chills running down her spine, Aneela stepped back. Mother? She called again, even though she knew it was not going to be easy to reach Rumiana from such a distance. Her mother was supposed to be preparing for her speech, greeting high-positioned guests, and forming alliances: she had no reason to listen right now, not at all. And even if she did, she could decide to ignore Aneela’s call, as she usually did.

Fixing the crown of slowly withering peonies on her head, Aneela retracted to the shadowy corners of the large hall, wishing she could merge with the pastel walls. Her gaze traced the guests absently – the dancing couples, drunk on each other, the gossipers completely transfixed in their gossip, the way the vampires’ looks were focused on the rest, and how the humans looked like hunted prey, their eyes vivid and scanning the place as if alert for some unseen danger. These people, they were all absent. They were here physically, but they seemed as if they were completely lost in their own minds. They were just not here.

Aneela felt her heart freeze in her chest for a second time tonight. Something was really, really wrong here. Looking around her, she realized she had a choice to make. Her mother was not answering, her people were nowhere to be found and the rest around were trapped in some kind of dark spell beyond her own understanding. Were the witches in on this? What were the vampires planning?

Squeezing her lips, Aneela finally peeled herself off the walls and gave full access to her wolf. Find them. The two vampires responsible for the death of her friend.

Sniffing the air, she traced the thread of night rain and grave flowers, fading away somewhere in the distance. Without thinking and hesitating, she went for it, grabbing the grey-brown trace and following it through the dance floor, without a care about the opinion of the ones she had to push out of her way.

Nobody protested anyway. The moment they were knocked down, they got up and started the dance again. Oh, how much she didn’t like witches and their little tricks.

She found the vampire woman in the other hall, the one where people stood and talked, all relaxed and confident. The walls here were darker, polished wood and leather covered every surface, and the smell of books and wisdom lingered in the air—human stuff.

But here too, like in the other room, no one seemed right. The men and women looked frozen in the middle of their talks, some had glasses half-raised towards their lips, and others had their mouths open as if in an attempt to say something. They would seem like statues if not for the horror in their eyes. These people realized what was going on, their bodies might be frozen, but their minds were vivid. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

She entered the room filled with bewitched people, sniffing the air for the witch who dared to wield such magic without permission in the House of wolves but found no such creature around.

Only the vampire woman from before, who now stood near the windows with her back towards them and looked at the watch on her wrist, seemed unaffected. She, and the man who smelled like rain. They whispered something to each other, their heads tilted towards each other in an intimate manner, which only upset the she-wolf. She was so mad, she could shift right now and tear them apart for their plotting and conspiring against the wolves.

“Show time,” The male vampire said, and turned around, finally noticing Aneela still holding on to her human form behind them.

He stared directly at her, tilting his head slowly towards the dead woman, and smirked when he gave his orders. “This one I want untouched and for myself.”

He said what? Aneela snapped back, baring her teeth and ready to attack, almost blinded with rage. She would kill him just for these words if not to make him pay for the lost life of her friend. She lunged towards him, claws out, a shout on her lips.

It was too late anyway to care about how her causing a scene would affect her mother. It didn’t matter. Mother didn’t respond. Twyla was dead because of Aneela. Somebody had to pay.

But then the vampire gave her a confident smile, full of promise, and made one more step toward her.

Somebody grabbed her from behind, twisting her hands, somebody powerful and too big for her to handle in her human form. How the hell didn’t she notice them? What kind of vampires were these that she couldn’t sense them?

Then, as the vampire approached, the screaming started.