The Queen's Forbidden Love

Chapter 3

Claudia's POV:

I was lying on my side on the bed, resting. He was lying behind me, leaning on his arm as he took his fingers and ran them softly over my shoulder. Our naked bodies were pressed tightly together. The chill from his body and his touch didn't seem to be bothering me any. I was already overly warm as it was from the strenuous activity we had just shared together that it was a nice contrast to the heat my body was already producing.

"So, this is the last and only time I will ever see you again?" He asked me softly as he leaned down and kissed my shoulder with his soft lips.

"That's the way it must be," I told him with a sigh, doing what I could to not show my true feelings.

"The way it must be or the way you want it to be?" He asked me, causing me to roll onto my back while holding the blanket in place to keep me covered.

"You know this is the way it must be," I told him again as I looked up into his beautiful grey eyes.

He took his hand and ran the back of his fingers along my cheek. Slowly taking them to my lips, rubbing them softly with his fingertips.

"There's nothing in the law that states that the different species must stay with their own or a demon wouldn't have created a hybrid which in turn, the hybrid was mated to a vampire," He reminded me.

I lay there, looking into his eyes for several seconds. Each second got more and more uncomfortable. I couldn't stop myself from wanting him yet at the same time, I couldn't allow myself to be with him and because of that, I knew it was time. I looked away as I pulled the blanket away from my body so I could slide out from under it to pick up my clothes.

"I'm sorry," I whispered without looking over my shoulder at him, already feeling the hurt in his eyes on my skin as he looked over at me.

"Claudia! Watch out!" I suddenly heard Bella scream next to me in the car, causing the memory to leave my mind instantly and allowing my eyes to focus on the road in front of me.

I hit the brakes as hard as I could when I saw the deer with her fawn in the middle of the road, forcing the tires of the car to squeal. The force of the car trying to brake at the speed we were going was causing the wheel in my hands to be hard to hold on to and control. Before I knew it, the front of the car turned to the right, hitting the edge of the road. I overcorrected and turned the wheel in the other direction, only for the car to skid sideways as it continued off of the road.

I could hear Bella scream as I held onto the steering wheel with my eyes closed as the car flipped. The windows broke, forcing broken glass to shatter and fly through the air around us when the roof of the car hit the ground. The speed we were going, forced the car to continue to flip, hitting the tires on the ground one more time before the car slowly rolled onto the passenger side in the middle of the field next to the road.

The only thing keeping me from falling onto Bella on the passenger side was the fact that my seatbelt was on, holding me in place. That didn't mean I didn't have to try to use my hands and feet to keep myself from getting hurt as I was held in place. I carefully touched my forehead and wince in pain when my fingers touched the tender area. I pulled my hand away and could see blood on my fingers as I rubbed them together.

"Are you okay?" I asked Bella as I tried to look around at our situation.

"Yeah, I think so," She said, clearly in pain, causing me to look over at her.

She was lying against the side of the car. She had a few cuts along her face, probably from the broken glass, and a few on her arm as she reached and touched her head as well. I could tell by her reaction that she had hit her head as well, just like I had apparently done.

"We need to try to get out of the car and see if we can get anything out of the trunk," I told her as I looked around for my purse but couldn't find it.

"Okay," She said softly as she tried to move herself into position so she could try to climb out of the car.

Unfortunately, the windshield stayed in place which means the only way out of the car is out my side. I reached down and pulled the lever for the trunk release before carefully reaching my hand out the window, trying not to cut myself on any of the glass that was still attached. Before attempting to unhook my seatbelt, I moved my body the best I could to help support myself so I wouldn't fall onto Bella.

"Once I'm out, I will help pull you out once you climb up here," I told her as I looked back down at her.

She just nodded as she watched me. I placed my foot on the center part of the car. Once I felt I had a good grip with my shoe, I released the seatbelt. I took a deep breath as I moved my body carefully out from the seatbelt, placing my hands on the outside of the car, and scrapping my arm accidently on a piece of glass. I hissed a little in pain as I pulled myself out of the side window of the car.

"Okay, your turn," I told her and she just nodded as she moved to stand up.

I reached in and grabbed her arm to help her as she climbed out of the car. Once we were both out, we carefully moved down the side of the car till we could step down onto the ground.

I looked around and noticed that we were in a secluded area with no buildings or houses nearby. The sun was almost completely down, the fields were recently plowed for the autumn season and there was what appeared to be a large wooded area on the other side of the field and road. I knew if I didn't get Bella somewhere safe and protected, the night would become hazardous for us.

"Do you know where we are?" Bella asked me, pulling me from my thoughts as I looked around.

"I think we are in Maryland," I told her as I walked around the car to the trunk only to see that it couldn't open because of the car leaning in towards the ground.

"We will need to get our things through the backseat," I told her as I started to walk back to that side of the car.

"You were thinking about him again, weren't you?" She suddenly asked me, causing me to turn and look at her.

"What?" I asked as I looked at her before pulling myself back onto the car to slide through the back car window.

"The reason you weren't paying attention on the road. You were thinking about him again," She repeated and I slowly nodded my head as I carefully lowered myself into the car.

"I don't know why I keep thinking about him," I told her as I grabbed the backseat and pulled on it, opening the trunk of the car.

"Yeah you do, you just don't want to admit it." She hollered into the car at me but I didn't respond to her as I reached and pulled my two bags and her two bags.

I pushed them out the open window, allowing Bella to grab them from there. I looked again in the back of the car for my purse but didn't see it.

"Dammit," I hissed at myself when I didn't see it, knowing that my phone was in it and could use it to call for help.

"Don't ignore this conversation, Claudia," Bella snapped when I pulled myself out of the car.

"It doesn't matter why. It doesn't matter if I would want him. I'm the head witch, Bella. The royal witch and he's a vampire," I told her for probably the hundredth time since that night.

"Ya ya." She said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that," She added.

I just ignored her remark and took a deep breath as I looked around the area. I tuned into my royal eyesight, looking for my purse on the ground. A smile formed on my lips when I saw just a little of my purse lying on the ground about 50 feet from us. It probably fell out when the windows first broke.

"The temperature is going to drop tonight. We need to find somewhere so we can start a fire and stay warm," I told her, looking back at her to make sure she was okay with that as I walked over to my purse and picked it up from the ground.

"That's all fine and dandy, Claudia, till the vampires come out, or the trolls or whatever else is hiding in the dark, waiting so they can chew on our bones," She snapped as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"It's the only thing we can do for right now until tomorrow," I told her as I looked at her.

"We will be protected, I promise," I told her and she looked around, feeling very unsure but eventually just accepted it and nodded.

"First, we need to get out of the open. We're like sitting ducks out here," I told her as I headed across the street to the trees and walked into them.

"Isn't this the worst place to be? Won't we be more likely to get hunted?" She asked and I shook my head.

"I will put an invisible barrier around us. Just like the one at the house but a lot smaller and this one won't allow anything on the outside to get in. They won't be able to smell us, hear us, or see us." I told her and she nodded as I looked around for a good place to set it up before I lost all the light.

"It needs to be placed in an area where it can attach to something. Kind of like a spiderweb in a way," I told her as I set my bags down.

"Stand close to me," I told her.

She walked over to me till she was standing right next to me. I looked around at the placement of the nearby trees. I made sure to walk several feet into the trees where there wouldn't be as many little trees and weeds growing. This way we would have some area to be able to move.

Once I found the trees that I wanted, I lifted my hands and started moving them in motion to create the barrier. It was clear, but not completely at first. It looked as if there was a gas in the air around us, giving the illusion of really clear water moving around us. I spread it around to the few trees that I wanted and then raised my hands, pulling the barrier up and over our bodies until it closed in the center. I carefully moved my fingers closed and pulled my hands away. The barrier smoothed out and appeared to have disappeared.

"Are you sure this will work? I can't see it. It feels like there is nothing there," She told me as she looked around.

"Take a couple of steps in any direction and put your hand out. You will feel it when you get to it." I told her.

She did as I said and put her hand out in front of her as she took a few steps in one direction. It only took a few steps before she stopped. I could tell by looking at her hand with the way she was moving it that she felt the barrier and was as if she was feeling it. A smile formed on her lips as she looked around, feeling the barrier on her hand.

"That is really neat!" She said excitedly as she looked back at me.

"Come, I need to heal your wounds," I told her.

I sat down on the ground and she followed suit. I leaned into her, placing my lips close to the wound on her forehead, and softly blew. A purple sparkly smoke rolled over her wound, healing it as it passed over. I did the same over her remaining wounds on her arms and face. Once I was done, I leaned back against the tree.

"What about yours?" She asked me as she got situated on the ground as well.

"Remember, everything we do, everything we create without a potion requires some form of energy. Even healing. For me to heal you, I must take energy from my body. You are not able to take energy from your own body to heal yourself. It just isn't possible.," I told her and she nodded.

"That isn't really fair, honestly. I mean, what's the point of having all this magic and all of this power if you can't do it to help yourself?" She asked me.

"It just is. Like I've told you before. Magic comes from something in the world around us, whether from a spell, potion, or form of energy. Dirt, water, air, and lightning to name a few, can be manipulated without the use of any other energy or energy from one's self. But everything else uses something physical like herbs or possessions around the world. If I were to summon, say money, it pulls energy and power from my body to pull it from somewhere in the world around us. Essentially stealing from someone else. The larger the object, the more energy and power it takes to pull." I told her.

"So," She started to say as she trailed off and looked around.

"The sun is officially set. It's pretty much pitch black out here under all of these trees and I'm starting to feel a chill in the air," She told me.

I reached over in my bag and pulled out one of my books. I opened my hand, palm side up. I created a small ball of light so I could see the pages of the book.

"I've been working on this for a while now. I've been able to do it a few times but I'm not great at it yet." I told her as I looked for the passage in the book.

Once I found it, I set the book down. I reached over and grabbed some small twigs, leaves, and other miscellaneous things that were on the ground and made a small pile out in front of us. I dug around the side of it to expose the dirt to keep the fire from spreading. We were in a good area for this, there wasn't a lot on the ground to cover the dirt.

"I'm going to do a few practice runs to make sure it works," I told her and she just nodded as she watched patiently.

I positioned the book in my left hand and looked down at it as I read. I raised my right hand in the air out in front of me. I could feel the heat filling the palm of my hand as it started to build up. I had to hold it in, allowing the pressure to build inside of my hand. As the pressure grew, the more my hand started to glow in a reddish glow. Once I felt it was enough, I released the pressure. A flame of fire exploded from my hand and into the air.

"Holy s**t!" Bella gasped as she watched.

"I didn't know we could throw flames!" She continued in excitement, causing me to laugh and look over at her.

"It's part of the pyro series. It's at an expert level of magics and takes a long time to learn how to get it to work. I'm still working on how to turn it into a ball so I can throw it. So far I can just make it explode like you saw," I told her, still with a chuckle in my voice.

"What is it you were reading?" She asked me.

"Along with learning how to create and control it, you have to call upon the heat in your body. The more heat your body has, the faster it will build up." I informed her.

"Is it something I could ever learn?" She asked and I nodded.

"Sure, but not for a long time yet. You need to learn how to control physical elements first. That helps you understand how to control energy in your body. This is also the hardest element to control but once you learn how to control the other elements of the earth, it will make fire easier to handle," I explained to her and she nodded in acceptance.

Once her curiosity was satisfied, I directed my hand in the direction of the pile of leaves and twigs. I built up the heat in my hand again and let the fire explode into the pile. The heat from the fire is hotter than the typical fire you start with a lighter or matches so it didn't take much for me to have the small fire going.

"The barrier will hold in the heat from the fire and keep us warm," I told her as she tried to get comfortable on the hard wet ground.

For several hours after Bella had fallen asleep, I stayed awake, leaning against the tree. The only thoughts on my mind, keeping me awake were the forbidden thoughts of him.