Page 56 of Taken By The Vampire King

Fucking Sebastian.

I tried again, spreading my arms, my palms upturned, to show I had nothing to hide. This still needed to work. Maybe I could keep Leia and secure my throne, or just keep Leia safe. I had to try something, anyway. She was in too much danger now that I’d revealed her to our society. But it wasn’t exactly the easiest story to tell a human, and I’d expected to have more time.

“I’m very old,” I started. “Impossibly old. I was born in France, and those portraits are me. Truly me. Not in period dress. Not random flights of fancy. Me. Accurate. Of my time, in historical context. Do you understand?”

She nodded, but the bewildered edge didn’t leave her expression.

“My father was a king among my people. He’s still thought of that way. But there was a battle between clans, and my family had to flee France. We travelled to the new world to start afresh—like every immigrant before us and since, I guess.” I shrugged, because the reason we’d travelled to the land of the free was no different than anyone else who’d stepped foot on America’s shores. “Like many, we began our journey in Virginia, but the colony was small, and we quickly moved on because my family fares better in isolation or in a large crowd where few people are truly noticed and fewer still are missed. We spent some time in Roanoke, but that went badly.” I almost chuckled at some of the older memories. Badly was an understatement.

Fucking Sebastian.

“When the French claimed Louisiana, it seemed like the perfect solution. We could be back among our people, some of our old ways.”

Leia wasn’t saying anything or registering much awareness, so I reached for her hand. Her skin was like ice beneath my fingers, but when she didn’t immediately pull away, I started stroking my thumb over her, reflexively trying to encourage warmth back into her.

“We were familiar with the language and the customs, and despite the jungle-like conditions and the sharp-toothed, reptilian inhabitants, we could hold our own. Father saw potential here for his new kingdom, and he was right. Louisiana has been home for many years, the constant change and evolution providing the camouflage we needed to blend in.”

She looked at me then, her gaze seeming to focus. “You’ve been here many years?”

I nodded, taking comfort in entangling our fingers together as I told my story. “I’ve known your maternal line for longer than I can remember, from when they first came to Baton Rouge and settled here. I’ve protected your ancestors, commiserated their losses, celebrated their wins over the years. The women of your family have always been strong, each powerful in their own way. Like you.”

Her eyes widened a little, but she clenched her jaw and tipped her chin up a little. “Did you know my mother?”

A smile captured my lips as I remembered Camille. I’d always admired her and regretted the way Jean treated her with so much casual disrespect, but I could never have imagined she would leave me a gift such as Leia. I hadn’t even thought of that all the times I extended Jean’s tab and granted him more and more outlandish items as collateral against his debt.

“Yes. Camille was…” How could I sum Leia’s mother up for her? “On the one hand, she was fae-like and hard to capture, but she had an inner strength and light that no one could dim. Your father lived and breathed for her.”

I shook my head as I recalled their early marriage and matched that up with Jean’s later descent into the bottom of the nearest bottle of bourbon.

“And then she died.” Leia’s eyes welled with tears, and one slid from the outer corner of her eye.

I caught it on the pad of my thumb.

“And then she died,” I agreed sadly, and guilt washed over me because I hadn’t been there. “I… I lost touch with your mother because my own father was dying and I needed to maintain his rule while he couldn’t. I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have. I wasn’t there.”

Leia folded in on herself, her hands over her face, her shoulders shaking, and I waited a moment before I drew her against my chest, unsure of my welcome, unsure if this crossed the boundaries I’d set for myself.

My move from tolerating this human to actively comforting her had been a big step. And it was one that could potentially earn me a swift elbow to the balls after all she’d seen in my personal wing of the house.

Chapter 17

Leia

Too many thoughts tumbled through my head, and no matter how I tried to arrange them, they were an impossible jigsaw puzzle. Nothing made sense. Nicolas was impossibly old? Old? What the hell? The guy in front of me wasn’t old.

But the comments about Mom. About Dad. Was that just cruelty? Another game from the man who’d contracted to own me for one month?

I’d faked being sick earlier, but I was truly sick now. Sick and completely exhausted.

But I couldn’t walk away. I couldn’t fucking walk away, no matter how much I longed to.

Nicolas seemed to know just which button to press, and the Mom button was a doozy. Whether he was full of shit about whatever fucking immortality and knowing her or not, she was the reason I was even here.

I needed to make her proud. And that reminder of her was enough to keep me in this house as long as I needed to be here to achieve all of my goals.

My head was heavy, my eyes felt full, and my face ached. Nicolas wiped another tear from my cheek, the gesture so tender my heart cramped at all that could have been if we hadn’t gone to that party.

He watched me, an unusual uncertainty in his gaze like he was laying everything on the line, like maybe this wasn’t something he did, and that gave me confidence.

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