Page 23 of Queen of Vampire Hearts

Her eyes were slightly wild, but she didn’t try to move away. I counted that as a small win.

“I’ve never needed to fly before, have I?” she snapped.

There had to be a way to close the gulf between us. It wasn’t a chasm I alone had created. She had run before I cuffed her, but I made it wider.

I tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, relieved when she didn’t pull away from me this time. I couldn’t seem to stop touching her. Even now, with her heart racing in fear, her anger with me simmering, I still needed to make sure she washere. I needed to assure myself that she wasn’t some fevered figment from my dreams.

We needed to be a unit by the time the Elders arrived at Întuneric. News traveled fast in the world of immortals, and the Elders would flock to our home once they heard of my mating. If we weren’ttogetherby then, the Elders would create a rift between us, one I doubted could ever be healed. The Elders comprised a pseudo-council of sorts, but they usually only met once a century or before aGreat Event.A new queen would definitely classify as a Great Event.I tightened my hold on Phoebe, my heart pounding at the feel of her in my arms.

I was already at a disadvantage having a non-vampire as my queen. The Elders made no secret that they hoped my queen would be from one of their lines. I doubted they ever considered she would be anything but a vampire. I couldn’t predict how they would react to Phoebe, especially if they discovered her power. So many unpredictable variables in my future. Two weeks ago, I was complaining about the monotony of immortality.Fate clearly took that as a fucking challenge.

Phoebe needed a distraction to take her mind off of her fear. I scrambled to think of various points of discussion. Her favorite poet? Philosopher? Food? Color? Musician? Instead, I blurted out, “Were you always able to create rifts?”

Her eyes met mine. “No, not until I was a teenager. I could only go a couple of blocks at first, but the more I practiced, the farther I could go.” She smiled softly, and I felt some of the tension leave her body. I brushed a tendril of her hair back from her face. She didn’t seem to notice, not moving away from my touch as she continued, “I got stuck in Tír nAill once when I was eighteen. It took me two days to figure out how to return.”

My breath caught in my chest, my mind creating the image of a young Phoebe wandering the treacherous realm. I pushed away the panic. She was safe and in my arms.

“A witch child stuck in the realm of the fae. What could have gone wrong?” I murmured, partly to myself and partly to her.

Tír nAill was such a treacherous realm. The fae enjoyed tricking and trapping immortals and mortals alike into slavery. Titania reformed the realm when she took the throne, outlawing the practice of slavery. Since their marriage, Oberon followed suit, persuaded by his new queen. Now both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts were pushing for the abolishment, though many fought against the change.

“My mother really let me have it when I finally made it back.” Her face dropped slightly, her vivid eyes dimming. My arms tightened around her. I wished I could absorb some of her pain into my body. I’d never connected like that with my mother. She was always the ethereal, untouchable goddess, never the warm, comforting maternal figure.

I covered my flash of discontent, murmuring, “I’m trying to imagine having a teenager able to rift off to another realm when upset with me.”

I couldn’t help but smile, imagining Cassie with such a power. Her foresight was already a major pain in the ass. It was a challenge having a daughter who could predict the exact moment you would discover she’d painted the halls of Întuneric Castel pink. She had made herself scarce until my temper cooled, and I could find the humor in the situation. Instead of berating her, I’d scooped the young Oracle into my arms and told her I never was a fan of all the dark walls, anyway. I could still hear her laughter as we spent the rest of the day painting other walls in the castle bright colors. Perhaps she’d known that was how I would react.

The plane ascended, and Phoebe clutched me tighter. I really shouldn’t have felt such delight that she clung to me when she was afraid. I was so pathetic, enjoying that small moment with her.

“Tell me about your parents,” I cajoled, attempting to distract her again. I wanted to comfort her, soothe her, and make sure that she had no desire to leave my lap. She smiled softly at me, and I kissed her forehead before she could pull away.

“My mother and father were both powerful witches and Council members. They were my best friends. They were my everything.” Her eyes dulled, and she looked unseeing over my shoulder. “Someone murdered them when I was nineteen.”

“How?” I asked, again pulling her tight as if I could physically ease the remembered pain of her parents’ deaths. I was shocked when she rested her head on my shoulder, pressing her face into my neck. A part of me wanted to push about accepting me as her mate, as her future, but I knew it would break this fragile truce. It was like a gossamer thread shroud of a truce surrounded us. I knew it was temporary, but I wanted it to last as long as possible.

She snuggled closer and yawned, allowing me to comfort her. “I came home one day and found them dead. The Council looked into it, but they had no leads on who would want to harm them.”

Her voice broke, and I stroked her hair, humming soothingly to her. I silently vowed to find out more about her parents later. I had resources the Witches Council could only dream of, like a two-thousand-year-old Oracle.

“I never met my father,” I said, “and my mother is…complicated.” Phoebe’s breath was warm against me as she waited for me to continue. I hoped that if I shared more of my past, this moment wouldn’t have to end. “My mother told me nothing about my father, only that he was the first vampire. Whenever I pressed for more, she would claim to have forgotten the conversation.” I didn’t know if she actually forgot or just didn’t want to speak of him. Eventually, I’d discovered more about my father through one of the Vampire Elders, my father’s brother, Ambrogio.

“Does she still live with you?”

The more she was involved with my life, the easier it would be to convince her to stay, at least in theory. I had to draw her in, force the bond. I didn’t have any actual experience with mates,and I needed time to prepare her before we had to face the Elders.

“She lives in the Ethereal Realm.”

The Ethereal was the realm of the gods, colloquially known as the land of slumber or Ether. Most pantheons slept to conserve their power. Few knew the truth of my past, or my parentage, outside of the Elders, but this wasmy mate. I had already revealed more to her in this small interaction than I ever shared with another.

“My mother is the Goddess of Vampires,” I confessed. “She created the first vampire by accident during the first days of her life. She often felt responsible for the chaos the vampires caused after their creation. As Goddess of the Moon, she had stumbled upon a mortal dying after being set upon by bandits. She felt pity for him and fed him her blood, believing it would heal him. It did, but it also bound him to her, making him vulnerable to the sun. He craved the blood that had changed him, giving him immortal strength and speed. She watched in horror as the now immortal, Endymion, discovered he had the ability to change other mortals. Rage filled her at his sloppiness, and she cursed him and all vampires twice.”

Phoebe shifted against me, her body relaxing further into my embrace. “Curses?” she asked, her voice drowsy.

I brushed my lips against her forehead and nodded. “The first curse was the frenzy. Endymion would lose control if he went without blood for several days, setting upon any mortal who crossed his path. His eyes would turn red when the frenzy was high. My mother had done so as revenge against him for changing other mortals so recklessly. The second curse was more of an afterthought on her part. The curse of theτα?ριprevented vampires from reproducing with anyone except for their predestined mate. She feared that a born vampire would be infinitely more powerful than a made one, so she had to cut off the possibility of a world of born vampires. Though, if I am honest, mates might be fate’s way of keeping the immortal population under control. Almost all immortal species can only have children with their fated mate.”

Phoebe yawned again, her voice softer and slower with sleep. “Your father was a vampire and your mother, a goddess? Is that how you became king?”

Most immortal species had designated royal lines, established when they were first brought to life, often after interference by the divine. Royals brought order to a world filled with constant war. Unlike mortals, immortals had the benefit of an eternal amount of time. They would argue a single issue for eternity. Monarchs prevented that kind of indecision.

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