Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Wren
I’m driving to the vampires’ compound because I haven’t seen them since the incident at the pub and I have to give them both a piece of my mind.
My two regulars, who were giving me heated glances…are super rich? And not just that, they’re nobility. Royal? I get irritated, thinking about it again. I found out when everyone else did, in such a public location.
And what was all that about, with that Krovenian noblewoman saying that Sebastian needed to return home and say yes to an arranged marriage or else? It sounded like Maxim was in a similar position.
These two knew they couldn’t start anything and yet were flirting with me?
My jaw clenches and I press down on the gas pedal, going faster on the road that will take me to where these two live. I literally can’t calm down and let this go until I hear their explanation from their own lips.
It’s started snowing but my trusty, used hatchback is still going strong.
The wipers push a fresh dusting of flakes off the windshield.
The road stretches out in front of me, white at the edges and dark down the middle where the plow came through this morning.
I’m driving the way I’d drive back in Chicago during a first snow.
Slow, with the lights on and both hands on the wheel.
It’s only a twenty-minute drive. I checked the forecast, twice.
The weather app says the pass will close tomorrow night.
Every human on this border thinks we have thirty hours of ordinary snow before the hard-core storm arrives.
And I’ve driven this road a dozen times and I’m pretty darn good at it, if I must say so myself.
It’s perfectly fine to go out right now.
I’ve got a good window prior to the storm to get this done and back home before we’re all shut in.
The town goes past on either side, low stone houses with steep roofs and smoke coming out of every chimney. My apron is balled up on the passenger seat. I don’t remember grabbing it on my way out of the attic. I must have picked it up out of habit.
The bridge comes up, the old stone one over the river, and the water is frozen white underneath. On the other side the road starts to climb.
My lips purse, remembering last night at the pub.
They’re not Border Patrol.
I’d invented a whole life for Sebastian and Maxim and none of it was true.
I thought they were two single guys, off shift, who tipped well because guards tip well.
I assumed they had a high rank, which explained why the other Krovenians straightened and treated them with deference.
Instead, Maxim is nobility and Sebastian is a freaking prince.
The King’s brother. And Maxim isn’t just Maxim, he’s Lord Maxim, with a father that the noblewoman was about to bring up before Maxim shut her down with one word.
I caught the rest of their drama, standing there with a tray.
There’s supposedly a royal residence for Sebastian with, jewels, staff and a fortune to inherit.
And on top of it, Maxim mentioned that Sebastian has made his own fortune?
How rich are these guys?
I shake my head. And if they are so rich, this means there is nothing in common between the three of us. There never was.
So why me?
Those two are plainly the most sought-after bachelors in Krovenia.
They could have any Krovenian female. They could have their pick of human women if that’s what they wanted—every human on earth has been watching Krovenian royals marry humans for two years.
We’re all half in love with the idea. So why would either of them want a waitress with black beer stains on her sleeve?
A fling.
That’s the whole answer. Something to do on this side of the border while they wait out whatever it is they’re waiting out. I’m the novelty. The stew girl.
But I am not the fling type. I would rather be alone than half of something. My high school boyfriend was important to me, but ever since, I’m depressingly single. And I’ve had zero hook ups. I want long term monogamy or nothing at all. I’m just built that way.
And it’s too late. I’m already in too deep. They would break my heart, without even noticing. And I still can’t choose between them.
The back end of the car steps sideways.
“Oh hell,” I gasp. “What is going on?”
I take my foot off the gas and don’t touch the brake. The car straightens out and I’m fine. I’m fine. I reach over and turn the radio off so I can concentrate, and slow down.
It’s still just snow, but it’s now much more snow than it was when I passed by the church.
Hmm. I’ve left behind civilization. The forest starts here, with black evergreens on both sides of the road, close, so tall the sky goes narrow.
And then the sky suddenly blackens, the wind picks up and I’m much colder.
Uh oh. What it is this? The snow on the tree branches is the only thing that isn’t dark now.
Somewhere between the bridge and the forest the snow changed.
Flurries have thickened into something else.
The wind has come around and is pushing the snow sideways across the road.
I look at the dashboard clock and realize the storm is six hours early.
There is no shoulder or center line. I’m steering by the shape of the dark on either side, where the trees are, and hoping the road is still between them.
It’s really coming down out there.
Margit says the pass will probably close by tomorrow night.
Sooner.
We’re Krovenian. We know snow.
Those men sat at my table and told me, and I made a joke about farmers, and Maxim grunted at me. I’d filed it under vampires being dramatic about the weather. I believed the app instead of them.
I was not stupid, just wrong.
I’d like that on the record somewhere.
The heater is losing its battle to keep me warm. It’s time to cut this trip short and head back to town. I’ll visit those two on a different day, when the storm clears. I need to get back and snuggle into my warm bed.
My hands are cold through the gloves. I slow to a crawl and look for a place to turn around—a farm gate, a pull-off, anything—and there’s nothing. Ditch on both sides. I’m stuck on this road for the moment. Forward is closer than back now.
There’s a bend I don’t see until I’m in it.
The back end goes again, this time much worse than the first time.
My breath puffs out hard. “Oh shit…oh shit.” I take my foot off the gas again and steer into it, but it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing under the tires but water on ice and the car turns all the way around, slow, and then it drops nose-first off the road and into the ditch. Which, is scary as hell.
The airbag doesn’t go off. The engine does.
Silence. And then the wind whistles.
I’m still for a moment, in shock at what just happened. Then I take inventory of myself, worried I’m seriously hurt. But I’m okay. No blood and nothing broken. Thank god for that. I try to start the car and the engine won’t turn over. Great. I’m stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere.
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.
And of course my phone is at eleven percent and no signal, not one bar. There are no human cell towers this close to the Krovenian border. Krovenia doesn’t allow them.
Okay, first I flick on the hazards. I try my door and it won’t budge — the frame’s buckled from the nose-dive, and the handle just clicks.
I could crawl out the passenger side. But I look through the windows at the snow falling and wonder if I should even try to walk back on the dark road, miles to town.
Then I look down at my flimsy shoes and my jacket that's not all that thick, and I decide to stay with the car and hope someone drives by and finds me.
Walking back, in the elements that are turning harsher by the minute, is not a good idea.
I turn the dome light off, to save the battery. Luckily, I do have a blanket in the back seat that I reach for. I pull the blanket up to my chin and put my hands in my armpits. The cold comes in anyway, through the door seals and up through the floor.
Nobody knows I’m out here.
I didn’t tell Zora or Margit I was driving to confront them.
I didn’t tell anyone, because no one knows of how I feel about those two.
How could I explain that I needed to find out why they didn’t tell me about who they really were?
And why do they want to hang out with a lowly human waitress?
And…and was I imagining things when I always felt that hot vibe from them?
Did I misinterpret those heated glances?
I look through the dark windows, tears pricking at my eyes, worried that this whole situation could end badly.
A light cuts through the darkness. High and wide, with the kind of headlights that belong to a huge SUV. It stops up at the side of the road. Two large figures step out and stand at the top of the ditch, above me.
They don’t call my name or search for me. They come straight down the bank to my car like they can see through the snow.
The passenger side door yanks open and cold pours in, and Sebastian leans in across the seat, his hands on my face. Thumbs on my cheekbones. “Wren. Look at me.” His hands are so warm. “Look at me. Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m lucky I didn’t get hurt. I’m just stuck out here. And I think the driver’s door is buckled from the impact.”
“Got it,” Maxim declares from outside of the car. I hear the metal give and the door comes off. He throws a car door into the snow as if it’s light as air.
“Wow.”
Then Maxim’s coat is around me, and then his massive arms. He lifts me out of the driver’s seat and against his chest. I’m not in the car anymore and he’s saying something into my hair in Krovenian.
“I’m okay Maxim,” I reassure. I’m so cold now, my teeth are chattering. “How did you guys know where I was?”
Neither of them answers.
My face is against Maxim’s chest and Sebastian’s hand is on the back of my neck, the snow going sideways all around us.
Maxim carries me up out of the ditch. The snow is to his knees and he doesn't slow down. Sebastian goes ahead of us, breaking the path. The headlights get bigger, and there’s a door open on an SUV the size of a small house, heat coming out of it like a wall.
I came out here with questions.
And I can’t remember a single one of them.