29. Aurelia
“What an honor!” A redheaded woman greeted me at the entrance to Vesper’s old room. It was much smaller than I imagined, with only enough room for two twin beds, a small walkway between them, and a single end table for both.
It’s not like I made day trips to the guard quarters, though, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
It certainly wasn’t the smell of magic. It was barely there and artfully hidden by the smell of various herbs and the smell of roses from the front garden, but I could still sense it.
Perfect.
The woman was lying in her bed with one arm behind her head and gave me a lazy smile. She had an air about her that had my skin itching. She didn’t even bother trying to get up to greet me.
I immediately disliked her.
“Where is she?” I demanded, putting my hands on my hips. She had the gall to look amused by my actions.
She sat up, holding her weight on her elbows. A feral-like smile spread across her face, and a light flashed across her eyes. She was enjoying the little one-sided game she was playing.
Is this how Vesper felt the entire time we were together?
I would have almost felt bad for the little mouse if I didn’t know how much she secretly liked the games we played. I, on the other hand, didn’t have time for whatever it was this woman was trying to do. I had to get Vesper back before I moved on.
There was something so infuriating about her little disappearing act that I needed to understand, or else I might truly go mad.
“She was discharged, princess, didn’t you hea?—”
“Enough with the bullshit, witch. I know you know more than you’re letting on.”
She let out a laugh and tilted her head to the side.
“Oh? How curious.”
Curious. I wanted to snort at her attitude.
“Both you and Vesper sucked at hiding this little secret of yours,” I said with a smile. “But I’m different. Tell me where she is, and I’ll keep this secret for you.”
She shook her head and stretched out on the bed, her movements languid and far too feral for my liking. She was unpredictable, even more so than her roommate.
Something zapped my spine. A warning. She was dangerous.
“How about we make a sweeter deal?” She waved her hand in the air. “How about…you owe me a single favor?”
This time, I truly did laugh aloud. What the fuck is she on?
“You don’t just demand a favor from me,” I said with a huff. “Did you forget who I am?”
“No,” she replied, her smile dropping. “But I think you may have.”
Her words were like a start to my heart.
“What do you mean?—”
“Don’t read too much into it, princess,” she said, raising a brow. “You wanna go get your plaything back, or what?”
Each word had her winding me up more and more. It had the hair on the back of my neck standing up and my skin feeling hot. What the fuck is her problem? Besides Vesper, this was the first time anyone had ever treated me with such an attitude.
Though I much preferred her roommate’s to hers.
“I don’t blindly agree to things,” I finally answered. There was no room for argument. I had no idea what she had up her sleeve, and I really didn’t fucking trust her.
What if she wanted me to kill someone? Ruin my reputation? Even go against my father?
“No? Too bad.” She turned around on the bed, giving me her back.
As annoying as the movement was, I was glad for it because at least then she couldn’t see how comically wide my jaw had dropped.
I let out a growl and dug my nails into the meaty part of my palm.
I needed her. At least I thought I did. She seemed to know much more than she let on, and was probably the only person in this palace who could point me in the right direction.
Compromise. I can compromise.
After dealing with Prince Icas, my near-death, and my almost-unwanted breeding, compromising was nothing.
“As long as it doesn’t hurt me or Vesper, put either of us in danger, or affect my status as princess,” I said and took a deep breath, “I will agree to it.”
She let out a laugh and turned back to me. Fuck, the satisfied look on her face when she knew she was getting her way was so annoying.
“You got it, princess,” she said and bounced off the bed, her sudden movement causing me to jerk back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I asked as she sauntered right past me and left the room.
What the hell? Was I just bettered by a witch?
“You think I’d miss this?” she asked, looking over her shoulder with an amused grin. “I’ll take you, but I’m tagging along.”
It looked like any other human suburb.
The houses were well-kept. The grass was green. The neighbors were out and about, saying hello to whoever passed.
They seemed kind and not at all like the cold-hearted assassin who was sent to my palace. They seemed to be living happily in their own little human world, without any supernatural beings in sight.
It was so odd to be right in the middle of something seemingly so untouched by the rest of the creatures in the world.
If I were a normal vampire, it might have alarmed me. There weren’t many places that were human only, and even if there were, they definitely weren’t welcoming to our kind.
There was a shift in the air as soon as they caught sight of us. They would pause in their conversation, take in our state of dress, then abruptly try to get themselves back into the house as quickly as possible without making it look too obvious that they were running away from us.
It was amusing.
Was there something so scary about us that caused them to act that way?
“A word of advice, princess,” the witch said, coming close to my side. Too close for comfort. “Don’t get too close to any of the humans inside that house.”
I wanted to push her off. Ignore her because of her attitude about the place. But there was something about the house in front of us that gave me a bad feeling. It looked just like the others, but there was an aura about it. It smelled too clean. I gave her a nod.
Where there was one assassin, there would be others. It was unlikely that Vesper was working alone, and the next logical guess was that this was some type of family business.
“Assuming they are more like Vesper than her neighbors seem to be,” I murmured, my eyes shifting to hers for a moment. “Can I trust you?”
She let out a laugh and shook her head. “You’re funny, princess. I see why Vesper likes you. Not at all. But a deal’s a deal, no?”
A deal’s a deal.
Brushing her off, I made my way to the door, overlooking the perfectly pristine front yard and carefully placed lawn decorations. It wasn’t as grand as my father’s palace, but I could recognize when someone was obsessed with their appearance in the same way.
They have something to hide.
The door opened before we even made it halfway.
A middle-aged human man opened the door to greet us. His hair was peppered gray, and his face was full of wrinkles, but his body seemed strong. He held himself up straight, his physique obviously well-trained. He looked like a normal human. Even dressed in casual human clothes that raised no alarm bells.
But it was his heart that had me pausing.
It was too steady. Just like Vesper’s. So it is a family thing. And if I was guessing right, Vesper would have learned everything she knew from the man right in front of us.
And then there was something black peeking out of his collar and winding up his neck. Because of the high collar of his shirt, I couldn’t make out much, but it looked to be an intricate tattoo.
A smirk pulled at my lips. Was he the one who sent her to kill me? If so, I couldn’t help but imagine how surprised he was to see meshow up at his door.
I reached into my coat pocket and handed the contract to Cedar.
“Is Vesper around?” I asked, giving him a sweet smile. “I have an offer for her.”
He wasn’t fooled by my tone.
“What offer are you talking about?” he asked, eyeing Cedar warily.
“A contract for her services,” I explained. “If you let us talk to her, I’m sure she could fill you in?—”
“I’m the head of the house,” he said, his voice gruff. “All contracts go through me.”
“Straight to the point,” I said with a smirk. “I’m guessing I don’t need to bother introducing myself.”
I motioned for her to bring it to him. Maybe I couldn’t trust her, but she had to be right about this family.
“No,” he grunted with a frown. “I could smell your stink from down the road.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at how open his hatred for my kind was. I jerked my head toward him, signaling for Cedar to deliver the paper. He watched her approach, his body growing stiff.
“We really enjoyed Vesper’s company, and I’ve come to offer her a position. Room and board included, plus pay for her services as my personal guard,” I explained. “If I had known about her discharge, I would have intervened before she could leave, but I have been…preoccupied these last few days.”
Dealing with the intricacies of Vesper forcing a sword through my husband-to-be’s chest, to be exact. But judging by the look on his face, he might have been annoyed if I shared that fact.
He grabbed the folded paper from the witch, his eyes taking her in critically before unfolding it.
“I didn’t know the Castle family hired witches now,” he said under his breath.
“And contract killers now, too,” I piped in, my smile widening as he met my gaze. “For a year, if she agrees.”
The man looked up at me again, his gaze calculating. There was movement in the house. I could hear the shuffle and the extra heartbeat, but couldn’t make out exactly who was in there. It was far too quiet.
Another trained one.
“If you know that, why would you let her back in?” he asked.
“I really enjoyed her company,” I answered in a sickly-sweet tone again. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on killing her.”
Another stare, then a small huff. “Tate! Get your sister.”
I heard the shuffling in the house. The footsteps were smaller, lighter. It was a child. It took only a few minutes for both Vesper and a miniature version of her to show themselves in the doorway.
Blood. Vesper’s blood. I recognized it easily. My nostrils flared, and red started to cover my vision. I couldn’t stop the growl coming from my chest. Did he fucking do that to her? I wanted to kill him. Force my arm through his rib cage and pull out his still-beating heart.
Fresh wounds wound up and down her arms. Her face was ashen. Her hair greasy and unwashed. Her eyes void of light. My chest ached for her. No matter how angry I was at her disappearance, there was nothing that could have prepared me for seeing her like that. She was even worse for wear than when I’d seen her plunging a sword into my ex-fiancé’s chest.
Her brother was clenching her hand, looking traumatized.
If my family were any better than hers, I would consider taking him. If that was what Vesper looked like after only a few days, it made me worried for the boy. But it would seem both of us had some pretty fucked-up family dynamics.
I forced my feet to stay frozen in their spot. Tried to fight the violent thoughts of tearing the man’s throat out. It was hard. Harder the longer I smelled her blood. Human wounds didn’t heal like vampires’, but hers seemed to be over the top. Deep gashes with no aftercare.
Vesper looked at us with tired eyes. My gaze lingered on a tattoo on her neck, presumably the same one her father was hiding. One I’d never seen before. A dark tattoo of a snake went up her neck and peeked out of her cut-off sleeve.
That had been hidden…but how?
Magic. It clicked why I had smelled magic on her the day she handed me the bird feather, the one that still hung underneath my clothing.
Something went off in the back of my mind. Something about humans with tattoos of the zodiac signs. What was it?
“Is this some kind of joke?” she asked. Her voice was scratchy, and it didn’t even sound like it belonged to her.
“I came here with a serious offer,” I said. Stay planted. Do not fight them. I chanted it over and over again in my head.
I thought I was the one stuck in a cage, hopeless with no way out…but had that been her this whole time? Had her not killing me somehow been the only act of defiance she could muster against these people?
“She’s going,” the man spoke for her. He didn’t even look at her as he did it, his eyes still glued to mine. The feeling’s mutual.
“No.”
His head snapped around to her. Vesper forced Tate behind her and glared at her father. She cares for someone. It was…astonishing to see. The cold-hearted little mouse actually had a person she was willing to fight for. Even if the consequences had her looking so horrid.
“Send him to Gabriel, and I will go,” she bargained. Gabriel? There was another?
“Ves, I don’t wanna?—”
“I’ll check,” she said, cutting off her little brother. “If he doesn’t go, I’ll be come right back. Is that what you want?”
I could hear the grinding of her father’s teeth.
“Wellness checks, something I can easily facilitate,” I said, pulling the attention back to me. “Do we have a deal?”
Vesper’s gaze rested on Cedar. It would seem the witch annoyed her as much as she annoyed me.
“Interfering again?” Vesper asked, the venom strong in her words.
“Merely protecting the princess in your stead,” Cedar said, though there was no smile in her tone. Ever since she had gotten close to the man in the doorway, she had turned serious.
“Let’s get on with it,” I told them, unwilling to let Vesper bleed out any longer. It was annoying that they were even letting her stand there when she looked so unsteady. “Before I accidentally sink my teeth into someone’s neck.”
But I wasn’t looking at Vesper when I said it. I was looking at her father. The threat was clear. I was a very unhappy vampire.