CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Piecing the manor back together was like mending the severed parts of me, each stitch hurt.
My entire life, judgmental eyes had followed my every move because I looked different, and they despised it.
When Alaric started haunting me, the people of my world no longer had to hide their poorly concealed disdain.
To know now that it was all inflicted by my own father, and he wasn’t even sorry.
Even he was bothered by my existence. The weight of the truth held firm over me, the soil giving way beneath my body as each second passed.
The only thing that held me together was Sebastian, Pari, Olivia, and even my mother in an odd way.
It was difficult for Olivia to accept at first, but the shock of discovering what Father had done fogged reason.
She didn’t know what to believe. We had both been taught to execute vampires on sight.
We believed they were demons of the underworld, but seeing how Pari accepted me as a vampire helped her along.
Mother was impossible to decipher. She didn’t speak to me, but she didn’t avoid me either.
She observed me, quietly coming to terms with everything.
Her lack of outright rejection gave me comfort.
Once Father was hauled away by the king’s guard, everyone turned to me. Mother seemed torn by Father being taken away but was clearly still processing the last twenty-six years. Olivia examined me with reticent eyes.
“You’re a ... vampire?” Her voice was small, like she wasn’t even sure she should speak the word out loud.
“Yes.”
She examined me a moment longer. “But you don’t seem any different.”
I smiled at the echo of Pari’s words. “I don’t really feel any different.”
She nodded, absorbing everything.
It was evident she was tiptoeing around me for a few days, until an upturned trunk we were trying to right revealed a rabbit’s foot.
“It’s Faffy!” She held the furry foot out to me, her eyes alight with excitement. For a mere moment she forgot who I was now. We were just sisters as we always had been.
When Faffy died, a member, Leo, had removed one of her feet and had it preserved.
He presented it to her as a gift. A lucky rabbit’s foot.
He meant well, but Olivia was horrified to receive it.
She broke out in hysterical sobs, and I had never seen a member so afraid.
Despite her reaction to the gift, she always kept that foot with her.
It was a piece of Faffy she could always keep close. When she lost it, she was devastated.
Her joyful grin faded to concern as she looked up at me. “Leo,” she whispered. “Is he ...”
“We’ll find out.” I hoped he survived. I didn’t know how much more grief she could take.
He had always had a lovesick crush on her, which was obvious to everyone but her.
She thought of him as a friend. When Father noticed how close they were getting over the years, he sent Leo away on missions that would keep him away from the manor, away from Olivia.
They eventually grew distant. Now I knew why Father did that.
He was the thief of all joy. The true demon of Kilthorne.
The soft click of my bedroom door broke me away from my musings as I looked out the window. A heavy fog rolled across the darkened land. Large arms wrapped around my waist. Soft lips pressed a kiss to the crook of my neck. I smiled. My back melded with his hard chest as he held me close.
“How are you doing, mannyenska?” He asked the same question at the end of each day.
“Olivia talked to me, the most she had since finding out everything.”
“Nothing will keep her from you. She loves you too much.”
I let out a soft laugh. “I think she’s finally coming around. My mother, however, I’m just glad she’s still around.”
“Now that was a surprise,” he stated bluntly.
I elbowed him in the ribs, and he chuckled.
He led me over to the bed, sitting against the headboard, guiding me up onto his lap until I was straddling him. I rested my hands on his shoulders, his settled warm on my waist.
“We got every last newborn to Dreigo. The ones who refused to go were executed. The king wants every vampire gone. Which means us, mannyenska.”
I let out a breath. I knew this was coming.
Father exposed Sebastian as a vampire, and Sebastian informed the king that he was not just a vampire but the Prince of Svealin, threatening him with an army more than triple the size of his if he didn’t work with him to solve the issue.
Sebastian agreed to remove all vampires from our world, but there was one problem. The portal was still open.
Alaric told me how to close it, but he was right, the sacrifice was picking a side.
I didn’t have any more time to deliberate.
Upon Alaric’s death, power hungry vampires across Dreigo flocked to the portal attempting to get through, though the guards in Svealin thwarted every attempt.
It was too risky to leave the portal open.
My heart ached to even consider leaving my family.
I had tried to convince Pari to come to Dreigo.
The queen was more than ecstatic to add her to any position she wanted within her army, but the king had offered her a position in his, pleased with her work during the attack on the manor and assisting Sebastian in the transfer of the newborns.
She would be the first woman in the Kilthorne Army.
I avoided the reality of leaving everyone I loved for as long as I could. But this world was not my home. I was never meant for this world. And just as it had since my birth, this world wouldn’t have me.
But I couldn’t be happier with where I was going.
“So, we’ll go home.” I smiled.
His usual rigid exterior softened, his muscles melted beneath my hands. His darkened eyes warmed just a touch. He raised his hands to cup the sides of my face, holding me there, afraid I’d fade away if he didn’t hold on tight enough.
Our lips met in a kiss that ignited my core, sending shivers across my body.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, tangling my hands in his hair.
We held each other so tightly, but it wasn’t close enough.
He sat up, bringing me down to the bed, pressing his weight into me.
One of his hands left to untie his pants.
I was already in my nightdress. He shoved my panties aside and sank into me slowly.
He wrapped his arms around me. I wrapped mine around him, along with my legs around his waist. Our kiss was slow and languid as we held on to each other, him deep inside me.
It still wasn’t close enough, but it was as close as we could get.
After a moment of stillness, our skin warmed, heat spreading through us until we finally had to move. He pulled out and drove back in. My gasp choked off into a moan. He trailed kisses up my neck as he pumped into me, nibbling my ear before he whispered, “We’ll go home, mannyenska.”