Vampire King Chapter 45

In Your Shadow
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In Your Shadow
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Lex is quiet as he listens to me talk. He sips from the bottle of blood as I tell him about my fears of losing Emory. I’m in an impossible situation where the laws of nature that govern our world are working against me. Yet, those same ruleshad bent themselves to make it possible for us to fall in love and then have a child. Could nature bend again to accommodate me?
Lex snorts. “Maybe you are selfish.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “Now you’re agreeing with me?”
“I’m not judging you. I’m actually kind of proud that for once you’re thinking about what you want and not what you think you should be content with.”
“Even if it affects our kingdom?”
“Everything you do affects our kingdom. You’re a king. Your existence affects our kingdom, so of course for the first time you actually selfishly want something you want nature to give you a pass. Break the very foundations of our existence so you can be with the woman you love.”
When he puts it like that, I sound like a horrible self-indulgent person uncaring about consequences. I’m not an impulsive person. I never have been, but Emory has a way of making me act on my emotions. It scares me knowing what I’m capable of if it comes down to keeping her safe from those that wish her harm.
“Do you know what that makes you, brother?” Lex continues. “Just like everybody else. You’re flawed and greedy, and you can’t help yourself because now you want something more than anything in this world.”
“I just want to keep her,” I say. “I need her.”
“You already have her. You have the love of a good woman,” he tells me. “Not to mention that you’re a handsome, powerful king who is respected by his people. And despite all the recent troubles of an impending war, you are still remarkably lucky.”
“I don’t feel lucky. I never have.”
“I know, and that’s what makes being your brother so frustrating.” He sighs before continuing, “Do you have any idea what it’s like living in your shadow? Always second best-the spare? I have lived my whole life knowing I’ll never measure up to you, and here you are worrying about a future that hasn’t even come to pass yet.”
“I’m afraid because I have no control over any of this. Despite all my supposed power, I have my limits.”
“No one can control death, not even us. Everyone dies eventually. We just take longer than the other species. We could die in battle or any number of other ways. And as for Emory, it doesn’t even have to be old age. She could die from an illness or an accident. You can’t control her fate and you shouldn’t try that.”
“Why not?”
“Because my brother, my king, you will destroy everything you have in the process.
I take the bottle from him, realizing that we’re halfway through it. “When did you get so wise?”
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In Your Shadow
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“Maybe I’m finally growing up,” he says, bitterly. “Impending fatherhood is taking its effect.”
I’m still wrapping my head around the fact my brother is going to be a father. The fact that it has to be with Opal is unfortunate, but it will still be our blood. My own impending fatherhood looms over me. Hope and dread settles in my belly like stones.
“Do you
think this is what our father felt when we were born?” I ponder. “Do you think he was scared if he was going to be a good dad?”
*King Michael? Nervous about anything?” Lex snorts. “No way. He wasn’t afraid of anything, especially by the time I was born. Babies were old news.”
“He might have just been good at pretending to never be scared, but deep down he was terrified every minute of every day.”
“Is that how you feel?”
I shrug, avoiding answering that question. Instead, I say, “I wanted to be just like him. He was like a legendary king from the myths. When he walked into the room, no one else mattered. Just him,”
“I remember. I wanted to be like him too,” Lex agrees. “I failed more than anything. I think that’s why he didn’t like me.”
I shove him on the shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous. He liked you. He let you get away with so much more than I could.”
“That’s because he expected things from you. He didn’t care what I did. I was just the spare. Still am.” Lex gestures more wildly which is how I know he’s getting agitated. “He spent time with you. He taught you how to run a kingdom and how to fight battles. Me? I was an afterthought.”
“Every moment I had with him was about training me to be his replacement. I had to remember that the only way I could be king was through his death. Every time he looked at me, it’s like he saw his own mortality staring back at him.”
“I think that’s just what being a parent is about. You teach your kids as best as you can, and they hopefully learn enough to survive. And then you die.”
“That’s morbid.”
It’s a dark thought, but not completely untrue.
For the first time, I look at my brother and see shades of the better man he could be. Maybe he is growing up. Fatherhood might do him good. Lex has always been lost, craving a place in the world. He always wanted mine despite how unqualified he is to actually rule.
Curious, I ask, “If you had my throne, say you had been born first, what would you do with it?”
“Abdicate and give the job to somebody else.”
“Why?”
“Look at me. I’m not king material. I may be pretty and would look amazing with your crown on my head, but it’d all be style over substance. You were born for this. You were made for this.”
“And what about you, my brother? What were
you made for?”
In Your Shadow
He smiles, guile hiding what he may truly feel. “Absolutely nothing. I’m the f**k-up, remember?”
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Emory
I wake up bright and early. I have a lot I want to do today, so after I have breakfast with Lola in the kitchenette of my bedroom, we make our way to the castle library. The last time I was here, I had almost died when Jacob and Opal attacked me. Fear blooms in my belly as we enter the library, and I look around as if waiting for one of them to appear.
Instead, Lola sees my distress and holds my hand. “Are you okay, Em?”
I smile at her, trying to hide how I feel. “I’m all right. I’m just a little tired.”
“You look scared.”
“I just remembered something unpleasant that happened here, but it’s over now. I’m safe. We’re safe,” I tell her, more to reassure myself.
I know I’m safe. Jacob is in the dungeon, and Opal is all the way in Scarlett Thunder. There are guards howering nearby to come to my a
if I need them. Nellie is with us, too. She follows closely behind us.
“Nellie, do you know which section in the library we can find books on folktales?” I ask.
“I’m not that familiar with the library, Princess,” she answers. “You can ask the librarian for help.”
“I didn’t know there was a librarian.”
Nellie points to a desk to the right where a vampire with short brown hair is sitting. “That’s Willow. She’s the new librarian.”
“What happened to the old librarian?”
“Unfortunately, Gaius was killed by Opal and Jacob that night they hurt you”
Anger shoots through me at the revelation. An innocent person died because those two heartless a*es d**on’t care for anyone but themselves. And what has it all been for? Just to get rid of potential witnesses to their terrible behavior?
I have to resist the urge to run down to the dungeon and kick Jacob’s broken leg.
I try to focus on the task at hand. I go over to where the new librarian is reading a book at her desk. Upon getting closer, I can see how pretty she is, with pale blue eyes and a face like a porcelain doll. Her hair is a warm, chestnut brown that reaches her shoulders, and she’s wearing a blue dress with a high collar.
“HI” I say. “I’m Emory. We’ve never met.”
“No, but I’ve heard of you through reputation,” she replies, setting her book down. “I’m Willow.” She smiles, and I return the gesture.
“It’s nice to meet you. I need your help looking for some books in the library.”
“What topic would that be?”
“I’m looking for folktales, particularly about wolf shifters.”
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She gets to her feet and signals for me to follow her. We go up the stairs to the second floor of the library. She leads us to a particular section and starts pulling books off the shelves, handing them to me. Soon, I have a tall pile of books in my arms that I need to split with Nellie so I don’t drop them.
“We have a limited collection when it comes to wolf shifters due to the enmity between our species and wolf shifters’ aversion to documenting much about themselves.” Willow explains. “I’m not sure how much information you can glean from those books as they are mostly written for children.”
“I can work with this. Thank you for your help, Willow.”
“I’ll be at my desk if you need anything.”
The brunette vampire returns to her desk, and we claim a table nearby. Lola and Nellie help me research about shifter and vampire hybrids. Neither of them know why I’m so interested in the topic beyond simple curiosity. The faster I can find answers, the faster I can get peace of mind over my pregnancy and my unborn child.
We read quietly for an hour, skimming through every book and finding old folktales about wolves terrorizing villages and sl**ring random townsfolk who make the bad choice to enter the forest on their own. They all have the similar themes of not trusting wolves and keeping away from the forest. Nellie finds a promising story about a she-wolf that nurses twin boys who have lost their mother. The twins go on to find two separate wolf packs, both of which are still around. One of them is my own. Lola reads through a book of fairy tales she shows me a story about a woman that’s impregnated by a wolf. The story is written in a language I don’t recognize. I can only try to guess through the illustrations in the book what the story is about. All I can put together is that a woman gives birth to a baby that could shift into a monstrous, bloodthirsty beast. It **rs entire villages on its own, insatiable for blood and
carnage.
“What does this mean, Nellie?” I ask.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know that language.
At the sound of familiar footsteps, I look up to see Rainer’s smiling face. He makes a beeline toward us. Hey, Em. Nellie. Em’s sister.”
Lola goes pink, looking more shy than afraid as Rainier gives her a charming grin. “Hi.”
My sister could barely look at Kane without being scared. Rainier is the first vampire besides my maids that Lola doesn’t try to hide from. It couldn’t be because she has a crush on him. Lola is way too young for crushes. But he is charming, and everyone seems to like him.
“What are you looking at?” Rainier asks, as he looks down at the book I’m reading. “The Curse of the Blood Wolf.”
I look at him in surprise. “You know this language?”
“It’s a dead language. People stopped using it a hundred years ago or so.”
“What is a blood wolf?”
There are notes in that dead language that might give me more clues. Rainier reads through them and translates it for me.
In Your Shadow
“The blood wolf is a hybrid, made from
two different m garou and the vampyr. It craves blood constantly and c the native tribes start worshiping it as a god. It’s not un wolf and put it down with a spell that the land is freed
He looks up at me, and I swallow hard. What have we
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“The blood wolf is a hybrid, made from two different monsters, both violent and bloodthirsty, the loup- garou and the vampyr. It craves blood constantly and can never be appeased. It’s a being so powerful that the native tribes start worshiping it as a god. It’s not until a coven of witches stand up against the blood wolf and put it down with a spell that the land is freed of its evil.”
He looks up at me, and I swallow hard. What have we done?