Royal shuffle: Vampire’s mate

ANDREA

The black, tinted minibus pulled to a stop at the foot of the mountain. William smiled eerily as the door pulled open, immediately causing my hackles to rise.

“We’re here!!!” William exclaimed, jumping out of the vehicle with his bound hands.

“Where is this place?” The head warrior asked, surveying the mountains.

“There’s a stairway that way,” William said, pointing to the side of the mountain. “That’s where we’re taking.”

I and Leo shared a glance and nodded. “Let’s go.”

The head warrior stopped us, looking wary of our location. “Are you sure he can be trusted? What if this is a trap?”

I shrugged. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

I turned to William, “Lead the way.”

William did a bow and smiled. “With pleasure.”

He led us around the side and we began the treacherous climb up the slippery stairs. The stone seps looked like it had been bathed in oil recently. There had been no rain. I looked up at the sun, taking the risk of getting blinded by the scorching sun, and saw a shadow at the top of the mountain. I blinked hard against the invading light and the shadow was gone. The tiny hairs at the back of my head stood on end, and I felt a pair of eyes on me. I looked over at William who was humming a happy tune. He seemed a little too happy. Leo looked back at me, his eyes telling me he shared my premonition.

We were walking into a trap.

“For a place that’s supposed to hold a nightshade hybrid, there doesn’t seem to be much security,” the head warrior said.

“William, how did you say you knew about this place?” I asked, halting our advance by stopping in my tracks.

“Why? What’s wrong?” William asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

I gripped my gun tighter and continued on the slippery stairs, with Leo leading the charge and William right behind me. The stairs seemed to go on forever and I took a deep breath as I took the last on to a leveled mountain top. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the magnificent castle that stood on the leveled ground. The rest of the mountain still surrounded the edifice.

“We’re here,” William announced as he cleared the last step. “And now we can finally begin!!”

I turned to him. “Begin what?”

The sound of gunshots and explosives disturbed the peace of the palace. Followed by the sound of grenades. I held my gun in a death grip and looked around hopelessly as everyone began falling like flies. Soon, the air was filled with smoke from the grenades, and silence filled the air. The only sound to be heard was that of my heavy breathing.

“Leo?” I called out softly.

I heard a responding groan coming towards the entrance to the castle and followed the sound.

“Oh no…”

I gasped and knelt next to him. Blood gushed out of an open wound on his head, and his leg seemed a bit bent out of shape.

“Leo…can you hear me?”

“Of course he can,” William replied. “He’s just not available to answer you.”

I looked up at him, “You bastard, what have you done?!”

William smiled even wider. “You’re about to find out.”

I felt a prick on my neck and the last thing I remember is seeing the very familiar shadow of a man walk up behind William.

It felt like a dream. I heard the soft voice of my children calling out to me, I looked beyond and could see them in the distance crying for me…crying for their mother. I gasped and jumped awake and looked frantically around me. I tried moving but didn’t have any feeing in my limbs.

I looked around the room. It was large, and the interior seemed like something that stepped out of 14th century England. It was a large stone room, bare except for the single chair I was strapped to and a large medieval wooden table that sat in the middle and had chains attached to its legs.

“Hello. I see you’re awake.”

I turned towards the annoying voice and growled at William.

He threw back his head and laughed, “Oh, save it. You’d have enough time to be angry.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Will’s your son too.”

William scowled. “That bastard can never be my son.”

“Where’s Adela? What have you done with her?!”

“Oh, nothing. She’s just getting ready.”

“Ready for what?!” I screamed. “Don’t touch my daughter!!!”

“Again, save the theatrics. You’d have enough time for that soon enough.”

He walked around me, the stench of blood and sweat wafted up my nostrils, and I held my breath until he moved away.

“So, you lied about Leopold? Why would you do that?” I asked.

William laughed again. “Oh, I didn’t lie. Leopold is here. He’s in on it.”

“Why?”

Just as the question left my mouth, the heavy door opened and Leopold walked in, smirking as his eyes fell on me.

“Hello, Andrea. It’s been a while,” Leopold said.

“Why would you do this? How could you? Those kids love you!!!”

Leopold shrugged. “The things we do for love.”

My brows furrowed in confusion, and then my eyes widened in shock as Leopold walked over to William and placed a wet kiss on his lips. I watched as the kiss gained passion and momentum and they began groping each other.

“What the fuck?!”

They broke apart and stared at me. Leopold’s eyes holding resentment for me that I had somehow managed to kiss all these years.

“I don’t understand…how are you…and you…but Stacy?! You have a mate!!”

My mind was in shambles. I couldn’t decipher what was going on.

“What about Stacy?” Leopold asked.

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“Stacy…well, she was a distraction of sorts. A way to make sure nobody batted an eyelid,” Leopold replied, shrugging like that was the most normal statement in the world.

“And also…” he continued. “It was payback to you as well.”

“But what did I do?” I asked, still wondering how I and my children ended up in this mix.

“You married my brother, that’s what. If you hadn’t married him, this would have been much easier!!!”

His eyes widened and his voice rose several octaves higher. I watched in utter confusion as William rubbed his back lovingly in an attempt to calm him down. What the fuck was happening?!

“You…you didn’t want your brother to find his mate?” I asked.

Leopold shook his head. “No. This would have been easier.”

“Easier for who?”

“For me. It would have been easier for me to kill him and ascend the throne. The plan was for the werewolves and the vampires to continue to be at war. I could have killed him and placed it on the werewolves.”

“And then what?”

“And we both kill our fathers and take the throne as the rightful heirs.”

“What about your mate?” I asked, the situation still not making sense to me.

“This is my mate,” Leopold replied, wrapping his hands around William’s waist. “We found out we were mates that night you gave birth to Leovanni. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to kill each other.”

“No, I mean the vampire girl you mated.”

“Oh, we never mated. She was just for appearances. There’s nothing month can’t buy.”

I nodded. “What do you need my children for?”

“We don’t need Will. The call was for Adela but somehow Will heard it and ran to us. We couldn’t risk getting discovered as their nanny was with them. So, we took him and left,” William replied.

“And Adela…”

Leopold smirked. “I believe William already told you what we plan. A ritual with her blood…the blood of a nightshade hybrid will make us the most powerful in all nations. So, when we take that throne, no one would challenge us.”

“But if you both climb the throne after killing us, you still would be the most powerful…”

“Nobody likes gays. They would plot, and scheme until we’re out. And we can’t leave your children alive. They’ll come back,” Leopold looked at William and then back at me. “We would own the council. Everyone would bow at our feet. We would make history!!!”

“What about your brother? What have you done to him.”

Leopold shrugged. “He’s dead.”

My chest became tight and I felt my heart break. Memories of him and all the time we spent together came rushing back. Our bond hadn’t been the easiest and had been riddled with pain, mistrust and struggle but I had loved him…and the thought of not seeing him again, never fighting him again, made tears come to my eyes. My heart felt like a part of it had been ripped out and had left an open, bleeding wound. I blinked and the tears rolled down my cheeks.

“Aww, don’t cry. You’ll join him soon enough,” William said and laughed.

The door opened and two men dressed in all black entered.

“Can you not see that we’re busy with guests?!!” William asked, gesturing towards me.

“I’m sorry, master. But everything is ready for you.”

“Ah…yes. It’s time,” he pointed at me. “Bring her.”

Each man took a chair handle and carried me out of the castle. I struggled against the ropes but the only dig deeper into my skin. I sighed and gave up, hoping for some sort of miracle at this critical time.

I was carried out through the front door of the castle and my breath caught in my throat at the bodies of the soldiers we had come with. Leo lay amongst them, covered in dust and dried blood. Tears spring to my eyes again, closely accompanied by anger. Then and there I swore to kill these two…even if it was the last thing I did. We went around the side of the castle where an elevator stood ready for descent. Leo and William went in first, and we waited until it came back up.

Despite myself, I couldn’t help but admire the terrain as we rode the elevator. It was truly beautiful. The elevator came to a halt and I was carried out of it. Leopold and William led the way on to what was a wide expanse of barren land. Fruitless, dried trees stood proudly, and the dried grass made crunching sounds under the feet of the men.

In the middle of the field stood a large table, and on the table, chained…my Adela.