The Vampire Prince

Chapter 1
Six years ago

Twelve year old twin girls Elara and Cleo Montford run shrieking from their house, long dark blonde hair flying out behind them in streams. Their giggles reach all the way down the street, assaulting ears of the young and the old as their feet kick up dust as they both dash along the pavement. Always physically weaker than her sister, Elara starts to lag behind, her weak heart pounding fiercely in her own ears. Cleo realises and turns at once, sliding back to where her sister stands, bent over at the waist, panting. Cleo stands and watches silently, knowing that Elara fights back the tears. She is so much mentally stronger than her counterpart, but in every other way, lesser. Cleo is the beautiful twelve year old, the athletic one. Elara was born with a heart defect, and so cannot compete in sports. Instead she competes in poetry writing contests and sings. She is also beautiful, but the girls’ parents do not ever see her for who she is. Cleo is the one always there with her, there for her delicate sister. And then there is Alexander, the girls’ older brother, their good looking nineteen year old brother, who loves them and would move mountains and rivers to help them. And then there was Elliott, Elara’s best friend, who stuck by her side and sneered at the sneerers, helping her back up when she fell on the ground. And there was him.
Elara sensed his presence before she slowly lifted her head and dared to meet his black gaze from across the street. He was simply standing, staring at her, his arms crossed over his chest. His black hair was thick and tousled, curling slightly over his ears. All this detail she could make out from her position, doubled over on the grey tarmac. Cleo felt her twin stiffen and turned to look at the stranger. It was their twelfth birthday, the thirteenth of August, 2004.

He came again and again, always on the twins’ birthdays. Their thirteenth party at a swimming pool, their fourteenth at a movie theater, their fifteenth at ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ private showing on Broadway, their sixteenth at a booked out night club chaperoned by their parents and highly paid body guards, their seventeenth on a horse riding trek in Atlanta, and now their eighteenth. He’s not here yet, but he will be.

Elara was laughing with Elliott as they walked casually down the school corridor, arm in arm.
“Elle! Wait for me!”
Elara stopped and turned round to see her sister sprinting towards them, a look of hearty concentration on her face. She was taller than Elara was now, her skin a healthier tan colour and her muscles toned and stronger. Yet Elara waited for her now. She smiled at her as she came closer, until finally she paced alongside the two best friends.
“Hey, is Alexander coming to pick us up today?” Cleo asked breathlessly, grinning at Elliott.
Elara shrugged, glancing at Elliott, watching the frown appear on his usually smilingly open face.
“I think so. He usually comes to get us for our birthday” she said, nudging him gently in the ribs.
Elliott lightly elbowed her back, trying to smile at her.
“Sorry, Elliott” she murmured, patting his shoulder. “You know we love you, but he always does this for us and we hardly see him ever anymore as it is.”
Elliott nodded and accepted it. Cleo blinked her blue eyes at him, but as usual, he didn’t notice her. She sighed to herself and returned to seeing so clearly how Elliott Turner gazed at her sister with love that she didn’t want his way. The three of them walked outside into the bright white sunlight, rebounding off the pavement to hit them square in the eyes. Immediately, Elara turned her face into Elliott’s chest, shielding her sensitive brown eyes from the natural light. The sun’s rays seared her irises right through her eyelids, but Elliott’s strong arm wrapped around the back of her neck, holding her there in place until she heard running feet and pulled away to throw herself into her brother’s arms. Alexander stroked her hair with light, careful hands and shushed her in careful tones. He extricated her from him and held her at arm’s length, examining her. Then he grinned, that familiar white toothed grin.
“Hey, little sisters” he said, reaching out with one arm and drawing Cleo in, too.
They both kissed him, one on either cheek and ruffled his light brown hair.
“We’ve missed you, big brother” Cleo said for them both, smiling once again.
Alexander scowled slightly.
“Have the ‘rents been leaving baby Elara in the dust again?” he demanded, his eyebrows coming together.
Cleo nodded, glancing sideways at their sister, the youngest in question. She had been born three and a half minutes after Cleo, who had taken most of the sustenance in the womb. As a result, Elara was sicker and weaker. Paler.
Alexander patted Elara’s head and smiled tightly at Elliott.
“Hey, kid” he said, nodding to him.
Elliott grunted, folding his arms. The attention was forever being stolen from him when the beloved, famed big brother was there. Alexander wound an arm around either girl’s waist and began to lead them off to his silver and black Lamborghini.
Elara felt him there first, always quicker off the mental mark than Cleo. But she wasn’t far behind.
Keeping up with their brother, both girls scanned the school parking lot, searching for their mysterious annual visitor. There! Elara saw him, dressed in his perpetual black, appearing as youthful and handsome as he ever had before. Behind Alexander’s back, she reached out for Cleo’s hand and linked their fingers together tightly. The young man’s black eyes met Elara’s, as they did year after year for the past six. She couldn’t look away, and she wanted to, badly. She hated the feeling of being trapped, and that was how he made her feel. Cleo squeezed her hand.
“Elle!” she hissed sharply, digging her nails into her sister’s wrist.
Elara shook her head and breathed out shakily. Then she screamed. He was right in front of her. Alexander jumped at the sound of her scream and stared at the youth standing before them, mere inches away. His eyes were as inky black as his hair, and they were cold and gave no view into his soul. Did he even have one? This odd, worldly seeming teenager who never aged and always watched them from afar. But never this close.
“What do you want?” Cleo asked, her voice quiet and restrained, her free hand clenched into a tight fist.
He looked down at it before returning his cold, clear gaze to her face.
“I want one of you for my bride. I cannot rule alone, can I? It’s not allowed” he replied, his voice blank and resonating within Elara’s mind.
She stepped out from where Alexander had shoved her behind his body and stood quietly in front of the stranger. He looked back at her, not saying any more.
“We have seen you here ever since we were twelve. Who are you and what the heck do you want with my sister and me?” Elara demanded softly, looking up at him to his height of 6 feet.
He smiled icily at her, his smile as bleak as his dark undertones. He shrugged.
“I just told you. I know you saw me. You were meant to, otherwise you would not have seen my face. My name is Jayce Silveron. I’m leaving now” he murmured.
Elara extended a hand, but he twisted in front of them and vanished into nothingness. Cleo crept up to her twin and peered over her shoulder at the now empty space that the stranger had just occupied.
“He was weird, wasn’t he?” she said, trying to laugh and make light out of the dark.
Elara turned back to face her brother and her closest friend, turning away from her sister, her confidante and her rival. She said not a word as they walked together in a group over to Alexander’s expensive, flashy car. He let her in first, and she stared out the window on the way to the beach, this year’s birthday party destination. Cleo continuously attempted to draw her into a conversation, but she wouldn’t be drawn. Elara had completely withdrawn into her shell, and they all could see she wasn’t coming out for a while.
Elliott held her hand.

Chapter 2
Elara sat at the edge of the sand dune, staring into the battling wind and down at the blue sea. She rested her chin on her folded arms atop her knees. The brisk wind was making her shiver, though the sun still beat down on her head and shoulders. The sand next to her shifted suddenly and she turned slightly to see Cleo dropping down beside her. She gave her a brief small smile before turning to face the water again. Cleo tapped her arm gently.
“Hey, dude. What you up to?” she asked, though it was obvious.
“Thinking and staring out to sea, sister” Elara replied quietly, her voice dull.
Cleo sighed and shook her head.
“Don’t keep thinking about that nutter who talked to us today. He’s not worth any of your thoughts or concern” she murmured seriously.
Elara turned back to look at her sister again.
“There was something about him though, Cleo. He was so different. I want to see him again” she said firmly, her words stout and unyielding.
Cleo was surprised to hear such determination in the other twin’s voice. Elara was never assertive and she didn’t like confrontation, but she was now stating her actual feelings and what she wanted. Cleo was usually the one who did that, who spoke like that. As the strong one, she always got what she wanted, while Elara sat back and watched with a small, knowing smile on her face. Like she knew she was special and she’d be whisked away somewhere wonderful when the time finally came…
Elara felt Cleo probing into her mind and hurriedly pushed her away, keeping her at a mental arm’s length.
“Don’t” she said quietly, her brown eyes focused direct on her sister.
Cleo shrugged and turned away to stare at the ocean, just as she’d seen Elara doing.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she demanded softly, still not looking at Elara.
Elara smiled to herself, hearing and understanding the gravity and desire for clandestine information in her twin’s tone. She shook her head and closed her eyes.
“Do you want me to call Alexander?” Cleo threatened.
Elara’s eyes flew open and she slowly turned her head to glower at Cleo, who was smirking back at her with no regret visible in her straight forward gaze.
“You’d actually do it, wouldn’t you?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
Cleo nodded, poised to get up and sprint away up the sands, too fast and able bodied for her younger twin to catch her. Elara finally sighed and nodded wearily.
“I have dreams” she said softly, shutting her eyes against the sun again.
Cleo watched her uncertainly.
“Dreams?” she repeated.
“Yes” Elara confirmed. “Dreams of a tall, dark castle in a far off place. The sky never turns blue and the stars play all night and in the perpetual day, too. The king and queen are beautiful and they have four children who are just as lovely as they are. Sister, one of the sons is Jayce. He has a younger brother named Talor and two younger sisters named Lacey and Kimba. He is going to be their next king, but he can’t be until he marries.”
She reopened her eyes again to find Cleo kneeling before her on the sandy beach, staring hard at her, right into her pale face. Elara, uncomfortable with being gawked at, turned her face away and let her curtain of dark blonde hair fall across her cheek. She waited until Cleo sat back before she hooked her hair behind her ear again.
“What?” she asked coolly.
“I can’t believe it” Cleo muttered blankly, piling the sand in her palms and letting it sift through her fingers.
Elara laughed and nodded.
“I understand, you know. But the fairytale land is really real and he’s going to take me there. And you can’t stop him” she said so calmly.
Cleo sniffed and was shocked to find that she was crying, quiet tears falling off her nose and onto her tank top. She wiped her eyes and stood up.
“Fine, whatever. You go away with the mysterious crazy boy-man and live your fairytale happily ever after life with ten children and never ever die with the ones you love” she snapped, brushing the sand grains off her knees and preparing to saunter off.
Elara put out a hand and grabbed her ankle, stopping her in her tracks. Cleo stared down at her, her eyes hard and cold. Unfeeling.
“I don’t know if Jayce can procreate” she said quietly, her dark eyes velvety with liquid sadness.
Cleo’s eyes narrowed and she pulled her foot away from Elara to march off up the sand dune. She left her sister sitting there, alone. Her long blonde hair whipped around her face, catching in the wind and getting in her eyes.
Cleo ignored the lonely sight of her and went on a determined search for their brother.
“Alexander!” she yelled as loud as she could.
He never heard her. But when Cleo was brave enough to glance back at Elara, she saw a dark figure standing over her, black hair getting caught in the breeze just like everybody else’s. She sucked in a breath and watched as he leant right over her sister and enveloped her in his shadowy embrace. The next minute, she blinked and the stranger and her sister were both gone.
Cleo started to scream, tears streaming down her face. She fell onto the sand on her knees and rocked back and forth, keening into the wind like a howling wolverine.

Chapter 3
Cleo returned home later in the night, Alexander’s Lamborghini her mode of transport. Her usually vibrantly bright eyes were dull and noticed nothing but for the darkened scenery flashing by in a blur past her window. Her brother glanced worriedly over at her from time to time, but she didn’t register his concern either. When he finally pulled and stopped part of the way up her driveway, Cleo started, seeming to swim up to the surface of consciousness from a deep, long dream. She slowly turned her head to gaze at Alexander and managed a nod in his general direction.
“Thanks, bro” she said dully, undoing her seatbelt with sluggish fingers.
Alexander reached across and clicked it out for her. He grabbed her shoulder and forced her to face him again, his dark eyes serious on her face.
“Be careful, tonight, Cleopatra. Make sure he doesn’t come for you as well” he murmured darkly, patting her shoulder once before watching her climb out of the car.
Cleo waved slowly to him as she wandered dizzily, like she was tipsy, up her driveway and inside the house, through the unlocked front door.
“Cleo? Honey, is that you?” she heard her mother’s shrill voice call out from the direction of the lounge.
She had the barest presence of mind and awareness to roll her eyes; as usual, their parents, especially their mother, was only ever interested in the whereabouts and hobbies of Cleo herself, not Elara. No, never little Elara.
Cleo walked towards the voice and leaned against the white door frame, glancing in at her parents as they sat together, primly, at either end of the sofa.
“Yeah, it’s me” she mumbled tiredly. “Just me.”
Astra looked up at her oldest daughter, a frown on her face.
“What’s the matter, darling? You turned eighteen today, you should be thrilled!” she exclaimed concernedly.
Cleo snorted huffily and turned her back on the both of them.
“So did Elara, Mother. She did, too” she replied disgustedly, her mind marred by the sight of those black, fathomless eyes.
At that point, her father looked up from his newspaper and stared at her, his eyebrows raised slightly.
“We know that, child. Where is she, by the way?” Damian inquired coolly.
Astra glanced over at him, clearly irritated and slightly vexed by his words, so casually spoken.
Cleo shrugged, her eyes darkening even as she thought about Jayce.
“I don’t know. She’s vanished, Dad” she said plainly, not wanting to waste any time mincing her words.
Damian’s grey eyes narrowed as he shrewdly observed his daughter.
“Really, Cleopatra?” he asked calmly.
Cleo nodded and walked out into the dusky hallway leading to hers and Elara’s shared bedroom. There she fell face first down onto her bed and shut her eyes, pushing her tear streaked face into the pillow and letting sleep take her.


Elara woke up in a dark room, the curtains drawn to hide the light from her sensitive eyes. She couldn’t hide a smile; he really did know a lot about her. She sat up and looked around, taking in the black wall paint and heavy black lamp shade next to the bed on a small round table. There was a billowy canopy floating above her head, dark tassels dangling down from it almost to the silky black coverlet. Elara pulled her knees up to her chest and swung her feet off the side of the bed, waiting for the cool touch of the floor against her bare toes. She padded quietly across to the curtains and pulled one corner away just slightly, so she could see out of the window it hid. She couldn’t control the gasp that tore from her as she stared out upon a blackly ravaged land, the trees mere skeletons of what they used to be. Everything was burnt down to the ground, and the sky was a deep mauve colour. Why had the curtains been drawn then? Ah, yes, to keep her from seeing the terrible sight which awaited her when she eventually awoke. Elara pulled the curtain all the way across, revealing the entire scene to herself. There were no clouds scudding across the dark sky, there were no animals gambolling below her window and there was no sun, just a pale, waxen circle hovering up in one corner of the sky, passing for the moon.
She turned hurriedly, twitching the curtain back into place, when she heard soft footsteps enter the room behind her. Her velvet gaze met Jayce’s black, malevolent one. She reached up and combed her fingers through her hair casually, keeping her eyes on him as he moved gradually closer and nearer.
“What do you want?” she asked calmly, wondering why exactly he stopped moving a few feet away from her.
The corners of his mouth quirked upwards, and she saw that that was as much as she would get for now from him.
“To marry you” Jayce replied in a barely there murmur.
His short, simple words spoke of promises unfulfilled and unbidden. She saw that he did not want this, did not want to be wed to her, but she also saw he had no choice. She would make it easy on him.
“You don’t want to, do you, Jayce?” she asked quietly, her smile soft on her face.
Jayce looked surprised that she had used his name. But he shook his head slowly.
“No. I don’t. I’m sorry for that, for you. And for your role in this” he said eloquently, his eyes dark and sad.
Elara nodded and smiled, holding her hand out to him. He looked blankly at it and she took it back.
“Well, I don’t know if I want to marry you either” she replied idly.
Jayce raised one eyebrow at her.
“I’m not surprised, Elara. You mortals prefer to have a personal investment in your life mates, don’t you? Whereas, we don’t care” he told her, relaxing slightly.
Elara grinned back at him, her natural sense of humour breaking out of her. She thought he was funny, the way he talked, the way he acted, the way he stood around her. She was sure he didn’t mean to be funny though, so she would keep the laughter to the barest minimum.
“Yes, that’s what we like to do. Have a personal investment in our partners, Jayce. May I call you that?” she asked him politely.
He shrugged.
“As you wish” he replied coolly.
Her smile widened in her pale face. Yet he was paler still.
“Brilliant. I will then. You can call me Elara, or Jiminy Cricket. Whatever you want” she said, keeping a perfectly straight expression.
She watched him as his features twisted in his effort to understand what she’d just said to him. Elara reached forward and lightly touched his shoulder.
He jumped slightly.
“It’s okay. It was a joke. My sister used to call me that when we were little girls” she told him, smiling faintly at the old memory.
Still looking confused, Jayce nodded his head.
“What are you, exactly?” Elara asked, tilting her head to the side and appraising him from head to boot clad foot.
At that particular question, Jayce didn’t hold back his smile any longer. He grinned at Elara, showing off his perfect teeth. Elara’s eyes widened. His teeth were perfect except for the incisor on either side. Those two teeth were pointed at the tip and looked lethally sharp. His smile, though, made her melt, and she thought a glacier wouldn’t be able to stand up to the wattage.
“Vampire” Elara muttered to herself musingly, angling her body slightly away from him.
“Yes” Jayce replied softly.
Very slowly, with everything all finally sinking in deep now that she was fully awake, Elara turned back to stare at him.
“Jayce, when do I get to go back home?”
He met her searching gaze head on, utterly unrepentant.
“Never.”

Chapter 4
The following Monday morning at school, Cleo was trying to ignore Elliott and get away from him as he rushed down the corridor towards her. She was tired and she had no wish to talk to him.
“Hey! Cleo, wait!” he yelled, picking up his pace and sprinting at her.
She turned, heading for the nearest girls’ bathroom, but Elliott caught her before she could step inside, and grabbed her arm. Slowly, Cleo released the silver door handle and turned to face him, her eyebrows raised.
“What do you want, Elliott?” she asked coldly, eyeing him skeptically.
He was taken aback by the tone in her voice; she was never nasty to him. In fact, he knew she liked him, but he just wasn’t interested in her that way. He frowned down at her and let go of her arm. Cleo let it fall back to her side and waited.
“Where’s Elara?” Elliott asked, sounding worried.
He looked very confused, and Cleo couldn’t help feeling sorry for him, even though she was easily just as confused and concerned as he was. Especially in her sister capacity. She shrugged and looked down at the tiled floor under their feet. She could see the chipped pink nail polish on her toenails, and Elliott was wearing Vans, despite the warm weather surrounding them on seemingly all sides.
“Gone. I don’t have a clue where. That creepy weird guy appeared again down at the beach Friday evening and took her away. He didn’t say anything to me” Cleo said, hearing the bitterness in her own voice.
She felt on the verge of tears yet again and blinked, sniffing to keep them at bay. She was aware of Elliott stepping forward and glaring at her, his coffee coloured eyes dark and unhappy.
“What do you mean, gone?” he demanded angrily, his jaw clenched tight.
Cleo lifted her head to look at him again, a placid expression on her face.
“Don’t you yell at me, Elliott Turner. I know you’re in love with her, but she’s my sister, and I am just as scared as you” she said acidly, her eyes narrowing at him.
Elliott blinked, realised he was towering over her and took a few steps back. He shook his head at himself and smiled weakly at her.
“Sorry, Cleo. I’m just…sorry” he said quietly, hanging his head and gazing at the floor.
Cleo sighed and patted his shoulder, squeezing slightly.
“It’s all right, Elliott. I’m sure we’ll see her again at some stage” she murmured, really not sure of any such thing at all.

Elara woke to another dreary morning in Jayce’s mystic land of nothingness and black fatigue. She woke without a smile on her face as she so often did lately. She sat up straight, holding herself upright on her hands. Already, Jayce was sitting on a gilt chair in the corner of her room, just staring at her. His black gaze was direct and unflinching, painful to stare back into for any length of time. He saw she was awake and lifted his chin slightly. To her untrained eye, he seemed to be defying her to think he had any personal interest in her of any kind by appearing haughty and indifferent. Thinking about him like that, Elara couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m awake” she said calmly, holding herself as still as possible on her trembling arms.
Jayce nodded.
“I can see that, Elle” he said coolly, one eyebrow arched.
Elara frowned at him and shook her head, her thoughts hissing wildly at her inside her head.
“Don’t call me that” she said darkly. “Only my friends and my sister get to call me by that name.”
Jayce gave her then what could only be called a smirk. Elara bristled at his impertinence and folded her arms over her chest, indignant. She closed her eyes and refused to look at him any longer. In a few seconds, Jayce stood next to her bed, staring right down at her. This time though, he was smiling and it looked quite real, though Elara couldn’t see it.
“Come now, Elara Montford. Don’t be so childish” he said softly, his breath stirring the blonde hair falling over her face.
Slowly, her eyes flickered open and Elara stared at him, right into his eyes. Her mind reeled with shock at having him so close to her, but her inner voice still managed to convey to her how beautiful he was. She blinked and bit her lower lip, making an attempt at squirming away from him. Jayce smiled down at her and held out his hands. Elara glanced at them, unsure.
“You’re coming with me to meet my family today, Elara. You’re right; I will not call you Elle, that name is clearly for relatives and good friends only. I won’t call you that again unless you allow me to do so” Jayce told her confidently, his eyes dark and clear all at the one time.
Elara considered him for a while, then nodded and got up, sliding over the edge of the bed, her hands in his cool grip. She noticed how careful he was to not hurt her, and knew he knew how ill she was.
“Why did you choose me?” she asked quietly, innocently curious.
Jayce swiftly glanced at her, saw that she was serious and honest, and sighed softly.
“You were so sweet and full of light. Your sister, on the other hand, is lovely and pretty, but so selfish. You might think that you are, not Cleopatra, but she never thinks about anyone else’s feelings. You do. And this kingdom needs some of your golden lightness, Elara. We need it here” he said somberly, meeting her eyes head on.
Elara stared at him, wondering how he could sound so sad and brave in the same instant. She gave him a tiny smile and squeezed his hands, still holding onto hers.
“I would like to meet your family, Jayce. I think I already know their names?” she said, feeling only slightly uncertain.
Jayce nodded, a small grin finding its way onto his flawless features.
“Yes, you remembered the dreams I gave you. I thought that you would, Elara. You are going to meet my brother Talor and my sisters Lacey and Kimba. You don’t know my mother and father’s names though, do you?” he replied.
Elara shook her head.
“No, I never found those out” she confirmed, slowly walking to the huge wardrobe embedded in the wall on the other side of the bedroom.
She chose a knee length dress of dark blue silk, gold stitching separating the bodice from the swinging skirt. The sleeves were short and puffy, and she smiled as she put it on and spun in front of the wide, full length mirror. From behind her, Jayce passed her a gold handled hairbrush and watched as she dragged it gently along the length of her blonde hair, flicking it out when she reached the flaxen ends. Elara smiled at her reflection in the looking glass, for the first time in a long time. Usually, she was smiling at Cleo’s reflection, the stronger, braver twin girl. Suddenly sad and despairing, she sank down onto the lush carpet and stared deolately into the mirror. She would have stayed there all day if it had been her choice, but it wasn’t, of course. Jayce bent down and lifted her up into his arms. Straightening, he turned around with her in his hold, and headed for the bedroom doorway.
Elara found herself surprised and greatly touched by his old fashioned chivalry, and wound her arms around his neck.
“Thank you” she whispered into his ear, leaning her head on his black clad shoulder.
Jayce looked at her, again unsmiling. She immediately missed his smile and looked away from him once more. As soon as they stepped out of the room and into the hall outside it, two young girls skipped up to them, bright grins on their lovely faces. Elara couldn’t help smiling back at them from her space in their older brother’s arms. She held her right hand out to them, and one after the other, they shook it gently. They knew she was sick, too.
“You’re Lacey, right?” Elara asked, directing her question at the older girl with emerald eyes and black as night hair.
She nodded and clapped, eyes shining; thrilled that Jayce’s bride-to-be knew her name and who she was. Elara then focused her eyes on the younger of the two.
“Kimba, am I right?” she said, smiling.
Kimba nodded shyly and swung her skirt nervously. Despite living in such a strange and foreign land, she looked just like any other little girl. She was about eight years old, with big blue eyes and scarlet hair winding in waves down to her waist. The two girls fell into step with Jayce and walked with him until they reached Talor, heading down the corridor in the opposite direction. Polite and good looking, he smiled at Elara and swept her a deep bow from the waist. She was charmed by him immediately. He had dark brown hair and black eyes to match his brother’s.
“How old are you, Talor?” Elara asked him politely, her eyes smiling at him.
“Sixteen, Elara” he told her, smiling.
She grinned up at him, still carried by Jayce. He was equally as handsome as his brother, but looked kinder.
“Sorry, ladies and younger brother, but I must introduce Elara to Mother and Father. If you’ll excuse me…” Jayce said, politely nodding at his siblings and sweeping past them all.
Beginning to walk faster and faster, he outstripped his two sisters, though they tried their best to keep up with his longer strides. Elara frowned reproachfully at him and tapped his shoulder. He glanced at her and saw her face. He shrugged.
“I’m under obligation, Elara. It’s got nothing to do with my baby sisters or my little brother” he murmured to her, glancing once over his shoulder to make sure none of them were following him.
Talor had obviously taken the two girls away somewhere else, to get their minds off of Jayce and Elara. Her eyes widened when she came into view of the King and Queen. Jayce lightly set her on her feet and bowed to his parents. Slowly, Elara curtsied to them, bowing her head as she did so. Out the corner of her eye, Elara could see Jayce smile in approval. His parents also smiled and inclined their heads toward her.
“Elara, these are my parents. King Elvin and Queen Alba” Jayce said in a grand voice.
Elara smiled nervously, but didn’t say anything until he gently nudged her with his elbow.
“It’s lovely to meet you at last” she said quietly, her eyes lowered slightly.
They both smiled down at her with pleasant expressions on their faces. After standing there uncertainly for what felt like forever and a day, Jayce took Elara’s hand in his and led her out of the room again. She noticed that when they were back in the hall, he didn’t let go.
Chapter 5
The loud tap on her bedroom door made Cleo jump, whirling round to find her mother standing in the doorway, looking in at her.
“Yes?” she said agitatedly, shoving her newly bobbed blonde hair behind her ears.
Her mother raised her eyebrows at her daughter.
“I think you need to revise your manners, child” Astra said coolly, staring her down.
Cleo gazed blankly back at her, not budging or breaking.
“It’s no good, Mother. You can’t intimidate me. I don’t know where Elara is, and I’m pretty sure that you don’t care anyway” she replied, her voice dead calm.
Astra sighed heavily and moved slowly toward her.
“What makes you think that?” she asked.
Cleo snorted in a very unladylike way and slumped back onto her unmade bed.
“Because you’ve never cared about her. Never. And now she’s disappeared and it’s probably partially your fault that Jayce chose her, because he knew she wasn’t very happy and never fit in here anyway. So don’t pretend you give a damn!” she began, ending in a shout that brought her father running upstairs.
“Don’t you yell at your mother like that, Cleopatra! Apologise immediately!” Damian ordered her, his eyes narrowed.
Cleo shrugged and shook her head, her hair swishing round her face.
“I think I won’t. I’m going to go to school now. Cheerio!” she called, pushing past them both and bounding down the stairs, two at a time.
Elliott waited outside the house in his old pick up truck, idling by the curb. Cleo opened her door and flung herself up onto the passenger seat. She buckled herself in and then sat there stonily, her arms folded across her chest as tight as they could go. Elliott eyed her worriedly, but pulled into the street without mentioning the state of her.
Cleo finally sighed and slumped down till she couldn’t see out of the window anymore.
“What’s the matter?” Elliott asked her. “Apart from the obvious, I mean.”
Cleo muttered something incoherent under her breath and glared at the dash board.
“My parents are sticklers in society and I can’t stand them. They don’t even care that some random guy from another world kidnapped one of their children” she growled, visibly sulking.
Elliott nodded as he found a free park in the school parking lot.
“They never did though. You and Alexander practically raised her by yourselves” he replied, twisting the key out of the ignition.
“I know” Cleo mumbled, unbuckling her seatbelt and half falling out of the truck.
Elliott chuckled despite the morbid situation and grabbed his school bag, tossing it over his right shoulder and following Cleo inside. He looked on as she continued to attract sympathetic stares and the occasional murmured condolence. It was like Elara was dead, not just gone.
They sat together, as they had taken to doing, at the rear of the classroom. The teachers ignored them, a small bonus because they knew the twins and how close Elliott was to Elara. They never intervened or asked them questions in their lessons anymore. Cleo was barely grateful, but she was forgiven for her surliness.

Elara woke up with a start on the day of her wedding ceremony. She had been dreaming of her sister and of Elliott, of another day that would now never happen. She had seen Elliott in a black tuxedo and herself in a white wedding gown, Cleo standing behind her, holding a bouquet of white lilies. For Elara knew that, had she not been stolen away from them, she would have married Elliott. She didn’t love them in that way, but he would always have been her one and only option for the rest of her life. She would have been happy enough with him, surrounded by dark haired children. And Cleo would have married a jock. But now, maybe Cleo would end up marrying Elliott, because he would take her as second best. If he couldn’t have the twin he wanted, perhaps he could still have one of the pair. Cleo would agree to marry him because she had always loved him, just as he loved Elara.
She sighed and sat up in her bed, smoothing her hands over the silky sheets. She knew her long hair was a mess, but that Jayce would send in maids to tidy her up and prepare her for the day to come. She didn’t know if she loved him, but she could pretend if he came to love her first. And if she fell in love with him first, well then she was doomed for life. Elara slid out of bed and landed gracefully on the floor, then padded across to the floor length mirror. She cocked her head to the side as she looked at herself, wondering, not for the first time, why Elliott adored her so, and why Jayce had picked her instead of Cleo, the pretty one. She could never see herself the same way others did. She supposed that instead, she saw herself the way her parents did, especially her mother. She was surprised to see the lone tear streaking down her cheek, and wiped it away in silence, swaying lightly on her feet. Someone knocked on the door.
“Come in” Elara murmured quietly, still staring at her reflection.
The door opened without a sound, and Jayce entered on quiet feet. He stood behind her, one hand on her waist. He saw the faintly shimmering tear residue and sighed softly, turning her to face him and removing the evidence that she’d been crying before.
“I was sure I heard that human brides are happy on their wedding day, Elara. Why aren’t you happy, too?” he asked, his tone velvety smooth.
Elara choked out a laugh and leaned against his chest, her hands down at her sides.
“I always imagined this day to involve my family as well. I miss them still” she told him, sniffing faintly.
Jayce took a step away and looked her over carefully, his gaze finishing on her pale face. He seemed to make a split second decision, because he nodded to himself and then vanished.
Elara shook her head and sat down on the floor, wrapping her arms around her drawn up knees. Suddenly three young women with matching blue dresses and tidy white aprons pulled her gently to her feet and led her over to the other side of the room, where a new vanity stood, an oval mirror the main setting piece.
“Is it time to get ready?” Elara asked calmly.
One of the maids smiled at her and nodded, bobbing a curtsey.
“Yes, ma’am” she said obediently.
Elara sighed again and sat down in front of the shiny mirror. She felt a hair brush begin its journey through her knotty hair and closed her eyes in resignation. This was her fate, and she would face it with her head held high.

The wine red wedding gown flowed out from her waist and trailed down to the floor. Elara couldn’t help worrying about the strapless corset, but the maids had worked wonders and it wasn’t falling down at all. King Elvin walked at her side, and her right arm was pulled gently through his. He was keeping her upright, it seemed to them both. He smiled at her as he led her outside the castle and onto the grey plains that fell away from the castle walls. As Elara walked, looking around her, she watched in awestruck incredulity as bright flowers bloomed out of nowhere and the dry, deadened grass came to life and gleamed in all shades of green. The sun came out and shone on the top of her head, making her hair glow golden.
King Elvin patted her hand and led her on, down through brand new long grass to the gilt altar in the middle of one of the jewel green fields. Jayce stood with his back to them, his hands clasped behind him and his posture perfectly straight. Elara felt her heart give a slight flutter and she breathed in to calm herself again.
When they reached him, the king released her hand and she stepped up beside Jayce. His father took his place, sitting in the front row of pews with his wife Alba, and Talor, Kimba and Lacey.
A sharp intake of breath alerted Elara to others sitting on the opposite side of pews, where her relatives would sit if this were a normal wedding. Jayce gave her a tiny smile and nodded, allowing her to turn away from him for a long moment and stare behind her at her sister, Alexander and Elliott. Her parents were missing, but she understood just why. Jayce wouldn’t have bothered to fetch those members of her life whom she didn’t belong to. Her best friend and siblings weren’t dressed for a wedding, and this made her realise that Jayce had probably grabbed them at the last minute, and without telling them why. Elliott had a black look on his face and Cleo looked sick. Alexander was being physically restrained by two older, strong vampires. Elara hated his expression; he was angry, grief stricken and struck by hatred all at once. But she closed her eyes and turned back to her groom.
“These ceremonies are very different to your own, Elara. There is no minister, but there is exchanging of rings” Jayce explained calmly, leaning forward to whisper into her ear.
She nodded and held her left hand out to him. Cleo started to cry, and Elara physically ached that she couldn’t go and hug her sister. Jayce produced out of nowhere a circular wedding band made entirely of whitened crystal. She couldn’t help gasping at the inanimate beauty of the ring and Jayce smiled at her as he slid it onto her finger. He then handed his own ring to Elara and extended his hand to her. She held it lightly in her left as she placed the onyx ring on his left wedding finger. Alexander let out a cry of utter frustration and tried again to get out of his seat, but the vampires held him forcibly in place.
“Done” Jayce murmured.
He held both Elara’s hands in his, squeezed slightly, then let them drop. He then moved his hands up to gently frame her face. He stared at her with his blazing black eyes and bent his head to kiss her. His lips were barely there before he moved away again, listening in interest to Elliott’s roar of outrage. Elara flushed as she stood with Jayce, listening as well as he. Jayce glanced at his father, and King Elvin nodded with a slight shrug. Jayce sighed and clapped his hands twice, quickly. The scream was cut off and Elliott was gone. Cleo and Alexander followed him successively, and the two vampires who had been restraining Alexander finally relaxed and slumped down onto the vacated seats.
“They are not dead, Elara. Merely returned to where they belong” Talor spoke up from the first row.
Elara looked down at him, her eyes shining with hope and tears. Jayce’s younger brother looked sorry for her, trapped here without her loved ones. She nodded gratefully at him and faced Jayce again. He stroked her cheek and then he, too, disappeared from sight. She stood there alone, looking out over the realm which would one day be her very own.
Chapter 6
Talor walked Elara back to the castle, through the wild flowers still blooming and then through the wide open double doors. She was comforted by his arm around her waist, and surprised at the warmth.
“Why is that you are so much warmer than your brother, Talor?” she asked, then mentally chastised herself for speaking up.
He smiled at her and laughed quietly.
“He never feeds, Elara. I do, just enough to warm my skin. One day, he might show you. He’s so cold to touch because he has no blood in his veins and none in his stomach” he explained calmly, holding her anchored to him gently.
She felt no need to pull away though; everything seemed safe with the younger brother of the realm of darkness. He posed no serious threat to her.
“Will he ever try to feed off me?” she asked him, raising her brown eyes to search his.
Talor blanched whiter for a second, then recovered his composure once more. He shook his head very slowly.
“He’s not meant to. But that’s not to say he won’t try. He can be strange and unpredictable, even more so than the rest of us. I’ve tried to follow him over the years, but he always evades me. I’d never seen you before the other day, I swear it” he said forcefully.
Elara turned to face him and smiled up at him, her hands on his arm. She laughed at him a little while he stood there, looking puzzled.
“You don’t have to worry about that, honestly. I wouldn’t mind if you’d seen me before. Cleo would mind, but I’m not like her” she told him, her voice quavering slightly as she finished.
Talor looked steadily down into her face and then nodded.
“I am sorry about your brother and sister. I don’t know how I would react if someone took me away from Lacey and Kimba, so I cannot guess how horrible you feel for leaving Cleo and Alexander behind” he murmured.
“And Elliott” Elara said softly, looking at her feet.
“And Elliott” Talor repeated, sliding his arm back around her waist.
Elara lifted her head and let him walk with her again, even though her feet felt as heavy as lead blocks. She watched with vague eyes as the walls and portraits passed her by, one after another.
“Will I be turned into one like you?” she asked blandly, staring at one painting in particular; it portrayed a vampire attacking a human and drinking their life’s blood.
Talor glanced at the painting and grimaced, turning his head from it. He shrugged.
“I’m not sure, Elara. I have no idea if Jayce would be strong enough to not kill you in the process” he muttered darkly.
Elara mimicked his shrug and continued walking, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.
“It’s okay, Talor. I can never see my loved ones again, so why should I be concerned about maybe living forever? There is no point, really” she said coolly, closing her eyes and allowing his measured strength to lead her instead of her sight.
After a while, Talor stopped moving and Elara reopened her eyes, to find herself standing in front of an unfamiliar oak wood door. She glanced up at Talor, confused.
“What are we doing here?” she wondered. “This isn’t my room.”
Talor paused, looking fidgety and uncomfortable as he struggled to find the words to tell her.
“Belle Elara, this is Jayce’s room. You’re married now. It is now appropriate and customary for you to share the same space. I hope I have not upset you” he said, staring anxiously into her eyes.
Elara held herself up and tried to smile at him, waving off his concerns.
“I’ll be fine. Just promise that if you hear me screaming, you will save me and return me to my sister and brother. Please, Talor. I need you to make this oath for me” she said very seriously, her arms folded.
He took in a deep breath, unnecessarily.
“I vow to you that I will take you home if any danger befalls you while you dwell under my roof, Elara Montford” he replied honestly, bowing to her from the waist.
Elara bowed her head in return and her smile grew stronger. She watched him as he strode away from her, his shoulders hunched slightly. She fervently hoped that one day someone would make him happier than he had ever been, stuck trapped in this kingdom for longer than she would ever be. He would never die.
Elara knocked rapidly on the broad door, twice. Her knuckles stung harshly, but she ignored the pain. The door swung open a crack and she could see Jayce looking out at her through the tiny gap. He pulled the door further open and stood aside to let her in. He looked at her through guarded eyes, but it wasn’t until she stepped across the threshold that she understood why he looked that way.
Lying sprawled on the black carpet near the four poster bed was a human corpse. At least, she assumed that it was a corpse. There seemed to be no life left in the pale, limp body. Elara backed away slowly, only to find that behind her, the door was now shut and bolted. She looked nervously at Jayce, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore. Instead, he was staring down at the human he had just wasted beyond all comprehension. He crouched down next to it, and wound his arms around his knees. Elara stared at him in strong surprise as it dawned on her that the boy was rocking back and forth, his face buried against his knees. Her heart bumped hard inside her chest and she suddenly found herself wandering slowly over to him and sinking down beside him. Jayce didn’t look up at her and she heard his soft cries as he kept his face hidden from her sight. She breathed in quietly and leaned over him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Lightly, she stroked his dark hair and rested her cheek against his crown.
“What’s the matter, Prince? It’s all right; I don’t mind. Talor explained everything to me that he thought he could get away with. I know that you don’t feed anywhere near enough to stay warm. You know that I can love you anyway” she said to him, continuing to touch his soft hair.
Jayce stopped crying and raised his head to meet her eyes. His own black ones were laced with fiery red veins, and she forced herself not to flinch. He caught the tensing of her muscles, however, and smiled coldly, looking away again.
“See? You say the words, but you can’t mean them, Elle. And I know I promised to not call you that ever again, but I’m sick of it. Sick of pretending to you that I’m lovely and light, when I am clearly not, my darling. Could you love me with that lying right there? That human corpse? I can’t be what you want, and I know it all. What you should have is that human boy, Elliott Turner. He is what you should live with and what you deserve. Not me. He’s warm and he has a beating heart, Elara Montford” he said coldly, his tone as hard as ice.
Elara swallowed and pulled him to his feet, steadying herself. He wasn’t going to hold her up this time round, she knew. She grabbed his jaw in her left hand and pointed with her right index finger at the dead body lying on the carpet by their feet.
“I can still love you with that lying right there, Prince” she said fiercely, and she tightened her fingers on his jaw so he understood what little power she did have.
Jayce gazed straight at her, unblinking. His dark eyes were still woven through with red lines, but this time Elara wouldn’t move from his stare. She moved her hands to his collar and quickly unbuttoned the fancy black shirt before he could think about stopping her. She pushed it off his shoulders and down his arms so it pooled on the floor in a shadowy mess. Jayce eyed her warily, but she just hugged him, her arms circling his back so her hands linked in the middle of his spine. She smiled, knowing that she was right.
“See? You are warm, Jayce. Not cold” Elara said confidently, leaning back a little to grin up at him.
But he was rearing away from her, his eyes shut tightly. The tendons in his neck were pulled taut, and his strong jaw was locked shut. Elara sighed and opened her mouth.
“Don’t speak” Jayce said tightly, speaking through tightly clenched teeth.
“Why?” Elara demanded, placing her hands on her hips and glaring up at him, defenseless or not.
“Because I can breathe you in when you do, and I’m not meant to do that. I want to…I can’t…I want to…” Jayce hissed, his strength obviously waning.
“But I’m not Elara Montford anymore” Elara whispered. “I’m your wife now. I don’t belong to that world anymore.”
And she pressed forward and kissed him. At first, he was cold and unresponding, but after a few seconds, she could feel his lips pushing more urgently against hers. As Jayce led her away from the white corpse, Elara felt the heat in her heart explode. He did love her, no matter what he said or how he acted. He had stayed on that street and secretly attended all of her birthday parties since she was twelve years of age, a mere child. He had chosen her to be his and to remain with him, to make his home of perpetual nighttime something lighter and beautiful.
She felt the backs of her knees hit the edge of the bed and she promptly sat down, the sheets rippling away from her. He leaned over her and she could feel his tears mixing with her own as they trickled down their cheeks.

Chapter 7
Elliott paced around the perimeter of Cleo’s bedroom, close to tearing his hair out. He had dark hanks of it in his hands and it was pulled to breaking point. Cleo watched him as calmly as she could, her insides roiling from just seeing her sister get married to a vampire. She started to jiggle her foot up and down, much to Elliott’s annoyance.
“Would you quit that?” he demanded, glaring at her.
Cleo raised an eyebrow and said nothing to reply. She merely began whistling, an old irritating habit brought back by extreme necessity. Elara wasn’t there to tell her to stop it, so she didn’t. And wouldn’t.
Elliott rolled his eyes and suddenly sat down on the floor, his hand in his hands. Cleo was struck by the sight and wanted very badly for him to feel that way about her. But he didn’t, and he never would. She sighed and slid off her bed, down to the carpet beside him. She wound an arm around his taut shoulders and sat in silence, until he spoke first.
“How do you stand it? How can you just sit here without freaking out on yourself? I’m going to pieces here, and you aren’t! How is that, Cleo? She’s your sister, for goodness’ sake!”
Cleo sat back, ruffled by the harsh words.
“I do miss her, and I’m worried, too! But there’s nothing we can do for her, because we can’t get to her unless one of them comes to get us! Elliott, I’m not stupid! No matter what you think, Elara’s not better than me!” she spat back.
Elliott recoiled from her, hearing her say it. Cleo was shocked by herself, unable to believe her own ears and voice. Unable to believe she thought that way. She stared at Elliott in horror, and he gazed back at her, equally mortified.
“Elliott…” she began, reaching a hand toward him.
But he scooted away from her further.
“I can’t believe you said that! You sounded just like your mother! How could you believe that, Cleo? In that respect, she is better than you; she’s always thought that you were better than her! She went on and on about how beautiful you were and good at everything, and how everyone liked you! Your sister loves you so much, and here you were, secretly thinking you were always better and more special than she was. Well, I guess she was wrong there, Cleopatra Moreland. Because Elara has two guys in love with her, and you’ve got no one!” Elliott yelled, his dark eyes bright and hard.
Cleo fought back the tears, knowing that if she started to cry, she wouldn’t be able to stop. She stood up as Elliott did, and faced him across the new gulf separating them from each other.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it, Elliott” she said brokenly, her voice falling apart inside her mouth.
Elliott’s glare didn’t soften; instead it got harder and darker, and Cleo looked away from his face.
“I love my sister, Elliott!” she exclaimed angrily, flags of bright colour rising in her cheeks.
“Maybe so, but that love is mixed in with the love you have for your own self. Your parents taught you well” he retorted.
Cleo cocked her arm back and punched him square on the jaw. Then, her knuckles throbbing, she grabbed his aching jaw and kissed him. Elliott was stunned and at first he didn’t respond, feeling only the shooting pain radiating througout his skull. But slowly, he kissed her back, lifting his hands to frame her face. He brushed the fine strands of her hair back off her face and lightly touched her cheek bones.
Cleo smiled, forgetting about how her hand stung, and concentrated fully on Elliott. And then he broke away from her, his eyes once again wide, wide open. His gaze latched onto hers and she faltered. He looked mad, his eyebrows furrowed together.
“How could you do that? You know, you have always known, that I am in love with your sister. You are a manipulator!” Elliott hissed at her, snatching his jacket off the back of her computer chair.
“You kissed me back!” Cleo protested, fighting the salty tears trying to break through.
Elliott glared at her, his fists clenched.
“Yeah, well. But I wish I hadn’t!” he shot back snarkily.
Cleo stared at him, her chin set stubbornly. Elliott opened his mouth, shut it and then walked out of the bedroom, closing the door hard behind him. She looked at the door for the next few seconds, then collapsed backwards on the floor, her arms flung up behind her head. She gazed at the ceiling until her eyes felt dry.

Meanwhile, Elliott began his walk home, only to be accosted by a good looking sixteen year old boy with fair skin and dark hair. Elliott paused, eye to eye with the strange boy.
“You look just like your brother” he remarked coolly.
Talor raised his eyebrows.
“Maybe. I need to talk to you. Is there somewhere slightly more private we can go to?” he replied smoothly.
Elliott scrutinised him, head to foot. He was dressed to fit in with anyone’s family in dark wash jeans, black Docs and a navy blue t-shirt. He shrugged and nodded.
“My sister will love you” he muttered, starting up again.
Talor stepped into place beside him and then walked the next ten minutes with him until they arrived at his house. The second they came through the front door into the hall, Kimberly Turner barrelled down the staits from her bedroom and stood smiling at her older brother and his company. Elliott nodded to her, then glanced at Talor.
“Who’s he?” Kimberly asked him, pulling her wavy brown hair into a ponytail.
Talor smiled at her ingratiatingly.
“My name is Talor” he told her, holding out his hand.
She shook it and then let it go. Elliott saw the look in her blue eyes, the same one she got when she was thirteen and had her first crush on a boy in middle school. He shot a quick look at the boy with raised eyebrows, and his smile faded. Kimberly glanced at Elliott and then wandered into the living room. He led Talor further into the house and inside his bedroom, closing the door after them both. Elliott sat down on the edge of his bed and Talor backed up against the desk, gripping the front edge with both hands. Elliott felt slightly uncomfortable being on a lower level, but he didn’t want to move and let the vampire know it.
“Don’t think about taking Kimmy away with you. She’s too young” he said firmly.
Talor smiled widely at him and he glimpsed the pointed fangs where normal human incisors should be. He refrained from flinching and stared straight at the blood sucker.
“Your sister’s just two years younger than you, Elliott. I can see that you love her very much. But I can also see you betrayed your love for Elara today. Your blood temperature is much higher than usual” Talor said blandly.
Elliott flushed and lowered his gaze, ashamed.
“She’s married now, vamp. Nothing I do now is going to mean very much to her. She has never loved me” he muttered bleakly.
Talor stared back at him. Then he shook his head.
“No, you are wrong. Whatever you do that could offend her will offend her. She does love you. She knows that if my brother had not removed her from this society, she would marry you. You were always her only choice, Elliott. Elle would have grown from fondness of you to love for you. And that is the crux of the matter which I have come to talk to you about” he replied.
Elliott glanced back across at him curiously.
“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.
Talor folded his arms, opened his mouth to speak, then glanced to the side of him. Elliott looked towards the door and saw it open slowly, then Kimberly appeared.
“Mom wants to know if you want to stay for dinner, Talor” she said, smiling at him.
Elliott suppressed an unwanted smile, imagining what it would be like for his family, especially his little sister, if the teenage vampire stayed for dinner.
But, to his immense relief, Talor shook his head.
“No, thank you, Kimberly. Please tell your mother it’s very kind of her to offer, but I have business to attend to elsewhere” he said demurely.
Kimberly nodded, and with a swirl of her blue skirt, was gone. The door shut behind her and Talor looked back to Elliott.
“Yes, anyway. I think that Elara will soon want a child. To me, she has always seemed to be the mothering type” he said clearly, standing up straight now.
Elliott was taken aback.
“I still don’t see why you are telling me this” he said slowly, unsure of the purpose of Talor’s words.
Talor sighed.
“My kind, apart from my parents, cannot produce young” he answered.
“Why only your parents?” Elliott replied.
“Because my mother used to be human. A human woman can produce vampire children when the father is a vampire. But Jayce is different. He is the eldest child and as such, he cannot have children, even by human Elara. He has a vampiric bacterial defect and this completely eradicates his ability to procreate efficiently. Any baby of his Elara carried would be neither wholly human or vampire, and wouldn’t be equipped to survive in either your world or mine” Talor explained matter of factly.
Elliott raised an eyebrow.
“Still don’t get it, bro. And, I’m afraid, you are running out of time. Kimmy will be fetching me for dinner any time soon”he said shortly.
Talor pierced him with his bright eyes.
“When Elara voices the desire for a child, and as she talks more to me than Jayce, I will find out first, I will contact you. I will bring Elara to you so you can give her what she wants” he told him.
Elliott’s eyes widened immeasurably.
“You want me to get my best friend pregnant?” he asked, shocked.
Talor nodded.
“But your brother will kill me” Elliott protested, his mind racing at a million miles per second.
“He would not be strong enough to stand up against me. He is weaker than I am, by a lot” Talor argued calmly.
Elliott stared in disbelief.
“And what on earth makes you think she will have me, just for the sole purpose of having her baby?” he demanded.
Talor smiled at him.
“She will take you, Elliott. If she wants a baby badly enough, and I believe she will, Elara will do anything she possibly can. And she has known you all her life. There is no one else she would rather be with, apart from Jayce. Plus, it’ll be just like sperm donation! Think of it that way, if it helps. If and when it comes to this, Elliott, will you do this for your best friend in the world? Speak the truth to me, Elliott Turner, or you will be sorry, no matter how much Elara does love you” he said, finishing sharply. “I have come to love her, too.”
Elliott blinked, and then finally nodded.
“I will” he decided firmly.
His hands were shaking in his lap.
Talor stepped to the middle of the room, clicked his heels, spun once and vanished.

Chapter 8
The room was totally empty when Elara opened her eyes. At least, at first glance, it was. Lacey was sitting perched primly on the edge of one of the comfortable sofa chairs, her hands curled in her lap. She glanced towards her when she heard Elara wake up.
“How do you feel?” she asked, sounding unusually anxious about something.
Elara tilted her head curiously.
“I feel fine, Lacey. Why do you ask?” she replied.
She almost rolled her eyes; she was beginning to talk like them now.
“You’ve been asleep for two and a half weeks, Elara” Lacey said meekly, pulling her feet up under her on the chair.
Elara sat bolt upright, and instantly wished she hadn’t. The blood rushed to her head, leaving her feeling woozy and sick.
“Ugh” she groaned, pressing her hands to her head and closing her eyes again.
Lacey jumped up and ran across the room to stand by the bed.
“You’re still in my brother’s room. No one saw fit to move you anywhere else” she told her, patting her hand.
Elara peeked at the little girl, wondering why she had been hand picked for the job of waiting for her to wake up.
“Where is he? Jayce, I mean” she said, removing her hands and pulling the duvet up under her chin for extra warmth.
Lacey grimaced and shook her head very slowly.
“I don’t think you really want me to answer that question for you, Elara” she murmured quietly.
Elara narrowed her eyes and sat there helplessly. It wasn’t as if she had any power to overcome the eleven year old vampire child. Lacey could easily hold her own, and Elara would just get ill and fall down, as she eventually always did. She sighed and waited impatiently, folding her arms across her chest.
Lacey fidgeted, then finally broke her silence, unable to handle the lack of speech for another moment.
“He’s feeding” she whispered, as if the word were blasphemous and she would be burnt alive if she spoke it loud enough.
Elara chuckled and laughed harder when Lacey looked at her, incredulous.
“I don’t mind, Lacey. It should bother me, but it doesn’t, as long as I don’t have to watch it done” she explained, grabbing the girl in an impromptu hug.
Lacey awkwardly hugged her back, aware of the strength she wasn’t allowed to use on her frail sister-in-law.
“Do you have any idea how long he’ll be?” Elara inquired casually, leaning back on her pillows.
Lacey shrugged.
“I’m not sure. Us girls don’t take very long because we’re smaller and don’t need to feed as much, but Jayce is male and bigger, so he may take a lot longer; I don’t really know” she replied, stepping back.
Elara watched in surprise and fascination as the girl curtseyed to her. She held up a hand to stop her and Lacey glanced back up at her, perplexed.
“What are you doing that for, may I ask?” Elara asked warily.
Lacey nodded, but she did not move forward again.
“You are next in line for the throne, Elara. You are my elder and my superior, so royal law dictates that I must display my reverence for your majesty. I may call you by your given birth name, but only until you are crowned Queen. For the moment, my mother and father are still occupying those all important positions” she said formally.
Elara raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
“You are a princess of the realm before me, Lacey. You are more important than me in the grand scheme of things, you must know that. I haven’t got a title, remember. Jayce has said nothing of this to me” she responded. “And who taught you such fancy wording?”
Lacey frowned faintly, tapping her small foot on the floor.
“I have been taught how to speak properly since I could speak, Elara. So have Jayce, Talor and Kimba. It is the way we are raised” she answered carefully, hoping not to offend.
Elara stared back at her, still confused and looking for answers.
Lacey sighed quietly.
“Jayce didn’t want to worry you with all of this. Within a year, our father and mother will have resigned and stepped back from their royal duties, and you and Jayce will take their places as King and Queen of the realm. Either before or after that happens, you are expected to produce an heir, preferably a male, but it really doesn’t matter in the long run. A girl can also rule in our world. At some stage, the job should fall to Kimba eventually, even though she is so young at present. We age fairly slowly, but when we reach about thirty years old, our aging clock stops and we stay the same until someone kills us. We cannot die on our own from natural causes” she explained at length.
Elara opened and closed her mouth slowly, unsure what to say next.
“I have to have children? I thought Jayce couldn’t procreate?” she said, her voice breaking from shock.
Lacey shrugged.
“He is one of the smartest vampires I know; I am sure he will figure something out for you both. Now, if you will excuse me, Elle, I must leave and inform Jayce of your newly awakened state” she murmured, dropping a second curtsey and leaving the room.
Elara looked on as she left her alone once more, left to lie and wait until Jayce or somebody else came to assist her. She could feel in her resting bones that almost all her strength was gone, and she didn’t feel right in her own skin.
She was nearly asleep again, her eyelids drooping shut, when Jayce appeared beside the bed, looking down on her. Elara sat back up, fighting the dizziness threatening to overtake her. She glared at Jayce until he flinched and sat down on the edge of the double bed.
“You didn’t tell me I had to have a baby heir, Your Highness” she muttered acidly.
She sniffed and raised her chin, trying her best to be grumpy with him. But when he just sat there, silent and not trying to explain himself, she relented and turned back to him, her brown eyes pleading.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she amended.
Jayce sighed and lifted his eyes to hers.
“I didn’t want to make you worry about it and get sicker” he replied.
Elara rolled her eyes.
“That’s what your sister told me. Try again, Prince” she told him.
“Lacey?”She nodded.
“I knew I should have chosen Kimba. She doesn’t talk as much” Jayce mumbled to himself.
Elara grinned suddenly, imagining trying to extricate from the almost permanently silent Kimba what she had found out from Lacey, the chatterbox.
“I like Lacey, Jayce. I like all your siblings” she said.
“Especially Talor, I’ve noticed. You spend a lot of time with my brother, Elara” Jayce retorted.
She scoffed at him, waving a hand dismissively.
“Talor is like what Elliott is, Jayce. He’s a good friend and I enjoy talking to him. I don’t have Elliott, so don’t complain about who I talk to when you’re never here anyway” she muttered, eyeing him.
“I know, I know” Jayce said defensively, holding up his hands.
His black ring gleamed on his left hand and Elara felt compelled to look at her own wedding ring. The band was lovely, but it made her wonder what it would be like if she had married Elliott instead.
“I meant to ask you something, by the way. I feel a lot weaker than I do usually, and I was wondering if you knew why” she said slowly, fiddling with her ring.
Jayce glanced up sharply and grabbed her face, looking hard into her eyes. Elara stared back into his black orbs, uncertain what he was doing.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
Jayce groaned and took his hands away from her face.
“You’ve been here too long without real sustenance. You’re in the middle at the moment. Somewhere between humanity and vampirism. You have to… I’m so sorry, Elle, honey. You have to feed. The way we do” he told her, staring down at his hands.
Elara gaped at him, her eyes wide. She gulped as she tried to find more words to say back, but she could find none. All she could do was close her eyes as Jayce leaned down and scooped her up into his arms, walking to the bedroom door. Talor appeared framed in the doorway. He met Jayce’s gaze and shook his head at his older brother.
“No. She can’t do it, Jayce. It isn’t right or ethical” he said sternly, his hand on Jayce’s shoulder.
But Jayce just moved past him and kept on walking along the hallway until he reached the end door. As he walked purposefully, Elara felt two slight pinpricks of pain burning in her mouth, at the tops of her gums. Jayce started to walk faster, and she knew he must be able to tell what was happening to her. She could hear pounding feet behind them and knew that Talor was following right on Jayce’s heels.
Elara opened her mouth and gingerly prodded her upper gums. She hissed in pain when she touched a tender spot, something sharp almost coming right through to touch her fingertip. Jayce groaned again; he sounded like he was in immense pain.
Talor raced behind and managed to put a hand on his brother’s shoulder again, spinning him round. He glared at him heavily, his eyes just as black.
“At least let me take her to someone who won’t mind, brother. Where she’ll be safe” he begged, his words dark and foreboding.
Jayce stared at him for a moment before nodding slowly and giving Elara to his younger brother. He kissed her forehead and Talor stepped around him, immediately transporting the girl and himself to their new destination.
Elara started to cry when she saw Elliott sleeping peacefully in his bed back at home. She shook her head adamantly, but Talor let her down onto her feet, and as soon as she touched familiar territory once more, the feeling of home sang in her veins and the pull of her best friend’s blood pulled her towards him. She sat down on the bed, the mattress sinking slightly under her delicate weight. Elara held back the remaining tears and reached out her hand to lightly touch Elliott’s hair, brushing the dark strands away from his eyes. They opened, very fast, and then he was sitting upright, staring at her in shock and fright. It was then that Elara realised that two small, lethal fangs were protruding from beneath her upper lip. She wasn’t a full vampire yet, but she was hungry and human food wasn’t going to cut it now. She was halfway there, but there was still some ways to go before she met all requirements.
“Elle” Elliott breathed quietly, reaching up to hold the hand that was still stroking his hair.
Talor approached the bed and guided Elara’s gaze to the blood line flowing under the skin of Elliott’s neck. He backed away from the vampire in a hurry and appraised his friend again, this time understanding all.
“No, Elara. Please don’t” he said softly, letting go of her hand.
Elara steeled herself and moved forward, up the bed until she was near enough to see the blood coursing through the boy’s veins. She placed her mouth over the closest artery, and bit down.

Chapter 9
When Talor returned with Elara to Jayce’s bedroom, he was there waiting for them. His gaze was hard and unforgiving as he turned it on his brother. Elara went to him immediately, for once fairly steady on her feet. She sat sideways on his lap and hugged him round the neck. He listened to her still beating heart for a moment before sliding her gently onto the bed and standing up.
“You shouldn’t have taken her to feed off of her best friend, Talor!” he shouted, his normally calm face thunderous with rage.
Talor shrugged.
“You followed, didn’t you? Thought you would” he replied casually, glancing briefly at the ceiling.
Elara watched the two of them, worried for their health. Jayce wasn’t as strong as Talor was.
“I’m sorry, Jayce” she said quietly, from behind him. “I didn’t want to, but I had to…”
He turned to face her, his features softening somewhat.
“I know you had to” he said. “But Talor shouldn’t have taken you there, knowing what an attachment you have to that boy.”
Talor sighed and turned toward the bedroom doorway. Jayce stepped in front of him, blocking his path out.
“You’re not going anywhere, little brother. You have to answer to me first” he muttered steadily.
Talor raised one dark eyebrow and lunged at his brother. Elara gasped and sat up straight, ignoring the twinge in her shoulder blades, and stared in horror as they went at each other like rabid dogs. Jayce snarled roughly when Talor aimed a jab up into his throat, rolling away from the hit and coming up under the other boy, jamming his shoulder into Talor’s stomach. Even as vampires, they fought as teenage boys, or as grown men. They didn’t bite each other, not once.
“Stop it!” she cried out loudly, clenching her hands into fists.
Ignoring her, Talor grabbed Jayce’s arm and forced it up behind his back, at an unnatural angle. His fevered black eyes met Elara’s gentle brown ones, and she saw in them what she’d never seen in Elliott’s: pure, unadulterated innocence and passionate desperation. He thought he knew so much, but of real life, he knew nothing.
Elara clambered off the bed and walked unsteadily over to the boys, grasping Talor’s upper arms. He stared back at her in surprise. Maybe what he saw in her face spoke something to him, because he let go of Jayce and moved away from them.
“Don’t hurt him” Elara said firmly, her arms now around Jayce’s neck again. “He is my Prince and I don’t want you to harm him.”
Talor blinked and then turned around, facing the door once again. But then he pivoted on one foot to gaze at the two of them. Jayce slowly shook his head at him warningly.
“Don’t do it, Talor. You’ll regret it one of these days; you open your big mouth too often.”
Elara clung to him, feeling her strange new strength ebbing away and streaming straight into Jayce. She felt weak once more, and she slumped down onto the ground, her eyes shut. Jayce knelt next to her, his hands gently touching her hair and face. He glanced back up to see Talor was still standing in the same place.
“You should tell her before someone else does, Jayce. Before I do, or before she feels it inside herself. It won’t stop, brother. By now, you know that much. Don’t leave it to fate, or me, or one of the girls to tell her. It has to be you, or it won’t mean the same. One day, she might be gone and you won’t be able to do a thing about it” he told him quietly, his eyes faraway and icy.
Jayce dropped his head and stared at the carpet. Elara was lying on her side, her head tilted up towards the ceiling. He thought she was beautiful, but that would all end if he didn’t tell her what he knew he must. She could leave him, because Talor would take her home, and he would never be able to retrieve her again. What he did was about to ruin her, but he had to tell her about it anyway, or everything would go wrong.
He lifted his head and met Elara’s wide open brown eyes. She smiled at him and extended her arms; he pulled her to a sitting position and then moved her onto the bed. She sat there, her legs crossed, the folds of her white dress draped over her delicate limbs.
“What do you need to tell me?” she asked curiously, lying back on the bed.
Jayce sat up beside her, staring down at her face. Just to make sure of it, he laid both hands gently on her stomach and pressed down ever so lightly. He bit his lower lip and sucked in a quick breath when something pressed back at him. He glanced back at Elara, but she hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. But she was staring at him with a peculiar look on her face, wondering what on earth he was doing to her abdomen.
“Speak” she ordered bluntly, raising her eyebrows at him.
He sighed and rocked backward on his heels, moving his hands slowly off her stomach.
“You’re pregnant” he said sadly, turning his back on her.
Jayce climbed off the bed and walked to the door, only once looking back at her. Elara sat bolt upright, her eyes focused on him. Jayce stopped moving and gazed back at her.
“How?” she breathed, eyes wide.
Jayce copied his brother’s earlier shrug, smiling weakly at her.
“The usual way, I suppose” he replied.
Elara scowled darkly at him and waited.
Jayce folded his arms and leaned back against the door frame.
“Elle, I have a vampiric bacterial malfunction inside of me. A tiny percentage of my genetic makeup is human, unlike my siblings’. The baby you are carrying in you is neither human or vampire. I don’t know exactly what will happen when it comes out of you. It’s never happened in the past, except once” he started, stopping when he saw Elara open her mouth.
“Once before? What happened to her?” she demanded.
“She got very sick and then she died. But that might not happen to you. You could be fine” Jayce replied, making an attempt to calm her down.
Elara stared at him, panic stricken.
“Can’t you get it out of me?” she asked him, her voice turning shrill and frightened.
Jayce walked back towards her, his footsteps silent and fast. He stood before her, his hands on her shaking shoulders.
“No. It has to come out when it’s ready to be born. But it won’t live; it will perish very quickly, so you don’t need to worry about feeding it” he mumbled.
Elara threw off his hands and stalked to the door.
“I won’t be feeding it if I’m dead!” she yelled at him, terror in her eyes.
Jayce started toward her, but she held up her hand to stop him.
“I’m going to find Talor. He will help me” she hissed, turning on her heel and swishing away from him.
Jayce moaned and broke into a run. He ran the other way, out of the castle and into the long grass still growing outside. He ran until he reached the edge of the blue crystalline lake and jumped in, cutting right through the surface without a splash.

Talor heard Elara searching for him before she came into view of him. He sat on a window ledge, waiting for her. She arrived next to him, her shoulders bowed from the effort of walking that far alone.
He looked up at her, a placid smile on his handsome pale face.
“Yes, Elara?” he asked politely.
Elara jabbed a finger at her stomach and he nodded, understanding. Her eyes were alight with fire and pain as she glared at him.
“Get it out of me. Now!” she instructed him, her mouth trembling.
Talor nodded again and hopped off his stone ledge. His boots made a ringing sound when they hit the stone floor, but he ignored the annoying noise. He cocked his head to the side and placed his hands on either side of her tummy, feeling the strange life form inside her twitch and turn. Then he gripped the flimsy fabric in his fists and tore it apart so he could see her skin. Elara gasped at the shock of it, but she said nothing, unwisely trusting him with this thing.
Talor grinned at the trust he knew she bore for him and then opened his mouth wide, revealing his pointed incisors. Elara saw him and took a startled step back from him.
“What are you…” she began, but then was cut off quickly.
She heard Jayce’s agonised cry in her head when Talor sank his fangs into her belly, ripping easily through the fragile skin. The cry in her mind surpassed her own physical pain and she hated herself for knowingly putting him in such agony. For Elara knew the voice in her head was the Prince’s, as well as she now knew that Talor was a far darker prince of the realm than his brother was.
She sank down onto the flagstones, Talor satiating his thirst on her life’s blood. She felt the tormented baby slip from her as he ripped his fangs through its tiny chest. She began crying, her sobs weak and tortured. Her baby was surely dead now, but she was dying, too.
And then Talor looked up, dark blood dripping from his lips and chin. Elara turned her face away from him, but he reached up a hand and forced her to look at him again. She trembled as she stared into his eyes. Only pure evil remained.
“If you want, I can help you, Elle. I can give you what you really want: a nice, pretty human baby. Do you want that?”
Even as she realised she was being hypnotised by him, Elara nodded. Suddenly, all she wanted was a baby of her own, and not a monstrous one.
And if Talor could get her that, then well…

Down at the bottom of the blue lake, Jayce opened his mouth and screamed. His lungs filled with water and he sank like a stone, landing on his back. He thrashed and rolled, but the grey vines wrapping around his wrists and ankles were too strong. He hadn’t the right strength to break away from his brother. So his one love would suffer because of his stupid foolishness. As he drowned, he cursed the day Talor had ever been born.

Chapter 10
Talor was carrying Elara again when she woke up, stirring against his chest. He looked down at her briefly and smiled.
“I see you’re awake now” he said casually.
Elara struggled and he put her down, her bare feet touching on the damp grass. She looked around her, bewildered.
“I don’t want you to hold me up” she muttered sullenly, moving away from him.
Talor chuckled and shrugged his wide shoulders, not bothered in the least.
“That’s fine, but I need you to hold my hand though. I can’t have you running away from me now, can I” he replied calmly.
Elara half heartedly glared at him, then allowed him to take her hand in his. She hated him then, despised the feeling of her skin touching his. He was warm, but right in that moment, she missed Jayce’s coolness.
She walked by Talor’s side toward the blue lake, pausing just beside the edge of the gently lapping water. Puzzled, Elara glanced at her brother-in-law and saw his handsome gloating face. He was gazing down through the water, past the water vines and the occasional fish. She followed his stare and saw everything that he saw. She gasped and squeezed his hand unintentionally, her eyes wide. Her blunt nails bit into his skin, but no blood leaked from the tiny cuts. The thin lacerations healed immediately after they occurred.
Elara exclaimed in rage and terror and yanked her hand out of Talor’s grip, falling to her hands and knees beside the lake. She stared into the water, down to where Jayce was floating, suspended right at the very bottom. She could see that there were dark green vines wound around him, and his black eyes were shut. He appeared to be at peace, but when she glanced farther down at his hands, she saw they were clenched into tight fists, and his skin was paler than ever before.
Slowly, Elara stood up again, turning to face Talor.
“Why are you doing this to him?” she asked, her voice dark and lonely.
Talor shrugged again.
“Because I hate my brother, little Elara. He always gets what he wants, but for a change, he just might not. He cannot father your children, but I know someone who can. I know someone who can give you what you want, and who won’t kill you in the process” he told her coolly, holding out his hand once more.
Elara stared blankly down at it, shaking her head.
“I’m not going with you, you sick freak. I will not bear your illegitimate children” she spat harshly, holding her head high.
Talor burst out laughing, bending double at the waist. She gazed at him, her eyes darkening and her arms crossed.
“What?” she demanded.
Talor glanced over at her, sheer amusement in his eyes.
“Not my illegitimate children, my dearest girl” he replied, smiling at her.
“Then whose?” Elara queried, morbidly curious.
Talor stared straight at her then, his gaze piercing through to her vulnerable human heart. Her questions amused him, she knew. She could see now that all she ever was to him was a plaything to be used up and discarded as soon as something, or someone, more fun arrived. He wanted to ruin Jayce, and by ruining her, he would get his truest, dearest wish.
“Elliott Turner’s” Talor said clearly, so there could be no mistake in her hearing.
Elara stared back at him, her face ghostly white. Her hands started to tremble, and she clenched them hard. Her nails left crescent moon marks in her soft skin. She stood there shaking her head, her long blonde hair swinging back and forth in front of her face. She couldn’t do it; she would not do it. It would hurt Jayce, and it would hurt her. She was tired of being the one who let everybody down.
“Just leave him to Cleo. She’ll take care of him” she murmured quietly.
Talor shook his head this time, his features hardening slightly.
“No can do, little one. He made a deal with me. He’ll give you what you want, and I won’t murder him. Settled? Hurry up now” he said briskly.
Elara closed her eyes, thinking of poor Elliott. He had no idea of what fate was about to befall him.
“But it’s not what I want” she whispered softly.
Talor whipped back around to stare hard at her, eyebrows raised high.
“Yes, it is” he said sharply, his dark eyes focusing on hers again.
Elara shook her head, shutting her eyes and smiling very faintly. There had to be some game he could not win.
“No, you’re wrong, Talor. If never having kids is the consequence of being with Jayce, I have no qualms. I won’t complain to him, ever. I don’t want anybody else. Never have. Never will. You can’t have known that I have loved him since I first saw him on my twelfth birthday six years ago” she explained calmly.
Talor hissed in annoyance and lunged forward to grab her arm. With a swirl of dust and blonde hair, Elara was transported to a terribly familiar place once more.

At the bottom of the lake, Jayce fought to open his eyes. He had heard their conversation, and he had no doubt that Talor wanted it to be that way. But he would bet on his brother’s life that he had not desired for it to end the way it did, with Elara defying him, and what he thought of her. He almost smiled to himself at the thought of his fragile bride standing up to an angry vampire prince; when the angry vampire prince wasn’t him. She had no problem getting angry with him, that he knew.
But Elara still loved him; she had said so much herself, and that knowledge and certainty he could cherish.
Jayce reclosed his eyes and stared instead at the insides of his eyelids. The thin skin was cut through with lacy blood red veins again. He was starving, and his stomach was beginning to revolt within him. He twisted in the water, his lungs burning again. When would it stop? When would his agony be enough for his brother? When was Talor going to give up and let his wife go?
Better she be somewhere else, with somebody else, than here in the vicinity of such darkness.

Elara opened her eyes, and there was Elliott, yet again. She forced the tears back from her eyes and looked away from him. Talor stepped forward to stand directly in front of the terrified eighteen year old.
As Elara gazed at the carpeting, Elliott stood toe to toe with Talor, their own gazes locked on each other. She didn’t want to listen.
“Well, human. I’m here now and she’s here now. It’s time for you to hold up your end of this cursed bargain” Talor instructed curtly, jerking his thumb at Elara.
Elliott snuck a peek at her, and Talor smacked him across the face.
“Look at me when I’m addressing you, mortal!” he ordered loudly.
Elliott’s attention snapped back to him as he continued to shake.
“It’s your turn” Talor said again, more quietly this time round.
Elliott nodded very slowly and glanced again at the girl, his all time best friend. He was a traitor, and they each knew it.
He extended a hand to her and she eventually took it, allowing him to lead her. She eased down on the bed and closed her eyes tightly.
Gradually, she released all control of her personal self and wept uncontrollably until it was all over.

The blue waters roared and roiled around and above Jayce, and he opened his eyes once again. He felt his restraints give way slowly, and he soared to the surface of the lake. His lungs filled with air and he was suddenly on blessed land again. He gulped in more air and staggered to his feet, straightening his shoulders one crick at a time.
He knew that Talor had finished what he wanted to complete and that it was mostly over now. Then he glimpsed the two far off figures walking slowly towards the castle doors. The taller figure was carrying something. Someone.
Jayce took off at a dead run, his soaked form covering more ground than he ever had in his past years. As he came up nearer to the two, he could see that Talor was carrying Elliott’s bloodless limp body in his arms. Around his brother’s right wrist was a chain and trailing behind him, attached to the chain, was a defeated Elara. Her eyes were dead, her skin ashen pale. She looked ill, more so than after their wedding night.
Jayce glared at Talor and stopped in front of him, his hands on his hips.
“What did you do to Elliott?” he demanded.
Talor stared at him, blank eyes fathomless and frightening with their depth.
“He’s dead, brother” he replied absently.
He glanced casually behind him at his prisoner, but she didn’t raise her head. Her gaze was cast down at the ground, and her slow steps had faltered. She knew Jayce was there with them.
“How?” Jayce asked then.
Talor nodded at Elara.
“Ask her; she did it to him. Afterwards, she bit him and drank him dry. Said it was better for him than to be alive anymore” he replied, sounding normal.
Jayce gaped at Elara, but all she did was sway where she stood and keep her eyes closed.
“He deserved a decent death and I couldn’t give it to him. But I could relieve him of whatever Talor had in store for him. He was my best friend, Jayce. I couldn’t just let him go like that. Like nothing had ever happened” Elara said quietly.
Jayce slowly nodded, understanding her well.
“But I fear I have done you a disservice” Elara continued slowly.
He glanced at her face, which was now upturned. He was shocked at the nothingness in her eyes, the pallor of her soul.
“I’m scared, Jayce. I’m…sorry. So sorry. Don’t…hurt me” she added.
And then her brown eyes rolled back into her skull and she crumpled to the ground like a leaf.

Chapter 11
“Elle!”
Elara groaned and opened her eyes, staring up, wide eyed, at the spinning ceiling above her. It gradually came to a halt and the colours came back into focus. Someone was holding her hands; she looked up and saw that it was Jayce, his dark eyes filled with concern for her.
“You fainted” he said cautiously.
She nodded and struggled to a sitting position.
“I know” she mumbled, glancing back at his face.
Jayce didn’t look particularly angry, but his eyebrows were drawn together as if he was.
Elara looked over his shoulder and saw Talor trussed up and leaning against the far wall. His bonds were made of toughest spider silk, the knots almost entirely impenetrable. She raised her eyebrows.
“You tied him up?” she questioned curiously.
Jayce shrugged, looking not sheepish in the slightest.
“I had to do it. He kept running away” he replied calmly, shooting one quick glance back at his brother.
Elara nodded thoughtfully.
“What have you done with Elliott?” she asked then, her gaze suddenly sharper and intent.
Jayce winced and sighed lightly, but he answered her nevertheless.
“He’s lying in an open grave out in the field. I didn’t cover him up yet because I thought you would want to see him once more before you said goodbye for good” he said quietly.
Elara closed her eyes, concentrating on the faint patterns on the insides of her eyelids.
“I said goodbye to the minute he robbed me, Prince. But I shall say it again” she told him, squeezing his hands slightly.
Jayce nodded and helped her up to her feet. He held her hand as they walked toward the bedroom door. He kicked Talor in the head as they passed by him, and he slumped over, his chin hitting his chest.
Elara looked up at Jayce.
“You can knock out vampires? I didn’t know that” she said slowly.
Jayce laughed humourlessly and led her onward.
“I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to, my love. You are not strong enough” he replied, holding her hand tighter.
Elara snorted, but accepted it as known truth. She knew she wasn’t strong enough, would never be. She kept walking and they eventually came out the back of the castle, onto grounds she hadn’t seen before. The grass was shorter here, because she had never set foot amidst the blades, but as she walked through, it grew taller and greener. She couldn’t help smiling as she went, watching the foliage spring up and bloom with abandon.
“I thought he should be buried in a place you hadn’t seen before, so it wouldn’t be soiled by good memories in terrible circumstances. The hole is just over here” Jayce murmured, gently guiding Elara over to the left a way.
They reached the edge of the grave hole and looked down into it. Elara covered her sharp intake of breath by pretending to cough, but Jayce wasn’t fooled. He just didn’t say anything. He helped her to kneel down on the grassy edge and held onto her as she gazed downwards.
Elara reached out a hand toward her lifelong best friend, then let it drop back down next to her on the grass. He looked so peaceful, though she knew he was entirely empty. There was nothing left inside him that she could mourn, whether it be life blood or a good heart. He had lost it all when he agreed to ruin her, when he agreed to help Talor break his brother’s heart. Break her husband’s unbeating heart.
But, she had saved him from himself. Saved him from her brother-in-law, guessing the damage he could do to Elliott and his family. Kimberly would miss her brother undoubtedly, but at least she had the good fortune to never know how it had happened.
Jayce placed a hand on the back of Elara’s head, the coolness of his skin salving her mental wounds. Self inflicted wounds. She bled, but no one could see.
“I’m sorry, Elliott” she whispered softly. “I’m so sorry you couldn’t be brave enough to save me when I could never save myself. You broke my heart even though I always loved you. Just not how you wanted. Fly now, friend. Fly and never grow up.”
By the time she had finished, the tears were pouring out of her eyes and down her pale cheeks, dripping down onto the jewel green grass below. As she started to fall forward slightly, Jayce grabbed her and pulled her back away from the grave’s edge.
“It’s not your time, Elle. You’re not going anywhere just yet” he told her, stroking her hair.
Then he got back up and fetched a black shovel that had been lying on the ground nearby. He began throwing the upended dirt back into the hole in the earth, the dark clods landing with a mighty thump each time one landed on or around Elliott’s body.
Elara covered her eyes and wept, feeling her heart splinter into many more small, jagged pieces than before. She stood up, staggering slightly for a few steps. Jayce heard her and turned round, leaning on the handle of the spade. He raised an eyebrow at her and waited in total and complete silence. He was so perfect at doing that.
Elara took a deep breath in, then slowly expelled it in a long gust.
“I’m pregnant, Jayce. Again” she said, trying to be bold.
Jayce sighed again, leaning more heavily on the shovel.
“I know that” he muttered, half to himself.
“How?”
He pointed at her stomach.
“I could hear it when you were sleeping, Elle. Not much because the baby is basically human, but I could hear it nonetheless. I think it’s going to be a boy” he said, attempting to sound as calm as possible.
Elara stared at him.
“What do you mean by ‘basically human’?” she asked, all of a sudden nervous.
“You aren’t entirely human anymore, Elara. But Elliott is, or rather, he was. He’s dead now, of course. The baby is mostly human, so don’t panic. He’ll be able to survive in either of our worlds” Jayce explained, dropping the shovel and heading towards her.
Elara nodded and dropped to the grass again, wrapping her arms round her knees. She batted away Jayce’s hands and gestured him back to the grave. She watched him shovel dirt into it until the moon rose in the dark blue sky and the stars emerged to wish them a good night.

Chapter 12
Cleo rapped her knuckles on the front door of the Turner residence. She could feel them starting to bruise from the beating she was giving them. Nobody was opening the door, but she wasn’t going to give up.
At last, it swung open a bit and she could see Kimberly standing behind it, partially hidden by shadow. Cleo cocked a hip and glared at the younger girl.
“Well, finally! Far out, girl. Where is your horrible, lying, good for nothing older brother, Kimmy? He owes me a pretty fantastic apology! Or an excuse, at the very least!” she half shouted, raising her voice to above its normal decibel level.
Kimberly pulled the door further open and Cleo saw her parents standing a little distance behind her. She raised her eyebrows insolently, but she was beginning to feel uneasy, as if there was something she didn’t know and she perhaps shouldn’t be there, yelling at them.
Kimberly sniffed and swiped away an errant tear from her cheek.
“None of us know where he is, Cleo. Elliott’s just gone and he hasn’t come back. He’s been away for a week already and none of the neighbours know where he is either. Do you? Oh, no, obviously not” she said quietly, digging the toe of her boot into the scuffed blue hallway carpet.
Cleo stared at her, her eyes wide. She shook her head and moved forward, opening her arms. Kimberly walked into them, wrapping her own arms tightly around Cleo’s neck.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know” Cleo whispered, gently stroking her hair.
Kimberly started to cry, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Cleo shut her eyes, feeling her own tears building up behind her eyes. They were unwanted, but they were there. She shouldn’t be here, a part of this. She had led their son and brother away from his rightful future: her sister, Elara.
‘Oh, I’m so sorry, sis’ she thought sadly, wishing with all her might that there was a way Elara might hear her.
“Would you like to come in, Cleopatra?” Kimberly’s mother asked her, stepping forward slightly.
Cleo shook her head again and smiled faintly at the woman. She felt for the entire family at this point; her own parents didn’t care that their other daughter had been missing for weeks now, and Alexander was no closer to seeing her again either. But the Turner family had always been closely knitted together and for that, she envied them all.
She took a step away from Kimberly and let her go.
“I’m so sorry, Kimmy. I’m sorry I shouted at you. I was angry at Elliott, but I see now that the anger was unwarranted, especially when directed at you. I’ll leave you to grieve in peace” she murmured.
She gave them one last weak, watery smile, a wave and then she turned around to leave them alone.
“Cleo, wait!”
Cleo turned back briefly to see Kimberly hurrying after her, holding an object out towards her in her clenched fist. A fine black chain dangled from her hand, and she knew at once what it was. Elliott’s old school locket, which he had worn ever since they were ten or eleven years old. Inside the dark bronze circular locket lay a curl of Elara’s blonde hair.
In a daze, Cleo reached for it and took the necklace from her. She glanced up to meet Kimberly’s gaze, searching it for truth and rightness. Kimberly nodded, a tiny smile grazing her pretty features.
“I’m sorry, too, Cleo. I’m sorry he never loved you the way you would have liked him to. But here is a small piece of who Elliott was, who my…brother was. He loved you in his own way. I think that he would want you to have this now, if he was here. I think he would agree with me. Please take it and never lose it. Keep your sister with you. I don’t need to have a piece of my brother with me at all times. He’s in here” she told her, pressing a hand against her heart.
Cleo ignored the well veiled stab at her lack of closeness with her twin and smiled again. Perhaps Kimberly Turner was all the stronger for carrying her brother in her heart, but Cleo needed something tangible to go on. She folded her fingers tightly over the cold locket and turned away for the second time.
But this time, she wasn’t called back.
When she looked back at the end of the driveway, the door was closed and all the lights were out. She sighed and kept going down the street, under cover of near dark. As she arrived at the end of her own street, the anger was boiling up inside her, forcing the red mist over her eyes. Maybe Elliott was dead, but now she had lost two people who were close to her heart. And there was only a small handful of people she could blame for the disappearances.

Out of his stuporous sleep, Talor’s head snapped up. He stared around him in the darkness of the castle’s bottom cellar. Someone had called for him. A girl. She sounded like Elara, but he knew ever so well now that Elara would not be summoning him at any time of the day or night. So it must be the twin sister, Cleopatra. He chuckled to himself, amused by the girl’s foolishness. She must be angry with him, to call him up like this. A certain thought caught him up, though. Unless she was summoning Jayce… It was more likely, he must admit, but still. It would be much more fun for him if he took the call…
Talor stood up and shook off his bonds. His brother needed to relearn how to tie tight, efficient knots. He seemed to have forgotten how.
He walked to the door, bent low and examined the lock. He reached into one of his pockets and retrieved a small silver hairpin. He had slipped it from Elara’s hair when she was preoccupied with slaughtering the stupid boy, her so called best friend. He shook his dark head, his eyes betraying the derision and black condescension lying within the fathomless depths.
He finished picking the easy lock and slipped past the door barrier. There was no guard posted to keep him incarcerated, so he just sprinted up the stairs and out into the first corridor he came to.
When his booted feet hit the grass outside his home, now his useless prison, he dematerialised.

Cleo slid the locket into her jacket pocket and wandered along the darkening street, unaware of the black shadow trailing her, matching her step for step on the opposite side of the street. She turned down her front pathway and stepped up onto the concrete doorstep. She grumbled to herself about her father never leaving the door unlocked when she asked him to, and began rummaging in her other pockets for her door key.
A slight faint sound behind her alerted her to the fact she was not by herself, as she assumed she was. She turned quickly to face Talor, his grin wicked and cold. Immediately, she registered what had happened.
She had summoned a dangerous vampire.
And he had come.
Talor took two steps forward and grabbed her hands, taking the locket from her fingers. He looked down at it lying in his own hand, the light chain pooling over his palm and fingers. He glanced back up at Cleo and met her worried eyes with his fierce ones.
“Hello, little girl” he said softly, his tone dark and sneering.
Cleo moved backwards until her back slammed against her front door. He reached for her and she screamed. She heard running footsteps coming from inside her house, but she also knew without a doubt that she would be gone before they could get to her.
“Not that they could help you anyway” Talor whispered into her ear, suddenly standing right next to her.
Cleo shivered and then he took her.

Chapter 13
Jayce stood in the narrow doorway to the downstairs cellar, his black eyes wide. Not again. Talor had escaped his bonds and made a run for it. He turned and ran back up the steps, along the corridor and just kept running until he reached the outside steps. He looked frantically for Elara in the nearest green field, knowing that it was the place she most liked to go now. Her preferences had changed since she became pregnant again. Jayce clenched his jaw, unable to completely contain his anger at the unseemly betrayal of his love. But then, he had to remember to remind himself, it hadn’t been entirely her fault either. Nothing was ever really Elara’s fault. She was too weak to do much for herself, now especially. His home sapped the energy and life out of her system, leaving not much to remain inside her body.
His gaze swept the field, suddenly narrowing in on a slightly darker area off to one side of the castle. He ran towards it, sighing with relief when he realised that it was, indeed, Elara. She was sitting below the tall grasses, her legs curled up underneath her, her billowy skirts covering her. She looked up at him when he dropped next to her, balancing on his toes. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind one ear.
Elara smiled at him, her hands tucked neatly together in her lap. Her long dark gold hair blew around her shoulders and her face in the faint wind surrounding the two of them.
“What’s the matter?” she suddenly asked him, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head to the left to examine him all the better.
He shook his head ruefully; she was just as perceptive as he was, perhaps even more than he sometimes.
“I came to find you. I was worried” he replied, purposely evading the true answer to her pointed question.
Elara raised her eyebrows at him, awaiting a proper answer.
“Talor has gone” Jayce said quietly, ducking his head down and staring at her skirt.
He heard her sharp exhale of breath and stayed where he was, his neck exposed. And so he waited.
Elara ignored his obvious submission and stretched out a hand to curl her fingers into his thick black hair.
“Why do you think I blame you for all this?” she asked him quietly, gesturing loosely all around her and then at her stomach.
Jayce glanced at her and frowned, sniffing slightly. She gave his shoulders a sharp yank and he fell forward onto her lap. He turned onto his back and looked up at her from upside down on the grass. He blinked slowly.
“Because I brought you into all this horror stuff. My life is what nightmares are made of, Elara Montford” he told her, closing his eyes.
“Not Montford” Elara shot back quickly, tugging a curl of his hair hard.
He winced, but opened his eyes again and smiled faintly at her.
“Thank you” he murmured, shifting to make himself more comfortable.
“Anyway…shouldn’t we be doing something to find your brother? I mean, he can’t be getting up to anything good right now” Elara said wisely, leaning over him and blotting out the little sun there was.
Jayce scrunched up his nose and listened to the heart sounds from inside her womb, the little noises reminding him of the life growing right within her body. He sat up and swivelled round to stare at her. Elara sighed and reached out to grab his hands, pulling him forward and placing his hands on her tummy. There wasn’t much for him to feel at that moment, but slight flickers of life were still in there. She was waiting for his reaction, he knew, so he gave her a weak approximation of a happy grin. Elara scoffed at his failure of an attempt and stood up, brushing loose grass off her long skirts. She leaned down, one hand pressed to the centre of her aching back, and held out her free hand to offer him help up. Although he didn’t need it, Jayce grabbed her hand and got to his feet, stretching his arms high above his head.
“Do you think there’s anyone out there for Talor?” Elara asked him, sounding absent and altogether there at once.
Jayce glanced sharply at her, surprised.
“What do you mean by that, love?” he asked her, taking her hand again and starting to lead her back towards the castle.
Elara shrugged and stared up at the blue skies stretching way over them.
“I wonder if there’s a girl out there for him. Somebody who could make him a lot happier than he is now. Because you know he’s mad and unhappy, Jayce. Don’t deny it. I know you too well. In and out, topsy-turvy” she replied, squeezing his hand tightly.
Jayce rolled his eyes, knowing instinctively that she was far beyond right.
“Who would have him?” he retorted grumpily, imagining some tough type of girl who would dream of being forever bound to a psychopathic vampire man-child.
Elara dug her nails into his hand and glared at him, her brown eyes darkening under his gaze.
“Shut up. He’s still your little brother” she muttered reproachfully.
Jayce raised his eyebrows at her, skeptical.
“You’ve got to be kidding me there, love. My little brother is insane and doesn’t deserve to have someone loving him. He’s too wrong in the head. He could and would never appreciate a girl who gave up her life for him to be spirited away to no man’s land for the rest of her half immortal existence” he said blackly.
Elara grumbled something incoherent under her breath and nudged his shoulder with the side of her head.
“Don’t you love him?” she asked softly.
She sounded almost scared to hear the answer from him. Jayce thought long and hard before he opened his mouth to reply to her query this time…
“I think I used to, once. There was a time, Elle, when there was nothing wrong with him and he used to be just a loving little boy. But no one can bring that side of him back ever again, I swear it. He is too far gone to the other side. And when a vampire goes to that side of things, they very rarely come back from it” he told her, gently putting pressure on her hand in his.
Elara gazed up at him, a curiously perplexed expression on her face.
“What is it?” Jayce asked her, feeling all of a sudden nervous for an unexplained reason.
“Do you know of any vampires who returned from that bad place?” Elara asked him.
She sounded childlike in her questioning, the tone of her voice was so light and pale.
Jayce took a deep breath.
“Yes, I do” he replied, ever so quietly.
Elara stopped walking and turned to face him, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
“Who was it, Jayce? My Prince, tell me” she ordered, staring into his face.
“Me” Jayce said simply, turning away from her and walking into the castle by himself.
“Yes, it was him. Did you not know that, little Elara?”
They both stiffened, hearing and immediately knowing the voice at the same time. Jayce turned back around and hurried to Elara’s side once more. Once he reached her, he realised why she was staring dumbly at Talor.
The boy was carrying a slumping Cleo in his arms, her head snug against his chest. Her bobbed blonde hair fell in her closed eyes and her wrists were visibly bound together with silvery tape. Elara recovered her senses and glared at Talor, her mood changed completely. She shuffled Jayce’s unclear answer into the recesses of her mind, ready to bring out again later when there was time to go into the gory details.
“What did you do to my sister?” she demanded of him, taking a few steps forward, Jayce moving protectively along after her straight away.
He kept one hand on her back, ready to act at the slightest violent provocation from his younger brother.
“She’s in a trance, Elara” he muttered in her ear, lightly stroking between her shoulder blades to calm her down.
She shuddered at the notion of her sister being awake, but not aware of what was going on around her.
“What are you going to do with Cleo?” Jayce asked then, his dark eyes fixated on Talor’s equally black orbs.
Talor shrugged calmly, his gaze cool and controlled.
“Lock her up until I feel like playing with her a bit. Might feed off of her a few times until I throw up” he said casually, jostling Cleo in his arms.
Her head snapped back and then forward again and she was suddenly awake. She breathed in sharply and looked at her sister.
“Ellie, I’m so sorry” she whispered, stretching a hand out towards her.
Elara shook her head and smiled faintly back at her.
“It’s fine, Cleopatra. I don’t mind so much anymore” she said in reply.
Cleo nodded and her head fell back once more.
Elara sobbed and stumbled back onto Jayce, her eyes filling up with unbidden tears. They stung harshly and she turned her face into his chest, comforting herself in the slight warmth she felt from his unbeating heart.

Chapter 14
Five months later
Cleo looked up towards the entranceway of the cellar and found that she could still muster the necessary facial muscle strength to smile. Elara shut the prison door behind her with a bang and came down the steps to stand in front of her sister’s cell. Cleo gazed in surprise and awe at her sister’s growing stomach. She was five months pregnant by then, and getting bigger by the day. Elara folded her arms across her baby bump and stared in at Cleo.
“How are you doing?” she asked bluntly, masking her emotion, grateful to the black shadows for hiding her expressive eyes.
Cleo lifted and dropped her shoulders in a limp shrug. She pushed her raggedy hair away from her eyes and came closer to the cell bars to get a better look at her twin.
“How are you doing?” she retorted, her voice calmer and slightly kinder.
She was aware of the story behind Elara’s mystery pregnancy and often found herself fingering the locket she still had in her pocket. No matter what, Elliott…
Elara sighed and released her arms to hang at her sides. She reached out for her sister’s hands and pulled them through the thick bars to place them on her stomach.
“He kicks a lot” she said quietly, lowering her gaze to the floor under her feet. “Jayce says it’s a boy. He can hear him.”
Cleo raised her eyebrows, feeling the tiny baby gently kicking out at her palms.
“Does Talor, too?” she inquired coolly.
Elara’s head jerked up and she stared hard at Cleo, her brown eyes gone cold.
“Jayce doesn’t let him near me, sister. Not after what he did last time” she murmured, taking a few steps back from the bars.
“What did he do to you last time?” Cleo asked, confused.
Elara laughed without a trace of her usual humour.
“He ripped Jayce’s baby out of me. I never knew whether it would have been a boy or a girl. But then again, I asked Talor to help me get rid of it. I just didn’t know how he was going to do it until he sank his fangs into my tummy” she replied dryly.
Cleo recoiled from the bars, disgust filling her mouth like bitter bile.
“Yeah, I didn’t like it either” Elara mumbled, playing with a strand of her long blonde hair.
“Don’t you hate him?” Cleo wondered aloud, gazing at her sister with trepidation in her eyes.
Elara glanced up at her and shook her head slowly.
“Who, Talor? Or Jayce?”
“Either” Cleo muttered.
“I could never hate Jayce, Cleo. You should know that if you know nought else. And I used to think that I hated his brother, but not now. Not really, anyway. He is messed up, yes, but whose fault is that? It can’t entirely be his own. My Prince will be crowned king in four and a half months time and Talor won’t be king until Jayce ages to be thirty. And that will not be for at least another forty or fifty years. Perhaps even longer than that. They age differently here. And I will, too, once I am initiated into the vampire realm once and for all” Elara told her, gently tracing circles over her swollen abdomen.
Cleo frowned at her, almost grimacing. The thought that Elara, little, fragile Elara Alise Montford could be brave and turn into a vampire, was absolutely absurd. She would never have imagined it could or would happen.
“Why wasn’t it me?” she whispered, mostly to herself.
But Elara heard anyway. She fixed her dark gaze on Cleo, her head tilted to one side.
“What did you say?” she demanded, her voice getting steadily louder.
Cleo walked back closer to the bars again and looked her sister right in the eyes.
“Why wasn’t it me? Why didn’t your Prince pick me? I’m the strong one, the pretty one, the one every boy always wanted to date. I was always better than you! Why wasn’t I chosen to be the queen?” she screamed, trying to shake the bars from their sturdy foundations.
Elara stared back at her, her lips flattened in a thin line.
“Because he chose the right one. The one who wouldn’t despise him for what he is. Because he values character over beauty, no matter that he is beautiful. And not every boy was in love with you, or fancied themselves to be in love with you” she said softly.
Her words struck Cleo like a whip across the face.
“What do you mean?” she replied, her voice deadly smooth.
“Elliott didn’t love you, Cleopatra. He never did, no matter what Kimmy told you. He always loved me instead. And you couldn’t bear that, so you stepped in and tried to force him to want you. But he didn’t, sister. He didn’t” Elara murmured calmly, her voice pitched very low.
If Jayce or Talor were listening in somewhere above them or even outside the door, there was only a slim chance they would be able to hear her. Still, there was a chance nonetheless.
“Elliott attacked you, Elle. If you don’t recall, that’s why your in your situation right now. You think he loved you?” Cleo spat back at her, words venomous and slick with hatred.
Elara took a small step away from her, her mind on the outside world once again. She nodded slowly towards her twin sister, friends from birth and enemies since the womb.
“Yes. He loved me. He loved me enough to give me this son inside me. He loved me enough to give me what he thought I wanted. It wasn’t his fault, sister mine. Talor is the vampire trickster and Elliott’s mind was no match for his intellect and deviant behaviour. But he did love me. And that is why I killed him” she said briefly, before heading back to the doorway.
“Wait!”
She was stopped by the voice, the tremulous desperation in the word.
“What?” she said sadly.
She turned to see Cleo had pressed her pale face up against the narrowly set prison cell bars. The eyes were wide in the unusually ghostlike face, the mouth half open in an unuttered, soundless plea.
“You killed him?” Cleo whispered faintly, just loud enough for Elara to hear her.
She nodded once more, her hands again pressed to her tummy.
Cleo’s eyes went dark and her eyebrows drew together, furrowing her forehead angrily.
“You murderer!” she shouted, the echoes reverberating in the shadowy cellar. “How could you have killed him? How did you do it?”
Elara turned her back on the other girl, making her slow way up the short staircase.
“I killed him because otherwise, if I had not done it, Talor would have and it would have been a much less pleasant, well meant experience. Never believe a word that snake says to you, Cleo. And, as for how I killed Elliott Turner? I drank his blood until he was dry. Is that dramatic enough for you, twin sister?”
She knew Cleo’s mouth was hanging wide open as she watched her leave her in the dark yet again.
Jayce was waiting for her in the upper corridor, just a few metres from the entrance to the cellar. He held his hand out to her and she walked over to him, sliding her small, cold hand inside his.
“That was dreadful” she told him, closing her tired eyes and leaning her head on his shoulder.
Jayce sighed and nodded, resting his head against hers. The contrast between their hair was almost striking, the dark blonde and black.
“Ah, don’t the two of you make a lovely picture” a wry voice assaulted their ears.
Elara’s eyes snapped open and she looked up, meeting Talor’s haunting black gaze locked onto her own. She shook her head at him and tightened her grip on her young husband’s hand.
“Don’t worry” Jayce muttered to her. “He can’t hurt you when he’s under the bind.”
Talor heard the words and scowled at his older brother. He came running at Elara, a manic expression on his ethereally handsome face. She screamed and he vanished just before he reached her.

Chapter 15
Vancouver, Canada
Harmony stared out the classroom window, her chin resting in her hand. Life was boring so far, part way through her first year at high school. The friends she had were ones she’d had since she was tiny, the enemies she’d had for just as long. As an only child, she was given nearly everything she wanted. It was no secret that the Devereaux family was rich. That’s part of the reason why her life felt so dull; she never had to fight for anything she wanted; she was practically given it on a silver platter.
She sighed and turned her head to glance briefly up at the front of the classroom. The Health teacher was standing in front of the whiteboard, rattling on about something that nobody wanted to listen to. Her friends Tara and Siobhan were looking just as bored as she was feeling. They looked at her from the corners of their eyes and smiled, recognising the look on her face.
Harmony leaned down from her chair and pulled her bag onto her lap. She rummaged around inside it, all the while keeping an eye on the teacher at the head of the room. From her school bag she produced a homemade firework. She shrugged at her best friends and tugged a small box of matches out of her jeans pocket. She struck one on the rough edge of the box and then lit the wick sticking out the end of the firework. As the other kids snickered at what she was doing, Harmony tossed the firework out into the aisle, before hurriedly blowing out the match.
They waited in almost total silence for a few moments and then a loud bang erupted from the floor and the makeshift rocket sped up into the air over their heads and zoomed around the classroom. Harmony grinned and clapped her hands as the rocket smacked into the ceiling, burnt out and dropped to the ground again.
“Wow, what a show” she said dryly, catching impressed glances from the others around her.
The teacher looked up and locked gazes with Harmony temporarily, before she artfully looked away and down at her open textbook.
“Miss Devereaux” the woman intoned, sounding tired and almost as bored as they all were.
“Yes, miss” Harmony mumbled, trying to appear guileless as she could.
The teacher pointed a shaky finger at the closed classroom door.
“Principal’s office now, young lady” she said tightly.
Harmony stood slowly, keeping her stare on the woman’s pale, pinched face. She knew that she was nearing tears, her chin trembling slightly. Harmony grabbed her bag and zipped it up before slinging it over one shoulder. She ruffled Siobhan’s black hair as she left, winking back at her as she headed up to the front of the room. The class started clapping again, and she grinned, turning back and bowing deeply from the waist.
“Thank you, thank you. Your applause and praise means so very much to me, my loyal subjects” she proclaimed loudly, ignoring the teacher’s sudden outburst of tears.
She strode out of the classroom, aware of the woman’s running footsteps going in the other direction. She shrugged and turned the nearest corner, heading straight for the closest entrance to the school labyrinth. She slunk right past the principal’s office and out the pair of glass double doors. The sunlight washed over her face and she smiled, tilting her face up to feel the golden rays on her fair skin. She was unusually pale, because her mother was Albino. She readjusted the strap of her bag so it sat higher on her shoulder and walked out into the sunny school grounds area.
Harmony was briefly blinded by the sun, so her first footsteps were slightly unsure. The feeling of uncertainty was heightened when she felt herself bump into someone. She staggered backwards, catching her balance almost as quickly as she’d lost it in the first place. She glanced up at the dark figure standing before her, at least six inches taller than her. She took a few steps back again and battled the sun for a glimpse of the stranger’s face.
She was stunned by how handsome the young man was, but she fought to hide the fact. She placed a hand on her hip and glared up at him, her heart beating furiously fast. She hoped that he couldn’t hear it…
“You’re in my way, boy. Move it” she commanded, trying to step around him.
He shifted subtly to the left and then to the right as she tried that escape route as well. Harmony sighed and stared at him again, silently studying his chiselled features and stubborn expression; his Roman nose only accentuated his strong appearance. She suddenly gave up, deciding to stay and play cat and mouse with whoever this guy was.
“Who are you? You aren’t from around these parts” she said clearly, raising one eyebrow.
The boy grinned down at her, his strange black eyes flashing at her with intentional mischief.
“What does it matter who I am?” he replied cockily. “Who are you?”
Harmony scowled, looking anything but harmonious in that moment.
“Harmony Devereaux. Now, I asked for your name. Give it to me” she said haughtily, trying her utmost best to keep her mask of arrogance from falling off.
Her friends knew she wasn’t really like this; she was happy and smart and mischievous, but she wasn’t outright cruel. It wasn’t as if she went around baiting traps for bear cubs and then kicking them when they went down. She actually knew a kid who’d done that once…he’d ended up in hospital and didn’t ever return to school.
“My name is Talor and that is all you are required to know. Not many people know my full name and end up living” the stranger told her.
Harmony eyed him warily, unsure of what he’d meant by that. But he then gave her a charming smile, as if to communicate to her that he was truly harmless and meant not a thing by his words. She still watched him carefully, though. Through experience, she had learnt not to believe every word a stranger said to her. Losing a friend to a serial killer had been a tough life lesson, but she had learnt it nonetheless.
“Where are you from?” Harmony asked next, beginning the run through of her usual routine questions.
Talor smirked at her and something cold spread throughout her chest and stomach. She could practically smell the danger emanating from him. His dark eyes promised darkness and pain. His gaze on her spoke of long past events too heinous to mention aloud.
“A land far away that you will have never heard of” came the reply.
“Antarctica?”
Talor released a short bark of a humourless laugh and grinned wolfishly at her.
“No. You’ve obviously heard of that place, so I cannot be from there, can I now?” he said lightly.
Harmony shrugged loosely, with just one shoulder. She was starting to feel exposed outside in the open air with this odd boy talking to her. What if one of the higher ups came outside and saw them there? She wasn’t meant to be out of school, let along speaking with a complete unknown. Her school community was tight, and someone would contact either of her parents if her behaviour was seen to be anything short of utterly angelic.
“Look, I have to get home. Seriously. Either home or go back into class and I really don’t want to. I can’t stand here and talk anymore, someone will see us. And I’m already in enough strife as it is. So please, do yourself a really big favour and leave. ‘Cause I am” she said to him, blinking up at him through the still blinding sunlight.
He nodded very slightly and held out his hand to her.
“So we’ll meet again?” he questioned, one corner of his mouth turning up a bit.
Harmony reached out and shook his hand, shrugging again.
“Maybe. Talor, was it? Cool name” she muttered, releasing his hand and turning away from him, towards the school parking lot.
It would only take her a few minutes to walk home…
She heard a very faint thank you before she had turned completely and her back was to him. She didn’t bother to turn around, instead choosing to keep on walking in the direction of home.

By the time Harmony arrived home, her mother had driven home from work and was awaiting her daughter’s arrival. She folded her arms across her chest and stared her down as soon as she stepped into the kitchen area. Harmony examined her carefully before sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs. Laney was trying to not smile and Harmony could see it distinctly, the twinkle in her mother’s light blue eyes, those that matched her own pair.
“Your principal called me at the office, honey” she started.
Harmony nodded, knowing just what was coming.
“He said that you were supposed to go in to see him, but that you never actually showed up” Laney continued.
She watched the girl nod once more and finally, her façade cracked and she let a quick smile break through. She reached out to ruffle Harmony’s pale blonde hair, only a shade darker than her own.
“You are just like your father when he was around your age” she murmured fondly, thinking of a time when Marcus was sixteen and he used a firework show to ask her if she would go out with him.
Harmony rolled her eyes, but she still felt proud that she was so alike her father. He wasn’t around much anymore, really, but for the time being, the stories seemed to be enough.
“Go to your room, you bad child” Laney muttered, gently shoving Harmony off her seat and out into the long hallway.
Harmony laughed and ran upstairs to her bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind herself. Her parents were the light hearted type, stern when they had to be, but fun for the rest of the time. She was glad that the loss of a baby brother five years ago had not cooled their parental feelings toward her at all. She had long feared that, but the event had never come to pass.
She sat down on her bed and removed her bag, dumping it onto the duvet next to her. She closed her eyes and lay back, a pair of coal black eyes staring back at her from behind her closed eyelids.

Chapter 16
Talor arrived back in his home realm, his temper rising and rising. That little blonde girl, barely a slip of a thing, had been impetuous and rude to him. Nobody had ever spoken to him that way before. Her image rose up in his mind, all big blue eyes and white blonde hair. He began striding towards the castle doors, running up the high steps and pushing through the doors without any trouble.
Footsteps came from the doorway to his right and he turned briefly to catch sight of Kimba staring out at him, her eyes wide in her small white face. He slowed down to a halt and looked back down at her. He forced a pale imitation of a smile onto his face, but it never fully reached into his dark eyes. She was only eight, so he had to try.
“Hello, baby sister. Is something wrong?” he inquired calmly, crouching down to face her.
He held out his hands to her and she crept forward, her dress swishing along the stone floor at her feet. It was too long for her, as usual because she insisted on wearing Lacey’s gowns which were always just slightly too big for her tiny thin frame.
Kimba placed her small hands in his much bigger ones and he closed his fingers over them, rubbing his thumbs along the backs of her hands. It had always calmed her when she was a baby, and it appeared to still work well. The wildness and worry in her big eyes died down slightly and she looked at him with more of the sisterly affection he had cultivated in her from the instant she was born.
“Jayce said there is a girl in the downstairs prison cellar and that you put her there. He said her name is Cleopatra Montford and she is Lady Elara’s twin sister. Is it true? And if it is, brother, why did you put her in there? It’s horrible and damp down there” Kimba said quietly, leaning in to kiss the top of his head when she was finished speaking.
Talor sighed, his earlier anger dissipating somewhat. He lightly squeezed his baby sister’s tiny hands and straightened his tense shoulders.
“Yes, there is a girl in the cellar. I did take her there, but only because she is a very bad sister. She is not very nice to Elara, and you like Elle, don’t you?” he replied.
Kimba nodded rapidly and he smiled again, drawn in by her childish eagerness.
“Well, Cleopatra isn’t a very nice person, you see. So I had to put her in the cellar.”
Kimba stared down at him as she processed this new piece of information. He could practically see the cogs and gears whirring quickly inside her mind. She was brighter than most at her age and very quick off the mark.
“Jayce says you’re not very nice anymore, either, though. He says that he doesn’t like you anymore, and he wishes that you had never been born” she whispered, her words very soft and barely audible.
Talor’s jaw clenched tightly then and he fought with himself to remain in control. The little girl was too sweet for him to harm, and he had always loved her the best out of all of them in his family.
“You can’t always believe Jayce, Kimba. Most of the time, but not all of the time” he replied.
Kimba frowned, her forehead creasing in consternation as she thought this over, too.
“But he is going to be King. The King must always be truthful; that is one of the rules of the kingship” she reminded him, withdrawing her hands from his and twisting them together in front of her.
Talor sighed and stood up, looking down on her once again.
“I love you, little one. Okay? Never forget that I have always and will always love you. Do you know why?” he asked her, meeting her frightened gaze with his steady one.
“No” Kimba mumbled, shaking her head.
Her long bright red hair swung from side to side, reaching her waist. She captured a tendril in her fingers and nervously fiddled with it, unable to take her eyes off of her older brother. The colour of them reminded him unpleasantly of Harmony’s pale eyes, but he told himself to snap out of it and be staunch again.
“I love you because you are the only one who has never once judged me for who I am, Kimba. You are my favourite sibling, and best of all, you are my favourite little sister” Talor told her, bending down to look into her face.
Her blue eyes brightened then and her smile appeared, lighting up her face like a candle shining in the darkness of nighttime.
“I love you, too” she murmured, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
Talor smiled faintly and then straightened once more. He blew her a kiss and then turned away from her, heading down the corridor again. Without really listening, he heard Kimba retreat back inside her over large bedroom. He knew that within the hour, Lacey would know every word of what he’d just said to Kimba. The girl had the sharpest, most formidable memory he had ever known.

Jayce was sitting in his and Elara’s shared bedroom when Talor came in. Elara was lying in the bed, pretending to be asleep. She had woken the second the door opened and she felt Talor’s unwelcome presence isolate the atmosphere in the room. She struggled to regulate her breathing comfortably, still appearing to be sleeping.
“What is it, brother?” Jayce asked bluntly.
She heard the twisting sneer in his words and inwardly winced, knowing that Talor’s inner reaction would be one of disgust and anger.
“I have just returned from meeting the girl I’m going to marry” Talor said, equally sharply.
Elara felt her skin freeze and her heart stop for one split second. Then her sense of self preservation in a situation such as this kicked in again and she stayed quiet.
“No!”
Jayce’s answering roar was loud and violent. Elara felt the mattress dip and rock as he stood up, throwing himself off it and onto the floor, standing up straight. He stood two inches taller than his brother, but his amount of presence was less.
Talor smirked at him, folding his arms loosely over his chest. He was clad from head to foot in black clothing again, his hair the differing shade anywhere on his body.
“What’s the matter, your Majesty?” he asked snarkily, widening his black eyes in mock innocence.
Right then and there, Jayce hated that they looked alike more than he ever had before. Talor would use his good looks to attract and draw in any unsuspecting female that he could, then tear their hearts from their chests. Perhaps literally…
“You’re not supposed to find a bride until it’s your turn to be the ruler, Talor. You’re perfectly aware of that rule, brother” he said, his voice lower than usual.
Elara thought he must have guessed she was awake and was listening to them fight.
Talor shrugged, his muscular shoulders rising and falling dramatically.
“You see, the thing is, I really don’t care about the rules, Jayce. I’m going to go back and find her one day when she’s older and bring her here. And I will throw you off your ill begotten throne” he replied casually.
With that as his final say on the matter at hand, he turned briskly on his heel and returned to the hallway outside.

The cellar door banged open and Cleo looked up dejectedly as Talor bounded down the cold, slippery stone steps. Cleo’s eyes widened in fear and surprise as he tore her barred door off its rusting hinges and tossed it onto the floor. It landed with a loud clanging noise, but she could see in his eyes that he wasn’t caring at that stage.
Talor reached in and gripped her arm, yanking her out of the cell and depositing her directly in front of him. Cleo felt her sneakered feet sliding slightly on the unstable floor, but she refused to hold onto him for any needed assistance.
Talor watched her as she struggled to gain her balance, the blackness rising in his thoughts, poisoning his insides with the toxicity. The smile coming slowly over his harsh face was not a nice one, and terror seized Cleo’s throat and tugged like a raging dog. She stopped attempting to keep her balance and instead stared up at Talor, her gaze penetrating his not one bit. His mind was flying far away then, back to the tiny Canadian girl who thought she could best him with words and get away with it all.
He tightened his hold on Cleo and started to drag her up the cellar stairs and into the hall beyond the prison.
“Come on!” he hissed in her ear, shoving her ahead of him, one hand still gripping her upper arm.
Cleo whimpered in fear and pain, but he merely ignored her cries and continued to push her before him.
He was darkly pleased to see that nobody was emerging from their bedrooms along the corridor. It was empty and there was nothing he could hear that suggested otherwise. Jayce wasn’t going to run after him and stop him doing what he wanted to, was he? He was too intent on tending to Elara, as well he should be. He would be doing the exact same thing if he had a pregnant wife needing his attentions twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Talor refused to allow his blinded thoughts to travel too far away and reeled them straight back in again.
They arrived at the entry doors to the castle and exited through them, letting them slam closed after him. At the top of the steps, Talor let go of Cleo and gave her one very slight push. She went tumbling headlong down the steps, her scream cut short as the middle of her spine came into contact with the hard stone edge of one of the carved out stairs.
Talor trotted down after her, kneeling down beside her when he reached her. He looked into her face and was satisfied by the agony he saw in her blue eyes, reminding him even more of Harmony’s. He turned her over onto her stomach and felt around at the base and middle of her spine. Yes, the way it had struck the stair had severed her spinal cord. She was now severely damaged and paralysed from her waist down. But she could still feel the pain in her top half.
Talor raised a black booted foot and pressed it down lightly on Cleo’s chest. She gasped and sputtered at him, but he refused to move off her. Her hands scrabbled uselessly at his foot, but he didn’t shift away. By then, he knew, the thin bladelike spikes installed in the soles of his boot were sinking through her chest, slicing into her lungs and possibly even her heart, her most vital organ.
After another long minute, short for him, he lifted his foot off of her and stepped back slightly to admire what he had done to her. Cleo’s entire chest was soaked in her own blood. The intoxicating scent turned Talor’s stomach upside down, making his lungs burn, but he ignored it. He wasn’t finished and he wasn’t going to drink from her.
He bent down once again and pulled a long, fine knife from one of his pockets. The blade glinted in the waning light as he reached down and drew the blade once across Cleo’s pale throat. A thin line of blood appeared at once and she gulped sporadically, trying to breathe with a slit throat and two punctured lungs.
“Tell Elara…” she began, gurgling her words.
Talor never found out what she had tried to say because then was the moment that he leaned in and broke her neck.

Chapter 17
Talor bent low and lifted Cleo’s dead body into his arms. He stared down at her face and scanned her now empty blue eyes. She would never see again. Very gently, his fingertips delicate, he swept her eyes shut. The clear dead gaze unnerved him and only now was he beginning to feel regret for what he had done. He’d murdered the last person towards whom Elara felt love. He tilted his head to the side, thinking. No, not the last person. Her brother Alexander was still living, somewhere.
She weighed next to nothing in his arms, her head lying against his shoulder. He heaved in a quick sigh, feeling suddenly very strange and unwilling to go through with what he knew he had to do. He had to tell Elara what he’d done. She deserved to know this, at the very least. He could no other thing for her.
This was it…unless.
Talor walked slowly back up the steps and into the castle. To his intense despair and dissatisfaction, Lacey and Kimba were both in the middle of the hallway, obviously waiting for him. At the sight of him, Kimba sidles nearer to her older sister and slipped her hand inside hers. Talor saw Lacey squeeze the younger girl’s fingers, her free fist clenched tight, the knuckles perfectly colourless.
“Brother” she said softly, her jaw clenched and voice like brittle iron. “Oh, what have you done now? Elara can’t take much more. She’ll die.”
Talor bit his bottom lip, welcoming the stinging pain as his sharpened incisors sliced into the tender flesh. He gazed at his two sisters, forcing himself to wonder what it would be like for either one of them to go through what he was putting his brother’s wife through. He couldn’t put the words together. He would murder anyone who hurt them.
“I was angry. It had to be done or I would have killed myself” he told them, hoping beyond hope that they would understand and vindicate him.
His hope did not prevail.
Lacey tipped her chin up and stared at him with hard green eyes, breathing in hard and slow.
“You should have killed yourself then, brother. You should not have killed her sister. Don’t you go near her brother. Leave Alexander Montford, out of all of them, alone. You should do yourself a favour and leave, before Jayce is crowned” she told him, eyes flashing violent warnings at him.
Talor couldn’t help raising his eyebrows at her implications and words that were wise beyond her generation.
“And why is that?” he asked coolly, his inherent arrogance returning to him somewhat.
Lacey sighed and tightened her grip on Kimba’s little hand.
“Think about it, Talor. When Jayce is King, do you really think he’ll want you around here, in the realm? Don’t believe that. Mark my words, brother, he will want you gone. If you want to know what I think now, you already bear a target on your head. You will be dead within the next two years” she replied, beginning to turn away.
“I’m his brother!” Talor called out after her, shifting Cleo’s dead weight higher as he began to feel the heaviness of her.
“That’s what Jayce said” Lacey said quietly, leading Kimba along down the corridor.
Talor gazed after them, an odd painful sensation starting up behind his black eyes. He shook his head, furious at himself. He was a vampire; he shouldn’t know the meaning of the word cry, let alone know what it felt like to cry. He sniffed shortly and started walking once more, his boots ringing out high and loud on the stone floors.
In his arms, Cleo was held firmly, all of her except for her head. Her blonde hair swept over Talor’s black clad shoulder, making him tense and unsure. Her hair was the exact same shade of golden brown as Elara’s was.
His muscles began to tighten as he came nearer and nearer to Jayce and Elara’s bedroom. At last, he stood beyond the door, waiting for the right moment to enter. Had Lacey told them what he’d just done? Or had Kimba? He shook his head, straightened his already sharp posture and strode inside the room.
On the wide four poster bed, Elara sat bolt upright, her hands flying to cover her mouth. She stared at him, her chocolate eyes wide and filled with an immense agony like none he’d ever seen in his lifetime. She actually continued to love her sister, no matter how cruel Cleo had been to her, no matter how the cruel words spoken hurt her badly.
“Jayce…!” Elara exclaimed, gripping handfuls of the bed duvet cover in her fists.
Talor glanced to the other side of the room and saw Jayce materialise in the middle of thin air. His eyes widened; he hadn’t known that the older brother had the capability to disappear and reappear as he saw fit, not so quickly anyway. He had barely even been summoned; Elara had merely said his name.
Jayce gazed at Talor, his eyes narrowed. His mouth flattened into a hard line, his jawline taut and heavily controlled.
“You’ve killed Cleo, I see” he said tightly, his hands straight down by his sides.
He glanced once over at Elara, gauging the energy draining out of her and the lapse in her it left behind in its stead. Talor was draining her yet again, only this time, it wasn’t life blood he was draining; it was her hope.
“I was so angry” Talor murmured, subconsciously repeating the same excuse he had given his sisters. “I needed to do it.”
Elara gave a little cry of pain, her hands moving from her mouth to rest on her swollen abdomen. Jayce looked back at her, then was at her side in an instant. His hands fluttered over her tummy, his eyes closed and his senses searching for movement and a heart beat. He looked up into her eyes and forced a smile onto his pale face.
“He’s fine, Elle. There is nothing wrong with him” he said quietly, reaching up to stroke her cheek with the backs of his fingers.
Elara released a breath she’d been holding in and let herself relax very slightly, her gaze still on Talor’s face.
“So you have killed my sister, brother-in-law. What do you propose to do with her now? She cannot be buried here; it would not be right” she said firmly, her willpower alone preventing her voice from trembling out of control.
Talor allowed himself to meet her heady stare without blinking or looking away again.
“I’m going to take her home” he said softly, speaking directly to her.
For him, his brother was nowhere in the room with them, but it seemed to him that Harmony was there. In his head, he could hear her voice saying he needed to fix it, make amends and make right all he had done wrong. He smiled abstractly, his eyes rolling back into his head slightly.
Elara started up, panic overpowering her. She wasn’t sure of the reason why it was, it just was.
“Don’t let her go, Talor. Don’t forget her” she said to him, leaning forward, one hand outstretched to him.
He nodded, turned and walked back through the still open door. The final thing he saw was Jayce wrapping his arms around Elara and holding onto her tightly.
She still reached for him.

Talor landed in Cleo’s bedroom with a loud thump. His heavy boots had slammed into the floor much harder than normal, because of his load. He grimaced and laid her lightly down on her bed. She appeared to be almost asleep, her closed eyes making her seem peaceful and content.
In a strange act of humanity, Talor arranged Cleo’s hands over her chest in the usual way for mortals when they had died. He stepped back and stared down at her, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.
“Cleopatra, I shall never let you go, or forget you. I give you permission to visit me in my dreams. Farewell, sister of the future Queen of the realm.”

Chapter 18
Four and a half months later
Talor woke frantically, clawing at his pillows. He opened his eyes, hardly able to see. She was still in his head, haunting him because he was stupid enough to give her his permission.
“Cleo, get out of my mind!!” he roared, baring his teeth.
His fangs came forward and shone in the milky moonlight pouring in through his window. Even though now he was awake, her voice was still speaking to him and he felt that he was going mad. He gave into her and lay flat on his back, black eyes staring unseeingly up at his bedroom ceiling. His sheets were silky on his skin, but he felt none of it.
‘You tell her I didn’t mean it. You tell her that I love her and that I’m so sorry. You had better tell her, Talor, or I’ll…’
Talor snarled, writhing from side to side on his huge bed. He had his hands pressed to his ears and his eyes tightly shut.
“Or you’ll what? You’re damn well dead, Cleopatra!” he growled, pain threading its path through his brain.
‘I’ll get you, Talor. You know I will. So you tell her…’
The moment she left him, Talor sat back up, letting his hands fall away from his ears. There was no agony anymore, only recognition of what he’d done. He had let the girl inside his mind, had given her the purest allowance of anyone living, ever. Now he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get her out again.

For the first time in her memory, Elara woke up before Jayce had. She knew why it would be: today was the day of his coronation and he didn’t want to wake up. She knew that he saw his kingship as a duty, but it had never been something he really desired. He wanted to just be able to have a family of his own and live in peace, something he knew noe he would never get. As long as his brother acted in the ways he had been acting lately, there would never be any peace.
She glanced at her dainty gold watch, then leaned over to shake his shoulder. Her belly prevented her from moving very much, but she tried her best to wake him up.
“Jayce! It’s time for you to get ready!” she said hurriedly, lightly shoving him with both hands.
She heard a groan and smiled to herself. Jayce merely rolled over and wrapped an arm over her, anchoring her in next to him.
“Hurry up” Elara said, still smiling.
She reached up to stroke his dark hair, then slightly tugged on a hank of it. Jayce gently hit her hand away, finally sitting up. He looked sleepy, a loose curl hanging over one of his black eyes. She stared down at him, thinking in wonder of how Talor resembled him. But there was always that something that Talor didn’t have that Jayce did. Jayce was reasonably happy and even when he wasn’t, he didn’t like to hurt people on purpose. Talor was the precise opposite of his brother. He inflicted pain on others because it amused him, but she didn’t think he would be able to handle pain if anyone harmed him in return.
Jayce pulled himself into a sitting position, staring at her with both eyes now wide open and alert.
“Have you realised you’re two weeks late?” he asked, a forced tone of calmness to his voice.
Elara nodded, glancing away from him and struggling to sit up. He reached for her hands and eased her upright, then shifted to sit behind her. He leaned forward and rested his chin on her shoulder. Elara placed her hands on her rounded stomach, shutting her eyes and feeling the distant kicks of an overtired baby boy. He was very late.
“Aren’t you worried about him?” Jayce pressed, running his hands through her untidy thick hair.
Elara shrugged, but the nervous butterflies had started up in her tummy again. She felt them whenever she thought of how late the baby was.
“Of course I worry about him, Prince. But why do you?” she replied, tilting her head back to gaze at him upside down.
Jayce blinked in surprise at her, his long lashes brushing his pale cheeks.
“Why shouldn’t I?” he retorted with a question of his own.
Elara snorted, knowing that he knew just what she was meaning.
“He isn’t yours, Jayce. You know that. So why is it that you feel you have some sort of responsibility for him?” she demanded.
Jayce sighed and stood up, walking carefully over the bed before leaping down onto the floor. He turned and faced her, his eyes piercing and dark.
“Because I do have responsibility, Elara. His real father is dead, so what else can I do? I am the closest thing he has to a father now. So what if he looks like Elliott and not like me? If he looks like you, that will be easier to take, but even if he does not, I can still love him, Elle. Nothing will stop me” he said slowly, his voice quietly steady.
Elara stared at him and sniffed faintly. She had no idea he thought that way about Elliott’s illegitimate child. She had only thought that he would despise the boy, no matter what happened. She had been wrong then.
She smiled and reached out for him. Jayce came closer and helped her down to the floor. He did this every morning, because she couldn’t do it herself any longer. She grimaced and tensed, her hands still in his. Her whole body went rigid and Jayce froze.
“What is it?” he demanded, his grip on her hands becoming painfully tight.
“Jayce. Let go” Elara urged him, inching herself slowly away from him.
She breathed out, counting to ten in her head. The sudden pain went away and she was left feeling vaguely strange.
“What?” Jayce repeated anxiously, his eyes wide and focused on her white face.
“Just a cramp. Nothing more than a twinge, Jayce, I’m fine. That’s all it was” Elara murmured, holding her stomach with great care.
Jayce turned away from her and walked over to the wardrobe, mumbling to himself about white lies and not being as fine as she thought she was. Elara couldn’t hide the grin that crept across her face, and she didn’t try. If there was one thing Jayce had some trouble doing lately, it was smiling. He had to learn to do it more.
From inside the giant wardrobe, Jayce pulled out an altered coronation dress for Elara, along with his black tuxedo. The clothing in the realm was oddly opposite; the men wore relatively modern outfits, while the girls and women wore period dresses from Elizabethan England.
This dress was pale purple, with bell sleeves and dark lilac trimming on the hem and sleeve cuffs. As Jayce helped her put it on, Elara noticed the alteration. Instead of clinging almost painfully to her distended abdomen as most of her clothes did now, the material simply fell away, flowing over her bump instead of trying to suppress it. She smiled and turned around so he could do up the pearl buttons.
When she was dressed completely, Elara spun around a little bit in front of the mirror to get a good look at herself. She grinned and ran her fingers down through her sleep mussed hair. A hair brush found its way into her right hand and she smiled over at Jayce.
“Thank you, Prince” she said quietly, beginning to properly brush her hair down her back.
“Not for long” Jayce muttered, half to himself.
Elara heard him and rolled her eyes. She said nothing in reply. A light knock sounded on the door and they both turned to see Kimba standing in their doorway. She smiled at them both and walked over to Elara, standing just behind her as she, too, looked into the mirror.
“You look beautiful and you look handsome, brother” she said demurely, sounding very dignified.
Elara smiled at her and Jayce bent to kiss his little sister’s forehead.
“Thank you, Kimba” he said quietly. “Have you come to take me to the coronation hall?”
The little girl nodded and reached for his hand. He took it and began to walk to the open door, looking back over his shoulder at Elara.
“Lacey will be on her way here now to take you in, Elle. She’ll be in here very soon” he told her, giving her a very faint smile.
Elara nodded and stayed where she was to wait. No point in sitting down, she might not be able to stand back up again.
Only a few minutes later, Lacey walked in and held out her hand.
“Are you ready, Elara?” she asked softly, her voice like tinkly music.
“Yes, I think so…” Elara started to say, but she was cut off swiftly by a shocking streak of pain.
It was harsher than the one from earlier and more debilitating. The pain forced her down to her knees, her breath coming hard and too fast. Lacey dropped down beside her, her small face worried. Elara tried to smile at her, but the necessary facial muscles wouldn’t work. She was panting now, striving to keep from crying. The tears were building up behind her eyes, she could feel them. She could do nothing. She knew it now; she didn’t have the strength to get this baby out.

Talor was pacing in his room, trying to make up his mind whether he should go to his brother’s coronation or not, when his head split in two again, from the pain Cleo forced upon him. She was in his mind again, even though she was dead.
“What do you want now?” he hissed through tightly clenched teeth.
‘My sister has begun her labour, brother-in-law. Jayce has been taken to the hall already, for the coronation. I hate you, but right now Elara needs you for help. You have known that she will never be strong to give birth. She needs you to go and help her, because without you, they will both die. And Jayce will never be able to forgive you, Talor. Go…’
The agony vanished and he could suddenly think clear headed again. His decision was definite. He whipped round and ran for the door, not even bothering to slam it after him.

When her brother materialised in the bedroom beside her, Lacey hissed, her fangs exposed. Hate burned in her emerald eyes, but she didn’t back away from Elara. If Talor wanted the wife of their brother, he would have to kill his sister first.
Talor sighed and knelt down in front of them both, his eyes on Lacey. He bent his head low.
“If you wish to kill me, go right ahead, little sister. But I am only here to help Elara. Her sister asked me to come and help her” he said softly.
Lacey stared at him, gauging the truth in his statement. She pushed her fangs back and nodded, ignoring the angry bloodlust still in her eyes.
They both turned to look down at Elara, Talor getting to his feet again. He reached out a hand and ran the backs of his fingers over Elara’s cheek. He jerked his hand back; her skin was icy cold. He glanced at Lacey, but she only shrugged and looked back at Elara. Her chest was heaving and she was clutching fistfuls of her dress, her knuckles white as falling snow.
As they watched her closely, she suddenly arched up, pushing her back right off the floor she was lying on. She screamed and the sound was loud and high pitched enough for both vampires to need to cover their ears. The scream was in a frequency that no human could hear, and no dog or cat.
Glancing briefly at Talor, Lacey dove to the floor and unceremoniously shoved Elara’s dress hem out of the way. She looked up and bit her lip hard, ignoring the pain shooting through her skull from the banshee shriek.
“The baby’s crowning now” Lacey whispered, standing up straight.
After thinking studiously for a few seconds, she tore the skirt from the rest of the dress and fell to her knees again. The sound issuing from Elara’s wide open mouth was disconcerting to say the least, and Talor didn’t know for how much longer he’d be able to handle it.
Then Elara fell silent, her eyes closed. Talor leaned over her, lightly putting his hands on her shoulders. She felt too limp under his hands, not right.
And then she released one final scream of pain and her baby exited her and slid into Lacey’s hands. She gazed down at the tiny person, amazed that anyone could ever start life so small.
“Jayce was right. He is a boy” she breathed. “Talor, there is a pair of scissors on the bedside table.”
He jumped away and fetched the heavy gold scissors. He knelt down and cut through the umbilical cord, severing the last link between Elara and her son. He felt a hand hitting at him and grabbed it, knowing it was Elara’s. He looked down into her face and waited.
“What’s his name, Ellie?” Lacey asked quietly, smiling faintly.
Elara smiled back at her, oblivious to the blood covering her lower half and her legs. Sweat stuck her hair to her face and shoulders.
“Zika. Don’t forget, Lacey” she said, her voice stronger than it had ever been heard before.
Talor was holding her soft, cold hand when she died. Lacey was cradling Elara’s infant son against her.
Ten minutes passed and then Talor stood up, releasing Elara’s dead hand. He turned and wandered towards the empty doorway.
“Do it gently, brother” he heard Lacey murmur from behind him.
She was sitting on the floor, her shoulders drooping in defeat. Talor nodded, though he didn’t say anything to her.

Jayce looked up as soon as Talor entered the coronation hall. It had already been done, even without Elara. It was realm custom for the king to be crowned first, so no one thought any different of it. But Jayce sat up straighter, his eyes fixed on his younger brother.
This time, when Talor felt the tears filling his black eyes, he did nothing to stop them from spilling over. He saw Jayce suck in his breath, his grip on his sceptre painfully tight. The jewelled orb at the top began to glow a frightening luminescent red. Talor had never seen Jayce so angry or distraught before.
“Jayce…” he said, speaking the one name with a break in the middle.
The King stood swiftly and pointed the sceptre at his brother, his jaw set hard.
“Where is my wife?” he asked, his voice harsh and cold.
Talor shook his head.
“Lady Elara is dead, my liege” he said quietly.
Jayce stared, unblinking, at him and then sprinted down the stone steps and disappeared through the door. Talor ran after him, but as he knew he would be, Jayce was already gone.
By the time he arrived back in the bedroom, Jayce was holding Elara tightly against his chest, tears streaming silently down his cheeks. He hadn’t even seen the baby boy yet. Lacey was standing a little distance away from them, clutching the baby to her. He wasn’t crying.
Talor walked in closer and placed a gentle hand on Jayce’s taut shoulder.
“I didn’t tell her I love her!” Jayce cried out, burying his face in the crook of his dead wife’s neck.
“She knew you did” Talor said softly.
He crouched down next to his brother and started to ease Elara out of his tight grasp.
“No! Stop it!” Jayce hissed, tugging her away from Talor.
“Brother, my King, I once vowed that if anything happened to her, I would take her home. I must keep my promise to your wife” Talor said sternly, his words still very quietly spoken.
Jayce shook his head adamantly, and Talor was afraid to just reach down and take Elara away from him. The sceptre his brother carried made him stronger than any other vampire in existence. But he had to try again.
“Jayce, I promised to her. I need to take her to her brother. He is the only one she has left” he murmured.
He tried again, pulling Elara further from Jayce. He slumped backwards on the floor, letting her go completely. As Talor lifted the dead mother into his arms, he saw Jayce holding the sceptre out towards him.
“Take it, brother. Have my rule, I don’t care anymore” Jayce said brokenly, staring up at Talor with dazed eyes.
Talor shook his dark head at him and stepped away.
“No, Jayce. It is your birthright; it was never mine to take for my own. And you have a son now. You must take care of him” he replied, turning away.
Those words seemed to trigger a change in the older boy. Jayce scrambled to his feet and looked around him, finally locking his gaze on his sister and the bundle in her arms.
She nodded at him and held the baby out to him.
Jayce hurriedly crossed the room to take him from her, staring down into the tiny baby’s eyes. They were brown, like his mother’s. A fleeting phantom smile flitted over his face.
When he turned back to see his brother again, Talor had already dematerialised, taking Elara with him.

Chapter 19
Two years later
“Daddy!!”
Jayce turned round, a faint smile on his face. His two year old son was running for him on slightly unsteady feet. Alba, walking beside him, stopped as well and smiled at her own eldest son. Jayce glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.
“Can this wait, whatever it is that you have to say to me?” he asked.
She nodded and waved a hand at him.
“Yes, it can, son. Go and be with your boy for a while longer” Alba said softly, smiling down at her grandson.
Jayce smiled, feeling vaguely puzzled. He wondered what she meant by that.
He shook it off and crouched down, spreading his arms out wide. Zika rushed up to him and threw himself into his embrace. Jayce looked into his face and lifted him up off the ground. His eyes were the exact same brown as his mother’s were and his hair was dark blonde and curly. He was so grateful that the boy looked nothing like his true father.
Zika kissed his cheek and snuggled in, resting his head on Jayce’s shoulder. Jayce gently patted his back, closing his eyes for a moment or two. He knew the boy was his, he just… He opened his eyes.
Lacey stood before him, looking the same as she had two years previous. She was twelve now, with the time changing, but she would remain twelve for the next several years to come. Jayce was twenty and every day, his heart ached.
But he smiled at his sister and turned slightly to the side, so she could see her nephew. She smiled delightfully and Zika grinned, revealing his growing fang incisors. He was born in a vampire land, so, of course, he was a vampire.
“Hello, baby” Lacey crooned, holding out her arms for him.
Zika pulled back and stared up into his father’s face. His forehead creased as he frowned, his dark eyes solemn. Jayce sighed and met his gaze, unflinching when Zika put a soft hand against his face. Jayce blinked once and a tiny, crystalline tear slid from the corner of his left eye and dripped down his cheek. Zika patted it away and kissed him again, fisting a tiny hand in his black hair.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean for her to die” Zika said quietly, screwing his face up.
He did this when he was about to cry and they could both see his lower lip trembling as he tried his hardest to prevent tears. Jayce shook his head firmly and looked the boy dead in the eyes.
“You didn’t kill her, Zika. It was not your fault. Your mother wasn’t strong enough and that was all there was to it. None of it was your fault” he told him sternly.
He stroked the boy’s curly hair before handing him back to his aunt. Zika reached for him again, just once, before winding his arms around Lacey’s neck. He muffled his sobs against her skin and Jayce turned to walk away, wiping his cheek with the back of one hand.
It was nobody’s fault but Talor’s. And Elliott’s. And his.
His mother was waiting for him in the throne room, leaning against her son’s throne. It used to belong to her husband, but they had long since given up their claim to it. She smiled at him and beckoned. Jayce walked over to her and slumped down on the throne, resting his head on the back of it. He was so tired all the time now, he could barely save the strength to stay awake.
“Jayce, I have something I have to tell you right now. I’m glad that you’re sitting down for it. You won’t want to hear it, but your father and I have been discussing it for a year now, and we think there is no other option open to you” Alba said, trying to sound kind.
Jayce sat up straighter and stared hard at her, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“What is it, Mother? And why did it take you such a long time to decide this thing you have decided upon for me?” he asked, his tone icy.
Alba released a slow breath and came round to stand before the gilt throne. She knelt on the stone floor, her skirts rustling and gradually settling around her. She reached out to take his left hand in hers and gently kissed the wedding ring he still wore on his fourth finger. She then swapped hands and did the same to his King’s signet.
Jayce waited impatiently, wishing silently that she would hurry up and get the ceremonials over and done with.
“Elvin and I have decided that you have to get married again, Jayce” she said finally, barely breathing the words.
Jayce shot up off the throne and stood, shaking, before her. He looked down on her, his black eyes blazing with self righteous fire. His hands shook with rage as he pointed at himself and then at his ring finger.
“I will not be married again. This ring means ‘for life existing’. Elara was my wife, and she is still my one love. I refuse to be subjected to this hateful thing. I cannot, will not, call you ‘Mother’ anymore. You have wronged me and I will never forgive you. Leave my sight and get out of my realm” he spat harshly, his pointed incisors sliding forward into view.
Alba stood steadily and moved slowly backwards in a glide. She bowed her head, but continued to stand before him.
“We did not wish to do this, my son. We would arrange for your brother to be married, but Talor is not ready for marriage. So far, he is too fickle to cope with just one girl for the rest of his life. But you can cope with just one; we have all seen it already” she said quietly.
Jayce shook his head vehemently, his fangs fully extended.
“I have already been married and loved just one girl. I will never love another” he hissed frantically, sensing that something was spiralling way out of his control.
Alba nodded, the sad look on her face understanding.
“I know that, Jayce. But the realm requires a queen to rule by your side. Even if she does nothing but stand next to you and look pretty. Which, as I know you, she most likely will do just that and nothing more. You are not bound to love her, Jayce. I have chosen the girl for you already. She has just turned seventeen years of age in the mortal world. She is not much younger than…” she was cut off harshly.
“Do not say her name!” Jayce yelled, his shoulders rigid. “I will not stand for this! I will not marry again!”
Alba inclined her head again and then straightened up, looking him right in the eye.
“You will marry again, Jayce. Kimba is fetching her as we speak now. The girl will be here within the hour, with everything explained to her. She is not unwilling, my boy” she replied stoically.
Jayce tipped his head back and roared, his voice shaking the entire room, the stone floors buckling under their feet. The sceptre in his left hand trembled as the orb glowed brighter and brighter, the gem burning through to his skin.
“You sent my sister to do your dirty work?!” Jayce shouted, his voice reaching and exceeding decibels no ear had heard before.
He threw the sceptre, hard, and it spun, end over end, until it plunged into his mother’s chest. The rod was entirely buried, and as she staggered, Jayce could see it protruding from the other side of her. His chest heaved, his eyes wild as he stormed down the stone dais steps and strode from the throne room, leaving Alba to die on the floor behind him. A bright light blazed out and he knew that she was dead and gone, hearing the clatter of the sceptre as it fell, bloodied, to the floor.

Jayce was out in the grassy fields, Zika sitting in his lap, when Lacey was sent running to bring them both inside the castle. Her long black hair flew out behind her as she came to an abrupt stop in front of them. She was breathing hard.
“What is it, Lacey?” Jayce asked blandly, his eyes and voice betraying no feeling for their now dead bearer.
There was no light of curiosity and life left in his black diamond eyes. Zika twisted round to look at him, his own eyes wide. He turned back and stared at Lacey. She smiled faintly at him and he scrambled up and ran over to her, hugging her skirts.
“Jayce, my…King. Brother of mine, Kimba is back” she said hesitantly, eyeing her brother carefully.
Jayce nodded and got to his feet, brushing blades of grass off his pants.
“And?” he replied coolly.
“And she has the girl with her. The girl you are to be married to” Lacey whispered, glancing down at Zika.
They had agreed that he must know none of it until the event came to pass. He knew nothing of his dead grandmother.
“I will come, if only to get a look at her and see what I have to spend the rest of my days with” Jayce said strongly, his voice acidic and unseemingly bitter.
Lacey bent to pull Zika into her arms and then held out her hand to her brother. He took it and let her lead him back to the stone castle he no longer called his home. They walked to the throne room, where Kimba had taken the new Queen.
Jayce was faintly surprised to see Talor in the room with the two girls. But his shock changed to mere disbelief when he saw his brother front on. Talor’s jaw was tight, his dark eyes slitted in anger. In that moment, he looked ready to strike and kill them all. One by one.
Lacey led Jayce around their brother, and he instantly felt uneasy with his back to the mad vampire.
Kimba turned around to face them, her hand in the other, older girl’s. She turned around also, facing her future husband. What she saw, though, was a familiar face, pale and angry.
Jayce glanced briefly, indifferently, at her and then turned to look at Talor. He watched his brother’s lips form one word, one name.
Harmony.

Chapter 20
Jayce stood across from Harmony at their wedding ceremony a month later, sliding another ring onto her finger. Talor wasn’t anywhere to be seen; he had forfeited his chance to be at the wedding and see Harmony freely for the last time.
She looked up at him, her blue eyes wide and unsure. He hated himself for making another girl doubt herself so much, but he wasn’t going to love her and he wasn’t going to wear a matching ring, as he did with Elara, his one true wife. His father had left the realm, leaving everything up to him and him alone. Lacey and Kimba were under his charge now.
“Done” Jayce announced, closing his eyes and sealing their shared fates forever.
Harmony glanced away from him at his sisters, now her own, in a way. Underneath Jayce’s black eyes were strange patterns of veins, showing out starkly against the pallor of his white skin.
“I’m sorry” Harmony whispered, staring at him again, pleading with him to look at her.
Jayce reopened his eyes and met her sorrowful stare. He shook his head at her apology and reached out to gently touch her hand for one split second.
“It’s not your fault. I am the one to say sorry, Harmony. I never wanted to get married again and I know you can’t love me either” he replied quietly, a weak smile fading onto his face and off again.
Harmony blinked.
“What makes you say that?” she inquired curiously.
Jayce stared down at her, pushing his hands down deep into his pockets.
“You’re in love with my brother” he said bluntly, ignoring the others waiting for them to finish and leave.
Harmony gulped in a breath and almost choked on it, her blue eyes widened. She watched as he shook his head again, his expression sad.
“I’ve never seen it before, but I used to see love for myself in the brown eyes of a girl who isn’t with me anymore. You’re simply the girl they fetched to replace her with. I will never love you, Harmony. You are my legal wife now, but take my word for it, you are from now and until I die, cuckolded. You will have your own bedroom and I will have mine. You will not touch me, you will not speak to me…unless I permit it. Do you understand?” Jayce murmured, voice like steel cords, tightening around her neck like a noose.
Harmony nodded without saying a word. He was right though; she was in love with his brother and now that she was married to him, she could never get near him. She started to feel the tears tracking down her cheeks, and then a small hand slipped into hers. She looked down to find Kimba gazing up at her, wide blue eyes worried and filled with sadness. Harmony had the feeling that these two girls knew far more than she did, far more than any children should ever know at all. She tightened her hold on the girl’s hand and stepped off the slightly raised dais, down onto the grass again.
“Are we returning to the castle now?” she asked softly, lifting her free hand to wipe away the tears.
Kimba nodded and Lacey appeared, taking the little girl’s other hand. She smiled faintly up at Harmony, her emerald eyes veiled and hidden. She hid her thoughts and emotions well, too well, Harmony thought.
They walked up to the castle in pure silence. The light wind rustled their long dresses, Harmony’s a delicate satin in a shade of gold she’d never seen before.
“You know, Lady Elara’s dress wasn’t golden. It was dark red. Like blood” Kimba mused, tapping her chin with two slim pale fingers.
“Kimba!” Lacey hissed, jerking on her hand and squeezing it hard. “You shouldn’t say such things!”
Kimba looked at her older sister with fright, her eyes welling up with clear tears. Lacey sighed and stopped walking, pulling the other two to a halt also. She moved round to crouch in front of Kimba and placed her hands on her shoulders.
“I’m sorry, baby. But you know you should not have said that. What would Jayce have said to you for such a thing?” she asked sternly.
Kimba’s bottom lip quivered and she nodded, mostly to herself.
“He would tell me it wasn’t nice and if I have nothing pleasant to say, I should just keep my mouth shut” she said obediently.
Lacey suppressed a quick smile and nodded, swiftly standing up again.
“Good girl. That’s right” she approved, taking their hands again.
Jayce stared over the grounds after them, watching as Harmony held his sisters’ hands and walked with them. They seemed to like her, but he couldn’t bring himself to be all that nice to her, or accommodating. Let Talor have her, he didn’t care anymore. If he couldn’t love her, and he couldn’t, then someone should. And if that someone just so happened to be his annoying younger brother, then so be it.
He turned and walked off the platform into thin air.
When Jayce materialised in his own bedroom, he found himself backed up against the closed door, his brother standing right up close in front of him. Talor’s right arm was pressed up on Jayce’s windpipe. Jayce stared at him in disbelief, then he began to laugh.
Talor gazed back at him in surprise, just as much disbelief apparent on his face, too.
“What are you laughing at?” he demanded loudly, his voice a growl.
Jayce grinned at him; it was a savage rent in his usually calm expression.
“Go ahead and do it, brother. Kill me. It’s not worth it anymore. Elara’s gone and never coming back to me ever again. I have her son, but he’s young enough to be made to believe that you’re his father if you kill me now. Go on, Tal. If you’re brave enough to murder me in cold blood, then do it. Nobody will come after you for it because anybody who ever mattered or cared for me is dead and gone. I don’t give a damn if you put a metal stake through my heart. Kill me with my own sceptre if you wish, so I can die like our bearer. I have no desire to live any longer, my brother, so if you will…do it now” he told him fiercely, his black eyes wild and deep.
Talor looked into them for a second or two longer and then stepped back, letting Jayce fall in a crouch to the floor under him. He circled past his younger brother, eyeing him uncertainly.
“Why did you let me go when you could have killed me then and there?” he asked warily.
“Because to allow you to live is a much worse punishment, Jayce. And for what it’s worth, I think that you need to stay existing for Zika. Even though you’re unhappy and want to kill yourself, he needs a father. You know that he needs a father, Jayce. I can take care of Harmony. I’ll act as Regent if you want, and she can help. You can be with your son all you want” Talor replied, his own eyes filled with a ravaged sort of desperation.
Jayce blinked slowly, making no attempts to push back the impending tears. Talor took a few steps away from him, worried all of a sudden. He listened to his brother’s last words and saw his actions in a fog of horror and fright.
“I can’t do it anymore, brother. I loved her, I do love her. I can’t love your Harmony, you know that I can’t. I love our son. Tell Zika that, Talor. Don’t allow him to forget. Tell our sisters I adore them both and I never wanted to hurt them either. Goodnight and farewell, Talor. I loved you once” Jayce said softly.
Talor nodded at him, understanding.
“And I you, my King. I’ll rule in your stead” he murmured.
With one last look and one final nod, Talor threw his gold dagger to Jayce, who caught it deftly in his right hand. His fingers curved around the shining hilt, the glimmer of the sun sending rays of sunlight flickering all around the walls of the room. He raised it to his eye level and looked along the long, slender blade with a curiosity that sent chills down Talor’s back.
He watched as Jayce lifted the knife even higher and then drew it across his throat with one heavy slash. His black eyes met those of his younger brother’s for one last lingering glance before the knife struck the floor, its sharp point embedded in the thick carpet. Dark blood dripped from it and sank into the carpet fibres, staining them with the remnants of Jayce’s final violent act.
Then Jayce shifted slowly away, sifting into fine black sand and floating out the open window.
Talor took a deep breath and felt the doubtless weight of the King’s mantle fall upon his young shoulders. He searched out for his brother’s presence and felt nothing.
“Long live the King of the realm. May he see his Lady once more” he whispered, before he turned and swept out of the bedroom.

Epilogue
My name is Zika Silveron. I am a member of the royal family in the realm of vampires. My mother died giving birth to me and my father killed himself when I was two years old. My uncle Talor has raised me since then, but directly after my father left us, he tried to make me think that he was my real father. I never believed it; I wasn’t that young and I knew enough to know he was lying for my own benefit. Talor has been ruling over the realm for the last thirty years, but he is still only twenty three years old. His wife, Harmony, the queen of the realm, has changed completely into a vampire now and she is the same age as he. My father, Jayce, married her the day he died, leaving her with only one choice remaining to her: so she wedded my uncle a mere week later.
I am fifteen years old now and I have never known my mother. I have not forgotten my father, but I miss him still, every day I walk this realm. When Talor married Harmony, the flowers died and the sky went grey again. My mother is not here to put it right anymore. My aunts Lacey and Kimba told me that when she married my father, the flowers bloomed for the first time in their lives. And the sky was blue, but not anymore.
Harmony offered to act as my mother, but I refuted her offer. I do not desire her warmth or desperate love; I want my own mother, and not a replacement. One day, I hope to see her again, when I finally die and leave this deathly place. I have a cousin now, though, and I love her very much. Harmony gave birth to her a few years before she became a full vampire. There were no complications with her labour, unlike my own mother’s with me, many years ago.
I have been told ever since I could understand that my mother, Elara Montford, was beautiful and she never once believed it. I have a suspicion that my uncle once loved her, too. He murdered her sister, but he didn’t drink her blood. And in this place of betrayal and loss, refraining from drinking a dead human’s blood demonstrates some kind of love and respect for the family of the dead. I know that Talor still hears Cleopatra’s voice in his head. She continued to haunt his thoughts because he never told my mother that she loved her and was sorry for the wrongs she’d done her. My uncle is simply tired now and he doesn’t care anymore. He lets her rage at him inside his mind and doesn’t try to get rid of her. He spends all of his time with his wife and their four year old daughter Chani. He barely rules the realm at all now, leaving most of it to Lacey, who rules as female Regent in his stead. She is eighteen now, the same age my mother was when she met and married my father. She was nearly nineteen when she died giving me life.
I know that it was my fault, no matter how my family tell me that it never was. They are only trying to be kind and ease the burden I carry with me wherever I go. But they cannot ease it. Because I existed, my mother died. Because I existed and she didn’t, my father killed himself, ending his own existence with a flick of his brother’s knife. I miss them both and spend hours every day wishing for their return.
My uncle tells me that it is almost time for me to find a girl and take her as my wife, but I know that he is only saying that to make it easier for me to do what he knows I have to do.
I’m leaving my home and travelling to America. I’m going to meet my mother’s brother Alexander, my second uncle. He doesn’t know I exist, but I hope for his mercy. If he tries to kill me, I shall inform him of how it is to be done and allow him to end my life, once and for all. I am just like my father; I no longer care what happens to me.
Talor knows and he is the only one who understands. It has never been difficult to live with him, even knowing everything wrong that he did when he was young and immature.
Goodbye and farewell, my dearest family. Whether I see you again in this life depends on Alexander’s reception of me. We might never meet again, but know that I love you all, especially little Chani.
To my weary and saddened uncle, long live the King of the realm.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 13.10.2011

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