Chapter 43
Mrs. Tabitha Martin was furious at her daughter for disgracing their house, her husband’s house. They called her the countess, countess indeed. She, unlike her husband, knew of all the things that their daughter Alissa enjoyed doing; she had even participated in some of the lighter deviances.
She never said anything because Alissa was always discrete, but apparently, she got sloppy and stupid in her arrogance. She thought that no one would find out, and if they did, she would just buy their silence. Did she learn nothing from her?
Now the spotlight of gossip was on them, and she was terrified that her terrible secret that she had been keeping in the shadows was about to come out. If her husband only knew, he almost found out a couple of times, but fortunately, he had been extremely drunk, and she was able to explain it away quickly.
Everyone was going to find out now, she only had one bottle of elixir left, and with that idiot Raymond in the dungeon, she wasn’t going to get anymore. At least not in time. She was already feeling the effects of the lack of it.
She had decided to stay at the castle instead of following her buffoon of a husband out to the country to hide. She had also sent all of their servants with him; she was alone and was hoping that she could stay in her quarters most of the time to wait out the storm.
Drinking down the last of the elixir, she felt that she was coming back to normal; she hoped that it would last for at least a day or two. She felt tired lately, and she couldn’t understand Milly, her leopard, anymore.
Not that she ever really could, though; her vampire side was much stronger than her shifter side ever was. Still, Milly was there for advice if Tabitha decided to listen to what that bore had to say.
Tabitha was the offspring of an affair that her mother had. Her mother, not wanting to be discovered, passed Tabitha off as her husband’s child; the problem was though Tabitha was not a full-blooded vampire. When she came of age and Milly came out for the first time, her mother locked her away at their summer cottages, moving her around so no one would discover her shameful secret.
When Tabitha was a little older, her mother would make her drink a potion from a local witch that would suppress the urges for Milly to need to come out. She also made Tabitha swear never to tell anyone that she was anything other than a full-blooded vampire.
Once Tabitha turned one hundred, it was clear that her vampire side was the stronger of the two, and her mother relaxed a little and allowed Tabitha to come out into society.
Her mother arranged a marriage to vampire lord Casper Martin. Through this union of the families, Tabitha gained her position and power as an elite and never looked back; there were a few times when she was having sex with her husband that Milly got a little excited.
Fortunately, she never slept with her husband unless he was drunk; he was never her type. She preferred younger boys and sometimes the occasional girl. She had hoped that when Alissa was born, a full vampire, she could further her ambitions for power by grooming her daughter to marry the king. That didn’t work. No matter what she did or schemed, the King never noticed Alissa.
Now it was all ruined, Milly was getting more agitated with her, and sometimes when Tabitha would fall asleep, she knew that Milly was trying to get out. She started taking powerful sleeping potions to make her stay under; her vampire side did have a few limitations that she usually wouldn’t have if she were a full vampire.
It wasn’t until her five hundredth birthday that she started noticing that her shifter side was aging. It was an odd thing, really; vampires didn’t age unless they chose to, or something extremely traumatic happened to them. When she looked in the mirror, it was there. It was subtle at first and quickly hidden by makeup.
As time went on, though, it got harder and harder to stay the same age as she always was; she tried many things, including witch’s potions, old herbal concoctions, and anything.
It wasn’t until she was in a small village looking for another remedy that she overheard two shifters talking about a mysterious potion called The Elixir that would make the drinker forever young. She started making inquiries about it and was shown to Raymond Deslaires.
He sold her six bottles. It was costly, but money was not a problem. Upon her first bottle, she was her old self again and was relieved that finally, her secret would be safe. The more she drank, though, the more she needed till finally, she was drinking it almost every other day.
She had heard that there were side effects, but she had hoped that her vampire side would protect her from them. Now she wasn’t so sure, as she twirled her last empty bottle in her fingers. It twinkled as if alive in the light of the fireplace, as a chill ran down her spine.
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The Wraith sat in his chair in his newly made playroom. He was confused. He knew that Michael Deveroe had sensed him and knew he was here; what he couldn’t figure out was why did he walk away and not go after him. What game was the King playing? Did he not care that he was here and was a threat? Did he know that now that Raymond was just feet away from him, all locked up that he wouldn’t be interested that his daughter wasn’t in danger anymore?
He would get even more nuts if he didn’t stop thinking about it. Still, the King felt different than he had before; he felt more potent and more dangerous than he ever had. It didn’t matter to him, though, because he no longer needed the female to gain what he wanted.
At least not yet anyway; he will need new playthings once he is done with the two in their cells, just waiting for him to come and play. For now, he was content with what he had been given.
Still, though he wasn’t sure how he wanted to start, perhaps the female, after all, ladies, do go first. He wasn’t sure about her, though she might like what he would do to her from what he learned.
He would have to find a way around that because it would also be fun to watch Raymond as he would hear her screams. Maybe he could make that idiot pee his pants again. He was laughing at that, though, a vampire peeing his pants. He hadn’t urinated in ages, the woe of the young.
He knew what he wanted to do with Raymond, but he had to wait for the third and final demon to appear. They always came in threes. He didn’t know why, but that always happened in his long years. Just like death always comes in threes.
Everything was ready, including the drugs he would use on the guards; it was almost impossible to obtain. It was a good thing that there were only two of them, so that would not be a problem, again was that also because of the King. Did he leave so few guards intentionally?
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Daisy and Noah were relaxing in the living room common area of the west wing. Noah loved that Daisy was still glowing after their two-day and two-night love session. They were both covered in bite marks and hickeys. Daisy was embarrassed by them and tried her best to hide them; Noah was proud of them and didn’t care if others noticed.
Daisy was certain that if he could get away with it, Noah would walk around shirtless to show off all the scratches on his back as well.
Unfortunately, though, little Danny noticed all the visible marks and became alarmed. He ran for his mother and dragged her over to them. He was scared that the monsters had come back and attacked Daisy and Noah, and he wanted his mother to make sure everything was ok.
His mother, of course, knew exactly what they were. She turned three shades of red; she pulled Danny aside and told him that it was ok and that she would explain it when he was older.
He gave them one more concerned look; Noah nodded in reassurance. Danny’s face was relieved as he went off to play with some of the servant’s children that he had made friends with.
When Danny was no longer in hearing distance, Noah started to laugh so hard he had to take in deep breaths to keep from getting dizzy. Daisy was mortified, but she was also giggling.
At that moment, Daisy’s stomach let out a loud rumble; she was starving again; she had just eaten an hour ago. I don’t know if it was all the exercise last night, but I am hungry again, and I have a strange craving for chocolate ice cream, a rare steak, and a roasted chicken.
The mention of food perked up Raja’s attention; Noah shook his head at the Tiger.
“Is there ever a time when you don’t want to eat, Raja?”
Raja didn’t answer. He was busy staring at their mate; Noah was confused at what his Tiger was doing.
“Raja? What is it? Is there something wrong with Daisy?”
Raja stayed silent for a moment and then started to prance around like he had a secret he was proud of keeping.
“RAJA!”
“Ok, idiot here is the scoop; our mate is pregnant.”
Noah was in shocked silence for a moment.
“We’re going to have a cub? Are you sure?”
Raja did the equivalent of a smirk.
“Cubs”
“Oh my God! Twins? We’re having twins?”
Raja smirked again and did another little prance.
“Nope, not having twins.”
“Three, we have three cubs. It is too early to say anything more yet, but I can sense three.”
Daisy had gotten up and went into the kitchen; Noah sat on the couch in silent shock. Things were happening so fast. He waited till his soon-to-be father-in-law found out that he had already knocked up his daughter.
He jumped up and ran to the kitchen; it didn’t matter what anyone thought; he was over the moon with the news. He stopped just short of the door, though, and asked Raja a question.
“Raja? Will she be alright? Triplets are no laughing matter. Do you think it will be too much for her? Will she birth them, ok? We are not losing her, are we? What is she going to think about this? She had plans in the city with her old life.”
Raja was quiet for a little bit.
“Things will be fine. Don’t worry so much, idiot; it will all work out. As for her finding out, I think she is already rolling the thought around that she is pregnant. She wants to be sure, though, before sharing.”
Noah calmed down, realizing that he was being an idiot. He decided to wait a little longer until she told him; he hoped he could be patient enough and that she wouldn’t get too mad when he and Raja started to get too overprotective. He wasn’t going to apologize for it, though.
First things first, though, he will give her a day or two after that; he was taking her to the best doctor he could find and making sure that everything was ok. They needed to know all kinds of things; how long will she carry them? Could she carry them? And how the birth will go for her. He wanted to know everything.