Chapter 95 - The King's Bite

Allegra felt like she was on cloud nine. As suspected, Rafael’s vampires were not keen on being booted out of their vampiric community. They especially did not want to follow his orders when Leander had made it clear he was not going to go along with them. He had more influence than he had been aware of. The whole thing was called off, but Nik had privately insisted on a couple of Kalitsk Castle's vampires remaining behind to keep an eye on their activities. He was certain a few of them would definitely walk into the portal when the time came. They were unable to talk him out of it, so a few of them secretly remained. She had a hunch that Leander knew, however.

The drive home was much less stressful than the drive to Gatterlein had been. Allegra knew she could rest easily now that they had made sure to eliminate the only remaining threat. Her mind remained on Cilla, but her worry about her best friend had exponentially decreased. The number of vampires Vladislav had taken with him were sure to outnumber those on Rafael’s side and she trusted her husband with the other woman’s safety. The Duchess enjoyed the sunrise as they steadily drew closer to their home. Nik and Mystik were speaking too lowly for her to hear, but she did not care. It was the first time she had let herself relax since right before they left Estoyya.

A high pitched shrill disturbed the peaceful silence in the car as Nik winced and reached into his trouser pocket to withdraw his phone.

“Yes, Vlad?” Nik answered, only sparing a momentary wince before he did.

Neither Allegra nor Mystik were surprised at this. They had taken a gamble by going to Gatterlein so late and the chances of the party returning before they did were very high indeed. For one thing, Vlad’s party was travelling by magic, while they were stuck with an entire convoy of cars. Still, knowing about it did not spare them from the inevitability of being chewed out by the King. He would undoubtedly be furious, but Allegra did not regret it. It would do her stubborn vampire some good to know how capable both she and his brother were. Moreover, it beat having to twiddle their thumbs helplessly as they waited for updates from Drausia.

“She’s right here with me,” Nik said, just a touch defensively. “I told you I’d keep her safe, didn’t I? We just popped out to run an errand. We’ll be back shortly.”

The Prince remained silent as his brother called him out for his lie. It did not take as many vampires as they took with them to ‘run an errand’ and the timing was absolutely absurd.

“Well, you told me her safety was my top priority, so I took it seriously,” Nik said with an unrepentant smirk.

It was wiped away after a moment and even Allegra could hear her husband’s voice at the other end of the line. He must have been shouting at the top of his lungs. She could not make out exactly what was being said, but the way Nik’s shoulders tensed bled right through to the interior of the car. The previously peaceful air had taken on one of foreboding.

“Yes, I understand,” Nik responded stiffly. “We’ll be there in under an hour.”

Her brother-in-law glanced down at her, as if debating whether or not to give her the phone before he looked away and decided against doing so. He did not bother saying goodbye before he cut the phone.

“What happened?” Allegra asked. She glanced down at her own phone and noticed, with a humph, that Vlad had not bothered to text or call her. She was admittedly miffed about that.

“Nothing,” Nik said in a peculiar tone. “He’s really upset. I’ve never heard him shout like that before, but then again, we knew this would happen. He just insists we get home as soon as possible.”

“The nerve of him,” Allegra scoffed, disregarding Nik’s mood shift in favour of letting out a little rant of her own. “He didn’t even bother to reach out to me and we’re literally married. Although, I suppose I can't blame him since he knows how upset I am at him for the stunt he pulled.”

“You have both greatly upset each other in the past few hours,” Mystik observed, also subtly taking note of Nik’s persistent frown. “Should that not cancel each wrongdoing out?”

“What? No,” Allegra said, without hesitation. “If he's upset with me, then I'd prefer him to tell me about it. I certainly plan to tell him that using my own friends to essentially drug me to sleep is not acceptable behaviour. His reasons do not matter.”

Mystik nodded as he seemingly took her words into consideration before they all lapsed back into silence. The sight of the sunrise was no longer a calming sight for Allegra as a huge ball of tension filled her belly. She did not enjoy being at odds with her husband and the thought of arguing with him while they were still technically in their honeymoon period did not sit right with her.

Allegra fiddled with her phone to distract herself and noticed that the last message she had sent Cilla had finally been delivered. The other woman had not read it yet, but it previously showed itself as only being sent. At that moment, it hit her that her friend was finally safely back home. She allowed a small smile to slip onto her lips in relief. Her not reading it showed that she was probably taking the time to rest. She doubted her friend had gotten the chance to do so in Rafael’s presence. She could not stop herself from sending a heartfelt message to Cilla. Even if she could not read it yet, she knew it would cheer her up when she finally woke up.

Her heart softened at the thought of her vampire. Even if they were at odds at this stage, he had kept his promise and brought her best friend back safely. She suspected a brief chat with both their boundaries made absolutely clear would be enough to settle things between them... she hoped so, at least. She really could not imagine being upset with him for an extended period of time.

***

It was completely bright by the time they finally reached Kalitsk. Everything appeared to be as normal as it usually was. It was no longer the absolute hum of frantic activity that it had been the day before. The cars had not even completely come to a stop before they saw Vladislav stalk outside the welcoming hall. His strides were long, yet deliberately slow. No one made a single movement even after the cars had stopped. They all remained in the darkly tinted cars in an attempt to delay the inevitable.

Vlad stopped right outside their car with his arms crossed. Allegra cursed his sensitive sense of smell even as she noted that Nik had not been exaggerating earlier. She considered herself as close to an expert on all things Vlad, and she had never seen his eyes look like they did. They were such a dark red, they bordered on garnet and his mouth was set in an uncompromising frown. He looked like he was ready to attack, not talk.

Allegra reached over Nik to pull the door open, but he stayed her hand with his and pushed it back into her lap. Vladislav’s eyes followed the gesture and, if possible, his lips looked like they tightened even further in disapproval. Nik sighed.

“Stay in here for now,” he said to his sister-in-law before staring at Mystik to make sure he kept an eye on her. “I don't need this to get worse than it already is.”

Allegra’s face scrunched up in confusion, but he was out of the car before she could say anything. As soon as Nik exited, the cars in front and behind them also began to empty. The vampires all made sure to nod respectfully to their King before making themselves scarce. All the while, the two brothers stood outside the car and stared at each other. They finally began to talk and Allegra scooted closer to hear better. Vlad’s voice was getting progressively louder and his clenched fists made her fear he was going to attack his brother. The sight of Mace’s body being flung carelessly into her bar weeks earlier flashed through her mind.

“Do you have any idea of how much danger you could have brought my wife into?” Vlad demanded.

Nik maintained his cool, so she could not hear what he said in response.

“Fuck precautions!” shouted the King as his wife winced. He rarely swore, and the use of the word highlighted just how little control he seemed to have over himself at the moment. “Precautions fail all the time. I do not care how many you brought to protect her. You willingly walked her into a situation she very well may never have walked out of.”

Nik’s response was muffled, but even to her ears it sounded terse, confrontational.

In the blink of an eye, Vlad had his brother pressed up against one of the front doors of the car. His hand lay flat on the younger vampire’s chest and the warning in his stance was very clear.

“You do not know my wife better than I do, so stop acting like you do,” spat the King.

Allegra swung to face Mystik, whose eyes had gone wide in disbelief at the scene playing before them. He even seemed a bit scared for Nik. His expression, more than anything else, cemented her next move. The vampire was too distracted to take note of her moment until she had already opened the door. Both Vlad and Nik’s eyes jumped to her and they both knew it would be a death wish for him to pull her back into the car with her husband looking. Mystik avoided Nik’s accusatory glance as she stepped out of the car.

“Stop it, Vlad,” she said as she closed the door behind her. She gripped the arm that was not currently being used to physically intimidate his brother, to try to draw his full attention. It sort of worked. His free hand clasped hers even as the other remained right where it was. “This was all my idea. If you're angry at anyone, it should be me.”

“Oh, I am,” her husband said. “I am furious with you. It does not change the fact that he was left in charge. None of this would have happened had he not given explicit orders to Mystik’s team.”

Allegra saw his glare turn to his younger brother once again and scrambled for something to take the heat off of him.

“This is ridiculous,” she spat. “Are you really going to come here and try to act like some kind of avenging angel? I think we've all acted in ways we normally wouldn't just to protect those we love in the past twenty-four hours.”

“What are you talking about?” Vlad asked, finally dragging his eyes away from Nik to pierce her with the red orbs.

“Using Cedai and Zallius to cast a spell on me,” she reminded him tersely. “Ring any bells?”

In a surprising move, Vladislav actually stepped back upon hearing her words, both his hands dropping from each of them. His furious eyes flashed into their normal grey for a few moments before bleeding back into a calmer, more easily manageable red. She instinctively knew that his cheeks would have turned red with shame had he been human.

“This is neither the time, nor the place for this discussion,” Vlad said at a much more subdued volume.

“I disagree,” Allegra insisted. “You seem intent on painting how we failed you. I can think of no better response than doing the same thing.”

Vladislav huffed out a disapproving breath before unceremoniously reaching for her hand once more. He pulled her closer and turned around wordlessly, heading for the castle’s main entrance.

“We will discuss this later,” he said to his brother, without bothering to look back.

Allegra let him pull her along and considered it a win in her book. She noticed everyone they passed in the corridors made sure to avoid making any eye contact even as they nodded, bowed or curtseyed politely. Her guess was that Vladislav had whipped up a frenzy when he found out she was not there. A small part of her revelled in the thought of making him worry after he had tricked her the way he had, but an even larger part of her soured just by imagining him stressing about her so needlessly.

They arrived at their suite in record time, considering how long his strides were and how fast she was walking to keep up with him. They paid no mind to the guards standing at their post outside and Vladislav only released her hand when the door clicked shut behind them. Allegra watched him as he immediately strode towards a cart in the corner of the room. They rarely ever used it, so she was unsurprised to see that the port he had reached for was unopened. The only sound was the clinking of glass against glass and of liquid pouring out of a bottle.

Allegra chose to sit on the bed with her legs crossed under her as her husband dragged the chair from her vanity so he was seated close to her. They were about the same height and she continued to watch as he downed half of his very full glass. She was determined not to break the silence. She wanted to know what he had to say for himself.

“I was worried about you,” he said dully.

“I know how that feels,” she said, doing her best to look unrepentant. “That’s how I felt when you left me behind. It makes you feel helpless, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Vlad said with a twist of his lips. “The difference, of course, being that you knew who I was with and where I had gone. I had no idea. I arrived home expecting to take you into my arms and hold you close. Instead, I was met with an empty bed and zero idea of your whereabouts.”

“I'm sorry, Vlad,” Allegra said honestly, watching him hum unresponsively before gulping down more port. “Something just wasn’t sitting right with me. When we figured it out, I couldn’t just stay here. I made a discovery and I had to follow the trail. There was a chance of you being ambushed and I couldn't just sit back and allow it to happen. I know you’re used to taking care of everyone, but I'm your wife. I have to take care of you, too. So, I apologise for making you worry, but I do not regret what I did.”

Vlad released a small smile.

“Funny, because I feel exactly the same,” he said. “What I did was underhanded and deceitful. I apologise for using your trust in me to lull you into a sense of complacency. Still, I would do it again if it meant keeping you safe.”

Allegra returned his smile with a hesitant one of her own.

“So, what happened?” she asked. “Did you get Rafael? I mean, I know you didn't want it to be him, but –”

“He is gone,” Vlad interrupted, emptying the last of the port before placing the glass tumbler on the well floor. He stared emptily at his hands, flexing them experimentally. “I ... I took his life in the end. It had to be done.”

So wrapped up was he in the memories of his final moments with his closest friend, he did not notice his wife’s approach until she slid herself onto his lap. Allegra wrapped both her arms around his neck and held him closely, wordlessly. She could not bring herself to express her condolences for someone she had despised so much, but she knew her vampire needed comfort. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close to him. They were there for what felt like an eternity.

Allegra placed a soft kiss onto his temple before she made to pull away from him, but his arms tightened around her.

“I have to tell you something,” he whispered.

“What is it?” Allegra asked, taking note of how stiff he had gone.

“It is about Priscilla,” he continued.

Allegra’s mind immediately took in how similar the way he held himself was. Nik had done the same when he got off the phone with him earlier.

“What is it?” she asked in panic as she tried to pull away from her husband. He was not having it. For some reason, he was doing his best to avoid looking at her at the moment, hence his steel-like grip. “Vladislav? Talk to me. What is it? Vlad?”

***

She woke up feeling disoriented. Although she was no longer sleeping, she refused to open her eyes. Something told her to take caution and so she did. She tried to take stock of everything happening around her and, for some reason, it was much easier than she had anticipated. There was someone in the room with her, but unlike the last time she had been awake, she did not feel like she was in any kind of danger. The breathing was coming from a few short feet away, but for some reason, she knew there were more in the room. She could not hear them, but she knew they were there. It did not even occur to her that the only breathing she heard did not belong to her. Instead of overanalysing her situation for a moment longer, she popped her eyes open.

The room was dark, all the drapes were pulled close, but she could tell it was night-time. Cilla wracked her brain trying to remember what had happened. The last time she had been aware of her surroundings she had been...

“Dead?” her voice was hoarse, even to her own ears, but the raspy syllable was enough to jolt awareness into the small figure that she could hear breathing deeply.

Allegra shot up in her chair and looked around the room blearily until her eyes settled on her best friend sitting up in bed. She stared at the redhead in shock. Her eyes were now as thunderous as Mace’s; pure white with streaks of green and red.

“Am I dead?” Cilla whispered again and as soon as the words were uttered, Allegra threw herself at the other woman.

She wrapped her arms tightly around her, barely holding on to the sobs that threatened to overtake her body.

“No,” Allegra whispered with an escaped sob. “You’re alive.... You’re alive, Cilla.”

Upon hearing the words, Cilla also wrapped her arms around her best friend in relief. She was aware of movement in the corner of the room, but she paid it no mind. She was too caught up in embracing her best friend. So caught up, in fact, that she did not even notice when Allegra’s embrace had loosened and her hands were now repeatedly slapping against her arms. When she realised the other woman was trying to distance herself, she released her and watched in shock as she coughed and gulped in huge breaths of air.

“Fucking hell, Cilla!” Allegra said as she caught her breath. “Don't hug me that tightly. I couldn't breathe.”

“Wait, what?” the redhead asked in confusion.

The movement she had sensed earlier revealed itself to be Milena. The vampiress stepped forward, shooting Allegra an exasperated look as she continued to breathe in deeply.

“Well, I suppose that is one way of telling her,” she said in an unimpressed tone.

“Telling me what?” Cilla asked, although she was starting to put one and two together.

“You lost a significant amount of blood to Rafael,” Milena said as she sat beside Allegra. “The only way to save you was to change you.”

“So, I'm a vampire now?” she asked, staring down at her arms as if looking for an obvious sign.

“Yes,” Milena said. She reached forward to brush her fingers across Cilla’s face curiously. “Although, no vampire I've ever known was able to shed a tear. This is curious.”

“I'm starting to suspect the depths of that fae ritual are unfathomable,” Cilla said as the rest of her memories returned to her. “Thank you for saving me.”

Milena’s eyes hardened.

“I did not save you,” she said. “This is a result of my failure to save you. There were several moments when I feared you would not make it, actually. Usually, one has to consent to being transformed. Your soul felt how unnatural it was and tried to fight it.”

“Screw that,” Allegra said, finally able to talk properly again. “She was not done living and her presence here proves it. You did the right thing, Milena.”

Cilla nodded in agreement.

“I couldn't have said it any better myself,” said the redhead. “Besides, at least now I don’t have to decide what to do with my life after leaving Nefolktu. It turns out I never have to.”

Allegra shot a trembling smile at her friend before launching herself back into her arms. Now fully aware of her newfound strength, Cilla returned the embrace carefully.