Chapter 81 - The King's Bite

As soon as the plane's wheels first hit the tarmac, Allegra found herself wrapped in a bundle of nerves. She was too nervous to even look out of the window for a glance of what awaited them outside. Noticing her stiff demeanour, Vladislav grabbed her hand so he could lead her off of the plane. As they descended, all she could see was the private airstrip itself. A few dark, tinted, nondescript cars waited for them nearby and they made their way over to them. Her husband opened one of the doors for her to go in, but instead of joining her, he shut the door behind her in order to have a word with two other vampires.

She could not make out what was being said, but one was familiar and the other was a total stranger, so she assumed they were discussing how best the two security teams could liaise. He turned back to the car abruptly and she whipped her head around to pretend she had been on her phone all along. Vlad opened the door once more and slipped in beside her while someone else closed it behind him this time.

“Your espionage skills really do need some work,” he said dryly to her as she dropped the innocent act.

“I wasn’t trying to spy on you,” she said defensively. “I just wanted to figure out what was going on.”

“Even though you knew I would tell you as soon as I came back,” he said questioningly with a raised brow.

“Sometimes I'm impatient, alright?” she admitted reluctantly. “Plus, you don’t always tell me everything I want to know unless you decide it’s worth me knowing.”

“I suppose that is fair,” Vlad commented. “Jairus and Mystik have just met and it is a bit tense. Mystik has never shown any interest in Estoyya, while Jairus is among those who first escorted my mother and I here. He never left, so it is as much my home as it is his. I am unsure how he will handle having to share power with another vampire. I foresee a battle for dominance coming up in the next two weeks.”

“You don’t mean an actual physical battle, do you?” Allegra asked disapprovingly.

“It just very well might lead to that, but if it does, I will make sure they do so far enough away from you not to scare you off,” Vlad reassured her. “Until today, I had no idea you were so skittish.”

“I am not skittish,” she denied with a huff. “I’m just not the biggest fan of violence.”

“Of course not, pet,” he said with a little smirk.

Allegra merely glared at him until they heard one of the trunks being closed.

“That’s the last of the luggage, Your Majesty,” their human driver said. Allegra belatedly realised he had heard everything they had just discussed. “We should be on our way now.”

“Excellent,” said Vladislav, seemingly uncaring that their conversation had just been overheard. “Let us be on our way, then. I am very anxious to see the new changes made to my home.”

The driver waited for the car in front of him to start off before he joined in behind him. Vladislav slid the divider up between the front and back and Allegra pierced him with a questioning glance.

“Niklaus visited fairly recently, maybe five years ago now,” he said to her unasked question. “Unlike Milena and I, he never had the chance to spend time here with our parents, so he never grew quite as attached. This trip was his way to change things, but all he could say about the place when he came back was how out of date everything was.”

“Makes sense,” Allegra commented, thinking of what she knew of her brother-in-law. “Nik is quite possibly the oldest millennial in existence.”

“That is one way of putting it,” Vlad murmured unappreciatively. “He insisted that the reason he could not connect with the place is because it reminded him of a ‘mausoleum’, his exact words. So, he proposed overseeing renovations and Milena and I approved it, considering it was no worse than the trouble he usually got himself involved in.”

“So, you haven’t seen the results at all?” she asked. “Not even pictures of the updated decor?”

“We told him we would place our trust in him completely, so we did. So long as the architectural integrity of the place remained, he had free reign,” Vlad said. “He was very involved in the first two years, but then his interest waned, as it often does. Fortunately, he had gotten enough people involved in it to supposedly finish the work without his supervision.

“Also to his credit,” Vlad continued. “The construction people he had brought in raised enough awareness of the town to have it modernised as well. Estoyya is no longer a little town stuck in the past. The population has also doubled. It seems humans are attracted to pretty views and affordable costs of living.”

As soon as he said something about the view, Vladislav pointed out of the window and Allegra followed his finger to the most gorgeous view of the ocean. The sandy beach she saw was still quite a ways away, but the blue ocean practically glittered as the sun reflected on its surface, which looked ready to set in the next hour or so. She realised they were actually descending towards the ocean, the smooth roads all surrounded by lush greenery. All conversation was soon forgotten as she instead concentrated on taking in her first unfiltered view of Estoyya.

They soon came upon the fabled town and, just as her husband had said, it was not the medieval place she had been expecting. It was a charming town and they drove past all sorts of places – coffee shops, clothing stores and even a couple of bed and breakfasts. She was most shocked to recognise some words in Nuicun. That was the last thing she had expected. Most of the people stopped to stare at them as the royal convoy drove by. Many of them were unaware that royalty would be coming to town. They passed the town centre, where a fountain was the main attraction, and where it seemed all the local food stores – grocers, butchers and bakeries – were located.

Allegra saw several roads branching out and assumed that was where the majority of the townspeople lived. She noticed a few cars other than their own, but for the most part, it seemed the town was more populated by bicycles. She had even seen a few scooters around. It was like something out of a fairy-tale. They soon left the town centre and the road they took led to more homes. These looked newer than the architecture of the town until now. The new buildings were mostly houses, but she saw an apartment building being built somewhere in the background and noticed Vladislav’s eye twitch when he took note of it as well. Although more modern, they did still blend in with Estoyya’s overall aesthetic, so she saw no problem with it.

The further they drove, the more sparse buildings, or any sign of life, became. The road became surrounded by tall, green shrubbery on both ends, giving it a somewhat haunting look. Just when she was about to ask how much further they had to go, she saw an opening in the green shrubbery. When they drew close enough, she realised it was a pair of ornate gates covered in vines, not out of old age, but for the aesthetic. It was then she knew that they had arrived.

The driver of the car in front slid his window down to speak with the uniformed man who came out of the gatehouse. It did not take long to confirm his identity, but there was a noticeable pep in the man’s step as he returned, realising that his King was waiting. The gates opened and they drove in, the only sound that of gravel crunching beneath the wheels of their tyres. Like déjà vu, all the servants from the house were stood in a line outside waiting for their arrival.

Unlike the last time, the number of servants was greatly decreased because the size of the home itself was as well. It was not the size of Kalitsk or even her old home back in Rijavia, but it was still an impressive sight to behold. Vladislav had told her this was the house his mother had grown up in, but she had grown up poor. So his father had torn it down and in its place built a mansion. That was what she was looking at right now.

Vlad exited first so he could open her door for her, but she was barely aware of the activity going on around them with their luggage and the security team because she was too busy staring up at her home for the next two weeks; the stately home a vampire king had built for the woman he loved. She noticed Vladislav was doing the same. By the lack of reaction, she could tell Niklaus had held onto his promise and had not changed too much. He looked down at her with a smile.

“It looks exactly the same,” he said, and she knew him well enough to hear the relief in his voice.

She grinned up at him and tugged on his arm, urging them to go in together. They accepted the bows and curtsies they were given with some humility before they stepped inside. Allegra could tell it had undergone renovations, mainly because of the quality of wood. It looked far too polished to be ancient. The crystal chandelier that graced the entrance hallway could have been antique, but it was her experience that most from the era they were speaking of tended to be a bit too gaudy, so she suspected that was new, too.

They walked up the archway together as they both glanced around, Vlad with keen precision and she with eager anticipation. A maid led them to their room where their luggage awaited them. Allegra swung around in one spot as she took it all in after the maid let herself out. She had a hunch Nik had hired an interior designer for the rooms because it was prefect, if neutral. Something one would expect from a five-star hotel, but then again, no one lived there long enough to lend any personal effects to the place.

She glanced at the balcony doors and immediately dropped everything to head for them. They swung open beneath her hands easily enough to reveal that view – that amazing view that she had first seen of Estoyya close up. It was like she had personal access to the sandy beach and beautiful blue ocean.

“It’s prefect,” she whispered to her husband as he joined her outside and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“It pleases me to hear you say that,” he said fondly as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“What about you?” she asked belatedly, too taken in with the view. Is coming home what you hoped it would be?”

She practically felt her husband hesitate.

“In some ways,” he said. “Niklaus kept his word about our home. The architectural integrity is sound. In others...”

“The apartment buildings?” she asked as she remembered the look of disapproval on his face in the car.

“The apartment buildings,” he confirmed darkly even as his hold on her tightened ever so slightly.

Allegra turned so she was facing Vladislav and brought her hand to his cheek, cradling it while making sure he looked her in her eye.

“Nik might have a good reason for what he's doing,” she said sensibly. “Or, he could be making a terrible mistake. It’s Nik we’re talking about here, so we won't know until we talk to him. Until then, Vlad, do not lose sight of why we're here. It's our honeymoon. We can worry about this later.”

“You are right,” conceded her vampire.

He bent down to kiss her gently as the sun set before them and Allegra could not imagine a moment more perfect.