Chapter 82 - The King's Bite

A slight disturbance in the air woke Allegra up from her comfortable sleep. After the night she had just had with Vlad, she could not imagine anything disturbing it. They had had an intimate dinner for two merely enjoying each other’s company as her husband told her everything he thought she would love about the place. He painted such a vivid picture of it, she was almost eager to start exploring Estoyya right then and there.

He had managed to convince her it would be best to wait until morning, but she only gave in because she, in turn, managed to convince him to at least walk her down to the beach. The part of it on their property was well illuminated at night thanks to Niklaus’s renovations, so he had no reason to say no. They walked down the beach hand in hand and Vladislav’s eyes had softened with fondness as he saw his wife dip her toes experimentally in the water.

Allegra expressed her surprise at its temperature and he explained that they had never been able to figure out why the waters of Estoyya were always the perfect temperature; warm enough for a midnight dip, yet refreshingly cool on a scorching, hot day. She chucked it up to yet another of the place’s magical mysteries and allowed herself to be dragged back to their room where the two had made love for what felt like an eternity. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep on his chest, exhausted.

That was when Allegra figured out what was wrong with the picture. She had gotten so used to waking up in Vlad’s arms since they got married. As she stretched herself and clumsily felt around the bed for him, she realised she was alone. The thought had her jolting up in bed with some alarm. She glanced at her phone, thinking she had overslept, but it was barely nine in the morning and there was no time difference between Nefolktu and Estoyya, so she knew she was not jetlagged, either.

She quickly hopped out of bed, swiftly remembering to text back Aidon and Cilla that they had safely arrived and reassuring them that she was having an amazing time. She made sure to let them know updates may be few and far between, as she would be caught up in the moment. Once that was done, she got ready for the day and called Vlad as soon as she was dressed. His number was occupied and Allegra began to have a horrible suspicion.

The Duchess left her room and stopped the first servant she saw with a smile. She was an older lady named Mildred and was more than happy to assist her future Queen.

“I just don’t know where he could have ran off to so early,” Allegra said, aware she was thinking out loud.

“I saw him go into the library. I told him we had breakfast set up for the both of you, but that it could be brought into your room if you required instead,” Mildred supplied helpfully. “He insisted you were still asleep and that you would both come down for breakfast when you were up for the day.”

“How long ago was this?” Allegra asked.

“Less than an hour, Your Grace,” said Mildred. “I would be happy to show you to the library.”

“Please do,” Allegra said as she gladly accepted the offer.

The maid led her down the carpeted corridor and stopped before two double doors. Standing outside of them were two large vampires and their hulking presence made Allegra realise that she could have found the place on her own. Mildred waved her hand towards the door before she curtsied and left her presence altogether. Allegra was left staring at the two vampires. They were complete strangers to her, but she knew they knew who she was, so she gave them a firm nod before placing her hand on the door handle to open it. One of them brought a large hand on top of hers to stop her.

“His Majesty does not wish to be disturbed,” he said.

Allegra scoffed. “‘His Majesty’ would also decapitate your hand if he found out where you just put it. Let’s just stay out of each others’ way, shall we?”

She did not wait for an answer before she swung the door open and quietly closed it behind her. The library was vast. Much bigger than she had been expecting it to be from the oitside. She also realised it must have been soundproof. As soon as she stepped into the room, she could hear her vampire’s agitated voice. She passed by multiple shelves of books in an attempt to reach him and when she finally did, he was leaning heavily against a windowsill with his phone pressed to his ear. Vladislav stared down into the courtyard as he hissed venomously into the thing.

Allegra only watched him for a moment, hoping he would switch to English so she could understand what he was in such a fit over even though she had a fairly good idea she knew.

“You had no right to do this!” he hissed. “How does fixing our ancestral home amount to you selling land in Estoyya to building developers? What on earth were you thinking?”

Annoyed, Allegra walked right up to him and snatched the phone from his unsuspecting grip. He was shocked to see her and she realised that Vlad had let his anger take over so completely that his other heightened senses had been dulled. She glanced at the phone and saw Nik’s name on the screen. She immediately put it on loudspeaker.

“–Can’t just expect an entire population of people to stay stuck in the past because it holds sentimental value to you!” Nik was saying. Allegra had never heard him sound so passionate about something before. “That isn’t fair to them, especially because you’re hardly ever there! You visit probably once every decade. The Estoyyans shouldn’t have to cosplay living in the past for your benefit. They have lives of their own.”

“Cosplay?” Vlad repeated, completely lost and paying his wife no mind. “Niklaus you completely went against our agreement! What part of that do you not understand?”

“How do you think the population increased in such a short time? People are emigrating there because they see its potential,” Nik said, his voice nearly pleading for understanding. “There is plenty more land that is going unused. What’s so wrong with capitalising off of that?”

“They will ruin it, Niklaus!” shouted a frustrated Vlad. “The culture will all, but disappear. How many of these new people even speak Nuicun? How long until it is completely erased?”

There was a tense silence and Allegra could tell Nik was debating whether or not to say what he was about to.

“It isn’t their language anyway,” said her brother-in-law, voice back under control. “It was foisted upon them after centuries of living in Nefolktu when a chosen few of them were brought back to the islet after the fae agreement. Why should they have any obligation to uphold a language that is not theirs?”

Allegra knew it was impossible for vampires to go red with anger, but her husband’s reddening eyes said a lot.

“Have you spoken to the people yet?” Nik continued, unaware of just how pissed off he had made his brother. “Talk to them, Vlad. They are just as excited about these changes as I am. Perhaps even more because they have to live there every day of their lives and at this point, like it or not, we are basically just visitors in comparison. And I did not sell any of the land to those developers. They are under a contract to build and that is it. It all still belongs to the crown.”

Vladislav sighed. “I knew I never should have entrusted something this important to you,” the King said, disappointed. “I told myself that maybe you could handle it, but I was clearly wrong.”

“That’s enough!” Allegra spoke for the first time. She was sure Nik had not been aware of her presence then and was almost certain Vladislav had all, but forgotten about her. “You may not approve of what he has done, but you have to admit that it is impressive. He has done something you and Milena – as much as you both love this place – have failed to do. He has revitalised it because he’s the only one who realises that doing so requires taking a step into the future. Nik deserves some credit and you know it.”

“Thank you, Allegra,” Niklaus said, sounding shocked that she would stick by him.

“Not only that, you promised that we would set this aside for now and deal with it when we got back home – after our honeymoon. You literally waited for me to fall asleep, so that you could slither out of bed and do this right under my nose without me ever finding out. If you ask me, that’s more deserving of disapproval.”

Niklaus’s silence on the other end of the line was the only indication of how uncomfortable he was. Getting shouted at by his older brother was one thing – he was used to that. Being directly involved in an argument with his wife, on the other hand, was not something he had ever wanted to sign up for.

Vladislav sighed. “I apologise, pet, but you have to realise that this matter can only be dealt with while we are on Estoyya.”

“Fine,” was Allegra’s clipped response. Both vampires could tell how upset she was. “Nik, do me a favour and send us all the contact information along with the contracts you have with the apartment developers. It looks like we’ll be having a working honeymoon.”

Even though they could not see him, Nik rubbed the back of his head in discomfort, very unwilling to be involved in their tiff.

“Allegra, I'm not sure if –”

“Now, Niklaus!” she snapped. “I wasn’t asking you. I was telling you. I'm the only one on your side here, so you better act with some fucking speed.”

She cut the phone and handed it back to her husband who took it back gingerly, like he was afraid her anger would manifest into electricity and it would zap him. When Allegra looked into Vladislav’s eyes, he could swear he had never seen her angrier, and that was saying something considering how they had first met one another. Instead of unleashing her wrath on him, however, she swung around and retraced her steps back outside the library. The King automatically followed her, unsure of what she was planning to do in her volatile mood.

“What are you planning on doing, Allegra?” he asked, careful not to upset her any further.

“We are going to have a nice breakfast together,” she said serenely. “Mildred and the rest of the kitchen staff must have worked so hard to prepare our first honeymoon breakfast. It would be a shame to let it go to waste.”

When they left the library, she let him take the lead since she was unsure of where they would be dining. He led them to the same room downstairs that they had had their dinner in. They both ate their fill of the delicious breakfast – it was difficult to refuse such succulent tropical fruits after all, but they did not converse at all and the tension between them remained.

“Allegra,” Vladislav began when they had almost finished up with their meal. He waited for her brown eyes to meet his serious silver ones before he continued to speak. “Just because this small hiccup has come about does not mean we will not be enjoying our honeymoon. All of our plans will remain unchanged."

“Oh, I know,” the Duchess said confidently, as she licked the juice of a mango off of her thumb, ignoring the heated gaze that her husband followed the movement with. “That’s why the first thing on our agenda today will satisfy both of our plans.”

“What do you mean by that?” Vladislav asked with narrowed eyes.

“I mean, while we get to familiarise ourselves with the locals,” she began with a smile, but stared at him coolly, “you get a first hand account of what they really want done with their home.”