Vampire Girl 6, page 14
What do you think is in the little black velvet box?
A big ass diamond ring of course!
"Iris," he says, his voice ringing in the air like bells. I don't even know what that means, but that's how it feels okay? Like bells. "You have been the unexpected missing piece in my life, one I didn't know I needed until I found you. I know we live in different worlds, literally, and that I'm asking a lot as prince of a realm in Inferna, but—"
"Yes!" I say, unable to contain myself.
"But I wasn't finished," he says, teasingly.
"The answer is still yes. Do you want to finish though. You can. Go ahead."
He stands and pulls me to him. "The speech can wait." He slips the ring on my finger and we kiss under the stars, in a field of glowing flowers, as fairies come out of hiding to dance and sing around us.
To say it was the most magical proposal to ever happen would be an understatement.
We rush back to the castle as fast as we can and retire to his quarters. Duke is there waiting for us, with Theo. Neither of them were happy to be left out, but we give both some hugs and kisses and tell them the news. Then we kick them off the bed and tell them to stay clear for a few hours.
Elias's hands send shivers up my spine as he gently removes my dress. I help him with his waste coat and buttons and once we are both in our birthday suits we slip into his bed, our bodies pressing close as we explore every inch of each other.
This will never get old. Being with him. Touching him. Loving him.
It will never get old, even when we do.
The next morning we dress, eat, and with Duke and Theo in tow, make our way to High Castle to tell the queen and Elias's uncles—who have been notified to meet us there--the good news.
Queen Arianna has resumed her seat on the throne, and her kingdom couldn't be happier. But there's still a deep sadness in her eyes.
When we arrive she is in the Great Hall sipping tea, her dragon perched on her shoulder. Dean sits next to her, with Asher across from her. Zeb is reading a book and sipping at his goblet, but looks up to say hi when we approach. Ace paces in front of the fire, lost in his own thoughts. He hasn't been the same since the war with Aya. He misses her, that's clear. And feels betrayed too, I think. There's an empty spot in everyone's heart over Aya, and the path her life took, and King Fenris, whose whereabouts is still unknown.
Ari rises to greet us, smiling as she does. She and I have grown close since our time in the caves, and I consider her a dear friend now. Healers have been working with her to mend the damage the curse did on her mind, but I fear the real damage is to her heart. She misses her daughter and husband. "Any news on Fen?" I ask.
Her eyes alight. "There might be," she says with an optimism I haven't seen in her before.
Dean stands, kisses my cheek and shakes Elias's hand and grins. "I've had news of an artifact on earth… a piece of the Fallen Star of Nirandel. It's just rumor, but word is, Fen is somehow connected to this. That's all I know, but I leave in the morning to investigate."
"What's your first step?" Elias asks, as anxious about his father as anyone.
"My sources tell me there's a renowned archaeologist who's apparently on the hunt for it. An… Alex Stone. I'm going to find him and see what he knows, take it from there."
Ari squeezes his hand. They have always been close, though for many years Dean wanted more. Now he seems content with her as a friend and sister. "Many don't realize that Dean has a PhD in Archeology, and is renowned on Earth himself," she says with sisterly pride. "It's good to see you putting your skills to work. Keep me informed, will you?"
He kisses her forehead with affection. "Of course. You'll be the first person to know what I discover. We will find Fen. He's out there somewhere."
The pain is her eyes breaks my heart as she nods. "I know you will."
The heartfelt moment is broken by a choir of young voices echoing around us as the wind begins to howl. And the song they sing is thus…
* * *
He’ll come in the night
In armor of white
Riding a steed of snow
* * *
Three signs there are
That mean he’s not far
Silver army in tow
* * *
First comes the frost
Second the flame
Third are the voices
of those he has slain
* * *
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Footsteps. They come from the darkness. Drawing near.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
The sound of hooves clacking on icy stone.
And then I see him.
The White Rider.
"Arias, stop that nonsense," Ari says, laughing.
Arias walks across the room and grins. "Sorry, couldn't help it. Old habits and all."
He kisses his mother then kisses my cheek and shakes Elias's hands. He and Elias aren't quite buddy-buddy yet, but they're working on it. Kayla and Tavian follow him in. "Everyone's here now. What's the big news?" he asks.
I hold up my hand to show off my new ring, and there's laughter and cheers and hugs from everyone.
Arias pulls me aside and smiles. "I'm truly happy for you both. I'm glad things have worked out."
"Me too," I say.
For the rest of the day we feast and celebrate. Someone gets word to Uncle Sly, and in a rare departure from his standard protocol, he joins us at High Castle. I've got my whole family together. Well, everyone except Callie, but wherever she is, I know she'd be happy for me.
We don't have answers to questions about dates and logistics. Where will we live? I don't know. Could we maybe take turns living at each other's places? When's the big day? No clue. These questions can wait.
Today is about enjoying the moment and celebrating the love we have for each other and our family.
Tomorrow we can figure the rest out.
THE END
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Vampire Girl 7: Fallen Star
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Here is a reading order for the complete series:
Vampire Girl
Vampire Girl 2: Midnight Star
Vampire Girl 3: Silver Flame
Vampire Girl 4: Moonlight Prince
Vampire Girl 5: First Hunter
Vampire Girl 6: Unseen Lord
Vampire Girl 7: Fallen Star
Vampire Girl 8: Of Dreams and Dragons
Vampire Girl 9: Copper Snare (a prequel novella)
Vampire Girl 10: Crimson Cocktail (a Vampire Librarian Novella)
Vampire Girl 11: Christmas Cognac (a Vampire Librarian Novella)
16
Sneak Peek: Fallen Star
You may be wondering what a girl like me is doing in a place like this. Dark. Damp. Filled with mummified corpses too old to name. Creepy crawlies that you don't even want to know about. *Crunch* Ew. I think I just crushed one with my palm.
Give me a sec while I wipe the goo off my hands.
Even the dust smells like it's lived and died a thousand times since the last human stepped foot in here.
And yet here I am, cobwebs in my hair, bug goo oozing into the cracks of my fingers despite my best effort to rub the crap off on the stone, crawling on my hands and knees through a narrow tunnel that should lead me to a cavern.
'Should' being the operative word here.
Well, let me set the record straight. First, I'm not a girl, I'm a woman. Notice the date on my driver’s license? Fully fledged grown-up. Also, those two PhDs at the end of my name are hard to come by as a girl. Factor in that I got my degrees by the age of twenty-five, and you can perhaps understand why I don't like being called girl. I graduated high school at sixteen. College at eighteen. Two PhDs in six years seemed a bit behind the curve, to be honest. I'm still bummed about that.
But life is full of little disappointments, isn't it?
The question is, will this tomb be a disappointment as well, or will we finally find what we've been scouring the world for?
"See anything, Alex?" Trevor's voice startles a critter near my foot, who makes a dash for my legs and tries to shimmy up my pants. Jokes on him, though. I learned long ago to keep that shit tucked in tight. That was a life lesson best not repeated. I still have the scars as a reminder.
Not finding a way in, the little beast screeches and scurries away. Probably to tell his friends all about the two delicious morsels waiting in the wings.
Trevor and I being those morsels, in case that was unclear.
"Nothing yet," I answer, trying to keep my voice low so as not to disturb whatever else might be living here.
While my partner might not believe anything that science can't definitively prove, I've seen enough to know we don't know everything. In fact, we don't know much at all. And not to toot my own horn, but I know a whole hell of a lot, so that's saying something.
Trevor's never been on an excavation like this before. He has no clue that's the real reason his company hired me. He thinks I'm here to fulfill some kind of PC vagina quota. That we're just searching for a rare artifact worth a lot of money. Something that museum's worldwide will drool over. Something that will unlock a few more secrets of the past.
Nothing wrong with that (err…, except for the vagina quota bullshit. I refer you back to my double PhDs). For the rest, well, we've all got to start somewhere.
But, I know better.
I know what we seek holds power. Real power.
Power I can't let Global Tech get their hands on. Which is the only reason I took this gig. To double-cross them.
I know, not very sportsmanlike. But if you knew what was at stake, you'd do the same. Trust me.
Plus, they're not the only ones after it. Dr. Vane's team—an archaeologist of questionable repute who has beaten me to more than a few precious finds—is en route as we speak, according to sources who know shit. I can't let that old man get his hands on this. Way too dangerous for someone with ties to not-quite-legal organizations who are known to smuggle rare artifacts into other countries and sell them to private collectors on the black market. If I ever meet the greedy son of a bitch in person, I have a few choice words to share with him. But, alas, he keeps a low profile.
I do too, but not for nefarious reasons. I do it mostly for my reputation. As young as I am, I look even younger. I'm working at reaching 5'5", but can only manage with heels, I'm compact—or what some would call 'scrappy' and my short pale blonde hair usually features a few fun colors. I get carded a lot. My look doesn't help instill respect and clout in a middle-aged white dude's club. So, I stay off social media, keep my pictures out of newspapers and online write-ups, and let my work speak for itself. Most people mistake me for a middle-aged white dude. Imagine their surprise!
I squint as the darkness that edges around the thin beam of light from my headlamp begins to brighten, and I feel a shift in the air around me. "We're coming up to something," I say.
Trevor grunts in response, and a few more critters frolic around our hands. Something bites the thick part of my palm, and I hold back a curse and smash the bastard against the stone, feeling it's small bones break. I can't move my head enough to look at my hand, but I feel blood pooling. I'll have to get something on that soon. Who knows what kind of infections these creatures carry.
I slow my pace, knowing I could be crawling into a trap. And then I stop completely and suddenly, my heart a drum against my ribs. Trevor bumps into me.
"What's the holdup?"
I look down, and my light doesn't carry far. If I'd kept going, I would have crawled off the edge into total darkness. "We've got a bit of a problem," I tell him. "But I have a plan."
It's not a great plan. But it's a plan. I explain it, and though I can't see his face, I know the look he's giving me.
He didn't like giving up control of this excavation to a 'girl.' He was also expecting a dude. But we worked it out. And in the course of things somehow ended up in bed.
Probably a mistake. But a fun one, I will admit. I'd like to say it had nothing to do with his sculpted body, dark bedroom eyes and wicked grin, but I'd be lying. I'm still a woman, after all. I have needs.
And in a job like mine, I take the fun where it can be had.
Still, our roll in the hay didn't erase the sharp edges of misogyny embedded in Trevor's DNA. So this plan isn't an easy sell.
Fortunately, I don't need his permission. He can join, or stay on his hands and knees and wait for me to discover the artifact and claim the credit. You want to bet he'll stay and wait?
Didn't think so.
I pull out two climbing picks and prepare for the crazy part. This is where it gets tricky, because I have very little room to maneuver, I don't know what's below us, and all manner of shit could hit the proverbial fan.
In one fluid movement, I slam the picks into the rock, launch myself out of the shaft I'd been crawling through, and spin around so I'm now facing a wall of stone as I hang from the picks for dear life.
"I'm going down," I tell Trevor, who's now watching me from the position I was just in. His eyes are wide, pupils slightly dilated, though that could be the headlamp shining directly into them. He's definitely never been on a dig like this. He fancied himself Indiana Jones. It didn't occur to him I would be the hero in this story.
Okay, so this next part isn't very exciting. Show don't tell. I know, I know. But seriously, do you really want to hear about how I pull out one pick, move it down an inch or two, ram it back into the stone, and keep doing that over and over as my muscles burn and sweat drips down my face and pools under my arms, and in just about every other crack of my body? Yeah, it's not glamorous. If they make a movie, it'll be a lot more exciting, I'm sure. Until then, let's skip to the good part.
By the way, I totes want the young Lara Croft actress to play me, okay? She's a total badass. Now that we've got that handled…
My foot finally lands on something solid. This is where shit gets real. "You're almost there," I tell Trevor, who looks like he needs some encouragement. He only has one PhD, so, you know how it goes.
I'm just kidding about that. Most PhDs I know can't do this. Wouldn't want to do this. No matter how many they've collected. This is crazy. I'm crazy. But you probably figured that out already.
And Trevor isn't so bad. He's a product of his own privilege for sure, but then who isn't?
The key is some degree of self-awareness. Being woke, as they say. Trevor is anything but woke.
With both feet finally on solid ground, I exhale gratefully, letting my legs take more of my body's weight as I ease up on my arms. But I don't let go of my picks.
Not yet, anyway.
Why, you ask?
Clearly you've never been in a situation where the ground fell out from under your feet and the only things that saved your life were the climbing picks you held onto. But I don't hold that against you.
Even my closest friends think I'm total craycray.
So I hold on as I let more weight drop onto the floor beneath me. Another critter crunches under my boot. I feel no pity or remorse for its demise.
I pull one pick out of the stone while keeping hold of the other one with my right hand. "So far so good," I tell Trevor, who hasn't dared venture this close to the ground yet. "I'm going to let go and see if it holds."
"You sure about that?" he asks.
"Sure as I'll ever be."
And so I pull my other pick out but stay close to the stone wall, ready to slam my picks back into the rock the moment I feel the earth beneath me shift.
It doesn't. Hooray for me.
Carefully, I turn around to face the cavern.
I never know what to expect. Every discovery is different. Will this have monsters? Treasure? Dust bunnies? A little bit of each? It's anyone's guess.
This one is… empty.
Empty?
I squint, searching more carefully.
Yup. Empty.
Well, shit.
"Um, Trevor, we might have another problem."
He lowers himself next to me, still facing the wall. His body is so close our shoulders brush against each other, and I wait to see if I feel that zing of attraction I felt before.
Nope. Fizzled already. Ah, well. These things never do last long.
"What problem?" he asks, breathless.
"See for yourself."
He turns slowly and then curses. "There's nothing here."
"That was my first thought too. But… we might be wrong." An idea is forming in my head. And so I slide my picks into their custom-made slots in my pants (what, yours don't have those?) and creep forward, into the center of the circular room. The wall reaches higher than I can see, with a great black emptiness above us. There are small crevices that break up the wall, like the one we snuck through, but otherwise it's giant and unending. The floor is a series of square stones in different shades of ochre and gray.
I find the center of the room and stand there, staring at my feet.
Trevor stays by the wall, presumably to be helpful, I'm sure. "See anything?" he asks, a nervous tremor in his voice.
