In War, There Is Love

To Your Knees

They left one after the other in silence, throwing hateful glances her way. Something Maya was used to. She didn’t need validation from anyone, especially not from a bunch of rich vampires that thought they had the world in the palm of their hands just because their King had made them feel so, but somewhere deep down it stung. Because no one inside this room had even tried looking past her kind, past the fact that she was a faerie.

And she didn’t expect them to.

What she expected was to be alone with Demetrius, and for him to God knows what to do to her as revenge for nearly humiliating him in front of his clan members. Instead, she was facing not one but three vampires. The most powerful of them.

Each sibling at one side, all three looking at her with a kind of intensity that sent a chill down her spine.

Demetrius was terrifying enough himself, but something told her there was nothing, no creature in this world that could face them together.

She held their gaze with her head high nonetheless. Despite the hate Maya had for them, there was something flashing inside of her that felt a lot like envy. Jealousy, even.

They were there for each other. They were family. No matter how messed up they were, no matter the monstrous thing the other did, they had each other’s backs for centuries and centuries. While her siblings—all except Lea, perhaps—hated her with all their being.

She wasn’t one of them. She wasn’t one of any group, actually, any family.

And that was okay. Maya was enough on her own. She had to be, so she could survive.

“A wild card you pulled out there, wasn’t it?” It was the Princess who spoke, loud and clear. Confident as she studied Maya from head to toe.

Maya did exactly the same. She realized that while she had had a few interesting conversations with her husband and his brother, she had never closely looked at her sister-in-law. And now she looked almost as dangerous as her brothers, with her sharp fangs that flashed from between her blood-red full lips every time she spoke, her beautiful pale skin, black curls and almond-shaped black eyes.

Lilith was a dark beauty. And Maya had to be just as careful of her as the rest of them.

“It was one all of you should have anticipated,” Maya answered with the same confidence as her sister-in-law. It came to her naturally, just as it came to Lilith. “I think I made it clear I wasn’t going to be a dress-up Queen who takes orders from her husband.”

Surprisingly enough, her husband kept silent. And for some reason it was deadlier than him shouting at her or coming for her throat. Maya could feel her heart pounding, her throat drying at the way he simply looked at her, so why was it... almost exciting?

It was the adranline, but was it more? Had she started to get addicted to provoking him, pushing to see his darker side she hadn’t yet? Was it the true reason she had walked inside his Council Room like she owned the place when she knew he could do anything unpredictable to her?

It was hard to tell.

Maya was losing her mind.

“You could be part of the Council, but it is hardly for any of the members to obey you,” Anthony said, shrugging, but there was an amused smile on his face nonetheless. And that reminded Maya that no matter how comfortable they became, how charming and maybe welcoming he could be, it was always going to be his siblings for him.

“They will,” she told him. “Sooner or later.”

It felt like the conversation was already over, so Maya turned her back at them so she could leave. However, his deep voice had the power to stop her immediately, “Already going back to your room? So you can write the news to your daddy dearest? Making him proud?”

She gulped down the loathing she already felt for him with every word he said, everything she implied. Maya hated how perceptive he was, with everything inside of her. Maybe it came with his age or maybe it had always been there. It would make everything harder.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But she turned again and faced him, bravely so. Because he was goddamn scary.

Demetrius laughed, crossing his arms on his chest, and the twins smiled as well. “Sure you do, darling wife.”

God, how much she despised that he called her so. Her mate, her husband should have called her so, not him.

Although he was all of the above.

“You think you’re so smart, forcing yourself on enemy territory so you could gather information and send it to your father? You thought we wouldn’t figure it out?”

Maya kept silent. It would be foolish to deny something so obvious.

“It’s funny how you pretend to be this unfearing, proud female and yet let your daddy manipulate you into making you feel special for being the chosen one among his daughters. The one who can face me. When his daughters are safe and sound under his roof. Pathethic.”

Maya barely managed to keep looking at him when she was so torn between running away or throwing herself at him, teeth and claws, until he bled underneath of her.

Because what he said rang so true it hurt. It was something she had denied herself, and having someone so cruelly throw it into her face, it was mean.

“The daddy issues run deeper than I thought.”

“Screw you,” she cursed, but by the way he smirked, it was already what he wanted to achieve. Hurting her, taunting her until she admitted what her relationship with her father was. With her siblings. Every dynamic of hers with her own people. It was a form of torture, of manipulation, and Maya would be damned if she let him manipulate her into falsely confiding in him about how much her ‘daddy dearest’ has hurt her. “You know absolutely nothing about me and my family. And I’m going to keep it that way.”

Now Demetrius was leaning against the table, arms crossed, enjoying the conversation. How could he be this goddamn attractive?

“Still protecting him after he threw you at my mercy?”

Maya shrugged. “Let’s say he isn’t the father of the year. I don’t have the husband of the year as well, yet here we are.”

Anthony let out a snort, and this time Demetrius threw him an irritated look. He raised his hands in surrender. “It was funny,” he said as if that was the most convincing explanation.

Maya almost smiled too.

She threw her hair behind her shoulder, a movement that Demetrius’ eyes followed intensely. “And I am not at your mercy, husband. Just so you know, last year I requested to be sent here as the new ambassador.”

It was obvious how much Demetrius hated not knowing that piece of information just by the flexing of his sharp jaw. “Yet you weren’t.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Just as it doesn’t matter to your father if I send you to him in pieces for embarrasing me in front of my Council.”

Now, she was a second away from snapping. Not caring about the consequences, she walked until she was in his personal space. Her height had always given her an advantage against most faeries, but it didn’t work now that she had to tilt her head a lot to keep eye-contact. “Stop wasting your threats on me, husband.” It came out as a threat from her now. “It won’t work. You cannot kill me. Not only because of the war with my people, but because of the Council of Peace. You think I don’t know the law? Illegitimate or not, I am a royal blood. It is what you used to save King Victor and his brother-in-law from my father a few years ago. Lord Arthmael is illegitimate as well, yet he is safely and happily living with his wife and his children.”

Red.

For a second his eyes flashed to a blood-red, a second so short she thought she had imagined it.

But it was the fury on his face that she hadn’t imagined. Nor the surprise and the defense in Lilith’s and Anthony’s eyes. They were ready to throw hands. Ready to hurt her.

It seemed they hadn’t taken her seriously when she had told them she had studied law half her life, since she had started living in the faeries’ palace.

She was a strategist. There was no political move made she wasn’t informed about.

He placed his index finger beneath her chin, raising her face so he could get closer to her. “Then you’ll soon wish I had killed you.” It was low and quiet.

Maya felt her heart in her throat.

He meant it. Every word. It was obvious in his eyes, on his face.

He loathed her.

Her mate wanted her dead. And since he couldn’t do that, he would make it worse than death.

She shook her head and made a step back. It didn’t fuel her fear, however, it fueled her madness.

And maybe she was insane for it, but instead of looking down on her feet and showing maybe just a little bit of submission, she narrowed her eyes at him angrily.

“You have no idea what I can do.”

He didn’t. Because she didn’t as well. One second she couldn’t even reach her powers, and the other they could become wild, wiping everything in her way.

“Do not mess with me, Demetrius.” It was the first time she called him by his name out loud, and it came out like a hiss. “None of you.” She pointed to his siblings too. “You’ll come to regret it.”

“Will we?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation.”We’re on different sides of this war, on two different first fronts actually, but I’ll be damned if I let you come for my people.”

Anthony and Lilith looked even more shocked at her courage, probably thinking she was a fool instead, but she didn’t give one damn about it.

“I know this marriage wasn’t about peace. I am not stupid and I am not my father.”

He raised a dark brow at her. “You think you can stop me?”

“I know I can.” Maya nodded, her sarcastic smile mirroring his. “You think you’re this all-powerful creature that everyone’s so afraid of. They’re all fools. You’re a male, you’re all the same. I can bring you to your knees if I want to. I have done it a few times, I can do it again.”

His grin turned wicked. Scary. It was crazy how he could make her hands, her entire body shake.

“I’d love to see you try, darling.”