In War, There Is Love

Drawn To Him

Dear Father,

The pen froze mid-sentence and Maya let out a deep sigh for what felt like the millionth time already.

Excellent. Now her husband was getting in her head, but yet, wasn’t she doing exactly what he had said she would be doing? Writing to her father so she could tell him the news of being part of the Council, even though she knew that was the way of Silas using her.

But if she didn’t, that would be the way of Demetrius using her. Of making her his chesspiece like he had told her himself.

Maya shook her head as if the thoughts would fly right out of her head if she did so. Of course Demetrius would do anything to stop her from sending information to her father, even if it meant manipulating her. Especially if it meant manipulating her, because something told Maya he fed on manipulating people even more than he fed on fresh faerie blood.

He was nothing but a monster.

Yet his whiskey eyes flashed on the blank white paper like he was seeing her. Judging her, belittling her. Nonetheless, it didn’t stop Maya from finding those eyes utterly mesmerizing.

There was a knock on the door that made her jump from her chair. She hid the paper and the pen immediately, before composing herself. “Get in.”

Maya had been waiting for Jonah, the faerie ambassador that was now replacing the last one her husband had killed—the reason of their really happy marriage—and she could barely hide her shock when she saw Princess Lilith at her door, all dark and tall and prideful.

The Princess walked inside although she hadn’t been verbally welcomed, taking the room in in curiosity and wonder and almost... trepidation. Like she didn’t want to be here.

Perhaps Maya was reading too much into it, but she had learned years ago to trust her gut. It was something about their mother, she was almost sure of it.

“Maya.” The Vampire Princess’ as-black-as-her-hair eyes finally met Maya’s. “I can call you by your name, right? I mean, you’re basically my sister now.” Maya caught the hidden sarcasm behind her voice easily.

“Of course you can, Lilith,” Maya said with a fake sweetness. “And I can call you Lilith too, right? I am your Queen after all.”

Lilith’s chuckle was pure irony now. It was clear she didn’t believe Maya could actually be worthy of that title, or maybe she didn’t want to believe it, and Maya was more than happy to prove her and everyone else wrong.

“You’ve changed a few things,” Lilith pointed out as she walked slowly around the room. And Maya had. The bed, the couches, the curtains. The last thing she wanted was to have everything a dead Queen once had, centuries ago. “It’s prettier this way.”

Now she sounded sincere. And it made Maya even more confused.

“If I’m going to keep living here, I have to make at least my chambers feel a little like home.”

Lilith studied her closely. “Not the warmest welcome there is, right?”

Maya shrugged. “Nothing I didn’t expect.”

“Yet you came either way.” It was obvious she didn’t ask questions. She made points which said a lot about her blunt personality.

“I had no other choice.”

“Maybe.” She sat down on one of the couches like she owned the place. Even though she pretty much did. “Or maybe you weren’t so against it. Maybe you were drawn to the place. Or to your husband.”

Maya froze in her place. Did Lilith know...?

“Demetrius tells us everything, Maya.” Then why wasn’t Lilith accusing her of the same thing Demetrius was? “Is it... true?”

Maya blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what Lilith wanted to hear. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. Faeries only mate with their own. We’re pureblood for a reason.”

“True,” Lilith agreed, to Maya’s utter surprise. “And we can’t...” she trailed off, and Maya almost begged her to finish the sentence. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change much, Demetrius doesn’t believe in fate either way. You should really stop provoking him.”

Maya rolled her eyes. “I will when he stops with the threats.” When Lilith gave her a suspicious look, Maya shrugged, and almost smiled at her. “Maybe.”

She hadn’t realized that she was now sitting down on the same couch as Lilith, and had been talking to her like... they knew each other.

Lilith’s dark gaze studied her now like she had been realizing just the same thing. “You really are a surprise, Queen Maya.” There was this faded smile on her face. “If things had been different, I have this feeling me and you would have been friends.”

Maya’s brows furrowed. “You mean if I wasn’t a faerie and you weren’t a bloodthirsty vampire who feeds on us?

Just like that, the softness in the Princess’ eyes was gone. She got up. “As a female faerie who made her way as our Queen and a member of our Council just by yourself, I thought you were smarter than this, Maya. Not all of us are the villains you want us so much to be.”

And of course, it was easier to say this as a loved, respected princess inside an impenetrable castle. But if Lilith wanted to think Maya was nothing but smug and judgmental, she would let her, because she had nothing to lose. They weren’t friends, no matter how things would be in different positions.

They just weren’t. They would never be, just as Maya would never be able to belong there with them. Some things never change, no matter how much you try otherwise.

“Anyway, I think I lost track of what I came here for,” Lilith continued. “I’m organizing a ball in your honour.”

Maya shook her head immediately. God, she hated this. “It’s not necessary.”

“It is. You are our Queen and people should start seeing you as one. Even if it is just for show.”

Maya chuckled. Just like this, they were enemies again. Or maybe they never stopped being in the first place.

“Tomorrow night. First we’ll have dinner with our allies, and then we’ll attend the ball.”

This was a terrible idea, but as always, Maya was no quitter. If this was what took these people to take her seriously, then she would show them who she truly was.

“I cannot wait.”

However, right when the Princess was about to leave, alarming knocks drew their attention. “My Lady, can I come in? It’s urgent.”

What was it now? “Yes, Ivy, you can.”

“My Lady, the guards—” she gulped when she realized Lilith was inside as well. “The guards...” her voice was barely audible now, “have flown away.”

Confusion made her blink a few times. She looked at Lilith, but the Princess looked as surprised as Maya did. “I don’t understand. Why would my guards leave me?”

Ivy rubbed her hands together in what looked like fear and distress.

“Ivy!” Maya insisted, getting more frustrated by the second. “Answer me.”

“The King...” Her voice trembled. “Well, His Highness ordered a few of the vampire guards to feed on them as he watched...” Now Ivy was full on crying. “Then they left as soon as—”

“Is he bloody insane?” Maya hissed between gritted teeth, anger coulding her judgment.

Lilith shrugged as if Demetrius terrorizing a few guards wasn’t a big deal at all. “He is, yes.” But before she had even finished the sentence, Maya was on her way out. “Maya, you really should calm down before—”

“Do not dare tell me what to do!” Maya shouted, without giving a damn that a few maids were witnessing the scene. “Don’t talk to me about villains when you’re no different from your brother.”

She walked without seeing where she went, with just one destination on her mind: The Throne Room.

“Seriously, husband? Seriously?! My guards?”

Shocked, wide open eyes fell upon her as soon as she burst the door open. But all she could see were the amber, bottomless ones that slowly, unbotheringly, were raised from the map laid on the table to her. “Later, darling wife. I’m busy.”

“No. Now, not later,” Maya demanded, but the small smirk on his face only made her angrier. “Get out. All of you. Now.”

The lords hesitated. They looked at her husband for permission.

“Now!” she hissed.

“Don’t you hear your Queen? Get out.”

For a second she thought he was messing with her head, but the lords did get out after his order, but she never once looked at them. Maya had always been the best at hiding her emotions, even as a kid. Yet there was no way she could hide the hatred towards her husband right now.

“So that was your way of punishing me for standing up to you in front of your Council?”

He shrugged carelessly, yet there was nothing careless about him. He was all calculated. All arrogant. All God-like infatuated with himself. If he could kiss himself right now, Maya was sure he would. “I let them live, didn’t I? That was me showing mercy.”

Maya closed her eyes almost in defeat. “You really are crazy,” she whispered the words more to herself than him.

“I actually did you a favor, darling. Those were the two males your father had trusted to protect you from me?” Demetrius chuckled, a sound that, despite all the loathing she felt for him, caused something to clench inside her stomach. “It’s like he didn’t even try.”

Once more, the truth behind his hurtful words stung. “So you did me a favor by torturing my men to the point they flew away from here?”

“Yes.” He literally did sound like he believed that. “It’s ridiculous how you claim you’ll do anything to protect your people from me, and yet, they betray you the first moment they get.”

Her nails almost broke the skin of her palm, but Maya refused to back down. “Don’t twist this on them. You got your people to feed on their blood as you watched. Of course they’d want to escape.”

He shook his head in realization. “Your sense of loyalty towards people that don’t deserve it is almost endearing, but utterly embarrassing.”

“And your way of justifying your actions is horrible.”

Maya wanted to wipe the twisted grin from his face so badly it hurt.

“I don’t justify my ways, I embrace them.”

“Your ways of feeding on people’s misery? Congratulations.” Maya clapped her hands together in irony. “That makes you a heartless monster.”

His grin only grew wider. It was scary, and goddamn knee-weakening. “It makes you innocent for thinking I wasn’t one to begin with.”

The way he looked at her. The intensity of his gaze, the way his eyes traveled to her lips just for a split second... When had he come this near?

“Do not worry, wife of mine. Soon you’ll have a few, much more competent vampire guards to protect you.” His tone was now lower, deeper. For the first time, she couldn’t hide the goosebumps from travelling right on her skin.

Maya’s voice was a whisper now, for some strange reason. “Will you order them to feed on me next?”

Just like that, the wicked grin had vanished. She had called it scary, but scarier was this, the coldness on his face, and the fire in his eyes. “Let’s make something clear, darling. No one gets your blood but me. No one feeds on you but me.”

The silence was deafening. All she could hear now was her crazy-beating heart. “You’re sick,” she whispered again.

“I am,” Demetrius agreed. Slowly, he curled one blonde strand of her hair in his finger. “And I promise, no one will ever hurt you but me.”

She walked backwards to the door almost unconsciously. It was clear Maya hadn’t grasped the seriousness of the position she was in until now.

Everyone else in the world would have run for their life.

And she wanted to. On God, she wanted nothing more.

But there was this small, teeny-tiny twisted part of her that was drawn to him. Like light to darkness. Like rain to earth.

It felt inevitable, and dangerous, and a million more things, and Maya squished the thought as soon as it made its way from her subconsciousness.

“Ah,” he continued. “In case Lilith hasn’t informed you, I expect you to be in your best behaviour tomorrow night. No tantrums like the one you threw in the Council Room.”

Maya had no sneaky remark to make anymore.