In War, There Is Love

Darling Wife

“Leave us alone.” His deep, velvet-like voice that suited him oh too well, filled the silent room, stretching until Maya felt it crawl all over her skin.

Like the order came from God himself, the vampires started leaving the room one after the other, throwing them curious, surprised glances on their way out.

“You cannot order me to leave, Demetrius. I am not one of your subjects—”

The look that the Vampire King—her mate—threw at her father, instantly cutting him off, was the first glimpse at why everyone feared him as much as they did.

It was bone-chilling terrifying.

Yet instead of fear, there was something similar to adrenaline that pumped inside her veins as she looked at them from her new throne.

Maya hadn’t expected her father to object to him in the first place, not when King Demetrius could get rid of him with a snap of his fingers now that they were inside his own palace, but it stung either way.

It suddenly felt like he had all the power in the world, and she had none of it just because of how much her father was scared of her new husband, and how much he tried to hide it. But she wasn’t her father, and moreover, the times when Maya had allowed others to control her feelings were long gone now.

Terrifying or not, if the Vampire King thought he could order her around just like he did with everyone else, he was simply being a fool.

Even his siblings walked away without saying a thing, and his strange but beautiful eyes fell on her once more.

They were like whiskey. Consuming. Instense. Scary. And a million more things.

But it wasn’t only his eyes, it was... him. There was something to him—perhaps his pitch black hair and features, his height, or his body, or the way he inflicted fear with just a flicker of his eyes. But at the same time there was this deadly charm about him that took your breath away.

She had heard countless people saying that you couldn’t look at him for more than a few seconds if you wanted to survive his gaze. But Maya found it the opposite. She couldn’t look away. Everything inside her screamed for her to look away, but he was like a death so sweet, luring you in before he consumed you entirely.

She didn’t want to fight it. She wanted to be lured. Just so she could prove to him he wasn’t so deadly after all.

“Get up.”

How could a voice be that... “Excuse me?”

“You heard exactly what I said, wife.”

Wife? Did he just call her that? In a mocking way, too?

She couldn’t help but smirk just a little. He was trying to scare her. And everyone in their right mind would be scared, but not her.

“And I must remind you that from the moment you signed the documents and said ‘I do,’ you agreed for me to be your equal, not your servant.” She praised herself for her voice sounding as strong as it did, and for the slightly furrowed brows that indicated his irritation. Maya did, however, stand up from the throne and walked towards him. “While you don’t seem to like me very much, husband,” she mocked, “I don’t suppose it’ll be a bother for you to see me sitting on the throne that already belongs to me.”

Standing in front of him was supposed to show power and bravery, but the hight difference and the sudden angry look on his face twisted something inside Maya’s stomach.

Show no fear. Show no fear.

“So this is why you did it,” he said in realization, his voice low. He was not shouting at her, but suddenly Maya wished he was. Somehow, this sounded more dangerous. “You wanted the throne.”

She forced herself to hold his gaze. God, for a second Maya prayed the rumors weren’t actually true, because it did feel like he could murder you without even lifting a finger.

“Now is there a female who doesn’t want to be Queen?” She didn’t, actually. Being Queen had never once been her goal, because it had never been in her reach—never being a Princess to begin with—and it actually sounded boring.

But suddenly it didn’t. Being Queen of the vampires would be anything but boring. Maddening, most probably, but not boring.

Maya didn’t have illusions, however. She didn’t expect the vampires to accept her as their Queen, and she didn’t want their acceptance.

She was their enemy. And they were hers.

He kept studying her with his whiskey-colored eyes like she was a worm in his hands, one that he was happy to experiment with. It made her both hate him more, and challenge him more.

“Even if it means being Queen to a husband that makes you doubt if you’ll wake up in the morning, darling wife?” His tongue brushed his fangs for her to see, and this time she barely hid the shivers that ran down her spine.

Fangs.

Fangs.

In her neck. Everywhere.

Stop, Maya, she forced herself.

She shrugged, acting unbothered. “Let’s say I’d be disappointed if you were softer than the rumors made you to be.”

His little chuckle was cruel. Like a real promise of her not waking up in the morning indeed.

Suddenly, the Vampire’s fingers gripped her chin, his face barely a few inches away from hers, and every trace of what would have felt like not-that-dangerous before was entirely gone.

If anyone looked at them from away, it would have been like a lover’s grip. Like an almost kiss after a five-hundred-year-old creature had finally found his mate, but it was her jaw almost breaking in his fingers that indicated how mad he was. “Stop playing, Maya.” He said her name with so much hatred and disgust, but she didn’t allow it to make her feel little. She kept his gaze with a furious one of her own. “You would have convinced me of your little stupid acts of bravery if you wouldn’t have used your faerie magic to make me feel like I’m bonded to you. Reverse it. Now. Before I tear you apart and I make your daddy dearest watch every single second of it.”

Her eyes grew huge, her mouth suddenly dry. Could he actually kill her?

While, of course he could, would he? Maya had convinced herself he wouldn’t risk war, but what she hadn’t thought of was that he was an old, ruthless King with real psychopathic tendencies that would rather send his people to war than let a little faerie bastard hurt his ego.

He was... fascinating.

But she realized what he had said a little too late. What faerie magic? What did she have to reverse?

“What do you mean—” Realization sank in. “You think I’ve done this? That I have put some sort of spell on you to make you think that we’re mates?”

He watched her without answering. Maya wrapped her hand around his wrist, sinking her long, red nails on his skin until he winced and finally let her chin go.

It only made him madder. “Acting clueless, aren’t we?”

Maya still couldn’t wrap her mind around this. “I’m a faerie of light, not a dark witch.”

He looked at her as if what she said didn’t make any sense whatsoever. “Same damn thing.”

Maya closed her eyes, suddenly irritated and tired and angry. She had never felt like home in her father’s place, but she wanted more than anything to go back home right now.

“It is a mistake, yes,” she agreed with a sigh. “This cannot be true because... because we faeries don’t mate with vampires. Or any other species for that matter. It has never happened, and sure as hell I am not the first one in our history.”

To her utter surprise, King Demetrius walked to the table and started pouring some whiskey into his glass, of course not offering her some.

His mood swings were insane. Just a few seconds ago he was threatening to kill her, and now he was drinking some alcohol like they had known each other for years.

“You think I’ll take your word for that, wife?” Without taking his eyes off her, he threw his head back and let the liquor down his throat. Goddammit, how hot it was. “Just because you’re acting like you think being fated to me is a mistake. You’re more manipulative than I thought you to be, I’ll give you that.”

Maya raised her brows. She could be manipulative, yes. He just looked more difficult to manipulate than the rest of the people she had ever met in her life.

Instead of answering, she walked towards the table as well, taking the crystal bottle in one of her hands and searching with her eyes for another glass. When she didn’t find one, she just drank from the bottle without a care in the world.

If he wanted to really murder her, drinking his precious alcohol would be the last of the reasons.

He didn’t hide the surprise from his eyes as he took her in. Her lips around the mouth of the bottle, her exposed neck, her eyes glued on his. His eyes went from whiskey to red for a split second, Maya was afraid she had imagined that.

But she hadn’t. This had been to provoke a reaction out of him, and she had.

He looked hungry.

She placed the bottle back on the table. “I haven’t done anything,” Maya told him. “This was as much of a shock to me as it was to you. But it doesn’t really matter if you believe me or not. I don’t need to put a spell on you in order to survive this place.”

With every word she said, he looked both more irritated and intrigued. “Are you sure you can, darling wife? I’m afraid you think too highly of yourself.”

Maya made a few steps towards the door, but kept her eyes on him. “Believe me, surviving is what I do best,” she told him, her chin high. “The real question is, will you be able to handle me? Because I’m afraid it’ll be harder than you think it is, husband.”