Married to the Vampire Prince

Chapter Four

Silas

Grace’s ruby blood was the most delicious drink I had ever tasted in over a hundred years of my life.

I frowned at the paper in front of me. I was at my desk in my office now, even though it was only 4 pm and not yet the time to start my workday as my father’s assistant in bureaucratic matters. I had been here for four hours already, and so far they were the least productive four hours I’d had in a long time.

My thoughts constantly wandered to my new wife and my recent wedding.

We had held the ceremony in the early hours of the previous evening. I normally worked at night, but instead I had spent that time lying in bed next to Grace. She had fallen asleep after only one round of sex and – even though it would have been a lie to sayI hadn’t wanted more – I hadn’t had the heart to wake her up.

I focused again on the document in front of me – a paper asking to increase the tax on books, of all things. Denied. I put the paper on the stack that was going to be trashed once my assistant woke up and joined me at work.

I at least had to keep my head clear enough to avoid signing off on anything I would regret later.

However, as soon as I grabbed the next document, my thoughts wandered again.

Grace had looked so nervous during the wedding, like a fish out of water. She was, after all, a human who had entered vampire society. Some of the guests had brought their human wives and husbands to the wedding. However, the majority of our guests had still been vampire nobles.

I was aware of how vicious the Estone nobility would be should they find any fault in my wife. I knew she had no knowledge of etiquette or dancing, having grown up a commoner. If the nobles deemed her inadequate for the position of the country’s future queen, she would suffer the brunt of painful gossip and media attention.

That was why, under the pretense of unquenchable lust for my new wife’s body and blood, I had escorted her out of that hall full of vultures last night. No doubt the news of how much I adored my bride would be all over tabloids by the end of the day. I had not left Grace’s apartment until noon, and I was sure a nosy maid had already reported that fact to anybody interested.

Let them think I was enamored by my bride.

My heart clenched, and I tapped my pen on the desk.

No, perhaps I shouldn’t be expressing attachment to my new wife so openly. Being a devoted husband didn’t fit my image of a cold, loner prince.. Maybe if I stopped myself from being so passionate with her in the future, people would write it off as a passing fancy?

My image wasn’t the only reason why I needed to reign in how much I showed my affection for her. If my enemies figured out how much I really cared about Grace, they would treat her as my weakness, and soon I would be fighting off assassin after assassin sent to get rid of the one person who mattered to me.

I barely knew Grace, but I didn’t want her to die – not because of me or for any other reason. She had unwillingly entered a battlefield of politics and would now have to learn to navigate its complexities. She shouldn’t need to fear for her life and wellbeing on top of everything else.

Though maybe I was just being paranoid? We weren’t currently at war with anybody, after all. Yet my mind so easily returned to my years as a general. I couldn’t help but see enemies behind every corner.

No, Grace had to be kept safe at all costs, whether there was a present threat or not. I would have to put extra security on her and her rooms at all times. I wrote myself a note to prepare a document with the order later.

I returned to studying the paper in front of me. This request was for opening a new school and included a thick stack of documents with plans for the new building and a list of personnel that would have to be hired.

Hopefully I would be able to focus on this task enough to be done with it in an hour. With my thoughts all over the place, I was working awfully slowly.

Grace returned to my mind though… She had been so beautiful last night when we’d had sex. I wanted to hold her again, make her come, drink that delicious blood of hers.

There was a small tap on my door that took me out of my thoughts. The sound was barely audible – characteristic of the arrival of my best friend, Luke. It was like a secret code we had decided he would use whenever he came by my office.

“Come in,” I called out.

Luke entered, dressed in a black shirt and black pants, casually, as if he hadn’t just returned from fieldwork. Luke Carter was Estone’s spymaster. He oversaw a network of spies, but he liked being right in the action too.

Luke was the polar opposite of me with his halo of light-brown curls and a smile that could charm the pants off any woman – he was the light to my darkness. Our complimentary differences were why we had grown close as friends. We worked great together. Where I was cold and calculating, Luke provided a more human insight, helping me make better decisions. I could always ask him for advice.

“What are you doing in the office so early, you workaholic? I didn’t think I would catch you here at all today, what with you finally having a wife and all that.” My friend strolled over to my desk with a bright smile on his face.

I huffed. “I didn’t get to work last night because of the wedding,” I tried to defend myself.

“It’s not like everyone didn’t expect you to take a day off because you were getting married.” Luke plopped down in the chair in front of my desk.

He put his arm on his knee and his chin on his hand, never losing his smile, though his seemingly casual expression reflected the cunning edge of a skilled mastermind. He always got that look whenever he encountered a mystery he wanted to solve.

I didn’t want to be a puzzle to him.

“What’s the real reason you’re here so early, hm?” Luke asked when I didn’t reply.

My first instinct was to lie to him. Luke was my best friend though. It wasn’t right to lie to friends.

“I’m fond of my wife,” I admitted. That much was the truth.

“And?” Luke arched his eyebrows.

He knew there was more to the story.

I furrowed my brows and scratched my head. Vampires didn’t get headaches, but if I could have, then now – when my best friend was questioning me – was when it would have happened.

Luke continued looking at me with a sparkle in his eyes, waiting patiently for me to speak.

I found it hard to tell the truth. “And I don’t want to be fond of my wife,” I finally admitted.

Luke laughed out loud, throwing his head back and slapping his hands on his knees. “I knew this was going to happen from your first reaction to her picture,” he said when he finally stopped with his mad laughter. He wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. “You did rather like that woman. I just didn’t think you would… develop feelings so soon.”

“These are not feelings,” I said seriously.

“Sure they’re not,” Luke winked at me.

I shook my head. “Not in the sense you mean. I like the way she looks, our chemistry is great, the blood is delicious. But… that’s the extent of what I’m feeling.”

“These feelings are a great foundation for a loving marriage,” Luke said. “I can’t have a ‘loving marriage’ with so many enemies around,” I finally voiced my greatest fear. “They would stop at nothing to kill her.”

“Ahh,” my best friend prolonged the sound as my meaning sunk in for him. “So that’s what you’re worried about. Don’t you think we can protect her, though?”

“There have been so many assassination attempts on my mother, and she’s a vampire. Grace is just a human. I shouldn’t have picked her to be my wife in the first place,” I mumbled, my frown deepening.

Yet, the thought of not having Grace as my wife unsettled me. It would mean she would be married to someone else – a reality I hated imagining.

“But you did and you married her, and now you have to deal with everything that’s going to come,” Luke said, dropping his smile. His tone was matter-of-fact now – serious.

I gave him my full attention. He was speaking as my spymaster now, not my funny best friend.

“You needed to marry a human with ruby blood. You chose Grace because you were drawn to her. Now stop fretting. You have so many good people working for you. Just give the order to protect your wife at all times, and she’ll never even know if there are attempts on her life,” Luke said.

“I just… hate to have pulled her into this world so suddenly. She understands nothing about vampire politics, about the danger she’s going to be in as the princess. There’s a vast amount she doesn’t know – history, etiquette, dancing. She will have to learn so much and so quickly. Just because I took a liking to her and–”

“Are you seriously saying you expect her to be unhappy living the life of a princess? With you by her side and all the riches she’ll have access to? Damn, Silas, she’s going to live the dream of so many women of Estone,” Luke frowned at me.

I shook my head. “Maybe the part about being rich and important is a dream of many women, but… I’m not the ideal husband candidate.”

“There you go again with belittling yourself. I wouldn’t be your best friend if I didn’t enjoy your company. Grace will grow to like you too, and she will learn all the things she needs to know to be a princess – just give her time,” Luke tapped his hand on his knee. “Sure, if you picked a woman from one of the Families, she would already know the things that are needed to be a princess. But what’s done is done.”

“Yes, the twenty Families with humans who are most likely to have ruby blood teach their members the skills needed to fit into vampire society. Grace, on the other hand, was not born into a Family. She’s a simple shopkeeper's daughter,” I pointed out.

“She’s not stupid though, right?” Luke smiled.

A soft smile appeared on my lips. “Far from it.”

“Then she’s going to learn everything she needs to know soon enough. She will get the best tutors. Just support her on her journey. I don’t think you’re going to regret your choice of a wife.”

I looked down at my hands, imagining Grace growing into a princess, complete with all the skills she would need to become queen. I could see her shining, no longer a diamond in the rough but a sparkling precious jewel.

She had accepted me as her husband, and she really would become the best wife.

“You’re right,” I said. “I have made my choice. The only way is forward.”

“That’s the spirit,” Luke chuckled.

I sobered up. “Enough about my wife. Do you have any news on the movements of our enemies? You came here to give me a report, not to chit-chat about my newlywed life, right?”

Luke’s smile dropped. “A little bit of both, but I do have a report for you. There’s been military movements in the Kingdom of Rosworth, but I’m unsure of what’s going on.”

I frowned. Rosworth was the kingdom against which we’d had our great war twenty years ago. Vampires against vampires – many brutal battles and underhanded assassinations had occurred. I had been a general in that war, leading armies and fighting in battles myself. Even though now we were at peace, the relationship between Rosworth and Estone was still strained.

I considered them our enemies, though I had no proof that they were the ones that had been sending assassins after my father and my mother and even myself. These suspicions were why I had ordered Luke and his spies to keep tabs on the neighboring kingdom.

“Continue keeping a close watch on what’s going on there,” I commanded.

“As always,” Luke nodded.

“How’s the situation in Athalis?” I mentioned our other neighbor.

Athalis had recently had a civil war. They were a society structured differently than ours with many castes of vampires. The lower castes had risen up against the higher ones. The old rulers had won against the usurpers, but the country had been weakened by all the infighting.

“They’re settling back into peace, but it’s going slowly. The leaders of the uprising were executed, and officially the civil war is over, but it’s not like the people who were upset with the old rule have suddenly changed into loving subjects,” Luke explained.

I nodded. “Keep an eye on what’s going on in that country too.”

The more information we had, the easier it would be to protect Estone should another war break out. Right now there were no signs of our country heading into another war, but I was so used to fighting that I couldn’t help always considering the eventuality.

My father needed my help the most here at this desk, managing bureaucratic matters for him. Here, signing and denying papers, I was most useful to him. He didn’t have to do this part of ruling, which meant he could focus on other matters.

However, I missed being out in the field like Luke. I was very much a soldier, a fighter. I liked combat and strategizing. The past ten years I had spent at this desk had made me feel like I was suffocating sometimes.

Still, what I wanted in life the most was to lessen my father’s burden of ruling Estone. So I did my work diligently – every day except today, that was. Today I just couldn’t focus. As time went on though and I got used to having a wife, I would fall back into my dutiful routine again.

Or so I hoped.