I keep her body close to mine, hugging her, not letting her go, just like I promised. Whatever happens, I want it to happen to us together, with her in my arms…

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Irina

  At first, the pain becomes unbearable. When that bastard stabs me with the knife, it feels like I died instantly. The pain is too much to handle, like an explosion of heat in my stomach, as if someone pressed hot coals right onto my bare skin. Then, as moments pass by, my mind gets used to the sensation, controlling the onslaught of pain. I manage it somehow. I keep reminding myself that I’m fine. It’s nothing to worry about. I’ll stop the bleeding.

  I even manage to press my hands to my belly, not paying attention to the wet feeling, as if someone left the faucet open and the water was just trickling without stopping. I try not to pay any attention to that, keeping fear under control.

  Then, Hannibal slumps down onto the ground next to me. I’m happy to see that he’s alive, but I can barely smile at him through the pain. I can barely keep my eyes open. I feel so tired, I just want to let go, close my eyes and go to sleep.

  But I know what that would mean. Sleeping would mean giving up. It would mean that I was letting go of life, when I wasn’t ready to do that yet. I had too many plans. I had a new life to start. I had too many things to admit to this asshole who now had his arms around me and was telling me that he’s gonna cause me more pain.

  More pain? My mind keeps rewinding this sentence, wondering what he had in mind.

  Then, the moment he digs his teeth into my wrist, I immediately realize. He wants to turn me into a vampire, so I could survive. Only… I might not. It all depends on how serious the wound is.

  As soon as I feel his teeth in my wrist, more pain explodes all throughout my body. Now, it feels even worse. This is like being stabbed by that same knife over and over again, in every other part of my body. I start to twitch, but I can still feel his arm around me, keeping me close, as if he doesn’t want to let go of me. That gives me strength to go through this horrible ordeal.

  I can’t even keep my eyes open anymore. It is all too much. My body is exhausted. My mind finally lets go, and everything turns black.

  ***

  When I open my eyes again, I realize that I’m in bed. I’m in my bed, in Hannibal’s apartment. I look down at my hands. My left wrist is bound with a gauze. There is a faint flicker of red. Just a reminder of what happened, of what I survived.

  I lift my head. I’m still dizzy. But I don’t want to lie down any longer. I want to see Hannibal. I want to make sure he’s alright. I want to see if Plyn is alright, too. Slowly, I focus on getting out of bed. I pull the cover from my body, and only this one action reminds me of the amount of pain my body is in. I have to take it slow.

  I inhale deeply, putting one foot down, then the other. Now, for the more difficult part. I actually have to get up. I use my hands to lift myself up and manage to do it.

  Walking turns out to be more difficult than I expected it. I creep along walls, using them to keep myself up, standing. I manage to come only to the hallway, when I hear Hannibal’s voice.

  “What are you doing out of bed?” he asks.

  I turn around, only for our eyes to lock.

  “Good grief, you look like shit,” I tell him, watching his beautiful face all bruised and his lip cracked. Then again, I bet I don’t look much better.

  He chuckles at my comment. “I see you haven’t lost your spunk,” he notices. “That’s a good thing.”

  “Right?” I smile.

  He walks over to me and places my arm around his neck, so he can help me with balance.

  “I’d kill for a coffee right now,” I tell him.

  “Let’s get you one then,” he nods, helping me to the kitchen, where he puts me gently down onto the chair. He proceeds to go and make coffee for both of us.

  I can’t keep my eyes off of him. My warrior. My brave king.

  His arms are full of cuts. None of them are bleeding any longer, but some of the gashes look pretty deep and long, judging by the bandages. I look down at myself. Apart from my wrist and of course, my stomach, I can’t really see much damage.

  “My stomach…” I suddenly remember the stab wound I have.

  I press my hand to my stomach, and there is still pain, but far from what I felt yesterday.

  “Yesterday?” I ask aloud.

  “What?” he chuckles. “Ask full questions, Irina. I can’t read your mind.”

  “How long was I out?” I ask first.

  “Two days,” he tells me.

  The coffee is ready shortly, and he pours us both a cup. The familiar smell immediately freshens me up, and I grab the cup with both my hands, disregarding the soft stinging sensation from the hot cup.

  “Two days?” I wonder. “I was just… sleeping?”

  “Yeah,” he nods. “That’s normal.”

  “Normal for becoming a vampire?”

  “Mhm,” he nods again, taking a sip. “For some, it’s much longer than that. You took it like a champ.”

  “I did?” I chuckle at the comment.

  “Absolutely,” he nods. “I knew you’d do it easily.”

  “Even on the brink of death?” I remind him. “I know how it works. I could have died.”

  “You could have died either way. Take a look at your stomach,” he gestures with his eyes.

  I look down. Slowly, I grab the hem of my t-shirt with the tips of my fingers, lifting it up. It’s bandaged up, so I can’t really see how deep it is.

  “If you were healing as a human, you wouldn’t be able to breathe properly, let alone walk, talk and drink coffee,” he points out. “But you’re healing as a vampire now. That makes a whole lot of difference.”

  “Oh,” I say, pressing the bandage gently with the tips of my fingers. There is pain, of course, but it’s definitely not as bad as before.

  In fact, I feel like I’m not really myself at this point, and I have no idea if it’s because of the attack and the pain, or the fact that I’m no longer a human.

  “You feel strange, don’t you?” he asks, as if able to read my mind.

  “How did you know?” I wonder.

  “That’s also another side-effect,” he explains. “Almost as if someone placed you in a different body, and it feels a size too big, doesn’t it?”

  “That’s exactly how I’m feeling,” I nod, with a smile. “It’s a feeling that will go away, won’t it?”

  “Of course,” he assures me. “Everyone went through it, except for those who were born as vampires.”

  “Were you born a vampire?”

  “Yes,” he nods.

  “Now, I’m a vampire, too,” I point out, with a smirk.

  “Yes,” he chuckles.

  “I have to ask you something,” I suddenly say, looking a bit serious.

  “Sure,” he urges. “Anything.” His eyes are focused on mine, drinking me in. I never want him to stop looking at me in this way.

  “If I wasn’t on the brink of death, would you ever make me into a vampire?” I ask.

  He inhales deeply, somehow hesitant. “I feel like this is a trick question.”

  “Why?” I ask. “It’s a simple yes or no question.”

  “Yes then,” he finally says.

  “Yes?” I echo.

  “Yes,” he chuckles. “How many yeses do you need to be sure of something?”

  “Just one, I suppose,” I smirk.

  “But not then and there, of course,” he clarifies.

  “Of course,” I nod. “At some other point.”

  “I feel like it’s important to state here that I would want to do it, but the final say would be yours.”

  “Oh,” I look at him, in an amused way. I feel like he’s a bit awkward in this conversation, but I know where it is headed and what I want him to say. If he feels it, of course. “You’d ask me if I want to become a vampire?”

  “I’d ask you if you wanted to become my queen,” he finally says those words, and my heart feels like it’s about to explode. I have to control myself, but it’s getting more and more difficult with each passing moment, as he looks at me with those beautiful, loving eyes. The fact that we saved each other speaks more than any words ever could, but I still want him to say it. “Would you?” he asks loudly.

  “I would,” I say with a smile. “I will.”

  He gets up, walks around the table and takes me softly into his arms. He places his lips right onto my forehead, lingering there for a few moments, then pulls away, but still keeps his arms around me, as I lean with my back against the table.

  “You know what this means, right?” he asks.

  “What?” I tilt my head to look at him, as if that will help me understand exactly what he’s referring to.

  “I can’t pay you,” he finally says.

  “What?” I snap, playfully punching his chest with my closed fist. It’s just a gentle bump, without the slightest intention of hurting him. “Why on earth not?”

  “Because now all my money is yours,” he tells me. “You can do with it whatever you want. Buy a house, a plane, a bakery, an island. It’s just money. I don’t care about any of that.”

  “What do you care about?” I ask, blushing as I anticipate what his answer might be.

  “You,” he says exactly what I want him to say. “You are all I ever wanted. Luckily, I was smart enough to offer you that deal, because I doubt you’d have accepted my advances from the onset.”

  “You’re right,” I nod. “I wouldn’t,” I follow that with a shake of the head. “You had a smart strategy.”

  “See?” he chuckles. “I’m not the king for nothing.”

  “My king,” I repeat, as I cup his face with my hands, bringing his lips to mine.

  They taste sweet, even against the backdrop of pain and the lingering coppery taste of blood that we both can feel. But none of that matters, because we have the only thing that we ever wanted. We were just silly never to accept it, to admit it.

  Perhaps even if we did, we wouldn’t have found a way to each other. We were so stubborn that one of us needed to die and be reborn, in order for our love story to finally blossom.

  When I pull away, I see the way he’s looking at me.

  “Did you just kiss me with your eyes open?” I wonder.

  “Yes, why?” he chuckles.

  “So, I could have opened them as well,” I tease.

  “Kiss me again and open them,” he smiles.

  “Wait,” I pull my head away. “What about Plyn?” I ask.

  “You want to kiss Plyn?” he teases playfully.

  “No, silly,” I punch him again on the chest as good-humoredly as last time. “Is he alright?”

  “Of course,” he nods. “He’s a tough guy. You don’t think they fall down so easily.”

  “No, but… it was a tough call at one point,” I remember.

  “It was,” he agrees. “You proved yourself the bravest one.”

  “I wasn’t,” I shake my head. “I acted rashly. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Why weren’t you thinking?”

  “Do you really have to make me say it?” I blush again, even more than last time. That’s so strange. He’s the only man who has ever made me blush, the only man who ever had such a profound effect on me.

  “I wasn’t thinking because I…” I start, finding it somehow difficult to say those words. I never thought I would be saying them out loud, even though I feel like they’ve been residing inside of me for such a long time, trying to claw their way out.

  “Because you…?” he urges me softly.

  “Because I love you,” I finally say it.

  Strange. It seemed so scary a moment ago, but now that the words are out, I see there is nothing to be frightened about. They are just words. They are just emotions.

  “I love you, too,” he tells me, pressing his lips against mine once more.

  This time, we’re both keeping our eyes open, and instead of prolonging that kiss into something more passionate, we burst into loud laughter, pulling away.

  The moment feels like pure perfection, and something tells me that this is what life will be with him. That is all I could ever hope for.

  I rest my head on his shoulder, listening to the gentle sound of his heartbeat. I press my hand to his chest.

  Mine, I think to myself. Mine.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Hannibal

  A month passes by in a swirl. Irina fills my every day with more joy and happiness than I ever thought possible, sometimes with just her presence and nothing else. Some people are like that. They fill you with positive energy, they share their joy with you selflessly, making you a better person in the process. Because that’s what I’ve become ever since she came into my life. A much better person. A person who’s learned to leave the past in the past, and who can now focus fully on the present and the future.

  Word of Everild’s betrayal hit everyone almost as hard as it hit me. I wasn’t expecting that. The council of leaders even got together, inviting me, to see whether everything was alright, whether I needed any help. The whole vampire community got together, showing me that one bad apple doesn’t necessarily have to mean that the whole batch is rotten.

  Irina’s healing process was perfect. She has proven herself to be incredibly adaptive, and her wound was gone within a week. I’ve never seen anything like that, even with the toughest vampires out there.

  That morning, she gets up from bed first. I turn to her side after a while, feeling her emptiness. I pat the space where she is supposed to be, but there’s nothing. I open one eye, to peer if she’s still in the room.

  “Irina?” I whisper her name softly, but there is no response.

  I lift my head. The bedroom is still dark. The curtains are drawn closed. She must have gotten up at some point and gone to another room. She usually sleeps in. So, I find this a bit strange, deciding to investigate.

  I get up and walk over to the living room, but there is no trace of her. I check the kitchen, still nothing. Then, I find her sitting in my study, in my leather chair. She has her legs up, bent at the knee. She looks so small in that chair, as if some dark brown monster is about to eat her up.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” I call out to her, but she’s already seen me and smiled upon my entrance. “What are you doing here all alone? Why aren’t you in bed?”

  She shrugs instead of a response at first. “I like this room.”

  “You like my study?” I wonder. “I never thought it was the nicest room in the whole apartment, but maybe you know something that I don’t.”

  “This is where I broke your frame,” she reminds me.

  “Oh,” I say. “I completely forgot about that.”

  It’s the truth. Ever since I cleaned up that broken glass and removed the photo and the frame, I never once thought about them or remembered that it was there.

  “You did?” she asks.

  “Of course,” I confirm. “You know everything about Xeena. I have nothing to hide. You also know that she means nothing to me now. She belongs to the past and that is where she will stay. You and I are the present.”

  “You don’t have to be that convincing, I believe you,” she chuckles.

  “Well… I don’t know why you’d remember her now,” I shrug.

  “Maybe because I’m thinking of additional people,” she says, getting up from the chair, and walking over to me.

  “Additional people” I frown. “What do you mean by that? What additional people?”

  “You sound confused,” she is still chuckling, obviously enjoying how confused she’s making me.

  “I am confused,” I admit, but she eases my mind immediately as she approaches me and wraps her arms around my waist. I do the same to her, pulling her closer to me and kissing her forehead. “Do you want to shed some light on this mystery that seems to be so amusing to you, but is a cause of much distress for me, because I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

  She laughs aloud to this, and it is the sweetest sound ever. It is the only sound I want to listen to for the rest of our lives. A long time ago, I promised her that I would keep her safe. I almost failed in that promise. Now, I know that I will do anything not only to keep her safe, but to love her, cherish her, see that smile on her face every single day for the rest of our lives. And with vampires, that can be a helluva long time.

  When she stops laughing, she looks at me straight in the eyes, almost as if she’s expecting me to read the explanation in them.

  “Are you happy?” she asks, even more cryptically now.

  “Again… is this a trick question?” I wonder, shaking my head.

  “No,” she grins. “Just a yes or no question.”

  “Yes,” I nod. “Then if it’s really just a question regarding happiness, then yes. Absolutely. One hundred percent happy with you, as we are.”

  Suddenly, she frowns. “As we are?”

  “Yes,” I swear, I’m even more confused at this point. I have no idea what she wants to say, and I feel like I’m ruining it already, before she’s even said it. “Or as we could be? Come on, I feel like I’m in the fryer here.”

  She chuckles. “OK, I’ve tortured you enough.”

  “That you have, and I plan on returning the favor,” I assure her. “Now, spill it.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  She says it so simply that, at first, I think I misheard her. Perhaps I’m just hearing what I want to hear. Perhaps she said something completely different.

  “You’re what?” I ask, just to be on the safe side, to see if I could explode with happiness this instant.

  “Pregnant,” she says that word again, and at that very moment, I grab her by the waist, lift her up into the air and start spinning her around.

  She starts giggling like a schoolgirl, and once again, it is the most melodious sound that I’ve heard. I can already imagine how sweet our baby will be.

  When I put her down, her cheeks are all flushed, and her eyes are sparkling in a way that they never did before. I have no idea how I didn’t notice it before. She is glowing. She is so beautiful in that unearthly way that can only come from the realization that there is life growing inside of her.

 

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