The Red Queen | Lucien Castle & Tristan de Martel

Chapter 12

"Best of luck to you."

The ride into the Bayou was awkward. Agnes sat on the opposite side of Hayley, ever so often side-eyeing Vivalda as if she thought the vampire wouldn't notice. The Original remained unbothered, telling Hayley a story about how she killed Rayna Cruz in the Bayou, as many times as it took to stop her from regenerating. She'd staked her to a tree at one point using the bone of an alligator that she found buried– most likely long ago from natural causes– when she'd shoved her into the dirt and let her suffocate.

She took a pause in her tale to text Rebekah the results of the Locator Spell back in Germany. Elijah was in St. Anne's Church. Her sister had replied with a thumbs-up, so simple that Vivalda knew the reason immediately: she hadn't found him. Vivalda's way had been faster.

The sky had darkened overhead by the time they reached an isolated little shack in the Bayou. Hayley didn't like the looks of it, and neither did Vivalda.

"This is the doctor's office?" scoffed the wolf.

"Dr. Paige is only this far out because Marcel's men kept terrorizing her patients," explained Agnes. "Go! She won't bite."

Vivalda walked Hayley out of the car, leading her into the office, where the doctor was already waiting. "I can do this part alone," said Hayley, entering the exam room.

"I'll be right outside if you need me," said Vivalda, glaring at the doctor, who smiled good-naturedly and closed the door.

She pulled out her phone, glad to see she was still getting signal. She dialed Lucien's number, propping it up and waiting for him to answer. "Ah, bad time?"

"The best time," he yelled over the music behind him. "I made a very beneficial deal and am celebrating! How I wish you were here so I could show you how excited I am."

"I can imagine," said Vivalda with a grin, rolling her eyes as he lowered the camera so she could see his hips moving to the music. "There will be plenty of time for that later."

"Where are you?" he said curiously, seeing a poster detailing embryonic development over her head.

"Some shitty OB clinic in the Bayou. Hayley needed a checkup. I would have rather driven her all the way to Baton Rouge but some witch insisted and Hayley listened. Oh, well. As long as she's getting check ups, I suppose."

"I'm surprised that in all your years, you've never studied medicine. Otherwise you could conduct the checkups yourself."

"I've studied bits and pieces but not at length or in detail. I prefer hands-on where you like being behind-the-scenes performing research."

"Speaking of your talented hands..."

"You are dirty, do you realize how many people can probably hear you and see me on the screen?"

"So what? They'll know I am the luckiest man alive. Well, if we must consider Tristan, then we are both the luckiest men. But I am a tad luckier because you liked me first."

"That's not a fair assessment and you know it."

"I suppose you're right. I'll let you be. Know that I will be thinking of you all night long."

She blew him a kiss. "Enjoy. I will celebrate with you when I can."

Just as she hung up, she sensed cars in the distance. Close, too close, considering how far they had to drive just to get here. The clinic wasn't near enough to the main road. Why then, were five cars making their way toward them?

She stood, pressing herself to the door. The engines radiated heat far enough for her to sense it, guns were being cocked and she sensed the headlights turning off just before they became visible. They thought they were being sneaky. They thought wrong.