Peter’s POV
I was watching Anastasia from the car and saw her enter the Vampire Palace.
Nice dress and heels. As usual, she looked mouth-watering.
I shook my head.
Concentrate, Peter. This is not professional.
Ugh. I still couldn’t believe she let herself be a snack for some vampire princess.
How was I going to explain that to my superior? “Yeah, Queen Anastasia rather let a vampire suck blood from her than lead her people.”
After 30 minutes she reappeared with the vampire. They got on onto Anastasia’s motorbike and sped off towards the city centre.
I sighed and started the car. Not another shopping trip.
Kieran’s POV
“Okay, I’ll see you this evening then.”
Gerald walked out of my office after we had been through reviewing the inventories of the different ships.
He had invited me for the christening of the newest hive tonight. Yeah well, ‘inviting” meaning that the Queen ordered my presence.
I had tried to talk to Zea after what happened at the hangars, but she had successfully avoided me during the past two months. In the three times that I had talked t her, she had only focused on issues related to the mission and had then dismissed me as soon as I wanted to make the conversation more personal.
I had wanted to apologize for what my actions, but she hadn’t let me. Somehow I needed to break through the walls that she had erected around her heart.
We used to be friends.
She could be so damn stubborn.
I tried to put her out of my mind and concentrated on finishing the sh*tload of work I still had to do.
1. Where the hell was I going to stock the humans so that they were protected against every hungry vampire on board?
2. What was the best location to put the draining machines?
3. The engineers were complaining that they didn’t have enough human slaves to keep the steam engines running that took care of normal propulsion.
I didn’t understand why we needed to have steam engines anyway as we also had a nuclear fusion reactor.
When I had asked that, Marcus, the chief engineer had looked at me guiltily and after some shuffling answered, “Because they look awesome.”
Great, I was surrounded by nerds that had too much power.
So now I had to organize more slaves to keep engines running that were only there to be pretty.
4. The interior designer of the ships was requesting more velvet for curtains and 10,000 more chandeliers.
Queen Komar had decided that we were going to conquor Roke in style, so she had send this ridiculously gay vampire to redo their furnishing.
His taste was god-awful.
These ludicrous requests were driving me off the edge. I was beginning to suspect that Komar might have me assigned to this job as some sick form of payback for hurting her daughter.
After a few more hours of this insanity I could take no more.
I looked down at my clothes. They were creasy from my crawl in the ventilation system this morning to check whether vampires could get to the human slaves if they were very hungry. Fortunately this was virtually impossible given the big blades turning at high speed at the end of the system. I would rather not be out of humans within two weeks after take off and have a war on my hands between the different vampire families for sustenance.
I’d better go change before attending the ceremony.
I grabbed my coat and headed out, passing one of the hives that was in preparation in the hangar.
The hive was about two times bigger than the biggest cruise liner on earth and could house 2000 vampires and 1500 mosquitoes.
Its curved copper metallic surface shone dull in the lighting and people were walking in and out of its entrance, carrying supplies or talking amongst each other.
Everybody was very excited to get to Roke so that they could have a taste of these infamous blue aliens. I licked my fangs in anticipation. A change of diet would be good. And from what I heard the aliens were a lot stronger than humans, making the chase all the more thrilling.
I walked out into the parking lot and got in my car, started the engine and turned on the road back to Vampire City. During the trip back I thought about what to do about Zea. It killed me that I had hurt her like this unintentionally. If I had known about her feelings I would have never left her standing like that in public. I was determined to speak to her tonight, whether she wanted to or not.
How could I have been so stupid not see that the little girl had had a crush on me?
Zea’s POV
I slipped into the little brown leather dress that we bought in this cute little boutique.
I laughed when Anastasia led me though a dangerous looking alley to the shop. Only a real shopaholic would have risked her own skin to find this place.
The shop’s owner went into shock when he saw me enter. He flew on his knees and bowed his head to the floor in respect.
I would never get used to this.
I got the poor man up and he quickly disappeared in the back and returned with a wonderful dress.
Apparently it was made for me. Literally. How he got access to my measures is beyond me.
I tried it on again and when I looked at myself in the mirror I had to admit, it looked gorgeous. I turned to watch the complicated back of the dress. Beautiful.
I didn’t know that I could look like this.
Anastasia came in carrying a pair of brown leather strap heels with little glittery stones on them and threw them at me.
“I knew I had these somewhere!”
I grinned. “Did you really dive in your shoe room to find them?”
She showed me a little puncture wound on her arm. “I got the scars to prove it. War wound from my battle with the red Stilettos.”
Ouch.
She was wearing this screaming red leather outfit that only Anastasia could pull off. Accompanied by said red stilettos.
I slipped on the flat sandals, thanking God that she couldn’t find the ten-inch high tan peep-toe pumps she first was looking for.
My mother had sent Gerald with a car, to make sure that I attended the ceremony.
When he entered my rooms, Anastasia sauntered over to him, growling and cleaning an imaginary piece of dust from his jacket.
“Hey Gerald. Nice to see you again.” She said in a husky voice that was dripping with menace.
I grinned, she scared the bejesus out of him.
“Good day, your Majesty.” He said with a tiny voice and stepped back.
She made a growling sound and walked out of the door towards the car.
“Zea, are you coming?” He turned and his eyes fell on me and widened.
I smiled. Just the effect I was hoping for.
Kieran’s POV
I parked the car at the hangars. A huge crowd had formed outside, awaiting the christening.
The team of engineers from the hive Zea and I would be boarding on, stood aside the ship and were excitingly conversing with each other and showing each other their work.
I walked over to the group and joined in the conversation. Marcus, the chief engineer made some small talk and apologised for the steam engines’ trouble.
“We never thought they would be that inefficient.” He commented.
I rolled my eyes.
While we were talking, Queen Komar arrived in a slick limousine. The crowd hushed and when she got out of the car everybody was kneeling in silence to show their respect.
She got out and was quickly ushered inside to avoid the paparazzi that were trying to make hundreds of shots of her.
Next to the hive, on a platform, a speaking chair had been erected from which the Queen Komar would deliver her christening speech. After Komar had escaped, the journalists crowded the platform, fighting with each other to get the seat with the best possible angle.
I shuddered; her life must be horrible if these paparazzi were following her everywhere.
Marcus asked me about the preparations for the housing of his engineers and I told him that their quarters were almost ready. The blasted interior designer had finally gotten his curtains, the flooring and furniture this morning.
He nodded and immediately relayed it through to his friends, who looked up happy and questioningly.
“And yes, all your gadgets are installed as well.” I sighed.
They happily resumed their chatter until another limousine pulled up.
A tall striking blonde in a red leather suit got out of the car, extending an arm to the person that was still inside. The blonde looked vicious and sexy at the same time. I would mind getting my hands on…
My mind reeled to a halt.
An endless leg extended itself out of the limousine, showing tan leather sandals and inches of naked skin.
She climbed out of the car took my breath away. The woman was wearing this revealing long leather dress with a beautiful cut away flower pattern on its back. The intricate design connected the left and the right site of the dress, showing her peachy skin underneath. The dress was revealing and accentuated all her soft curves, but left enough room for my imagination to fill in the parts that I couldn’t see.
The woman had long ginger wavy curls to the bottom of her back that shone in the pale red light of the sun.
She turned and I couldn’t wait to see her face.
I sucked in my breath.
Sh*t.
Zea was looking at me, smirking at my reaction.
Pouting her soft pinks lips and with a naughty sparkle in her brown eyes, she waved to me first and then turned to the other people in the crowd and ended up winking to the journalists.
The blonde in red laid a hand on Zea’s bare back and pushed her towards the entrance where Magnus was waving them over.
My eyes followed her until she was inside the building.
Hot damn. How could I talk to her seriously and apologize for my actions when she looks like that? I was not sure I could say anything remotely sensible in her presence.
I groaned. I am such a stupid arse, how do I get myself in these situations?