"Ugh, I fucking hate that," I groaned, Cassius had brought me back to the human world. I wasn't sure why I thought we were going somewhere in Hell. "Cassius, why are we here?"
"There's someone you need to see," the prince muttered, I looked around. It seemed like... a park? Why would he take me here?
"N-Nikolai, stop-" My breathing stopped almost entirely. It couldn't be...
I whipped around to find Nikolai pushing Jamie along.
"Jamie?" I whispered in utter shock, he looked up at me, confused for a moment. And then an expression of realization shot across his face and he covered his mouth with his hands.
"Allie!" He gasped and embraced me, then he pulled me away.
And slapped me across the face. Hard.
I could feel Nikolai and Cassius tense.
"You absolute asshole! You practically got kidnapped and then you wait- what two weeks? And then you just- you just-" Jamie let out a sound of frustration and turned to Nikolai. He pressed his forehead to his chest for a moment. The vampire pat his back. I was becoming more and more suspicious of their relationship.
Finally, Jamie whipped around and walked straight up to Cassius.
Fuck.
Cassius had a good two feet and hundred pounds on Jamie. But here he was smoldering with rage. I hope he doesn't slap him.
"And you," Jamie hissed and without another word, he kicked Cassius in the shin. Shit. "You fucking kidnapped him didn't you? You're Cassius."
Jamie raised his hand to hit the prince again but Cassius caught his arm and pushed him back towards Nikolai.
"Nikolai, control your- him," Cassius muttered and stepped closer to me.
"Don't tell me what to do demon," the vampire hissed, but nevertheless held Jamie back.
"Allie..." Jamie looked at me again. "Wh-what happened?"
"Cassius is... he's my mate, Jamie," I whispered and intertwined my fingers with Cassius'.
"What? How did you know? What's going to happen now?"
"I have to live with him, in Hell, it's my duty," I murmured "but we can still be friends."
Jamie looked at his feet for a moment.
"I understand if you really love him, but this is just a lot." Jamie sighed, I stepped forward and embraced him.
"You're my only friend, you know that Jamie?" I laughed and held him tighter, he smelled different.
"God, you're a loser, I love you," Jamie cried, my eyes watered.
"I love you too, I'll come to see you, promise," I whispered, Jamie nodded and pulled away. "I promise."
-
"Ah fuck, now we're going to show up and I look like I'm about to cry," I laughed half-heartedly.
Cassius brushed my bangs to the side and kissed my forehead, "I'm sorry, I thought you would want to see him."
"Oh I did, it just makes me kind of sad," I lamented and slipped my hands into his, "but I would rather be with you than in the human world."
"Thanks, Allie," he teased and squeezed my hands.
"Whatever Assius," I returned as he slipped an arm around my waist.
"Let's go to dinner before we're late," the prince muttered and pressed his lips to mine. I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck.
This was gonna be a wild night.
-
"Bleh, Cassius, I thought we were eating somewhere in the human world," We had just traveled once more through the dimensional barrier and it made me queasy. Every time.
"Next time," he replied, before us were double doors, one of which he opened for me. I peeked in to see a lot of people. It was literally the size of a ballroom, height and all. A large sparkling chandelier hung in the center and lit up the space.
My steps faltered for a moment, but Cassius rested his hand on my lower back and pushed me along. A demon woman stood behind a podium in front of us she seemed focused on a paper.
"Excuse me, reservation for-"
"Prince Cassius!" She exclaimed, cutting him off. I was glad to see he wasn't annoyed. Then her wide eyes landed on me, "And, his special someone I presume?" The woman grinned down at me, and my cheeks flushed red. I knew everyone in hell was probably buzzing about me, about us, but it was still embarrassing. She finally looked away and led us to a table, from which we were forced to walk through the whole room so there was no doubt that everyone saw us.
I think she did it on purpose.
By the time we sat down, I could already hear whispers floating around the room. My cheeks burned as I looked down at the neatly wrapped silverware.
"There are a lot of people here," I muttered and looked up at him briefly.
"Are you uncomfortable?" He murmured and looked genuinely concerned.
"Well- not- not really, I'm just not used to this," I lamented, even though I was usually around a huge crowd of people at the club, they had never collectively been very focused on me.
"I'm sorry, but it comes with being my mate, I'm afraid," Cassius replied and slowly picked up a menu. "You're going to be meeting a lot of new people."
"How do you know Nikolai, Cassius?" I inquired, it was really only because I didn't want to sit in awkward silence.
Cassius frowned, "He's a partner in business, you could say."
"Huh. What kind of business?" This was kind of interesting, he was hiding things.
"You're dabbling, Alabaster," the prince warned but I could hear the playfulness in his voice. He was definitely going to tell me.
"You're the one that was talking about how I deserve to know these things, I murmured and crossed my fingers under my chin. "Besides, I like to dabble."
"He's a part of the vampire hierarchy, stationed in Romania, so I have no idea why he's in America," Cassius mused.
"But how do you know him?" I asked, that wasn't much of a clear answer.
"Well, he's their king, per se, their real king, I suppose," he replied, this was interesting, maybe Nikolai wasn't so bad for Jamie.
"So, are there fake kings?" I retorted cynically, I could see a waitress coming our way from the corner of my eye. Nikolai? King?
What has Jamie gotten himself into?
"No, no, no. They've set certain borders and districts, each continent has their own king or queen. Bane Dragomir, for instance, is the sovereign of the American district. And cousin to Nikolai."
"What?!" I blurted, fuck, fuck, fuck. I could not be trusted with this information.
Cassius was planning to attack Bane during his fathers fucking funeral.
Bane was Nikolai's cousin.
Nikolai was Jamie's boyfriend.
I couldn't keep Jamie and Nikolai in the dark.
They'd never forgive me if they found out.
But if I told them, then Cassius would never forgive me.
And then the waitress walked over.
-
"I don't even know what the fuck this is," I muttered and poked at the- well actually it looked pretty good whatever it was. The waitress asked me what I wanted and so I panicked and ordered the first thing I saw.
"Then maybe you should've spent more time looking at the menu instead of talking about vampires," Cassius replied simply and took a bite of his own food. I narrowed my eyes.
"You were talking back," I pouted and hesitantly took a bite off my plate. Flavor explosion. Fabulous.
"Except I have this superpower called 'multitasking'," Cassius replied sarcastically and looked up at me. Damn his handsome face.
"Someone's not getting any dick tonight," I muttered defiantly and leaned back in my seat. Slouch master extraordinaire.
"I feel like you're more of the receiving end."
A smile adorned my lips, he was definitely getting dick tonight. There was no way I could resist him. "Okay, fine, you might get a chance, maybe," I teased and returned to the deliciousness on my plate.
"You know I will, I'm overflowing with seduction," Cassius mused, god, I loved him.
"Don't push your luck, buster," I warned and sipped some of the red wine out of my glass.
"Speaking of, you haven't taken a lot of energy lately," he stated, sounding concerned. "How are you feeling?"
"I guess I just hadn't thought of it, I am kind of hungry," I sighed, a stab of hunger rumbled in my abdomen. It had been kind of a long time. And Cassius always seemed willing to help. I stuck my bottom lip out in a pout, feeding from the prince made me feel like a little baby. He was nice about it, and he coddled me afterward. I bit my lip, I actually kinda liked being coddled by Cassius. I liked when he held me close and gave me kisses, it made me feel all bubbly. So maybe it wasn't so bad if he fussed over me.
"Hmm, we'll fix that as soon as we get home," the prince hummed and stretched his hand across the small table. I intertwined our fingers, his hand was warm and comforting.
"That's going to be exciting."
Jun 2018