The Vampire & Her Witch

Jocelynn was so busy taking in the sights of Vale City, marveling at everything from the ambitious infrastructure projects to the common pubs and simple shops, that she didn’t notice how close they’d come to the ancient fortress. Now, the five towers that resembled a hand emerging from a cliff loomed large in her vision mere moments before the inner gate swallowed her carriage whole.

Jocelynn’s heart raced in her chest as a darkness deeper than night enveloped the carriage, and the return of pale moonlight a few heartbeats later did little to restore the sense of calm, analytical wonder she’d felt when looking at Vale City and its people.

The courtyard they arrived in was filled with people, all of them awaiting their arrival with varying degrees of patience.

A pair of shorter men, one with curled horns and the other with long buck teeth and a broad tail, looked like a pair of hounds waiting for their leashes to fall as they watched the carriage roll to a stop.

Another horned figure, this one a petite woman dressed elegantly in browns with coppery embroidery, waited beside a towering, bearish woman who seemed to prefer trousers and a thick jacket to a lady’s winter dress and shawl. The most notable thing about the pair, however, was the wide-brimmed, pointed hats that instantly marked them as members of Ashlynn’s coven.

It was a trio of humans, however, all standing with an unnatural stillness, that captured Jocelynn’s attention more than anyone else in the courtyard. Or rather, it was the woman at the center of that group who made it impossible for Jocelynn to notice anyone else.

Her skin was bone white and gleamed in the silvery moonlight like polished marble, while her lips had been stained a dark purple. Hair as dark as a raven’s wing, a face that a master sculptor would struggle to perfect, and her midnight eyes seemed to hold the whole of the night sky within them.

”Beautiful...” Jocelynn whispered breathlessly without realizing that she had spoken.

”Lady Nyrielle can have that effect on people,” Ollie said, his face heating slightly in embarrassment as he recalled his first meeting with the vampire ruler of the Vale. From the way his parents had gone, still with their eyes wide and their lips slightly parted, it was clear that Jocelynn wasn’t the only one to be struck by the vampire’s enchanting aura.

”Come,” Ollie said, opening the door far sooner than Jocelynn was ready for. ”I’ll introduce you.”

No sooner had Ollie set foot on the ground than two short figures slammed into him, hugging him fiercely as they called out his name. The hug, however, quickly turned into an inspection as both men pulled back, examining the flame-haired youth from head to toe as if they didn’t entirely believe that he was who he appeared to be.

”I told you,” Heila’s light, velvety voice called as she made her way toward the carriage with Virve trailing half a step behind her. ”Mother Ashlynn would never let him come home wounded. If he needed a healer’s care, she would have told Lady Nyrielle so I could be ready.”

”It’s not that we didn’t believe you, Lady Heila,” Harrod said, looking slightly embarrassed at his own actions while Milo, still clinging tightly to Ollie’s arm, seemed utterly immune to the emotion. ”It’s just that, you didn’t see how close he was to death, Lady Heila, or how close he came to giving up.”

”I can imagine,” Virve said, reaching out with a large, furry fist to rap Ollie lightly on the crown of his head. ”Don’t do that again, or I’ll chain you up in the tower’s kitchen until you’re old enough to know better.”

”Virve, you can’t say things like that,” a rich, masculine voice called as a handsome man seemed to step out of thin air beside the carriage before Jocelynn realized it was the same man who’d been standing next to Lady Nyrielle. He looked to be in his mid-twenties with an almost ethereal grace that gave his charming features an almost dreamlike quality, while his amber eyes felt like they held all of his warmth.

”Ollie has come home a hero,” Thane chided. ”And if I’m not mistaken, he’s brought his most important blood-kin along with him,” the handsome vampire said, extending a hand toward the carriage. ”Madame Lilee, please, allow me to give you a hand.”

”Oh, um, thank you,” Lilee said, snapping out of her thoughts to accept his assistance while Jamys followed closely behind.

”Samira,” Heila said, turning away from Ollie and his family for the moment to help the heavily pregnant woman down from the carriage. ”Let me take a look at you,” she said, lifting a hand that glowed with the faintest hint of green light and placing it on Samira’s belly.

”Any troubles with all the excitement?” Heila asked in a soothing, comforting tone. ”Discomforts or unsettling movement?”

”No, not even when the Lothian throne attacked us,” Samira said, glancing briefly around the courtyard before deflating slightly. ”Master Isabell stayed true to her word and kept me safe from harm the whole time. I haven’t had any trouble.”

”Good,” Heila said, pulling her hand back as the glow faded away. ”It won’t be long now, a few weeks at most. Noomi is waiting for you inside with Saku,” she added. ”I can take you there while everyone else gets settled.”

”Oh, please, thank you, Lady Heila,” Samira said, her expression and posture instantly brightening. ”I didn’t realize how much I’d miss them while I was away...”

From the carriage, Jocelynn watched the flow of warmth and enthusiasm in the courtyard as many people shared in warm reunions. Even Liam, who had spent much of the last leg of the journey in the driver’s seat of the wagon carrying the Sacred Sapling despite the cold winter air, had his own moment of reunion with the bearish witch named Virve as he showed her the glittering tree.

This was the family of people that Ashlynn had surrounded herself with in the months since she’d nearly died, and while much of that warmth was currently directed toward Sir Ollie, Jocelynn couldn’t help but see her sister as the source of much of it. Nor could she see herself having any part of it.

It wasn’t until several moments later that the handsome, amber-eyed knight once again extended his arm toward the carriage, this time calling out to its only remaining occupant.

”You must be Princess Jocelynn,” Thane said, giving her an old-fashioned bow with one foot tucked behind the opposite ankle as he extended his hand. ”Please, come join us,” he invited.

”Princess?” Jocelynn said, blinking in confusion as she accepted his hand, relying on years of etiquette lessons to keep moving even as her heart beat faster in her chest. Unlike Ignatious, there was no warmth in Thane’s touch, and his skin felt as cool as the evening air. Despite how strange his hand felt, however, his touch was gentle, and his arm was firm and supporting as he helped her down from the carriage.

”What else should we call the sister of one of our future rulers?” Thane said, raising an eyebrow at her as though it were only obvious. ”Although Ashlynn calls me ’Big Brother’, and if you want to, you can too. I’ll still call you ’princess’ though,” he added with a mischievous glint in his eyes. ”Just because you light up a little bit when I do.”

”Don’t listen to him,” a soft, feminine voice said, rescuing Jocelynn from the handsome vampire whose charm left Jocelynn feeling both off-balance and slightly helpless. ”He just likes to tease people.”

”You’re a cruel woman, Zedya, spoiling my fun,” Thane said with a laugh. ”I just want to put our little princess at ease.”

”Keep doing that, and she’ll get the wrong idea,” Zedya countered bluntly as she stepped in next to Jocelynn. ”Come, leave these brutes alone,” she said with a pointed look that encompassed both Thane and Ollie. ”Lady Nyrielle is waiting for you...”