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9
The gate at the bottom of the city proper was taller than Mina thought it would be. From a distance, it looked like the gates that had surrounded the temple back in Distova, but as Stormwind slowed to a trot and the portcullis rose, she realized it stood about four times the size. The teeth of the metal gate were nearly as wide as her.
Crossing under it, she looked to the small bridge below them, watching the water flow past. A tingle of magic washed over her and she lifted her gaze to see a crowd of people lining the streets. Mina tensed in Vlad’s embrace, and he chuckled.
“Don’t worry, they’re just excited by new faces,” he said, urging Stormwind on. “I’ll make this as quick as I can, but we have to be polite.”
Mina nodded and forced a courtly smile to her lips, as her eyes skimmed over the people around them. She recognized humans, vampires, and a handful of people she assumed were werewolves like Harker and Alaric, given their scars, but there were still more faces to be seen. To her surprise, she saw creatures waving at her that were the stuff of fairytales. Living examples of the faces in the books her mother had given her as a child.
“Raven-kin?” she gasped under her breath. “Elves?”
“Nilumaria isn’t just a kingdom of vampires, Starlight. There are a great many things that live under my stars.”
“And they all call you king,” she said, more to herself than him. If the tales in her books were to be believed the Raven-kin with their long black beaks and shining black feathers had been fierce warriors before the mist ripped through the mountains. For them to bow to a vampire…Mina could only imagine what kind of king that made him.
As Stormwind carried them up the steady incline that wove through the city, Harker sidled up beside them standing guard, and she saw women begin tossing roses on their path.
“Flowers to wish us luck,” Vlad explained before she could ask.
“Your people love you,” Mina said, biting her lip. This was yet another contradiction to what she’d been taught. She couldn’t even imagine what Maggie her father would’ve said if they’d seen the way the humans and vampires mixed.
“I’d like to think so,” he said. “But like any king, I’ve failed them plenty over the years.”
“Somehow I find that hard to believe,” she said, smiling at a little girl tugging on her mother’s skirts.
“You are a smart woman,” Lucy chuckled, driving her horse up alongside them. “Erik is too modest.”
“Modest?” Vlad laughed.
“You call him by his first name?” Mina laughed. Discovering Lucy at the camp had been a light in the darkness. Just having her near, having family close by, made it easier to breathe.
“My friends call me by my first name, everyone else…they just call me Your Majesty, or whatever term fits the occasion.”
Mina nodded. Erik. The name suited him, but somehow still felt wrong on her tongue. She’d been calling him Vlad and thinking of him that way for so long it just felt strange to try anything else. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could call them friends just yet. She honestly wasn’t sure what they were anymore.
Turning around another bend, they came to a large black gate of smooth stone. Mina frowned. She could see no portcullis, or chains to lift the stone. How were they meant to—
Abruptly a low rumble echoed from the other side of the doorway and the stone split with a flash of light down the center, moving inward.
“Finally,” Vlad exhaled. “Home sweet home.”
Kicking Stormwind into a trot, he sent them forward at a quicker pace, passing through the doors, and rounding the winding drive before the castle. They descended to a stable arranged along the side of the cliff, and Stormwind stomped his feet beneath them.
Vlad chuckled and carefully pulled his cloak from around Mina as he dismounted the horse. “Allow me, Princess.”
She looked down at him and couldn’t help but smile as he held out his hands to her. Mina swung her leg over Stormwind’s neck and slid down off her shoulder to stand before him on her own.
He lowered his hands to her shoulders and squeezed them gently, his eyes clouding with an emotion she couldn’t quite name. He cleared his throat and swallowed visibly. “Are you well, Princess?”
She felt her desire burning in her face and neck once again, and her hands found his hips. “We were interrupted.”
His mouth lifted to one side in a wicked grin, and he brushed his thumb over her lower lip. “Yes, we were, but unfortunately, we don’t have enough time for me to rectify the situation.”
“Such a shame,” Mina sighed, trying desperately to ignore the voice screaming at her in the back of her mind. What was she doing? Why was she so attracted to him? Did she really want him? A vampire?
His eyes narrowed and he leaned in closer. “I can give you this at least.”
Mina opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, and he kissed her. It was soft at first, but then she melted into him. Her body bowed, her breasts pressing against his chest, and his arm circled her waist, pulling her in tight. His tongue slipped past her lips, and she groaned. He tasted like sin and ale. He turned her around, pressing her back to the wall of the stable, and then let her go, pressing his hands to the stone beside her head as his forehead leaned against hers.
