Almost Lovers (11 page)

The words stung hearing them come from his
lips. As much as he had been intended as a stepping stone into
Royal greatness, I had grown fond of him.

"I would have tried to just maim you," I
said, lying through my teeth, "You would have made it,"

"The Queen would have killed me and you know
it," he said, "I wouldn't have lasted until the morning. She had
the guards posted outside, ready, waiting,"

He looked sad and hurt and…something
else.

"This is goodbye," he said.

"No, no, no," I said, "This can't be
goodbye. We've been together for years. We're soul mates. We're
meant to be together. Us against the world, remember?"

He had finally given in to saying goodbye. I
had never seen that look before on his face because I had kept him
tightly wrapped around my finger since the day we had first met.
Now when I needed his connection the most, now that I'm being
accepted back into the Royal Court, into High Society, he had
decided he didn’t need me anymore.

And what the hell for, what could possibly
be a better alternative than me? I wasn't a Princess but I was
better than most that the court had to offer. I was sexier than all
of the other options, no doubt about that. There wasn't a more
desired woman in that entire group of stuffy aristocrats.

"It didn't look like us against the world
when you were preparing to claw your way through me to get to
Prussia," he said, "One way or another, through me or by killing
Prussia - you were prepared to end me, and us,"

And like that he turned and began walking
away. I could see him press one last button on his breakfast's
phone before he chucked it behind him. It shattered all over the
concrete. I stood looking at all the pieces and then scrambled to
pick up the girl's phone. I checked the post he made and it had the
picture but only one word, a single tag, #overit.

I dropped the phone and looked up at the
sky, the light cascading into different shades of blue and
highlighting the fluffy white clouds hanging overhead. I had to get
him back. I needed to get him back. My plan working hinged on him
at least playing his part. I needed him not in the way that a woman
needed a man but in the way that an assassin needed her patsy, her
dumb-love struck-patsy with the cute backside and amazing
build.

I pulled out my own phone and tried to text
him. I walked toward where we had parked and he wasn't anywhere to
be found. After fifteen unresponsive text messages I decided I
should give him some space for a few hours. I needed to figure out
how to get him back around my finger, wrapped tighter than a spring
and ready to help me take down the Queen - whether he realized it
or not.

Between Lydia sending me a flurry of texts
after our hunt this morning and my ignoring them all I nearly
missed the Queen's message that she wanted to see me. I wasn't
exactly thrilled. I hadn't been babysitting the human as close as
she would have liked though I left a guard there when I ran errands
or found something better to do...which I always managed to do.

It's not a noble responsibility to baby-sit
a human pet, which is what I had summarized she was. Wasn't she? I
couldn’t come up with a better explanation besides the Queen simply
being crazy, as the court regularly murmured.

When I made it to the house it hummed with
activity, getting ready for the weekly family dinner. It had been a
tradition of ours for hundreds of years, longer than I could
remember. It looked like more preparation than usual this time too.
I sneaked through the kitchen and took a look at what we were
having.

I was surprised to find human food. There
was also your predictable custodial worker, health care
professional, dentist, but overall the menu lacked variety. That
was the difference between a court that pushed volunteers over
slavery anymore. It wasn't popular because it made things harder
than they needed to be. I half expected the Queen to ask me to read
stories next and entertain them while they waited for us to drink
them.

Not a single one looked appealing. I didn't
bother tasting any of them. My breakfast had been much better and
he had been selected at complete random. What did it say about us
that we couldn’t do better on one of our more respectable nights of
the evening? At this point, the roasted duck and wiggly red
cranberry stuff looked more appetizing and that was saying a
lot.

I made my way to the Queen's chambers and
was surprised to find she wasn't there. I wandered down the hall in
search for the Queen and found a guard that pointed me to the
Chancellor’s old office. The Chancellor had died the eternal death,
much to the pleasure and despair of Lydia at the time, his wife. It
wasn't completely her fault but it didn't stop the sentencing.
Death, the final verdict straight from the Queen.

Now, years later, she would be added back to
the Royal Court. I smacked my hand on my face as I reached the
Chancellor’s old office where I found the Queen’s guard posted. I
was such a schmuck. No wonder Lydia had been all wound up and the
castle so busy – today Lydia would be confirmed back into the Royal
Court. It wouldn't be a huge ceremony judging by what would be
offered as refreshments but a step up from banishment, for
certain.

I knocked at the door of the dead
Chancellor's office.

"Come in," I heard through the door.

"You said you wanted to speak to me," I
said, opening the door with my eyes toward the floor.

"Yes, come in," said the Queen, distracted
as she looked over old records with her reading glasses sliding
partially down the bridge of her nose.

"Still no new Chancellor?" I asked.

She looked up at me as if I shouldn't have
bothered asking. The Chancellor had been the judge and jury of our
Royal Court. When laws were broken the Chancellor had to interpret
the law without wavering, even if it displeased the Queen in some
cases. The Chancellor had assumed the role for so long that his
name was hardly used; it was simply
the Chancellor
.

"There hasn't been a candidate worthy of the
position. But I have someone in mind," she went back to her papers,
murmuring to herself and waving me towards a seat on the other side
of the desk.

I sat down and dust plumed up from the chair
cushion. I coughed as the dust hung around me in a cloud until it
finally settled, leaving a fine layer of dust all around.

"You asked me here for an update?" I
asked.

"No," she murmured as she read over a
document with great interest.

She looked up and set down what she had been
looking at.

"Yes," she corrected herself, "Yes, I'm
looking for an update,"

"All quiet on the home front," I told
her.

I had talked with the guard on watch before
I had pulled up in the drive way. I had to appear diligent. I had
assumed that Victoria would want an update.

"Has anyone come to visit her today?" the
Queen asked.

I made a calculated risk and lied.

"Nope, not a single one," I said.

"Did she go to work today?" asked the Queen,
vague interest showing.

"Nope, she had the day off," I said.

"Fantastic," said the Queen.

I nodded my head in agreement.

"She didn't go to work, didn't get fired,
and didn't get followed home by anyone," said the Queen, "That’s a
relief,"

I didn't feel as relaxed and at ease as I
had felt a moment before. I should have known when she navigated me
right into a second lie immediately following the first one that
she was on to me.

I nodded my head. I had been caught. I knew
it. She obviously knew it.

"I need to be able to trust you," said the
Queen.

She wasn't as angry as I had expected.
Perhaps I would get a slap on the wrist.

"Is this because of Lydia?" asked the
Queen.

I clenched my jaw. A silent
acknowledgment.

"I just don't understand why you're having
me baby-sit your pet when you got what you wanted," I said, "Lydia
and I are done. I'm over her. I'm moving on,"

At least she had enough of a heart to look
sympathetic, though more surprised than anything.

"I never wanted you to get hurt," said the
Queen, "I was just looking out for your best interest. And that
means…knowing exactly who you can trust when your back’s against
the wall,"

"Well, thanks for orchestrating that little
demonstration so I could experience that valuable lesson first
hand," I said, no semblance of respect or formality remaining,
"Congratu-fucking-lations,"

"Watch it," warned the Queen sharply.

She pointed a sharp fingernail and a stern
look in my direction. I crossed my arms and sat back in the chair,
a second plume of dust billowing out of the cushion and around me.
Her expression softened and for a moment it looked like she meant
it. Then, of course, she opened her mouth.

"I can't have Lydia around Prussia," said
Victoria, "She is a liability and a security risk,"

I sent a thinly veiled glare in her
direction. I had doubts now. Her words rang with more truth than I
would usually believe of Lydia. Lydia had made a choice I never
thought she would make. And it could have ended my life, all for
high society and power. It made sense; those were the two things
she loved. I just hadn't realized it was greater than our love.

"Having me, Lydia bait, baby sit your pet
isn't the smartest move in the world then is it?" I asked.

I saw her eyebrow go up but I wasn't ready
to stop, "You should have just killed her when you found another
excuse that was convenient, if not ethical."

It was a jab at her banishment of Lydia
years ago. The Queen hadn't been able to execute Lydia for the
murder of her husband, the Chancellor, because Lydia's creator had
stepped in and accepted eternal death on her behalf.

When she had realized that Lydia would live,
she found an old law that was legal but hadn't been used in
thousands of years.

By sleeping with me, Lydia had in effect
committed high treason. Not sure if the Royal Court would over
throw her for sentencing her to death a second time, even when a
vampire life had been volunteered as tribute, she sentenced Lydia
to a lifetime of banishment with a sentence of eternal death upon
trespass.

"If you want to see unethical you can join
the court of Thaddeus and get your rocks off judging them," said
the Queen, "But you wouldn't last a day,"

Not her sharpest retort. She was
distracted.

"I continue to baby-sit, then?" I asked.

"Yes," said the Queen, "You baby-sit. And
you get her to come to dinner tonight,"

I threw my arms up in the air.

"You have to be kidding me! We're not just
bringing the family pet to dinner. We're catering to her special
human diet and letting her think she's our equal?" I asked.

The Queen cocked her head to the side and my
entire body tensed. That was a look I had seen her give her food
before. She wasn't above eating another vampire though it certainly
didn't taste good. Blood begins to expire as soon as it leaves the
human host, inedible after a few weeks though still able to be
absorbed.

"What do you think humans are?" asked the
Queen.

I licked my lips, a quick flip of my tongue
across my dry lips. The snake watching the mouse. I had to be a
still mouse. And I did the only thing I could - I told the
truth.

"I think we should spend less time playing
with our food and just eat," I said, "I think we should make sure
we're valuing vampire life more sacred than the life of tasty
versions of cattle, of humans,"

The first part was my motto but the last
part sort of snuck up on me. It sounded like Lydia speaking but
with my voice. It didn't sound good out loud and it looked like the
Queen didn't think it sounded acceptable either. She folded her
hands in her lap and bowed her head for a moment. It made me
uncomfortable. After several minutes she looked up at me with a
grave expression in her eyes.

"Sebastian, we are just like the humans,"
she said.

"Only better," I murmured Lydia's words and
regretted them as soon as I said them. Not because I didn't
believe, but because I hadn't meant to be Lydia's talking
piece.

"No," said the Queen, "And I'm going to
clear this up for you right now. I haven't told anyone this and
it's something that will stay between us or I’ll cut your tongue
out,"

I sat up and gave the Queen my full
attention.

"I'm listening," I said, hopeful that she
would continue after several seconds sat sitting and staring at
me.

"But are you ready to hear this?" asked the
Queen.

What do you say to that? No? I nodded and
hoped that she would just spit it out.

"We're not of this world," said the Queen,
"We are an alien species that crash landed thousands of years ago
and annihilated the indigenous species, replacing them,"