Almost Lovers (29 page)

“Very well,” I said, giving the extent of
Prussia’s wounds another glance, “You can tell him to come in to
see to her wounds after Sebastian has left,”

“Yes, your Majesty,” said Tommy, ducking out
of the room and closing the door behind him.

As soon as Tommy left, Sebastian sat near
Prussia and held her hand gently.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t warn you about the
engagement,” I said, “But Lydia called the entire court together
and we didn’t have much time. Ensuring Prussia’s safety amidst the
court is paramount. It was the best we could pull together last
minute,”

I looked Prussia over more carefully now
from where I stood behind where Sebastian sat on the floor. Her
injuries were great. There were deep gouges of flesh missing.
Whoever had done this had done a great deal of damage. She should
have died. If she had been human, she would have.

“Honestly, I’m relieved,” said Sebastian,
“It gives me leave to be close to her all the time without much
explanation,”

I could see the wound that Lydia had left in
him as he sat there, looking to see if Prussia would open her eyes.
I knew that look all too well – captivated by someone but terrified
to love again. It made me want to lash Lydia for 100 years at the
pain she had caused my grandson.

“And what of your feelings on the engagement
itself?” I asked, walking around to sit in my chair, reclaimed from
Sebastian’s previous outburst of defiance.

I wanted to believe that Sebastian had spent
enough time with Prussia to care, to develop something there, but
there would be no telling what could happen over the course of
engagement. It made me thankful for the time limits of our laws.
Perhaps for once our laws would work in my family’s favor.

“I think it’s a mockery of the court and a
low blow just to strike out at Lydia,” said Sebastian, “engaging me
to someone you would clearly never approve of. I think everyone
will be waiting to see how quickly this engagement falls apart and
I’m curious of how quickly that would be too. What are your
plans?”

Sebastian looked at me then with a cold
look, a look of being used and not appreciating it one bit.

“But I do approve,” I said, completely
meaning every word.

“You can’t be serious,” said Sebastian, “The
court will never see this as anything more than a joke and will
laugh when there is no wedding,”

“So we shall have a wedding,” I said,
smiling faintly at him.

“You’re really serious about this,” said
Sebastian, standing up with disbelief in his eyes, “Tell me, what
makes you choose even a human over Lydia? Is she really so
bad?”

“Yes,” I stated dryly, “So bad and so much
more,”

I walked over to the small bar and poured
myself a drink, one for Sebastian as well though I left it on the
bar for him to fetch on his own. He walked the width of the room to
claim the drink and took a long look at Prussia before draining the
entire glass in one go.

“You really want me to marry a human?” asked
Sebastian.

“I’ve already told you,” I said, “She’s a
vampire. And from the looks of things –she’s perfect,”

I sloshed my drink around in my glass with
an occasional sip as I looked at Prussia lying on the chaise, still
covered in blood from head to foot. Prussia wasn’t just a vampire
and Tommy had been close to saying it too. I knew exactly what
Prussia had turned out to be and it brought me back to over 80,000
years ago – memories I thought had been long forgotten.

How Felicia had found this girl and somehow
known had turned into only my second biggest mystery. Whoever had
come right into my bedroom to snatch Prussia away and torture her,
or even kill her, had become more interesting than anything I had
dealt with in years. Once word got out that a human would marry my
grandson and ascend the throne – perhaps the truth would come out
of the woodwork sooner rather than later.

“Why can’t we just tell everyone?” asked
Sebastian, returned to Prussia’s side.

He posed a valid question. My team of legal
counsel had suggested the same thing. But my political advisers had
weighed in with the right frame of mind. Knowledge, even the
smallest kernel, is power in any and every situation.

“As long as we can secure Prussia’s safety
and place her in the family without revealing everything, we will
do so,” I told Sebastian, reverting to my naturally political tone
of voice, “If we were to reveal the truth about Prussia there is no
telling how the court and others, especially our enemies, would
react,”

“They were just going to eat her,” said
Sebastian, moving a piece of blood dried and matted hair away from
Prussia’s temple.

It gave me pause that whoever had tried so
hard to get to Prussia would simply dispatch her.

“Did they say why?” I asked.

“She said she just wanted a snack,” said
Sebastian, looking up at me without a glimmer of real
understanding, “but she fought like she had been trained, like she
was one of us,”

I nodded my head. I understood enough.
Prussia had experienced a run of bad luck and politics. The real
enemy lurked out there. Two attacks in one night couldn’t be
coincidence. They were orchestrated – and that means someone still
out there had been pulling the strings.

“You were right to reinforce security,” I
murmured, heading over to the window and looking out on the
grounds, “we’re going to need it,”

I spent days holed up in Victoria's castle.
I wasn't allowed to leave and Sebastian made sure that I didn't. If
Sebastian wasn't there to make sure I stayed put he had guards
posted outside my door at all times. I had my own gorgeous room but
I still felt like a prisoner.

Every day a doctor came to see if I was
healing and everyday he said the same thing. I’m healing up as
nicely as to be expected considering my injuries. Tommy came every
day too. As much as I hated everyone in the castle Tommy actually
made me smile. He always brought me a rose which made me feel
better. He gave me hope that I could see the beauty in things
again. I didn’t see much beauty in the world lately.

Tommy confused me the most out of everybody.
Tommy worked for the vampires as though there wasn’t anything wrong
with it. It made my skin crawl. And every day he came in and took
samples of my blood to check for signs of infection. But I didn't
believe him. Who really believes a human that works for vampires? I
should have hated him for not offering me a way to escape.

Between the Doctor, Tommy, and Sebastian, I
had seen all of them at least once a day. The one person I hadn't
seen had been Victoria or rather
Queen Victoria
now. My
anxiety grew every day. I wanted a way out of this place and away
from these monsters. No one would explain anything to me. Sure, I
knew that I had been attacked, kidnapped, and tortured. But these
are things I had already known because I was there. But I didn't
know why all these things had happen to me. That's what I wanted to
know. That's what I kept asking myself. Why did all of this happen
to me? Why me?

I spent the mornings looking out the windows
and watching as the guards patrolled outside. I would have 10
minutes at the most if I wanted to escape, if I could find a way.
If it took more than 10 minutes I'd be caught. Now I just had to
figure out a way to actually escape.

The door opened but I didn't look to see who
had opened. There was a very short list of visitors. One of three
people stood behind me and I didn't want to see any of them.

“I brought you lunch,” said Sebastian.

“Leave it on the bed,” I said.

“You have to talk to me sometime,” said
Sebastian, “We need to talk,”

“Do you suddenly feel like telling me how
you walked into my life?” I asked.

I turned around then. I wanted to see his
face; I wanted to know what he looked like when he told a lie. From
where I stood, it looked like he always lied.

“I don't have all the answers, Prussia,”
said Sebastian, “I just need you to trust me. I need you to
understand that this is the safest place you could be,”

“Right,” I said, sarcasm thick in my voice,
“This is all for my safety. I forgot,”

“I love you,” said Sebastian, his voice
quiet with a surreal vulnerability, “I know you don’t believe me
but I do. I love you,”

“I hate you,” I whispered back with
quivering lips, tears flooding my eyes.

I looked at him, tears cascading one at a
time down my face and letting him see all of the hate and pain. I
wanted him to know I meant the words I said. I wanted him to
realize that I wouldn’t forgive what had come to pass.

“I’ll win your heart back,” said Sebastian,
“I’ll prove I’m worthy of yours. I’ll spend eternity proving I’m
worthy if you’ll let me. You can hate me for as long as you want.
Just let me love you,”

“I’ll always hate you,” I said with clenched
teeth, glaring at him.

I couldn’t see though my tears. But I could
see Robert’s face. And I knew that if Sebastian could save me he
could have saved Robert. I knew it hadn’t been Sebastian that had
killed him but he might as well have. He saved me and let Robert
die. If he could have saved us both…maybe we could have run and I
never would have been tortured.

I thought back to Robert in those last
minutes before his death. I wanted to believe he would have saved
me from that freezer. I wished he had, but it had been Sebastian. I
pushed away the memory of how Robert had reacted in the park,
running and leaving me. He had been just as terrified as I had
been, as anyone would have been. I couldn’t blame him for running.
He would have come back for me.

“Victoria said she would like to speak with
you today,” said Sebastian, softly, “Is that okay with you?”

I tried to shake thoughts of Robert out of
my head but his eyes still, always, remained just in the back of my
mind. The fact remained – Sebastian had saved me and let Robert
die. And even if unfair – the world hadn’t been fair – I hated
Sebastian for choosing me, saving me, for loving me.

“Of course,” I said, “I don't want to anger
the
Queen
,”

I rolled my eyes at the thought of calling
Victoria, sweet old woman, a Queen and looked back out the window.
The sun shone bright and still I watched as they walked outside.
They were everywhere. They were nothing like my nightmares as a
child. They were much worse.

“She should be in shortly,” said Sebastian,
“I'll let her know that you need time to eat,”

I nodded my head to let him know that I had
heard him but I kept my eyes looking out the window. Food didn't
really interest me. I didn't have a huge appetite after being a
main course. The thought of food made me think of that meat locker
with all of those people hung up on hooks. And when I wasn't
thinking of them I thought of Robert. Someone had made an entire
meal out of him right in front of my eyes and then dumped him in my
living room. My own little horror story waiting for me back in my
apartment.

“Not hungry?” asked Victoria from behind
me.

I hadn't heard her come into the room. She
could out stalk a cat. I didn’t want to turn around to face her but
I also didn't want to piss off the Queen of my nightmares. She had
never been unkind to me. That didn't mean I still trusted her. I
knew what she was. There could be no denying it now.

“I understand you have some questions,” said
the Queen, “and I’d like to help answer as many as I can,”

“But not all of them,” I said.

“As many as I can,” repeated the Queen, “But
I’d like to hear what happened first, from you, from the
beginning,”

“It’s mostly a blur,” I said, sadness
setting into my heart at the thought of recounting the events that
had altered my life forever.

“Tell me what you can,” the Queen said
softly, “And I’ll try to fill in what I know,”

We sat next to each other on the bed in my
room and I recounted all of the events, the horrors, and even the
mess with Lydia in my kitchen made it in there. Somehow, the Queen
kept the same straight face the entire time, attentive and
listening.

We talked for hours and Victoria filled me
in on many things, including Lydia’s past, the things I had missed
while being tortured and the danger I had been placed in. It made
me angrier the more I heard and it made sense at the same time. It
explained why Lydia hated me, why she felt threatened by me but it
didn’t excuse her at all for what she had done – tampering with my
life.

“Why me?” I asked, brows furrowed, “Why did
you push and push for me to date Sebastian? Did you just want to
toy with my life, too?”

I didn’t hide my frustration and anger with
her. The more she told me the more lies I realized had been told.
And as horrible as Lydia had been it had only been perpetuated by
Victoria herself, the Queen.

“That story is a long one,” sighed Victoria,
“But I promise you I never meant to toy with your life. I had been
sent by a very dear friend to see after you, to keep you safe,”