The Dark King's Bride (15 page)

             
“Are you sure?”

             
“I am absolutely sure.” Lowering her hands, she walked over to the vanity, and gazed upon her reflection for a moment. Lily looked at herself with reverence and a little twinge of sadness for just a few seconds before her eyes started to drop down, as did her voice. “I suppose…that…”

             
“You can tell me what is on your mind, Lily…I will do my best to help you banish whatever is plaguing your thoughts, and making things hard for you at the moment.”

             
Daniel’s servant’s kind words to her brought a smile to her face. She found the attempt to make her forget about what was wrong in her mind change her mood to a more brightened one. Lily silently thanked Magdalene for what she had done just then before she lifted her head up, and spoke to her.

             
“It is really nothing, Magdalene…but thank you for caring enough to be concerned about me.”

             
“Are you sure that there is nothing wrong? You can tell me whatever is on your mind.”

             
“I am sure…”

             
“Well then…I am going to go fetch your gown for the ceremony tonight while you wash up, and get yourself sparkly clean.”

             
“Very well…mom.”

             
Lily softly chuckled at the look she got from Magdalene from calling her ‘mom’ before she walked out the door. She let out a contented sigh, and moved herself in the direction of the adjoined bath chamber’s doorway. Her hands slipped the sash free from where it was, and let the robe fall off of her, naturally, as she moved in the direction of the tub.

Chapter Seventeen

             
Slipping into the hot water of his bath, Daniel leaned his head back against the rim of the tub behind where he was nestled, resting it. He closed his eyes, and let out a single breath of air, relaxing all of the tension that had built up inside of his body out of it.

             
Now…I can really unwind…kick back…relax…and let all of my concerns and worries go out the window.

             
Daniel slipped a little further into the state he was in at the moment, as well as in the water of the tub. Everything that had plagued him earlier on in the day during his conversation with Richard seemed to disappear the moment his body reclined back against the white porcelain surface of the tub, and the hot water started working its magic on his muscles.

             
Just being able to take it easy for a few moments with the entire castle in an uproar over this wedding makes a huge difference-

             
His train of thought abruptly ended due to the sound of frantic footsteps moving inside of his bed chambers that the bathroom was adjoined to, and heading to where he was confined to the tub. Opening his piercing emerald green eyes, Daniel turned his focus towards the doorway of the room.

             
Moving over the threshold, Magdalene huffed and puffed for breaths of air while carrying his robe into the room. Her skin on her face had a red tint to it while she spoke in a more rushed tone.

             
“Your clothes for the ceremony are prepared, and waiting for you to put on in the next room, my lord.” Magdalene said. Placing the robe on a hook sticking out from one of the nearby walls made out of onyx stone, she moved over to a side of the tube, and reached inside of her pocket of her uniform to retrieve a wash cloth she had gotten for him. “The ballroom is set up for the marriage in the way you requested it to be decorated and fixed in, the guards have increased in numbers in order to protect everyone that will be here tonight, and the hired servants for tonight are working in the kitchen at this very moment on the meals that everyone is to eat once the ritual is complete.”

             
“Very good, Magdalene.” Daniel spoke to her in a calm tone as an attempt to ease the feelings of nervousness and unease that he could sense radiating off of her. “You should relax yourself…I am sure that you have heard some mortal women saying something about what stress does to your looks.”

             
“No offense…but I am so far in my old age that I don’t care anymore about what a little more stress in my life will do to me.”

             
“I like how you think, Magdalene.” A deep chuckle escaped out of his mouth as he spoke to her. Straightening to sit up, Daniel kept his focus on her while maintain the conversation with her. “While most mortal women your age worry about putting more wrinkles on their face or expanding their waist lines…you are just doing whatever the hell you want.”

             
“It comes with old age…and being your maid.” A chuckle that matched his light hearted one he gave for a brief moment escaped from her own mouth as she spoke to him. One of her hands extended the rag in his direction while she kept a light hearted sound to her voice. “After all…when my job is being a maid to a vampire king who does whatever he wants…what’s to say that I can’t let that influence the way I live my life as well?”

             
“You do have a point.” Daniel accepted the wash cloth from her, and dipped it down under the surface of the water. “What is the point of being alive if you can’t do the things you enjoy the most?”

             
“It wouldn’t be much of one.”

             
“Agreed.”

             
“If you don’t need anything else from me…I need to get back to Lily, and check on her to see how her bath is progressing.”

             
“You may go…but…”

             
“Is there something wrong, my lord?”

             
“How…How is Lily doing this morning?” Daniel’s curiosity got the better of him, and forced its way out. “Is she dealing with the approaching ceremony okay?"

             
“She seems…a little…distracted.” Magdalene chose a more motherly tone as she replied to him. “Lily tried to act like she was okay and making jokes with me on my way out…but I can tell that something has troubled her since I awoke her.”

             
Magdalene’s words caused him to become on edge. The fact that Lily was uneasy from what sounded like a simple bad dream made him uncomfortable. He wanted to race to her, wrap her up in his arms, comfort her, and send any and all bad thoughts of her dream to oblivion.

             
Daniel sat in silence for a moment before he made a gesture towards the door, suggesting his maid to leave him. He propped an arm up on a side of the tub, and supported his head, holding his chin within it.

             
I believe the time has come…to show Lily the reach of my powers.

             
Although his body was at ease in the warm water, his mind craved to find out what it was that troubled her, and had put her in a state of distress. Daniel closed his eyes, and sought out Lily with his thoughts, whispering her name.

*                            *                            *

              Lily moved her wet wash cloth across the back of her neck, and up the side of her face before dipping it back down into the water that had warmed both her spirits and her body. Her long black hair hung free and down her back, slightly damp from the water.

             
This feels so nice.

             
She brought it back up from underneath the warm water it had been submerged in, and proceeded to wash the rest of her face that had not been touched by its heat. Her body had started to relax itself and forget about all the things that had been troubling it beforehand.

             
I don’t believe that I have ever enjoyed a hot bath like this  in my whole life…It is always cold baths at my parents’ home, nothing like this. It is really good to get to experience something different for a change.

             
How did you feel last night when I was the one washing your body?

             
Her body nearly jumped straight up out of the water from what was said to her inside of her mind in response to what she had just said, silently. The moment of surprise caused her hand to drop the rag outside of the tub and onto the smooth floor. Moving her hands to rest on the rim of the tub that ran all the way around it, she darted her gaze around the large chamber in search of the voice.

             
However, upon observing the space she was in at the present moment…There was not a single soul in sight that could be the owner of the voice. The way it spoke to her sounded just like the way that…Daniel spoke to her.

             
“H-Hello?” Lily asked, calling out to the immediate area she was in, as well as towards the direction of the opened doorway that led from her adjoined bed chambers to that room. “Is someone there?”

             
No answer.

             
The discovery of silence echoing around her made chill bumps dance all over her back, stretching from the bottom of her tail bone to the very top of her spinal cord, leaving no spot in-between untouched. She brought one of her hands away from the tub’s rim, and tucked a strand of her hair behind one of her ears while her eyes looked to the area once more to try to validate for herself what was going on.

             
Strange…I am pretty sure that I just heard Daniel speaking to me right now-

             
And you are correct on that assumption, Lily.

             
His voice speaking out of nowhere made her nearly dunk her head down into the water of being shocked like she had been a moment ago. She managed to catch herself before her head went under, and pulled herself to be a seated position amongst the warm, heated water. Looking to the bathroom that only herself was nestled in, the confusion that had started to plague her a little bit ago returned with a vengeance in her voice.

             
“What…What is going on here? How-“

             
Don’t fret, my love. It is I, Daniel.
His voice continued to speak in her mind with a more soothing tone in his deep voice.
There is no need for you to be concerned or confused like you are.

             
“Where are you?” Lily looked around the area she was in at the moment for him, but found her to be the only one there. Her frustration grew a little more as she looked to the area. “I can hear you, but I can’t-“

             
I am in the privacy of my own bathroom, cleaning up for tonight, but my mind has the ability to keep a line of communication open within your own in a way to help us talk to one another without needing to be in the same room at the same time. So…There is no need for you to speak aloud. If you want to speak back to me, just use your thoughts.

             
You are truly full of surprises, Daniel.
She relaxed the tension that had started to grow inside of her being. Reaching to the floor, Lily picked her rag off of it, and brought it back inside of the tub.
A vampire king with the ability to speak into the minds of those he chooses to…Is there anything that you can’t do?

             
Stop you from being troubled on the eve of our wedding…Magdalene has informed me that you have been uneasy and distracted.

             
Damn it, Magdalene…Why did she have to tell him? She silently cursed at Daniel’s maid in a portion of her mind that he couldn’t and had not gotten into it yet, keeping him from hearing the words she wanted to say to her. Lily drew in a breath of air before she focused back on the link that Daniel had on her.

             
It is not anything serious, Daniel.
She dampened the cloth once more, and ran it up and down her arms before sliding it across the tops of her shoulders.
You don’t need to be worried about it.

             
If it makes you uncomfortable, it
is
something that I need to be concerned about.
His voice took on a more firm sound as he maintained the mental connection with her.
You are to be my wife, and I don’t want you hiding how you are truly feeling from me, as well as things I can easily get rid of for you so that you can be a peace with yourself.

             
Daniel’s sweet words to her started to wear down the resolve she had before their conversation with one another. Lily didn’t wish to bring up what had happened with her that had caused her to feel the way she had been with Magdalene, but found the words starting to slip out of into her thoughts and into the open.

             
I just had a bad dream is all, my lord…It is really nothing for you to be focused on.