And I was hooked.
Had she not been my mate, I still would have wanted her, still would have tracked her down the way I did, and fell madly in love with her, deeper every day over the next two years but lucky for me, she was.
She was my perfect match in every way.
"Their romance was a secret." My eyes find Henrich as his words bring me back. "Since the little one was of noble blood she wasn't allowed to associate with the soldiers, and since she was already promised to wed someone else, a romance between her and anyone but him was forbidden. As time went on, the threat of war increased and finally came to a head. Villages were plundered and horrible things began happening to the women in our kingdoms. Because of this, the little one was appointed guards, one during the day—Andrej—and one during the night—Havok."
I take a glance around the table and find that all of the women are completely entranced by Henrich's words, by my tragic love story, and I know my angel would enjoy knowing that. She always said we had an epic love, the greatest of all time, and with the way everyone is listening, I tend to believe that.
"Now our brother had already been courting the little one in secret for nearly a year at this point, stolen moments in the middle of the night, letters and small gifts of love exchanged whenever possible but the second he learned she would be appointed guards to watch over her, Havok used his power to make sure it was no one but Andrej and himself doing the watching. This allowed their love to bloom, blossom into something beautiful and because of that, Havok felt it was time to share his one and only secret."
When I told my light I was a vampire and that she was my mate, well, I was terrified she would reject me, was worried she would fear me, but she didn't. My light, my angel, accepted me and my secret as if I had told her the grass was green or water was wet and that was that. She loved me and nothing would change that.
"Because of this, along with the impending marriage to a man the little one had never met, they formulated a plan. She was set to be married on the evening of her twenty-seventh birthday, so they decided they would run, run away from Slovakia completely and never look back. Unfortunately, war broke out before they had a chance." Henrich takes another shot, looks to make sure I'm still fine with his sharing. "This postponed their plan for almost a year, took it very close to that horrible deadline. They were unable to complete the mating ceremony and had to wait to flee until the eve before her birthday. We tried to assist, Andrej and Kai smuggled the little one out to Milos and I, and we escorted her to the cabin where Havok would meet her at sunset."
I was going to take her away from the war and the fighting, start a new life in a strange land with my light, but I never had the chance. Instead, I arrived just in time to see my light violently extinguished.
"The ally she was betrothed to, the one that the human king so desperately wanted to please, was actually the vampire king."
"Nero." I spit the word like a curse and tip back the bottle.
Posey gasps and clutches Casey's hand, all eyes now on me.
"His people intercepted Havok on his way to the cabin, tried and failed to get him to join them in their ulterior motives." Henrich takes another shot and I have to appreciate the way this story seems to affect him, how it pains him almost as much as it pains me. "Nero only joined the human king because he knew there were dragons in the mix, knew that he had an opportunity to eliminate as many shifters as possible and chalk it up to the war without his plans being foiled."
"And I was a key part of that plan," I whisper almost inaudibly.
Posey leans toward me. "Why?"
I look to Henrich then sigh. "Because I am the only purebred vampire ever to exist."
"Havok is the product of two vampires who were successfully able to conceive and carry a child to term, the only to ever survive birth and grow to adulthood. Vampires typically have human mates and because of that it is fifty-fifty as to whether or not they produce vampiric offspring. It is incredibly rare for a vampire to have a shifter mate, even more so a vampire, and the odds of procreating are dropped to a tiny ten percent, even less when it comes to giving birth. Generally, a pregnancy between a shifter and vampire, or two vampires, results in the death of the child as well as the death of the mother. Havok is a product of two vampires and because of that, Nero viewed him as a messiah of sorts." Henrich sighs. "His potential is still untapped. We aren't even sure of what he's fully capable of, but Nero believed he would be a vital part of his master plan. However, when he intercepted him, he was enraged to find not only was Havok unwilling to participate, but had sided with the shifters the vampire king hated so desperately."
And he beat me within inches of my life because of it. Then still made me pay.
"When they found out where Havok was going, Nero decided against leaving him for dead, then went to investigate and found the little one. He knew who she was, knew from his correspondence with the human king and her father and went into a blind rage. He—"
"He killed my mate, tore out her throat, and dumped her body in the river right in front of me," I blurt. "He slaughtered the love of my life, snuffed out her light and left her like trash. He even killed her dog. Hung him from the rafters in the cabin we were supposed to meet in."
I finish off the bottle and realize all of the women are openly crying and my gut twists at the sight. I do not deserve their sympathy, their tears. I could not save my love and deserve nothing but suffering for it.
"But..." Posey sniffles. "But if that's true, then how does Gypsy come into play?"
"There is a myth, a myth in vampire-lore, that says if one's mate is killed before the mating is complete, they will essentially be reincarnated over and over until they are reunited with their fated one," Henrich says. "There is no proof and for years it was only rumored to be nothing more than a myth, a story to soothe a grieving spouse but—"
I sit up. "But I believe it. Had to believe it. I had to think there would be a way to see her again, to be with my love, be in her light, and now that she has returned I know it's true."
"And Gypsy is your mate reincarnated..." Posey nods. "That explains a lot."
I lean toward her, narrow my eyes. "Such as?"
"I'm not sure how to put it in words but I recognized her as… something. I didn't know what at the time because she was clearly not a shifter, but I knew there was something different about her." The queen shifts in her seat and I know I'm not going to like what's coming. "She kept talking about being nomadic, how she never stays in one place for too long, and when she did her pulse would practically skyrocket. Gypsy is afraid of something and each time she talked about leaving it was like, like it went deeper than right now. I got the impression this isn't the first time she's been on the run and… now hearing about this reincarnation thing, I have a feeling Gypsy has been running through more lifetimes than we can fathom."
My blood runs cold as she confirms my biggest fear.
I jolt from the table and fly out the door, racing back to the clearing where my light still sleeps.
If the legend is true, if this is all true, then my angel has been running scared of something for hundreds of years, and that something is surely my grandfather.
