Sleeping Beauty (2 page)

“No need for a gift.” The king's voice was strong and deep.“ Especially not after your invitation failed to arrive.”

“Do you think me that petty?” the vampire queen inquired. “It is tradition for all reigning monarchs to offer gifts to new members of the other royal families, is it not?”

“You are most gracious,” King Stefan said.

Catia tensed, because she knew the vampire queen was not gracious at all. More like vengeful and desperate for power.

“What are you naming the child?” Natasha asked.

“Rose,” Catia blurted before her husband could speak.

“What a fitting name.” Natasha stepped back, her skirts swirling around her. “A flower with fangs. I like that. Now, if you will hand me the babe”—she bared her fangs—“I will bestow my gift.”

“Never!” Catia retreated, hugging the baby to her chest. “I will never let you touch my child.”

With a growl, Natasha snatched the baby from the young queen's arms and leaped to the empty orchestra balcony, high above the room. The assembled crowd screamed in shock.

The iron- and protein-rich vampire diet made vampires notoriously strong, but no one had seen a vampire jump so high.

“Get her!” Catia screamed. “Someone! Save my baby!” The guards raced for the stairs.

Stefan stepped forward and called up. “Natasha, what are you doing? Please don't hurt my daughter.”

“Hurt her?” The vampire queen held the child high above her head. A stream of sunlight burst through the darkness and struck the baby. “Nonsense. I'm only offering my gift.”

She set the baby down on a planter of flowers on the balcony railing, then addressed the crowd. “ To punish her rude mother, this child's blood will bring a curse upon the kingdom of Xandra.”

The entire room gasped. Such words could lead to war between Sanguinia and Xandra after so many centuries of peace—so many years during which the necks of the Xandrans had not been at risk of vampire bites.

“Here is my gift.” Natasha glared down at the assembled crowd of royalty and other dignitaries. “One day, the princess will prick her finger, and the instant her blood is shed, she shall never again wake while the sun is in the sky. Every morning, as the sun breaks above the horizon, the princess will fall into a deep sleep, waking only as night falls.” The vampire queen smiled. “And every other citizen of Xandra will suffer the opposite fate. They will fall asleep each night at dusk, leaving the princess alone in the darkness.”

The vampire queen picked up the princess, and Queen Catia screamed, “Save my baby!” The guards raced to the balcony, but the vampire queen leaped onto the railing, balancing on the toes of her black stilettos.

She expelled a cackle that filled the room and shook the crystal chandeliers. “This child and the people of Xandra will pay for their young queen's rudeness and deceit!” She licked her lips, flew into the air, and vanished.

Sunlight once again streamed through the windows, and everyone shaded their eyes against the sudden onslaught of brightness.

“My baby!” Catia ran toward the window as soon as she could squint her eyes open. “She's taken my baby!”

“No, she's here!” Stefan yelled.

The queen turned to see her husband standing next to the cradle between their thrones. When he picked up the child, her little hand poked out from her blanket and her tiny fingers wiggled.

Catia ran to join her husband and fell into his arms. “I've changed my mind,” she cried. “Our daughter will need all the light in her life we can offer. Let's accept the fairies' gift. We'll name her Lucette.”

After the other guests had gone home, Queen Catia dropped to her knees in front of the fairy delegation. “Please, you have magic. There must be something you can do.” Suddenly the young girl, who'd grown up with her heart full of distrust for creatures such as fairies, was asking for favors.

The fairy queen placed her hands on the sides of the queen's face and looked directly into her eyes. “Today marked the first day in centuries that a monarch of Sanguinia used the Stone of Supremacy outside their own kingdom. The stone has very powerful magic, and a curse offered under its domain cannot easily be lifted.”

Catia looked up. “Please! I'll give my own life. Transfer the curse to me. Anything!”

“Give me a moment with my circle.” The fairies circled around their queen and shimmering light flooded the floor beneath them.

“Darling.” Stefan put his hand on Catia's shoulder where she knelt, and she pressed her forehead against his thigh. “I'm sure they can do something,” he said. “If not, we'll keep her safe. We'll make sure her finger is never pricked.”

Still on her knees, Catia lifted her face toward him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “But how? How can our daughter go through life never pricking her finger?”

He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. “I will protect her. I will protect you both.”

Given the day's events, Catia did not find her husband's assurances convincing. “I told you vampires were evil,” she spat.

“Catia.” Stefan shook his head. “You know that's not true. Vampire bites are extremely rare. Sanguinia and Xandra are at peace.” But Stefan frowned. In the two weeks since King Vladimir's death, seven vampire attacks had been reported.

Catia thumped her hand against Stefan's chest. “How could you have let this happen?”

He took her wrist. “Me?” His face reddened. “Me? I trusted you with the guest list. When I questioned the daylight timing of the ceremony, you expressly lied. You told me she'd declined our invitation and no one from Sanguinia would attend. How could you possibly blame this on me?”

He dropped her hands, and Catia backed away from her husband, afraid, for it was the first time she'd seen him angry. She stepped toward
him, softening her expression, hoping to regain his favor, yearning to see the love and admiration ever present in his eyes when he looked into hers. His eyes were blank.

The fairy circle broke and their queen floated back toward the royal couple. The king took his queen's hand, but a sense of coldness filled the space between them.

“Can you lift the curse?” he asked the fairy queen.

“No, but we can lessen its impact,” she replied. “First, we can protect the princess while she's a child. The curse will not fall until after the princess turns sixteen.”

Catia felt some relief, which soon dissipated and her body tensed again. “But when Natasha finds out you've changed her curse, she'll kill us all.”

The fairy queen paled, then shook her head. “We will cast a barrier spell. If the vampire queen crosses the border into Xandra before the curse lifts, all the magic in the Stone of Supremacy will vanish. She'll still be a vampire, but with no special powers.”

Catia's relief was once again short-lived as she considered the curse. “But after my daughter turns sixteen, she'll spend the rest of her days alone in the darkness?” The fairies' protection would do nothing to keep away
other
vampires.

“We can bestow one final gift upon your daughter,” the fairy queen said. “Once the princess proves she has found true love, the curse will be lifted.”

Catia dropped to her knees. This past year, she'd thought her dreams had come true—becoming queen and having a beautiful princess daughter—then within a moment, her dreams had turned into a nightmare. “How will my daughter find true love if the young men only wake while she is asleep?”

L
ucette woke in the middle of the night to the sound of shouting. She slipped out of the golden four-poster canopy bed she shared with her mother, Queen Catia, and tiptoed to the dark window of her castle bedroom. Pushing aside the heavy brocade curtains, her reflection confronted her in the glass, and she crossed her arms over her tall, skinny form.

Her mother had insisted that her thirteen-year-old body would soon sport womanly curves, but that was difficult to imagine. She might be ahead of her classmates Gloria and Heather in their studies, but the daughters of her ladies-in-waiting were far ahead in bodily development. Their figures seemed to change daily.

Lucette had long ago shed her resentment over the fact that her teachers could sit close and help Gloria and Heather with their work, and actually touch them. Or that they got to write with pencils and beautiful quill pens, while she was permitted only wax crayons and chalk. Now, however, she couldn't help but resent her classmates' curves. Lucette's body had merely stretched up—she was five foot seven . . . and counting—and her height exaggerated her flat chest, slim hips, gangly limbs, and lack of a defined waist.

But her body wasn't the worst of it. Everyone said she took after her handsome father, but she'd trade her big blue eyes, bony cheeks, heavy lashes, and stark black hair for her mother's softer, prettier blonde features any day. As far as she could tell, the main way in which she took after her father was that, if it weren't for her long hair, she'd look like a boy.

The winter chill penetrated the stone floor in her room. Putting one of her cold feet on top of the other, Lucette scolded herself for not grabbing her slippers or throwing on a warm robe over her long flannel nightdress. And if her father knew she had gotten out of bed without her gloves on, he'd confine her to her bedchamber for weeks. He didn't even know her mother let her sleep without them. But the noise she heard in the courtyard held priority, and it had seemed close.

Her breath fogged the window as she leaned to press her forehead against the cold glass and shield her view with her hands.

Through the window, she saw vampires. Three big ones. But they were outnumbered by the team of six slayers dropping down from the edges of the courtyard.

A tall slayer—dressed in black from head to toe, and barely visible in the moonlight—pulled out a long stake, spun around, and thrust it through the heart of the tallest vampire. Shocked, the vile bloodsucker staggered back and fell to the ground, convulsing in his death throes.
Good riddance
, thought Lucette. Like her mother always said, the only good vampire is a dead vampire.

Although rare in Xandra before her birth, vampire attacks were now common. Still, her father refused to declare war on Sanguinia—which was another source of conflict between her parents. Her mother wanted Sanguinia crushed.

Outside, another slayer leaped through the air to plant his heavy boot in the chest of a vampire, and Lucette turned from the window to mimic the kick. She fantasized about how amazing it would be to be a slayer, to kill the evil beasts, but then she shook her head to bring herself back to reality. Her parents would never allow it—even her mother, who wanted every last vampire dead.

She searched the courtyard and saw that the remaining vampire and the slayer pursuing him had climbed to the top of the opposite roof. The vampire lifted the slayer and tossed him from the side of the building.

Lucette gasped, but as the slayer fell, he shot a grappling hook from a crossbow and it snagged a window ledge. He swung back and slammed into the stone wall, then dropped gracefully to the courtyard.

Back on the roof, more slayers arrived from inside the building and cornered the remaining vampire, who sprang forward. The group of slayers parted to reveal another slayer crouched down in the middle, holding out a stake. He braced himself as the leaping vampire impaled himself on the stake and writhed in agony.

Slayers never failed to impress Lucette with their skill and courage. They were so cool and powerful. Mimicking their motions, she leaped up and kicked to strike an imaginary vampire. Empowered, she twisted to kick behind her, and then dropped to the carpet, rolled to the side, and jumped up to deliver a series of chops and punches. Attempting to replicate another move, she jumped and twisted, but her foot accidentally connected with the edge of her vanity table, and a gold candlestick fell, clattering and shattering the silence.