The Vampire Prince by Lissie (online e book reading .TXT) 📖

hands becoming painfully tight.
“Jayce. Let go” Elara urged him, inching herself slowly away from him.
She breathed out, counting to ten in her head. The sudden pain went away and she was left feeling vaguely strange.
“What?” Jayce repeated anxiously, his eyes wide and focused on her white face.
“Just a cramp. Nothing more than a twinge, Jayce, I’m fine. That’s all it was” Elara murmured, holding her stomach with great care.
Jayce turned away from her and walked over to the wardrobe, mumbling to himself about white lies and not being as fine as she thought she was. Elara couldn’t hide the grin that crept across her face, and she didn’t try. If there was one thing Jayce had some trouble doing lately, it was smiling. He had to learn to do it more.
From inside the giant wardrobe, Jayce pulled out an altered coronation dress for Elara, along with his black tuxedo. The clothing in the realm was oddly opposite; the men wore relatively modern outfits, while the girls and women wore period dresses from Elizabethan England.
This dress was pale purple, with bell sleeves and dark lilac trimming on the hem and sleeve cuffs. As Jayce helped her put it on, Elara noticed the alteration. Instead of clinging almost painfully to her distended abdomen as most of her clothes did now, the material simply fell away, flowing over her bump instead of trying to suppress it. She smiled and turned around so he could do up the pearl buttons.
When she was dressed completely, Elara spun around a little bit in front of the mirror to get a good look at herself. She grinned and ran her fingers down through her sleep mussed hair. A hair brush found its way into her right hand and she smiled over at Jayce.
“Thank you, Prince” she said quietly, beginning to properly brush her hair down her back.
“Not for long” Jayce muttered, half to himself.
Elara heard him and rolled her eyes. She said nothing in reply. A light knock sounded on the door and they both turned to see Kimba standing in their doorway. She smiled at them both and walked over to Elara, standing just behind her as she, too, looked into the mirror.
“You look beautiful and you look handsome, brother” she said demurely, sounding very dignified.
Elara smiled at her and Jayce bent to kiss his little sister’s forehead.
“Thank you, Kimba” he said quietly. “Have you come to take me to the coronation hall?”
The little girl nodded and reached for his hand. He took it and began to walk to the open door, looking back over his shoulder at Elara.
“Lacey will be on her way here now to take you in, Elle. She’ll be in here very soon” he told her, giving her a very faint smile.
Elara nodded and stayed where she was to wait. No point in sitting down, she might not be able to stand back up again.
Only a few minutes later, Lacey walked in and held out her hand.
“Are you ready, Elara?” she asked softly, her voice like tinkly music.
“Yes, I think so…” Elara started to say, but she was cut off swiftly by a shocking streak of pain.
It was harsher than the one from earlier and more debilitating. The pain forced her down to her knees, her breath coming hard and too fast. Lacey dropped down beside her, her small face worried. Elara tried to smile at her, but the necessary facial muscles wouldn’t work. She was panting now, striving to keep from crying. The tears were building up behind her eyes, she could feel them. She could do nothing. She knew it now; she didn’t have the strength to get this baby out.

Talor was pacing in his room, trying to make up his mind whether he should go to his brother’s coronation or not, when his head split in two again, from the pain Cleo forced upon him. She was in his mind again, even though she was dead.
“What do you want now?” he hissed through tightly clenched teeth.
‘My sister has begun her labour, brother-in-law. Jayce has been taken to the hall already, for the coronation. I hate you, but right now Elara needs you for help. You have known that she will never be strong to give birth. She needs you to go and help her, because without you, they will both die. And Jayce will never be able to forgive you, Talor. Go…’
The agony vanished and he could suddenly think clear headed again. His decision was definite. He whipped round and ran for the door, not even bothering to slam it after him.

When her brother materialised in the bedroom beside her, Lacey hissed, her fangs exposed. Hate burned in her emerald eyes, but she didn’t back away from Elara. If Talor wanted the wife of their brother, he would have to kill his sister first.
Talor sighed and knelt down in front of them both, his eyes on Lacey. He bent his head low.
“If you wish to kill me, go right ahead, little sister. But I am only here to help Elara. Her sister asked me to come and help her” he said softly.
Lacey stared at him, gauging the truth in his statement. She pushed her fangs back and nodded, ignoring the angry bloodlust still in her eyes.
They both turned to look down at Elara, Talor getting to his feet again. He reached out a hand and ran the backs of his fingers over Elara’s cheek. He jerked his hand back; her skin was icy cold. He glanced at Lacey, but she only shrugged and looked back at Elara. Her chest was heaving and she was clutching fistfuls of her dress, her knuckles white as falling snow.
As they watched her closely, she suddenly arched up, pushing her back right off the floor she was lying on. She screamed and the sound was loud and high pitched enough for both vampires to need to cover their ears. The scream was in a frequency that no human could hear, and no dog or cat.
Glancing briefly at Talor, Lacey dove to the floor and unceremoniously shoved Elara’s dress hem out of the way. She looked up and bit her lip hard, ignoring the pain shooting through her skull from the banshee shriek.
“The baby’s crowning now” Lacey whispered, standing up straight.
After thinking studiously for a few seconds, she tore the skirt from the rest of the dress and fell to her knees again. The sound issuing from Elara’s wide open mouth was disconcerting to say the least, and Talor didn’t know for how much longer he’d be able to handle it.
Then Elara fell silent, her eyes closed. Talor leaned over her, lightly putting his hands on her shoulders. She felt too limp under his hands, not right.
And then she released one final scream of pain and her baby exited her and slid into Lacey’s hands. She gazed down at the tiny person, amazed that anyone could ever start life so small.
“Jayce was right. He is a boy” she breathed. “Talor, there is a pair of scissors on the bedside table.”
He jumped away and fetched the heavy gold scissors. He knelt down and cut through the umbilical cord, severing the last link between Elara and her son. He felt a hand hitting at him and grabbed it, knowing it was Elara’s. He looked down into her face and waited.
“What’s his name, Ellie?” Lacey asked quietly, smiling faintly.
Elara smiled back at her, oblivious to the blood covering her lower half and her legs. Sweat stuck her hair to her face and shoulders.
“Zika. Don’t forget, Lacey” she said, her voice stronger than it had ever been heard before.
Talor was holding her soft, cold hand when she died. Lacey was cradling Elara’s infant son against her.
Ten minutes passed and then Talor stood up, releasing Elara’s dead hand. He turned and wandered towards the empty doorway.
“Do it gently, brother” he heard Lacey murmur from behind him.
She was sitting on the floor, her shoulders drooping in defeat. Talor nodded, though he didn’t say anything to her.

Jayce looked up as soon as Talor entered the coronation hall. It had already been done, even without Elara. It was realm custom for the king to be crowned first, so no one thought any different of it. But Jayce sat up straighter, his eyes fixed on his younger brother.
This time, when Talor felt the tears filling his black eyes, he did nothing to stop them from spilling over. He saw Jayce suck in his breath, his grip on his sceptre painfully tight. The jewelled orb at the top began to glow a frightening luminescent red. Talor had never seen Jayce so angry or distraught before.
“Jayce…” he said, speaking the one name with a break in the middle.
The King stood swiftly and pointed the sceptre at his brother, his jaw set hard.
“Where is my wife?” he asked, his voice harsh and cold.
Talor shook his head.
“Lady Elara is dead, my liege” he said quietly.
Jayce stared, unblinking, at him and then sprinted down the stone steps and disappeared through the door. Talor ran after him, but as he knew he would be, Jayce was already gone.
By the time he arrived back in the bedroom, Jayce was holding Elara tightly against his chest, tears streaming silently down his cheeks. He hadn’t even seen the baby boy yet. Lacey was standing a little distance away from them, clutching the baby to her. He wasn’t crying.
Talor walked in closer and placed a gentle hand on Jayce’s taut shoulder.
“I didn’t tell her I love her!” Jayce cried out, burying his face in the crook of his dead wife’s neck.
“She knew you did” Talor said softly.
He crouched down next to his brother and started to ease Elara out of his tight grasp.
“No! Stop it!” Jayce hissed, tugging her away from Talor.
“Brother, my King, I once vowed that if anything happened to her, I would take her home. I must keep my promise to your wife” Talor said sternly, his words still very quietly spoken.
Jayce shook his head adamantly, and Talor was afraid to just reach down and take Elara away from him. The sceptre his brother carried made him stronger than any other vampire in existence. But he had to try again.
“Jayce, I promised to her. I need to take her to her brother. He is the only one she has left” he murmured.
He tried again, pulling Elara further from Jayce. He slumped backwards on the floor, letting her go completely. As Talor lifted the dead mother into his arms, he saw Jayce holding the sceptre out towards him.
“Take it, brother. Have my rule, I don’t care anymore” Jayce said brokenly, staring up at Talor with dazed eyes.
Talor shook his dark head at him and stepped away.
“No, Jayce. It is your birthright; it was never mine to take for my own. And you have a son now. You must take care of him” he replied, turning away.
Those words seemed to trigger a change in the older boy. Jayce scrambled to his feet and looked around him, finally locking his gaze on his sister and the bundle in her arms.
She nodded at him and held the baby out to him.
Jayce hurriedly crossed the room to take him from her, staring down into the tiny baby’s eyes. They were brown, like his mother’s. A fleeting phantom smile flitted over his face.
When he turned back to see his brother again, Talor had already dematerialised, taking Elara with him.

Chapter 19
Two years later
“Daddy!!”
Jayce turned round, a faint smile on his face. His two year old son