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

was running for him on slightly unsteady feet. Alba, walking beside him, stopped as well and smiled at her own eldest son. Jayce glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.
“Can this wait, whatever it is that you have to say to me?” he asked.
She nodded and waved a hand at him.
“Yes, it can, son. Go and be with your boy for a while longer” Alba said softly, smiling down at her grandson.
Jayce smiled, feeling vaguely puzzled. He wondered what she meant by that.
He shook it off and crouched down, spreading his arms out wide. Zika rushed up to him and threw himself into his embrace. Jayce looked into his face and lifted him up off the ground. His eyes were the exact same brown as his mother’s were and his hair was dark blonde and curly. He was so grateful that the boy looked nothing like his true father.
Zika kissed his cheek and snuggled in, resting his head on Jayce’s shoulder. Jayce gently patted his back, closing his eyes for a moment or two. He knew the boy was his, he just… He opened his eyes.
Lacey stood before him, looking the same as she had two years previous. She was twelve now, with the time changing, but she would remain twelve for the next several years to come. Jayce was twenty and every day, his heart ached.
But he smiled at his sister and turned slightly to the side, so she could see her nephew. She smiled delightfully and Zika grinned, revealing his growing fang incisors. He was born in a vampire land, so, of course, he was a vampire.
“Hello, baby” Lacey crooned, holding out her arms for him.
Zika pulled back and stared up into his father’s face. His forehead creased as he frowned, his dark eyes solemn. Jayce sighed and met his gaze, unflinching when Zika put a soft hand against his face. Jayce blinked once and a tiny, crystalline tear slid from the corner of his left eye and dripped down his cheek. Zika patted it away and kissed him again, fisting a tiny hand in his black hair.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean for her to die” Zika said quietly, screwing his face up.
He did this when he was about to cry and they could both see his lower lip trembling as he tried his hardest to prevent tears. Jayce shook his head firmly and looked the boy dead in the eyes.
“You didn’t kill her, Zika. It was not your fault. Your mother wasn’t strong enough and that was all there was to it. None of it was your fault” he told him sternly.
He stroked the boy’s curly hair before handing him back to his aunt. Zika reached for him again, just once, before winding his arms around Lacey’s neck. He muffled his sobs against her skin and Jayce turned to walk away, wiping his cheek with the back of one hand.
It was nobody’s fault but Talor’s. And Elliott’s. And his.
His mother was waiting for him in the throne room, leaning against her son’s throne. It used to belong to her husband, but they had long since given up their claim to it. She smiled at him and beckoned. Jayce walked over to her and slumped down on the throne, resting his head on the back of it. He was so tired all the time now, he could barely save the strength to stay awake.
“Jayce, I have something I have to tell you right now. I’m glad that you’re sitting down for it. You won’t want to hear it, but your father and I have been discussing it for a year now, and we think there is no other option open to you” Alba said, trying to sound kind.
Jayce sat up straighter and stared hard at her, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“What is it, Mother? And why did it take you such a long time to decide this thing you have decided upon for me?” he asked, his tone icy.
Alba released a slow breath and came round to stand before the gilt throne. She knelt on the stone floor, her skirts rustling and gradually settling around her. She reached out to take his left hand in hers and gently kissed the wedding ring he still wore on his fourth finger. She then swapped hands and did the same to his King’s signet.
Jayce waited impatiently, wishing silently that she would hurry up and get the ceremonials over and done with.
“Elvin and I have decided that you have to get married again, Jayce” she said finally, barely breathing the words.
Jayce shot up off the throne and stood, shaking, before her. He looked down on her, his black eyes blazing with self righteous fire. His hands shook with rage as he pointed at himself and then at his ring finger.
“I will not be married again. This ring means ‘for life existing’. Elara was my wife, and she is still my one love. I refuse to be subjected to this hateful thing. I cannot, will not, call you ‘Mother’ anymore. You have wronged me and I will never forgive you. Leave my sight and get out of my realm” he spat harshly, his pointed incisors sliding forward into view.
Alba stood steadily and moved slowly backwards in a glide. She bowed her head, but continued to stand before him.
“We did not wish to do this, my son. We would arrange for your brother to be married, but Talor is not ready for marriage. So far, he is too fickle to cope with just one girl for the rest of his life. But you can cope with just one; we have all seen it already” she said quietly.
Jayce shook his head vehemently, his fangs fully extended.
“I have already been married and loved just one girl. I will never love another” he hissed frantically, sensing that something was spiralling way out of his control.
Alba nodded, the sad look on her face understanding.
“I know that, Jayce. But the realm requires a queen to rule by your side. Even if she does nothing but stand next to you and look pretty. Which, as I know you, she most likely will do just that and nothing more. You are not bound to love her, Jayce. I have chosen the girl for you already. She has just turned seventeen years of age in the mortal world. She is not much younger than…” she was cut off harshly.
“Do not say her name!” Jayce yelled, his shoulders rigid. “I will not stand for this! I will not marry again!”
Alba inclined her head again and then straightened up, looking him right in the eye.
“You will marry again, Jayce. Kimba is fetching her as we speak now. The girl will be here within the hour, with everything explained to her. She is not unwilling, my boy” she replied stoically.
Jayce tipped his head back and roared, his voice shaking the entire room, the stone floors buckling under their feet. The sceptre in his left hand trembled as the orb glowed brighter and brighter, the gem burning through to his skin.
“You sent my sister to do your dirty work?!” Jayce shouted, his voice reaching and exceeding decibels no ear had heard before.
He threw the sceptre, hard, and it spun, end over end, until it plunged into his mother’s chest. The rod was entirely buried, and as she staggered, Jayce could see it protruding from the other side of her. His chest heaved, his eyes wild as he stormed down the stone dais steps and strode from the throne room, leaving Alba to die on the floor behind him. A bright light blazed out and he knew that she was dead and gone, hearing the clatter of the sceptre as it fell, bloodied, to the floor.

Jayce was out in the grassy fields, Zika sitting in his lap, when Lacey was sent running to bring them both inside the castle. Her long black hair flew out behind her as she came to an abrupt stop in front of them. She was breathing hard.
“What is it, Lacey?” Jayce asked blandly, his eyes and voice betraying no feeling for their now dead bearer.
There was no light of curiosity and life left in his black diamond eyes. Zika twisted round to look at him, his own eyes wide. He turned back and stared at Lacey. She smiled faintly at him and he scrambled up and ran over to her, hugging her skirts.
“Jayce, my…King. Brother of mine, Kimba is back” she said hesitantly, eyeing her brother carefully.
Jayce nodded and got to his feet, brushing blades of grass off his pants.
“And?” he replied coolly.
“And she has the girl with her. The girl you are to be married to” Lacey whispered, glancing down at Zika.
They had agreed that he must know none of it until the event came to pass. He knew nothing of his dead grandmother.
“I will come, if only to get a look at her and see what I have to spend the rest of my days with” Jayce said strongly, his voice acidic and unseemingly bitter.
Lacey bent to pull Zika into her arms and then held out her hand to her brother. He took it and let her lead him back to the stone castle he no longer called his home. They walked to the throne room, where Kimba had taken the new Queen.
Jayce was faintly surprised to see Talor in the room with the two girls. But his shock changed to mere disbelief when he saw his brother front on. Talor’s jaw was tight, his dark eyes slitted in anger. In that moment, he looked ready to strike and kill them all. One by one.
Lacey led Jayce around their brother, and he instantly felt uneasy with his back to the mad vampire.
Kimba turned around to face them, her hand in the other, older girl’s. She turned around also, facing her future husband. What she saw, though, was a familiar face, pale and angry.
Jayce glanced briefly, indifferently, at her and then turned to look at Talor. He watched his brother’s lips form one word, one name.
Harmony.

Chapter 20
Jayce stood across from Harmony at their wedding ceremony a month later, sliding another ring onto her finger. Talor wasn’t anywhere to be seen; he had forfeited his chance to be at the wedding and see Harmony freely for the last time.
She looked up at him, her blue eyes wide and unsure. He hated himself for making another girl doubt herself so much, but he wasn’t going to love her and he wasn’t going to wear a matching ring, as he did with Elara, his one true wife. His father had left the realm, leaving everything up to him and him alone. Lacey and Kimba were under his charge now.
“Done” Jayce announced, closing his eyes and sealing their shared fates forever.
Harmony glanced away from him at his sisters, now her own, in a way. Underneath Jayce’s black eyes were strange patterns of veins, showing out starkly against the pallor of his white skin.
“I’m sorry” Harmony whispered, staring at him again, pleading with him to look at her.
Jayce reopened his eyes and met her sorrowful stare. He shook his head at her apology and reached out to gently touch her hand for one split second.
“It’s not your fault. I am the one to say sorry, Harmony. I never wanted to get married again and I know you can’t love me either” he replied quietly, a weak smile fading onto his face and off again.
Harmony blinked.
“What makes you say that?” she inquired curiously.
Jayce stared down at her, pushing his hands down deep into his pockets.
“You’re in love with my brother” he