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

said bluntly, ignoring the others waiting for them to finish and leave.
Harmony gulped in a breath and almost choked on it, her blue eyes widened. She watched as he shook his head again, his expression sad.
“I’ve never seen it before, but I used to see love for myself in the brown eyes of a girl who isn’t with me anymore. You’re simply the girl they fetched to replace her with. I will never love you, Harmony. You are my legal wife now, but take my word for it, you are from now and until I die, cuckolded. You will have your own bedroom and I will have mine. You will not touch me, you will not speak to me…unless I permit it. Do you understand?” Jayce murmured, voice like steel cords, tightening around her neck like a noose.
Harmony nodded without saying a word. He was right though; she was in love with his brother and now that she was married to him, she could never get near him. She started to feel the tears tracking down her cheeks, and then a small hand slipped into hers. She looked down to find Kimba gazing up at her, wide blue eyes worried and filled with sadness. Harmony had the feeling that these two girls knew far more than she did, far more than any children should ever know at all. She tightened her hold on the girl’s hand and stepped off the slightly raised dais, down onto the grass again.
“Are we returning to the castle now?” she asked softly, lifting her free hand to wipe away the tears.
Kimba nodded and Lacey appeared, taking the little girl’s other hand. She smiled faintly up at Harmony, her emerald eyes veiled and hidden. She hid her thoughts and emotions well, too well, Harmony thought.
They walked up to the castle in pure silence. The light wind rustled their long dresses, Harmony’s a delicate satin in a shade of gold she’d never seen before.
“You know, Lady Elara’s dress wasn’t golden. It was dark red. Like blood” Kimba mused, tapping her chin with two slim pale fingers.
“Kimba!” Lacey hissed, jerking on her hand and squeezing it hard. “You shouldn’t say such things!”
Kimba looked at her older sister with fright, her eyes welling up with clear tears. Lacey sighed and stopped walking, pulling the other two to a halt also. She moved round to crouch in front of Kimba and placed her hands on her shoulders.
“I’m sorry, baby. But you know you should not have said that. What would Jayce have said to you for such a thing?” she asked sternly.
Kimba’s bottom lip quivered and she nodded, mostly to herself.
“He would tell me it wasn’t nice and if I have nothing pleasant to say, I should just keep my mouth shut” she said obediently.
Lacey suppressed a quick smile and nodded, swiftly standing up again.
“Good girl. That’s right” she approved, taking their hands again.
Jayce stared over the grounds after them, watching as Harmony held his sisters’ hands and walked with them. They seemed to like her, but he couldn’t bring himself to be all that nice to her, or accommodating. Let Talor have her, he didn’t care anymore. If he couldn’t love her, and he couldn’t, then someone should. And if that someone just so happened to be his annoying younger brother, then so be it.
He turned and walked off the platform into thin air.
When Jayce materialised in his own bedroom, he found himself backed up against the closed door, his brother standing right up close in front of him. Talor’s right arm was pressed up on Jayce’s windpipe. Jayce stared at him in disbelief, then he began to laugh.
Talor gazed back at him in surprise, just as much disbelief apparent on his face, too.
“What are you laughing at?” he demanded loudly, his voice a growl.
Jayce grinned at him; it was a savage rent in his usually calm expression.
“Go ahead and do it, brother. Kill me. It’s not worth it anymore. Elara’s gone and never coming back to me ever again. I have her son, but he’s young enough to be made to believe that you’re his father if you kill me now. Go on, Tal. If you’re brave enough to murder me in cold blood, then do it. Nobody will come after you for it because anybody who ever mattered or cared for me is dead and gone. I don’t give a damn if you put a metal stake through my heart. Kill me with my own sceptre if you wish, so I can die like our bearer. I have no desire to live any longer, my brother, so if you will…do it now” he told him fiercely, his black eyes wild and deep.
Talor looked into them for a second or two longer and then stepped back, letting Jayce fall in a crouch to the floor under him. He circled past his younger brother, eyeing him uncertainly.
“Why did you let me go when you could have killed me then and there?” he asked warily.
“Because to allow you to live is a much worse punishment, Jayce. And for what it’s worth, I think that you need to stay existing for Zika. Even though you’re unhappy and want to kill yourself, he needs a father. You know that he needs a father, Jayce. I can take care of Harmony. I’ll act as Regent if you want, and she can help. You can be with your son all you want” Talor replied, his own eyes filled with a ravaged sort of desperation.
Jayce blinked slowly, making no attempts to push back the impending tears. Talor took a few steps away from him, worried all of a sudden. He listened to his brother’s last words and saw his actions in a fog of horror and fright.
“I can’t do it anymore, brother. I loved her, I do love her. I can’t love your Harmony, you know that I can’t. I love our son. Tell Zika that, Talor. Don’t allow him to forget. Tell our sisters I adore them both and I never wanted to hurt them either. Goodnight and farewell, Talor. I loved you once” Jayce said softly.
Talor nodded at him, understanding.
“And I you, my King. I’ll rule in your stead” he murmured.
With one last look and one final nod, Talor threw his gold dagger to Jayce, who caught it deftly in his right hand. His fingers curved around the shining hilt, the glimmer of the sun sending rays of sunlight flickering all around the walls of the room. He raised it to his eye level and looked along the long, slender blade with a curiosity that sent chills down Talor’s back.
He watched as Jayce lifted the knife even higher and then drew it across his throat with one heavy slash. His black eyes met those of his younger brother’s for one last lingering glance before the knife struck the floor, its sharp point embedded in the thick carpet. Dark blood dripped from it and sank into the carpet fibres, staining them with the remnants of Jayce’s final violent act.
Then Jayce shifted slowly away, sifting into fine black sand and floating out the open window.
Talor took a deep breath and felt the doubtless weight of the King’s mantle fall upon his young shoulders. He searched out for his brother’s presence and felt nothing.
“Long live the King of the realm. May he see his Lady once more” he whispered, before he turned and swept out of the bedroom.

Epilogue
My name is Zika Silveron. I am a member of the royal family in the realm of vampires. My mother died giving birth to me and my father killed himself when I was two years old. My uncle Talor has raised me since then, but directly after my father left us, he tried to make me think that he was my real father. I never believed it; I wasn’t that young and I knew enough to know he was lying for my own benefit. Talor has been ruling over the realm for the last thirty years, but he is still only twenty three years old. His wife, Harmony, the queen of the realm, has changed completely into a vampire now and she is the same age as he. My father, Jayce, married her the day he died, leaving her with only one choice remaining to her: so she wedded my uncle a mere week later.
I am fifteen years old now and I have never known my mother. I have not forgotten my father, but I miss him still, every day I walk this realm. When Talor married Harmony, the flowers died and the sky went grey again. My mother is not here to put it right anymore. My aunts Lacey and Kimba told me that when she married my father, the flowers bloomed for the first time in their lives. And the sky was blue, but not anymore.
Harmony offered to act as my mother, but I refuted her offer. I do not desire her warmth or desperate love; I want my own mother, and not a replacement. One day, I hope to see her again, when I finally die and leave this deathly place. I have a cousin now, though, and I love her very much. Harmony gave birth to her a few years before she became a full vampire. There were no complications with her labour, unlike my own mother’s with me, many years ago.
I have been told ever since I could understand that my mother, Elara Montford, was beautiful and she never once believed it. I have a suspicion that my uncle once loved her, too. He murdered her sister, but he didn’t drink her blood. And in this place of betrayal and loss, refraining from drinking a dead human’s blood demonstrates some kind of love and respect for the family of the dead. I know that Talor still hears Cleopatra’s voice in his head. She continued to haunt his thoughts because he never told my mother that she loved her and was sorry for the wrongs she’d done her. My uncle is simply tired now and he doesn’t care anymore. He lets her rage at him inside his mind and doesn’t try to get rid of her. He spends all of his time with his wife and their four year old daughter Chani. He barely rules the realm at all now, leaving most of it to Lacey, who rules as female Regent in his stead. She is eighteen now, the same age my mother was when she met and married my father. She was nearly nineteen when she died giving me life.
I know that it was my fault, no matter how my family tell me that it never was. They are only trying to be kind and ease the burden I carry with me wherever I go. But they cannot ease it. Because I existed, my mother died. Because I existed and she didn’t, my father killed himself, ending his own existence with a flick of his brother’s knife. I miss them both and spend hours every day wishing for their return.
My uncle tells me that it is almost time for me to find a girl and take her as my wife, but I know that he is only saying that to make it easier for me to do what he knows I have to do.
I’m leaving my home and travelling to America. I’m going to meet my mother’s brother Alexander, my second uncle. He doesn’t know I exist, but I hope for his mercy. If he tries to kill me, I shall inform him of how it is to be done and allow him to end my life, once and for all. I am just like my father; I no