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At this moment, I wasn’t the sole Van Helsing heir. I wasn’t expected to take over the head of house position to govern all slayers. I wasn’t expected to find a suitable slayer to marry to continue our family legacy.
I would, at the very least, be able to stay in my home and remain Alina Van Helsing. Nothing could take that from me. It was who I would remain until the day death came to hold me in its gnarled, cold grasp.
“Never dim your shine for someone who thinks they’re going to be burned by your greatness. The right person for you will put on sunglasses and bask in your glow.”
As slayers, our soul weapons were the only magic we were able to tap into. The weapons weren’t something we chose—they chose us. We received them in a coming-of-age ceremony where we spilled our blood and recited the ancient slayer code, swearing our fealty to the cause. The magic didn’t find everyone worthy of wielding a soul weapon, though those not chosen remained slayers nonetheless.
“You forgot our most basic rules as slayers. You let your emotions overwhelm you with your mother’s death, Alina. You left yourself unprotected in the middle of an attack, and now Skye is dead because of you. Her death has stained your soul, and that is something you must suffer through. I won’t put you out of your misery–you don’t deserve that kindness.”
“No other Houses were targeted. Van Helsing was the only one.”
“I will get revenge for the deaths here today.”
“Roses are red, violets are blue, here comes Alina, and she’s going to kill you,”
“My name is Estrid. I’m the headmistress at Dark Imaginarium Academy.”
“I’m a goddess from Divinus, and I have the rare power to pierce the veils between all of our planes of existence. Along with that gift, I was blessed by the three goddesses of fate—Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld—before taking my position as Headmistress of this academy.”
Never again will I drink from the vein of another being. Not after what I did to Skye.
“I failed my family and friends. I’ll likely fail you too. I spent my life devoted to ensuring vampires stayed within the parameters of the law, killing any offenders. What am I supposed to do now that I’m the monster, the offender who needs to be kept away from society?”
“Your eyes tell me many things about you, but none of them deserve you being called a monster. I see immense grief and self-hatred above all else. Let me assure you, of all the true monsters I’ve met, not one grieves or hates themselves for what they’ve done.”
Slayers deserved to pay. Afterall, they were the ones who slaughtered my parents with abandon, not caring that they’d brought me to the human plane of Ordinarius at a young age to offer me a better future.
What I wouldn’t give to wrap my hand around her throat, making her beg for air to be able to sass me back. Maybe that’s what she needed, someone to take away the opportunity to talk back. I could do that for her. Desire burned in my veins as I thought about backing her against the wall, making her gasp for air as my fingers tightened around her throat. The thought of then shoving her to her knees and filling her throat with my cock was intoxicating. I knew her eyes would flash with hatred as I did it, and I loved the thought of it. I wanted that hatred because it would help keep my disgust for
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He hated me one minute, cared about my well-being in another, and then eyed me like a piece of meat to devour whole at the end. His ever-evolving moods were giving me whiplash.
“You think you can just show up and call the shots, fledgling?”
“I know I don’t call the shots around here, but I do know that you have a job to do, and I can either make that really fucking hard for you, or we can find a way to make this easier. The choice is up to you, Professor.”
“And what makes you think I’d ever choose the easy way, Spitfire? Why bother when the hard way is so much more fun?”
But then he set me on my feet just outside of the doors and gripped my chin tightly. “Be a good girl, okay?” All the reasons I couldn’t cross that line with him went out the window with those five words. Fuck, why did being called a good girl do it for me?
It was always the guys with daddy issues that needed the biggest slap of reality. I’d enjoy providing that for him.
“What do you want me to say, Alina? Do you want me to say that I want to rip the eyes out of anyone else who might’ve walked in and seen you this morning?”
“Or did you want me to tell you that I went back to my room to stroke my cock to the image of your naked body after dropping you off?”
“If that’s what you wanted me to say to you, you’re in for a world of heartbreak, Princess,”
I’d soaked up the history provided about their territory and how their Queen, Ama, and her eight Kings—yes, eight, the woman had an entire freaking harem—had united two segregated kingdoms, bringing peace to the land.
I was surprised that I found the thought of having eight men enticing, though not something I’d ever really considered before.
I’m a pain in the ass, stubborn as hell, and will challenge anyone, but I’ll also love the shit out of you in the same breath because I always care way more than I show.
I could be Alina Van Helsing, a slayer of the most renowned family of vampire hunters in all of Sanguis, a woman who’d been forged through the fires of hell. And I could also be Alina Van Helsing, the new vampire who was about to make my revenge a problem for anyone who got in my fucking way.
Would it be too crass to tell him to penetrate my pussy and not my heart?
Instead of feeling bad about what I’d done to Maya, though, I relished it. Let them hate me. We were enemies, whether I had fangs or not.
“I was going to ask if you were planning to be a good girl tonight, or if you were going to make my life a living hell. I guess I have a clear answer to that question.”
“You think I want to feel drawn to you, Princess? I fucking hate your kind,” he hissed out, and my eyes narrowed at his tone.
“Yes, I want you the fuck out of the academy,” he admitted,
“I want to get you away from me because you’re in my head every waking and sleeping moment of my fucking day. I want you out of the academy so Andrei can’t run his eyes over your body, imagining everything he wants to do to you.”
“I want you out of the academy so that you won’t get hurt.”
“I knew you’d choose the outfit that made you feel like a slayer, Alina. I knew you’d refuse to hide who you were to conform to what you needed to be to survive here. It’s why I want to pin you on your back and sink my cock into you, Princess. You’re wild and untamed. You are unashamedly you. You would never be able to hide who you are, and it was best for it to come out on our terms.”
I also knew a woman as powerful as her didn’t need anyone at her side, and that fucking scared me. Because while I pictured her at my side, reigning over the world as my queen, I knew she was capable of being one without a king.
“Someone let this bitch know I’m tired of kicking her ass. I’m actually starting to feel bad about it.”
It seemed I was the queen of being drawn to men who were just as fucked up as I was inside.
“I don’t know the ending to our story yet. All I know is that for this chapter, I want you on your fucking knees, Princess.”
“I don’t get on my knees for just any man. So you’ll have to make me, Sir.”
After all, a girl had to keep it classy, not trashy, but just a little bit nasty.
“Yes, I’m sure. I need blood before class starts, unless we want a repeat of me losing myself as I pummeled Maya into the ground.” “To be fair,” Andrei said, “with your track record, there’s a pretty good chance you might still do that, even with a full stomach.”
“Why are you distraught over this revelation, Alina? It’s a wondrous moment that so few ever get to experience. In all my centuries of life, I’ve searched relentlessly for the Queen for my board, and I’ve finally found you.”
“Because I’m Alina Van Helsing, and I swore vengeance for the slaughter of my family.” My chest burned with the words, throat aching with the sobs tearing from it. I heaved shaky, deep breaths, hands shaking as I asked, desperation fueling the frenzied question, “Why can’t I kill you?” “Fated mates can never kill each other, Alina,” he breathed out. And with those words, my soul died.
