Chapter 1

  Harlow

  

  I’m pulled from my misery by a loud commotion running through the house. Nicolas raises his head looking at me with questions in his eyes. I just shake my head and open the doors, at the top of the stairs I stop looking down into the large entrance vestibule, I can see the front doors wide open and beyond three blacked out Range Rovers in front of the house. 

  

  Who the hell is that? A huge mean looking vampire in a black suit and black sunglasses opens the rear door of the middle car and my breath stops in my throat. 

  

  The elegant woman stepping out is dressed in a red fitted designer trouser suit, killer black stilettos and a black lace almost see through fitted top beneath. Black sunglasses hide her eyes, deep red paints her lips and her black hair pulled back tightly in a chick smooth bun. She looks like she should be on the cover of a fashion magazine. I am in no doubt who she is. The Vampire Queen. 

  

  Recovering my senses I dash back to tell Nicholas, this is even worse than I had thought if she’s here. I’ve never seen her in the flesh before thankfully but everything I have heard about her terrifies me. She is as evil as her husband and carries no love for our houses. 

  

  “Nicholas! The Queen is here!” My voice trembles and his head snaps up. He lets go of Erik’s hand and hurries over to me, his face full of emotion. “Child you must get out of here, leave her to me but I need you to go” 

  

  I don’t want to leave even with the threat of her presence, what if he draws his last breath and I am not there for him. The look on Nicholas’s face tells me not to argue. 

  

  Silently I comply but I can not do everything he asks. This big old house has secret doors and passages in the walls. In my own room I sneak through into the passages and find my way into the walls. Stopping at Erik’s room I move aside a panel and I have a small window into what is happening. I can’t leave them to her mercy. 

  

  Confidently she breezes into the room like she owns the place followed closely on her heels by the big body guard. I guawf at that, from what I’ve heard she needs no protection. 

  

  Strangely it looks like both Nicholas’s and her face light up at the sight of each other. He seems to start reaching for her but then pulls back remembering himself. She whirls to face the body guard, her tone clipped and forceful “Leave us you are not required here” 

  

  His face is an emotionless mask “Ma’am you know I can not let you out of my sight” She seems to give a frustrated sigh then reaches out touching his arm, capturing his eyes. 

  

  “Brutus you are very concerned about the perimeter, there is no threat here you want to stay outside until I am ready to leave, you are needed there” She releases his arm and he blinks “Ma’am I am needed outside please inform me when you are ready to leave” 

  

  She smiles “Very well Brutus you may go” without another word he turns and leaves, she firmly closes the door and locks it behind him. Shit! She has compulsion, that means she is a witch. The King has broken his own law, now I know why she is so deadly. 

  

  Then I am left questioning everything I know about the world. She removes her sunglasses and a genuine smile covers her breathtaking face as she looks at Nicholas “Papa! How I have missed you” he rushes to her and embraces her tightly “My child you have no idea” and he kisses the top of her head like a father would. 

  

  I am stunned, standing like a statue, unable to comprehend what my eyes are seeing. “How is he holding up Papa?” Her voice sounds broken full of pain. He strokes her hair “It’s bad my child, you must say your goodbye’s, he won’t make it” 

  

  Her face turns hard, determined “Yes he will! I will not let him die!” Papa looks even more sad “Amelia no! You can’t do it, if you are found out he will kill you both!” 

  

  Tears begin to fall from her eyes and she grips both of his hands tightly, her mascara running down her face making her look tragically beautiful. 

  

  “I can’t not do it. Everything I have done, everything I have sacrificed has all been to protect him, to keep him safe and alive. I don’t want to exist in a world that he is not in” 

  

  My heart is in my throat, my head is spinning what can all of this mean? There is a spark of hope but also fear on Nicholas’s face. I see the moment he gives in to her in his eyes “Very well. This may well still kill you both, the amount of blood I need is usually provided by multiple vampires. We have only you to save him” 

  

  She gives him a grim smile “Take every drop if you need to” 

  

  Papa walks over to his bedside and prepares the equipment for transfusion, for the first time I realise it is strange that he even had it there when he should have had no hope. 

  

  The Queen begins to follow him but stops before the fireplace. She looks up at the painting of Erik’s love. Reaching out she touches it with a sad wistful look on her face. 

  

  Kicking off her heels and jacket, she pulls out her hair and I can’t help the gasp that escapes me. She turns in my direction and I see those incredible amber eyes, the same eyes as the painting that have always felt like they followed you around the room. So intensely beautiful. 

  

  She is distracted by Papa calling for her, allowing me to breathe again. How could this be possible, she is dead, killed by the King the night before she was due to marry Erik breaking his heart forever.

  

  I watch as she lays down beside Erik, kissing his cheek reverently and then entwines her hand in his. Papa begins and it seems like an eternity that they are both deathly still. Nicholas lovingly strokes her face whispering “My sweet girl how I have missed you”

  

  Eventually Papa decides enough, he removes the tube that had been draining Erik’s own blood from him and the tube that had been filtering her blood into him. Erik looks peaceful now. Nicholas hooks up a human blood bag to the Queen replenishing what she has lost. My broken heart beginning to stitch back together that he might by some miracle survive this. 

  

  After what feels like another age and multiple blood bags her eyes open “How is he?” She urges and papa strokes her face “He will live thanks to you but recovery will be long”  Glancing at him she looks concerned “And how is he out with this? Is he happy?” 

  

  A sad smile greets her “He exists and he helps others but his heart is still broken” She cries soft tears stroking his face. 

  

  “I want him to be happy, if I can’t be with him I want him to be loved, to be cared for, please let me help him” 

  

  Papa shakes his head furiously “Lia please no, you can’t close his heart to you, what if ..” he trails off despondent. 

  

  She gives a bitter laugh “It’s been over a thousand years, I might never find a way back to him, I don’t want him to endure this pain when he doesn’t have to. Let at least one of us be happy” 

  

  There’s a reluctance in him but eventually he concedes with a single nod. She kisses his lips and whispers “Open your heart, open your eyes, heal what is broken and find a new love” 

  

  She turns to Papa “I must go now before he wakes and I am discovered” 

  

  My own heart breaks for her, the sacrifice for the man she loves, I am in awe of her strength and power.