Seduction of a Princess

Chapter Forty

          “Day was long, hear this song.

          “To bed you now retire, it’s sleep you desire.

          “See fields of fire, jump and fly to clouds and higher.

          “Listen to music, to this lyre—and your dreams, let it inspire.

          “Tomorrow, the day will be anew.

          “But tonight, you sleep. I’ll watch over you.”

          Slowly, careful not to disturb her, Terrance stepped bend over to the little girl that was tugged in her bed. Maya had her eyes closed and she was almost sleeping—even her tail had stopped wagging. Ever so softly, he kissed her goodnight, still humming the song as she drifted off to sleep.

          He looked over his shoulder, at June, who was standing at the other side of the room, watching them. He smiled.

          “Are you okay?” he asked, whispering.

          She nodded. “I think so. I’m… I’m impressed at how you handle her.” It was amazing with how much ease Terrance had been able to get an energetic girl to lie down in bed and go to sleep, even if it wasn’t her bed. Maya hadn’t been tired either, but she had obeyed Terrance almost immediately when he politely asked her to go to sleep. All she had demanded in return was a song.

          He shrugged. “It’s nothing. I have been taking care of her for years, so I am used to it. And Maya is… she actually is a very nice little girl.”

          “I noticed,” she said. “She’s… really something.”

          “She’s unique; there is absolutely no one like her. Much like you…” Terrance showed a slight smile that seemed to linger for a moment before disappearing again. He gazed at Maya in her bed for a moment, and glanced around the room. It wasn’t a very large room, but it didn’t need to be. With four beds stashed in the corners, there were three to many for the girl that slept here, all by herself. There were enough rooms in the guards tower to house the three of them separately; apparently, the vampires that made up the Court slept somewhere else.

          Terrance opened his mouth to say something, but as June met his eye, he hesitated. He pecked her cheek in a playful goodnight kiss and exited the room. She followed him, with a smile on her face.

          “I wanted to ask you a few things,” she told him, now in her normal voice instead of the whisper. Now that they were away from the sleeping girl, she did not need to be careful not to disturb her with the volume of her voice. Neither did she have to watch what she said to him—she had put off the questions she had because she was worried Maya might hear something she wasn’t supposed to. She was just a child, after all.

          “What do you want to ask? About… about what Joanne said, isn’t it?”

          “Yes.”

          “You do know she said those things to spite me, right?”

          “That doesn’t mean she was lying,” she said.

          “And you think I am?” He stared at her with played shock in his eyes.

          She sighed; she didn’t want to joke around. “I want to know what’s what,” she said. “Every time when I am around you, so many things are happening all at once, I get lost and I don’t understand what you’re talking about half the time. I want some answers—I think I am entitled to them. And please, please don’t lie this time.”