An Unacceptable Mate

Chapter Twenty Eight

I looked at me; it; that. The long red robe felt so foreign on my shoulders. The golden crown on my head had surely been misplaced. Those harsh amber eyes couldn't possibly belong to me.

    "The ceremony is about to begin, Prince Acera," my butler informed me in his rich accent.

I took no longer to study the strangeness of my appearance and spun on my heel.

Sometime later, I found myself sitting in a burnished throne with my people in a crowd in front of me, cheering and smiling and applauding like I was some sort of god. I inhaled deeply through my nose, gaze cold as it scanned each of their faces.

I hated them all and hated who I was now. But I'd become this lord of vampires as I had nothing else to turn to. I couldn't become a rogue or continue existing in misery while Inerra had her. No doubt she was head over heels for him now. Did she even remember me? Had anything been real with her? I'd fallen in love with her so fast; too fast. I'd been foolish to even think that she...

I keeled over, clutching my chest. What happened? Had I been hit? Had someone thrown a stake at me? My fingers fumbled over where my heart was to find nothing unusual and yet there was this intense pressure and pain that was all too overpowering. I gritted my teeth together, rolling off of the throne. Someone grabbed me, shouting my name. My father's red hair flashed in my mind as my eyes rolled backwards.

    "I'm sorry," she said over and over. "I love you."

I tried to look around but it was a pit of darkness. I had to rely on my incredible sense of hearing.

  "We love you Charlie," someone else chimed. Her mother?

    "I'm sorry. I love you."

  "We love you Charlie."

    "I'm sorry. I love you."

  "He never loved you, Charlie, get over it."

Inerra was here?

    "I'm sorry. I love you."

  "We love you Charlie."

  "He never loved you, Charlie, get over it."

    "I'm sorry. I love you."

  "I hate her. I want her dead. I thought she was the key to happiness. I was wrong."

My own voice startled me. I'd said that. Had Charlie been present...oh no.

    "I don't understand...I thought he loved me...I thought..."

  "We love you Charlie."

    "He never loved you, Charlie, get over it."

  "I'm sorry. I love you."

    "I hate her. I want her dead. I thought she was the key to happiness. I was wrong."

  "I'm sorry. I love you."

    "He never loved you, Charlie, get over it."

        "I love you, Charlie," I whispered, stumbling around, reaching out to try and touch something; someone; her. I missed her warmth and her lips and her steely stare and the rosiness of her cheeks and the sheer beauty that is Charlie Rose. I missed her bright eyes and her stubborn nature and her racing heartbeat. Her scent that clung to me even when she was out of the room. My imagination was pathetic when trying to picture her next to me.

    "Am I dead?"

My body stiffened and I was responding before I could stop myself. "No. I would never let that happen," I breathed, mainly to assure myself of this.

All of a sudden, there was a warm hand cupping the side of my face. My heart lurched as a pair of soft lips touched mine. "I love you, Acera. Whether you really want me dead or not."

I made sure to play and replay that moment fifty times, committing it to memory so I could remember it for the rest of my terrible existence, real or folly.

    "Acera," someone said loud and clear.

My eyes flew open to find a pair of sparkling blue ones. "Inerra," I began, rage attacking all at once.

    "Do not try and fight me. Not here, at least. I'm coming to the palace tonight. With Charlie. Meet us in your room at seven o'clock."

        "What?" I growled. "Do you take me as a fool, you b..."

    "I have never lied to you, Acera. Trust me. Just this once. Meet us at seven."

My throat ran dry. Was he serious? "Wait," I blurted. I couldn't help myself. "Does Charlie know I...I will be there?"

    "Yes. She reacted in the same way you have. But I confess myself optimistic about tonight's events," my older, deceiving brother told me matter-of-factly.

I felt the complete opposite.

The polar opposite.

So pessimistic.

I was going to see her again and she had every right to hate me for who I'd become. I was the King of Darkness. Ruler of all vampires.

Her one true enemy.

Enemies did not share love. It was fact.

My eyes closed and I prayed with every ounce of hope I still clung onto that she would give me a chance to convince her we were still possible; convince her that I'd not stopped loving her once.