The Relic (Cradle of Darkness #2) - Addison Cain Page 0,43

dark thoughts of comparison between herself and my true bride. Apphia seethed, demanding her due for servicing me for so long to be thrown over for a skinny daywalker with a mind she could easily see was Swiss cheese.

That’s how she thought of it! How dare she!

She even dared ask me if I had fallen into madness.

As I stood in the midst of the strongest I had created, as the most powerful of my kind fluttered and gathered like bees about their queen. As my dear bride laid her eyes upon her child for the first time and worked through the complications that arose from such a monumental occasion, I tore the jealous harlot’s mind to ribbons.

But with subtlety. After all, this was a wedding, and it would be inappropriate to make a scene.

First, I took away her name, so that she would never recall it. A small thing that would lead to very amusing situations later. A thing she wouldn’t notice, not while she was still arguing with me over the sacrifices she made for me. Not when she dared claim that she loved me in a way my Pearl could not.

Nothing, ever, would love me as my soul already did. Pearl wasn’t aware of her connection yet, how woven together we’d already become. My son was right in claiming that any who saw my true face and willingly took me into their body in that state and survived the onslaught had to be my equal.

There was a reason I called her my soul. But Pearl was so much more.

If I was a demon, she was an angel.

Maybe in ten thousand years she’d have white, feathered wings and glow with the sunlight running through her veins. Instead of the imps she had imagined, our babies could be fat cherubs.

Wouldn’t that be cute?

The creature in my arms spoke, her attention fixed on the couple preparing to link their immortality together. “Vlad, you’re growling.”

Fine. I was.

Wait? Had she just called me Vlad?

SHE HAD!

I was now Vlad!

A pet name. A term of endearment.

How my heart soared!

Fuck Apphia. Not literally. Eww. Never again.

So what if I had seen that girl’s beauty while I awaited the return of my soul? Yes, I had taken the maiden from her family. Sure, we had eaten her parents once she’d woken to the night and made sport of her siblings until any remnant of her human line had ended so her vampire line might begin.

But Apphia had never borne me a child—all the seed sprayed meant for another and dumped because time was monotonous and pricks liked to leak into slits.

I owed her nothing. Not after the palaces, the notoriety, the power, and the distinction she held with our race. Foolish woman.

Who would I make the new queen of the European nations? Maya?

No.

Maya would laugh at the very idea. She was already a queen and needed no nations to prove that point.

Vacuums in power were extremely annoying. “You have no idea how hard it is to get anyone to do their job these days, my love. Really. Can I have another kiss? Please?”

Ah! I had made Pearl laugh. She found my angst amusing, did she? Well, that I could lay on thick. “One kiss, sweet soul. I promise to keep my hands out of your bodice. And yes, I know you are blushing and still embarrassed. But those tits. Come now, darling. They are perfect, and I am incapable of resisting.”

She giggled even more. Giggled! Oh, I was so getting laid later. “If I kiss you again, will you please be quiet?”

“Yes.” No.

Another quick slant of her lips upon mine, her neck craning to meet me.

I felt the erections rise from those males who found pleasure in females, all of whom I had called to look. Showing off my bride...

...was gauche.

But really. If they were not allowed to touch, they should at least suffer knowing why. Pearl was stunning. Her pulse beat at her throat as if she were human.

She exuded the scent of all things delectable, I could gobble her up.

I would have had she been born nearer to my turning.

Oh.

Well then.

Now I knew why she had taken so long to be reborn. I lacked any sort of self-control when it came to such a being. I would have killed her on accident and wept over her bones until the earth rotted.

And it would have rotted. That was how it worked.

All in me reflected, as it should. This was my kingdom.

And her new name? Pearl.

How had