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I should have listened to Mother about hags.
The next evening, the village’s peasants came looking to burn my castle—all right, looking to burn everything in it. Stone is very difficult to ignite. I explained the situation to them, holding nothing back. Yes, I did enjoy my virgins, but I would never take the children. The peasants took me at my word, as I had never lied to them in the past, and they turned on the witch. When Olga saw that her plan to ruin me had failed, she stormed my castle and laid a curse:
“Prince Bozhidar, I curse you to sleep until a woman is born who will teach you humility and kindness, whose beauty is so majestic, it will bring you to your knees. She will break your heart, and you will feel the misery, same as I.”
“That is a bit harsh, do you not think?” I said. “We only fucked a few times, and it was quite underwhelming.”
I believe that was the part that pissed her off the most. Apparently, she enjoyed the sex. The underwhelming perception came from me and me alone. Oops. The point to all this is that Olga knocked me out, and I awoke five hundred years later to the day.
“So what does any of that mean?” Neli asks after I relay the exact wording of the curse. “Why do you think I’m wrong about Stella?”
I lift my chin with confidence. “It is far more likely that Olga’s magic simply expired rather than Stella being the woman who was born to wreck me.”
“Go on.” Neli swirls her index finger through the air. “I’m listening.”
“Stella grew up in that house right across the road from us. Why did I only just wake a few days ago?” I realize through conversations with Neli that Stella had been away studying for several years, but I am certain there were many occasions where she was here with her family and I was slumbering in my basement.
“Easy. Because she wasn’t a woman then. And clearly she hadn’t yet become the gal meant to break you. Now she is. Have you forgotten all about how witches and curses work? They’re very cryptic, yet incredibly precise in their meanings.” Neli shrugs.
Could Neli be right? Could Stella be the woman who was born to best me, subdue me, break me? “Then…if she is the one who lifted the curse, what should I do? She means to destroy me.”
“No, Boz. She doesn’t. The witch just said the woman would break your heart. She would teach you humility and kindness.”
“Exactly. Are those not the ingredients to an epic vampire destruction?”
“Look. All I know is that since you’ve met her, you’ve embraced change, albeit in baby steps, and not nearly enough to change my mind about wanting death, but you have attempted to adapt. Overnight, you’ve decided to put the well-being of another person—Stella—above your own. All of this means you are learning humility and kindness, just as the curse prescribed. Change is upon you.”
“It is true, I do enjoy my new tan as well as the new cologne in a big blue spray can in the bathroom.”
Neli gives me a look. “You’ve been wearing Glade?”
I nod.
“I thought it smelled familiar.”
“The scent is very woodsy and fresh.” I wave my hand through the air to disperse more of the scent clinging to my skin.
She nods. “Yes. Yes it is.”
“But my acceptance of a few minor gadgets, such as the Summoner and a new cologne, does not signify I should take Stella to France. I do not trust myself not to lose control and kill her.”
“Then…” Neli groans, “you should turn her.”
I blink rapidly. “Why would I do that?”
“If she is who I think, then you’re right. You won’t be able to resist her. And, eventually, you’ll make her a vampire anyway. You’ll have to if you want to spend eternity with her.”
I groan with dread. Turning Stella is not as simple as shoving ice down one’s trousers. There is a dance to be had. There is a process of introduction to our world. Well, unless your parents gift you to a vampire, in which case, it is pretty much a go-with-the-flow sort of thing. Nevertheless, I cannot wrap my ancient mind around one simple fact: I do not wish to harm my beautiful human. I wish to protect her. Even if that means shielding her from myself.
“No. I will not do it,” I say firmly. “You will need to tell her that France cannot happen and—”
A blaring noise sounds, and I cup my hands over my ears.
“Fuck.” Neli’s green eyes go wide. “I think they’re here.”
“They? They who?”
“Those pesky asshole vampire hunters,” she replies.
“What do you speak of, girl?” I say loudly over the noise.
“Remember that lame cult of vampire hunters? They’re still around.”
“The Van Helsings? But how did they find me so soon?” I frown.
