Chapter Thirty-Three

A few days later, I sat on my grandmother’s couch, my head in my hands, fully recovered. Vaughn’s blood had done the trick. He sat next to me, his arm around me. I winced at the sight of his bandaged wrist. Rose and Thorn sat opposite us.

Yesmyqueenyesmyqueenyesmyqueen. The sound was like the buzzing of a mosquito, but the twins wouldn’t stop saying it.

I didn’t look up until Vaughn gave me a gentle nudge. Rose stood in front of me.

“McQueen,” she said, bowing low. I gave Vaughn a puzzled look. What was Rose trying to say?

He snorted. “She’s saying my queen.”

“Why is she saying that?” I asked him. He shrugged. I turned to Rose. “Why are you saying that?”

“My queen?” she asked, bowing low. “Jure Grando is dead.”

I just stared at her. “I know, but why are you calling me that?”

Her mouth opened a little, and she glanced at her twin, who stepped forward. “Your Highness,” she said. “You are now the queen.”

It was like that time in advanced calculus when all the numbers suddenly looked like little squiggles. I didn’t understand what she was getting at.

“Queen of what?”

“Queen of the vampires, of course,” she replied. “Tansy Mariotti killed the King of the Vampires, Jure Grando. She is the new king. Or queen, whichever title you prefer.”

“I don’t want to be queen of the vampires. Or a vampire at all.”

How could I figure out how to rule a vampire kingdom and protect my subjects? No, thank you.

“The strongest wins the crown,” Rose said. “It is done.”

“Well, undo it,” I said, but it was too late, and I knew it. I had to face the consequences.

“Queen Tansy,” Thorn said. “We can help you.”

I sighed. Vampire queen.

What would the rules of my reign be? I was queen of a kingdom I didn’t want. One full of monsters.

“Okay, so I’m queen of the vampires. Exactly how many ‘subjects’ are we talking about here?” I asked. “It’s not like I can post something on social media telling all the vampires in California to check in with me.”

“Jure must not have been Travis’s maker,” Thorn said. “Our reports indicate Travis and the rest of the band are still vampires. The good news is that you have two less vampires in your kingdom.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Jure Grando was their maker and they hadn’t killed anyone in vampire form,” she said. “Therefore, they reverted to human.”

“That’s great news,” I said.

“One of them was over three hundred years old,” she added. “And immediately turned to dust.”

“That’s not so great,” I said. “But still better than being a vampire.”

Because of Travis’s inability to keep his fangs in his mouth, I was a vampire witch. A striga vie, caught between two worlds.

Witches were human. Vampires were not. Then what was I? I still looked human, but so did vampires—at least humanish, until the bloodlust hit.

I comforted myself that I wasn’t a true vampire, since I hadn’t gone through the transformation, but I still had the pointy fangs and blood cravings.

The Old Crones Book Club called out suggestions of ways to contact my new subjects. I hadn’t had a mother or a father, but I had a surplus of love from these women. They would help me figure out how to stop the vampires in my realm from preying on unwilling humans.

Granny Mariotti’s tiny bungalow was overflowing with humans and witches and vampires alike. They were all talking at once, and it was giving me a headache.

“I don’t know how to be a queen,” I wailed to Skyler. Rose remained impassive, but I caught Thorn snickering. She saw me staring and gave me a blindingly bright smile.

“Make it up as you go along,” Skyler said. “You can’t be any worse at it than Jure was.”

I made a face at her. “That’s comforting. There’s still his son to worry about.”

“Travis won’t give you any more trouble,” she said.

“That’s an interesting theory,” I said. “Maybe I need to find him to test it out.”

I peeked over at her to see if she was disturbed by my suggestion.

“That’s not the only thing you’d be testing,” she said. “Tansy, I’m over him. I’m over that compulsion to be with him no matter what.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Nothing seemed to shake it before.”

“Your magic worked,” she said. “The other girls are getting better, too.”

Her eyes were clear and bright—no sign of compulsion. I was so relieved she was back home, I didn’t even argue with her about what the future might bring. The teeth marks all over her body were fading, but I knew there were other scars we couldn’t see. And I hadn’t helped her to heal them. Not when it mattered.

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking her in the eye. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that. I was hurting over Opal Ann. And so scared about Granny.”

“We all were,” Skyler said back. “I understand.”

We still had a long way to go toward healing, and I wasn’t sure if our friendship would ever go back to the way it was before. But something told me Skyler and I would be all right.

Her dad was still out of the country, but Gertie came by to visit her. First, Gertie and Granny had a hushed conversation in the garden, and then Gertie and Skyler talked in private in Granny’s office.

When they came out, I could tell they’d both been crying, but Skyler looked less unhappy somehow.

It was dark now, and I needed a break from all the drama, so I took out the trash. I was dragging the bins to the curb when I spotted her, watching me from across the street.

She was the last person I expected to see. I walked over to her. “Vanessa.”

My mother had the nerve to show her face? She was either trying to goad me into fighting her or she had a death wish.

“You tried to kill my grandmother,” I said.

“If I wanted to kill her, she’d be dead,” she replied.

I absorbed that information. Because it was possible she’d spared my grandmother, I wouldn’t kill her right now. Unless she made it impossible not to.

“Aren’t you going to bow to your queen?” I asked.

“You are not fit to be queen. A queen does not take out her own trash,” she said.

“This queen does,” I said. “This queen also doesn’t treat her subjects like her personal blood bank.”

“Do you even know what it takes to be queen?” she asked. “Have you even chosen your Executioner?”

“I won’t need one,” I said.

“Every ruler in the PAC has one,” she said.

“Not me. I’ll be a different kind of queen.”

She sucked in a breath. “You think you have what it takes to be queen?”

I studied her a moment and then bared my golden fangs. “I know I do.”

“We’ll see,” she said. I thought she would challenge me, but instead, she walked away into the darkness.

It wasn’t a surprise to see my mother walk away from me. It was what she did. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

And the hurts kept coming.

When I looked over at the house, Vaughn was standing on the front porch, watching me with a frown on his face.

I joined him. “Everything okay?” I asked. I’d taken a lot of his blood, and he still looked pale. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his summer tan had faded.

Still, he was beautiful.

“You let her go?” That’s why he was all frowny-face?

“She’s my mother,” I said. Then I changed the subject. “I have a lot to do before school starts. Rose and Thorn said they can stay a little while longer to help with the transition. And maybe we’ll have time to go out on a real date.”

He looked at his feet. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”

I sucked in a breath. “Are you going to break up with me?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Jesus, no. Tansy, you’re my favorite person. I…I really care about you. It’s something else. Thorn thinks that with some training, I can be useful to the PAC,” he said.

“You want to help the PAC?”

“I want to help you,” he replied. “And now you’re part of the PAC.”

“What would you be doing?” I asked.

“I’d meet up with some vampire hunters in Texas,” he replied. “Correction. We’d meet up with some of the observation team in Texas. She asked me to train with them.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked.

“I am. Jure almost killed you, Tansy,” he said.

“I’m aware,” I said. “But this isn’t about me.”

“It’s always about you,” he said. “I want to protect you.”

“And you think joining the PAC will help me?”

“I do,” he said.

I wasn’t sure about that. I didn’t know anyone else in the PAC. I liked Rose and Thorn, but they weren’t in charge. What would happen if Vaughn had to choose between me and some random group of vampires-in-charge?

“You’re going to be gone the rest of the summer,” I said, my voice coming out whinier than I meant it to.

“It’s only a month,” he replied.

“That’s not an answer. Are we breaking up?”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he said, and I relaxed.

“I could use a little extra muscle,” I told him. “Bobbie Jean just basically threatened my life before she took off.”

“She’s still mourning Opal Ann,” he said.

“I don’t trust her,” I said.

“She’ll calm down,” he assured me. “Just give her some time. But if she doesn’t…”

I wrapped my arm around his biceps. “I know I can count on you.”

“You can,” he said. “Count on me, I mean.” He shot me a warm smile. “Thorn said I’m a natural,” he added.

A natural aptitude for killing vampires? That could be convenient…or very, very inconvenient.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked away. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’ll miss you,” he finally said.

“I’ll miss you, too,” I said. I cleared my throat. “What if I go full-on vamp while you’re gone?”

“You won’t,” he said.

“But what if I do?”

He kissed me gently, just a peck. “We’ll figure it out.”

“It makes me so angry,” I said. “I didn’t choose this. My life has been turned upside down. If I could just press rewind and change the past, I would. I would have never gone to that party, never met Travis. But I can’t, and now I’m stuck with my decision for the rest of my undead life.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“What if I become like them? What if I become a monster?” I knew the truth. Even if Vaughn didn’t think I was a monster, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to become one.

“Not you, Tansy,” he said. “You’re not—”

“Not a vampire? But I am. At least part of me is.”

He moved closer and brushed a stray strand of hair away from my face. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I wanted to tell him not to go, that I’d miss him too much, but I couldn’t. Vaughn had made up his mind.

“I’ll call you every night,” I promised.

“Your skin is so soft,” he said. He touched my cheek. “I’ve wanted you for so long. I don’t want anything to come between us, Tansy.” He kissed me again, more thoroughly this time.

When we drew apart, he took my hand. I looked into his eyes and smiled ruefully. “A vampire queen and a vampire hunter are dating. What could possibly go wrong?”

He smiled back. “We’ll make it work.”

“Tansy,” came Skyler’s voice. “We have a problem.”

Of course we did.

I sighed and dropped Vaughn’s hand, then walked away, tossing over my shoulder, “Duty calls.”

Did you love this Entangled Teen book?

Check out more of our titles here!

Don’t miss another book by Marlene Perez.

Sign up for the Entangled Teen newsletter here!