Mated Enemies

By Jordan Silver

He's my enemy, it has been this way since the bond of the ancients, and yet, ever since the first moment I saw him, I've wanted him in the most primal way. One look at him and my womb contracted as my body secreted its juices as if preparing to mate.

Thousands of years ago a vampire-fairy mating went very wrong, ending in the death of one and the permanent insanity of another, causing a rift between the two clans that has lasted until this day.

Now crown prince Lucien Star of the sky kingdom, home of the ruling clan of vampires who also rule over the rest of the immortal world finds himself imprinted on a fairy living in the human world. He has only seven days to bring her to heel or his life could go up in flames, literally.

 But when he spies on her as she takes her early morning swim in the little lake beside her woodland home, he senses that there's more to his future bride than at first glance. Something that can make an already dangerous situation worst: much-much worst.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jordan Silver
• Release date: Apr 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201911492

Jordan Silver

Just a girl who loves to write

Book preview

Prologue

The small town of Badger’s Creek slept well beneath the dark cover of night. Outside the blue velvet night sky was blanketed with stars, the air cool and crisp, waiting to meet the morning’s steamy balm.

From above, the town was the picture of perfection; with it’s red steeple roofs and brightly painted red barns, dark shingled white dwellings in the middle of green-green fields.

Horses dotted the landscape, corralled for miles behind long stretches of ranch fencing, as geese and swans floated gently down the streams and lakes that bordered the sleepy valley. While white coated sheep grazed at will in the lower hollows, bleating out their content.

It’s a dreamer’s vision of a sleepy idyllic, New England village of days gone by. Quaint and picturesque, Badger’s Creek is one of those places, which time forgot, and it forgot sometime in the last two and a half centuries.

The streets are lined with little cottage like homes with large four hundred-year old oaks and mulberry trees along the sidewalks, some majestically gracing front lawns and the backyards of a few.

On the vast acreage owned by the Valducci family, a large plot of land that butted right up against the forest line, the wild animals were on high alert. Deer lowered their heads and pricked their ears in stillness.

Horses neighed themselves awake and owls stopped their hooting as they soared through the night to get closer, while the wolf and fox clans sniffed the air with pleasure.

Little wood animals flitted through the underbrush and even the birds that had already bedded down for the night came awake in their nests with joy. Tweeting their hellos, their eyes searching the dark for the magic that had awakened them.

Natalia had just stepped out of her home and with her head lifted to the sky, sniffed the fresh night air. Her eyes looked far ahead, deep into the night, even before she took her first step on her way to the water’s edge.

She was restless again tonight, and not wanting to disturb the peace and rest of the others, who now slumbered, chose to go for a swim to relax and calm her.

She started off on a slow run as soon as her bare feet touched the cool evening stone, the slight breeze blowing her long dark tresses around her shoulders and down her back as she moved.

The animals started up a symphony as soon as her scent hit the air and followed along with her, some on the ground, some just above the tops of the trees.

Natalia felt some of the stress leave her shoulders as her little friends kept pace alongside her until she reached the water, where they stopped to watch while she carried on.

She stripped bare and stepped into the water with joy, always at her freest at times like this. She lifted her arms and eyes to the sky, and felt herself become one with her surroundings as she embraced the powers of the elements.

By the time she dove into the calm water she was no longer thinking about her worries and fears, no longer caring about the world and its vagaries. For this brief moment in time her only focus was on being one with nature, harnessing her strength to face another day.

Lucien

H ow can you bear to live here? Everything is so…basic. My mother turned up her patrician nose at my ten million dollar home with the Louis the thirteenth décor of which I’m so terribly fond.

Yes mother, the dishes are only thousand year old Wexford, nothing at all like the gold chargers and cutlery we have back at the family home that dates back to the days of the Babylonian empire.

And the food, it has no substance to it, how do you survive? Prime rib made just right, and new potatoes crisped in the oven with braised asparagus in Hollandaise sauce, along with accompanying dishes of roasted vegetables are indeed beneath the regal palate of my mother the princess.

You’ve just listed all the reasons why I live here. Because I know none of the elders can stand to be here for more than two days if that. Which means there’re no eyes watching my every move, calculating my every turn. It’s called freedom.

I can always program myself to like it.

Yes, but dad won’t go for it and you can’t be away from him for more than two hours so I guess I win this round. She smiled encouragingly at me, the same smile I’ve seen all my life; but there was something, something around the eyes.

Tell me mother, to what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit? I watched her closely, knowing that she was better at hiding her inner thoughts than even I, and I’m a master at it.

She shrugged her elegant shoulders as she paced around the room, picking up knickknacks and putting them back in place. Now I was really worried; my mother never paces and she’s never this nervous. Nervous enough that she’d let her guard down.

Can’t a mother come visit her son? Okay, what is it, and who squealed? I ran through the list of my latest transgressions in my head, making sure to shield my thoughts from her.

It couldn’t be the preacher’s wife; no, she wouldn’t bother about that. Or the idiot broker who’d tried to swindle me, but who got swindled himself in the end. She’d see that as justice.

Nope, I can’t think of anything I’d done that would send her hurtling through space and time to visit me without a forewarning. And without my father no less! Those two are hardly ever seen one without the other.

Mom, you’re scaring me. Not quite accurate but close.

You silly boy. She came over and kissed my head. The way she did when I was a boy. What the eternal fuck is going on here? Nothing’s the matter. I just missed you that’s all.

Now that…might be true. She does have a tendency to go off on one of her fancies without warning, but as much as I love her, I could only wish that she’d drop in on my siblings the way she does me and leave me out of it.

I looked up when she remained standing next to me, with that motherly look on her face. Oh boy! Ma…

Luke darling, stop fussing, I just dropped by here on my way to your brother’s okay.

I studied her as she evaded my eyes; I’m not one to call my mother a liar, but…

Fine, keep your secrets. I lifted the glass of five hundred year old Madeira to my lips and took a sip, looking at my meal with distaste. It’ll be cold now, fat lot she cares.

Mom is a darling, but dad spoils her abominably and so she expects her children, especially her sons, to do the same. She gave me another look before kissing my cheek and with a ta-ta, was gone as quickly and silently as she came.

I guess I’ll find out what that was really all about when her husband calls, or after a few days have gone by, whichever comes first. Dennis!

Coming sir, I know, I know.

My butler slash valet came into the room bearing a tray with a new meal; he knows me so well. Has milady gone so soon? I rolled my eyes as he placed a fresh plate down in front of me and refilled my glass.

Yes, she never did say what she came for. You wouldn’t happen to know would you?

Sir! His already cultured tone was even more pretentious and if his nose went any higher it’d kiss the clouds.

Sorry, I forgot myself for a minute. Dennis, and heaven only knows why he chose that provincial name, is the watcher my parents sicced on me when I was a wild and unruly teen.

But I’ve long since turned him to my side; it didn’t take long, I’m that charming. But we have a deal he and I. He doesn’t share what he sees here, and I don’t ask him what the folks are up to. It makes for a very entertaining dynamic I can tell you that.

I forgot about mom and her unexplained ‘visit’ a few hours later as I went for one of my midnight rides. There’s nothing like the feel of a powerful bike between one’s thighs as you race through the night. And for that reason I think the motorcycle is one of the bleeders’ best inventions.

It’s almost as freeing as flying high above the trees and feeling the wind against one’s skin. And it scares humans less that’s for sure. They’re a timid bunch these bleeders, afraid of everything including their own shadow.

I ended my night in the backroom of some grimy bar way on the outskirts of town with some other like-minded people. There were only fifteen of us here tonight, a slow night for us, but it was a Tuesday so that was understandable.

Things have been rather quiet for a while, though things are always quiet in the sleepy little town I’d chosen as my home in the last year. It’s not the kind of place I would’ve ever imagined settling down in, but it serves its purpose.

Far enough away from the city but close enough for me to keep an eye. Plus the fact that my people tend to gravitate to these isolated little enclaves, better to hide beneath the radar. Which is kind of strange when you think about it, since small towns are notoriously known for their bevy of busybodies.

It’s a dead little town with nothing much happening, but for some reason a year ago I was drawn to the place, and try as I might I still don’t know why. But the call was strong enough that I caved and have been doing some behind the scenes snooping if you will.

I know some of my kind can get up to some shady shit in places like this but so far I haven’t sniffed out anything that would bring me down on their heads like the sword of Damocles.

Of course I couldn’t have the place to myself, as soon as the others knew I was here they followed suit and now this quiet little town was the home of more than a few vampyre. My biggest worry these days is keeping them out of the beds of married women and barely legal girls.

Something I usually wouldn’t give a fig about, but since I still haven’t the foggiest idea what I’m doing here myself, I prefer to keep them in check until that little nugget comes to light.

I’d put my mother’s visit behind me, but now there seemed to be something else on the horizon. Namely my guys and the way they’ve been acting all evening. I watched now as one of them separated himself from the rest and came towards me. What the fuck now?

Prince…I mean, Lucien, what’s on your mind? You’ve been a bit preoccupied this evening.

Have I? I hadn’t noticed. I swirled the bourbon around in my glass without interest. I doubt anyone ever notices that I hardly ever drink when we have one of these little get-togethers.

Just a quick slight of hand whenever anyone pays too close attention always does the trick. I don’t do it for any particular reason, just habit I guess. But I’ve always felt like I have to be the most responsible when in a setting like this, and with good reason, because I am.

So, some of us were talking and… The way he fidgeted and looked back at the others told me I wasn’t going to like this.

Go on! I finally took a sip of the aged brew as he fidgeted around some more.

For fuck sake Gavin, you’re ten thousand years old stop fidgeting like a twelve year old cheerleader. Believe it or not, my gruff words are the easiest way I know to put them at ease, otherwise they’d shit themselves before they say or do something that might cross me.

It’s always been this way for as far back as I can remember. And that too with good reason! Very good reason! You see; on the day that I was born, the dragon appeared in the sky for the first time in five hundred thousand years; and fucked up my life.

It was an auspicious sign in the kingdom, one that had been long awaited by my people and the other lesser kingdoms for millennia in fact. A day that’s still celebrated by all; and one of the reasons I like to hide away among the bleeders.

You see, my grandfather High Emperor Moulon, on that day, chose me as his successor, to rule after him, bypassing my own sire and uncles.

No one questioned his decision, after all everyone had seen the signs surrounding my birth and even without them wouldn’t have dared.

The golden fiery phoenix had shown herself for the first time in as many years outside the grand palace at the same time the dragon took to the skies, both rending the air with their cries of welcome.

Both beasts and beings alike had felt the sensation of movement in the atmosphere and had looked to the skies where the light had changed from the bright yellow of the sun to a purple hue that denotes royalty. A royal heir had been born. The, royal heir!

All the monarchs from the surrounding realms that came under our rule had arrived for days and weeks afterwards to pay homage and show their respects and I haven’t had a moment’s peace since.

Well, it’s like this, Gavin was still trying to find his balls to tell me what the hell was on his mind, oh good your brother’s here. I looked up at his words to see one of my four older brothers bearing down on us.

Dimi, what are you doing here? I thought you were in Italy, awaiting the birth of your child.

Brother! We hugged and he sat across from me after the other one slinked away. What’s with people acting strange around me tonight? I watched as Gavin headed back to the others and they all stood back against the wall looking at me.

Luke, have you seen the folks?

Mom dropped in earlier but she didn’t hang around, why? He started acting sketchy too and my hackles began to rise.

There’s been some talk, I’m not sure who started it, but there’s talk that you might have to go back…

Grandfather is healthy and hale, he won’t be needing me to take over the reins for quite a while. Thank fuck!

Every year I have to go home for at least a month, which is mere seconds in the earthly realm but feels like a lifetime in the kingdom of Shalayim, which is on the second level of the celestial realm and my birthplace.

I’m tortured, or what they call tested, by being made to withstand seven deadly bolts of lightning for three days straight and have to show my prowess by leading our army to fight whichever enemy has been stupid enough to test my people’s mettle.

Of course my greatest show of leadership and the thing that cannot be contested is my dragon form, which will only show itself if I’m at my fullest capacity, and which is all they’re really interested in at the end of the day.

Well, I’m here because everyone else seems to be afraid to tell you what’s going on. The fact that you haven’t even heard a whisper about it tells me that there might be some truth to the rumors, that’s why everyone is keeping things so hush-hush and going to such lengths to shield from you.

I don’t see why that should be. It’s not like I don’t know that I’ll have to go back some day.

There’s more, there’s the chance that since you haven’t found a mate as yet the council might be forced to choose one for you…

The fuck they will. You go back and tell those meddling old bastards to keep their noses out of my shit. Our people have always found their mates the traditional way, and I’m no different.

Yes, but as the future emperor, you should’ve already been married with an heir long before this. It’s what our people need to make them feel more at ease, you know that.

Go home Dimi; your wife and child needs you. I’ll be there sometime this week to meet my niece or nephew. So that’s why she was here. It still didn’t feel right; it’s not like her to pitter- patter around something like this. No, there’s definitely something else on the horizon.

Fine! I guess I’ll see you when you get there brother. We clapped each other’s shoulders and he left, leaving me with a head full of burning questions and a room full of thousands years old men acting like gossiping old women.

Natalia

T he sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow… I rolled my eyes at my sister and looked at the red dot on the calendar that hung on the wall.

Our family pet, a Spix macaw named Patrick slept with his head tucked beneath one of his wings, or he was pretending to. He’s been known to eavesdrop on conversations only to repeat them at some later inopportune time.

I guess her little ditty is a way of reminding me that the big change is about to come. It’s the same month after month and have been going on for so long now that I’ve grown used to it.

Well long is relative, this new phenomena has only started happening in the last year or so. When held up against hundreds of years of my existence, it was a little less than a drop in a bucket.

I pretended great interest in the book I was reading for the upcoming test and gave her no leeway to pester me, but the constant stares from across the breakfast table was too much to ignore. I dropped the book in my lap and glared at the three of them, my sisters in everything but blood.

Okay what is it this time? Do you need me to beat up on someone or get you out of some scheme the three of you cooked up while I wasn’t looking? I waited, hoping that this time it was nothing too serious.

The last time I got suspended for a week, and had half the female student body out for my blood. Apparently I’d kicked some ass and flirted my way through half the male students and maybe a couple of the male staff as well.

Something I’m still having a hard time believing, but from the looks I’ve been getting this past month I’m starting to think might be true. Though I don’t really remember much of it. I never do.

You see; I’m a strange mix of nymph and fairy, with two very distinct and vastly different personalities. The fairy in me is very reserved and ladylike, never speaks above a whisper and always dresses appropriately.

But every month like clockwork according to my menstrual cycle, I go through this drastic change that turns me into the complete opposite of myself. And for five or six days every month I become this other being that I can’t seem to control no matter how I try.

She’s bold, brash and well…apparently very seductive. Not to mention it’s the only time I use the fighting skills I’d learned over the centuries. Something my fairy self does not condone.

But, my sisters, to hear them tell it, prefers that side of me. They think she’s fun and outgoing, a nice change from the norm. And knowing what they’re like, especially the songbird, I find that a bit troubling.

Of the three of them, she’s the one who gives me the most headaches. The one most likely to stray and take the others with her. So if she likes this other personality as much as it seems, I can only despair.

I listened as they talked to and over each other, regaling one another with tales of my supposed exploits. I smiled wanly, looking on indulgently as they joked and laughed without a care in the world, wishing it could remain like this.

I looked back down at my book to hide the worry lines that appeared at that thought and my mind drifted as it has been doing more of late to these nagging feelings that have been pestering me.

Alright you three, time to get ready for school. I ignored the moans and groans of complaint and headed up the stairs to the largest bathroom. There were five bathrooms in the old farmhouse, but for some reason we all like getting ready together so it had been decided by the parents years ago to knock down some walls to make this monstrosity to accommodate us.

Why do we have to go to high school? I’m tired of the same mindless drivel year after year.

My friend and sister Annalise pulled the mascara wand through her lashes one last time before glossing over her lips and moving away from the mirror.

Because we’re two thousand year olds in eighteen year old bodies. Soon we’ll head off to college and then we’ll move away. In seventy years everyone we know here will either be dead or moved away and we’ll come back to start all over again.

I know, but aren’t you tired Natalia? Why can’t we just go do something fun? We know everything already. And if that snit Amanda bumps into me one more time I just might feed her liver to Patrick.

You will do no such thing, you know she’s just mad because you went to the movies with her boyfriend. Something I warned you not to do I might add. I gave her a stern look of disapproval which she ignored.

Oh, but it was getting so boring around here I needed to shake things up a little. I walked into my bedroom which was right next to the bathroom and looked over my books for the day before throwing my backpack over my shoulder.

My other sister-friends, Zoe and Patrice were already downstairs waiting and I knew if I didn’t move towards the door Annalise would be here another fifteen minutes. It’s the same thing everyday though she doesn’t need it with her porcelain skin and red tainted lips that always look like she’s waiting to be kissed.

Of the four of us I’d have to say she’s the most aesthetically beautiful one, though the rest of us are nothing to sneeze at. But of the four of us, she’s also the one who doesn’t know her worth. Maybe that’s why I spoil and indulge her as much as I do.

Let’s go, and try to behave yourself today. I don’t want to be called into the principal’s office again. Our mothers were still in Europe, leaving me in charge as the oldest by a few short months. If anyone in authority here ever found it strange that one eighteen year old was in charge of three others, they never said.

Maybe because I’ve always portrayed myself as the most responsible one. Plus the fact that there’s a slight trance over the whole town that keeps them from seeing too much. Nothing major, we try not to be invasive, but just enough to stop tongues from wagging.

Downstairs I climbed into the front passenger seat of the old Rolls 25/30 and strapped in as Zoe, the best driver of the bunch tapped the steering wheel in a sign of frustration that she had to wait yet again. We’d decided against a driver and caretaker because none of us wanted an elder looking over our shoulders and the parents had barely agreed to let us have our way with that one.

Annalise finally made an appearance and took her seat in the back next to Patrice. As usual she was antagonistic, Get a move on Zoe, we want to get there sometime this century. Zoe huffed and I patted her arm to stave off the war that was about to begin.

I looked back at Annalise who was still primping in her little hand mirror and the little brat grinned facetiously at me. Patrice had her head stuck in a book as usual, probably something she’d read a thousand times. As the more sensitive of us, she finds such pleasure in the littlest things.

We drove down the long drive as the deer and fox came out of hiding to say goodbye. I waved and smiled as they galloped along beside my window, their eyes alight with excitement and was reminded that it had been a while since I’d gone for my usual run in the woods.

Lately I’ve been feeling too out of sorts and didn’t think it wise to get too far away from home. So it’s been school and home for me. Zoe honked the horn at some of the elderly town’s people as we drove by and they all called out warm greetings as they went about their business.

Our town is a little picture perfect paradise in the Northeast well off the beaten path. There isn’t much to do here, but it’s been perfect for us. The miles of woods surrounding our home is just the perfect place for us to exist without bringing too much attention to ourselves.

One of our ancestors had found the place a few hundred years ago when it was still new and undeveloped. It hadn’t changed much over time, again thanks to a little bit of magic on our part.

We have homes all over the world like this one, where we retreat to-to pass the time while the people we knew lived and died. It was something we had to do to hide the fact that none of us ever aged. It could be stressful and repetitive as was obvious by Annalise’s new attitude, but there was no hope for it.

As we drew near the school I got that feeling again, the feeling that something was hanging in the air just above my head. Something I could not see, nor touch, only feel.

Nat, are you alright? You seem a little pale.

I’m fine Patrice, as you three reminded me earlier, it’s almost that time of the month that’s all.

I hate lying to them but there is no way I’m going to put a damper on their carefree days. For all that they’re as old as I, inside they’re little more than the eighteen year olds they appear to be. With their heads in the clouds and nothing more stressing on their minds than what to wear to the next school dance.

I wish for them always to remain that way, that they never lose that light and laughter. No, I will carry this burden alone, whatever it is. Or maybe I will put a call in to my mom later and get her thoughts on the subject. Though opening that can of worms may very well bring the elders running.

I thought of nothing else all day and wished by the end of it that I could put it all down to just premenstrual distress, but I knew better. There’s definitely something more at work here, and the stress of having to keep it hidden is beginning to wear on me.

That night I went to bed a little earlier than usual and I cast a spell over my sisters so that they too would feel tired enough to retire. This way I wouldn’t have to worry about them getting up to mischief while I was upstairs asleep leaving them unattended.

I blamed my tiredness on my coming period, and they bought it, since I do tend to have a miserable time with this human malady that is part of my cross to bear while living in this realm. It was someone’s sick joke I think, but none of the elders has ever shared the story behind it.

Probably penance for something one of my female ancestors had done in the past. I made the rounds and fed Patrick who was looking perturbed at being left alone all night. The ornery bird had a look on his face like he knew the real truth behind my sudden ennui but thank goodness he kept his thoughts to himself this time. Who knows what he’d bribe me for if he does find out.

After the house was settled, I was the last one to make it to my bed, grateful once again that I was able to hide my unrest from the others. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, not with the powers they have, and I’ve found it a bit more than straining trying to keep up the charade to keep things hidden from them.

I won’t be able to hide it for much longer though I’m sure, not feeling the way I do. Still, I won’t feel comfortable sharing with them until I figure out this new malady myself. But I have no words, no explanation for the strange feelings that have been plaguing me more and more here of late.

I looked up at the ceiling restlessly as my mind searched for something, anything. It wasn’t so much a sense of danger I felt, as it was some strange kind of excitement that simmered just beneath the surface.

I didn’t get the feeling that it had anything to do with my sisters either, or I’d have packed them up and left the first time I felt it. It’s my responsibility to look out for them in every way after all, and maybe that’s why this thing has been bothering me as much as it has.

For someone like me, not knowing something, or getting a handle on it can be quite bothersome as it’s not a situation one with my power and capabilities face very often. In fact, I can’t remember ever feeling like this in my many years of life.

So I stayed awake long into the night; worrying and hoping that this elusive feeling wasn’t a harbinger of something more sinister, and that it didn’t have anything to do with the other three young women now asleep in the house.

I rolled over in bed and looked at the photograph in the antique gilded frame. It must be three hundred years old; the frame that is, the picture is more recent.

Every so often we have to change the image inside to keep up with the times. I felt warmth invade me as I always do when I look at our beautiful, smiling faces.

So young and carefree, so full of life and joy, my beautiful sisters, my friends. We are four. Brought together by something stronger than blood, a bond that can never be broken.

Together we are strong, stronger even than the ones who bore us. Generations of power