Unedited.
Nicklaus POV.

Leaving her half-naked in the washroom was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. My penis is still suffering the consequences. Right now it's as hard as a fucking rock. I try my hardest not to run back there and plunge my dick into her sweet-tasting slick folds. This is fucking torture; she is fucking torture—the sweetest kind of torture. I am hooked.

Xander constantly attempted to communicate with me while I was enjoying the amazing view of Claire. I assumed he was cock-blocking. Turns out he wasn't. The doctor found something interesting in Claire's blood samples. Hopefully, we can finally get some answers.

Doctor Regus usually treats vampires in New York City. I didn't think it was the best route to bring an outsider into our situation, and neither did Xander. Count Cloven was the one to have actually persuaded me to get him involved. He pointed out several times that Claire's heart barely beats. Now it is even sometimes hard for my sensitive ears to pick up on it.

I need to figure out what's going on with Claire as soon as possible. We still have to deal with the summons, and I need reassurance that she is healthy before we travel to Romania. Time is ticking, and I know my father will hunt us down if we don't make it there by the end of the week. He will hunt us to the ends of the earth if that's what it takes. He is a dick.

I'm still agitated that my father and the shithole of a council even had the nerve to summon me like I'm just some typical commoner. Hell, I'm their fucking king, if you want to be technical. The only reason I'm entertaining the summons is that Claire's name is listed on the document. As king of all kings, I'm the only person who can say "fuck the summons, I'm not coming." Claire and the other kings on the other hand cannot. My beloved will be killed on site for not presenting herself, and the other kings can be punished too. I'll never let that happen. They are all my brothers. I refuse to allow my father to place his hands on any of them.

Fuck, I hate that man with a passion.

I walk past my men who are standing at my oakwood office door, not them sparing a single glance. The doctor is sitting at the end of the table, fidgeting with his grown. . It's quite clear that he is nervous. Xander, Marcellus, and Cloven are already sitting and are having a casual conversation.

It pains me that Cyrus is not here to figure this out alongside me. Things got pretty bloody between us last night, and in all honesty, I can't blame him. If he tried to take out Claire, he would be dead. I don't care how many centuries we have known each other and how close we are. Claire comes before everybody, so it's completely understandable that Cyrus feels the same way about Embry. Her wolf has every right to hate me. I just couldn't allow her to accidentally hurt my beloved during her deranged state.

Embry may be a sweet human, but a wolf is a wolf. They will kill with no mercy, especially when their wolf takes over. That was just a chance I wasn't willing to take. Claire is too important.

The others continued to converse until I take my seat. Xander's unemotional gaze falls onto me. He's waiting for me to dismiss the others, or more like Marcellus, which I am not going to do. He is going to find out the truth sooner than later, so fuck it. I will no longer hide who Claire is to me. I am ashamed of nothing. My beloved is the future queen, whether they like it or not. No one can stop it. She will make a way better queen than any of the respected bloodline ladies. Anyone who disagrees can fuck off, and die.

I place a timer down on the table.

"You have ten minutes to explain what you have found," I tell the doctor, starting the timer.

Marcellus snickers underneath his breath, and the others' attention is on the doctor.

Doctor Regus gulps.

"Nine minutes!" I growl.

"My apologies, my king," he says. He rises to his feet and makes his way towards the front of the office. He pulls down the projector screen that we use for war strategies and then quickly makes his way to his laptop.

He clears his throat as some blood cells appear on the screen. "This is the human girl's blood cells that I collected," he begins.

I turn to study what he is presenting. I don't know that much about science, but for the looks of things, they seem normal.

"From first glance, they look normal," he says, confirming my theory. Then he zooms in closer.

My eyes bulge, and one of the others gasps from behind me.

"If you look closer, you can see that they are far from normal," Doctor Regus goes on. "Claire's cells have black outlines around the surface. Royal vampire bloodlines are black with specks of silver, normal vampire blood cells are black, and human blood cells are red, which means—"

"She is a dhampir," says Count Cloven skeptically, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"That's impossible," Xander argues. "The institute where she was educated would have reported her the moment she stepped foot in the school."

I rub my chin. He has a point. The institute is required to run yearly blood banks and send the students' blood to be tested in the lab. It's one of the ways how we select our candidates as breeders and bleeders.

I know for a fact that Claire was tested more than usual. The school requested that she should be marked a bleeder. They wanted her dead. Claire would have been discovered years ago. There is no way anyone would have overlooked those blood samples.

"Further, dhampir blood cells have over several specks on vampirism on each cell," adds Marcellus.

We all turn to face him.

How the fuck does he know that?

"What?" says Marcellus with a shrug? "I had my experiences with dhampirs before we eliminated their species altogether. Where do you think I got the idea from to host the games?"

I shake my head and turn back to the doctor. I don't understand his logic, and I don't think I want to.

"Which brings me to my next slide," Doctor Regus continues. He clears his throat. Small drips of sweat—too small for the naked eye to see—are forming on his forehead.

My eyesight is far from naked. He is extremely nervous.

"Why are you so nervous?" I ask him before he turns to the next slide.

Something is off about this doctor. It is typical for commoners to be on edge around us. They are basically humans when you compared them to royal vampires. Even with that being said, they are still drawn to us. They tend to be infatuated or even get obsessed with us. Lower-level—or should I say, low bloodline vampires—can't help serving us, higher-level vampires. It has been that way since our creation. They typically act nervous when they feel like they have wronged us or if they have offended one of us.

The doctor's shaking hands and the sweat dripping on his forehead tell me he did just that. He is putting my monster on edge; he doesn't trust him.

Doctor Regus wipes his forehead. "My apologies, my king," he replies. "I've just never been in the presence of royalty."

I nod in understanding. That makes sense. I hope that's the case.

He flicks the next slide and continues to share what he has found.

"King Marcellus is correct. Dhampirs' blood cells usually have several specks of vampirism. This human girl's cells have nearly invisible specks of vampirism that are growing rapidly." He flicks another slide.

"I've collected some of her blood every two hours, and each time a different speck is formed," he continues, flicking the slide again (and we all watch with great interest). "The human girl is certainly a dhampir," Doctor Regus spits with venom.

My monster is now present. We don't like his new tone.

Xander and the others, including Marcellus, release a warning growl from behind me. They don't like his tone either.

"Do not forget your place, commoner," Marcellus speaks before I get a chance.

Someone is forming a liking to my little firecracker. I see.

Doctor Regus bows in response. "My apologies, my king," he responds with caution.

"Finish what the fuck you were saying!" I spit. My monster is now on the horizon. I don't have time for this shit.

The doctor is slowly bringing forth my more festive side. My vision begins to taint crimson.

Xander is oddly quiet. I guess he is struggling to contain his own monster at this time.

Doctor Regus stands up quickly. "The girl is most certainly a dhampir."

"You already said that," I say, holding back a growl. "Get to the point! What did you find? What is your proof?"

He zooms in and then walks over to the screen. Tension is obvious in his entire frame. I think someone has a death wish.

Doctor Regus points to the screen, to a tiny silver fleck of vampirism inside one of Claire's blood cells.

I jump out of my seat and make my way in front of him.

"What the fuck is that?"

I know what it is, but that is just fucking impossible. This slide indicates the unthinkable.

Doctor Regus is shaking.

Is this the reason why he is so nervous? Is he fucking with me, with us?

He shrinks back. "The girl has tiny specks of royal vampirism," he whispers, almost inaudibly. "I've noticed that it has grown more visible after each blood sample that I collected."

Xander is now beside us, studying the slide in silence.

"The vampirism is like red blood cells," Marcellus states. He stands up.

When the hell did he become a fucking scientist?

"What the hell are you doing in Europe, dissecting humans?" I ask, making a face at him.

"Well, I did host an event of the sort if you must know," Marcellus replies with a smirk.

The doctor hesitates before he walks back over towards his laptop. I place my focus back onto the screen.

"King Marcellus is correct again," Doctor Regus speaks in a low voice. "The human girl's specks of black and silver blood cells are growing rapidly."

My eyes are moving along with each slide he flicks at a rapid pace. Each one shows the specks growing. I've never seen anything like it.

"Which means that the human girl isn't a human girl, after all, well kind of. She is half-human and half-vampire," Doctor Regus reveals, still moving the slides. "She wasn't born a dhampir based on my evaluation—"

"Dhampirs are born, not created," Marcellus interrupts him.

"She was bitten by a royal," he answers. "That's when the human girl vampire side was first created."

"Impossible," I say.

"On the contrary," he replies, "it's the only thing that adds up. Someone attempted to change that human," he spits. His disgust of the situation is evident. The fool can't hide his emotion even if his life depended on it, which it does. "Somehow the human managed to fight off half of the transitions. It's truly remarkable, but it needs to be reported to the council at once."

Awe. The fool's time is up. His foolishness will cost him his life.

My crimson eyes travel to Xander. His eyes are bleeding as well.

Good, we are on the same page.

I shift my focus onto Count Cloven, who is taking a sip of his blood with no emotions on his face. Marcellus smiles from ear to ear.

"So what are you suggesting, Doctor?" Xander asks, now in front of him.

Doctor Regus cowers away. His eyes are filled with fear, his lips quivering. "I-I didn't . . . m-mean to offend . . . you. P-please . . . forgive—" His hands go up in the air in surrender.

I shift my focus back to the screen. My mind is elsewhere—Claire. My firecracker is one of a kind, truly extraordinary.

The doctor is still pleading for his life behind me.

"Stop playing with your toys," growls Marcellus, sounding excited.

Oh yes, the doctor is still alive.

I turn to face Xander. He now has the doctor by his neck, dangling the commoner in the air. That was quick. I only turned around for a second.

Xander stares at me, his eyes filled with the excitement to kill. I nod in approval. He can have his life. I don't want to get blood on my attire. Claire and I have a date.

The timer goes off. Marcellus crushes the device in his hand.

"Time is up," I hiss.

Xander lets out a spine-chilling growl and plunges his fangs into the right side of the doctor's neck. Blood gushes from the side of his neck and down to Xander's mouth. The doctor attempts to scream, but Xander swiftly pulls out his spine and then tosses him to the floor. Blood is gushing out of his throat onto my carpet. He is lifeless.

Impressive! Xander killed him within a second.

"Indeed," I say, my focus back on the screen. "Dispose of any evidence and have Commander Vlad search his laptop, just in case the doctor has sent anyone what he has discovered. I want all he has contacted in the last twenty-four hours to be dealt with. We cannot afford this critical information to be discovered by anyone."

I turn to face them. They all agree

"I'll do some research about dhampirs. We need to be sure that this has never happened before and figure out what this turn even means for Claire's health overall. We should also host the dinner sooner than later. We need to know who will remain loyal to you," Xander speaks.

"Especially before we answer the summons. If the council figures out her condition—"

"I pledge my loyalty to you and the half-breed queen," Marcellus interrupts me, earning a low growl from me.

He chuckles. "Just kidding, but seriously the queen has my loyalty. Anyone who can spit in your face, and go heads up with a dog is good with me."

"So is with me," Count Cloven adds. "Wait, she spits in your face?" He laughs. We all laugh in unison. "She does have balls."

"Yeah, she does. But there are still things that don't add up," says Xander. "Claire's files are missing, and she can still wield the emerald. Now that I'm thinking about it, I believe the emerald may be the reason her body didn't accept the turn."

"It does make sense," I agree. I don't know much about the mysterious emerald, but I do know the person who possesses it can call on the power to prevent things from occurring.

"The queen may have somehow accessed the power when she was unconscious," suggests Cloven.

"Or maybe the emerald refused to allow the queen to fully complete the transition," Marcellus guesses.

I hold back a smile. My firecracker has been able to gain the respect of a royal and my most-trusted advisor without a proper introduction. She is extraordinary.

"Both of you have good points," I say. "The only creature who will be able to identify the truth is Aurora. However, we all know that she will never—"

"Speak for yourself," Marcellus cuts in. "I may not have access to Aurora, but I do have access to one of her seven daughters. Circe hot ass loves my awesomeness." He smirks.

"Mingling with witches is not good for your dick," I tell him. 'You should know better."

"It's worth the ride," he replies, wiggling his eyebrows. "I'll reach out to her before the feast. Maybe she can meet us in your kingdom or even Romania."

"You do that," Xander and I say in unison.

Cloven's lips curve into a smirk.

"Of course, of course, I will risk my dick for our queen, but I do have one condition," he says.

I hear Xander sigh. He hates Marcellus's games.

"Of course, you do Marcellus," I reply, making my way to the door. "Enlighten me."

"You know, it's really a simple command. I just want a proper introduction with my queen."

Cloven spits out his blood, and Xander rolls his eyes.

"Done," I tell him."But it would have to be later. I've promised Claire that I would take her to see her pets. I also have some other things planned."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Xander asks, right before I make it to the door. "Claire's scent is different, and her heart barely beats. Surely, the dog will notice it."

"She has a pet dog?" Marcellus queries, "She is fucking lit!"

"What the fuck is lit?" I ask him.

"Oh come on, man, you are not that old."

Everyone laughs at our little inside joke. "No, seriously, good point!" I say to Xander. "But you know Claire. She won't rest until she knows the pet is okay."

"Have the commander deliver the other pets instead," he suggests. "Maybe we can tell them to explain that the dog has chosen to return home instead of tagging along with them to the safe house."

I rub my chin. "That's a good idea. We can keep her in prison until the dog finally dies. I gave my word that I wouldn't let any harm come to her. Natural death is more than that dog deserves, but Claire's happiness comes first."

"Dude, you're whipped," Marcellus comments.

I flick him the finger as I walk out of the door.

I don't know why. I really should have takenthat as a compliment. I am Claire's ass-kissing king after all.

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