Chapter Three – Maribel
Maribel threw the latest pregnancy test away, resisting the urge to kick the garbage bin. Not pregnant. Again.
She didn't know why she was so disappointed. Sheridan had told her he'd be able to smell it when she was pregnant, far earlier than when the pregnancy tests would be able to indicate that she was. He had told her when she sent for the tests that she wasn't pregnant, but she wanted to be sure, hoping he was wrong.
Shaking her head, Maribel washed her hands and stepped back into the common room of the chambers she shared with Sheridan. He was at the window, phone to his ear. Just how busy the vampire king was surprised her the most of everything in the vampire city. It seemed like they rarely had a moment to themselves that wasn't interrupted by one minor emergency or another.
She sat down at the chess game that they had been in the middle of playing when he had gotten the call. His voice was low and he spoke rapidly, so she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She admired the cut of his white dress while she waited. He really was very good looking, her husband.
And she was his wife. Hopefully, she would get pregnant soon. She was starting to go crazy with desire for him.
"Whose turn is it?" Maribel asked after Sheridan hung up his phone.
"Yours."
She moved a pawn, not really thinking about the game. "I'm sorry."
Sheridan's brow furrowed. "Sorry? For what?"
"I know that you're frustrated that I'm not pregnant yet."
Subtle changes had been happening over the past few weeks since she moved into the palace. Rosewater was spritzed everywhere, she was given raspberry tea to drink. Both were supposed to help a woman conceive. She was certain there were other folk remedies at play that she wasn't aware of.
"It'll take time," Sheridan said, moving a rook. "We have to be patient, Maribel. I'm sorry if I've been putting undue pressure on you."
"You haven’t, not really. I have never lived as well as the past few weeks."
It was a little unnerving, if she was honest with herself, to have so many servants at her beck and call. Everything she wanted was at her fingertips. Sheridan had already paid off all her debts and hadn't even asked how she incurred them. And she hadn’t told him.
"I'm glad." Sheridan frowned, looking at the chessboard. His phone dinged and he looked at it. His frown deepened. "I have to go, Maribel. The protestors outside the wall have attempted to accost the guards and I have to deal with it."
"Of course." Maribel pushed her chair away from the table. "We can finish this game another time. I'm going to lose, anyway."
Sheridan smiled and quickly kissed her cheek before he left. Her skin tingled where he had kissed her. She had to repress the urge to grab him and drag him to one of their rooms.
He had made it very clear that he wasn't going to drink from her or sleep with her until she was pregnant. Maribel wasn't sure how it would discourage pregnancy, but if a vampire was willing to forgo sex and blood, then it had to be important.
With a sigh, she grabbed a book and curled up on the couch. There was a human-only luncheon happening in the courtyard that day, but Maribel found she wanted to be alone most of the time. The other humans couldn’t stop openly asking her whether or not she was pregnant yet, which was getting on her nerves, bad.
Some time later she tossed the book aside, unable to immerse herself in it, and decided to go swimming instead. There was a large lap pool on the ground level, but Maribel preferred the smaller, cozier pool on the fifth floor. It was made from marble, and built up off the floor, with two statues of women pouring water at either end. It was just big enough to paddle around in and also usually empty.
Maribel had never felt comfortable wearing a swimsuit in public. Add to it the insanely gorgeous vampire women that always seemed to be in skimpy bikinis, and she suffered some serious body-image issues at the ground-level pool.
Soon she was relaxing in the waist-deep water of the small pool, idly paddling from one end to the other. The water smelled slightly of cucumber.
Everything about the vampire world was rich and lush. When Sheridan took her out around the vampire town, she hadn't seen one building in need of repair. Vampires, it seemed, took care of each other better than humans did. And they all seemed to be quite happy to see her, although Sheridan had told her there were some who weren't happy that he married a human.
"Hello."
Maribel jumped at the sound of the voice. She looked up to see a vampire peering over the lip of the pool, smiling down at her. He was as gorgeous as any other vampire she had seen, although not as good looking as Sheridan. Unlike any of the others she had seen, he was blond, although his eyes were black like the rest of them.
"Hello," Maribel replied uncertainly. She hadn't met this vampire before, and she usually didn't see anybody in the pool unless Sheridan was with her.
"Mind if I join you?"
"Um…" She didn't like the way he was looking at her. Even though her one-piece swimsuit was as modest as they come, the gleam in his eye as he stared at her made her feel like she might as well be naked. "Actually, I was just leaving."
She climbed out at the other side of the pool, but the vampire had circled it and was standing at the stairs with her towel outstretched before she made it to the top. His grin increased.
"I don't think we've met," she said, her heart starting to pound. "I'm—"
"I know who you are. The human the king married. But he hasn't marked you yet."
Maribel quickly made it to the floor, putting some distance between her and the vampire. "Marked me?"
"I don't see any scars from where he's drunken from you, or smell him on you." The vampire smiled as her eyes widened with horror.
"Don't look at me like that. He hasn't claimed you, which means you're free to give to whoever you want. And you smell so good. I don't usually go for your blood type, but you've got a special fragrance… What harm can one taste do?"
The roar from the other end of the room was the only warning they got that Sheridan had just entered the room.
Before Maribel could even process it, her king was there, standing between her and the other vampire. The muscles of his back strained as he picked up the blond by his throat. He threw the other vampire across the room. The wall cracked from the impact.
"She is mine!"
Sheridan wrapped his arms around Maribel's waist. She yelped as he picked her up, and then they were off. Her arms tightened around his neck, her heart hammering as the corridors rushed by. They were moving so quickly that it made her sick. When Sheridan finally put her down, she swayed on the spot and had to cling to him to keep herself upright.
"Did he touch you?" Sheridan's hands cupped her face. "Did he bite you?"
Maribel's stomach stopped spinning and she stepped away, glaring at the vampire king. "What was that all about? He was being a creep, yeah, but you didn't have to throw him across the room and then carry me away like I was a damsel in distress and you were my white knight!"
Surprise flickered across Sheridan's face. "I had to get you away from him."
"A simple, 'she's my wife, stay away from her, we're leaving, honey' would have worked." Maribel put her hands on her hips. "You didn't have to act like he was trying to kill me!"
"He was challenging my authority, trying to drink from you."
"I wouldn't have let him. Do you really think I would let him drink from me?"
Sheridan held up his hands and shook his head. "No. No, of course not. I didn't think that, Maribel. I'm sorry if I scared you."
Maribel put a hand to her chest, where her heart was still pounding wildly. "Well, you did."
"I'm sorry. And you're right, I overreacted." He turned away and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have jealousy issues. I thought I'd gotten over them, but apparently not."
"Jealousy." Maribel stared. A smile twitched her lips, no matter how hard she fought it. If she was honest, even though she was still mildly freaked out by his display of violence, knowing that he was jealous made a bubble of happiness rise up in her. "Well, okay. You're forgiven this time."
Sheridan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a gentle embrace. "That vampire's actions do raise another point, though. I haven't claimed you in any official capacity except marriage, and many won't accept that as binding. We'll have to make a video to release on the internet stating that we are together and that you are mine."
"Wait. You want to release a video on the internet?"
"Yes. That way the whole world will know that you’re mine."
The dominant way he said it had heat swirling inside of her. Maribel clung to his warmth, breathing in his heady scent. A giggle burst from her lips. Funny how her irritation at him could vanish just like that.
"Will a video really work?"
"Yes. Of course it will."
"Good. I don't want to be anybody's but yours."
Maribel pressed herself to her toes and threw her arms around Sheridan's neck, kissing him passionately.