Conclave (Vampire Conclave: Book 3), page 1
Table of Contents
The Vampire Conclave, Book 3
Books by S.J. West
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Author’s Note
Broken, The Watcher Chronicles, Book 1 Sneak Peek
About the Author
Conclave
Vampire Conclave, Book 3
S.J. West
Contents
The Vampire Conclave, Book 3
Books by S.J. West
Acknowledgments
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
Author’s Note
Broken, The Watcher Chronicles, Book 1 Sneak Peek
About the Author
COPYRIGHTS
* * *
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
© 2017 by S.J. West.
All rights reserved.
Cover Design: Paper & Sage Design, all rights reserved.
Interior Design & Formatting: Carolina Silva, all rights reserved.
Proof Reader: Allisyn Ma.
* * *
Published by Watchers Publishing August, 2017.
www.Sjwest.com
* * *
BOOKS IN THE WATCHER SERIES
The Watchers Trilogy
Cursed
Blessed
Forgiven
* * *
The Watcher Chronicles
Broken
Kindred
Oblivion
Ascension
* * *
Caylin’s Story
Timeless
Devoted
Aiden’s Story
* * *
The Alternate Earth Series
Cataclysm
Uprising
Judgment
* * *
The Redemption Series
Malcolm
Anna
Lucifer
Redemption
* * *
The Dominion Series
Awakening
Reckoning
Enduring
OTHER BOOKS BY S.J. WEST
The Harvester of Light Trilogy
Harvester
Hope
Dawn
* * *
The Vankara Saga
Vankara
Dragon Alliance
War of Atonement
* * *
Vampire Conclave Series
* * *
Moonshade
Sentinel
Conclave
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who were with me throughout this creative process; to all those who provided support, talked things over, read, wrote, offered comments, allowed me to quote their remarks and assisted in the editing, proofreading and design.
* * *
Thanks to Allisyn Ma. my proofreader for helping me find typos, correct commas and tweak the little details that have help this book become my perfect vision. Thank you to Carolina Silva for creating the Interior Design of the books and formatting them.
* * *
Last and not least: I want to thank my family, who supported and encouraged me in this journey.
I apologize to those who have been with me over the course of the years and whose names I have failed to mention.
Life doesn’t always work out the way you think it will. Sometimes that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that you need to figure out how to make the new pieces fit in between the existing ones. That’s exactly what I have to do now. I need to find a way to meld the life I had before I met Julian with the one I want to make with him and the alfar.
“Are you thinking about Kaylee and her parents?” Julian asks me as we drive back to Pecan Acres. Unfortunately, it will be a shorter stay than I would like in my hometown because we need to return to New Orleans for the vampire conclave Mira has arranged.
I grip the steering wheel of my Camry a smidge tighter before briefly taking my eyes off the road to glance in his direction. Why is it that every time I look at Julian, I feel as though he’s just a dream? It’s probably because he’s the most perfect man I’ve ever met. At least, perfect for me anyway, but in the end, that’s all that matters.
“I can’t keep lying to them,” I say, feeling my heart drop into the pit of my stomach at just the thought of continuing to keep my adoptive family in the dark about all of the changes in my life. “Kaylee and her parents are going to start asking questions soon that I won’t be able to ignore.”
“Then you have one of two options,” Julian says pragmatically, looking thoughtful about the impossible situation I find myself in. “You can either tell them the truth or continue to lie. There really aren’t any other alternatives.”
I hear Nadia clear her throat in the backseat to draw my attention. I meet her gaze in the reflection of my rearview mirror and wait for her to speak.
“Even if you decide to tell them the truth,” she says as she continues to stroke the soft white fur on Viktor’s back as he lies across her lap, “do you think they’ll believe you, or think that you’ve completely lost your mind, or worse yet, been brainwashed by us?”
I sigh heavily. “Honestly, I don’t know. If the tables were turned and Kaylee came to me with such an incredible story, I would probably think she was on drugs or something.”
“Maybe you should tell Kaylee and her parents a part of the truth,” Julian suggests.
“But which part?” I ask helplessly. “It all sounds pretty crazy. If it wasn’t happening to me, I wouldn’t believe the way my life has turned out. Why should I expect them to?”
“If I were you, I would just tell them the bare minimum,” Nadia advises me. I can feel her cautious nature kick in as she considers my conundrum. “Eventually, you’ll need to move to Alfheim. After that, you’ll end up having very little contact with them anyway.”
I narrow my eyes at Nadia in the mirror. “Was that supposed to make me feel better? If it was, you suck at trying to boost someone’s morale.”
“I’m only stating the truth,” Nadia says unapologetically. “Whether you like it or not, you’re the next ruler of the alfar. You may not want to be, but sometimes we don’t get to choose how our lives turn out. You need to start thinking like a queen, Princess, because that’s exactly what you’re being groomed for now. Unless, of course, you intend to abandon us like your father did.”
“You know I don’t,” I say defensively, becoming weary of always being compared to my father and his abdication of the throne. “But ruling the alfar is so far in the future, I don’t see any point in thinking about that right now. I have enough problems without adding that into the mix of them.”
Julian leans to the left slightly and rests a comforting hand on my right thigh.
With a gentle squeeze, he says, “Whatever you decide, I’ll support you in any way I can.”
“I just don’t know what to do, Julian,” I say, finding solace in his touch and words, even though I don’t feel any closer to an answer to my problems. “I need some time to think about it and figure out how to handle them.”
“Then take the time you need to sort things out,” he suggests. “They don’t have to know that we’re back in town. Kaylee still assumes we’re in Europe visiting one of my hotels.”
“Knowing my sister, she’ll probably stop by your house to ask Helen when we’ll be coming home,” I point out. “But you’re right. We don’t have to go back right away, and I think I know exactly where we can go to hide from the world for a little while.”
When I don’t readily give any more details about my plan, Julian asks, “Where is it that you want to go?”
I ponder whether or not I want to tell him and quickly make a decision.
“Somewhere,” I say vaguely with a hint of a smile that’s a little mischievous but mostly excited.
“And this somewhere would be …” Nadia asks. More than likely, she wants to strategize the best way to protect me at my mystery location.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her, “no one will be there, and no one will expect me to go there.”
“Should I call Helen to let her and Petru know we won’t be home today?” Julian asks.
“Yes,” I say. “Tell them we’ll be home tomorrow for breakfast, but tonight, you’re all mine.”
Julian grins with a pleased, and somewhat expectant, look on his face as he pulls his cell phone out of his pants pocket and calls Helen. Since we had to go to Mira’s house to pick my car up, Helen and Petru had a good twenty-minute head start on us heading home from New Orleans. It’s no surprise that Julian catches our friend just getting out of Petru’s car at the house on Bayou Road.
“I’m sure we will,” Julian says at the end of his conversation with her. “We’ll see you both tomorrow morning.”
When he ends the call, I ask, “You’re ‘sure we will’ what?”
As Julian slides the phone back into his pocket, he looks over at me and says, “Have a good time. Helen hopes that we will.”
“Oh, I can pretty much guarantee that,” I say, unable to suppress a suggestive smile. “If we don’t, then we’re doing something wrong.”
“I take it you’re finally going to have sex now?” Nadia asks point blank, never one to shy away from asking a blunt question. She actually sounds bored by the prospect, which is the total opposite of the way I feel. “What exactly should the cat and I do while you’re otherwise engaged?”
“Do you know how to cook?” I ask her. “I feel sure I’ll be working up an appetite.”
“Yes, I can a small bit,” she replies rather unenthusiastically. “I just don’t like to, so don’t complain if it’s not to your liking.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound very promising,” I grumble as I feel my stomach respond with a small spasm at the prospect of being fed soon. “We’ll run by a grocery store near where we’re staying and pick up some supplies.”
“Since we’re only twenty minutes away from home,” Julian muses, “this somewhere of yours must be close by.”
“It’s on the outskirts of the town’s limits in the county.”
“Do you own a country estate that I don’t know about?” Nadia asks, looking confused by the possibility. “I don’t remember reading that you owned one in the dossier that I was given about you.”
“No, I don’t have a country home, but I’m sure the owners won’t mind us borrowing their place for an evening, as long as we clean it up afterwards.”
“Uh, you’re not about to do something illegal, are you?” she asks me, sounding suspicious of my plans. “Because if you are, I’m honor bound to discourage such reckless behavior from my future queen.”
“Well, we won’t exactly be breaking into the house, so it can’t be that bad,” I reason with a small shrug of my shoulders.
“You know,” Julian tells me, returning his hand to my thigh before continuing, “I have a perfectly good bed at my house that we can use.”
“And I intend to take full advantage of it one day,” I assure him. “But I have another reason for wanting to show you this place. You’re just going to have to trust me.”
“All right,” he says, surprising me by not asking any follow-up questions to pry more information out of me.
He ends up not having time to anyway because we reach the parking lot of the small grocery store where I want to buy supplies. Julian volunteers to wait in the car with Viktor while Nadia and I go into the store. It doesn’t take us long to get what we need. I soon discover that Nadia’s cooking skills are quite limited, so we stick with frozen pizzas, sandwich ingredients, and premade cakes and cookies from the bakery section. In less than ten minutes, we’re back on the road again heading toward our destination.
When I turn off onto a bumpy gravel driveway that’s slightly overgrown with vegetation from the forested areas on either side converging inward, Nadia asks, “Where in the world are you taking us? This looks like a place a serial killer would come to hide his victims.”
“Well, you can rest easy because I don’t intend to kill you,” I tell her, maneuvering my car around a fallen tree branch on the right side of the road. “This place just doesn’t get a lot of visitors, which is lucky for us. There’s virtually no chance that we’ll be disturbed here.”
Thankfully, the rough gravel lane is only a quarter of a mile long. Once we reach our final destination, I hear Nadia make a small grunt of approval as she considers the house I park in front of.
“I have to admit,” she says, looking at the two-story white clapboard house, “I thought we would end up in a shack in these woods. This house is a lot more than I expected to find out in the middle of nowhere.”
“How exactly are we going to get inside without breaking in?” Julian asks, also studying the exterior of the home.
“The Hughes are under contract to sell it. They’ve been trying to find a buyer for over two years now. I know their code for the realtor key box hanging on the front door. So we’re not exactly breaking in. Since the owners live in New York now, there’s no way they’ll catch us using it.”
Julian looks over at me and says, “I think I remember this house from when I was looking for a place to purchase so I could live closer to you. It comes with quite a bit of land, if I remember correctly. I passed on it because of that and because it was so far from where you live in town.”
“Come on,” I say to him while opening my car door, “let me show you the property. Nadia,” I say, looking over my shoulder at her before getting out of the car, “would you mind taking the groceries inside and feeding Viktor for me? See if he likes the new cat food I bought him.” I look at Viktor and tell him, “It’s not Fancy Feast. It’s some organic animal food the store had in a special little refrigerator for spoiled rotten cats like you.”
Viktor meows at me as if to say that he isn’t spoiled, just unique enough to deserve such special treatment.
I tell Nadia the combination to unlock the realtor box on the front door so she can retrieve the key to the house. After I get out of the car, I meet Julian in front of it and take one of his hands with mine. We walk down a cobblestone path that leads around to the back of the house, which faces a small lake. I don’t stop walking until we reach the end of a weathered plank board pier that stretches out across twenty feet of water.
“So, what do you think?” I ask Julian as I scan the forested area around the lake.
“It’s nice and quiet here,” he says as he too looks out across the water. “Am I right in assuming this is the place you had in mind for us to buy and build our house?”
“Caught on to that, did ya?” I ask, unable to prevent a smile as I turn my head to look up at him.
“It was a little obvious,” he replies, looking back at me and effortlessly returning my smile. “But there’s already a nice house here. What would we do with it?”
“I thought it would be a convenient place for the rest of my Valengard detail to live. I haven’t met them yet, but Nadia said they’re staying somewhere in town on the off chance that we’ll need them for backup. My idea is to have them live in this house and for us to build our own home right over there,” I say, pointing to a clearing directly across the lake from where we’re standing. “I know that area is pretty flat because the Hughes had a surveyor come out and do a full work-up about the property. They wanted to make sure potential buyers were given all the information possible about the land.”
“I think it’s a perfect location for a house,” Julian tells me as he nods his head in approval while studying the spot I pointed to. “But,” his voice sounds hesitant as he shifts his gaze away from the location of our future home to look back at me, “maybe we should wait a little while before making any permanent plans.”
