Marrying the Vampire King: a paranormal rom-com series (Peasant to Princess Book 1) Read online

  Marrying the Vampire King

  By Francheska Fifield

  Copyright © 2021 Francheska Fifield

  Editorial Work by Corey Brooks

  Cover by Averi Hope Designs

  Author’s Note: Because this is a fantasy series, I got to use a few various legends I found here and there, and make up a few rules of my own, then add the characters.

  Alesia is in the process of becoming a woman in this book. The time when you are idealistic enough to want to change the world for the better. At the same time, she has grown up poor so she understands survival must come first. She has experienced loss so she knows idealism doesn’t feed you, even if she wants to do what she can to change that, she has to care for her mother first.

  She is the wonderful contradiction that comes when people try to learn to balance their heart and mind. That time when those two parts do not always agree and often it comes across as indecisive or arrogant when that is not the case at all. It doesn’t help that she spends her free time learning and looks down a bit on those that do not. Don’t be too hard on her, she is young and will grow into a wise woman.

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Alesia

  I carefully slipped over the wall that blocks the town from the outside world. Red painted the skyline as the sun makes its first appearance during the day. I had to be home before the sky was fully lit.

  If mother knew I was out and about before dawn she would kill me. All of the villages in the kingdom knew to not go out before dawn. Our kingdom was ruled by vampires and if they find strong able-bodied men and women outside, they take them.

  The parents were forever left wondering what happened to them, never getting a visit or note to say they belonged to whichever noble family kidnapped them. Vampires were the big bad of the outside world.

  Logically I knew a little wall would not stop them, but still every evening the church tossed holy water on it and prayed for protection from the lord. I could not help but roll my eyes at the evening prayers. We all knelt in the grass for no reason. Vampires walked in the day, performed amazing feats of strength and speed, and some even went to church.

  Nothing we did would stop them, but I seemed to be the only one logical enough to know I was in no more danger at night than any other time. It was a matter of fooling themselves into a false sense of security.

  I found the night to be a wonderful time. It was quiet, peaceful, and if I brought a lantern with me, I could find wild mushrooms, berries, and herbs. It was one of the reasons we were well fed in a village without a Lord’s protection. We didn’t have a lot of crime, but first thing in the morning the gatherers went out to find food for their household. I was coming back with full baskets not worrying I would get jumped for our food for another household.

  Mother and I had lots of canned food and ate a variety because of this so, as angry as she got, she never beat me for being me. I had seen other girls and boys not be so safe from such a thing. Their families didn’t always make it through the winter.

  “Alesia!”

  I flinched as I settled my baskets onto the table too late to put everything away without her noticing. She would notice the fuller pantry, yes, but she only scolded if she caught me returning.

  “Mama. I found a new spot for mushrooms. I picked it clean. I am glad I brought the back basket.”

  She stood in the kitchen doorway hands on hips, anger flowing off her in waves. My mother had a commanding presence and it never failed to make me flinch when she pulled out her mom voice. I felt as small as I was when I was eight. In some ways, nothing had changed in the last ten years.

  “You know it is dangerous to be out at dark!”

  I sighed wishing we could stop this tired argument. Neither of us gave an inch let alone won or lost. I was immensely over it.

  “You know if a vampire wanted me, he or she could just as easily grab me during the day as at night.”

  “Now especially it is dangerous! Did you not read the proclamation yesterday?”

  The one good thing I could say about our king, vampire he may be, was that he believed in education. Everyone, rich or poor, was to be educated. Able to read and write, able to do basic math, and expand their education through public libraries if they so wished. He paid for both the schools and the libraries. Our school was small and limited, but we learned the same as others.

  I often snuck to the nearest city, a four-mile walk one way, to visit the public library and borrow books. Our town was too small for one, but I loved reading and learning new things. So, on our one day of rest, I walked to the library. The librarian was understanding and let me borrow books for a week at a time, instead of the normal two days, without late fees.

  My mother was obviously expecting an answer so I huffed and put things away avoiding looking her in the eye. “I never read the kingdom announcements. Why would I bother?”

  “The king is holding a contest for a queen.”

  I froze and dropped the mushrooms in my hands. Her eyes bore into me waiting for what I was sure she expected to be regret on my part.

  “I…I thought he married last year.”

  “He got a consort, but turns out she was…well it didn’t go into details, but I think she might have been a hunter. Her head is on a spike outside the castle, or so I hear. He will be holding an open contest this time.”

  I kept my hands from clenching. I didn’t want to damage the food. Often mom managed to sell some of our dried or canned things that we had excess of so we had a bit more money for other things. Even if we couldn’t people would be willing to trade with us for cloth or labor.

  Two women living alone often meant hiring labor to fix things we could not do alone. I had learned a lot from books but sometimes, like when our roof needed repairing two years back, we needed someone that had experience.

  I closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of drying herbs, wildflowers that would be used for salve, and the berries I found the day before. The scent smelled wild and comforting and never failed to relax me.

  “I will be more careful mother. I promise not to go out until the contest has begun.”

  “They are choosing two girls from each providence. We have to go to the sign-up.”

  “No. They needn’t know me. I am of no consequence.”

  She leaned down rubbing my back and smoothing my windblown hair.

  “Alesia, every girl over sixteen is to
report to the nearest city library to have their likeness drawn. The library already has your testing information from school. Even if they didn’t, they have the list of every book you have taken out since you were five.”

  I suddenly regretted being the type of person to wants to know a bit about everything. I hadn’t kept my reading to local herbs and berries. I studied up on construction, agriculture, the laws of our kingdom, and what was known about the neighboring kingdoms. I often thought about how exciting it would be to visit them. I was well-read and if that was a factor he demanded from the contestants, I could be picked regardless of what I wanted.

  “I will not be chosen. A certain level of intelligence is required, but I am certain it will come down to beauty.”

  “You are a very beautiful young woman, Alesia. Many of the boys in town have asked me for your hand.”

  “How did I not know this?”

  Mother stood and started filling the shelves putting things in the order of how soon they needed to be preserved.

  “I know you girl. You would never leave me alone. I shall have to find myself a new husband before you would ever go off and get married.”

  She was not wrong, but I was shocked she even cared if I would worry. She had been scolding me for ten years about going over the fence at night despite it keeping us from starving and making us as well off as one could be in our little hamlet of a town.

  “Mother…”

  She pressed her fingers to my lips.

  “Don’t Alesia. I know you mean well and you know I will not marry. We will go this weekend to get your likeness drawn, your paperwork submitted, and return home. I am sure you are right and more influential girls will be picked. You can only visit the library once a week, others can daily. I am sure you are not the only well-read girl in the province.”

  I shot my mom a smile of thanks and helped her put away the rest of my finds. She was right. With the vampires searching for a bride for the king I would have to be careful. If I were grabbed during the night now it might not just be to be a feeder. No, I could end up in the palace with a hundred other girls trying to become the next queen…something I did not want.

  “I’ll stay inside at night mom. Until this is over.”

  Her relief was immediate and obvious. Her posture relaxed, the breath she likely didn’t notice she was holding was released and her wrinkles faded into the background.

  My mother was worn down from being a single mom in a world of men and fighters. But she had never let it touch me. She had cared for me, protected me, and ensured I was as educated as I wished to be. I owed her much and when I did marry it would be to a man willing to care for her so she could finally relax. She deserved that and so much more.

  Chapter 2

  The next morning saw most of us packing an overnight bag and starting our walk to the nearest city and very few in the fields and woods. Many knew it was a futile trip. Those like mother and I had no one to stay behind and work the fields chewed their bottom lips, twirled their hair, and grumbled about going hungry for a day. No work meant no food.

  I was just glad I snuck out the night before and found a new spot. We would have mushrooms to munch on for an entire day but it was better than going hungry as others would. We gave food to those that had it the worst when we did, but if we truly wanted to survive and be healthy it was not always possible.

  Mother would give more, but we decided a long time ago both of us had to agree or nothing went out. I was practical. I wanted backups in case of things like this. The rainy season was particularly hard as sometimes you could not see your hand in front of your face let alone the fields to work and the woods to forage. I didn’t want us hungry on those days. Unless we had some extra preserved food for emergencies or unruly weather, we didn’t sell or trade food.

  I saw a woman brought back to the village the day after a storm had ended. She had broken her leg while foraging for food and died of exposure. Stuck in the middle of the forest until the weather had cleared enough to find her body. Her two children had been left alone at home hungry and without supervision. They were shipped off to an orphanage as soon as the town elder contacted the local government officials.

  They stayed with mom and me for the three days it took. During which I heard a thousand-word lecture on how it could have been prevented if we had shared more of our food. I felt for the family and those poor children, I lost my father I knew the pain of losing a parent, but I had also seen families that were as soft-hearted as my mother starve while the families they fed lived.

  It was a harsh world and the fight to survive was real. Families attacked others on their way back to the village after a hard day’s work. These were people that had equal opportunity to work and instead lay in wait for exhausted members to come by with baskets of food. Hard workers starved and the cruel survived.

  There were two town guards meant to keep people from breaking into one another’s homes, and it worked, but they stayed in town, one working a twelve-hour day shift, one working the night shift, so anything that happened in the forest and fields was out of their jurisdiction. Without proof they were a thief, their hands were tied. Hence why I carefully foraged at night.

  “It’s a nice day today.”

  I looked up at the puffy clouds playing tag in the sky. They blew past us sometimes seeming lazy, other times with a force I was sure meant once the wind in the sky reached down to us, we would be blown to town no walking needed.

  “It is a good day for work. A waste of time to walk to the city when we know our children will not be chosen.”

  Mother let’s go of the conversation as the others responded similarly or not at all, choosing to make it a miserable silence. It would be hours before we arrived, the least they could do was make polite chit-chat.

  “I am very glad for the extra library visit. I brought my books to return and plan to grab more once I am there.”

  “You already read all five Alesia?”

  “Of course, I did. I have nothing else to do in the evenings.”

  “You are a pretty girl; I am not sure why you do not marry. In my day girls knew their place.”

  I rolled my eyes as the town's grumpy gram scolded me. Her two granddaughters trudged along one step behind her. “In your day women were uneducated twits who married the first man they saw.”

  Mother slapped my arm giving me the look that told me to keep my mouth shut. I was often disrespectful…or so the town elders said. Why should I listen to their silly rules? It was no longer the same world they grew up in. They needed to realize that and adapt. I was just helping. Mother looked stern, but I saw the merry twinkling in her eyes. She found my sass amusing, though I was always scolded for it. Still, I knew the smack on my arm was about a quarter of the force she should, and would, put into it if she disagreed with my words.

  “We also respected our elders.”

  “I respect knowledge. Judging by your very old-world comments it is obvious I have much more of that than you, so in reality, you should be respecting me.”

  “Alesia!”

  That one was a real smack. I had gone too far. Mother sighed, it was something she only did when exasperated with me, and apologized to the old bat. I stopped her and decreased my pace so I could be close to the old woman.

  “I am sorry if I offended you, but the fact that the king is looking for someone that is not of good breeding but is intelligent proves that I am right. The world has changed, a mind can and often is appreciated more than beauty.

  “No one cares about your looks anymore, it is a bonus to be pretty yes, but a rich husband, or even a well off but not rich husband, wants a woman that will be an asset to their business. Pretty does not mean hardworking or intelligent.

  “You need to realize the world is not looking for women that sit home and knit baby clothing anymore. They do not want breeders. They want women that contribute to society. That’s why the king built and pays to run public schools and libraries. Education is far more impor
tant than a pretty face.”

  I didn’t wait for a return comment. I would not enjoy her response, nor would I listen to her no matter her comments. I was not wrong. The world was an ever-changing place and she was not keeping up. My mother grew up during the changing times and knew my words to be true, but for some reason, the older ones seemed to have a hard time understanding that their rules no longer applied.

  “You better hope your education doesn’t get you to the palace. You may think you have a great mind, but that mouth will have you drained in no time.”

  I missed a step and only my mother grabbing my arm kept me from falling on my face as grandma grumpers responded loudly to my private remarks to her. I wanted to turn and slap her, the threat was real and no one, no matter how disrespectful, should be threatened with that.

  Being fed on by a vampire was painful and often led to death simply because they didn’t bother stopping before that point. They did keep some pets to feed on over and over, but the one time we saw one in the city she had been covered in bruises and bite marks, old scars from being fed on over and over from the same place.

  We all donated once a quarter, but many books I read said fresh and fighting was best. I did not wish to be that for eternity and only my mother squeezing my arm and silent pleas kept me from pushing the old woman down the hill we passed.

  “You think I am uncouth, but you are by far the most horrendous person I have ever met or heard tell of. It is an unspoken rule to never threaten one another with a fate worse than death. A rule your generation made and yet you so easily ignore it. If either of us needs to be taught manners you are in need of a charm school far more than I am.”

  I saw the old woman tense from the corner of my eye and the murmuring among the others let her know they all agreed with me on that point. I did not bother hiding my pleasure choosing to skip ahead to walk with some of the others my age. Let the old woman stew on that. She was not worth a second more of my time.

  “The young are often blind to the knowledge the old get simply by living so long.”