Blueeyeddevil06, thank you for being my beta!
This had multiple POVs and time jumps - warning. Also, I trust you enough to follow everything. Thank you.
Sophia, Bulgaria, ten years ago…
Usagi sat outside at a table for two on the main thoroughfare in Sophia, at, oddly enough, an Italian restaurant. Vlad joined her fifteen minutes late.
"And how is Lucy?"
He sighed and jokingly rolled his eyes. "Glad she's a vampire and doesn't need to sleep at night. The child I found seems to hate the daylight hours as much as we do, but she doesn't have the excuse of being a vampire."
She laughed and said, "Let me guess, you're a total sap for the child."
"Yes, whenever Lucy gets annoyed, I remind her I crumble when she cries too."
"Anyone who really knows you would believe you'd do anything for a girl you love. It doesn't surprise me."
He grew serious then, "and it's why I asked for this lunch. You know I've long seen you as a sister."
She smiled fondly, "I do."
"There are people, well, vampires who know who you are. I managed to kill them, but that doesn't mean that others won't find out too."
She grew pale, "they knew about me as Astrid?"
"Yes, hopefully, the knowledge died with them, but…you need to know it's a possibility that more will discover the truth."
She looked around furtively. She knew it's why they were speaking English in a country that spoke Bulgarian, using the Cyrillic alphabet. It was harder, not impossible, but more challenging to be overheard.
She watched as a couple walked down the street with their toddler and a baby in a stroller. The man was smiling at something his wife had said.
She then fixed her attention back on him, "so, it's coming out that I'm a princess by birth?"
He frowned. "I wish that was all that it was. The amount of power your father held was incredible and-"
"And he sacrificed his only virgin daughter to a vampire to attempt to gain more."
"And money."
"Whaaat?"
"All these centuries later, the truth is coming out. There is a fortune in gold hidden somewhere in your family home, under all the rubble now. The money he was given to hand his beautiful daughter over to a monster." He hadn't lived long after she was given to the monster. It wasn't even her that did anything. She couldn't have. As much as he had betrayed her, she still loved her father.
Therapy didn't exist back then, and now, in the modern era, she recognized it for the unhealthy relationship it was. Her father was a narcissist. It meant that when he wanted to look good, he was capable of the most ostentatious displays. She had thought as a child that it meant that he loved her. She had since learned it meant that he adored himself above anyone. Her birthday parties, as the only princess, were so grand and special that she spent the whole day feeling like the most important child in the world. The praise everyone had for the party only built up her father in their eyes, which was why he did anything for her. It devastated her when she realized that. It was the only reason he did anything for her or anyone.
Still, with as narcissistic as her king of a father was, it was her mother that drew notice among the supernatural.
She was a human princess, yes, but she was the daughter of the highest priestess of her time. Witches, as they were called in most cultures, had a hierarchy. Her mother outranked them all.
As a priestess during her pregnancy, she blessed her daughter. Even in a way unknown to Usagi/Astrid today. Friends and epic love were her blessings. But love was where she had put her most power behind. The love her daughter would find would put other true loves to shame.
"Do they know I don't have her magical power?"
"They didn't care. They had heard of the prophecy. Your husband becomes king of Earth."
"Lies!" She shouted and then blushed. The noise had drawn attention more than the unknown words did.
Vlad sighed. "I know the true prophecy just like you do. Also, and you've lived long enough to understand how human greed works."
"That doesn't take an extended lifespan," Usagi said in frustration.
"No, but wishes are more solid than reality. It's why people buy lotto tickets."
"It's my destined love who will be king." She scowled down at her glass of chardonnay.
"You don't want one." He said, knowing full well her feelings on the subject.
"No, I get that Lucy is worth all the fixation you have on your fated love, but that's hard to fathom when I haven't met mine. I don't think I even want to."
"When you meet him, you'll feel differently. I lived centuries before I met her. I know the extreme lack of interest in love, or even intimacy before meeting her."
"I find it depressing that fated love can be born so far apart."
"But isn't that the point? Fated love finds a way. How romantic is that? I believe I became a vampire to exist long enough for me to meet Lucy. You will live long enough to find your king of Earth. It's why he purchased you, but you win in the end."
The pasta they had ordered arrived, and they both started eating.
"Jackass men interpret the prophecy the way they want. How do I trust him?"
Vlad sat back and took a sip of his wine. "Stop being so self pitying. No man you're fated for could be untrustworthy. Destiny and fate have better than that in store for you."
She frowned at her meal. "It's hard to imagine a man I love like that. The love you have for Lucy seems overwhelming and the love William has for Drucilla just seems stupid."
"His love is returned in kind. I know you don't get her, I truly don't either, but she adores him. Isn't that all someone could want?"
"No. I don't want a crazy person, I want a brilliant man. One who chooses me with his brain. Not the stars and the flowers that 'talk'."
When Vlad walked away from dinner towards the home that housed the two girls he loved, one was immortal and the other a baby. He thought about Usagi/The Astrid he would see her married one day and kneel at the feet of the two of them as his king and queen.
A few days ago, from present-day in London….
Phillip Anderson smiled as he read Dr. Yamato's post on corpses having no blood, but having no physical injuries. His superiors might have accepted vampires into the police force, but it still pissed him off. He couldn't fathom how they could trust things that had to live off human blood to survive.
He wrote down the link for the site off of his work computer. This was a reply he would make at home on his personal laptop. He knew if he did it at work he could be tracked. His home laptop had firewalls and a VPN that showed he was in Singapore. He knew he couldn't be tracked. And if he was, he doubted anyone could do anything against him. After all, vampires were a secret.
When he arrived home that night, he immediately went to his laptop, excitedly. He logged off the porn website he had apparently left open when he had passed out drunk the night before and pulled up the link he'd written down.
He spent an hour and fourteen minutes detailing vampires, how they kill, and how to destroy them and sent it all to Dr. Yamato. He then linked some case files he had stolen and saved to his computer.
Smiling, he pressed send then went to the cupboard and poured himself a large whiskey.
Present-day in London….
Minako pulled out a long silver chain that she had attached to her waist and let it slowly uncoil. She smirked and started swinging it, wrapping it around the approaching werewolf, and using it to immobilize him. It had wrapped around his arms and upper torso, holding him fast. She loved the power of her chain.
Then using her vampire strength, she punched the werewolf in the face knocking him out and watching him crumple to the dirty ground. The alley around her reverberated with the sound of the tall muscular man hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes.
She then turned to the policeman next to her. "Put on the silver handcuffs and hold him a couple of days until we're further away from the full moon. Then put him in a line-up, he's your guy."
The young police officer looked at the unconscious man nervously. "Are you sure it's safe?"
His older partner chuckled and said, "My last partner retired as an old man. This might all seem dangerous, but she's protective of us."
"I-I know." The rookie stuttered. "When they asked who wanted to do something… unique, I wasn't expecting this. Werewolves exist! How is that possible?"
Minako smiled at the officer, "I'm a vampire, you know that right?" And for a second time that night, someone went down hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes. The rookie fainted.
She raised one eyebrow and looked at the older police officer. "You didn't tell him?"
"Hey, that was me twenty-three years ago. I'm sure he'll do the same thing to his trainee. Don't let him fool you, he's incredibly brave and intelligent." She smiled kindly at the unconscious rookie.
That night when she got in her car to drive away, she played the old song, Werewolves In London. It amused her for several reasons, the first was obvious after the evening she had, and the second was because the song had been based on the truth. She had told Warren Zevon about them back in seventy-eight, and he wrote the song knowing no one would realize the truth behind his words.