The Vampire Prince is out! We’re celebrating Invisible Day.
Dor is a precog. He’s only able to see a few seconds ahead of time, and the things he sees are mostly accidents and dangerous situations. For years, he’s been in love with Dante, the vampire prince, and someone is trying to kill him.
The problem is no matter how many times he saves Dante’s life, he doesn’t recognize him.
It’s a standalone novella, and you can read the first chapter below!
The Vampire Prince
People with magic powers don’t have fated mates, nor do vampires, and yet Dor knows he and Dante are meant to be. The problem is that Dante doesn’t see him. He could just as well have been invisible.
Dante didn’t know someone was trying to kill him until an angry woman gives him a piece of her mind. Apparently, her best friend, Dor, has premonitions and has saved his life several times already. There is something familiar about him, but Dante can’t recall ever seeing him before. He must have if he keeps saving his life, right?
When the queen, Dante’s maker, learns about Dor’s ability, she wants to hire him to be part of Dante’s guard, and Dante doesn’t mind. He’s intrigued by the quiet man with the fascinating skill and wouldn’t mind having him around. Dor doesn’t think he can protect Dante from anything, but wouldn’t passing up a chance to be close to the love of his life be incredibly stupid?
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Chapter 1
Dor Zaman stumbled to a stop on the busy sidewalk. Someone bumped into him from behind and cursed, but Dor couldn’t move, and he couldn’t blink away the vision taking over his awareness.
Someone would shoot the love of his life, send a stake no bigger than a toothpick through his heart.
Icy fear gripped him.
He hadn’t had a vision of his beloved in years. He’d left town, and Dor had been sure he’d never see him again.
He didn’t know his name, but the connection had been there since the first time Dor saw him when he’d been nothing but an awkward teenage boy. Sadly, his darling hadn’t seen him. Not then, nor any of the other times Dor had been near him.
He’d saved his life four times, but his beloved had only grunted exasperatedly or cursed at him without remembering they’d met before. Without realizing he’d be dead or seriously injured if it hadn’t been for Dor.
And Dor didn’t know how to tell him. There had never been a way to say: I saved your life.
Since Dor hadn’t grown out of the awkwardness when he left his teens behind, he always got tongue-tied in the presence of his darling… and most other people.
In the past, Dor had pushed him out of harm’s way three times and blocked his way once when he’d been about to get run over by a car.
Being run over by a car wouldn’t kill a vampire, but the plan hadn’t ended there. The plan had been to ram something through his love’s heart while pretending to check on him.
Dor couldn’t have allowed it to happen to anyone, but least of all his soulmate.
As the premonition blocked out the reality around him, his brain whirred. Never before had he had a vision about someone he wasn’t physically close to, so when the vision of the toothpick piercing his love’s heart wound down, Dor looked around.
He only had seconds.
His foresight was pretty useless since it only gave him a short duration of time, rarely more than thirty seconds, so he could never warn people about natural disasters or accidents likely to occur if they traveled somewhere.
Seconds. It was all he was given.
He scanned the crowd.
There were vampires, like his love, shifters, and people of elemental power, and then there was him.
Time.
Time wasn’t an element.
Both his parents had earth magic. Their disappointment in how he came out knew no bounds.
His dad had demanded a paternity test because no son of his could possibly be as flighty as Dor. Those of earth power didn’t get flaky children. And having visions of the future… It wasn’t unheard of, but more myth than reality.
Dor scanned the throng of people. Was his love here? There was no use in having a vision if he couldn’t do anything about it.
His mother hadn’t taken the demand of a paternity test well—how could Dor’s dad accuse her of cheating?
Their union hadn’t survived the conflict, but they both agreed on it being Dor’s fault.
He didn’t have much contact with either of his parents these days. Some years, one of them remembered his birthday and either sent a happy birthday text or called. It always surprised him when they did.
There!
He spotted his love across the street outside the ice cream parlor. Dor hadn’t seen him in years, but he looked the same. Breathtaking. Or maybe it was only Dor’s breath that got stolen at the sight of him. People didn’t appear to stop in their tracks to stare adoringly at his beloved.
They must be blind.
His better half had left town, along with most vampires. Dor didn’t know why, but he’d mourned the loss.
He sprinted out into the street. Cars honked as they hit the brakes, but Dor didn’t care. He only had seconds. If he hesitated, it would be too late.
His love was deep in conversation with the man by his side—the same man who always was by his side. Both of them held cones with ice cream scoops piled high.
Dor tackled his love into the guy right as pain bloomed in his upper arm. He grunted as he fell to the ground.
His darling straightened and glared at Dor as the ice cream splashed on the sidewalk. Some of it landed on Dor’s hand. The cold momentarily distracted him from the stabbing in his arm.
“For fuck’s sake.” Dark, dark eyes bore into his. There was no sparkling of amusement or signs of concern. Annoyance. It was an emotion Dor was familiar with, but for some reason, it hurt more than it normally did.
“Sorry.” Dor winced as he pushed to his feet. His knees stung, but it was nothing compared to the throbbing in his arm. He wouldn’t check, but he believed he had a toothpick piercing into his shoulder. He didn’t like blood, so he’d pretend it wasn’t there for as long as possible.
“Gun!” A woman’s scream sounded from farther down the street, and the guy his love had been talking to grabbed his arm and tugged.
His darling’s eyes narrowed, and he inhaled deeply. “You’re bleeding.” Fangs peeked out from underneath his upper lip.
Dor had assumed as much but didn’t dare look yet. He’d hoped his black T-shirt would conceal it, but he could sense a trickle along his arm.
“I’m fine.”
Hopefully, the woman who’d noticed the gun prevented the would-be assassin from trying again. Since no new vision swamped his awareness, he believed his love was safe for now.
“Dante, come on.”
Dante. Dor gazed tenderly at him. It fit. He looked like a Dante. Dark eyes, dark hair, sun-kissed skin.
Then cracks spread through his heart. Dante? Not Dante Silversti. Please say it wasn’t so.
Dante Silversti was the vampire prince, the one meant to rule this city once his mother—maker?—passed on the crown.
There had been a lot of speculation when the vampires had left, but since no one had taken over the throne, and everyone knew the wolf shifters wanted to, someone must’ve remained in the queen’s place.
He sighed and watched as Dante’s friend pulled him away. Neither one of them spared him a second glance.
This was the fifth time he’d saved Dante’s life, and he still didn’t recognize him. Most people treated him as if he were invisible. He was used to it, but it still stung.
With a deep sigh, he got moving. His arm hurt, and he modified his route to go by Sirona’s place.
* * * *
Dor knocked on Sirona’s door. She lived in a lovely cottage-style house in the old part of town. He leaned against the wall next to the door while he waited, careful not to get blood anywhere.
The door opened, and her frown was instant. “Dor?”
If he ever wanted proof he wasn’t invisible, all he had to do was go see Sirona.
“I got shot with a toothpick.”
She growled. She was a short, curvy, water woman—not a mermaid; she had water magic. Her long dark hair fell in messy waves, and she had flour on the front of her dark blue linen dress.
She was a nurse, a common profession among those with water affinities. Something about water being the healing element, though his parents would argue earth was the healing element.
He didn’t much care; he’d have gone to her had she been nothing but a normal human whose job had nothing to do with healing. Her best power, in his opinion, was that she noticed him.
She sighed, grabbed his unhurt arm, and pulled him inside the house. “What happened?”
“I was in town when I had a vision about him.”
“Who?” Her frown was instant, but he could tell she only listened with half an ear. Her focus was on the bathroom, where she kept a first-aid kit.
“My love.”
She gave him a quick glance before flicking the light switch on the bathroom wall and guiding him to sit on the toilet lid. “You didn’t tell me you’d met someone new.”
He winced. He’d tried dating, had been dating, but it never worked out. They’d go on a few dates, hook up a few times, then they grew bored with him. He didn’t mind much since by then he was daydreaming about all the things his true love would do differently from how they did it.
He was well aware he didn’t know Dante, and maybe this infatuation would go away if he were to spend an hour in his company, but it had been there since he was little more than a child.
It was different.
He was pretty sure it wasn’t only in his head. His entire being was tuned to Dante. Despite not having seen him in years, his vision had been about him. And sure, he was the intended victim, but it didn’t mean the people near him on the sidewalk had been safe.
“Dor?” Sirona shook his shoulder. “Are you having a vision or simply spacing out?”
“Spacing out. Sorry.”
She huffed. “Tell me what happened.” She rolled up the sleeve of his T-shirt and made a noise at the back of her throat. “If you wanted a piercing, there are better ways to go about it than to shove a piece of wood through your deltoid muscle.”
Dor glanced at where his shoulder met his arm and hissed. It hurt more when he saw it. There was a long toothpick still stuck in him.
“It wasn’t intentional.” He looked away. “Let’s leave it there.” Would it have been stuck in Dante’s heart if it had hit its target?
Sirona barked a laugh. “Sorry, darling. We have no way of knowing what germs are crawling around this stick. I will not leave it.”
And then she pulled.
Dor might have hissed and cursed at her, but then she was cleaning his wound and he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want a piercing in his shoulder, arm, or whichever body part the area belonged to.
“Now tell me what happened.” She slapped on a huge band-aid and went to wash her hands again.
He slumped against the water tank. “I was on Station Street when I had a premonition. My darling was to be assassinated. I haven’t seen him in years, so at first I believed my powers had developed, and I was seeing visions of people at greater distance.” Though, for a short blink-of-an-eye moment, he might have believed it was because they were soulmates, and he’d know if his better half was in danger.
Sirona sighed. “Sweetie, you’re thirty-six. I’d say any hopes of your skill developing sailed away about sixteen years ago.”
She was right, of course, no one developed past their teens, but was this all he was meant to be? He might as well have been born powerless.
As if she could read his mind, she patted his hand in consolation. “Then what happened?”
He took a deep breath. “I searched the crowd and spotted him across the street. I only had seconds, so I ran—” She winced. “—and pushed him out of the way.”
“Could you please stop putting yourself in danger to save others. You ran across the street? There is a lot of traffic on Station Street.”
He stared at her. “He was on the other side.”
A nod. “What did he say?”
Dor thought back. “For fuck’s sake.”
She tried not to grin. “Okay, then what?”
“He glared, told me I was bleeding, and ran off with the guy he was with.”
Anger made her normally pale blue eyes turn into stormy oceans. “What?”
“It was good. The shooter was still around, so it was for the best.”
“The hell it was! Didn’t he at least say thank you?”
Thank you? Dor stared at her. “I pushed him and made him drop his ice cream.”
She huffed. “Let him die next time.”
Dor made a wounded sound. “I don’t think there will be a next time. I suspect he’s Dante Silversti.”
Her eyes, still stormy oceans, went wide. “Dante Silversti? Is he back in town?”
Dor winced. “He’s a vampire, has been away for years, and his friend called him Dante.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Okay. That’s… I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”
“Bad. It means I can never have him.” He’d have to continue to date idiots or be alone for the rest of his life.
“So dramatic.” She laughed low. “You don’t know him. It’s a childhood infatuation. I bet he snores, drops dirty underwear on the floor, and spends hours admiring himself in the mirror.”
Dor frowned at her. “Why?”
“Because men are slobs. Seriously, what’s so hard about putting your dirty laundry in the hamper?”
Dor was confused. “I do.”
She patted his arm. “I know, honey, but you’re an exception. If all men were like you, we wouldn’t have any problems in the world.”
He highly doubted she was right.
“Come on, let’s have some ice cream. I bought a new flavor I’ve never had before.”
“Weren’t you baking?” There was still flour on her dress. She brushed a hand over her stomach and frowned. If he wasn’t afraid it would be interpreted wrong, he’d buy her an apron. She often spilled things on herself when she was in the kitchen. Though he assumed she already owned an apron but didn’t use it.
“Sourdough, I’ve put it in the fridge to rise until tomorrow.”
He nodded while following her into the kitchen. He’d never understand baking.
Ofelia Grand 