Tale of the Century Bride Complete: Historical Vampire Paranormal Romance Box Set Read Online Free Page B

of my wrath. Now go, cowardly cur! Go, quickly, before I change my mind.”
    Exactly as he was instructed, Mattis gave not a single objection to August’s declaration and immediately disappeared from their sight. It all happened so fast Catherine was not quite sure exactly if this were real or if she might be dreaming. She kept waiting to wake up from her dream.

Tale of the Century Bride Book One: Chapter 7
    Count August, happy that the matter was over, sighed at the affair then turned all his attention to Catherine. Now smiling, he spoke to her, “You were really, very brave, my maiden of Dalmar. There are very few amongst the living with the gift of such a strong will, a will capable enough to break the hold of a vampire’s glamour. You, my dear maiden, were as fierce… as an eagle in flight. Yes, that is it exactly. Come now, before any other carnage happens. I must now take you safely back to the village, little eagle.” He then held out his hand to beckon her to join him in the trip back to Dalmar.
    Catherine stood there for a second, gathering her wits about her. So much had happened in the last hour she was not entirely sure she should trust the stranger. After a few minutes she gathered her courage and instead stood right where she was. She looked at the new figure, Count August was his name she knew now, thanks to the events of a few moments ago.
    “Wait, my lord. Please. Just a moment. Please? Is what those vampires said true?”, Catherine quietly asked, hoping not to make him mad, but with a new courage growing in her small frame she decided to ask anyway. “Can the overlord committee really remove you from power if you have no heir?”
    Immediately Cornelius’s quiet face became rock solid stern. By the expression on his face, she knew that her question had left its mark. She knew that what they had said did have at least some truth to it.
    “It is true, little eagle – I cannot deny the truth. What you heard is true. My next bride must provide me an heir to assure the security of the village of Dalmar and her people. Now come with me before it gets any darker. We must leave this place,” and with that statement, Count August did not give her a chance to ask any more questions. He simply scooped her up into his strong arms and flew her back to her home with a speed unimaginable – other than in her dreams.
    Catherine’s recent excursion, her encounter with hostile vampires, her chance meeting with Count August himself, and then a flight back home was overwhelming to her in more ways than one. It would be very safe to say that it had left the young woman somewhat traumatized, by all the events she had witnessed. But the best part of all had to have been the fairytale ending – this single event, more than all others combined, did more than enough to balance out the distress she experienced at the hands of Mattis and his band of rogue vampires.
    The villagers watched in complete amazement as they soared in overhead – they flew in! What human being flies? None! But Catherine had just done exactly that! And now she was just dropped off by the Lord of their land, who in turn was flying back to his own home immediately after he had set her down safely. The trip that had taken her two days worth of walking had taken him less than ten minutes!
    Naturally, all the villagers who had seen this turn of events crowded about her with questions here and questions there, and all the villagers who had heard the news were just now coming to the crowd to ask more questions of their own. Catherine, still in shock just a bit, answered none of their questions, in fact she acted as if they were not even around.
    But instead she simply walked directly over to the volunteer list still hanging on the board in the middle of the town square, upon which she scrawled her name in earnest. The crowd assembled could not believe what they had seen. Flying in with the Lord of their land was unbelievable. But for Catherine to freely