The Princess Guard

Chapter Seventy-Five

Make peace

I yawned quietly while staring at my paperwork. I was tired, but not exhausted like I was. I felt surprisingly okay despite having melded together two souls yesterday. I glanced up at Salem as he stood by my door. Our eyes met and I couldn't hold back my smile. Returning to normal life, but with Salem as my mate, felt so good.

"You're so quiet" I leaned back and slid the paperwork away. He shrugged carelessly.

"I don't want to distract you" he smiled and I mocked his shrug.

"It's time for a break anyways, don't you think?" I smiled mischievously and he laughed. I'd been catching up for the last 4 hours. I even forbid any visitors today aside from Victoria. She hadn't even come in. I had to dive back in completely.

"I wanted to ask you something, actually" I spoke quietly now and Salem raised an eyebrow, tilting his head.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. Concern crossed his face now.

"You, well, you without memories.. you said you never intended on taking this job. I was just curious why that changed?" I didn't want to pry, but my genuine curiosity was killing me. I was nosey.

His shoulders fell slightly and I suddenly felt bad for asking.

"Well.. I was right, I never did intend on taking this job" he started slowly and I nodded along waiting for him to continue.

"For one thing, it's a big responsibility. Bigger than what I was doing. All I knew was how to take a life, not protect it." He spoke bluntly and I internally cringed at the thought of Salem being a killer. I couldn't picture it.

"When I got heavy into the work for the Westard King, I had a set of morals I wanted to stick to. I wouldn't kill children, and I wouldn't kill pregnant women." His tone was flat now. I could tell how tense he had become.

"When King Isaac approached me with this job, he said that my tactfulness and skill would be an asset to your protection. I didn't know he'd been watching my reports. My first thought was 'hell no'" I couldn't help but smile. I'm sure it wasn't appealing.

"I told him I would think about it, because who's gonna turn a King down immediately to their face? Not me, that's who." He laughed nervously and my smile disappeared.

"I continued on doing my missions for maybe a month or so, I'd completely forgotten about his proposal. Then I went on the last mission I ever did." I was on the edge of my seat now.

"It was simple, me and a few other guys had to go take out some opposing vampires that were playing as spies in the Westard Kingdom. This mission was touchy because there was rumors of a usurper lurking around. We had enough evidence of the fact after shadowing these people for awhile. The King said under no circumstances do we leave any witnesses. The final vampire we had to kill was at home. I was tasked to take him out and figured out he was in his home with one other person. I located him first, hoping to be silent enough to sneak in and out. I hit a snag, and suddenly had a witness." He stopped abruptly and his jaw clenched.

"The witness was his kid. He was maybe 9 years old. I killed him." he whispered slowly and I could hear the pain in his voice. My eyes widened.

"After that mission, I quit. Going against my morals I realized how far gone I was and that I needed out. So I took this job."

We stared at each other silently as I digested this information. I couldn't believe it.

"So now you know.. and you also know the worst thing I've ever done" he whispered with defeat now and I felt my face fall.