“Love? Darling, you’re the ruler of a nation. What kind of love are you even talking about?”
“Where on earth did you go?!”
Marianna was tearing her room apart, but she just couldn’t find it. Isn’t it always the way with small things? She swore it was right here just a moment ago—she’d definitely seen it!
“Who are you looking for?” April asked, stirred awake by the frantic shouts of her charge.
“Him!!!”
Marianna didn’t bother to clarify who “him” was, disappearing into the piles of papers and books cluttering her office. She’d completely revamped Cedric’s old study, swapping out the wallpaper for a deep emerald green and tossing out the creepy animal heads—once prized hunting trophies—like so much junk.
Now, the walls were adorned with prestigious certificates and diplomas belonging to both living and deceased members of the Leromeo family. “An office is the pride and face of the family!” Marianna had declared with fervor when her household questioned the sudden makeover.
Design and taste were never an issue for the young woman, but organization? That was a whole different story. The problem was, in her past life as Mary, Marianna had never managed anything. Heck, she’d had zero connection to politics. Concepts like deadlines, time management, and prioritizing tasks simply didn’t exist in her bright, airy head.
The search continued. The cat purred and stretched, loosening up her stiff paws. Joining in the hunt for something—she didn’t even know what—didn’t exactly appeal to her.
“Maybe you left ‘him’ in your bedroom?” April finally offered, just as Marianna let out an excited yelp.
“Found it!”
All this time, the frantic girl had been searching for a pencil. Why she needed that specific pencil when her desk was overflowing with them, even Marianna herself couldn’t explain. But now, harmony reigned in her soul.
“My dear girl, you need to learn how to be a leader and a ruler,” April grumbled disapprovingly, curling back into a ball.
Marianna’s face darkened. There was truth in the cat’s words, of course. She’d taken on way too much. So far, only three people in their family knew she was a “transmigrator.” There was also Kitano, but he wasn’t technically a Leromeo, so he didn’t count among the inner circle.
Mona was in on the secret—her first friend, first betrayer, and now the primary keeper of the hearth, helping Marianna just as she once helped Cedric. It hadn’t been easy for the woman. After healing Marianna, Mona had lost a huge chunk of her life energy.
Now, Mona looked like an elderly woman, complete with all the associated ailments. Her healing gift still worked, but she often warned Marianna that her days were now on a countdown. “Just like regular people, then?” Marianna had asked at the time. Mona nodded. They hadn’t revisited the topic since, and Mona did everything in her power to ensure Marianna lived a long, happy life with as few domestic burdens as possible—though those burdens were still numerous, even overwhelming.
Another person privy to Marianna’s secret was Caleb, an ancient vampire who hid the fact that he could also transform into a dragon. He was, coincidentally, the ruler of the Shadow Lands. His power was enough to conquer at least Irmirion—the land of dragons—and claim a hefty chunk of Veyra.
But Caleb always laughed at Marianna’s concerns. “Why would I want your lands?” he’d say over and over. “I’ve got enough problems of my own.” Spilling her secret was definitely not in his interest—Marianna’s blood could spark universal conflict, wars, and hatred. All because it had the power to restore the balance of energies in people’s bodies.
Marianna sighed heavily. She’d thought about it countless times—if they took small amounts of her blood each month, they could start restoring the harmony of the three energies in humans. With the help of the Sirens (though finding them would be tough after the death of Cedric’s Heart), they could transfer dragon and vampire energy, while Marianna’s blood would restore the human balance in the body, ensuring the subject didn’t die.
But then she faced the same moral dilemma Cedric had once grappled with. Not everyone could handle dragon magic, for instance. Some would die or undergo severe mutations. Yes, her blood could bring balance, but the person would have to endure absolute hell to get there.
Sure, there’d probably be those willing to risk everything, but… gambling like that was dangerous, especially when fueled by hatred.
“What are you sighing about, Marianna?” April asked without lifting her head.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” the girl remarked sadly, sitting at her desk and propping her head on her hands.
“Are you thinking about your fiancé?”
Marianna shot the cat an annoyed look. Yes, Samuel was the third and final person (or being? Well, a dragon, technically) who knew the truth—the full truth—about her being in this body. Their marriage tattoos still marked their hands, their bond as unbreakable as ever, so occasionally she could hear fleeting thoughts from Samuel in her mind, like “I miss you” or “How are you?”
She never felt compelled to respond. The guilt stemmed from the possibility that their feelings might just be hormonal (or something local to this world), since they were a true pair. A fact Samuel, for some mega-dragon reason of his own, had chosen to keep quiet about. Which was exactly why Marianna was mad at him.
“We’ve got a ton of problems to solve,” Marianna said in a serious tone, “including reforming the system of the Upper and Lower Houses.”
“You can’t do that,” the cat cut in sharply. “It’s been building up in the Leromeo family for years. You can fight this nonsense, sure, but not with just your strength, or even your children’s.”
Marianna flared up, her face flushing red.
“What children?!”
“What did you think, kiddo?” April finally turned to face her… or rather, turned her muzzle. “Here, the throne is passed down through inheritance, from father to child, from mother—well, also to child. Basically, from kin to offspring, got it?”
“In my case, it’s not that simple,” Marianna frowned. “Mateo is only 10. He’ll take my place when he grows up.”
“If he takes it,” April pointed out reasonably. “First, that’ll be decided by the council. Second, for him to replace you, you’d either have to retire or die, which I sincerely hope you’re not planning for the next 20 years.”
“Longer than that.”
“Even better.” April sighed heavily. “Anyway, back to the council. It was smart to establish it. All decisions now go through a general vote. You’ve already done more than Cedric and all the rulers before him—you’ve practically leveled the Lower House with the Upper in terms of decision-making.”
“You don’t see what I’m up against,” Marianna shook her head. “While we’re practically drowning in money here, people like my mom can barely scrape together enough for bread.”
“Remind me, where does she work?”
“Nowhere,” Marianna admitted reluctantly.
“And where does your dad work?”
“He passed away a few years ago.”
“So,” April sat up, visibly indignant, “you want to find a way to allocate funds to people who literally don’t work, don’t earn anything, and have no alternative source of income. Did I miss anything?”
Marianna sighed heavily for the third time and buried her nose in her documents. Of course, April was right. Daniella had an incredible education and could work as a diplomatic representative in Irmirion, gaining access to closely guarded information. She could earn money for her seven (or five, the ones living with her) children and not create more problems for Marianna, who was already drowning in other issues. Could she? Absolutely. But the Lower House meant a life without means for a young family. It was always a hundred times harder than life in the Upper House, and Marianna was determined to put an end to that.
“Alright,” she waved a hand to calm the cat, “let’s focus on the current problem instead. Yesterday, Mr. Bershansky came to me complaining that the equipment running on dragon energy broke down. And before that,” Marianna started rifling through a chaotic pile of papers for the right document, “Ah, here it is! Mr. Ellinsky had a similar issue. They had a reserve of energy, and our technicians even looked at their equipment, but they couldn’t figure out a solution.”
“Have you looked at the equipment yourself?” April inquired.
“No,” Marianna shook her head, “Kitano did. I trust his judgment.”
Kitano had become an advisor to Marianna. She physically couldn’t handle half the tasks she intended to tackle according to her status, but with Kitano’s help, results were achieved—albeit a bit chaotically, much like the mess on her desk.
“In short,” Marianna summed up, “we’ve got equipment that suddenly stopped accepting dragon energy as a power source. In other words,” she compared it to her old world, “it’s like if a phone stopped charging, not because the cord broke, but because the electricity from the outlet wouldn’t flow through the cord to the phone.”
“When you start talking in terms from your past world, you freak me out.”
“I’ll unlearn it,” Marianna nodded seriously, fully aware that wasn’t going to happen. Analogies like that came much easier to her than pondering the acceptance of dragon fire.
And on top of everything, an academy session was looming on the horizon!
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Welcome to the continuation of the Leromeo family series—Changing the Dragon: Vampire’s Trap! I hope you enjoy the endless adventures of our favorites—Marianna and her spirit-cat April, as well as the men who are always by our girls’ side.
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Always yours,
Alexandra Metaphor.