Infatuated (Unedited)

Chapter 22

When someone tells you to leave something alone, it's usually best that you do just that. Me on the other hand, when my curiosity is peaked I dig and dig until I'm satisfied with what I find. This is what brought me to the library. I set up a meeting with my father in hopes of getting some information on Nicolas but ended up with Adam who's none too pleased with me at the moment. Then found the courage to ask Nicolas about Simone only to be told I should 'forget' her. Now, he's upset too and I'm still without answers.

It feels selfish to be thinking about my own needs when I have not one, but two men mad at me for unknown reasons but this feeling inside of me won't let me be. Nicolas' reaction only made me wonder what happened to her and initially led to my current position fruitlessly looking through old census records.

A yawn made it's way through my lips despite my efforts to muffle it. I didn't get much sleep last night--couldn't with the kiss still fresh on my mind. Everything about it felt right and oddly, didn't feel new. Every move his tongue made against mine was anticipated like I'd had the pleasure of feeling it before then. Memories of it kept me up most of the night and when I had managed to fall asleep I was jolted awake by nightmares filled with being bitten on that dark street. When sleep was no longer an option I made my way here, where I have been pretty much all day.

With my face resting against the hand that's not clicking through pages of records, I rubbed my left eye free of the sleep trying to overcome me. I suppose I could come back after I've had the sleep I need but I know as soon as the cold late Autumn air hits me I'll be wide awake. Keeping this in mind I kept clicking, glancing over the names and nearly missed what I was looking for when another yawn rocketed through me causing my eyes to water.

Nicolas Ortiz DeLeon

Spose: Simone Jacqueline Mathieu

I got so excited that sleep was soon forgotten only to realize that other than an address and names of a few other possible relatives, this was it. I don't know what I was looking for exactly--maybe some dates of birth and death but neither were present. Frustrated I dropped my head on the keyboard. The keys smashed together causing a loud ping from the speakers.

Jumping up quickly, I looked around making sure the few people that were in there with me hadn't noticed. In the process, I noticed a new window on the screen that included Nicolas's place of birth with a weird symbol at the beginning of his name. Pulling up a new tab I entered a few words to describe the weird symbol, smacking my forehead again when the page loaded with a title I should have remember from my dream.

Prince.

In that same search engine I began a new search, suddenly fueled and feeling that I might actually be getting somewhere. There are tons of history books with the English and Chinese royal family trees so maybe there is a book of Spanish royalty that will finally yield answers. The search results were filled with a bunch of opinion pages and news articles about the extinct bloodline and rumors of unclaimed treasure. Beneath that, there was one that revealed a title of a supposed book that was disputed by the American government. Without hesitation I closed everything out and made my way to the front desk feeling hopeful.

The older woman behind it was checking the backs of a few books and only looked up with a smile after hearing me yawn for a third time. "Sorry Sweetie. Need me to look something up for you?"

"Yes," smiling back sheepishly I dragged my nails lightly across the wooden counter, chewing on the inside of my cheek, "you wouldn't happen to have the Golden Book of Kings, would you?"

The woman looked at me from over the rim of her dark brown framed glasses, "No." She answered a little too quickly going back to her work as if I weren't standing there.