Kidnapped By The Vampire Prince

“What?” he asked, annoyed.

“I really like when you say my name,” I told him honestly, smiling happily to myself. It made my heart flutter.

He did a double take, his eyes widening slightly. I beamed at him, taking in his almost-embarrassed expression. “Y-you’re stupid,” he finally muttered, turning his back to me.

I held in a giggle, settling for just grinning widely at his broad shoulders. Maybe he calling me stupid all the time wasn’t so bad.

The door suddenly burst open and in came a blur of blonde. Three seconds later it felt like a cement brick had flattened me. “I’m so sorry!” Joel cried, crushing me painfully against the bed.

“J-Joel! O-ow!” I wheezed, pressing myself into the bed.

“Get off,” Vincent ordered.

Joel immediately backed off me, his eyes pleading forgiveness. “It’s all my fault! I shouldn’t have left you! I heard the voicemail on Vincent’s phone and nearly died! It never occurred to me Ashton might be at the fair!”

I held up my hand to silence him. “It’s fine. It didn’t occur to anyone. Don’t beat yourself up too much about it.”

“Vincent already did that for me,” he muttered disdainfully.

“Want s’more?” Vincent asked threateningly.

Joel shook his head rapidly. “No! I’m good!”

I laughed at him. “Vincent, leave him alone. He didn’t do anything on purpose. And I’m okay now-”

“Emily!” a new voice cried, a new form appearing in the doorway. “You’re finally awake!”

My eyes grew as round as saucers. “Sebastian!” Without thinking, I threw the blankets off my bed and scrambled to my feet, aiming to fling myself at him. Instead, as soon as my feet touched the ground, I fell forward, unaccustomed to my weight.

“Careful!” Sebastian advised me, his arms swooping down to catch me before I could touch the ground.

“Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly, my gaze over his shoulder to where Vincent had his arms outstretched toward me. He dropped them quickly. I gave him a look that told him I’d seen his gesture. He abruptly turned away from me.

Sebastian set me back down on the bed. His emerald eyes searched mine, worry evident in his. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “I think I’m getting used to it,” I joked.

He didn’t find it funny. “When I get my hands on Ashton,” he started in a low, dangerous tone.

“Emily!”

My head snapped to the door as once again a new person appeared. “Luella! Solomon!” I added after seeing the umber haired man join his wife. “Wow! It’s been a long time!”

Solomon chuckled. “It always seems like we meet when vampire attack you, doesn’t it?”

“I’m okay,” I told him before I could ask.

Luella danced to my side, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you so much! The manor is so silent without you and Vincent.”

.

.

Vincent snorted. “With Fiona here?”

“Fiona’s been dogging Sebastian around lately. It’s keeping her occupied,” Luella explained, releasing me from her death grip.

I shot a sly look at Sebastian. He returned it with an embarrassed one, dropping his gaze. At least he kept true to his words.

The bed sunk down to my left and I glanced over to see Solomon sitting next to me. “Emily, we need to talk about what happened last night.”

My chest tightened. I knew they were going to ask about it, but I didn’t know what to say. Ashton had never said I couldn’t tell them about the decision he was forcing me to make, but he also never said I could. Anyway, how was I supposed to tell Solomon that Ashton was making me choose between his son and myself? But I had to tell them! We’d both be in more danger if I kept it to myself.

“Emily?”

“After they took me from the carnival they took my blood to make sure I was indeed a Blue Blood,” I rushed, my gaze dropping to the ground. “T-they told me they wanted me so they could use my blood and sell it and stuff. They want me alive so they can, excuse my lack of vocabulary, harvest it. I told them no…” I hesitated.

Sebastian bent down in front of me. “What else, Em?”

I stared at him, trying to calm my frantically beating heart. “I-I… They said if I didn’t go with them, then they would kill you…”

His eyes widened. “Kill me?”

“Yes! They’re making me choose between us, Sebastian!” I cried, clenching the bed sheets in my fist. “How can I do that? I couldn’t choose you over me, Seb!”

“Calm down, Em,” he said slowly, putting his hands on my shoulders.

“Emily, why did they let you go?” Solomon asked. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t take you while they had you…”

“Father!” Sebastian and Vincent protested.

He smiled sheepishly. “What? I’m just saying…”

I shook my head. “No, I know what you mean. They gave me a week to come to my decision.”

“A week, huh?” he responded, furrowing his eyebrows together. “That’s not a lot of time…”

“I won’t let them kill you,” I promised, returning my attention to Sebastian. “I-I don’t know what I’ll do, but I won’t choose myself over you-”

He shook his head. “No, Emily. You’re a human. I’m a vampire. Who do you think has a better choice?”

“But-”

“That would be a stupid move thinking you would be okay with Ashton,” Vincent interjected, giving me a hard look. “Think about it. If you go with them, what about your family? What about your friends? What about Sebastian and Fiona and Joel and my parents? What about…” he trailed off, his eyes hardening.

I knew what he was going to say.

What about me?

My chest tightened and before I knew it, I was fighting back tears. “I don’t want to choose.”

.

.

“Then don’t,” Luella said softly, placing a hand on my thigh. “You’re a human. What Ashton is planning is illegal for vampires.”

“And since it’s come down to threatening the next King, we can take action,” Solomon added. “We’ll keep you protected, Emily.”

“What do you mean by that? You don’t understand, Sebastian. They’re coming back for me-”

“You’ll stay here then,” Solomon decided. “If they come here, we can fend them off.”

“Fend them off? What does that mean?”

“It means we’ll make sure Ashton doesn’t take you, or me,” Sebastian explained, smiling gently at me. “There’s only three of them, right? There’s five of us here, plus our guards. They have no choice of beating us. We’ll throw them in jail.”

“Or kill them,” Vincent said darkly.

“You’re going to fight?” I gasped.

Solomon gave me a solemn look. “It’s the best we can do, Emily. We can’t let them have you. You’re part of our family now, whether you want to be or not. Sebastian can take care of himself, you on the other hand…”

“You’re a lot more fragile,” Luella finished.

My head was beginning to throb. I didn’t want anyone to fight. Even if the Rutherfords had the upper hand, Ashton could still manage to surprise them. What if someone died? My heart tightened at the thought. Ashton had said he’d kill Sebastian…

“I’m sorry,” I finally apologized.

All five vampires stared at me. “Sorry?” they echoed in perfect unison.

“I’m creating problems for all of you,” I elaborated, feeling like a complete idiot. “I’m putting Sebastian in danger…”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Sebastian shook his head at me. “We’re the ones who kidnapped you first… Well, Vincent is.”

“I’m not putting any blame on him!” I cried quickly.

Sebastian cocked an eyebrow. “Defending him?”

“I- What- No!”

Luella beamed at me. “Having you two live together seems to have improved your relationship! How nice!”

Solomon wrapped an arm around me. “I knew Vincent had a weird interest in you.”

“Father!” Vincent snapped.

Solomon looked at him innocently. “What?”

“Shut up!”

“Someone’s embarrassed,” Joel taunted quietly.

“Do you want my fist in your face again?”

“No! No! I’m kidding! Kidding, Vincent! Don’t hurt me!”

The King and Queen chuckled while Joel cowered in fear behind Sebastian. Vincent glared at the group. Sebastian sighed, turning to me. “I hope you don’t mind, Emily, but you’ll be staying here for the next week.”

A numbness spread through me. “Another week… here?”

Sadness dipped into his eyes. “You don’t want to stay?”

“That’s not what I meant!” I corrected, shaking my head. “It’s just, I finally caught up in math and now I’ll be behind again…”

He chuckled, ruffling my hair. “Vincent will teach you.”

Vincent snorted. “Yeah, right.”

I knew he would.

“Sebastian, you’ll have to go change everyone’s memories again,” Solomon stated, pushing himself off the bed. “Fiona is getting your things from your house at the moment, Emily.”

“Okay,” I responded, pushing myself off the bed. This time I was able to stay upright. “Vincent?”

His sapphire eyes snapped to mine. “What?”

“Would you make me something to eat?” I questioned, using the most innocent voice I could muster.

Silence filled the room as everyone waited for his answer. His eyes narrowed at me while his lips twitched. It seemed like he was having an internal struggle. Finally he let out a long sigh. “Fine.”

Luella and Solomon exchanged looks, both of them clearly surprised by his answer, Sebastian looked smug, and Joel smirked.

“Let’s go,” he demanded, hurriedly exiting the room.

I followed after him quickly, but before I left the room I caught Luella’s last whispered comment. “I think our son’s in love.”

Involuntarily, my heart jumped, but I tried my best to ignore it. Love? I almost laughed. That was impossible. Vincent didn’t…

My eyes traveled to the broad shoulders I had stared at earlier. Was it impossible? He had said himself he was interested in me. We had known each other long enough… He’d stayed up with me during thunderstorms. He got jealous easily… He was worried enough to the point he got angry…

I shook my head. Assuming things led to bad results. Right now, I’d just let things play out as they would.

“What do you want to eat?” Vincent asked me, glancing over his shoulder.

“Um, my favorite,” I responded vaguely, trying to keep the smirk that was threatening my face off.

Vincent faced forward again. “So you want a bowl of Cinnamon Life with sliced bananas?”

I blinked. When had he learned

that?

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