Kidnapped By The Vampire Prince

I frowned a tiny bit. So they were planning on keeping me away from the ball. That wasn’t any fun. Trying to be inconspicuous, I slid my gaze over to Vincent. Our eyes met and after a moment he sighed, inclining his head a fraction of an inch. I brightened up immediately. Hopefully he was receiving my telepathic question of whether or not he was still going to be my fairy godmother. Why should I miss out on the fun at the ball? I wanted to dance too. It would take my mind off of the impending danger that Ashton posed.

“You don’t have to worry about anything,” Luella told me, her soft eyes meeting mine as I turned to look at her.

I smiled back at her. “I still will though.”

She laughed quietly. “I can’t say I blame you. Even I’m a little worried myself, although I’m also sure that nothing will go against our favor.”

“Enough of this serious talk!” Solomon said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s talk about something more exciting.”

“Cute guys?” Fiona said enthusiastically.

“The NASCAR race?” Sebastian added.

Joel nearly shot up from his seat. “Fried squid?”

Vincent sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Just shut up, Joel.”

“What? Aww, does that mean we aren’t talking about fried squid? I really want some…”

“Well if Vincent doesn’t want to talk about fried squid, maybe he wants to talk about something a little more personal,” Sebastian said slyly.

Vincent gave him a blank stare. “Like what?”

He looked pointedly at me. It took all I had to control the blush threatening to spread across my cheeks.

“You’re stupid,” Vincent said with a sigh.

Sebastian shrugged, the corners of his lips curving up into a smug smile. “Whatever you say, Vince. I’m done. If you’ll excuse me…”

Solomon nodded. “You may go.”

“Where are you off to?” Luella inquired.

“Shower,” Sebastian responded.

I sat up a little straighter. “Wait, can I come with you?”

Sebastian blinked at me while both Solomon and Luella stared at me with shocked expressions. Fiona giggled, patting my shoulder. “I didn’t know you were into that.”

It took me a moment to realize my words came out wrong. Flushing, I shook my head. “No! That’s not what I meant!” I sent a panicked look to Vincent, who rolled his eyes at me. “I just want to talk to you for a moment!”

“Sure?” Sebastian responded in a questioning tone. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Secret,” I responded, glancing around the table.

He got up from the table and I followed immediately, going to stand by his side. Solomon, Fiona, and Luella all bid us a farewell and goodnight, but Vincent just scowled. After a moment he stood up as well. “I’m coming with you guys too.”

My mouth opened in protest, but I stopped myself before I said anything. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Would it really matter if Vincent read it too? Sure, he was a little hotheaded, but it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. But what if it was something awful? I didn’t want Vincent to read that…

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After a few more seconds of hesitation and a suspicious look from Solomon, I decided there was no way I could convince Vincent not to come. I would have to deal with whatever would happen. The three of us trooped out of kitchen and into the hallway. Nobody spoke as we made our way to a room where we wouldn’t be overheard. Sebastian led the way, deciding my temporary room would be the best- it was the furthest from the room that the others were in.

“What do you want to talk about?” Sebastian questioned as soon as we were in my room with the door shut.

“Well, actually, I’m not sure yet,” I responded slowly, sliding my hand into my back pocket. “The other night Luca gave me something…”

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “Luca?”

My eyes snapped to Vincent. “You didn’t tell anyone?”

“I told Father,” he returned, crossing his arms. “I didn’t feel that Sebastian needed to know.”

“Know what?” Sebastian demanded.

“The other night Emily ran into Luca. It wasn’t a big deal. Luca just wanted to let us know Ashton knew we had Emily,” Vincent explained briefly. He crossed his arms, leaning against the door. “Now what do you want to talk about, Emily?”

Sighing, I revealed the note, holding it out in front of me. “He slipped this into my back pocket before leaving.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes. “What does it say?”

“I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?”Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“I was going to read it with Sebastian,” I admitted, “that way I couldn’t hide any information it might contain.”

Sebastian nodded, coming closer to me. “Smart move,” he murmured, taking the piece of paper out of my hand. “Shall I read it aloud?”

“Yes,” Vincent responded curtly. “I want to hear it too.”

I swallowed nervously, shifting uncomfortably on my feet. “I suppose it’s the best way…”

“Very well,” Sebastian said, unfolding the letter. His eyes scanned it for a moment, widening slightly. “What…?”

“Read it,” Vincent urged him.

He looked at Vincent with wide eyes, his mouth opening the tiniest bit. After a brief moment his gaze shifted to me. My heart thudded in my chest in anticipation. Sebastian looked from the note, to me, to Vincent, to the note, and back to me again. “I shouldn’t read this in front of Emily,” he finally declared.

“What?” I cried.

“Why?” Vincent added.

Sebastian lowered his gaze. “I don’t want her choice being influenced by it…”

“If it wasn’t influenced before, why would it be influenced now?” Vincent snapped.

For a second, I felt like I didn’t want to hear the letter. Was it really that bad? What would make me change my mind? I hadn’t really decided on anything, anyway. The plan was that Ashton wasn’t taking me, and Sebastian wasn’t going to be killed. What could be different?

Taking a deep breath, Sebastian looked at the note again. “It’s not long. It’s just… Well, it added something new to think about.”

“Something new?”

“It seems Ashton knows more than he’s let on,” Sebastian told us, his expression solemn. “He knows about the thing with Fiona.”

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“No way!” I gasped.

Vincent strode forward, ripping the paper out of Sebastian’s hand. His eyes flashed with anger as he read it. “So it’s either we hand over Emily, or he spills the family secret and kills you, huh?”

I tried to snatch the note, but Vincent held it over my head. “Let me see it!”

“Ask politely.”

I scowled at him. “Please let me see it, Vincent.”

He finally handed it to me, the beginning of a smirk on his face. “Well if you say please…”

“Don’t take it to heart, Emily,” Sebastian spoke, watching my reaction as I read over the letter.

It really didn’t say much. All it said was that Ashton knew the family secret- the thing about Sebastian turning Fiona, not Vincent. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “I don’t understand… Why is that more threatening?”

Vincent opened his mouth and uttered a small noise, but abruptly shut it. It seemed as though he was holding back a nasty remark. “Think about it a little bit,” he said calmly.

I gave him an impressed look. “Hey! You stopped yourself from snapping at me!”

“Shut up.”

“Hey now,” Sebastian interjected, frowning. “Emily, if anyone finds out that my family has lied about the whole Fiona fiasco, our family’s name will be soiled. I may be kicked out of being the next king, and that would lead to Ashton having his way. Well, minus the part about having you, of course.”

I blinked. “Oh.”

“Don’t worry about it though,” he urged me. “We’ll sort it out. Ashton is notorious for not being exactly… good. I’m sure we’ll be able to convince everyone he’s lying.” He crossed his arms, a pondering expression on his face. “Although I do wonder why he would bring that up. Why did he think it might affect our decision? That doesn’t make sense to me.”

Vincent scowled. “He’s an arrogant little prick, that’s why.”

“But…” Sebastian trailed off, looking troubled. “I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“A bad feeling?” I echoed, feeling my heart rate increase. “What do you mean by bad feeling?” Was he thinking someone would go wrong? The doubt in his voice unnerved me. If that was the case then…

Sebastian gently ruffled my hair. “Don’t think about it too much. It’s really nothing.”

I frowned. “But…”

“I’m off to take a shower,” he announced, standing up a little straighter. “Forget about the note, Emily. It won’t make a difference. Hand it over.”

Reluctantly, I gave him the sheet of paper. “Okay.”

“Take care tonight. I know you don’t like thunderstorms and one is approaching,” he advised me. “If you need to, you may come to my room later-”

“I’ll handle it,” Vincent interjected, shooting him a dirty look.

He raised an eyebrow at him. “Very well.” After turning away from Vincent, he winked at me. “Sleep tight, Emily.”

I blushed, doing my best not to glower at him. “Night, Sebastian.”

Vincent and I stood in silence while Sebastian sauntered out of the room, chuckling to himself about something. After he was gone, I turned to Vincent. “You don’t have to stay.”

“It’s fine,” he responded, sounding a little irritated.

Frowning, I crossed my arms over my chest. “No, it’s fine if you go. You don’t sound like you want to stay.”

He shook his head at me. “I said I’d stay.”

“Oh, I know,” I started, a smirk slipping onto my face, “you are upset about the comment Sebastian made. Geez, Vivi, it was only an offer.”

“So what?” he snapped, an embarrassed look crawling across his face. “I don’t like it. Even if you say there’s nothing between you too, I rather not leave you in his care. I was the one who stayed up with you before.”

My lips turned up into a silly grin. Vincent was really cute. “Thank you,” I said, moving closer to him. Standing on my tiptoes, I gave him a quick kiss on the nose.

He immediately jerked away, rubbing his nose. “Hey!”

“Hay is for horses,” I told him tauntingly, turning my back to him. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go take a shower too-”

“Wait,” he ordered, grabbing my forearm and pulling me back. “If you’re going to kiss me, kiss me properly. Or else I’ll never learn.”

Instead of the usual insulted expression on his face when his poor kissing skills were mentioned, he looked completely confident. And a little smug. Almost as if… My eyes widened as he drew in closer. “Wait! You know?”

“Of course I know. I’m not stupid, like you,” he returned with an evil smile. “I’m pretty confident in my kissing skills. I just liked watching you think you were teasing me.”

“You-”

He cut me off by pressing his lips against mine firmly. I kissed him back, but I felt myself blushing again. That was just like him. Making a fool out of me.

Oh well , I thought. If he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t be my Vincent.

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