Kidnapped By The Vampire Prince

Morning sleepyhead,” Sebastian greeted as I trudged into the kitchen the next morning. “You look like death. Did the storm keep you up?”

My eyes shot to Vincent, who was at the table already, eating a plate of scrambled eggs. “A little bit,” I murmured, dropping my gaze.

Sebastian chuckled. “I thought so. Your heart was beating awfully fast. I would have kept you comfort but…”

“Ah, no, that’s okay,” I responded quickly. “You probably had more important things to do.”

“Mm,” he replied noncommittally. “If you ever need someone, don’t hesitate to call me. I’ll hear you.”

I smiled at him. “Well thank you.”

Vincent snorted loudly, earning a glare from his brother. Ignoring him, I headed towards the stove where a pan of scrambled eggs resided. After scooping a generous helping onto a convenient plate, I sat down across from Vincent. He pushed the saltshaker towards me. I gave him a quizzical look.

“It needs salt. Sebastian can’t cook.”

“I never claimed I could,” Sebastian interjected smoothly. “Emily, have a nice day. Don’t let Vincent take you out of the manor again though, next time you won’t get away with it so easily. I have to go see the court.”

My ears perked up. “The court?”

He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Not about you.”

My shoulders sagged. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, ruffling my hair. “A few more days and then you can go home.”

“Don’t give her so much hope,” Vincent snapped. “There’s the chance she might not be able to.”

I glowered at him. “If that happens, I’m running away. I’m not staying here forever!”

He rolled his eyes. “You think you can outrun any of us?”

“Don’t worry, Em, I’ll make sure you can go home,” Sebastian cut in, sending his brother a disapproving look. “I promise.”

I stared at him, the corners of my lips turning down into a frown. For reasons I wasn’t aware of, he looked completely determined to make his words pull through. After throwing me another gentle smile he left the kitchen. Blinking in confusion, I returned to my breakfast.

“So I was watching a movie yesterday,” Vincent started, breaking the silence that had settled in.

I raised an eyebrow. Since when did Vincent chat so easily with me? “And?”

“It was about this girl that got kidnapped,” he continued, his lips curling up into a smirk. “She reminded me quite a bit of you. Screaming and fighting at first, but then almost immediately she became comfortable with her kidnappers.”

“Is that supposed to be an insult?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just figured you would like to know you aren’t abnormal for coming to be amiable with your kidnappers.”

I pushed my eggs around with my fork for a moment, licking my lips. “It is a little weird, huh.”

“I don’t know.”

“I think it’d be different if you guys were actually causing harm to me. That and the fact you look around my age. It’s hard to take a kidnapper my age serious.”

His smug grin grew wider. “You were taking it pretty serious at first. Screaming and crying.”

I scowled at him. “I think that was more about the fact you guys are vampires.”

“You were dead set on not believing we existed.”

“Well I thought you were all like the vampires in the movie. You know, dead? Or changed or something. But apparently you’re noting like that at all… Wait. Do you guys age the same as humans?”

Vincent shook his head. “If we did, my dad would be long dead.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“How do you age?” I snapped, frustrated at his teasing.

He leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling. “You know how our hearts beat so slow? It’s like the same with aging. Except, the older you get as a vampire, the slower you age. Understand?”

“No…”

“Then you’re stupid.”

I shot him an annoyed look. “Whatever.”

“All you need to know is that we age slowly.”

“So how old are you?”

He glanced at me. “In human years?”

“Sure.”

“Nineteen.”

I opened my mouth to ask how old he’d be in vampire years, but decided not to bother. It’d probably freak me out too much. Especially since he really did look nineteen in human years. A very handsome nineteen year old. My face heated at the thought and I quickly dispelled it.

“How old are you?”

I blinked at him. He didn’t know my age? That was surprising. “In human years or…?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, stupid.”

“Seventeen,” I told him, frowning.

“You’re Fiona’s age.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Um… How old is Sebastian?”

“Too old for you.”

Heat rose to my cheeks and I glowered at him. “I-I didn’t even mean it that way!”

He smirked. “Or did you?”

“No!”

“He’s twenty-one, human years, but in vampire years he’s-”

I clapped my hands over my ears quickly. “I don’t want to hear it!”

“Why not?”

“If I hear your age, I might pass out,” I told him honestly.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Whatever. But hey, since you’re answering questions so freely right now can I ask you another?”

“Nope,” he responded smoothly, sliding out of the stool he was on. “I have some princely duties to do.”

“Like what?”

“Stuff.”

I sighed lightly. “Way to be vague.”

“Leave your dishes on the table,” he ordered. “The kitchen slaves will clean it up.”

Frowning, I glanced at him. “Kitchen slaves?”

“Yeah. The kitchen help.”

“Why did you say slaves then?”

He smirked. “It’s funnier.”

I snorted. “That’s like calling the mailman a mail slave.”

“No that just sounds stupid, stupid.”

“Are you leaving?” I demanded, glaring at him. “I’d like to enjoy my breakfast without your annoying presence.”

He shrugged. “You didn’t think I was so annoying last night.”

Dropping my gaze, I decided to just ignore him. As much as I wanted to deny that little fact, I knew I couldn’t. Without him, I probably would have been terrified all night. I almost laughed. Somehow I felt safe during one of my biggest fears with my old biggest fear with me. It was comical.

“There’s going to be another storm tonight,” he warned me. “I won’t be back until later, so just stay with Fiona or Joel until I get back.”

My head snapped back up to him. “How do you know?”

“There’s this thing called the weather channel. You should watch it sometime.”

“Jerk,” I called as he exited the room, snickering.

I turned back to my breakfast, angrily stuffing a forkful of eggs into my mouth. Vincent was incredibly annoying. And confusing. He was a total jerk one moment, then surprisingly sweet, and then back to a complete dick. It didn’t make sense. He didn’t make sense. But yet I couldn’t help but feel intrigued by him.

——————–

“Hit down B!”

“What’s down B?”

“Button mash!”

“How do you jump?” I cried, doing as Joel suggested and button mashing. “Erg! How do you jump?”

Joel quickly snatched the GameCube controller from my hand, making Kirby float back onto the playing field. “I’ve got your back, Em. Fiona, you’re going down.”

Fiona laughed haughtily. “You know you can’t beat me when I’m Link.”

“I know that,” I muttered disdainfully. “But then again, you guys decided not to teach me how to play! Why can’t we play the Wii? I’m actually okay at that!”

“Shut up,” Joel and Fiona responded simultaneously.

Crossing my arms, I slumped further back into the couch. It had been like this for the past two hours. Every videogame we played I sucked at, so when I started to do bad Joel stepped in and I didn’t get to play again. Sure, it was amusing watching Fiona kick Joel’s butt, but I was getting bored. I popped a watermelon flavored Jolly Rancher into my mouth, watching Joel and Fiona duke it out.

“Stop using that spinning attack!” Joel cried.

“What? A little puff like you can’t handle it?”

Joel elbowed her. She elbowed him back. He pushed her over. She pushed him back. Then he tried to steal her controller. She not only smacked him upside the head. I smiled wryly at their immaturity.

“I win,” Fiona declared smugly.

“You cheated!”

“You started it.”

Joel crossed his arms grumpily. “Let’s play something else.”

I quickly interjected. “Do you guys have an easier games? Like… Pokemon Stadium or something?”

“Pokemon, really?” Joel questioned, smirking. “I guess everyone keeps a little bit of their kid side.”

I gave him a sarcastic look. “I’m just saying because that’s a game I could actually play… Since you two won’t take the time to teach me anything.”

“You wanna play?” Fiona asked.

“Yes.”

Joel shrugged. “Okay, here.” Without any warning, he chucked his controller at me.

As I gasped, I lost grip on my Jolly Ranched and commenced to choke on it. Luckily the controller only nicked my shoulder.

Fiona hopped up at once, scurrying over to me. “Are you okay?”

I hacked, feeling my eyes start to water. Before I knew it, Fiona had me on my feet and in position for the Heimlich maneuver. Immediately my eyes widened in fear- and not because I was choking.

“Fiona,” Joel warned but it was too late.

She squeezed my abdomen violently. It felt like my back broke in two. The Jolly Rancher dislodged itself and I quickly spit it to the floor, sinking back onto the couch with a groan. Fiona blinked at me.

“I think your broke my ribs,” I stated, putting a hand on my sore back. “Ow…”

She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m not used to being around humans… I can fix that though.”

“No!”

She frowned. “Oh, I won’t hurt you this time. I was a doctor when I was alive, remember?”

“Did you die because you tried to give yourself the Heimlich maneuver?” I joked. When I realized what I’d said, I paled. Death wasn’t something to joke about. “I-”

“No,” Fiona cut me off, raising an eyebrow. “Sebastian killed me.”

My breath caught in my throat. Sebastian…? Taken a back, my hand shot to my mouth to cover up a gasp of surprise. Sebastian was a killer? The King-to-be was a murderer?