Kidnapped By The Vampire Prince

I jumped, momentarily forgetting Vincent was standing behind me. Annoyed, I turned to scowl at him. “This is my house, Vincent. That means you follow my rules. This won’t be the same as the mansion. You can’t disrespect me in my own house-”

“Move,” he demanded, pushing me out of the way. “Where am I staying? I want to put my luggage down.”

For a few seconds I glowered at him, but it soon faded into a small smile. An obeying Vincent wouldn’t be as fun as normal, egotistic, holier-than-thou Vincent. Even if he annoyed me, he was still amusing… In a way.

“The guest room,” I informed him, gesturing for him to follow me. “It hasn’t been used in awhile so it might smell bad…”

“Going from my mansion to this… What is my father thinking?” he muttered under his breath.

I paused, turning around to scowl at him. He nearly walked into me. “It may not be big,” I started, crossing my arms, “but it’s my home and I love it.”

He looked taken aback for a second. “Er…”

“This way,” I ordered, trying to hide the smirk that threatened to slip onto my face. Since we were in my house now, he had to obey my rules. Oh, life was sweet.

Vincent grunted, obediently following me to his temporary room- also a satisfying change. Instead of me having a temporary room, he did.

When I opened the oak door to my house’s guest room, a rank odor rushed out. Wrinkling my nose at the smell of mothballs, I held the door open for Vincent to go in. He didn’t seem effected by the smell in the slightest. I went straight for the window, planning to open it and get swap the stale air for fresh air. My intention was foiled when I realized it was stuck. Straining my muscles, I grit my teeth together, pressing my palms flat against the panes, and trying to push the window up. After a few fruitless seconds I paused, scowling deeply.

Without warning an arm shot out on either side of me, hands going straight for the window. Using no effort at all, Vincent managed to lift the frame all the way up, allowing the breeze to carry crisp air into the musty room. My heart skipped a beat his proximity and I desperately tried to move away, but only succeeded into stepping back into his chest. I twirled around in embarrassment, pressing my back against the window to put space between us.

“Something wrong?” he inquired, a smug expression crossing his face.

“I… Um…” What was wrong? Since when did I become so flustered when he was close to me? Well, that was a stupid question. I was always flustered, but still. “Stop showing off your stupid vampire strength,” I snapped, deciding to take the offensive instead of explaining my nervousness. “You’re supposed to be human.”

He rolled his eyes. “I won’t stoop that low.”

“Hey-”

“I’m hungry,” he started, speaking in a low voice and bringing his lips to my ear. “I’m allowed to go out to eat, right?”

I pushed him away, feeling my stomach twisting. “Do what you want. I just don’t want to hear about it. Can’t you survive on human food?”

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He shrugged. “I could, but then I’d be much weaker than if I drank human blood-”

“I don’t want to hear it! And don’t say that so casually!”

“You don’t like the fact vampires drink human blood?” he drawled, putting his arm out to block my escape when I tried to slide around him.

Narrowing my eyes, I ducked under his arm. “No, I don’t like it.”

“Or do you just not like the thought of me drinking other human’s blood? I could always drink yours…”

“No!”

He chuckled, jogging in front of me to stop me from leaving his room. “I’m kidding, stupid. My job is to protect you, not kill you.”

I shifted uncomfortably. Protect me? That sounded… romantic. Smacking myself mentally at the thought, I immediately shook it away. Vincent? Romantic? It was impossible. He was incapable of anything of the sort. Not to mention a vampire.

A muffled clattering sound abruptly filled the room. Vincent narrowed his eyes, a frown crossing his face. “Some guy is here. And a dog.”

Not even five seconds later my husky Hachi burst into the room, barking loudly. My eyes widened at the sight of him. “Hachi!” Dropping to my knees, I threw my arms around the pup, rubbing my cheek against his thick gray coat. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Emily?”

My head snapped up. “Jake!”

“Vincent!” Vincent cried mockingly, mimicking my tone.

I ignored him, using Hachi to push myself to my feet. He followed at my heels as I left the room, crashing into Jake before I could take three steps into the hall. My brother steadied me, his startlingly green eyes flashing in amusement. “In a rush to go somewhere?” he joked, shaking his shaggy blonde hair out of his eyes.

“I missed you, you idiot!” I exclaimed, wrapping my arms around him.

“Okay, this is creepy,” he responded, putting his hands on my shoulders and shoving him away from me. “What’s wrong with you?”

I scowled at him. “I’ve been gone for a week!”

“And?”

“You didn’t miss me at all?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “Actually, it was nice not having to hear your constant blabbering.”

“You-”

“So where’s the delinquent?” he inquired, looking around the hallway. “Did he run away or something?”

“I’m right here.”

Jake’s eyes shot to the side, landing on Vincent’s annoyed face. For a second they stared at each other, seemingly sizing the other up. Then Jake uttered one simple word that made both Vincent and myself freeze. “Vampire.”

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Vincent’s face hardened and I gawked at my brother, my jaw on the floor. How could he have figured it out so quickly? Did he seriously believe in vampires? Why wasn’t he freaking out about it?

“Are you stupid?” Vincent challenged, giving my brother the look he always gave me when I asked him something idiotic. “A vampire? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

My brother rolled his eyes. “No. I’m not saying you’re a vampire.”

“Oh,” I sighed, letting my shoulders relax.

“You just look like the stereotypical vampire,” Jake continued. “The Twilight version, of course…”

Vincent scowled. “I take that as an insult.”

“I’m talking about your good looks. Nothing else. Unless you sparkle.”

“I don’t sparkle,” Vincent snapped as Jake snickered.

“Why are you getting so defensive?”

I decided now was the best time to interrupt. “Ahaha, sorry, Vincent. This is my brother Jake, the vampire fanatic. Jake, this is Vincent…”

“Hey Vivi,” Jake greeted, smirking at the nickname he thought of.

Vincent didn’t look amused at all. “It’s Vincent.”

“I like Vivi,” Jake declared flatly. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, dragging me closer to him. “Now listen up, Vivi. You may have good looks, but if you lay a hand on my sister, I will kick the shit out of you.”

“Jake!” I protested, feeling heat rise to my cheeks.

Vincent set his jaw. “You think you can’t beat me up? Why don’t you try-”

“Vincent!”

His eyes snapped to me. “What?”

“Don’t argue with him!”

“Don’t tell me what to do, stupid.”

Jake frowned at him. “Don’t call her stupid!”

“I’ll do what I want!”

“Vincent! This is my house! Obey me!” I ordered boldly.

He gave me a flat look. “I’m not a dog.”

“Speaking of dogs, I hope you like them Vivi,” my brother said, his eyes dropping down to Hachi, who was wagging his tail excitedly. “Since you’re living with us, you’ll be taking over my chore of walking him every day.”

“Yeah right,” Vincent snorted.

I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to hide my smile. My parents were seriously going to give him chores? Oh, I could not wait to see that.

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“Ooh, by the way, Emily,” Jake started, calling me to attention. “I just rented a good vampire movie! Let’s watch it tonight!”

I opened my mouth to protect, but shut it swiftly. There was no way a vampire movie would scare me now. Not when… My gaze shifted to Vincent briefly before returning to my brother. “Oh? Sounds good.”

My response threw him off guard. “What? I don’t have to force you?”

“It’s been quite the week in Cali. I’ve outgrown that silly fear.”

He looked disappointed. “Really? Well, we’ll see. I heard this movie is terrifying. Vince, do you want to watch it?”

“I thought I was Vivi?” Vincent muttered in response.

“I’ll call you what I want.”

I winced. If this kept up, one day Vincent was going to kill Jake in his sleep. These two were like fire and water.

“I’ll watch it,” Vincent decided, his eyes meeting mine. “I’d like to see Emily’s reaction.”

Emily. I was so unaccustomed to hearing him say my name it sent a tingle through my body. It sounded incredibly attractive- nice. It sounded nice.

“We’ll watch it tonight then,” Jake stated, nodding his head. “I hope you like vampires, Vincent.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I prefer humans.”

I didn’t have to look up to know he was smirking. Without notice, my brother began dragging me down the hallway. Confused, I threw a confused glance at Vincent before turning my attention to my brother. “What?”

“I just want to chat with you in private for a second,” he informed me. “Stay there, Vincent!”

“Whatever.”

I silently begged that whatever Jake wanted to talk about, it wasn’t something about Vincent because I knew he’d be listening with his stupid advanced vampire senses. “What do you want to say that you can’t in front of Vincent?”

“What went on between you two in California?” Jake asked bluntly.

I blinked at him. “What?”

“There’s obviously some kind of tension between you too. Not sexual tension-”

“Jake!”

“-But definitely some kind of relationship tension. Did you date and it didn’t work out?” he guessed.

I shook my head violently. “There’s nothing between us!”

“Ah, so you have a one-sided crush.”

“C-crush? What are you talking about?”

He smirked at me. “You think I can’t tell when my little sister has feelings for someone? I don’t like the idea of you liking that guy though. I don’t know what he’s done, but he’s a delinquent for a reason.”

My mind was in turmoil. Crush? He thought I had a crush on Vincent? A vampire? Was that even possible? Of course it was. That explained my flustered actions. I had a silly schoolgirl crush on Vincent. It wasn’t like it could be helped though. He was handsome and unexpectedly nice sometimes. A crush was okay. It’d go away eventually…

“Are you listening?”

“Uh-huh,” I mumbled, too distracted with my thoughts to say more.

He gently knocked his fist on my head. “Okay, then I’ll hold you to that. Let’s go back now.”

For a second I stared at the back of his head as he returned to where Vincent was. He was holding me to what? Curiosity burned on my tongue, but I did my best to ignore it. Whatever Jake was talking about would probably just annoy me.

A complacent expression on Vincent’s face told me that he’d definitely heard everything my brother just said. Keeping my threatening blush under control, I puffed out my chest refusing to give Vincent any proof that what Jake said was true. While I could accept it, I couldn’t deal with the taunting I knew he would press on me if he found out. No, this was going to be my little secret.

“So Vincent, tell me about yourself,” Jake requested, throwing an arm around the vampire.

“I hate being touched.”

“Get used to it.”

A smile spread across my face as Vincent shoved Jake’s arm off of him. Having him staying with us was actually going to be very interesting.

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