Courting a Vampire Ch. 06

I looked back to Damien but his eyes were the color of steel as he stared at the three, and kept his hand on the small of my back and I got a sense of possessiveness as well as protectiveness from the gesture. I turned and thanked him for helping me and nodded to a fuming Desmond, he looked at her then back at me, his face flashing with conflict before nodded to me and dropping his hand.

"If you need anything..." He let the sentence hang and I thanked him.

I turned back to the suitors and suddenly felt very overwhelmed by how they towered over me. They all three smiled and offered to take me to the balcony for fresh air. I thanked them and followed Lukas, William and Gabriel flanking me on either side. I turned my head looking at them confused and Gabriel shrugged, "it's a pack thing, its not threatening."

'Um, Okay." It was weird, but probably harmless. At least that's what I told myself.

We all stepped out onto the balcony and I took a deep breath, feeling the cool breeze cut through me but enjoying the fresh air anyway.

"Its pretty strange."

I looked at William curiously, "What is?"

"Well, your uncle made it sound like you being born a human was more of an embarrassment than anything else. But as soon as we arrived the whole place has been scrambling to make sure your safe. I don't think anyone even thought about the other three betrothed." Lukas nodded agreeing with his brother.

"We came here thinking you would be brow beaten at the least, maybe we could be your dashing saving heroes. Instead we get rumors about you being the precious blue diamond princess."

I moaned and rolled my eyes, "My aunts to blame for that one. She plays up how unique I am, and if there's anything a vampire loves, its to possess something unique."

All three brothers nodded, "Yeah, we were pretty surprised actually to hear about you. It isn't every generation one of you is born, but to have two of you born in the same generation, is pretty special."

Gabriel sat on the edge of the balcony and nodded, "Yeah, not only is the great Prince born a vampire, something that hasn't happened in, what did the old coot say? A century?"

The two brothers nodded, "But then a human is born from two vampires and that hasn't happened in about a millennium. For creatures that prize rare things, the Prince really doesn't seem to appreciate you."

They all agreed and I narrowed my eyes at them, "So you are here to charm me into marrying one of you?"

They nodded grinning, "Great, and what if I don't want any of you?"

Luke rubbed his beard for a moment, "Well in a month if we haven't made any progress with you, one, two or three of our other brothers will show up and have a go at it."

"How many of you are there?"

"Not counting my older brother who is on his honeymoon right now, there are eleven of us, seven of us brothers, we have four sisters too."

My jaw dropped, "Are you serious?"

They nodded and I leaned back against the balcony, "Wow, that's a lot of kids."

They laughed and Luke put his hand on Williams shoulder, "William here isn't interested in getting married, so no offense to you, but in a month he will be leaving. I was going to leave to, but..."

His eyes roamed my body for a moment and he smiled wider, "I've had a change of heart."

I looked at Gabriel who's squatting beside me on the balcony ledge, "And Gabriel?"

Gabriel hopped down and held his hand out, "Gabriel wants to dance."

I smile and hesitantly put my hand in his and shyly let him guide me back into the ball room. Damien and Desmond were already there dancing, and I looked at Gabriel who squeezed my hand gently, "Don't worry Princess I don't bite."

I chuckle and let him pull me close and begin to move to the music. I was surprised at how well he knew how to dance and by the end of it, the combination of dancing and Gabriel's constant snide remarks about the different vampires had me smiling and laughing with him. He spun me into another dance and continued to talk about himself and his seven brothers and four sisters.

I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise and looked behind me to see steel gray eyes staring at me. I smiled at him and nodded before he turned away. Gabriel didn't miss the interaction and snorted, "His loss, he must be absolutely crazy to be dancing with that bleached out stick figure over you."

I pushed Gabriel away a little as he leaned in too close and smiled, "I've been raised vampire my whole life, Desmond is stunning by vampire standards."

He snorted and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever, I got the better end of the deal anyway."

I blushed and suddenly a cold hand was on my shoulder, "May I cut in?"

Gabriel frowned but nodded, turning on his heel and stalking back to his brothers on the balcony. I turned and looked into steel grey eyes and smiled, "Hi."

He spun me and then pressed me against him in a slow waltz, "You seemed to be enjoying yourself."

I looked up at Damien and nodded, "They look worse than they are."

"I don't like how that pup was looking at you." I sighed and put my hand on his chest and pulled back to look at him.

We stopped moving as we stared at each other, "I'm just trying to make the best of the situation I'm in Damien."

He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again his eyes had returned to their grey, "I know, just remember that you are supposed to be courting me, along with them courting you."

I smiled up at Damien, "As if I could forget."

He's eyes flashed silver before he dropped my arms and stepped back. I looked after him, watching him grab Yuki's hand and move with her onto the dance floor. A very large hand dropped onto my shoulder and I looked up to see Luke staring darkly at Damien.

"Wanna dance?"

I laughed and nodded, "Sure."