Courting a Vampire Ch. 09

The act of moving me into Damien's room was a huge to do. It took more servants than I had seen together before, half of them were re arranging Damien's closet and the other half were moving my clothes into his closet. It was such a big to do that it ended up causing a crowd to gather at the entrance of the room. I hid in the bedroom until I finally spotted a pair of black jeans my aunt had let me buy. I quickly slid them, along with appropriate undergarments on in the bathroom before grabbing a jacket and leaving the servants to their job.

I smiled at the different vampires in the hall, trying to slip through them as quickly as possible, and making my way to the front doors and out. I breathed the crisp air in, enjoying the bright, sunny day, even if it was cool. I was outside for only a few minutes before my suitors bound towards me. Luke had his hair pulled back, and was wearing a light brown, leather vest, leaving it open, and light brown leather pants. Williams hair was also bound back, but he was wearing a darker richer cotton shirt, and leather pants. Gabriel was the last to bound up, his hair was loose and he was wearing a light vest like his older brother, but wore a pair of blue jeans instead of leather.

They smiled at me, all three of them were panting as if they had run here to greet me.

"Well you three look happy, what have you been up to?"

They smiled and elbowed each other, "We could show you but seeing as you are human and all, you would probably be grossed out."

I rolled my eyes at Gabriel and looked expectantly at Luke who shrugged, "We were hunting, we were just cleaning the kill when William scenting you out here. We figured you were going for a walk and would, maybe, like some company."

I stretched my hands over my head listening to my back crack, "You know I actually came out here to hang out with you guys, but honestly, a walk sounds wonderful. I've been too cooped up in the house too long."

William snorted, "Somehouse, that's a castle, not a house."

I turned and looked at the impressive, intimidating castle in front of me, "You know, I only know a small section of it, so it seems a lot smaller to me than it should."

I turned and started to walk to the lake, and Gabriel walked along the side of me, Luke and William flanking me, "Why do you only know a small section?"

I tapped my lips in thought and shrugged, "Well, to tell you the truth, because if I'm alone, exploring the castle, it would be easy for some upstart vampire girl to off the competition."

"That makes sense, but now, why were you alone just now?"

I looked over my shoulder to William, "I...there's a lot going on in that castle that I don't understand."

Luke replaced Gabriel as the young Lycan dropped back to flank me, "What do you mean?"

I shrugged, "Vampire politics are difficult. My family is making hell for the Prince because the whole courting ceremony wasn't supposed to happen. But I just learned that the King and Queen had broken the contract with my family and were killed because of it."

Luke nodded, "That seems like an appropriate punishment, and we heard about that from your uncle."

I stopped at the edge of the lake and looked at him, "Was it my parents who killed them?"

Luke looked at his brothers who had moved to stand just behind him. Gabriel shrugged and William stared at me for a moment then nodded, "She should know."

Luke nodded and sighed, "Well, yes and no. Yes your parents were responsible for their death but, they didn't actually do it."

"Damien told me they were poisoned by silver powder."

Gabriel hissed and shook his hand like he had just been burned, "That's a brutal way to go."

William nodded but crossed his arms over his chest and watched me, "I thought you guys knew how they died." He said looking at me but speaking to his brothers."

Luke shook his head, "No we knew they were killed, and we make it a point to know who kills who among our old enemies, but we didn't know how. It makes sense though, it's the surest way to make sure we die."

I raised an eyebrow, "We? You guys have the same allergy?"

All three nodded, "Its our greatest weakness, silver, and yet it's the only weakness that cant be utilized by the blood suckers when we are fighting."

"I didn't know that, makes sense though, it's a vampires greatest weakness and you guys have the same problem of not being able to use it. But Damien said it was a human who betrayed his parents, not a vampire."

The three shrugged, ending the conversation. I walked down the beach picking up snail shells and throwing them back into the lake. Eventually the Lycans got bored and started picking up rocks and competing with each other on who could throw the longest. I watched amused as Gabriel and Luke both threw the exact same length and stared to complain about the other cheating.

Eventually all three began to argue about cheating and all three ended up tumbling into the lake, wrestling with each other. I gripped my stomach in laughter as all three managed to look like muddy, swamp monsters. I was laughing so hard I didn't notice Gabriel come up to me until I was thrown over his shoulder and headed straight into the lake.

I yelled at him to put me down but couldn't keep from laughing as well. My voice ended up as a playful squeal as I promised vengeance for what he was about to do.

He laughed, "What are you going to do human, smack us with a newspaper."

And with that I went tumbling right into the frigid water. I yelled when I surfaced shivering and glaring at him as he and this two brothers fell over laughing. I could feel the mud dripping from my hair and I reached down grabbing a handful of the muck and launched it, smacking William directly in the face.

All three froze and stared at me stunned before everyone but William burst into laughter. Luke was on his feet sloshing through the water towards me as William was hot on his heels.

"Don't worry Lilly, Ill save you!!" Luke grabbed me and threw me back a few feet into deeper water as William slammed into him. I surfaced and treaded water watching the three brothers fighting, it was in good nature but I could hear some serious punches being thrown.

I slowly began to swim towards them, starting to feel light headed from the cold of the water. My skin was on fire from the cold and I when I made it to shore I stumbled out and sat down curling myself into a ball and shivering.

The three Lycan stopped what they were doing and were at my side in an instant, "It must have been too cold for her."

Luke nodded to Williams statement, "Where should we take her?"

"C..c..cas..s..stle" Luke nodded and handed me to William. I watched Luke take his vest and pants off and I watched with horrid fascination as the skin on his face began to split and widen. I was so focused on his human face turning into a lion that I didn't noticed the rest of him becoming a lion until he was fully transformed.

He looked a lot like a lion as a human, so seeing him as an actual lion wasn't too hard to handle. He was larger than any lion I could imagine being, but I couldn't focus past that, I continued to shiver against William, feeling him put me on Luke's back. I shuttered and pressed myself against his warm fur and held onto his mane as best as my freezing fingers could. I felt the muscles tighten and then we were moving quickly, I pressed my face into Luke's mane and felt myself warm up a little from the heat of his fur.

When we reached the castle William pounded on the door and I looked up to see a familiar looking vampire answer it. He looked at the three and then his eyes zeroed on me and narrowed, "What do you want?"

Gabriel stepped up to stand next to William, "The Princess is in hypothermia, thanks to the freezing waters of your lake. We need to get her into her rooms and warm quickly."

I suddenly realized where I recognized him from, he was related to Desmond. The vampire straightened and wrinkled his nose, "Right this way please."

I gripped Luke's mane tighter and whispered softly, "Don't trust him."

Luke rumbled a response and I saw William and Gabriel lean towards him for a moment then nod, their faces going from light and happy, to grim. I had almost no strength and I found all I could do was peek out from Luke's mane, his fur blocking most of my view.

I soon realized we were headed down an unfamiliar corridor, "T...this is not right."

I had whispered it to Luke and felt his rumbled response. I felt tired and wanted to go to sleep so bad, my body shaking like a leaf. Finally Luke stopped and I listened to William tell the vampire we were going back to the main corridor where the sun could still keep me warm. The vampire protested and took a step towards me, but Gabriel and William blocked me from view and I listened to Luke snarl at the vampire.

We quickly turned around and made it back to the front door very quickly. The vampire fidgeted annoyed as Luke positioned me near an uncovered window, the sun warming me only a little.

"Get the Prince or Isadora, not a single other person, there's no trusting you blood suckers."

The vampire hissed at Gabriel's words but spirited off quickly. I shivered and buried myself deeper into Luke's warm mane. William leaned to the side and whispered to me, "How did you know he was leading us astray?"

I shivered and whispered softly, "I'll tell you later...t...t..too cold."

He awkwardly patted my back and rubbed small circles, "Sorry, we forgot the lake would probably have been far too cold for you."

I shook my head, "w..w..was f..f..fun."

Gabriel chuckled with William and I couldn't help but to smile. I heard distinct feet walking quickly towards me. Luke growled and I managed to lift my head to look into dark, steel, grey eyes. I put my head back down and reached my arm up and out and felt his hand grab mine and pull me with almost no effort off of Luke and into his arms.

I realized how cold I must be because Damien's touch felt warm on my skin. I looked up to see his fangs were down and he was glaring death at my three suitors. I leaned into him and whimpered, "c..c..cold..."

Damien looked down at me and squeezed me to him, "Thank you, now if you will please leave my castle I will tend to Lilly."

I peaked and watched the large lion and his brothers quickly leave the castle and run out of sight. I looked up at Damien and saw him looking at me worried. The vampire from earlier approached, "Sire I can take her. I know you were in the middle of a meeting..."

I cringed into Damien and shook, I felt him sigh, "No, I will do this myself." I breathed a sigh of relief and felt myself moving quickly through the castle.

I felt Damien lie me down on the bed in our room and make quick work of stripping me of my wet clothes. He threw a blanket over me and a moment later I heard water running in the bathroom. I was in his arms a moment later, and he gently dipped me into the painfully hot bath.

I couldn't hold my head up anymore, too exhausted from shivering to do anything but keep my eyes open but a sliver.

"Lilly?" Damien's voice sounded genuinely worried and turned my head weakly and tried to smile at him.

"I'm warming up."

His hand caressed the side of my face and I leaned into it, "I didn't know what to think when I saw you on that lions back, barely moving."

"It probably would be a relief if I had stopped moving." I don't know what possessed me to say it but I didn't even get to look at Damien's reaction to my words before I finally gave in and fell asleep.

I yawned and stretched as the sun on my face woke me up and I tilted my face towards the light. It was so warm, and I had felt so cold through my dreams. Visions of a steel colored sky, and ice closing around me kept me tossing and turning all night. It would have been a relief if I had woken up, but instead one ice filled dream led to another nightmare, this one with me looking at a refection of myself and Damien slitting my throat and lapping up the blood, and in a blink Desmond would replace him as the one holding the knife.

I had dreams of being rapped and ripped apart by a pack of lions, only to turn around and be rapped by the council members in the castle, all while my parents stood there looking away in disgust. I had dreams of being sacrificed on a slab of ice, a floating pair of white eyes, no irises or pupils, just white eyes, holding a blade of silver over me before plunging it into my chest.

I died over and over again and as I finally opened my eyes into the blinding sun, I couldn't help but to shiver. My dreams were a manifestation of what I was feeling, and since yesterday, I had gone from feeling like a Princess in love, to a sacrificial lamb, being toyed with before being slaughtered.

I turned my head and found myself alone in the room, the closet was open and I could see that half of it was now dominated by blues, creams, greens, and an occasional purple. I sat up slowly groaning as my body moved, I was feeling as if I had been asleep for ages, and in all honestly I probably could have been. I had no idea what time it was, but the sun wasn't just rising and that made me believe it had to be at least close to noon, if not after. I pulled the blankets off of me and swung my feet down, grateful for the fleece pajamas that were on me and slipped my feet into soft, downy, slippers.

I walked carefully into the living room and saw that no one was there either. I walked over to the fridge that had not been there before and opened it tentivley. It was filled with normal food like milk, eggs, and an assortment of fruit. I laughed at myself and grabbed the bag of cherries, I had thought that there might have been blood in there, having already experienced the trauma of mistaking it for juice, once upon a time.

I poured the cherries in a bowl and rinsed them off, patting them dry with a paper towel and grabbing my cherries I made my way to the couch and the television. I grabbed the remote and flicked it on, chuckling at seeing that at some point Damien had installed cable. I clicked around settling on a movie that looked like it had just started.

I sat and watched the movie, finding myself completely engaged in the story. Towards the end I was routing so hard for the lead girl, feeling that if she made it somehow I would. It didn't pass me that the movie was about a woman who was lured into marrying this charming man because she was an heiress. The man had a girlfriend, and once the main character and the man were married, the girlfriend moved in and they started to try and kill the lead character.

It was the final scene where the main character was tied to a chair, bruised and battered, gagged with tears pouring down her face as she looked beseechingly at her husband. He looked away as his girlfriend grabbed a knife and stalked towards the main character. She raised the blade up to stab and just as it was going down, the main character throws her arms up, taking the cut into her arms and throwing herself back on the chair, scrambling out of the bindings.

I gasped and jumped as she dodged the woman and finally kicked her out of the attic window, the woman falling to her death, impaled by the fence, classic. I fell back into the couch and touched my chest, somehow mortally relieved that the husband had come to his senses about his feeling for the main character and had not tied her up as he should have.

"Fuckin' right, dump the ugly bitch right on the fence!! That's how its supposed to be."

I heard a velvety chuckle behind me and I jumped and twisted so high and hard I fell right out of the couch with a loud, resounding, thump onto the floor. I peeked up at Damien as he leaned against the wall smiling at me.

I sat up and tried to regain my dignity by straightening myself up and grabbing my bowl, now filled with pits and stems, and walked past him. His eyes followed me as I emptied the bowl into the garbage and rinsed it off. When I was done I cleaned the sink back up and having nothing left to do, I turned back to him and leaned back against the sink.

"How long were you there?"

"When she was being stabbed by the now dead character..." He had nothing but amusement on his face which was a relief because I wasn't sure, anymore, where we stood, "You seemed so invested in the movie, I didn't want to ruin it for you. What was it about?"

I cleared my throat, "Betrayal." I saw his eyes grow a little harder and so I continued, "The main character was wealthy, she had something the guy wanted, so he married her. He did it all with the plan to kill her. He and his girlfriend hatched the plan, and then the man charmed his way into the heroines heart, so she married him. Then as planned they go off to a honeymoon, which just happened to be where the guys girlfriend is waiting for her, to kill her."

His eyes had turned a shade darker than their normal gray, but it wasn't the hard steel that I usually associated with anger. He kept the content, happy, smirk on his face, "So what happened?"

I looked at him staring him directly in the eye, "The man realized he loved her, and didn't let the girlfriend kill her."

Damien nodded and looked away, breaking eye contact, "That sounds like a good movie."

I pushed away from the sink and nodded, "Yep. How long was I asleep for?"

Damien looked back at me, his eyes back to their usual shade of grey, not letting me in on his feelings, "About 32 hours."

"Holy cow!" I gasped out before recovering myself.

"I had a doctor look in on you. No permanent damage, and after a conversation with the Lycans, I am frustrated to realize that I have to warn you about your sensitivities to the elements."

I smirked at him, "I was having fun, to be honest I was going to get out but then one thing led to another and I ended up on Luke's back, quite literally, freezing to death."

I didn't like how Damien's eyes started to darken to the color of a violent thunderstorm, but it gave me enough warning to prepare myself for Damien's outburst.

In the span of a breath he had grabbed me by my shoulders, picked me up, and had literally thrown me onto the bed, before slamming on top of me. I struggled against his grip, knowing it was futile, but I couldn't let myself be pinned down without at least trying to fight.

He hissed at me in a very vampire way and it stopped my struggles.

"How much do you know Lilly."

"I don't know what you are talking about." My heart fluttered and I secretly cursed every higher being I knew for making Vampires so great at hearing.

"Stop lying to me."

I couldn't take it anymore, the nightmares, the wondering, the pain, the pain of loving this vampire only to find out he didn't just not care about me he hated me.

"I'll stop lying when you stop."

He released my hands and stood up, leaving me lying on the bed.

"Just tell me what you know."

"No." I finally saw his dark eyes turn to the hard color of steel and I lifted my chin a little in defiance, "I wont answer a damn thing until you finally answer my questions."

He balled his fists up and just glowered down at me without saying a word. I had to assume he was agreeing, "Why did you tell me it was a human that killed your parents, when it was my parents?"

He responded through ground teeth, "It was a human that killed them."

"A human my family hired?"

"No." I narrowed my eyes at him,

"I want the honest truth."

"I answered one of your questions, now you get to answer one of mine, did you hear my conversation with Desmond?"

"Yes, probably half of it, I did wake up to the part with her screaming for me to get out. But I didn't hear anything beyond that until I listened at the door. Who was the human then? If my parents didn't hire them, and you saw it as a close, loyal friend betraying your family, who was it?"