Bitten – Episode 4

Chapter 4

 

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My mind raced as Vincent, Joel, Sebastian, and I made our way down the halls in search of Sebastian and Vincent’s parents. They were royalty? I was about to meet the king and queen of the vampire world? My mind felt like it was going to explode. Never in my life would I have guessed that vampires had royalty. And yet here I was, going to meet the queen and king…

 

Dizziness swept over me and I staggered slightly, my vision blurring. I knew immediately that it wasn’t due to my anxiety of meeting more vampires, but due to my anemia. How much blood had I lost last night? Was it last night that I’d been… drunk from? As nausea continued to sweep over me I fought to keep myself up right. That battle was lost when I suddenly lost my balance and fell to the side.

 

A pair of hard hands caught me and set me up straight. I looked over my shoulder to see two Sebastians peering at me with worried expressions. After a moment of focusing I managed to get Sebastian back into one person. He furrowed his eyebrows, waving a hand in front of my face.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked.

 

“No,” I told him honestly, too dizzy to swat his hands away. “My anemia…”

 

 

“Oh shoot, that’s right!” Joel responded with realization. “Vivi, how much—” “Call me Vivi one more time and I swear—”

 

“How much blood did you drink?” Sebastian inquired, cutting of Vincent. “Can you give me an estimate?”

 

Vincent scowled at his brother for a moment, and then shrugged. “I don’t know. A pint and a half probably.”

 

My eyes flew open. “A pint and a half?” Vincent shrugged. “I usually drink two quarts.”

 

“Vincent, a quart is a lot to an anemic person,” Joel commented in a worried tone. “How the hell was I supposed to know she was anemic? It’s not like there was a flashing sign above her head saying, ‘Look! I’m anemic!’” Joel grinned. “Very true.”

 

“Emily, what’s your blood type?” Sebastian asked after sending a disapproving look at Vincent and Joel.

 

“Why do you want to know?” I asked suspiciously.

 

“In order to help you.”

 

“Why do you want to help me?”

 

“Because we can’t let you die, stupid,” Vincent snapped. “Stop asking stupid questions.”

 

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Stupid questions? I was kidnapped here against my will, and now I’m being told you want to help me? If you want to help, let me go home! I can eat my disgusting dried fruit and everything will be fine!”

 

“We’ll have to do a blood transfusion later,” Sebastian commented, keeping a hand on my back. “I can tell just by looking at her she lost too much blood last night.” “Are you even listening to me?” I demanded angrily. “I was!” Joel told me with a grin.

 

“I wasn’t talking to you!”

 

“Shut up. We’ll deal with your anemia later. Right now, we’re going to tell my parents about you,” Vincent told me shortly.

 

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“Way to take charge, Vivi!” Joel cheered, elbowing his friend in the shoulder. Vincent jammed his elbow back at Joel with enough force to make him have to stagger back a few steps back. I figured that if Vincent had one that to a human, every bone close to the hit point would be broken. The thought scared me. What would happen to me if one of the vampires got violent?

 

 

“Can you walk by yourself?” Sebastian asked and I felt him remove his hand from me. “I know you don’t like us touching you.”

 

I blinked in surprise. I totally forgot Sebastian was touching me this whole time! How did I manage that? Finally his question processed in my mind and I nodded my head vigorously, making the room spin momentarily again. “I can walk by myself.”

 

“Then let’s go,” Vincent growled and started walking down the hallway again. “I want to get this over and done with.”

 

“I believe they are in the lounge,” Sebastian told Vincent. “At least that’s where they were the last time I saw them.”

 

Vincent didn’t respond, but took a sudden right turn. I felt like I was being herded like cattle. Joel was behind me, and Vincent and Sebastian were on either side of me, making sure I kept up with them. Not that I was planning to runaway. Who knew who and what were in this house? I didn’t want to take any chances and end up killed by running amuck. As much as I hated to admit it, I actually felt safe having Sebastian around.

 

When we arrived at what I assumed to be the lounge Vincent glanced at Sebastian, who nodded, before opening the door. Vincent went in first, followed by Joel. Finally, Sebastian urged me in with a light push to my back. I flinched away from his touch and stumbled into the room, looking up and coming face-to-butt with Vincent. Immediately I erected myself, blushing slightly. But as soon as I was straight again, Joel pushed me into a deep bow, and then bowed deeply himself. “Good evening, your majesty,” he greeted before letting me stand straight again. I couldn’t see anything besides Vincent’s back.

 

“Vivi,” a woman’s voice started, sounding very surprised. “What—”

 

“I have a problem,” I heard Vincent tell the woman who had spoke first. Curious, I poked my head around Vincent and my eyes landed on a stunningly beautiful woman. She had long, curly brunette hair and the same piercing sapphire eyes as Vincent. Her face was heart-shaped and she had pale, flawless skin. Her beauty almost took the breath away from me. I thought it was only in cheesy vampire novels that vampires were so beautiful.

 

“This wouldn’t happen to be your problem, would it?” the beautiful woman asked, her eyes flickering to me for a moment.

 

“It would.”

 

“Do I want to know…?”

 

“No,” Vincent responded honestly.

 

“But she’s causing quite a problem,” Sebastian interjected, frowning at the woman.

 

“I’ll let Vince explain.”

 

“Vivi?”

 

Vincent sighed in irritation, grabbing my arm and pulling me in front of him. “I drank from this human last night and when I tried to erase her memory, it didn’t work. Joel and Sebastian tried as well, and yet she still has her memory.”

 

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For some reason I felt happy that she referred to me by name instead of just “her”. For a vampire, this woman was far from what I expected. Her demeanor and tone were as gentle as her eyes. Definitely not what I could ever have imagined a vampire to be. Where did the stereotype for vampires even come from? It was pleasing to know not all of them were bloodthirsty beasts. However, that still didn’t come the beating of my heart. It was just as frantic as before.

 

Luella sighed quietly again. “You’ve always had bad luck, Vivi.” “Just tell me what I need to do to fix this, mom.”

 

“Vivi, darling, there’s nothing you can do to fix this right now,” she responded, frowning at Vincent. “We can’t turn Emily loose while she stills has her memory.” “Nobody will know she has her memory besides us!” “And what if she tells someone about us?”

 

Now it was my turn to jump in. “I won’t, I promise!”

 

Luella smiled slightly at me. “Emily, you can promise as much as you want, but there’s still a chance you could let it slip.”

 

“No one would believe me though. They’d think I was crazy,” I replied quickly, trying to hold on to my last thread of hope.

 

“I’m sorry. For right now, you’ll have to stay here, and stay a secret.”

 

I stared at her disbelievingly. So much for thinking she’d have a shred of empathy for me. What did she mean by saying I’d have to stay here and a secret? Were they going to throw me in the cellar and look me there until the problem was resolved? “Knowledge of Emily’s existence stays within the manor boundaries,” Luella ordered turning to the other three men in the room. “Did you hear me, Vivi?” “Yes,” Vivi growled, narrowing his eyes at his mother.

 

“I will talk to your father about this and decide what to do, since I don’t know what we can do,” she continued, running a hand through her silky brunette hair. “Vivi, sometimes I wish you were more like Sebastian. You’ve always been the trouble maker.”

 

 

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably next to me, sending his eyes downcast as Vincent threw him a harsh glare. For a second I felt sympathy for Vincent. When my mom would compare my brother to me I would get very annoyed. But now she probably wouldn’t have a chance to do that again. I’d probably be locked up in this mansion until I died, or the vampires finally decided to break the rules and just kill me.

 

Misery suddenly washed over me and I felt my eyes moisten. I blinked rapidly to make the wetness go away. Why did it have to be my mind they couldn’t erase? Out of all the people in the entire world, it really had to be me? What could I have possibly done to deserve this? To deserve being taken away from my friends and family?

 

“I think we could avoid all of these problems and just kill her,” Vincent commented in an off-hand tone.

 

My eyes widened as I stared at him in shock. It wasn’t the first time he had said that, but the casual way he kept saying it kept surprising me. How could someone talk about death so lightly? Especially when the person who they were talking about dying was in the room?

 

“Vivi, don’t talk about death so lightly,” Luella snapped, a sudden hard edge to her voice.

 

“I’ll do what I want.”

 

“No, you won’t. Emily is your responsibility now, Vincent. It’s your job to keep her safe and a secret from now on.”

 

Vincent glared at his mother. “Why should I—”

 

“Because you drank from her and you brought her here, Vivi. She’s your responsibility,” Luella repeated firmly.

 

I frowned in annoyance. I wasn’t some child that had to be babysat. “Whatever,” Vincent finally snapped, his eyes flickering to mine for a brief moment.

 

The vexation in them threw me off guard. The intensity of the glare literally sent my heart rate spiking. He was looking at me like it was my fault all this happened. I resisted the urge to scream at him. This wasn’t my fault at all!

 

“I’ll summon you when your father returns so we can figure out what to do… Without any burdens…” Luella’s eyes drifted to me for a second before quickly returning to Vincent.

 

I raised an eyebrow. So they didn’t want to talk about what was going to happen to me while I was around? I wasn’t sure whether I liked that idea or not. It would suck if they randomly decided it was best to kill me, but who knows? Maybe they

 

 

would decide to let me go home. Somewhere deep inside me doubted that, but I pushed it away. I could at least hope.

 

“Mother, should I set up the guest room for her?” Sebastian asked, breaking the silence that had settled in.

 

Luella nodded. “Of course.”

 

“You’re not going to throw me in the basement and lock me up?” I asked in surprise.

 

Luella, Sebastian and Joel each raised an eyebrow at me. Vincent just rolled his eyes.

 

“Why would we do that?” Sebastian inquired with a puzzled look.

 

“Well you kidnapped me…”

 

“Emily,” Luella started in a gently voice. “You’re not a prisoner. We aren’t holding you hostage. We just have to keep you here until we can sort out what to do about this… incident.”

 

“Why can’t you do it while I’m at home?” I asked, not liking how whiny my tone sounded.

 

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Luella sighed. “We just can’t. I know you don’t understand, but vampire laws are a bit different than human laws. And because we are royalty, it takes on a whole new level.”

 

“But I want to go home!” I nearly shouted, suddenly feeling angry. “Emily!” Sebastian scolded quietly. “Do not raise your voice to—” Luella shook her head at her son. “It’s fine.”

 

“I didn’t ask for this! I don’t deserve this! I don’t care about your stupid, vampire rules! If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m human! They don’t apply to me! And do you think people would actually believe me if I started sprouting out nonsense about vampires? I’d probably be sent to a Looney house!” I ranted, glaring at the queen. “Just let me go home,” I added, almost as a whisper as my emotions caught up to me.

 

“I’m sorry,” she responded, her eyes gentle. “But I’m afraid I just can’t…” Anger swelled up in me again, but before I could yell, dizziness swept over me. I lost my balance and felt myself pitch backwards. Immediately two pairs of hands were touching me, pushing me back to my feet. My vision swam as I raised a hand to my head, suddenly feeling like I was going to be sick.

 

“What’s wrong with her?” I heard Luella ask. I’m not sure which one though; my vision was showing me three of her.

 

“She’s anemic,” Sebastian explained. “Vince got a little carried away…” “I did not,” Vincent snapped.

 

 

“Anemic?” Luella repeated sounding amused. “Out of all the humans in the world… Well, why don’t you bring her to the guest room for now? I’m sure she could use some sleep.”

 

I wanted to protest, but I found I actually was really tired. Not to mention I couldn’t even see straight. Maybe after I slept I would be able to put up a better argument and have a slight chance of being allowed to leave here. Or better yet— I could try to escape.

 

“Yes mother,” Sebastian responded, nodding to her. “Vince, are you going to carry her, or should I?”

 

Vincent glared at him. “I’m not touching her. I’m going to bed,” he hissed, his angry gaze meeting mine for a split-second as he turned to the door.

 

“Vivi!” Luella called after him. “Vivi!”

 

“Goodnight mother,” he said curtly before exiting the room.

 

Luella sighed. “He’s in one of his moods again…”

 

“He’ll get over it,” Sebastian insisted. “He’s just upset he made a mistake.” “Exactly what I said,” Joel interjected.

 

“I know he will, but I still hate seeing him like that,” Luella complained, her eyes landing on me once again. They widened in surprise. “Oh my! Emily, are you okay?”

 

“Tired,” I mumbled as another wave of weariness washed over me.

 

“I’ll take her to her room now,” Sebastian commented.

 

Suddenly my feet left the ground. My eyes flew open in surprise as I was shifted bridal style in Sebastian’s arms. My heart rate increased tenfold, and I tried to squirm out of his grasp, but he wasn’t letting go.

 

“Have a good rest,” Luella bid me, a gentle smile on her face.

 

“Put me down,” I demanded as Sebastian turned, and started walking towards the door. “Now!”

 

A small smirk spread across his face as he looked down at me. “So you can walk into walls while going through the hallway? I think not. Joel can you—?”

 

“Right away, your majesty,” Joel chirped, and I watched as he opened the door that led to the hallway.

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“To your room so you can rest.”

 

“How do I know you won’t kill me if I fall asleep?”

 

Sebastian chuckled. “We can’t kill you. How many times do we have to reiterate that?”

 

 

As many as I could get them to. It made me feel a lot safer knowing it was against the law to kill me. And they were royalty, so it was even more relaxing.

 

“The beds are really comfortable,” Joel interjected, tapping my leg.

 

I jerked in surprise, staring at Joel. He grinned, and once again dizziness washed over me and I leaned back against Sebastian’s arm. “I want to go home,” I mumbled pathetically, closing my eyes.

 

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian responded, sympathy in his voice. “I really am.”

 

“I hate this place,” I continued, not really aware of what I was saying. “I hate Vincent too.”

 

Sebastian chuckled again. “I could see why.”

 

“Mm,” I responded, letting my arms hang limply now. Rest was what I needed right now. I could plot when I woke up. There had to be some way to let them let me go home, I was sure of it. I just needed to figure out what it was. And with those thoughts, I slowly drifted into a dreamless sleep.***