52
Waking up in strange places was something I was growing accustom to. Having an IV attached to me wasn’t coming as a surprise either. I glanced down at it, my vision blurry and shifting between focused and unfocused. It took a moment for it to settle on my normal eyesight. I turned my head, trying to get a good look around the room. My neck throbbed painfully and a grimace crossed my face. What…?
“Oh! You’re up!”
My heart skipped a beat and I shot up into a sitting position, looking around wildly, and forgetting the pain in my throat. When my eyes landed on Fiona I flopped back with a huff of annoyance. “Don’t scare me like that!”
She gave me an uncharacteristically serious look. “Don’t scare me!”
“W-what do you mean don’t scare you?” I snapped, putting a hand over my frantically beating heart.
“Disappearing without a trace?” she started, narrowing her emerald eyes at me. “Leaving that horrifying voicemail on Vivi’s phone? You nearly gave me a heart attack! And trust me when I say giving a vampire a heart attack is quite an achievement!”
I stared at her in surprise, my mouth hanging open. The voicemail… Memories of the night before rushed through my mind. Luca, my choices, Ashton… “I-I’m sorry,” I stammered after a moment. “But Ashton-”
“And then, oh boy, the look on Vivi’s face. I am going to have nightmares for weeks. Poor Joel…”
“What happened to Joel?”
Fiona solemnly dragged a slim finger across her pale neck.
“He killed him?”
“Well, no, Sebastian didn’t let him do that…”
“It wasn’t his fault!” I protested. Joel just had bad timing. I was the one who let him leave. “If it’s anyone’s, it’s mine. Vincent should be mad at me!”
She smirked. “Oh, he is.”
My heart sunk. “What?”
“How are you feeling?” she questioned, changing the topic. “You lost quite a lot of blood. About the same amount as the time Joel sucked you’re blood… Huh. You’re pretty prone to vampire attacks, aren’t you? I bet it’s because you’re a Blue Blood. They’re rare creatures…”
I grimaced. “Creature?”
“That’s what you referred us vampires to.”
“Sorry,” I apologized sincerely after a moment of stunned silence. Thinking back now, how could I have been so callous? I was pretty bad…
She waved it off. “Don’t worry about it. If you’re feeling okay now, my parents would like to talk to you.”
“The King and Queen?”
“The one and only.”
“Where are we?” I asked, taking another look around the room I was in. Nothing stood out to me. It was completely white and bare, aside from the bed I was lying on, and the drip that Fiona was now taking off of me.
She gave me an amused look, removing the IV from my arm. “You can’t figure it out? We’re at my house.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
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“Yep. Now I’ll be back, gotta go get my parents. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Okay,” I replied, relaxing back into my pillow. Might as well enjoy a few moments of silence until the questioning began. My eyes closed and I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
Fiona’s footsteps revealed to me that she was heading for the door. It squeaked loudly as she opened it. A tiny gasped escaped her lips. “Vivi-”
Vivi? Somehow I managed to fight the urge to sit up and snap my eyes open. If I could feign sleep, I wouldn’t have to face him. I tried to keep my breathing even and my heartbeat calm. If I didn’t, he could figure out I was awake by just that.
“Get out,” I heard him order.
“She’s sleeping-”
“Go get everyone,” Vincent snapped.
Fiona huffed angrily. “Fine. Be nice, Vivi. It wasn’t her fault.”
A grunt was his response. Fiona sighed lightly before her footsteps started up again, going down the hallway. The door closed, leaving Vincent and I alone in silence. I focused on my façade, breathing in and out slowly.
“I know you’re awake,” Vincent commented in a hard voice. “It’s no use pretending. You were just talking to Fiona a few seconds ago.”
Damn. Slowly, I opened my eyes and smiled at him. “H-hey, Vincent-”
“Are you stupid?” he growled, cutting me off. “What don’t you understand about the fact you’re not supposed to be alone?”
I winced. I knew he was going to be pissed. “Vincent, hold on-”
“You should have said no when Joel asked to leave! He’s just about as stupid as you are-”
“Vincent!” I cried abruptly. “Shut up for a minute! Stop saying I’m stupid!”
“Well you are!”
“No I’m not!”
“Then explain to me why I found you near death on the ground in the middle of the forest,” he growled.
Wow. That sounded a lot worse than I figured it would. “That’s not my fault. Ashton’s the one that left me there.”
“Why would you even go anywhere with him?”
“I didn’t know it was Ashton until the last second!”
Vincent crossed his arms. “How could you not know?”
“Uh, I don’t know, maybe because I’ve never seen him before in my life? That sounds like a pretty damn good explanation to me!”
He stayed silent. I smirked smugly. Finally I’d outsmarted him.
“You’re too trusting,” he finally stated.
I rolled my eyes. “Sorry I don’t recognize an evil vampire when I see him. He must have dyed his hair, or something.”
“Was Luca with him?”
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“Er, yeah. You know him too?”
Vincent scowled. “Luca tried to kill me once, of course I know him.”
“Really? Why? How? When?”
“I’m not here to talk about that,” Vincent snapped, shooting me a stern look. “What I’m here to talk about is your idiocy. How did Ashton even manage to get you? You were in a public place. I don’t know how you managed to get yourself kidnapped without being noticed. How
stupid can-”Original from NôvelDrama.Org.
“You don’t have to be an asshole about it!” I interjected, giving him a harsh glare. “It wasn’t public at midnight! No one was around, Vincent! And you should know how I got kidnapped since you did it yourself a few months ago! Vampires are stronger than humans! You know, most people would be happy to see a kidnapped person alive, not angry at them and calling them stupid every five seconds! It’d be nice to know you cared!”
“I do care,” he snapped back. “Why do you think I’m pissed? I’ve been on edge all day because I’ve been worried about you, you stupid girl! It’s irritating me! I don’t want to, but I can’t help but be concerned over you! If it was any other human I could care less, but because it’s you it makes me angry that I couldn’t do anything.”
My next retort died in my throat. He’d admitted he was worried about me- that he cared about me. All the anger in my body faded. “Vincent…”
A deep scowl was still set on his face. “I knew. The one night I decide you’ll be safe without me, you aren’t. I shouldn’t have let you go alone. If I had, you wouldn’t have had to gone through that experience again.”
“It’s okay,” I told him, my expression softening. “It was just a bad coincidence. There’s nothing you could have done.”
He crossed his arms in a very childlike gesture. “So?”
I smiled. “I’m okay though.”
“I see that, stupid.”
“Didn’t I say to stop calling me stupid?”
In the blink of an eye, Vincent’s face was solely an inch away from mine. “You might have mentioned it.”
I took in a shaky breath, surprised at his close proximity. “H-how many times do I have to say it?”
He grinned. “Until you admit that I’m a good kisser.”
“Well, that’ll be never.”
The grin dropped off his face immediately. Before I could protest, he crushed his lips to mine. For the first few seconds I tried to resist it, afraid his parents might walk in, but I slowly gave in, allowing him to dominate the kiss. In a matter of moments I was breathless. When he pulled away, a satisfied expression was on his face. “How was that?”
“Kind of like rotten eggs…”
“Let me try again,” he requested, moving in.
I quickly pressed my palm to his lips. “No, Vincent. I don’t think I can handle another without throwing up.” It was funny how easily lies came when it came to teasing him.
He ripped my hand away. “God, Emily, care to beat down my self-esteem a little more?”
“Hey Vincent?”
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