Her Vampire Master Book two

Chapter Three

Charles had moved to the new recliner to read, sometime during the night he had leaned back, and fallen asleep. When he woke up Elizabeth's bed was empty and someone was knocking loudly on the door. He tucked the journal into the chair tossing the throw that Mary was working on, over it. He stood and walked to the door, just as Ciaran was letting himself in.

Ciaran looked over at the empty messy bed. “Where is she?”

“In the bath," Charles answered, it seemed like a good guess since the door was closed. "What do you need?"

"The dog needs to be walked," Ciaran dead-panned with a smirk.

"Let the damn mutt out in the garden," Charles said as he pushed past Ciaran to head down the hall to his own room, "Why bother talking about it, we've been over this before. Are you bored and looking for someone to argue with for entertainment?"

Ciaran followed him, he was bored enough to look for Charles and didn't care if the other vampire knew he was being meddlesome. "Boy, you live to entertain me," he said with a smirk, he said it so dryly that it could be taken as a joke.

"I un-live," Charles corrected him with a smirk, "So do all the other vampires that live in the house, go play with one of the minions if you are bored. Or make more, you need to let me handle this."

Ciaran wasn't sure he cared for Charles' insolent tone, it didn't make him as angry as it had in the past. He was quite used to Charles and his insolent moods, "You know, you're a rude little shit." Ciaran said as he leaned against the door frame studying his nails.

Charles smirked at him, not saying anything else.

“I thought you said it was a crazy idea?” Ciaran drawled.

“It is a crazy idea,” Charles nodded, “I didn’t say it couldn’t be made to work.”

“There is a party tonight,” Ciaran's tone indicated that this was a reminder, and Charles looked at him curiously.

“We are all going. Do you think she’s up to it yet?” Ciaran asked.

Charles looked down raking his fingers through his hair, "Probably not," he said after thinking about it for a moment, "No, maybe to tomorrow's dinner party with the mid-level royalty," Fiona had reminded him about it over a dozen times already, warning him to be on his best behavior and not embarrass her.

“And tonight, at the Bran's. Elizabeth was invited for both,” Ciaran said.

He remembered the Brans, the crush the brother seemed to have on his girl and shrugged. “She’s under the weather,” he offered up the excuse.

Ciaran tilted his head to the side looking at Charles, "It's a small party tonight, just us and the Brans," his voice was the silky and tempting, "Sure you don't want to bring Elizabeth?"

His tone was the giveaway, the Bran's were to be tonight's main course. Ciaran would probably have something artistic planned for both of them. He had been cultivating the girl, stringing her on with some sob story. Charles felt that tingly feeling that he always felt when he was in a mood for violence, it wouldn't just be the siblings. There would be servants to be dealt with, there always servants to take care of.

"I'm positive," he confirmed, not even feeling bad about not wanting to expose her to an evening of murder and mayhem. "She and I are still working out the rules of our new relationship." He said, his tone mildly agitated.

It was clear, Elizabeth had feelings and opinions that he himself didn't share, and as he was willing to let that be known. Let it be known that they counted for something to him.

Charles looked up, expecting to see a condescending look on the older vampires face, what he saw instead was a thoughtful look. Like Ciaran wasn't surprised by his admission of mutuality, it seemed like the vampire was unwillingly intrigued.

"How do you manage that?" He asked curiously.

"Not well most of the time," Charles admitted, "Are we in order? Yes, I'm going. No, she isn't. She'll go to the thing tomorrow. I want Chef, Radley and David left home with her. Our new 'friends' have an invite and I won't have her left alone with only one guard. Does that work for you?"

Ciaran nodded. “We weren’t planning to leave her without protection.”

Charles c****d his head to one side. “Is Fiona giving this a pass?” he asked shocked that she would prefer to stay home.

“Someone has to stay with our sickly cousin,” Ciaran pointed out. “And Mary isn’t a plausible nursemaid.” He sighed, "It does spoil my fun a little."

Charles smiled at him. “Fine, then,” he agreed.