The Vampire King's Feeder

In The Bedroom

Emory

King Kane is flying up the stairs, and I am going as quickly as I can to keep up with him. Normally, I think of myself as pretty fast, but clearly I am either too tired after the adrenaline rush has worn off, or he is even faster than me.

Not that it would surprise me that a vampire is faster than a wolf shifter who has yet to find her wolf, but I don’t know why he is moving so quickly. It’s clear to me that he is still angry. He has been furious since the moment he came into my cell in the feeder’s dungeon and I almost kicked him, but I would’ve thought he’d settle down by now.

I guess I was wrong.

We make it to the top of the first staircase and then he goes right past the guards and up the next flight of stairs. I am a little confused. I thought perhaps he was moving me to the other dungeon, one where the guards are more responsible or something, but that’s not where we are headed either, obviously, so I follow along, and as we reach the top of the second stairwell, he seems to have cooled off enough that he is no longer running at full pace.

If that was even his fastest speed….

The guards open the door for us, and he proceeds down the hallway, walking at a normal quick pace but not so fast that I can’t keep up. A million questions come to my mind as we are walking along, but I don’t dare to ask them because I know that he won’t want to answer them. He doesn’t seem like much of a talker.

All I can keep thinking about it is what almost happened back there. What would I have done if it would’ve been more guards come to attack me? Would I have been able to keep holding them off?

That... and I really want to wash my hand. Thoughts of what I was squeezing make me want to vomit. I can taste bile in the back of my throat.

He is quite a bit ahead of me now, and I realize the more lost in my head I become, the harder it is for me to keep up. I pick up the pace and catch up with him.

The hallways are a maze, as I recall from earlier when I was walking with Clark. I absently wonder what is going to happen to him. He seems important. After all, only two people accompanied the king into the throne room to meet with my family, and Clark was one of them. Surely, he won’t be in too much trouble over what happened. He must not have realized he put me in the wrong place. He must not know that the dungeon is such an awful hellhole.

But then… he didn’t seem surprised when we went down there together—which makes me think he knows.

King Kane comes to a halt in front of me, his head tipped back so that he is looking at the ceiling, and I have to pull up abruptly to keep from crashing into him. I stop just short of him and find myself slightly disappointed not to have an excuse to touch him, which makes no sense to me.

After all, his cold body can’t possibly feel that good beneath my hands. He probably feels like a marble statue. When he’d grabbed my hand earlier, it had been warmer than expected, but still… he’s a vampire, not a cozy blanket designed to snuggle up with on warm nights.

He lowers his head from the ceiling and turns to look at me. “Am I walking too fast?” he asks, and I hear tones of frustration in his voice.

I don’t want to tell him that he is, so I say, “No, Sir.”

“Then… why are you so far behind me?” he asks, arching an eyebrow over a blue eye that suddenly has me lost in an ocean. It’s as if I’m drifting out to sea, and the further into those blue orbs I wade, the less likely I am to ever return to shore. “Emory?”

I shake my head, returning to the hallway. “Oh, uh… because… you’re the king,” I stammer. “It’s not polite to walk next to you.”

He snickers and shakes his head. “How about right behind me instead of so far away I have to keep pausing to make sure you haven’t gotten lost? Or stolen?”

His voice is gentler now than before, and I have to wonder why he would think I might get stolen, but then, after the scene he walked in on, perhaps he knows there are more reasons for me to be leery in this castle than I previously thought.

“Yes, Sir,” I say with a nod.

He starts walking again, but this time, his pace isn’t as quick, and after a few more turns, I find that we are in a fancy part of the castle where the marble floors are particularly polished, and the wooden carvings that make up the trim, doors, and doorways is even more elaborate than normal.

Wherever we are, important people must stay here….

Back home, we live in a castle, but it’s nothing like this one. It’s not nearly as large, and most of our finer items were sold many years ago to finance the war. I have always wondered what became of them, and now I wonder if Father might’ve traded some of them to King Kane to help pay back some of his debt. Will I see some of our belongings here if I look long enough?

We didn’t have anyone else living in our house, other than my family and the servants, but here, it seems that there are a whole host of people who live and work in the castle, people like Rainer and Clark who consult the king, and who knows who else? I haven’t even seen the queen consort yet, King Kane’s mother, or his brother, Prince Lex, who has quite the reputation as a womanizer.

Who else is hiding in these hallways?

We reach a door with butterflies and flowers carved into the doorframe and the door itself. It’s quite beautiful, and I can’t help but stare at it for a moment as King Kane opens it. The door opens silently, and we step inside of a suite.

I am confused. The room is much more elaborate than any of our bedrooms back home. Even my father and mother didn’t have this sort of luxury. The carpet beneath my feet is plush, a nice beige color, with plenty of handwoven throw rugs in reds and deep blues around the large space as accents. There’s a sitting area with a comfortable, yet formal looking, blue sofa and chairs. The bed is a four-poster big enough for three or four people, I am guessing. It has a canopy, and all of the linens are the same deep blues as the couch and rugs. The bed itself has butterflies and flowers carved into it. In the distance, I see an en suite bathroom, though I can’t see inside of it from this angle.

All of the furniture is heavy wood, cherry, I believe, and it smells clean and fresh. Flowers on the round table in the dining area near a small kitchenette make it smell even nicer.

This is by far the most beautiful room I’ve ever been in before, and despite the feminine touches, I can’t help but jump to one conclusion as to where we are.

“Here we are,” King Kane says, lifting his arm just slightly.

My eyes flutter back to his face as I ask, “Your room?” A small quiver gives away my nervousness as I wonder what he would’ve brought me to his room for. Is he ready to feed from me?

Or… is it something else?

His eyebrows knit together as a crooked grin slips into place for a moment before it fades away. “No,” he says, shaking his head slightly. “Not my room—your room, Emory. Do I look like the sort of vampire who likes butterflies?”

I can’t help but giggle slightly. He most definitely does not. But I am still at a loss. “This room is for me?” I ask him. “I mean, I’m a feeder. Not a guest.”

“You are the daughter of an Alpha,” he reminds me. “A princess for all intents and purposes, and it won’t do for someone of your stature to stay in a filthy dungeon.”

I honestly don’t know what to say to him. I feel tears threatening to slip from my eyes, but I don’t want to cry. It’s been such a long, emotional day, and all I want to do is curl myself into a ball and go to sleep—right after I wash my hands.

A noise at the door behind us has me looking past him. Two maids stand there with what looks like arms full of clothing. He waves them in, and they move toward a closet on the other side of the room near the bathroom.

“This is Helga and Nellie,” he explains, gesturing first at an older looking woman with broad shoulders and a bit of a severe look about her. Nellie is younger, about my age, I’m guessing, with a broad smile and cheerful eyes. They are both vampires so who knows how old they really are. “They’ll be taking care of you.”

It almost seemed like he was going to say for as long as I stay here, but, that will likely be forever—or until I die. I never would’ve imagined I’d have servants. I didn’t even have my own designated servant back home anymore. I hadn’t since I was a little girl. “Thank you,” is all I can manage. They hang up the clothing and come back out of the closet, tipping their heads.

“They’ll be bringing you some more clothing and other items you’ll need since you didn’t have the opportunity to pack before you came.”

I can’t help but scoff at the statement, not at the king but at the fact that I’d had no idea that I was about to leave my home forever.

“If there are items you want from your former home, I’ll be happy to retrieve them for you,” he assures me.

Again, I am shocked. I want to ask him why he’s being so nice, but I figure there’s something I’m missing. I wonder if maybe he thinks he can make some of his money back by reselling me. Could some of his vampire friends be willing to pay for me? I can’t think about that right now. It isn’t right to question his kindness, though I will never let anyone catch me off guard again.

As if he was reading my mind, he asks, “You didn’t know, did you?”

I turn and look at him, trying to avoid his eyes, but I can’t. I stare into them again for a moment before I finally say, “No.”

He nods. “Well, it’s all very unfortunate, but you are here now. So… get some rest. Take a bath if you’d like. Dinner is at 7:00 sharp. I’ll send someone for you.” He turns back toward the door, like he is leaving, and I’m not surprised. I’m sure he has a million things to do, and I have already been a big enough nuisance.

But I can’t help the final question that comes out of my mouth just before he leaves. “King Kane?”

He looks at me, his eyebrows raise, waiting.

I take a deep breath and ask, “Dinner?” He nods, beckoning me to continue. “Am I going to dinner… because I am dinner?”

A chuckle escapes his lips, and he says, “I’ll see you later, Emory.”