Kidnapped By The Vampire Prince

I smiled wryly at her. “It was kind of a last minute thing. I forgot to mention it.”

She nodded understandingly. “I guess you forgot to mention it to our boss too, huh?”

“Aha… Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she responded with a laugh. “More money for me. Now… I see you brought a friend?” Her gaze turned to Vincent, who was standing by the door still, looking at us with a bored expression.

I gestured for him to come toward us. “This is Vincent. Vincent, this is my friend Alli.” I tried to give him a look that said ‘be polite’.

“Hello,” he greeted smoothly, holding out a slim hand to her. “It’s a pleasure meeting you.”

Resisting the urge to role my eyes at his Sebastian-like greeting, I watched as Alli gave him the eye of approval. In other words, she thought he’d make a suitable boyfriend. Silently I begged her not to say anything. Usually she didn’t, but sometimes…

“So did you guys meet in Cali then?” Alli questioned, heading back to the cash register as a customer came up to pay.

I nodded, following her. “Yeah, my parents are taking him in for a while.”

She gave him a curious look. “What did you do?”

“I kidnapped someone.”

The woman at the register snapped her head around to look at him so fast, I was surprised she didn’t get whiplash. Vincent kept his face dangerously expressionless while I started panicking on the inside. What was he doing? He couldn’t say that!

Finally Alli laughed, breaking the tension. “Good one. So I’m going to guess that you got really into drugs?”

“No,” Vincent sniffed.

My mind raced, trying to find a plausible excuse. What were some common misdemeanors? “Umm, he actually-”

“I stole a lot of stuff,” he said, cutting me off. “So I was shipped here to correct my ways.”

Alli looked impressed. “And your parents agreed to this?”

“Er, yeah.” They really didn’t have a choice.

“Well, that’s cool. Will you be attending school with us, Vincent?”

He nodded. “Starting tomorrow.”

“Leah will be excited,” Alli commented with a smirk. “Have a nice day!” she added as the female customer left, eyeing Vincent suspiciously.

I immediately understood the innuendo. To my annoyance, it sent a shot of jealousy through me. Vincent was handsome- I wasn’t going to lie. I wasn’t going to be the only one who thought so either. Once he went to school tomorrow and all the girls saw him…

“Your brother wants vanilla,” Vincent announced, breaking my thoughts. “Hurry up.”

Rolling my eyes, I went to the register. “I guess we’ll get a pint of vanilla, two pints of chocolate, a pint of mint chocolate chip, and…” I trailed off, waiting for Vincent’s choice. “What do you want, Vincent?”

.

.

For a minute he looked taken aback, like he’d never been asked what kind of ice cream he wanted before. “Birthday Cake,” he finally responded.

Before I could stop myself, I burst out laughing. “Birthday Cake?”

“Shut up,” he snapped, shoving his hands into his pockets. “It’s good.”

“I’ve never had it, so I can’t say if I agree or not, but it totally doesn’t suit you.”

Alli cocked an eyebrow at me, pausing with an ice cream scoop in her hand. “Since when does ice cream suit people?”

I looked at Vincent pointedly. “Tell me honestly if you saw Vincent that would be the ice cream you’d think he liked.”

“Hmm. Maybe not.”

“See?”

Vincent shook his head. “You’re stupid.”

“Whatever, birthday boy.”

He mocked laughed. “Very funny.”

“Are you guys dating or something?” Alli inquired, leaning down to scoop the vanilla ice cream into one of the cartons. “I’ve never seen Emily so flirty.”

“I’m not being flirty!” I protested.

“We’ve been dating for a week,” Vincent notified her.

“Ah.”

I whipped my head around to her. “Alli! Don’t believe him so easily. We’re not dating.”

Vincent gave me a smug look when Alli didn’t look convinced. “You shouldn’t lie, Emily.”

The use of my name caused my mind to blank for a moment. I really liked the way it rolled off his tongue… Shaking my head to rid myself of those thoughts, I frowned at Alli. “Seriously though, I’m not dating him. I wouldn’t date a…”

“A?”

“Arrogant ass,” I burst before I could stop myself. I kind of regretted it, but it was better than saying vampire like I was going to. But would that statement even be correct? When Sebastian asked me if I’d ever be romantically involved with a vampire, I never gave him a clear response. My first instinct was no, but…

Alli slammed the ice cream cooler shut with a noisy pop, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Your total comes to 18. 52,” she told me, going over to the cash register.

I handed her the twenty. “Keep the change. Vincent, would you take the ice cream?”

“Sure,” he responded, surprising me. “Since you paid for it.”

I smiled. “Are you going to say thank you?”

“No.”

Alli snorted, a grin appearing on her lips. “I think I’m going to like him.”

“You’re only saying that because you like people that poke fun at me,” I complained. “It’s always like this! You always-”

“Let’s go,” Vincent demanded, cutting me off. “I want to watch that movie. We’ll see you tomorrow, Alli.”

She waved. “Bye-bye!”

.

.

After returning her wave with a flourish of my hand, I turned and followed Vincent out of the parlor. “You know you don’t have to be so rude.”

“You’re different too.”

His response threw me off. “Wait, what?”

“You’re different than when you were stuck at the mansion,” Vincent informed me, frowning. “More social and…”

“And?”

“Not afraid to be annoying.”

“Thanks,” I muttered sarcastically. “It might help that I’m actually around people I like.”

He thrust the bag of ice cream into my hand when we arrived at the car. “I’m sure my family would be hurt upon hearing that.”

I slipped into the passenger side, deciding not to duke it out with Vincent in public. He could drive home. “That’s not what I mean. I like them, but I’m not as comfortable around them, you know?”

“I guess,” he replied vaguely.

“Have you been to school before?” I asked, deciding to change the topic.

“Yeah, but not a human one.”

I turned toward him, interested. “There are schools for vampires?”

“How do you think we learn?”

“Uh…”

“I’m guessing it’s not much different than human high school. We just learn different subjects.”

For a brief moment I debated about asking him what he learned, but decided against it. It would probably be best I didn’t know. “Are you sure you’re smart enough for human high school?” I joked.

He gave me a quick, complacent look. “I’m smart enough for human college.”

“Really?” I said skeptically.

“I’m royalty,” he stated, as if it explained everything.

Sighing, I dropped the subject. The sky was completely dark now; reminding me of the Halloween night I’d been kidnapped on. How long ago was that? A week and a half? I could just imagine how much math homework I’d have… I wouldn’t be able to have a social life for a week.

When we arrived back at my house, I ordered Vincent to park my car on the side of the road. He obeyed and even took the ice cream when he climbed out of the car. It took me a second to realize he was only doing it to impress my parents. We walked into the house and he went straight to the kitchen, handing my mom the bag. I trailed along after him, letting out a long yawn.

“Your brother is set up in the den,” my mom told me. “Why don’t you bring him his ice cream? I think he’s watching a movie.”

“We’re watching it too,” I replied, moving to the drawer we kept our silverware in and grabbing three spoons. “Then I’m going to bed.”

She nodded. “Good idea. School will be rough tomorrow. You’ll show Vincent where the extra room is, right?”

“Yup.”

“Please make yourself at home!” my mom chirped, sending a sweet smile to Vincent. “Let Emily, Jake, Jack, or I know if you need anything.”

Vincent returned her smile with one of his own. “Of course, Mary.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Seeing Vincent so polite was kind of creepy. “I’m going to the den now… Come on, Vincent.”

My mom bid us adieu as I led him out of the room and down the hall to the den. The lights were off and Jake was already sitting on the couch, watching the previews before the movies. When he noticed us, he scooted over on the couch to make room. I sat down next to him, handing him a spoon. “Vincent has the ice cream.”

Vincent took the last seat on the couch, next to me, before handing Jake’s ice cream to him. “Here.”

“Thanks, Vivi.”

“Look, you little brat-”

Jake cocked an eyebrow. “Little? I do believe I’m older than you.”

“Really?” Vincent responded dryly. “I’d bet you a million dollars you aren’t.”

“Vincent,” I said warningly, giving him a sharp look.

He glared at me for a second before letting out a huff of breath. “Whatever.”

Jake grinned triumphantly. “That’s what I thought.”

“Just play the movie,” I interjected before Vincent could open his mouth again. “So I can prove to you that I’m not afraid of vampires anymore.”

“You know, fears don’t just disappear in a week,” Jake mentioned, clicking the play button on the DVD player remote.

I shrugged. “Well it depends.”

He gave me a dubious look. “Depends on what?”

“On…” I trailed off, feeling heat rise to my face. What was I going to say? It depends on how nice they are? How kind Sebastian is? How amusing Solomon is? How silly Fiona is? How surprisingly sweet Vincent could be? Yeah, right. “Just play the movie,” I finally mumbled.

A smug look crossed his face. “I already started it, stupid.”

“Vincent, didn’t I-” I cut myself off when I realized I’d said Vincent’s name instead of Jake’s.

Jake gave me a suspicious look. “Vincent?”

“What?” Vincent glanced at him. I could tell he was holding back a smirk.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, trying to avoid further embarrassment. “Let’s just watch the movie…”

“You might want to block your ears, Vivi, she’s really loud when she screams.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Oh, I know.”

Jake paused, his head snapping back to Vincent. “What do you mean by that?”

I flushed at his innuendo. “Not like that, Jake!”

“Or is it?” Vincent added.

Jake scowled. “It better not mean that. Not with my little sister, you delinquent!”

“I’ll let you think what you want.”

“Vincent! Jake, he didn’t mean that.”

Jake still didn’t look convinced. “I’m watching you two.”

I sighed. Great.