Kidnapped By The Vampire Prince

“Emily, Honey, are you going to eat?”

Jumping slightly in surprise, my eyes shot to Luella, who was staring at me with a concerned expression. Changing my gaze to the food on my plate, I picked up my fork and stabbed a piece of squash, shoving it in my mouth. “Yep! See?”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Vincent said in a belittling tone.

I glared at him, resisting the urge to show him the chewed up food in my mouth. If it weren’t for the others at the table, I would’ve. Everyone in the Rutherford family was present- Solomon, Luella, Fiona, Sebastian, and Vincent. Joel was there too, but I figured he was included in most family gatherings.

“You’ll choke,” Vincent finished after a moment, dropping his gaze down to his place.

Luella’s eyes widened slightly. She mouthed something to her husband that I didn’t catch causing him, and Sebastian who was sitting next to him, to smirk. I cocked my head to the side, gazing at the pair of men with questioning eyes. They both waved me off. I scowled.

A new silence settled in after that, aside from the scraping of metal forks on the porcelain plates. There was some type of tension in the air, but I couldn’t figure out why. Usually the Rutherfords were pretty calm. They spoke what was on their mind (especially Vincent), so this was a little strange.

I had my own reasons for being unsettled though. It was the second day since Ashton had left me in the forest. Technically second night, actually, which meant that meant there was only four more days before he came back to retrieve me. No one had spoken one word of it over the past two days. It made my mind race with questions: Why weren’t they talking about it? Were they not worried about it? Were they secretly planning without me? Why wouldn’t they tell me?

“Ah, before I forget,” Solomon started, interrupting the quiet dinner room. “Tomorrow we’ll be having a few guests from the court over for dinner. I do believe it would be in our best interests if Emily were out of the house. Fiona, Vincent, I’ll leave that up to you two.”

“What about me?” Joel asked excitedly.

“You need to go to your parents house for dinner,” Solomon told him.

His jaw dropped. “What? No!”

I cocked an eyebrow. It never occurred to me that Joel had parents. Well, no, obviously he had parents, but I’d assumed Solomon and Luella were kind of his adoptive parents.

“They miss you,” Luella added.

“I will die,” he commented dramatically, flopping onto the table. “I can hear them scolding me already…”

Solomon shook his head at Joel before turning to Fiona and Vincent. “So are you guys up for it?”

Fiona beamed happily at him. “No problem! I’d do anything to stay away from the court members!”

“Same,” Vincent grunted. “Those assholes can’t even be polite enough to at least act like they like me.”

“Vivi, language,” Luella scolded him. “Your swearing habit has gotten out of hand lately.”

Solomon laughed. “Don’t say that, Luella, that will just make him do it more.”

She frowned. “That’s no good…”

“Father, will I have to attend this court meeting?” Sebastian inquired, disappointed washed across his face for some reason. The usual twinkle to his eye was gone. Did he not like the court either?

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“Oh! No! I forgot to tell you, you don’t have to attend either. Why don’t you take the opportunity to go out and have some fun? I know you’ve been busy lately, so I think it will do you some good.”

His eyes lit up like a child’s on Christmas. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Solomon responded, smiling at his son. “Emily could use the extra protection too, right?”

His words suddenly brought everyone to a halt. My eyes widened. Finally. He was bringing up the issue! Well, maybe not bringing it up, but mentioning it.

It felt like my back pocket was burning, and I knew why. The note I’d received from Luca was there, still unread. I’d decided I wanted to read it with Sebastian. If I read it alone, there could be a chance that I wouldn’t want to share the information in it and put both his family and myself in danger. However I hadn’t managed to get him alone, so there’d been no time to read it.

For a second I debated on taking it out right now and showing everyone, but I wasn’t sure if that would be the best idea. What if it was something really bad? Sebastian would know what to do. He always did.

“I think it would be fun to check out that new restaurant,” Solomon said thoughtfully, tapping his chin. “Maybe you could eat dinner there and tell me how it is.”

“I like that idea!” Fiona chirped.

Sebastian smiled at her. “Anything for food, right?”

She grinned sheepishly, her cheeks tinting pink. “Well…”

“Hey,” I began, raising my voice to gain everyone’s attention. “Why are you all acting so normal?”

Everyone but Vincent gave me a confused look. He gave me an eye roll.

“What do you mean?” Luella questioned, placing her fork on her plate.

“Ashton is coming in four days!” I burst, clenching my fist. “Why haven’t we talked about a plan? Or strategy? Or something! Isn’t it going to be dangerous? You guys might have to fight him! Don’t you think you should have some kind of idea of how to protect yourselves? What about me? I don’t know what’s going on either!”

There were a few moments of silence after my little rant. I stayed quiet, focusing on keeping my breath under control. Weren’t they at least a little bit worried about what was going to come? Was I the only one worried for them ?

“Come to think of it, we should probably think of something,” Solomon commented, blinking at his wife. “Maybe the ball planning can be put to a pause.”

“I agree,” she responded slowly. “I guess it’s best to be prepared even in a situation such as this.”

I stared blankly at the two. Were they serious? They hadn’t even thought about planning something? “Unbelievable! I thought you two would at least be more worried.”

“Emily, you keep forgetting we’re vampires,” Fiona interjected, rapping her fist gently on my head. “We’re strong.”

“You’re forgetting that your opponent is also a vampire!” I replied, feeling a wave of anxiousness wash over me. “You guys need to take this more seriously!”

Sebastian tapped his chin. “Maybe we can set up some booby traps…”

“You’re so childish,” Vincent muttered. Then he smirked. “I say we play a real life version of Mouse Trap. That’ll be

much more-”

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“You guys!” I cried, pushing myself to my feet. “Stop joking around! I’m being serious! Don’t go blindly into this! You never know what Ashton’s planning! What if one of you gets hurt because of this? If you don’t step up your game, I’ll go with Ashton willingly-”

Vincent sent me a harsh glare, but before I could continue speaking, or he could start, Solomon abruptly started laughing, but easily changed it into a cough. “Sit down, Emily.”

Luella sent me a gentle smile as I did as the king ordered. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Everyone at the table aside from Vincent hooked me a thumbs up. “We’re teasing you.”

My mind went blank. “What?”

“Ah, I now know why Vincent teases you so much,” Solomon commented with a sigh. “You’re so gullible and easily influenced.”

“I kind of feel bad,” Luella admitted.

“I don’t,” Sebastian and Fiona stated simultaneously.

The blank expression was wiped away, replaced by irritation. “You guys are jerks!”

Solomon chuckled again, pushing his dark hair out of his face. “Sorry, sorry. Let me ease your worries. Everything is already planned. There’s no need for you to worry about anything.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not sure if Sebastian or Vincent have told you, but on that same day is the ball for the search of Sebastian’s fiancée.”

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably, his shoulders tensing. “It’s just a ball,” he muttered, staring a hole in the kitchen table.

Solomon frowned at him for a second before turning back to me. “We really aren’t that ignorant. Ashton’s group really isn’t a threat to us, but it’s still wise to take precautions.”

“Also, there will be a lot of vampires here on our side,” Fiona added. “It would be stupid for Ashton to try anything.”

“Wait… So… You might not have to fight?” I asked hesitantly. If they didn’t have to use violence, then there would be no worries!

Solomon nodded. “That’s the favorable outcome, however, there still is a chance we might have to engage in battle. Don’t fret over it though; we have everything covered. Every one here knows what Ashton wants and will help protect us- even the kitchen crew.

Relief washed through me. “Oh, good.”

“I’ll be your knight in shining armor if anything bad happens, Em,” Joel piped in, grinning happily at me. “I’m pretty strong.”

“Strong enough to get beat up by his crew before, right?” Vincent said mockingly, his sapphire eyes narrowing in amusement.

Joel looked offended. “They took me by surprise!”

“Anyway,” Solomon began, taking my attention away from the bickering boys, “you’ll be in the back room of the ballroom. This way you’re protected without being suspicious and Ashton will never know of your location.”

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