The Vampire King’s Captive

BRAN

She saw him the moment he arrived and her posture relaxed, a smile creeping to her face.

“Your Majesty, please ask your men to stop harassing me.” Her eyes flicked towards said men and she threw them a glare. “I have no idea why they’re treating me like a common thief.”

None other than the fact that she showed up at his castle unannounced.

The guard restraining her from going forward quickly spoke up, defending himself. “We were merely telling her to stay put while we informed you of her presence but she insisted on entering the house anyway, and that was why we had to take matters into our own hands.” The man explained with hard eyes. “We weren’t harassing her, Your Majesty. We were just stopping her from going in.” He glared at Elizabeth. “Physically.”

Bran realised two things then.

One-For his men to disrespect Elizabeth so openly in front of him, then there was obviously no love lost between them. And that was surprising because even if they didn’t respect her, they should at least make effort to respect her in front of him. The fact that they didn’t, just showed how much they hated her.

Two-Had his men not intervened and stopped her from going inside the house, she would have come up to his room and barged in on him and Maria, and that would have been a very uncomfortable situation.

Three-well, there wasn’t supposed to be a three and it was more of a question than a realisation-what the fuck was Elizabeth doing here?

“You may return to your posts,” Bran told the men, waving them away, and as soon as they left-with one last glare at their backs, of course-Elizabeth prowled towards him, all hips and legs. “Elizabeth.”

Her lips stretched in a wide smile. “Your Majesty, it’s been so long.” She lifted her hand and made to touch his chest but Bran saw the move coming and quickly took a step back, putting space between them.

Her smile faltered a bit, but in classic Elizabeth fashion, it was back up like it had never left in the first place, except that this time, it looked a bit forced.

Bran clasped his hands behind his back. “You show up to a king’s castle unannounced and you don’t expect the guards to stop you from coming in?”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

A brow quirked up at that. “It is not my first visit to the castle and not once have your men stopped me from entering.”

She pushed her hair behind her ears, something that Maria did a lot. But on Elizabeth, it appeared fake. Forced. Unnecessary. Maybe even annoying.

Shocking, because it had never annoyed Bran before. But had she ever done it? If she had, Bran couldn’t remember.

“All those times, you were invited,” he told her, giving her a pointed look that said ‘what the hell are you doing here?’ “This time however, you were not.”

Her smile crumbled under the weight of her insecurities and Bran was positive he saw a hint of fear creep into her brown orbs. “You said you were going to send for me while you were at your friend’s house. Imagine how devastated I was when I learnt that you had already returned to your castle.” She took a step closer and her scent wafted to Bran’s nostrils. It was strong. Too strong. Nothing like Maria’s soft, welcoming scent that made him think of all the bright things. “I thought that I should visit you. Surprise you.”

Bran cocked his head at that. When had Elizabeth ever decided to surprise him?

She usually always remained scarce until he requested for her. True to her words, she had been here several times before but Bran had always requested for her. Never once had she decided to surprise him, and Bran couldn’t help but think that it was odd.

She took another step closer to him and lifted her hand, trailing it down his chest. She might as well have just told him that she was vegetarian because he had not a single reaction to her touch-well, except for the disturbing sensation of an insect crawling over him, and he had to fight the urge to shift backwards so as not to hurt her feelings any more than he already had.

“What are you really doing here, Elizabeth?” Bran asked, suddenly very tried. He couldn’t handle this distraction right now. He had too much on his plate already. “We both know a surprise isn’t the real reason you showed up in a different realm, barging into a king’s castle.”

A gust of breath escaped her lips and her shoulders sagged. “The inn is under renovations at the moment and I have nowhere else to go.” Her eyes lowered to her feet, her hands clasped in front of her. “It would not take more than a week for everything to be set and I thought it would be harmless staying here until the work is completed.”

Bran tried not to let his alarm and irritation show on his face.

A week?

She was going to live here for a week? And under the same roof as Maria? Even if he managed to explain the situation to her, how on earth were they going to live under the same roof?

Elizabeth must have seen the panicked look on his face because she quickly assured him, “I’ll leave as soon as it is done, Your Majesty.”

Bran’s back teeth grinded to dust.

The castle was huge, right? There were lesser-to-no chances of the two women bumping into each other.

He had no reason to panic.

“Alright.”

A triumphant smile touched her face. “I have to admit that I expected a much… warmer reaction to my appearance.” She breathed, looking him square in the eyes. Her fingers crept to his chest and lower.

Bran’s chest tightened and he suddenly had this choking feeling in his throat that made it impossible for him to breathe properly.

This was all wrong.

Elizabeth was all wrong.

She was too tall, too slender, too pale and too forthcoming. Too easy. Her smile was too wide, her eyes were not the grey ones that he loved to look at, and her hair was not the right shade of black that he was used to running his hands through.

Her fingers were too long, too cold on his chest and her, touching him, felt wrong for some reason. It made him feel guilty.

Like he was doing something wrong.

Bran caught her hand, stopping it’s descent. He squeezed it-maybe too tightly-before dropping it and taking a step back. He deliberately didn’t meet her eyes as he waved one of the guards stationed in the living room over.

If he looked at her, he knew that he would see hurt in her expression no matter how hard she tried to hide it, and for some reason, that made him feel guilty. It wasn’t like he owed her anything. The arrangement between them was strictly sexual, and he didn’t want it anymore, but he had known her for a very long time and telling her that he was calling it off seemed cruel for some reason even he couldn’t grasp.

“Please show Elizabeth to one of the guest rooms,” Bran told the man.

Elizabeth gasped. “A guest room? But I always stay in your room-”

“Not anymore.” Bran cut her off, wanting to be done with the awkward conversation already. “I’ll see you as soon as I can.”

Then he traced away, leaving Elizabeth to the care of the guard. She would be okay. It wasn’t like she had told him she would be coming anyway.

He traced inside the room.

The last time he’d done it, Maria had smacked him on the chest and warned him to always knock before entering, to which he’d replied that it was ridiculous to trace outside the room, knock, before entering when he could save himself all that stress by simply entering.

The real reason why he didn’t like to knock before entering, was that he liked catching her unawares. He liked not knowing what to expect every time he entered the room.

Like now, she was laying on the sofa face down, her elbow propped up on one hand, while the other moved in circles in front of her, purple light circling it.

One of Bran’s button down white shirt and a black gown of Maria’s danced together in the air. The hand of his shirt was placed at the waist of her gown as though a man really wore the shirt and a woman, the gown, and they were dancing together in a slow tango.