Vampire Prince

by Kat Cotton

  Nic wrinkled his nose. I knew why. He thought if I went with Jeb, we’d spend the whole time bitching about him. Which was so not true. I’d never bitch about Nic behind his back. It was so much more fun to do it to his face.

  I found Jeb reading a magazine and asked him to go to the park with me.

  “Sure, but I’m driving.”

  “No way. I’m driving. Dude, you don’t even know your way around the city. You’ll get us lost.”

  I won that one.

  Jeb talked all the way to the park. Not just talked either. He kept changing the radio station and fiddled with the heating. I wanted to slap him.

  “Hey, turn the heater back on.”

  “But it’s like a sauna in here.”

  “Buddy, I’m freezing my butt off. And, since the root cause of that coldness included saving your life, you’ll put that heater back on or I’ll phone the Vampire King and tell him I changed my mind about you. Who knows? A nice sacrifice might make him more well disposed toward me.”

  That shut him up and made him settle a bit. Although he did squirm around in his seat. Maybe he had worms? Could worms live inside the undead? I understood why he drove Nic nuts. The guy had too much excess energy.

  I parked the car in the empty lot. The park looked gorgeous on crisp day like this. The water glistened and, in the distance, you could see the palm streets lining the beach road.

  Jeb and I walked across the park. It was so quiet. No joggers, no kids playing. Just a few birds in the trees. The peacefulness weirded me out. This was a mistake. The old man would be long gone. Why would he stick around here?

  But, as we got closer, I saw him sitting on his bench.

  “Maybe I should talk to him alone,” I said to Jeb. “He’s a funny old guy. Maybe you could run off some energy while I’m doing that.”

  He looked like he was about to argue with me but took off. Good thing too. I didn’t need that kind of nervous tension around the old guy.

  “Hey, old man,” I said when I approached him. “Nice day.”

  He nodded. “New boyfriend? I liked the other one better.”

  He shuffled over so I could sit down.

  “He’s not my boyfriend and I like the other one better too. But he’s busy today.”

  “The pretty one isn’t for you,” he said. “But he cares about you more than he’d ever let on.”

  “You think?”

  The old man had to be crazy if he thought Nic cared about me. He cared as much as he could use me. Other than that, he only cared about his pack.

  “He cares about everyone more than he ever shows. That one over there,” he pointed at Jeb, “Only cares about himself.”

  I reached into my bag.“I’ve got cake for you,” I said.

  “It’s hard to get at the moment. My poor ducks have been hungry.”

  I was sure there was lots of real duck food stuff in the lake, and that cake wasn’t actually that good for them but I didn’t argue. If the old man wanted to feed the ducks, then who was I to tell him different?

  “I’m looking for someone,” I said.

  “Aye, and he’s looking for you too. You should stay inside where you’re safe.”

  “True, but I get cabin fever sometimes.”

  “Better that than the alternative.”

  The old guy spoke the truth.

  “So, do you know where he’s hanging out?”

  The old man shook his head. “My ducks haven’t found out yet. He’s covering his tracks, but he’ll get sloppy one day and they’ll find out. You can’t hide anything from ducks.”

  Damn it. I’d hoped we’d get a lead. There was no use pushing the old guy if he knew nothing.

  “Look after yourself, old man,” I said to him. “I’ll be back soon.”

  The old man nodded.

  At least Jeb was quiet on the drive home. Except for making some lame joke about the old man not having his ducks in a row. I rolled my eyes and didn’t reply.

  “Find out anything,” Nic asked when I returned.

  “Nope. Not yet.”

  He frowned. “Damn. Not good. Oh, how did you enjoy the drive with Jeb?”

  “It was fun. We had a blast.”

  I’d never admit to Nic in a million years how much Jeb had annoyed me. I walked past him to the kitchen then turned back for another look. Did he really care about me more than I thought? I doubted it, but then the old man had never been wrong before. Still, Nic was Nic.

  Chapter 12: Groupies

  I thought the feeding process would simple. Kisho would just get one of the girls and suck on her neck. Not so, apparently. He’d been training with Nic for a few days and nothing yet.

  “The first time feeding is really intense. We have to prepare him for that,” Nic said.

  “I want to do it now. We have to get to those kids,” Kisho said. “We don’t have time.”

  “They should be fairly safe for a while. I mean, it won’t be pleasant for them but he’s not going to harm them straight up.” Nic picked up his cup of tea and took a sip. “And you can’t go up against him until we know you stand a chance. Rushing in will do nobody any good.”

  I nodded. I had no idea what Nic had in mind but I didn’t want Kisho at risk. I’d happily bide my time if it meant Kisho was safe.

  “I’m going to train those girls to fight,” I said. “We need people who aren’t effected by the King.”

  “No way,” Jeb said. “They are food, not fighters. I don’t want my dinner pumped full of adrenalin.”

  “I’m not sure that is actual science. And what if the King attacks us here? It’s better they have some fighting skills rather than being totally doomed.”

  “They can’t take on the King,” Nic said. “But, if it amuses you, go for it. At least you won’t be sitting around eating all my cake.”

  I kicked his leg. “They could take on his minions.”

  “The King isn’t going to attack us here anyway,” Nic said. “He can’t enter the house. So, unless they leave the place, they’re safe. But go, Clem Starr, and train your girls.”

  He was cranky because I’d be training someone and not him. If he’d thought of it first, he’d been all over training the groupies.

  I went down to the basement to talk to the girls.

  “Sounds good to me,” Francine said. “It’s boring as hell being housebound, and we only see Nic once a day.”

  “He’s not that great really.”

  But she just smiled a goofy smile.

  The tall one, Rose, frowned.“Sounds like a lot of work and we’ll just die in the end anyway.”

  Rose obviously hadn’t watched enough of Nic’s motivational DVDs on positive thinking, even though there were plenty of them on the shelf in the basement.

  “I’d rather have a chance of getting out alive than letting some gross old man feed on me. I don’t mind the feeding when it’s consensual but that Vampire King sounds disgusting,” Francine said.

  The other two girls, Tabia and Leesa, nodded.

  “Fine. Let’s get started.”

  The three of them jumped up, ready to go into action. Rose unwillingly joined in. I started with some basic moves. Punches and kicks.

  Even though Rose hadn’t been keen, she had the killer instinct. I had to tell her to hold back. Without protective gear, she might hurt one of the others.

  “Put your whole body into it, Leesa,” I said. “Good, Francine, you’re getting the hang of those kicks.”

  I moved around, straightening arms and twisting bodies. Making sure they had the stance right.

  “Tabia, legs further apart. You need a stable base.”

  We practiced for about half an hour before they protested.

  “Do we get a break?” Rose said. “I’m dying here.”

  “Yeah, this is worse than cardio class,” Francine added. “I’m sweating like a pig.”

  I’d forgotten they were absolute beginners. I’d been doing this for so long, I took my strength for grante
d. But there was no use pushing them too hard. They’d just be too sore and exhausted to train again for a while.

  “Okay, let’s call it quits for today. But we’ll train again tomorrow. Nice work, everybody.”

  They slumped back down on the sofa. I slumped down too.

  “Do you enjoy this?” I asked them.

  “Training?” Rose asked.

  “Nope, I mean living in this basement and being fed on.” I didn’t want to say it but it seemed like a pretty degrading life to me.

  “It’s an honor to be asked,” Tabia added.

  “Because you love Nic so much?” I didn’t get it.

  They nodded except Tabia.

  “She prefers Jeb,” Rose said. “But we’d do anything to help Nic. Just being around him is like being in the presence of greatness. He shines like no one else on earth.”

  I didn’t want to be disrespectful to them but phht. Phht to the power of infinity. Nic was just Nic. Sure, he was all shiny and charming and he had that smile but they had no idea how annoying he could be. But then, I couldn’t argue with them. I’d never said no to him either.

  “Anyway, I’d much rather be here than out there,” Leesa said. “We’re safe here. We’ve got somewhere to live without having to worry about some monster attacking us in the night. We get food and we don’t have to work. It’s like being on vacation.”

  “And the feeding is so hot,” Tabia said.

  The other girls nodded. Again, I didn’t understand.

  “You’ve never been fed on?” Rose asked, grabbing the neck of my t-shirt and checking my neck.

  “Nope. Not into it.”

  “Oh, you should try it. It’s just so... I can’t even describe the sensation. Like the best orgasm you’ve ever had mixed with the best drugs. The greatest high ever.”

  I’d take her word for it.“Does it hurt?”

  “Nope It’s like some kind of hormone kicks in. Although, sometimes, when it’s more than one, it can get a bit sore by the second or third one. That wouldn’t normally happen, but here, there’s four of us and five of them.”

  “Plus, they can’t feed on us when we’re ovulating. Some weird vampire thing,” Francine said.

  I’d heard that, but I’d thought it was a myth. How would a vampire know?

  Of course, only five fed. Kisho didn’t. Not yet. One day soon, he’d be feeding on one of them. The idea of that made me feel a little bit icky in the guts. They didn’t know Kisho. They didn’t appreciate him. Not that I wanted him to feed on me. I just wanted him all mine and not changed.

  “How long have you been doing this for?” Francine asked. “I never knew that demon fighting was a real thing until recently.”

  I tried to work out when I’d started.

  “Well, see, quite a while ago, I realised I had this power, this sexual aura that demons can’t resist. I was walking home one night, and this bastard tried to get me. I knew I couldn’t fight him, but suddenly he got insanely turned on. His strength faded, and I dusted him. It took a while for me to click what was going on. Having a crazy sexual aura wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. Then I tested it a few times. At the time, I was working as a chicken boner. Worst job ever. I figured there was money to be made in killing demons.”

  Francine nodded. “Sounds better than data entry.”

  “Or waiting tables,” Tabia added. “Hey, do you get tips?”

  “Not usually.” I laughed. “I add them into the client’s invoice myself.”

  When I got back upstairs, the bench was covered in sucked-dry oranges.

  “Is someone making juice?” I asked.

  “I’ve been training Kisho to feed,” Nic said.

  “Huh?” I’d been fighting demons for years, and I’d never once heard about them practicing on oranges.

  “Normally, feeding is instinctive, but because I’ve never fed, I have to learn how.” Kisho grinned and picked up one of the oranges.

  “You’ve got...” I pointed at his mouth. Some orange pulp was clinging to his teeth.

  “Oh, just a minute.” Kisho ran to the bathroom.

  “So, Nic,” Jeb said. “If Kisho defeats the Vampire King, that makes him the new King, right?”

  Nic up the orange peels. “I guess so.”

  “What’s the plan, then? Is he out of the pack, or is he our new leader?”

  Nic froze, still holding the oranges. “What do you mean?”

  “King trumps leader, every time. You can’t be leader if we have a King in our pack.”

  Nic didn’t answer. He busied himself in the kitchen as though he’d not heard what Jeb had said.

  Jeb grinned.

  Hell, I’d never thought about that. Kisho wasn’t the leader type. He was the exact opposite to the leader type. There was no way he’d ever give orders to Nic or anyone else. But that was this Kisho. Not the Kisho who’d fed, and not the Kisho who’d beaten the Vampire King. What if Kisho actually managed to kill the Vampire King, but he turned evil himself? That would be worse than anything. He’d still be alive, but being alive meant nothing if he wasn’t actually Kisho.

  Kisho came back and smiled at me, showing his teeth. “Okay?” he asked.

  “Okay.” I gave him the thumbs-up.

  “We’re just talking about whether you’d usurp Nic when you become the new Vampire King,” Jeb said.

  I wished he’d shut up about it.

  “Of course not. Who even says I’ll be the new King? It’s not like it’s a hereditary thing. Is it? I don’t know of any other King being killed. It’s not exactly common for a King to have a child, either.”

  “How many Kings are there?”

  “About six or seven. No one is really sure. They keep to themselves, apart from those inside their circles. There could be Kings in places like Africa that we don’t even know about. Mostly, they’re just ancient vampires with superior powers,” Kisho said.

  “Aha. Can a King kill another King?”

  “Nope. They don’t even mix. Our Vampire King moves around a lot, but most of them stay in the same country. The same city, even.”

  I curled up on the sofa, thinking that over. “So, you don’t know if you’ll inherit a thing from him. There could be a plus side to this.”

  “Enlighten us, Clem Starr?” Nic said, sitting down on his wingback chair.

  “The power the King has over other vampires, the way you can’t disobey his commands — will that work on Kisho once he’s fed?”

  Nic sat up straight. “That’d be the greatest thing ever. It’d give us a huge advantage.”

  “Not an advantage, but it’d even the playing field.”

  Advantage was far from reality. It didn’t stop the Vampire King from being an evil, blood-thirsty vampire, and it didn’t make Kisho less of a kitten.

  “There’s one problem with this,” Kisho said. “There’s no way to test it out. It’d be nice if it’s true, but we can’t rely on it.”

  I had no idea how Kisho intended to kill the King once he’d fed. That whole part of the plan was incredibly vague. I hoped Nic had some amazing plan that he was keeping under wraps, because otherwise, we were all screwed.

  Before I could ask Kisho any more, Luis and Shelley came into the living room, arguing about what they wanted to watch on Netflix.

  I went to my room. There were hard days ahead, and I needed to rest up. Plus, every muscle in my body was aching from training those girls.

  Chapter 13: Mayor

  “The mayor is coming to visit. We need to clean up this place."

  Nic ran around, tidying up. The house was usually clean because Kisho loved housework, but he’d been so busy with his vampire training, things had slipped.

  “You, run out and pick some flowers from the garden,” Nic said to me.

  “Screw you, Nic. Are you saying that just because I’m female, I know about picking flowers and shit like that? Because if you give me a job like that, I’m going to mess it up. Do it yourself.”

  I we
nt back to filing my nails while Nic rolled his eyes. I didn’t even have to look at him to know he was doing that.

  “You could help. You live here too. If you’re so hopeless botanically, you could clean the toilet or something.”

  “The mayor won’t be using my bathroom. He’ll use the downstairs one. And Kisho is cleaning there now. Just settle the fuck down. I’m not cleaning up for that car-stealing bastard.”

  He got out a feather duster and began to clean, stirring up all the dust. My lungs had never recovered from that time we’d taken on the vampire nest at the video store. I picked up my things and left.

  “Come back. He might want to talk to you too.”

  “Screw him.”

  “He’s bringing cake.”

  Sometimes, in life, I liked to think I had high moral standards that were above temptation, but the mayor had access to awesome cake. I’d swallow my pride along with that sweet goodness.

  “Maybe you could shower and put on a pretty dress.”

  I harrumphed. “You put on the pretty dress, Nic, since you love the mayor so much. I will shower, though.”

  “And when the mayor gets here, do not mention your car.”

  I nodded but crossed my fingers behind my back. I’d get my car back if I had to kill the mayor to do it.

  Killing the mayor. I’d be all over that.

  When I got downstairs, all freshly showered but not wearing a pretty dress, the mayor had already arrived. Before I sat down, I ran my finger along one of the shelves.

  “Missed a bit,” I said, holding up my dusty finger.

  Nic glared at me. “That’s not even funny,” he said.

  Nic was sitting on the sofa next to the mayor. Nice and close, like he did when he wanted to annoy people, so I sat in Nic’s chair. He glared at me, but I had no intention of moving. If Nic could play his sitting-too-close game, I could play the sitting-in-Nic’s-seat game. Except he moved the cake plate away from me so I had to get up to grab a slice. Then he ran and sat in my chair. Was he five years old?

  “Nic, I’m starting to doubt our friendship,” the mayor said.

  I scoffed. What friendship?

  “You know you can rely on me,” Nic said. He picked at the crumbs on his plate.