Page 9

Chapter Nine : Vampires Suck

I continued down the hall towards the restrooms so I could splash some water on my face to wake up and possibly make myself a little more presentable since I was already going to be late for class. The Professor for that class didn't care and gave a lesson on Wednesday through Friday then you had to work on a paper over the weekend before presenting it the following week, so it was independent study until Tuesday. He didn't even take attendance so he wouldn't notice if I was there or not.

My luck ran out when I got to the end of the hallway and found an annoying Vampire standing there, leaning against the bathroom door as if waiting for me.

This one was, by far, a million times worse than Prince de Babineaux.

"Hello, Ari, you're looking delicious today," Baron Arthur Hedge said before licking his lips. "I so wish you would accompany me to the Sanguis Lounge one of these days. You would make me the envy of all Vampires at the Academy."

I retched. "I just vomited in my mouth at the thought," I said reaching for the door handle and tried to pull it open but he wouldn't move, and I was still too sore to force it open so I stepped on the inside of his ankle, causing it to buckle, in hopes that it'd move him.

It didn't.

"Ow," Arthur complained, regaining his footing. "Are you going to weaponry training today?" he asked.

"Yes, why? Correction, the better question is why do you care? You don't have that class. Heaven forbid you learn to defend yourself and your pretend title."

Arthur's light blue eyes narrowed before he regained his composure and smiled. "You should go take a nap, Ari," he said with a smile, looking up at me. "You are beyond exhausted and I'm sure that Master Kangjeon will not have a problem with you taking the night off. After what happened this morning in class, you deserve to get some rest and heal up. Get some rest and you'll feel better in the morning," he suggested again, his voice overly persuasive, and my head started to get cloudy and disconnected.

"I should do what?" I asked, confused.

A smile pulled at the corners of Arthur's lips and he leaned into me. "Take a well-deserved nap," he said, popping the P in nap.

I shook my head to clear it then pushed him away from me.

"I'll walk you back to the dorms so you can take a nap," he said, resting his hand on my shoulder.

"You didn't ask permission to touch me," I said before slapping his hand away, and in the same fluid movement, I did a jujutsu throat strike. I hadn't the strength to crush his trachea at the moment, but it was enough that it sent him staggering back away from me, choking and gasping for air.

"You bitch," he croaked.

My eyes snapped to his and Arthur's widened.

"You sonuvabitch," I snarled, then punched him in the stomach as hard as I could before grabbing the door handle and ripping the door open, and slammed it into him repeatedly, bashing him into the wall.

Arthur slumped down to the floor, cowering.

I towered over him. "Don't you ever try to use thrall on me again or I swear to all that is known and the unknown, I'll drive a stake through your heart myself," I sneered.

Thrall was a thing that some Vampires could do; it's the ability to put suggestions into someone's mind and they are oblivious to it. Normally it only works on Mundanes because of our lack of thaumaturgy to protect us from it. Using at the Academy was strictly forbidden, it wasn't even taught because it's borderline Devilry; it takes away free will. Not all Vampires could use thrall, to my knowledge, because just as no two people were the same, no two Vampires or their skills were the same.

Arthur just happened to have inherited that unfortunate skillset from his grandfather, Archduke Striker Hedge who was an honorable Vampire and nothing like his disgusting heir.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Arthur said, trying to scoot away from me.

I grabbed him, knotted my hands in his shirt then effortlessly hoisted him up into the air before slamming him against the wall, his feet dangling.

"Don't play dumb with me, Mosquito," I snarled. "Pretend Royalty or not, you are not above the goddamn law. Do not be so foolish to think you could have actually bedded me with your pathetic, limp, and unimpressive thrall." I dropped him then stepped back.

The temptation to snap his neck was great, and I was already warned about assaulting 'Royals' today.

"You can't touch me and you know it," Arthur reminded me then flinched when I acted as if I was going to hit him.

"Uh-huh," I said with a smirk.

"You're nothing more than a Mundane, born into servitude from her first breath. You'll throw yourself on a stake if that's what it takes to save your Charge. What if you were assigned to me? Would you die to protect me, since I'm better than you, born of noble blood?" he asked. "My bloodline is 285th in line for the throne," he smugly informed me.

Everything about Arthur irritated me, and he could very well be why I had such disdain towards Vampires as I did.

"Tell me, Ari, what are you going to do about it?" Arthur smugly asked, reaching up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear for me.

I pulled away from him. "Consent," I reminded him before I did a double ear slap causing him to cry out, falling to the ground, covering his head.

I huffed; what a wuss. "If I hear of you using thrall at school again, I'll make sure I tell my mother and let her and the court deal with it accordingly," I warned.

No one in their right mind wanted to deal with my mother.

When he started to grab me, I kicked him as hard as I could right between the legs.

Arthur's body lifted off the floor, getting decent distance and velocity, before landing, sliding down the hallway, and hitting the wall where he started vomiting.

"She shoots and she scores!" I beamed, throwing my arms in the air in triumph before regaining my cool. "Heed my warning, Mosquito. If you ever try to use thrall on me again, they'll only find ashes."

Suddenly, a large hand was wrapped around my arm and he was pulling me down the hall in the opposite direction.

I stumbled as we went, struggling to get my footing, and when I did, I was looking up at the profile of Viggo's face; the expression on his face caused a knot to form in my stomach, it was hard and unreadable, and looked as if it was carved from polished marble. His longer hair fluttered away from him just as his cape was from his quickened steps.

It was terrifying, but in a sick and twisted way, it made Prince de Babineaux even more handsome in a way.

Viggo pulled me down the stairs, and I tripped over my feet, trying to right myself, so he picked me up and pulled me into his arms.

Without a word or even looking down at me protectively cradled to his chest, he rushed down the stairs and out the side exit, never slowing as he hurried through the quiet campus. His cape flapped on the wind behind him, and the racing of my heart accompanied it.

I struggled to pull my skirt down to keep it from flipping up, but the vampire holding me close was oblivious to my problem and how much skin I was showing.

And as embarrassing as that should have been, a slight thrill ran through me that I was being taken captive by a Vampire Prince...

It had to be brain damage because there was no way I was excited about that!