The Vampire King’s Captive

BRAN

“They remind me of when we used to train back at your castle.”

Bran’s eyes found Corey’s who was standing beside him, but the man wasn’t looking at him. He leaned forward to rest on the picket fence as he watched the children training with their swords in the training grounds.

“I believe we started earlier than they did, didn’t we?” Without waiting for Bran to reply, Corey turned to him with a curious line in his brows. “Do you still keep in touch with Lancaster?”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Bran frowned at the mention of the name, his mind struggling to put a face to it and when he did, he frowned. Lancaster was another kid in their little circle back when they used to train at the palace and they’d all been tight until they weren’t anymore.

Everyone had gone about doing their own thing while Lancaster had grown into an insufferable prick. He’d thought himself above everyone else-even Bran who had been the crown prince-and him and Bran had gotten into several fights. Eventually, they’d cut ties.

Bran shrugged. “Last I heard, he’d found his mate and they’d relocated to another country. He lives among the humans now.”

Corey’s brows lifted at that. “That man doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut and when he does land in trouble, he wouldn’t know how to get himself out of it even if he was provided with a map.” Bran coughed out a laugh. “He couldn’t keep a low profile to save his life, living among humans is the worst decision he could ever make.”

“A better way to learn a lesson,” Bran supplied for lack of anything better to say.

Corey pushed away from the fence and they continued their walk, Bran falling into step beside him.

It was a mellow day, the sun hid behind the clouds and it wasn’t hot out, which meant that it was a good day for Bran to step out. He couldn’t remember the last time he had, to be honest. He’d been cooped up inside the house, spending more time in his room than with his friend whose house he was living in for the time being because his friend, Bran realised, had grown even darker than the last time he’d seen him.

Bran didn’t want to broach the topic of his mate because it could only cause the man pain, reminding him of what he had lost, but he knew for sure that that was the cause of his friend’s darkness.

The man didn’t smile anymore, nor did he joke or do anything remotely lively. All he thought about was his mate and even on the rare occurrences when he didn’t think about her, something reminded him of her.

Death was actually a better fate than living like this.

Bran felt sorry for him and it’d made looking at Maria impossible. It would only make him remember every evil thing she’d done to the people he cared about and it would only make him hate her more.

His feelings towards her were already conflicted as they were.

In comfortable silence, they walked to the front of the compound where a few of Corey’s men were stationed. He’d wanted to talk about it before when he’d first arrived but he’d forgotten.

Bran frowned as he took in the men scattered scantily around. “You don’t have much men.”

Corey’s eyes jumped to his. “No.”

“Have you thought about getting a few more?”

“Not really, seeing as I don’t have much use for them.” At Bran’s lifted brows, he explained. “Who are they protecting exactly? I’m perfectly capable of defending myself if dangerous situations were to arise, which they haven’t in a while, mind you.”

Bran nodded and decided to let it go when it was so obvious that the man had a point that could not be argued.

The hairs at the back of his neck stood on end and his skin prickled. Suddenly having a feeling that he was being watched, he turned around and scoured the open space of the compound with his eyes. When he saw that there was no one there, he looked straight up and he saw who was looking at him.

The sorceress stood by her window, staring down at him. For the mere mortal, she would be too far up for him to see the expression on her face, but he was not and that was why he was able to see that the expression on her face was one that didn’t let him in on her thoughts.

A blank one.

She’d never really stared at him like that before and it made him feel an odd sort of way. She stared at him as though he was a stranger. As though they hadn’t shared a kiss that night at Elizabeth’s inn. As though he hadn’t taken in her blood and was now having the beginnings of odd dreams that he couldn’t really understand fully.

As though he didn’t long for more of her blood.

It was forbidden for natural vampires to drink directly from a living source because once they did, they would dream the memories of the people they’d drunk from, and most times, when a vampire drank from more sources than it could count, it mostly ended on them running mad. They would dream too much of their victims memories that even when they were awake, they would see them and they would not be able to separate what was real from what was not.

It would drive them right into the arms of madness and it was almost impossible to get them back once they got to that point.

Bran had met a few mad vampires who suffered from this and because of that, his parents had raised them up by feeding them strictly on blood bought from the blood bank. It was safe since they didn’t drink from a direct source.

The only case where it was safe for a vampire to drink from the flesh was when they drunk from their mates. It was also part of the mating process.

Bran had broken the rule by accidentally nicking Maria and swallowing her blood. And now, he was having dreams that didn’t really make sense.

His dark thoughts had probably shown on his face because when he blinked back into focus, her gaze had sharpened and a defiant look had settled on her face. She looked a lot like they did when they had one of their fights, and as if in answer, his cock stirred in his pants, coming alive at the sight of her fire.

“I see the way you look at her, you know.”

The words penetrated the stare down he and Maria were locked in, and they distracted him enough to make him wrench his eyes away and turning to his friend.

He hated how jumpy and guilty he must have looked right then. He quickly covered it up with a blank look of cluelessness. “At who?”

“You know who I’m talking about.”

“I don’t,” Bran denied a little too forcefully. A little too quickly.

Corey shook his head and his eyes darted up to the sorceress quickly before coming to rest back on his, almost as though he couldn’t bear to look at her for long. “She looks at you the same way, just so you know.” His lips twisted ruefully. “But then again, you probably already noticed.”

It was then that Bran noticed that they were standing. Why were they standing? They were supposed to be walking.

Bran continued walking and Corey did too after a while. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Corey. Could you be more specific?”

“The sorceress,” Corey finally said. “It’s so outrageously obvious that you want her.” Bran had opened his mouth to speak but he pushed on. “Denying it would be pointless.”

Bran wanted to argue that he didn’t want the sorceress, but he also knew that his friend wasn’t a fool. As he’d said, denying it would be pointless, so to save both their times, he decided to let it go.

“Wanting her doesn’t mean that I’m going to act on it,” Bran told him, shoulders tight with tension.

He hated that Corey had seen through him so plainly in just a matter of seconds. The only reason he wasn’t freaking the fuck out was because he knew that the man knew him better than anyone else and that was probably the only reason he could see something that Bran had tried to hide from everyone else-including the sorceress.

Corey studied him through intense brown eyes for a long time, before appearing satisfied with what he saw and he nodded. “Only a foolish man would act on it, of course,” he said finally. “I trust you, Bran. You know better.”

Bran’s thoughts were divided for the remainder of their walk.

He didn’t have the same trust that Corey had in him. With every second he spent in the same room with the sorceress, his resolve weakened and resisting her became even harder.

He was doing everything he could do to make sure that he didn’t act on his desire for her-one of which was staying away from her-but he wasn’t completely sure that he could keep resisting her.

If that made him foolish, then maybe he was after all.