Vampire King Chapter 22

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All Alone
Emory
I wake up sore in places I’ve never felt before, and it takes me a moment to remember why. I try not to even roll over because of the muscle pain I feel in my core. Blinking against the sun streaming in from between the splits in the curtains, I feel a pain that radiates from my forehead, where I’d crashed into Rainer the day before, through my skull, and out the other side. But that pain is nothing compared to the one I feel in my heart.
A groan escapes my lips as I note I can still smell him on the bedding. I can still smell him on me. I push my head beneath the pillows, wondering what time it is but simultaneously not caring. I want to go back to sleep and wake up three days ago when I still had some control over my life. I want to remember all of this so I can avoid making the same mistakes twice. I want to take Lola and run away from home, but when my father tells me we are coming to visit the Vampire King to discuss his spoils of war, not his debt that he is rightfully owed, mind you, I want to tell my father no, that I’ll never come to Castle Graystone, that I never want to meet King Kane Alexander, and I never want to feel the highs and lows of longing. lust, and love I’ve experienced ever since my world got turned upside down.
With my face buried in the sheets, I realize that none of that is true, yet all of it is true, at the same time. The way that Kane makes me feel, how he can look at me in such a manner that my body springs to life in ways I’ve never known existed, how he can touch me and set me aflame, do I really want to go back to a time when I didn’t know those things were even possible? Would it be better to have never experienced such things at all than to be where I am now with my heart torn in two and my body aching from both his touch and the loss of it simultaneously?
After a half an hour or so of contemplation, I pull myself from the bed and head to the bathroom, still seeing faint hints of blood when I wipe. I take a shower, hoping to rinse him off, but even if the smell completely dissipates, I will not be able to restore my body to the way it was before he touched me.
Getting out of the shower, I wrap a towel around myself and look at my face in the mirror. I have a faint bruise on my forehead, but otherwise, I look about the same as I always do. Except for my eyes. I can see the sadness within them, their lack of life and vibrancy. I have bags beginning to form as well from lack of sleep, and my eyeballs are red from all of the crying I did the night before.
Deciding that sleeping all day will likely help with at least two of these problems, I head back to my room to find something to wear. That’s when I realize Nellie and Helga have arrived. A glance at the clock tells me they’ve likely been in earlier and let me sleep, like the day before, but I can tell by Nellie’s expression as she puts fresh sheets on the bed that she’s concerned.
“Are you all right, Princess?” she calls to me.
“I’m fine, thanks,” I tell her. “Just… tired.”
She arches an eyebrow and nods, but I know I haven’t fooled her. Why does she think something is wrong? She may smell Kane on the bedding, but he was in here earlier in the day yesterday, and she knows that. Perhaps she smells my arousal. That doesn’t mean anything. I could’ve been having a dirty dream
I’m in the closet, pulling a comfortable looking outfit of an over-sized T-shirt and joggers together, glad that not everything in my closet is fashionable, when I realize what the problem is
As Alone
Going back out, I see that the bed is made up with fresh linens Even the duvet has been switched. 1, uh.. started my… period,” I explain to her. “Sorry for the mess
“Oh,” she says with a nod, and when I glance at Helga’s face, I son that she doesn’t believe me. I suppose neither one of them does. “Well, hs long as you’re not in any pain, dear. If you are, there’s plenty of medicine in the cabinet in the bathroom.”
“Thank you,” I tell her, but I know there’s nothing on the shelves that will fix the pain I’m feeling
“Your breakfast is ready when you are, dear,” she says, gesturing at the tray on the table. I’m not hungry at all, but I thank her again and go to get dressed.
When I am ready, I come back out to the table to see a plate of fruit and pastries. At least the food isn’t something that needed to stay warm. I nibble on a strawberry danish and eat a few grapes, but I’m not hungry, and forcing myself to eat will only make me feel worse.
Both of them keep giving me sympathetic looks. I know I must look pathetic for Helga to care enough to look at me that way. But I don’t feel like trying to explain myself, not at the moment anyway.
“Do you have any plans for the day?” Nellie asks me with a kind smile.
“No.” I tell her. “I think I’ll just stay in here and sleep. Maybe read a book or two.” I remember the shelf Helga was straightening the day before and consider asking her for recommendations, but I stop short of doing so. It’s not as if I’m actually planning on reading anything.
“We will leave you be, then,” Nellie says. “If you need anything, just knock on the door between our rooms, and one of us will be here in a moment.”
“Thank you,” I say, remembering that they are nearby and wondering if they heard anything the night before. I doubt it. I haven’t been able to hear anything from their room or even the hallway with the door closed, but it does seem like they know my story is a lie. I just don’t know if they are aware of the exact
truth or not.
Eventually, I fall back to sleep for a bit, awoken when Helga brings in my lunch tray. She asks me if I need anything else, and I say no, so she goes, but she’s continuing to look at me like the witness at an accident scene. She seems to want to help but doesn’t know where to begin, and I feel that in my soul.
I don’t know either.
After lunch, I am back in bed, my mind running away with me as I try to figure out what to do with my life now that all of my dreams have been dashed, and I’ve been rejected, when I hear a knock on the door.
At first, my
heart leaps into my chest with the idea that maybe it’s Kane. But I quickly push that hope aside, knowing it can’t be. I would have sensed him if it were him, like I did the night before.
On unsteady feet, I walk to the door and pull it open, relieved to see Rainer standing there. “Hey!” he says with a big grin on his face. “How are you?”
I let him in, and he immediately wraps his arms around me. Suddenly, I find myself melting into him, the tears I’ve been fighting all day springing to the surface. It’s like I’ve found solace in the arms of a friend or a caring sibling instead of a man I just met a couple of days ago, and I already know as soon as he asks me what’s wrong, I’m going to spill everything.
“Are you….still not feeling well?” he asks me, clearly confused by my tears. He doesn’t try to get away
At Alone
from me, though, only holds me and lets me cry until I am done, and then I realize that even though I am regretting ever coming here, I am thankful for a friend like him.
When I can finally breathe again, Rainer quietly asks, “What happened?” He’s clearly figured out by now that it’s not my health that has me crying
With a loud sigh, I free myself from his grip and go to the sitting area, and he follows me. I fold myself into one of the chairs, and he lowers his massive body Down into the other. I guess he hasn’t said anything to you?”
His bushy eyebrows raise for a second as he tries to decipher my cryptic staternent, but once he has it, he shakes his head. “No.” That’s all he says.
“He, uh, came in here last night… after dinner.” Rainer nods, and I swipe at my tears. He gets up and grabs a tissue from the box near my bed and hands it to me before going back for the whole box. I thank him and take a minute to clean up my face before I go on. We did… stuff. But just when he, uh…” I am making some sort of gesture with my hands, but I don’t know if he’s getting it, and I can’t bring myself to say it.
“Hit a hole in one?” he asks, and I am now the one who is confused. “Insert his tab into your slot? Plugged his cord into your outlet?” 1
I feel my face turning bright red as I hold up a hand for him to stop. I’m not sure what else he’s got on the list of descriptive ways to say penetration, but I don’t think I want to hear them.
“Yeah-that,” I tell him. “When he did that… he was only in there for, like, two seconds before he immediately got off of me and rushed out the door, telling me this was a mistake and just leaving me lying there, naked and alone.” The words bring tears to my eyes again, and it’s all I can do to keep from having yet another break down.
“Oh, shit,” Rainer mutters, shaking his head. “That really sucks.”
I
“Yep, thanks.” I don’t know what else to say. My nose is starting to run, so I wipe it on a tissue, and I hope that Rainer has some insight, but honestly, I’m just glad to get it off of my chest.
“Well,” he begins, leaning forward in his chair so his elbows are on his knees and his hands clasped together. “He didn’t say anything to me about it, but then, he probably wouldn’t. We don’t talk about sex much, believe it or not. And he didn’t say anything else? Nothing that would give you an indication that he got a message from someone about an emergency?”
I shake my head. “Wouldn’t you know if there had been an emergency last night?”
He concedes that he would know. “Yeah, probably so.” He sits up in his chair. “That’s so bizarre. I mean, he has been denying that he has feelings for you, but that’s not unusual. And we can all see right through it anyway.”
I’m not sure if that should make me angry or cause me to blush. My face goes with the latter. “Maybe! Just wasn’t what he was expecting. He’s probably used to girls with a lot of experience. I was probably just huge disappointment to him.” I need a fresh tissue. Mine is disintegrating. I pluck another one from the
box.
“I’m sure that’s not it,” Rainer assures me. “Besides, how would he be able to tell you were inexperienced from just one thrust. Unless-oh!” His eyes grow to the size of saucers, and he stares at me for a moment.
I
I suddenly begin to think I must be the worst person in the world when it comes to having sex that people
can just tell I’m awful from two seconds of being with me
Then Rainer asks me, “Were you a virgin?”
Were you a virgin. That word seems so strange I’m so used to being a virgin, it seems like I still should be, especially since that two seconds of sex shouldn’t count. But I nod my head
He is nodding, too. Yeah, that explains it”
7t does?” I ask him, still confused.
“He didn’t know before, did he?”
“I didn’t tell him, but I didn’t not tell him.” I had just gotten the impression he knew. We had talked about how I hadn’t found my mate. “Why?” What am I missing?
The blood, Emory,” he says, and while I am still confused, when he finishes his statement, I’m up to date “In that aroused state, assuming he didn’t feed on you first, as soon as he smelled that blood, he knew if he didn’t leave-he would’ve ripped you apart.”
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