The Vampire's Executioner

Chapter 9

"Your Highness?" Lizzie asked, though her eyes were trained on the two women who had stood upon hearing her heart beat. "May I talk to you in the hallway?" She turned her head and looked into his blue eyes.

Nikolai read them for a long moment before nodding his head. "Of course," he said, placing his hand on the small of her back and leading her out of the dining room and down the hall to ensure that the others couldn't overhear their conversation. She was glad he seemed to know she wanted their conversation to be as private as possible. "What may I help you with, Miss Grant?" he asked once he was sure they were alone, arching a brow.

"I didn't know you were having guests over," Lizzie told him, crossing her arms over her chest. She would never admit this out loud, but Lizzie was somewhat embarrassed by her current attire, especially when everyone else seemed to be dressed in formal clothing. "Why couldn't you have possibly told me you were having guests over? Not only could they be a threat to you, but I look horrible! I look..."

"Well, I was going to when I woke up, but I couldn't find you anywhere," Nikolai retorted, narrowing his eyes in her direction. "Where were you, anyway? Obviously, you look like you just came home from a run or something along those lines –" Nikolai gave her a blatant once over, and though he seemed annoyed for not being able to find her for a portion of time, she could tell his eyes lingered on her legs for longer than necessary – "but when I talked to Carl, he said that you left in the morning and now it's sunset. You couldn't possibly have run for that amount of time."

"It's none of your business where I've been." Lizzie said, throwing her arms out.

"Actually," Nikolai said, interrupting her before she could continue. He had a finger raised, as though he was about to explain something. " It is my business, and I'll tell you why. I hired you to protect me. What am I supposed to do when my hired assassin decides that she's going to go running for twelve hours? What if something had happened to me while you were gone?" He cocked his head to the side. "Where'd you go?"

"Don't even get me started on how you want to protect yourself, buddy," she said, her face contorting into a scowl. "You invite these people over that I don't even know without telling me, though you clearly know you're in danger. I don't care who these people are, they could be behind it, but you wouldn't even think of something like that, would you, because you're so arrogant!" She stopped herself when she realized she was yelling and felt her cheeks flush. She took a deep breath and then slowly released it, forcing herself to look Nikolai in the eyes. "Now... I'm going to take a shower and change, and I'll be down relatively soon."

"You didn't answer my question," Nikolai pointed out. His voice dropped to a murmur, and his eyes were cool but not cold. He took a step toward her and then another until he was close enough to touch. Lizzie felt her pulse quicken at the mere look on his face, but forced it to somehow calm – she knew he could detect things like that, and didn't want to give the prince anything more to be cocky about. "Where were you?"

She opened her mouth to argue, but slowly shut it when she realized it would do no good. "I got sidetracked," she admitted. "I happened to run into the town adjacent to the castle, a few miles away from the mountains. I'm not sure what it's called."

"Apusul Soarelui," Nikolai said; his Russian accent beautifully highlighted by his soft voice. It was beautiful no matter what, really.

It would seem that the prince had more than a few tricks up his sleeve. She wondered what else he was hiding. She wondered how his voice might sound whispering sweet nothings in an eastern-European language in an intimate setting. A shiver slid down her back and she felt a pulsating between her thighs. She would have to be wary from now on.

"Apusul Soarelui," she said, knowing it sounded broken and awkward coming out of her mouth. "Yes." She nodded once before turning around and heading up the stairs.

Though she didn't know it, Nikolai's gaze followed her all the way up.

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