The Queen's Gambit || chaennie

Dank and Dirty

Roseanne Park

We drove throughout the night and into the morning. I had no idea where I was being taken. I had spent the journey pressing myself tightly against the door and as far away from Valen as possible.

He was a talker.

I had ignored most of his ramblings, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked once the aching in my head had decreased enough to think past the pain and frozen panic.

"You can speak? I was beginning to think you were slow," he said mockingly. "I've already told you why."

"I have a head injury. Tell me again," I said, unable to quell my upset to be polite.

He laughed loudly. "What a spirit. Does Jennie like it when you make demands of her?"

"I just want to know why you're doing this," I said quietly, leaning my head against the cool window and sighing at the relief it gave me.

"I am quite positive that Jennie will give me what I want, in exchange for your life," he said.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

Why go to all this trouble? What did he think I was worth?

"The crown, the kingdom - the whole damn world if I can take it," he answered, and I heard him shift along the leather seats closer to me.

I trembled, in a mixture of disgust and fear, when he pushed my hair away from my face and grabbed my jaw turning me to face him.

"You, a mere blood slave - a flower witch no less," he laughed, "are quite possibly the most valuable possession in the entirety of the Kim Kingdom." He leaned forward towards me, and I reached for his wrist, trying to push him away. It was useless. He growled, leaning into my neck and sniffed dramatically before pulling back with a look of disgust.

"You certainly don't smell appetising to me. To each their own, I suppose. Are you wondering why you're so valuable Rosie?" he asked me.

"I'm just a pet," I answered.

I wasn't valuable.

Not in any sense other than I belonged to Jennie, the Princess. On my own, without her ownership, I wasn't worth much.

"Is that what you think?" he mused, releasing my jaw but keeping his seat next to me. "I've known my cousin all my life, and I have never known a greater cunt. She's always been ruthless - the kind of vampire that inspired the monstrous legends of our kind. She fed indiscriminately, killed for minor offences, and fucked like it was how she made her living."

"Then, she arrived at the castle with you in tow. It was quite the surprise to see Jennie with a pet. Terribly out of character. She never had much self-control or decency about her, and a pet, well, a pet requires a level of care, of restraint, that I didn't know her to possess. It's true, we tend to get a smidge attached to our pets, and we treat them with enough care to not break our toys. But not you."

"I knew you were special, something more than a mere pet, that night we dined together - do you remember? The way she dressed you up and showed you off was unorthodox, but when Sana asked what we were all thinking," he snapped his fingers, causing me to flinch, and he smiled widely, "my cousin gave herself away. It's all in the eyes. And how she looked at you, I knew my greatest challenge was not Oskar Halvorsen," he growled the name, "but you, the pet my cousin is in love with."

"In love?" I recoiled at the accusation.

It was jarring hearing what I longed so badly to be true spoken by a man that physically revolted me.
My reaction did not seem to be what he expected.