Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Chapter 15 - A Little Touch of Ire.

“If you’re planning to stake me with that chair leg, you’ll regret it Kieran. You may find yourself on the wrong end of it. A stake can kill you the same way it could kill me.” 

I should have known he’d had some hidden agenda going when Kieran easily agreed to have dinner with us. I went to ask him myself. Not something I’ve done for any guest before. Well, he was no guest. This is where he belongs, it’s just I’d have to go a long way to convincing that to my darling vampire hunter.

It seemed he didn’t have the strength to stake me with it though it was what he’d planed to do,  when he broke the chair Cornelia had accidently forgotten to remove from his room. That girl loves drama like a silly school girl, and I'm very much certain was enjoying the whole episode sitting in front of her watching mirror with a bowl of popcorn.

I held out a hand to him. He placed his makeshift stake on my waiting palm with an angry shove and didn’t say anything. 

His gaze flickered distastefully over the heavy stone walls, the obsidian darkness of them. He tensed each time a vampire guard or a servant bustled on the route between the dining hall and the bed chambers. Wearing his ratty blue T shirt and denim pants with an edgy look on his face he looked like a little boy lost inside of a horror house.

“Nobody in this household will try to hurt you; I can assure you of that.” I almost laid a hand on his shoulder when he jumped back like a rabbit. Maybe this is not the right time. I thought from the way his face changed when he saw me for the first time without my mask on, the tension between us will be off for a little while. Seemingly it won’t, as long as it will take me to break in to his iron steeled scathing hatred for my kind.

“Even a stupid dog minded person like you should be able to understand that most vampires under my command are good ones.”

“The only good vampire is a dead vampire.”

He said it like he quoted it from someone. His father, most probably, given the insane mind of that male. It was a good thing he hadn’t gifted Kieran with his stubborn, bigoted, inflexible and insolent manner, at least not all of it. I pursed my lips, when a half smile tried to split through it.

“That was not a joke.”

“Am I laughing?”

“So where are you planning us to have this classy leech feast, I hope you’ve remembered I’m in a fully none blood diet. And I don’t think I’d enjoy seeing your folks sip bodily substances from shiny goblets.”

If you are hoping to eat fast food straight from MacDonald’s in a royal feast Kieran, you’d be in for a big disappointment. It will be fun to see his face when he takes his first view of the tonight’s dinner table. It will be classic.

“Don’t fight it, sweetheart. That makes it worse. Let it come. Or your face will blast with that laugh you are fighting so much against.” He said with a smug smile on his face.

“Or what, are you going to try to stake me with a took pick this time? You have no power here in this place Kieran. Try to understand that before I'll have to break one or two of your limbs to explain my point.” I said in even tones, the smile he was niggling me about displaying on my face.

He sent me a warning look beneath those long lashes, but it was pure tease now, a predator allowing the prey to toy with him, though it should be the other way around between us. I'm supposed to be one step ahead of him on the food chain, for heavens sake. But I was fine with that, because I sensed his mood, that  what he needed, wanted, and what he was doing still surprised Kieran and therefore angered him.

But it suited him perfectly, asserting me how formidable hunter he could be as a vampire.

I remembered what Cornelia said to me when we were discussing the coming celebration and the pleasant  dinner tonight. “You can’t drag someone from his mind spoiling modern environment and traditions in to yours, and force him to get used to it Darina. It should be his choice. So don’t force him furthermore”.  And she also insisted the civilized, pleasant  vampire style dinner I had on my mind will put him on edge and then we won’t be able to discuss the coming events with him.

Okay, the point is, I’m slowly moving towards the red line of my infamous anger. I’ll kill him if we carry on this conversation anymore, then what good will he be to me. So I decided to use the secret hallway that we found jest a week ago that leads towards the dining hall.

I opened the huge iron door of the hallway and kept walking even without signing him to follow me.

“Hey, I guess I just saw two of your soldiers flying away from a window in their bat form. You should order them to stay in their usual form you know. At least until I’m out of here. Do you know how poisonous bat faeces can be?” He said with a teaseling grin.

“If there’s anyone in this place who can pull out that kind of trick Kieran, it’s you.”

He griped both my shoulders hard and slammed me against the hard stone wall. The move was unexpected enough that I couldn’t block it. Still holding me hard he pressed my back against the wall. His face so close to mine, for a one desperate moment I thought he’s going to kiss me. I should have known better, this is Kieran we are talking about.

“What do you know about my………curse,  you stupid hell bitch.” Though each of his words had the lash of a whip,  I ordered myself not to shrink under his hot blue stare.

“I know a lot more than you do. But it will be better if you let Cornelia to explain everything . And I plan to keep you for eternity. Whether that eternity feels as if you are on Olympus or in Hades is up to you. Think on that.”

Though his eyes were still shooting sparks he seem to calm himself down inside. Gods help me; I couldn’t stop myself from gazing at his breathtaking face with an unmatchable yearning, while he was trying to rip my throat out like a rabid wolf. Jesus, was it like this for all vampires when they've found their soul mates? As impossibly romantic and illogical as the way humans claimed to fall truly in love?

His jaw clenched like he’s not yet done calling me with all the filthy swear words he knew, but decided to save it for the time being.

He glared at me for about two another seconds and withdrew. In the time it took him to step back, I spun and launched myself onto him, taking us both over the hallway and landed on the ruff stone floor.

 We fell together, rolled, and he struggled under my iron grip.

“Don’t ever do that again.” I told him in a cold voice. Then I released him started to move towards the dining hall without a backward glance.