The Royal Bond

Chapter One

Chapter 1 - Impulse

AUBREY'S POV

"Will you go with me to look for my dress, Bre?" Nadia whips her head to ask with excitement dripping from her voice. She has been like this all month; jittery and excited for her bond ceremony. It's rather annoying in my opinion, to be completely honest. I love the girl and all but every time someone, even my best friend, announces their bondage so happily I'm instantly turned off by the idea.

Also, I honestly have no idea how she has the energy to be this exhilarated while she's getting her blood drained. Everyone else in this room that is hooked up to needles sits quietly just enjoying that they are fulfilling their bonder's needs. Draining their blood to give to those oh so lovely vamps.

Though Nadia is quite new in the process, she just can't stay quiet about all the new comings in her life. She just keeps talking about her ceremony but I listen because that's what best friends are for, and even though I don't like it, I love seeing her happy. Also, I can say proudly that I sort-of-kind of trust Leonard to be Nadia's bonder. All three of us have hung out a handful of times and I even read up on the man's files and from what I can tell is that he seems like a really good guy. He's sweet, noble, rich, charitable, and even drank all animal blood up and till now, and recently he slowly had to start getting used to Nadia's blood. All I hope is that he doesn't rage out of control from her blood and hurt her, but I doubt that would happen cause he's an older vamp meaning he has more control but there is always a chance something could happen though. This is why the bonders have to go through the Impluse training regardless of any situation.

I glance at my watch and I notice I have a session soon with my new trainee. I look up to Nadia's blood bag to see it's almost full and she'll soon have to rest and head home for the day before we resume training in a couple of days.

"I have to head out, Naddy," I announce to her, interrupting her ceremony talk, but she stops talking and pouts just a little but nods her head.

I walk out of the room and head to the training room. Today I'm assisting a newbie, Alexander Cooper, who was brought in by officials from a group home when they noticed he'd be perfect for the Red Heart; a program created by Impulse that pays new adults being released from the foster care system loads of money to train to become a bonder. Loyal, strong-minded, caring, young and let's not forget healthy of course which are notably strong traits we look for to bond. Though, Alexander doesn't seem like any of those traits he kind of just seems— cold. I've been working this job long enough to know that he definitely is not excited to be here, a lot aren't when they come by the hands of the government but nonetheless they come because of the money being offered.

I help the bonders here with many things but mostly so I know they have the skills to protect themselves from their and other vampires since they will eventually be thrown into that world. I don't exactly trust the vampires even though I work at Impulse; An industry made to help vampires and human connections. I absolutely believe in joining humans and vampires together in one society to stop all of the violence between the two nations but of course, vampires have an extremely dangerous nature and at any moment they can switch for the worse.

"Hi." I hear the voice of Alexander say to me just as I arrive at the training center. It's a voice I've only heard a few times but it's the type that sticks to your memory his voice is cold and his mysterious vibe just makes me cock my head at him a little every time I approach him. I'm not sure what but he is just one of those people. Odd and mysterious. Maybe it's the long scar running down the side of his neck or maybe that look he has in his eyes that stuck with me the few times I've been in the same room with him. There's nothing about the scar or any physically traumatic events in his file so to everyone he's everything that he looks like—a mystery.

"Hey, Alexander, ready to get this thing started?" I ask him with a small smile on my face to make him feel a tad bit more comfortable around me since he'll be spending a lot of time with me until he finds a bonder, which won't be for a while because he hasn't gone through all the stages, he doesn't even know the basics.

"Have to start sometime, don't we?" He grunts but he still managed to flash a tight-lipped smile that I didn't let slip by but anyone could tell that he doesn't want to be here. This is how some would react, closed-off for the most part and straight to the point, but most of the time it's out of nerves and fear.

I sigh, letting my guard down preparing myself for a mini-speech, "Listen, I'm going to train you to the best of my abilities to protect yourself against any vampire and to help wrap your mind around this whole thing. Trust me I would never let any of the people I've trained down. All the people I train and have trained are family to me. I'm here to help."

He stares at me momentarily before he starts chuckling, "How motivational...honestly my spirits are lifted all the way up. I'm a new man." The sarcasm in his voice practically dripped on the floor from how much of it laced his voice.

I physically take a step back from his tall frame, taken back by his words, that is before I tilt my head once again at him and a smirk appears on my face, "You're definitely different, I'll give you that Mr. Cooper."

Now it's his turn to look at me surprised. I guess not many people are fond of his humor.

"Call me Alex. I'm not an old man, I'm 18, you don't have to call me Mr. Cooper." He replies to my statement with much attitude. I'm not even tempted to get mad at him though cause his attitude is . . . hot . . . he's hot. No one can deny that he's a good-looking man.

"Ok, Alex let's get started on stage one cause I'm sure sometime in the near future some lucky vamp woman will come along looking for a bonder which will be you," I announce before turning my back to him to start leading him to the Impulse library.

"Lucky vamp man," He corrects.

I halt my steps for a bit but keep walking when I hear him correct me, "Oh, I didn't you were. . ."

He cuts in, "Gay? What, they didn't put that in my file somewhere?" He stops with me as I notice we are in front of the wooden library doors. It's not hard to miss considering these doors are the wooden ones here cause Mrs. P prefers them this way apparently it's homier to her than all the other glass doors here.

Just as we walk in together the little walkie-talkie on my hip makes its swishing-glitching type noise before I clearly hear Debby's voice say, "Bre the boss needs you in his office asap."

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