Black Crown

IV

"Hope Lancaster. Twenty years old, from a small town in Maine. The oldest child of four- two brothers and one sister. You don't know who your father is, but your sibling's dad helped raise you. You're normal... or you should be. Why are you special?" Eli questions, staring at me with his eyes narrowed.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," I stutter and wince at how weak I sound. If I'm going to survive, I need to be strong.

"Of course you don't. You don't know anything about this. You're mother kept your father a secret for a reason, and I think I know what it is," he responds, standing up and walking towards me. I try to back up, but instead I hit the closed door. My heart rate picks up as he stands in front of me and moves the hair sitting on my shoulder.

"Let's see exactly how special you are."

I try to scream as he bares his teeth and two piercing fangs emerge. Before any noise can leave my body, his hand covers my mouth and he leans into my neck. I struggle against him but his other hand is holding me in place as his teeth brush against my neck. I brace myself for the pain that doesn't come. Instead, a feeling of euphoria flows through me and my eyes roll back. Moments later, Eli pulls back and wipes the blood from his chin.

"Damn babe, I can taste the power in you. It's probably better for both of us that you have no idea," he snickers, but my body is frozen in shock. Vampires... they're real. And one is standing in front of me. Drinking from me.

"You need to come with me. We can't talk here, but we do need to talk," Eli tells me. He doesn't wait for a reply before taking my wrist and pulling me away from the door to open it. He leads me out of the room and the guard in the front bows his head at him as we walk past. I notice now that Eli is wearing a crown, much less elegant than his father's but a crown nonetheless. A simple gold band is all he needs to state his power here.

He leads me up three flights of stairs and down numerous halls before we reach a large doorway. He opens it and pulls me inside, shutting the door behind us and releasing my wrist. Quickly, he strides across the room to a set of french doors. When he opens them, I see that they lead to a balcony. It takes me a moment to follow him, but when I reach him, he's leaning against the rail, taking in the view of the woods beyond us and the early light of the sun.

"I love it here. It's just so... peaceful. Something we don't get a lot of these days," he says, closing his eyes for a moment longer than a blink. When he opens them again, he looks at me and smiles.

"I know you have a lot of questions, Hope. Go ahead and ask a few. I'll answer what I can. No one knows we're here, but there is still only so much I can tell you."

My mind races with the thousands of questions I've collected in the past twenty four hours, trying to sort the ones that seem most important.

"How did you know so much about me?" I decide is my first question. Start easy.

"Oh Hope, we've been watching you much longer than you think. We can't bring just anyone here. Then there was the fact we had to make sure you're blood was pure and all those parties really didn't help with that. But you're here now, and that's what matters," he answers. Again, a response that just leaves more questions.

"Why me?" I ask quietly and worry that he won't answer this one.

"That I don't have a real answer for. Sure, I thought you were interesting, but there were others that peaked my interest just as much. It was my brother that pushed for you, although he won't tell me why," Eli says and shakes his head slightly, trying to figure it out for himself, "One more question, babe, then I have to get you back to where you belong."