The Vampire Mate

Chapter 14

Today was it. The day some royal douche would come into my place of stay and decide on whether or not I will live. In all honesty, I can't wait until this day is over. Last night with everyone was great other than Aaron bumping into Damien when he went to the toilet and Andrew having to break up what was about to be a fight before we lose another door which seems to happen quite often with Damien.

I heard Damien and Alex talking about ties as soon as I woke up. Sounds like they're getting dressed up for the occasion, am I supposed to too?

There is a knock at the door, so I sit up, quickly try and make my hair tamer and tell whoever it is to come in. Alex's face appeared through the door with a small smile placed on his lips.

He was wearing a white shirt with a dark navy-blue blazer and matching tie. He looks smart but you could tell he wasn't used to wearing this kind of thing by the way he was constantly adjusting his collar and tie.

"The king is on his way," he told me. He pulled out a nice black and white dress and carefully placed it on my bed, "the king wants everybody in his presence dressed appropriately."

"At least I won't look like utter sht when I go," I complain.

"You never look like- that, always pretty." I feel my cheeks go slightly red at Alex's words and just laugh to cover it. Did he even see what I looked like yesterday? He was adorable and there was no doubt about it.

"Whatever you say, Alex." I pick up the dress and make my way to the shower to get ready.

***

I left my hair to hang around my neck, as recommended by Alex, and only put light makeup on. That literally being only a few coats of mascara. Thank you, Carly, for hooking me up with your makeup.

The dress fits like a glove. When I discovered that Damien was the one who actually bought it, I nearly decided to take it off and wear something else only to annoy him but maybe today wasn't the day for that. It didn't reach up to my shoulders which made it an even better idea to cover my neck with my hair but overall it was a really nice dress for someone like Damien to choose. The top half was plain black whilst the bottom flowed out and was white with black lace decorating the bottom.

"I'm glad you like it." I spun around to the unforgettable voice behind me. Damien was sitting on my bed making himself comfortable. I didn't know how long he had been there and quite frankly I didn't care to talk to him to ask.

As soon as I picked up the perfume bottle Damien's voice haunted me again, "vampires hate perfume." I look at him with a raised eyebrow, and I should care because... "because this vampire will kill you on the spot as soon as he decides he doesn't like you. So don't wear it. Also, just a few 'rules', don't speak back to him, speak only when spoken to, don't try to outsmart him and don't lie. I'm serious, Juliet."

"I could kick him and make your lives easier." I cross my arms insecurely as I look down to the floor. I would love to kick the king in his personal region, he deserves it.

"So that's why you've been ignoring me..."

"That amongst other reasons," I sigh looking him in the eyes.

"Juliet, I didn't mean what I said like that," Damien starts before he nears me and places his ice-cold hands on my arms for comfort, "think of it this way, if I wanted it to be easy I would have killed you myself. I actually like being around you and when you get out of this alive, I promise I will make a better effort to show you what I mean."

Damien's words were more than blissful to me. The look in his deep blue eyes practically screamed that every last word that left his mouth were nothing but truthful. It made a swarm of butterflies erupt in my stomach whilst my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. Unluckily for me, Damien was a vampire who could not only read my mind but could probably also hear the effect he is having on me by the drumming of my heart.

There was silence for a few moments whilst I try to breathe like a normal person and get my rapid heart race beating to a normal pace as Damien tucks loose strands of hair behind my ear.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask him even though he probably already knows what thoughts are flying through my head.

"Of course."

"If you knew I only had a week left to live, then why did you take me to my parents? Why not spend the remaining few days I had left with me?"

"Your family needed to see you before you were killed. I knew how much you missed Mia, and your parents of course, so I couldn't let you spend your last week with the person who has got you into this mess in the first place."

"Damien, his highness is here," Andrew shouts from downstairs. Before I have a chance to mentally react, Damien closes the remaining space between us and wraps his arms around me. I wrap my arms around Damien's waist and pull myself closer to him liking how close together we are as his scent cocoons me.

"I promise I'll make it up to you," Damien whispers in my ear before we break apart. We walk down the stairs together, but I just keep my head down at all times until we were at the bottom of the staircase and the king came into sight.

His translucent white skin stood out the most. The way it contrasted with his long jet-black hair that hung just below his shoulders perfectly demonstrated his connection between the lightness of life and the dark depths of death.

Everything about him screams royalty. Whether it was the clothes he wore or the way the elegantly walked towards me, it just screamed that all in his presence should bow down to him.

He was without a doubt a traditional king that you would see in the medieval era. Each finger had one or more gold rings and around his neck sat a black cloak with slightly opaque silver patterns that swirled with one another and held together by a thick gold chain.

Damien had left my side to join his brother and father at the other end of the living room whilst the king's eyes lingered over me. I wanted nothing more than to get out of this situation. Nothing more than to have someone next to me whilst this stranger decided what should be done.

"Your highness," I curtsied to break the now awkward tension building up in the room. Was I breaking Damien's rule? Yes. Did I care? Not a chance. I looked over to Damien behind Mr Royal's shoulder to see him biting his tongue and giving me a warning glare.

"Juliet Rose... come." The king was taking in a surprisingly soft tone so I followed behind him to Abigail. "Are you sure this is the girl?"

"Without a doubt, Sir. Her scent hasn't changed." Abigail confirmed whilst the king rubbed his chin.

"Damien." The king turned around whilst Damien stood up straighter to hear and listened intently, "tell me the story again of how you met." Behind me, I felt the coldness of Damien's body as he put his hand on my shoulder and began telling the story.

"She moved here over four weeks ago and goes to the same school as my brother and me. Within a short while her house was set on fire and we invited her here to live with us. It wasn't until my last visit that she found out about our race."

"Then why is she best friends with a witch and two wolves?" Abigail piped in crossing her arm and feeling smug about herself. Before Damien even had a chance to speak up, I butt in forgetting all about the polite tone I had to keep.

"Fairy. I had no idea they weren't human. Besides, you attacked Aaron without reason and-"

"That's enough," the king spoke loudly to shush us all, and it worked, "There is no proof of what has been said today and to keep our kind safe from your destructive species we will have to end you."

My jaw almost hit the floor. I wanted to protest but I had no words, I needed to do something, anything. My feet were glued to the ground and everything else seemed to be a blur. I knew what was going on around me, sort of, Damien had been pushed back to his family by Abigail and the king to keep them out of the way and all I could do was look at them.

"If I may speak," Andrew said which stopped the king in his tracks as he was closing in on me.

"You may."

"I mean no disrespect, but Juliet is extremely different to the average human," Whatever Andrew was talking about must've worked. The king turned around to get a closer look at me when something in his eyes sparkled - they literally sparkled.

I looked over to Andrew with a questionable look whilst he whispered something, Damien. After hearing whatever he said, Damien ran up the stairs, pushed past Abigail, and soon came down holding a mirror to give to the king. "Her eyes." Damien simply said to him.

The king held a mirror in front of me and looked at my reflection just as confused as me, "what is this?"

"Do you remember seventeen years ago a family found a cure? That was Juliet's family. The wife was pregnant at the time she took the cure however it didn't have its full effect on Juliet, so they used the cure on her again after she was born. She still has a beating heart pumping the blood that is running through her veins and keeping her warm to the touch but she was born in the vampire world."

The king gave Damien a warning look whilst I stood there trying to put one and two together to see if they were lying or not. By their face, it looked like they were being serious. But how? Circling me, the king judges every little aspect of me. He looks at my face the most and makes quiet comments about my eye colour and even held up the mirror multiple times to see if whatever he saw changed.

"I won't rush it but," the king starts with a small serious smile, "I prefer your blue eyes. I will let you live on the condition that one day one of the three will turn you."

"Excuse me? I have brown eyes and I will not be-" before I could finish my protest, I felt a hand clasp around my mouth.

Damien, I swear to f*****g God I will kick you in your most desirable asset!

"We will, you have our word." The deep voice behind me was not Damien's. It was far Damien when I think about it. He smelt different, Damien usually has this strong charmingly wonderful scent, and this wasn't him. This was Andrew. Andrew was the one who had ran to me to get me to shut up. Damn, I actually liked this guy!

Andrew let go of me, slowly, whilst I pouted and folded my arms. "Juliet, I give you my sincerest apology for all of this. Welcome to our world, I'm sure you'll fit in quite well." He offers his hand for me to shake so I do so extremely hesitant about it. "Call me Daniel from now on. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other." With that said, Daniel walked away dragging a stuttering Abigail angrily behind him. Abigail sent probably her most deadly glare yet at me which I returned with a smile.