Captured (The Captive #1)(27)
Not to drain the wonderfully tempting blood from her.
“I didn’t expect that,” she said softly, her voice tremulous, her grip on his arms fierce.
“Neither did I.”
He brushed the hair lightly back from her face, cradling her cheeks gently within his grasp. What was this girl to him? Why did she affect him so? What the hell was going on here? The questions raced rapidly through his mind, but he couldn’t answer any of them. There were no answers from him. He could not deny that she was special, that he was supposed to have found her, because he knew both of those things to be true.
He was, however, beginning to doubt that he could keep her safe in this world, or even from himself. He knew that he could not keep her happy, she did not belong here. This was not her place, this was not her world, and she would never be safe here. If anyone even suspected that he might have feelings for her, they would kill her. Blood slaves were used, drained, tortured, and tossed away. They were not treasured, they were not taken care of, and they most certainly were not kept alive for extended periods of time.
What the hell was he going to do with her?
She peered questioningly up at him, her fear and hesitance evident. He forced himself to become expressionless; she had obviously seen something that troubled her on his face. “Prince?”
“Braith.”
She blinked at him, her forehead furrowing in confusion. “Excuse me?” she asked in surprise.
“Braith, my name is Braith. You never say it. I want you to use it.”
Her mouth quirked in a small smile, her eyes lit with amusement. “Forgive me your majesty; I am not used to being around royalty.”
Aggravation spurted through him at her words, until he realized that she was teasing him. He didn’t think he had ever been teased before, he wasn’t entirely certain that he liked it, but it seemed to make her happy. And he had to admit that he did enjoy seeing her happy. “I see. I would prefer if you said my name though,” he told her abruptly.
His brisk attitude did not seem to bother her as she shrugged her shoulders. The lack of fear she showed to him was truly amazing, he had never experienced it before. Even other royal vampires were fearful and weary around him. “Braith, why do you always wear those dark glasses?”
His hand darted up to the dark frames. For the most part he didn’t even remember that he was wearing them, they were like another extension of his body. He shrugged, unsure of how to respond, unsure how much he really wanted to reveal to her right now. This situation was strange enough without heaping even more strange onto it.
Thankfully he was saved from responding by a soft knock on the door. He released Arianna and took a small step away before inviting whoever it was to enter. The small brunette he remembered seeing before stepped slowly into the room. Braith bristled, his shoulders straightened as he prepared to take this girl on to.
Arianna rested her hand gently on his arm. He glanced at her, surprised by the calming affect such a simple gesture had upon him. “Hi Maggie,” she said softly, offering a small smile for the obviously frightened girl.
Maggie nodded at her, but her gaze lingered over Arianna’s hand on his arm. Braith pulled slowly away from Arianna, not wanting to hurt her feelings, but knowing that they had to play it safe. He had to be careful with her. “I was told to come up,” she said softly.
“Yes,” Braith responded coldly. “Your friend has been dismissed. Permanently.” The girls brown eyes widened as the implications of those words sank in. “The same will happen to you if you step out of line in anyway. You will take care with her ribs.”
The girl looked slightly stunned, and more than a little confused. “Of course, yes your highness, of course I will,” she stammered out.
“Good.”
Braith moved swiftly past the woman. Grabbing hold of his cane, he left the room with Keegan trailing behind.
***
Aria popped the grape into her mouth, chewing the sweet fruit eagerly as she picked at the tray of food. She was starving from not having eaten yesterday. She heaped more fruits onto her plate, then some breads and meat. There was so much, and it all looked so good that she didn’t know where to start. She popped a handful of grapes into her mouth as she made her way to the window seat. She had not read in over a week, she’d missed it and was eager to continue with the story, but she wanted to wait for Braith to come back. She was afraid that she would miss something, or would get something confused whenever she read on her own. Though, he said that she was making good progress, and was doing well on her own.
Truth be told though, she simply enjoyed curling up next to him and listening to the deep rumble of his voice as he slowly read with her. She stared out the window, slowly rolling the fruit around in her mouth as she thought over the implications of that admission. What the hell was the matter with her? Had becoming a blood slave caused her to completely lose her mind?
Was she actually beginning to have feelings for a monster? Feelings for one of the creatures that she had hated, and fought against her entire life? That was crazy, it was simply insane. It could not be possible, it really couldn’t.
But she truly believed that she was, and she didn’t understand any of it. She had thought that he had turned against her. That he had purposely set Lauren on her in punishment, but he hadn’t. And not only had he not known that Lauren was hurting her, but once he had found out about it he had been attentive, caring, protective of her and worried about her safety.