The Vampire Prince's Servant

Julian left the next day. I saw him walk out from my window. It was more like a tower. I wasn't aloud to leave, only at certain times of the day, and even at that, it was for a short amount of time.

I left the room and walked down to main hall where Jared was. "What exactly was your plan?" I asked him.

"To get the girl and rule the kingdom better than my father." he put his hand on my waist and pulled me next to him. I stiffened up every time he touched me. I didn't dare pull away though. "So far, only one thing has worked out." he said coldly and walked away from me. I wanted to throw my shoes at the wall, but that probably wouldn't work out for me. I would have been in trouble. I felt like a child. That was how he treated me and I hated it.

I sighed and walked away. I didn't know where I was going, it was a part of the house that I hadn't seen before. It looked just like the other parts, hardly anything was different. I went back farther, feeling slightly adventurous.

The first door I saw, I opened and walked in. It was a quiet room, made mostly of windows to look out. There was a green garden with beautiful, luscious flowers. It looked like the one at Julian's castle. I sat down on the pink marbled floor and stared out. I wanted to break through the windows and lay in the field. But I thought that if I touched it, everything would shatter.

I probably looked insane, just sitting on he floor, staring, but it was nice. I felt better, this was my secret place now. I could sneak away and go there. I wouldn't tell Jared. This place was going to be my saving grace.

I stood up and walked out of the room. I shut the door behind me and kept walking down the eerily quiet hallway. My heels clicked down it, echoing behind me. I turned down the hall and back to the main entrance. I was going to try and find out where those gardens were. I looked around in the main hall to make sure I wasn't being watched. I didn't want to be caught leaving, I knew I would be dead. I knew that he would be able to tell that, in the case that I did find these magical gardens, he would be able to smell where I was.

I managed to pull open the large door and I stepped out. It still looked like it was raining. Constant gloom and doom surrounded this place. I half expected a pterodactyl to come swooping down to eat me. We were up on a mountain. I could see the rest of the kingdoms below me. I crept around the corner, and saw a man standing there talking to someone else. I was hoping it was a gardener. I ducked back where I came and backed up slowly, making sure they didn't see me. I ran into something hard that wasn't the door.

"What do you think you're doing?"Jared grabbed my arm and pulled me around.

"I-I saw something, and I wanted to see what it was." I was just as afraid of him as I was Julian, more even.

"Get inside. We will discuss this later." he let go of my arm and shoved me back into the entrance. I skidded across the floor, but managed to catch myself before I fell.

I walked down the hallway to the kitchen, I was shown this magical place yesterday. I was aloud to go there whenever I wanted and eat whatever I wanted. It was all very wonderful on top of that. It was a little piece of heaven.

"Hello Frances." I walked through the door. He turned around and smiled.

"Good afternoon miss. What can I get for you today?" he asked. He was a short, round, middle aged man with a receding hairline. He was nice to me, more nice than the others so far.

I stepped in farther and thought about it. "If you show me where everything is, I can make a sandwich."

He shook his head. "I insist on making it." he moved me out of the way for a moment. "It will be done shortly. If you just wanted to stay here, that would be fine."

I nodded and moved out of his way. "Have you known Jared long?" I asked. I knew he was a vampire as well, so he could have.

He nodded. "I was his family chef. " I watched him lay out the bread.

"Well, I was wondering..." my voice trailed off. I quickly gathered the courage to ask him. "I was wondering if he had always been so mean." I thought about it. "If that's the right way to put it."

He shook his head. "Even as a child Jared was the nicer of the two. It breaks my heart to see him now. His eyes aren't as lively, and his soul not as pure." he finished making my sandwich and handed it to me. "I don't know what happened."

I nodded. "Thank you. For everything." he nodded in my general direction and I left.

I went down to the library and sat down by the fireplace and nibbled away at my food. I brushed off the crumbs from my lap and decided what to do next. I could read, one of my much enjoyed past times, that and soccer, but I highly doubted Jared would play with me. It didn't really matter at that point, because the door was flung open and nearly startled me.

I turned around on the velvet, burgundy couch. My husband stood, leaning against the door. "Hello darling." I spoke with a hint of sarcasm. I turned back around and stared back at the fireplace, I hated to see him looking at me, even though I could still feel his eyes boring into the back of my head.

I heard his harsh footsteps come up behind me and stop. The back of the seat dropped where he placed his hands. "That was quite a stunt you pulled today."I heard him sigh.

"You kept me locked up there, of course I wanted to get out. I wasn't planning on running away if that's what you think." I turned around and stared up at him with innocent eyes. I hadn't done anything wrong. I did feel like a bit of a rebel though.

He leaned down and put his head in his hands. "I know. It's just... There are a lot of bad guys out there Melody," he took my face in his hands. "and I don't want any of them to hurt you." his face was serious and worried. It made me wonder if he actually had a soul. "Do you understand?" his eyes looked into mine. I felt bad for him. The girl who he's in love with hates his guts, he obviously had some resentment towards his parents, his relationship with his brother is a lost cause, and I had no idea how running the kingdom was going, but I assumed not well.

"I understand." I whispered. His hands dropped from my face. I caught his hand before he could walk away. "Thank you. For caring about me." I didn't know how much of what he had said was BS, but it was nice to know that he did seem to care about me in some way.

"You're welcome." he brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it. "Oh Mel, I just wish you knew how much I really do love you." he spun my wedding ring around my finger. "I picked this out for you. It was custom made, there's no other like it." his fingers traced the inside of my palm. "You think I'm such an awful person, but I did all of this for love. I knew I wanted to be with you for the rest of my life, but I knew you wouldn't agree. I hope that one day, you won't resent me as much."

I didn't know what to say to him. Yes, I didn't like him, but I didn't completely hate him; close but not enough. "Jared, I don't resent you. I am disappointed in the way you went about the situation. If you had courted me or something along those lines, then I would have come to love you in time. And now, I find it difficult to love you on command." I noticed that he was still holding onto my hand.

He nodded his head. "I know. I know." he dropped my hand and walked out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

~~~~~*~~~~~

I went to bed alone that night. I had taken dinner in the dining room, by myself as well. I didn't know where Jared had gone off to, and I hardly cared.

I hoped my friends were alright. I wondered what had happened to them. If he was an awful person, he probably had them all thrown out, but I had expressed how I enjoyed them, so maybe he wasn't so terrible. I didn't dare ask though.

I took a shower and dressed into a black night gown and slipped into bed. I burrowed myself down into the silky sheets and turned the light on the table off.

I closed my eyes to total darkness. I felt my breathing slow down and my body relax as I fell into slumber. I could feel myself slipping away into dreamland, when what felt like a hand covered my mouth.

My eyes flew open and I jumped at the unexpectedness. The person turned the light on, and it revealed Julian. My eyes widened with shock. He put his finger to his lips to make sure I was quiet, and he moved his hand.

I sat up. "What are you doing here?" I harshly whispered. I pushed my hair behind my ears.

"Savin you. Now get dressed." he moved out of the way and I ran over to the closet. I threw on some jeans and a t-shirt with a jacket over it. I tied my shoes and threw my hair back as quickly as possible.

"I could have saved myself, you know." I informed him. I had been trying to work out how to leave, but nothin would have worked out.

"Oh, so do you want me to leave?" he pointed towards the door. "It seems you've done such a good job of it already." his tone was sarcastic.

I pulled him back. "No thanks. I appreciate this."

"Come on. We don't have much time." he grabbed my hand. I took his appearance in. He looked better than when he had left this morning. He was showered, shaved, and dressed all in black. We walked quietly out the door, and shut it just as silently. We crept down the hallways, careful no to make any noise. Since neither one of us knew exactly where anyone was, we wanted to be as quiet as possible. After a few minutes, we came across a door that was cracked open enough to see a bit in. We could hear voices coming from inside, one was Jared's, and the other was a female and wasn't as familiar, but I knew I had heard it before.

I looked in as much as possible without being caught. I looked into the room and saw a material covered chair, with a woman's leg draped over the end. I shifted my position and saw that she was sitting on Jared, kissing him. It was Anne who was over him in a satin slip with a drink in hand. She leaned in and missed him, and he didn't seem to object.

A string of unkind words ran through my head. Julian tugged on my hand to get me moving again. I didn't realize how upset I was until we finally made it out of the castle.

"Come on." he picked me up and held me. I didn't think that vampire speed was something I could get used to. We went deep into the woods that surrounded the castle. I kept my anger boiled up inside of me until we stopped, there was a car. He opened the door for me and I sat in the passengers seat and buckled up. We drove down a dirt road, speeding through the forest.

We sat in silence. I couldn't take it anymore. "That bastard cheated on me!" I shouted. I know that I didn't like him, but it was the fact that he still did that made me angry. He claimed to love me, obviously not that much.

Julian chuckled next to me. "You don't even like him. I don't see what your problem is." he glanced over to me.

"I know that, but I don't care who, or what race you are, a marriage is still a sacred thing, even if it was forced." I looked at him, pouting slightly. "Why did you decide to save me?" I thought I should change the subject before I had a mental break down.

He still looked out the window. "Because you saved me. I owe it to you." it was just a tit for tat. I had to admit I was a bit disappointed.

"So what are you going to do about him?" what the hell would happen to me? Would I go back to being a servant, or would I go back to my own world?

"The kingdom is in shambles, everyone is pissed off about the situation, and all they need is a leader to get them to throw him off. Or I could kill him, but I'll have everyone else as back up." he explained. "I'm actually surprised that I was aloud to go back to my castle, and that everyone one was still there." he laughed to himself. "Thank god for my brothers stupidity or I would be screwed."

We continued driving down the road at record speed, I didn't think that we would make it back before the morning when Jared would walk in and check on me. I couldn't picture his face to find me gone, I wish we had installed a camera or something, it could have gone on a television show.

"Melody, I would just like to thank you for being a good friend to me after all this time." Julian looked over and smiled. "I know that sometimes I can be a real dick, but you still chose to save me despite that. So thank you."

I smiled at him. "No problem." I let it drop. "What happens to me after this? Please tell me I won't have him as my husband." I begged him.

Julian to a breath to think. "Well, if he dies, then no. You won't have a husband. If he lives, then I'm sure I can do something about it, but if not, we do have divorce here, so don't worry about that." he patted my leg in comfort.

We came up the drive to his castle after what was hours. I leaped out of the car and nearly fell due to the fact that my legs had gone practically numb during the car ride. "Let's get you to bed. I can't imagine you've slept well these last few nights." Julian helped keep me stable up the stairs and through the familiar passageways. "You'll stay in my room, no one will bother you there." he led me to his door and opened it. "Just climb in. Don't worry about changing, I just don't want you to pass out on me." he half smiled as he walked me to the side of his huge bed. I kicked my shoes off and fell asleep.

There was someone watching me at all times. Jared could some how transport himself places, and they didn't want him to do so and take me. Not that it really mattered, I wasn't the most valuable person there. I wasn't even officially queen yet. I was just back to being a servant, but more of a glorified servant now.