Holy Cow! Thank you so much for your incredible response to the first chapter. Though I already had a plot figured out, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue this fic, but because of all of you amazing people I am determined to keep this story going(: Expect an update once a week (not positive which day(s) yet).

The prince didn't take into account that he was at least a foot taller than me nor did he even consider that his strides nearly doubled mine. But why would he? He was a cold, disgusting, heartless monster. His grip stayed firm around my wrist, still bound painfully to the other, as he forced me to keep up with him, his guards following close behind us, destroying any chances I had to get away–– Ha. Who was I kidding?

I was never going to get away.

The looming palace in the distance, like a dark, terrifying shadow, continued to grow closer and closer. I had been raised to be strong, to never show fear, but I was petrified, unable to keep my tears locked away. Never had I been in a situation that I couldn't control the outcome. I was confident in my fighting skills, even if I hadn't fought Vampires in the past, just humans, or traitors, that lived willingly amongst the Vampires. I was fast, too, and strong for my size.

But this...The prince, though I have no idea why, wanted me for a reason. And it wasn't to have someone that he could enjoy tea with. He was going to prolong my death, draining me as slowly and as painfully as possible. He was going to make me his slave, break my character and force me to abide by his every command. And he was undoubtedly going to have some fun with me along the way.

The thought had me stopping abruptly several times, all resulting in a harsh tug from my captor and his fingers to constrict, igniting my fear that he would snap my arm as if it were a twig.

"Keep up," the prince barked as I tripped, managing to find the only rock on the clean path. Despite myself, I let out a sharp wince. I had stubbed my toe pretty nicely, only adding to the insurmountable cuts and gashes that brandished my sore feet. I tried to regain my footing and pressed my lips together, failing to ignore my discomfort. I heard a heavy sigh and looked up through my wet lashes to see an intent face.

I had no time to process what happened after that. One moment I was barely standing and the next I was being lifted in the air by strong, possessive arms, being suffocated against his chest. The prince acted as if I weighed nothing more than a feather, continuing on with the journey. Without me to hold him back, his pace increased noticeably.

Even behind the dark shades that hid his eyes, I could tell that his focus was on getting to the castle as fast as possible. I tried to ignore the fact that a filthy Vampire was carrying me, but he was literally engulfing me with his every essence. His flesh was flush against mine, the thin materials from our shirts acting as the only barrier, and his strong, masculine, and regrettably intoxicating aroma subjugating my senses.

I was stiff in his arms, pleading for anything to save me.

Get your hands off of me.

Get them off.

I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I wasn't capable of walking, not properly anyways.

Five minutes turned into ten minutes, and ten minutes soon turned into twenty. I didn't ever think we'd make it, but all too soon I was being carried through an impossibly large, jaw-dropping set of doors. The cold from outside melted away under the intense warmth the inside of the palace radiated. My eyes widened at my impressively scary surroundings.

The grand room we stood in was so vast that it rivaled the size of my village. A massive chandelier, beautiful crystals intertwined with solid gold, loomed overhead emitting an intense glow, enhancing every gleam, sparkle, and ounce of polished wood. I didn't want to be marveled, but I had never seen anything like this. Everything was so beautiful, so perfect, so clean. So intimidating.

It would take hours to absorb every detail, but I didn't even have a second. Once across the room, the prince left the guards in the dust and ascended the grand staircase, branching out into two smaller staircases, impossibly fast. I couldn't comprehend the portraits, flowers, red carpets, or any other glorious decorations that slurred together.

My captor took a left and mounted the set of stairs there, never once slowing down. He was determined to get to his room, where he'd do unthinkable things to me. I began to squirm in his hold, my festering panic overwhelming me. My tears began to flow with new fortification, molding my state of being into a muddled mess. The prince tried to ignore my pathetic struggles at first, but when he realized that I wasn't letting up, he crushed me further into his chest with bone crunching force. "Stop," he demanded. "There isn't anywhere you could possibly go."

The fury behind his words startled me into falling immobile. He was right. He was right.

He was right.

My bottom lip trembled. "Plea––"

"Do not speak."

The long and winding halls didn't hinder the prince one bit. He knew this place like the back of his hand, operating with ease. So many times we had passed what looked to be servants and maids, and every one of them I saw stared me down until we were out of sight, shock, confusion, and even sympathy riding their features.

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

I was beginning to think, after going up yet another staircase, that we'd be walking all night, that maybe his room was still miles and miles away. That is until we came across a secluded area, dim in comparison to the former halls, and stopped in front of a large, mahogany door, intricately carved and polished. The prince retrieved a set of keys from his pocket, his right arm still firm around me, and quickly stuffed it into the lock. When the door swung open, to my surprise, the prince set me down as gently as possible.

Searing pain shot up my legs, leaving an intense burning in its path. My eyes darted around wildly, my breathing erratic. I didn't care if there was no use anymore, nor did I even register my torment, I just had one thought, and one thought only: Get as far away from him as you can. I began to bolt across the spacious room, dodging over the neatly placed furniture and nearly stubbing my toe again on the fireplace.

When I reached the end, I slammed my back hard against the wall, trying to make myself appear as small as possible. The light fixtures hanging above me, something I had used candles to replace back home, flickered on in an instant, illuminating my new prison. Not only did the prince have just a room, but he had his own house seemingly. Several doors lined the adjacent walls, leading to who knows where, and there was a quaint sitting room as well as a small, fancy looking kitchen.

Everything was gold and expensive.

I must not of realized the prince's absence because he suddenly reappeared in the room with two young ladies following behind him. They looked like the other servants I had previously saw, dressed in dull gray gowns with their hair pinned up sharply. One was slightly older, and the other seemed to be a little older than me with startling features that I wasn't sure I considered pretty.

To my horror, the prince began to slowly approach me, as if he was dealing with some wild animal. If not for his true nature, he could easily pass for a knight in shinning armor, like the ones I had heard about in stories. He was unmistakably beautiful, clean, and certainly emitted a confidence that only certain people were able to possess.

Without looking away from me, he said, supposedly to the two maids, "Go run a bath for her."

Somewhere in the back of my mind I registered the two figures slip behind one of the numerous doors. As the Vampire got closer and closer, I recoiled further and further against the impassable wall. A whimper escaped me when he brought out his dagger again. I looked away as he severed the painful ties around my wrists, letting my aching hands reach out in front of me to protect myself.

"I won't hurt you," he informed me softly, completely out of character. Liar, I thought bitterly. He let out a frustrated sigh. "Mindy and Aline are going to get you cleaned up. I'm going to show you to the bathroo––"

"I'm perfectly capable of cleaning myself," I snapped venomously, meeting his gaze behind glasses dead on. I wished that I could see his eyes, so I could burn him with my hatred and make sure that he could see.

His lips settled into a thin line. "Let me make this more clear for you: You are going to allow them to bathe you."

"I know how to bathe myself," I said stubbornly.

His demeanor grew stiff, frustration and anger taking over, making me shudder. "Let them clean you or I'll do it myself!"

Living in the woods all my life I had never been exposed to a real bathroom, not like this anyways. I was forced into a sleek, white bathtub that was about as large as my room back home, filled to the brim with steaming water. I felt so violated allowing two strangers to clean me, especially considering no one, except maybe my mother when I was younger, had seen me naked before.

Grime and sweat and blood was washed away as the older lady rubbed me raw, my winces proving to be nonexistent. The two servants talked amongst themselves, being completely ignorant of the girl they were attending to. I learned that the younger one was Aline as I heard her call the other Mindy a few times throughout their conversation. "I don't understand what the prince sees in this thing," Aline said sourly, working diligently on my nails, currently clipping them. "He's never had a blood slave before––"

Confusion hit me with an iron fist. He hasn't? Nearly every Vampire, if they had the money, has owned at least a couple of blood slaves in their immortal lifetime. I had assumed that I was probably the prince's hundredth one or something. Not the first.

"Why her?" she continued, clipping my nail dangerously close to my skin. "She's so scrawny and small. Like she has much to offer him."

Mindy sighed, working her fingers into my long and thick hair. I almost felt bad for her; my hair took me about an hour to wash and brush out, and when it dried it just spiraled out into untamable curls. My hair absorbed water like a sponge, getting heavier and heavier by the second. "She's pretty."

Aline snorted. "For a little girl."

I had half a mind to "accidentally" splash her in the face, but I refrained, refusing to give her any satisfaction. I locked my jaw, unable to look at the vile girl handling me. Both Mindy and Aline were humans, I could tell by the bite marks on their wrists and necks. But they were traitors. Whereas I was apart of the Resistance, trying to save humanity, there were still hundreds of humans that lived amongst the Vampires by their own choice. Of course they had to donate their blood willingly whenever, I assumed, a Vampire was in need of some.

I wanted to scream out to them, 'How could you? How could you betray your own kind! You're weak and disgusting!'

Unable to keep track of time, I felt like I was stuck in the bath for years. By the time Mindy pulled the plug, I was all shriveled up and shaking from the now cold bathwater. A white, fluffy towel was wrapped around me, replaced shortly after with an oversized robe.

The water had soothed my feet some, but now that they were exposed to the cold air, they stung like crazy. I was lead across the sparkling tile floor over to a huge vanity at the far end of the room. Mindy sat me at the chair there, a grand mirror, rimmed with gold across from me. As they brushed out my hair, I looked at my reflection grudgingly.

I had a tiny face, angular, yet delicate. Luckily I had inherited my mother's beauty rather than my father's rugged masculinity like my brother. I had a small nose, a sharp chin, and very large, green eyes. My ivory skin was dusted with freckles, something my father thought made me beautiful, and something I thought made me childish. I didn't think I was ugly, in fact I thought I was fairly attractive. But now, looking at the face so similar to my mother's, I couldn't help but feel disgusted.

This was the reason the prince wanted me. Like Aline had said, I certainly didn't have a body.

After my hair was all brushed out, still sopping wet, it reached my waist. Mindy took out a pair of scissors and trimmed seemingly every strand, something I hadn't been able to do in months, taking an aggravatingly long time. Then Aline, as if to frighten me more, took out a shiny black object, resembling a weapon, and plugged it into the wall. When she pointed it at my head I made an attempt to get away, causing both girls to howl with laughter.

"Haven't you ever seen a blow dryer before?" Mindy cried.

Aline rolled her dark eyes in the mirror. "Wow you're even stupider than I thought. I'm not going to kill you, it just dries your hair."

She flipped a switch on the handle to prove her point and hot air began to shoot out of it, startling me nonetheless. Mindy, after realizing that the duty at hand was treacherous, retrieved her own blow dryer to attend to the other side of my air, strands being blown in every direction like a wild fire. When they were finally satisfied, I was amazed to find that they had done the undoable, making my crimson hair flow in soft, sleek waves.

Thinking they were finished, I was hit in the face with harsh reality. Aline took out what I learned to be a pair of tweezers and plucked my eyebrows furiously, making me cry out every time. Mindy powdered my face with toxic minerals, spraying all sorts of overwhelming fumes around me, and plumped my lips with sticky gloss. I had never worn makeup before, seeing as I never needed it when I preformed the same tasks as my brother and I didn't have anyone to impress.

Then I was stuffed into a tight fitting, green dress that revealed my legs entirely, making me feel terribly uncomfortable. And to make matters insurmountably worse, Aline found a pair of deadly shoes for my feet, ones with heels and impossible to walk in considering their current state. I was unfamiliar with shoes in general and I had only ever owned one pair, but they were handmade and I outgrew them when I was ten.

"Perfect," Mindy said the same time Aline sighed, "There's nothing more we can do."

I stumbled out into the main room, Aline and Mindy exiting the prince's chambers altogether. I certainly didn't enjoy their presence, but without them here I was all alone with the beast.

The prince, sitting on his leather couch, was suddenly on his feet, ushering for me to join him. A soft smile spread over his features as he took in my appearance. "Much better...I'll have to tell Aline to leave your hair the way it was though next time."

I tried to take another step, but ultimately failed, tripping miserably. Before I could hit the ground, however, hands were around me, the same hands that had carried me here. He pulled me upright and frowned down at my feet, swinging me up in his hold once again and rushing over to the couch he had come from. He set me down carefully, as if afraid he'd break me, and slowly removed the deathtraps on my feet, observing them intently. "These," he gestured the heels now set aside, "are not for you. Your feet will heal soon. I'll wrap them up before you go to bed, though."

He was so close to me, so unaware of the fact that I was terrified. I turned away from him when he sat beside me, his presence like poison. He didn't bite me, let alone touch me, like I had expected, he simply sat there, looking at me. "Can't you just get it over with," I said quietly.

"Get what over with?" he asked.

My head snapped towards his. "You know what I am talking about. If you're going to suck my blood just do it."

He inhaled sharply, ignoring me entirely when he said, "My name is Jace."

I just looked at him, half in disbelief and half-relieved. "Oh," was all I said.

"You are to call me Jace." His voice wasn't demanding, if anything it was the complete opposite. Weren't Vampires, like, I don't know...evil all the time?

"Oh...okay, Jace."

"Are you hungry?" he asked suddenly.

"W-what?"

Before he could repeat himself there was a sharp knock on the door. Jace immediately grew stiff, on his feet in an instant. From the other side the door came a sickeningly sweet voice. "Oh come on brother, I heard you got yourself a blood slave. Open up."

There's chapter 2. I'm sorry it's not the most exciting chapter, but don't worry, there is much more action, drama, ROMANCE, and horror in store.

What do you guys think?

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Until next time, peace.