.

Vampire and Prey

by lookimacloud

Chapter

A New Child

As the season wore on and the weeks went by, the impending winter showed it's face. The breeze began to crisp the leaves. Those leaves fell from the trees as though they had been waiting to die their entire life. Hermione compared her life to those leaves. She too, had started to welcome her new status.

The castle had ceased to be a cold block of marble and brick for Hermione. Though she was still not feeling very welcome, by Draco anyway, she had formed a close bond with Sally. And Sally, was often the receiver of Hermione's complaints about Draco. In the four short weeks since the party, Sally had heard all about how insufferable and disagreeable Draco was.

Draco still refused to tell Hermione where he kept Ginny, and Ginny remained Hermione's main concern. In fact, every time Hermione tried to remind Draco that he was the one who wanted her to come to him for any problems she might have, she usually ended up in a very pleasurable spot beneath him. Draco barely had time for her other than to make love to her.

Hermione could swear that she spent more time seeing Draco above her, than she did seeing him standing in front of her. Not that she minded much, but, by the time he had satisfied both their needs, she had already forgotten what she wanted of him in the first place, which, she had to admit to herself, was probably his intention from the start.

Because of the fact that Draco had so little time to spare a Queen, Hermione had turned to his adviser and best friend, Gabriel, for every other concern she had. Gabriel provided witty conversation and great advice. Hermione and Gabriel had also become close friends. In fact, Gabriel and Sally were the only two vampires who knew that Hermione had gone on an eating strike. They both thought her foolish. What made things worse, was that Draco hadn't even seemed to notice. Nobody, save whom she'd told her plan to, had. Hermione had been feeling so very weak and moody from the lack of food and her growing pregnancy, that she would snap at everyone and often walk by the room where the food was prepared, just to smell the blood being soaked into the night's dinner. She was also starting to get very angry and frustrated because of what she was putting herself through for the human race.

In fact, she sometimes felt that it might be a waste. At times, she would even start to wonder what the humans had ever done for her to deserve her gratitude. But then she would blame her bad thoughts on the golden band still sitting on her finger, and get all the more angered. During nights though, she got her due. She slept more and would sometimes purposefully fall asleep just as Draco came to bed. She knew that by denying him his pleasure, she would also be denying herself pleasure, but she just couldn't stop punishing him for all the bad things she was experiencing in this new life. Hermione knew that she was being unreasonable with her behavior toward Draco, she knew that he had done a lot of things that were kind for her too, but she tried to ignore those things because they didn't help her when all she wanted to do was rage against him. She felt every day, the power of the ring turning her against everything that she believed in. Every day, she tried to get it off of her finger by using various methods. And every day, Gabriel would tell her it was a useless effort.

The worst part of her predicament, was that despite the time she had spent in the castle, Ginny was still very well hidden. Hermione searched almost every day for Ginny. She asked everyone she came across, pointed questions about what she was now calling 'Ginny's prison.' She even went so far as to tell them that if those questions didn't come with satisfactory answers, then she was going to be very displeased. The only problem with her threats, was the fact that when her victims asked her what she was going to do to them after she was displeased, she didn't ever have a ready answer. What could she do to scare them into telling her? How could she punish them when they didn't?

One day she was walking in the gardens along side beautiful flowers, when an unexpected source of information came to her.

"My mommy planted these flowers a long time ago." A small voice said.

"Did she now." Hermione commented. She looked around for the little girl who'd spoken. "Where are you?" she asked, spotting the child behind the brush.

The little girl stepped out from behind rose bush, her hands in her dress pockets, her feet, shuffling the dirt. "Sorry your Majeste. I don't want to be bad."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked her.

"I'm not supposed to be here with you." She said. "I'm going to get grounded now. The King will not be happy."

"What are you talking about little one? Why would your King not be happy with you? Why do you think that you aren't allowed to talk to me?"

"Because the King told me that you will be nice to me and then try to get our enemy out of the tower. That is why. I am not supposed to upset you or be by you when you want to be alone. I will go now and tell my King that I didn't mean to be bad but I saw you in my mommy's flowers."

"I am sure this is okay." Hermione soothed. "You don't have to tell me anything that you don't want to tell me. I do like you though. Not many people talk to me here."

"Oh I will talk to you if that is what you order Queen." The little girl squeaked.

What kind of life had she known? This little innocent looked ready to do anything that she was told to do whether she wanted to or not.

"Will your mommy mind?"

"My mommy died when I was born twenty-seven years ago Queen." The girl said.

Really? The child didn't look more than six years old. Hermione wasn't sure she would ever get used to the age differences here. Hermione thought about her own mother and how she had died in child birth too. Suddenly, she didn't want to give birth to this baby anymore. She wanted to just stay pregnant until she died. Of course when she thought about it, that would mean that she would stay pregnant until she killed herself with that sword or had finally starved herself to death, which looked like a real possibility if she didn't start thinking of a new plan to force Draco to notice her.

"Who takes care of you now?" she asked in polite awareness.

"The King." The child said, skipping over to her side. She had the cutest little body and the biggest brown eyes. Her dress, a pale yellow confection, danced around her ankles with each bounce she made.

"Why the King?" Hermione questioned, bringing her thoughts back on track. "Why not your other relatives?" If nobody died here unless they wanted too, then wouldn't her relatives still be alive?

"My King takes care of me because I am his."

Now Hermione was even more confused. Of course the child were part of his people. All of the Zandoffmochenie were their people. Was there a secret that she did no yet know about? Did Draco really have a soft heart and take in orphans as his own? -But what about the child's father? Then it hit her. Draco could be the child's father.

"What is your name?" she asked with a voice that sounded like she had just drank sour milk and couldn't get the taste out of her mouth.

"Annabell your Majeste."

"Annabell is the King your Daddy?"

"The King is my King. I am told that I came from him but he is only my King because he was too young and not bonded to my mommy. He takes care of me but he is only my King not my daddy. I don't have one of those."

"Oh yes you do." Hermione hissed. "Would you let me take your hand or do you only wish to follow close behind me?" She asked seething with newfound anger and impatience.

"What ever you wish me to do Queen." The girl whispered. She sounded scared but Hermione didn't have time to fix that right now. She was done with waiting. She picked the little girl up into her arms and rushed her past all of the people staring at them. She practically ran out of the miniature park that they were in and through the streets with the small shops that were made along side them. People stared and gawked at their Queen but once again Hermione was too angered to care. She rushed up the steps to the castle and past the guards. They didn't stop her. Why would she think they would try? They never even talk her. Not even when she tried to talk to them.

Only the guards that were situated outside her husband's private office showed any interest in her, and that was only to stop her. Even they didn't speak to her, but only held out their arms out to stop her from moving forward. "Draco." She demanded in a hard voice. The guards showed no hint or recognition in their faces at what she had said, but one of them pointed to the wall opposite the door in a silent command that she not disturb her King.

Hermione hissed and set the little girl down. "I will tell you this once and once only so you better listen good. I am pregnant and hormonal and will do just about anything that I wouldn't do if I weren't. This includes harming one of you. If you do not let me pass or at least get my husband, or 'King' for me, then I will tell him in our next meeting that I want to have you two placed in the tower for not obeying a direct order. Don't think that I wont. He will do it too because he will not want to have guards keep his wife from speaking to him when she has a major problem like the one she has right now!" she shouted. Hermione glared at the solders.

"What do you want wife." Draco commanded from behind her.

Hermione was mortified. Here she was yelling her head off at these two men, when all along her husband had been inside the room behind the wall that they had pointed her too. She turned around to face Draco, determined that she let none of her embarrassment show in her face. Draco was indeed standing just inside the newly opened doorway, with his mother!

"Tell me then 'wife'" he said stressing the word. "What is so important that you had to threaten my two best men with a tower that you are not supposed to know about?"

"Well, Draco." Hermione said as calmly as she could. "You could hardly expect me to never find out where you have stashed my best friend. And if you don't mind my saying so, I have a bone to pick with you."

"A bone?" asked the former Queen. "We are not having anything with bones in it for dinner. I must talk to cook." She took herself off with a swish of skirts.

"What bone my Queen?" Draco said more softly as if her anger and his irritation did not exist.

"Come here Annabell." She ordered. The child did and Hermione ordered and Hermione took her hand. "206 bones to be exact. Why didn't you tell me that I had a daughter?"

Draco took hold of her arm and pulled her and Annabell into the room he had just exited. "How do you know about Annabell?" he demanded angry again.

"I was in the gardens in the park and that is where we met. She is terrified of you Draco! She thinks that you will punish her because she talked to me. Tell her that that is not true." Hermione demanded in a voice worthy of any commander of his army.

Draco glared at Hermione and then down at the cowering child. He didn't owe them any kind of explanation. He was the King here. They were not but his servants. Still, he did care for them both in a way that he cared not for anyone but his own parents. He didn't like the fact that Annabell had said that he would punish her for talking to Hermione. The most he would have done would have been to send the child to bed without dinner. That was hardly a punishment. And then there was his Queen who was boldly glaring at him, while he glared back, trying to stare some sense into her.

He then returned his gaze to Annabell. She didn't look terrified, just upset because she had been caught doing what she knew she wasn't supposed to be doing. The little heathen. Well, he knew her as well as any father knew their child, she would play off of Hermione's soft spots now until Hermione realized what she was doing. He wouldn't tell Hermione either. No, she would have to figure out his daughter's plan all on her own. He had told Annabell to stay away from her new mother. He didn't want Hermione to get too upset about his daughter until after she had delivered his son. She was already too tied up in her arguments and complaints about her new life as it was, let alone adding a daughter to her list of worries.

In two days he would take Ginny to the other castle and leave her there. Then he would come back and tell his Queen to stop worrying about her friend and looking for her because she was no longer in the kingdom. Damnation, why wouldn't she just let him be with his plans? Draco had to teach her that she wouldn't always get her way with him or get to spend a lot of time trying to manipulate him. He had to get Hermione to trust him and be content with her new life. He just didn't know how long he would be able to stand by and watch as she yet again refused a meal. He didn't know how long he could ignore her pleas and concerns for her friend. He didn't know how long he could come to bed in the morning hours and not have her to sleep with but only next to.

Draco couldn't believe that Annabell had disobeyed an out and out order not to approach her stepmother. He couldn't blame her for being curious, but he wanted to ease Hermione into the idea first. Draco knew that Hermione would be upset for the way the child was looked at by the clan. He for some reason, didn't want her to be upset. Oh well, she knew about his misbehaving daughter now. No turning back. And if the smug smile on his twenty-seven-year-old's mouth was any indication, she knew it too.

"Draco." Hermione growled. Draco snapped out of his trance. "You need to tell 'your daughter' that you will not punish her for talking to me. That is after all, a stupid reason to punish anyone. Well, tell her! And I want to know why you don't acknowledge her as your daughter. That is going to have to change Draco. She is your daughter and because we are married she is now mine too. I demand that treatment and acknowledgment from you." She practically yelled.

Draco couldn't take it any more. He burst into laughter and sank down in his desk chair. He waved for Annabell to come to him and the child skipped over. She sat on Draco's knee and turned to Hermione with a big smile on her face. "Daddy's laughing. You don't have to worry about getting grounded if Daddy laughs." She said.

Hermione was stunned. 'Daddy?' She should have known. The child had said grounded now that she thought back to it, not punish. Draco did acknowledge his daughter as his own. That was a relief. One less battle she had to fight.

"My daughter has you wrapped around her little finger already. Don't you Anna?" The girl nodded.

Hermione groaned. "What is going on here Draco? You never told me that you had a child."

"No I didn't. I didn't want the news to upset you while you were pregnant. I wasn't sure how you would react when I told you the full story about Anna. I knew you would accept her, but I wasn't sure what you would do when you found out that she isn't accepted as my daughter by my people and that they don't even know that I accept her."

Hermione sank down into the closest chair available. "Why isn't she accepted by your people?" she asked weakly as if she could handle no more surprises and wanted to get this one over with.

"Leianne was already a vampire and my mistress for many weeks. I was not bonded to her and I could not ever be. Annabell is the first girl ever to be born by a vampire." Draco turned to his child. "Anna why don't you go and help your grandmother in the kitchen while I talk to your stepmother."

"Okay daddy." She said. She jumped off of his lap and rushed out of the door. When it closed behind her, Draco started talking again.

"When a male vampire wishes to be bonded, he must go into the world and look for a woman he wants to bond with. First he must marry her and then he bonds with her here as we did. The woman must be willing to marry first though, or we do not bond the couple. Then we erase her existence from the human's minds or plant the thought of her death in it and the woman comes here to live. Vampires only bare sons and when they are old enough the cycle starts all over again. I took a mistress though. Her bondage did not go well and her mate starved himself to death."

"But that is so sad!" Hermione exclaimed enthralled.

"Yes. It is. Many here hated her for that and she was ridiculed and so on. My father feared that the anger towards her was escalating so he gave her a room here in the castle to stay in and then it happened. A few weeks went by and everything was well inside the castle. We didn't expect her to get pregnant. Nine months later Annabell was born because of the union of the Prince, to a vampire he loved but could not bond with. Nobody knows what was different with this woman than the rest. She drove her mate to starve to death and she committed a sin with me only to have a child that was a female later. My clan think that Annabell is cursed and do not accept her as my child, they think that Leianne got what she deserved."

"She did not." Hermione slammed her fist on her knee, which the pain then made her regret.. "Do you think that any woman who dies in child birth gets what she deserves?"

"No Hermione, I do not believe that. It is not right that a vampire should feel things for his mate; it is not common. Anyone who may feel something for their mate, keep it to him or herself. But I loved Leianne and I think that is why the King's of the past took her away and left me without a male to rule in my place. My father demanded that I go out and find my Queen then. He told me that if I ever wanted to please the past kings, whom are the equivalent to your old Gods, and produce an heir, then I would have to bond as was natural.

"He told me that he knew what I felt when Leianne died because he didn't know how he could live should my mother have died the day I was born.

"The day I saw your mother, I knew that I had to have you. I knew you were going to be born a female. Your mother looked so much like Leianne that I thought she was. Your mother never died in childbirth, which is what they planted into the heads of the humans who knew her. What really happened was that some vampires from the other kingdom killed her out of spite. They had to wait until you were born of course, because if anything happened to you after I had claimed you, then the Kings would have punished the offenders, but after you were born, they killed her."

Hermione started to cry as she listened to Draco. She didn't want to hear this new truth about her mother's death. She felt so angry and wanted to deny it, but she knew Draco wasn't lying to her.

"They killed her because I liked the look of her. I have been protecting you since the day you were born. No vampire has ever come near you; no vampire has ever touched you. Only me. Before I even met you, I knew that I couldn't love you. Every time a vampire has certain feelings for another, they die. I will not love you Hermione. I suggest that you not love me either because by the time that that babe is born, you will die if you love me. Now that I have told you this you will understand better how life is run here. You will have my child, and then you will have another, and another. That is your only duty to this kingdom as my Queen."

Hermione, stunned, didn't say a word.

Draco eased forward in his chair, "Now I have wasted all of this time with you and will have to make up for it. Leave now and see about making sure that that babe is happy."

"How could you be so cold-blooded?" Hermione shrieked. "The way you live is disgusting. You as good as killed my mother because of your lust. You never cared for me." She raged. "You never cared for anyone close to me."

"That is true that I never cared for you or anyone close to you Hermione. I would not let them die if I could prevent it. But it is not in my power to do anything about your friend. She and you just died according to what the humans now believe. Your bodies are in the ground. Well, perfect mind mirages." He would not buckle. He would not tell her that he cared for her. He could not afford to, knowing that the Kings would kill her if he did. The Kings couldn't find out. He had to make her hate him or the minute that she gave birth, they would kill her.

Hermione left Draco's office in a rush of skirts and Draco paced the floor. He had told her the truth, he couldn't love her. He just didn't understand this incredible feeling in his chest. It felt strange and he couldn't even explain what it was. Was it ache that he felt? Was it pain? He couldn't understand it. Were these the feelings that Hermione had told him about when she was human? Of course Draco felt bad about what was happening, but only because it was logically correct to, wasn't it? He had never felt emotion of this degree before now. Just telling Hermione that she had never meant anything to him was very hard to do. He just hoped that he was able to tell her with a straight face.

Draco sat back in his chair and rubbed his forehead in an agitated gesture. With Leianne he had felt the same joy that he was now feeling with his Queen, but when she had died all the feeling had left his body. He had become once again emotionless when it came to pain. The Kings had sent him a message then. They didn't want traditions or times to change. They had warned his parents with the threat of his mother's death. They had warned him with Leianne's death and Annabell's sex. Was this -pain that he felt, also a sign of the impending death of his Queen? Draco didn't want to think of that ever. The number one things that he had to do on his list had now increased ten-fold. He had to arrest Ferdinand McGregor for not obeying a direct order from his King, he had to delegate land between three of his followers, he had to take Ginny to his enemy, he had to get his army ready for some hunting pleasure, and lastly, he had to solve the many problems that concerned his Queen.

Well, Draco thought, that needed to be addressed first. He needed to make sure that he explained to Hermione that her friend would be all right, he needed to train her to not be so obvious in her demands to him, after all, he didn't want the entire clan knowing that he couldn't handle his Queen. He needed to schedule meeting dates or times when he would be available to listen to her when she had ideas for improvements in the kingdom's economy. Draco instinctively knew that if he waited until nighttime, his Queen would be fast asleep and unable to complain to him. At most times, he would count that as a blessing, but for some reason he didn't want to leave Hermione out of the problems he had to solve. Draco wanted to listen to her suggestions and, unlike past Kings, he wanted her opinions on the matters. Also on his top list of thinks to accomplish, was getting the stubborn woman to eat, and most importantly, getting her to stop loving him.

Leianne's bonding mate had only lasted six months before he'd become raving mad and had to be put into isolation in the castle dungeons to finish his starvation without disturbing the rest of the population. Draco had seen Hermione look almost faint at the dinning table several times lately. He also knew that the castle people had noticed. Dracp claimed that it was her growing pregnancy that was making her not hungry. But, he had seen her several times fawning over passed plates and glancing over at him from across the long length of table to see if he realized that she was not eating. So far as he knew, she had not eaten since she had killed her friend. Other than her eating habits, Hermione was having a normal pregnancy, or so Mandala, the midwife and spy he had set on her, had told him. And now, thrown in with his number one issues, was his daughter.

Draco stood and walked over to the fireplace. He leaned against the mantle and stared at the painting he'd had done of his daughter. Annabell was only fifteen when he had this painting done of her. The painting, rather than a photograph, was how he preferred life here. Old-fashioned instead of the world his Queen had come from. This was the time of his mother. This was how his father and all past Kings had preferred it, how he preferred it. Why was he unwilling to break with this tradition, but willing to confide in Hermione? Draco took the portrait in his hand and walked back behind his desk to sit once again in the chair of power. He pulled the bell rope hanging beside him and one of his solders immediately opened and stood just inside the doorway waiting for his orders. Draco stared at the portrait just a moment more before he looked up and instructed the guard to send for Annabell. The guard immediately left the presence of the King in order to search for her.

It didn't take long to find Annabell, for the child was lurking near his office doors itching to bother him anyway. The little girl pranced up to him where he sat and stood most formally in front of him until he ordered the guard back to his post. The minute the door closed, Annabell threw herself onto his lap with a bounce and smiled up at him.

"So what do you think about your stepmother Anna?" he asked tonelessly.

Annabell gave him a look that suggested she thought that he was acting strangely and stroked her chin to portray a picture of a thought process similar to that of a seemingly hard decision, only in a bid to bring a grin to her father's face of course. This act did not work however, and Annabell glared her displeasure at him instead. Draco just stared stone–faced at her and asked her to think thoroughly.

Finally Annabell answered. "I like her. She is loud and does strange things but she wasn't mad at me for talking to her. She was not good though because she didn't nod to her people when she passed them Daddy. No she didn't," she rushed on when she thought he was going to argue with her. "She ran passed them like she was not supposed to do and she shouted at the guards in front of your private place. I know that she has the power to do that but she raised her voice and talked back to you. You don't ever let anyone do that Daddy. I still like her though. Please don't ground her Daddy or she will hate me."

"No she will not Anna." Draco said smoothing her hair back. "She won't be mad at you and she is not in trouble. I haven't taught her how to behave yet. I need you to do something top secret Anna." Draco whispered as if they could be overheard. "I need you to get to know her better and I need you to get her to eat. But you cannot tell her that is the plan okay. You can tell her that you want to get to know her better but you cannot tell her that you want her to eat."

"Why Daddy? I'm sorry for being bad and questioning your orders but daddy isn't she eating?"

"No she is not and she will make herself sick if she doesn't start. Invite her to one of your blood parties. I think she will eat then but remember this is top secret."

"Oh like the enemy Queen in the tower Daddy?"

"Yes." Draco replied.

"Okay then, I will. What do you want me to do?"

"Whatever you want. I don't want her to worry and I don't want her to bother me. If she doesn't come to me with her worries then I know you have done your job well and I will give you a reward."

"Oh! A reward? Can I choose it?"

"Maybe. I want her eating first though okay Anna?"

"Yes Daddy." The little girl replied. "She will eat and eat and eat daddy. I will make sure she does? I really like her Daddy she is funny. I think you chose a good mommy and Queen."

"Don't forget though Anna that when you are not alone with her you still need to address her as Queen. I will be displeased if I need to deal with the clan's outrage against you because you called me Daddy in public again. Promise and then you may leave me to my work."

"I promise Daddy."

Author's Note: You know, I didn't realize I'd posted this chapter until I got tons of story alert messages in my email this morning? I was very out of it last night, haha. Anyway, I thank voldyismyfather for again being my one and only reviewer for my last chapter.

PS: If you like this DHr fic, I have another vampire DHr fic by the name of Their Destiny. Check it out.

And as always, please let me know what you think.