The Vampire Xia

Awendela sat in the passenger seat of the slim black sedan dressed in a business casual suit, comfortable, easy to move in but professional. She had wanted to wear her hunting clothes but her parents had been dead set against it. They felt it would give off a negative vibe to the situation. So on came the professional secret service style bodyguard outfit. It wasn't Awendela's style but she figured once she was settled in she would just switch to her normal work clothes. These clothes wouldn't protect her skin if she tumbled on the asphalt.

Her eyes flickered to the vampire driver next to her before flicking up to the mirror on her visor reflecting the Vampire King who sat in the back looking out the window, legs crossed, one hand in his lap the other leaning on the door rest. As if sensing her eyes he looked up at her, they studied each other for a moment before she looked away.

They had been in the car for hours already and that was after the long flight. She was more then ready for a nap. Standing in an alley waiting on her target in the freezing snow, no problem. In a plane or car for hours and she drifted each and every time, no matter how much coffee she drank. It drove her crazy, she had long learned that pain would keep her awake, her nails were currently digging into her upper right thigh and had been for the last hour to keep her awake.

"Would you please stop that."

Her eyes jerked to look up, the Xia watching her with an expression of annoyance.

"Excuse me, your highness?"

"If you are tired then sleep, causing unnecessary pain to yourself is distracting the driver."

Awendela's head jerked towards the vampire next to her who flushed, blinking several times and trying to keep a straight face. She released her grip, her eyes going back to the vampire behind her.

He answered her question without asking, "We are vampires, we have heighten senses, we can sense your pain and it can cause arousal to most of our kind."

She bit back her natural smart-ass personality and the question yearning to spill from her lips 'including you?' and cursed silently to herself because she had known that fact about vampires but she had done it more out of habit then anything else plus she was on the job.

"My apologizes to you both. It was a lapse on my part. I will be more careful."

"Just sleep, we are safe enough."

"I beg to differ, Xia. Anyone can appear from the side of the road or around any of these bends ambushing us and the rest of your party. We are far away enough from any towns that the police or anyone else for that matter would hardly notice a full on battle going on in the streets. If anything travel is the most dangerous part regardless of the amount of fighters we have escorting us."

"I concur with your thoughts, though I highly suggest you find another way to keep yourself awake. We should be arriving within the hour."

"As you bid, Xia."

Awendela looked away but she noticed the triumph smirk on the vampire king's face and made a mental note to find a way to knock him down a peg. It was less then the promised hour when a looming gate appeared manned by a security house, a 20 foot stone wall scored the surroundings, blocking view of the inside. The height would deter any human but to many supernaturals scaling a 20 foot stone wall was a piece of cake. She made a note to find out how the wall was secured. When the car rolled past the gate station the vampires guards attending it stood at attention saluting their King as his car drove past. This was another thing to address. While it was good not to stop the cars as an ambush in this stop could prove deadly, there had to be a way to ensure the cars had not already been compromised before allowing them access to the grounds.

The grounds were large though nothing like the HQ, only about 10 vampiric nobility lived at court with about 5 servants and guards, the castle staff of 30, and security staff of 50, there was approximately 200 vampires give or take a few living on the grounds. However court was an ever changing field, vampire nobility came and went and the number could decrease or increase depending on the situation.

The caravan of cars rode down a long windy drive way before taking a curve and the a beautiful stone castle style mansion came into view taking her breath away. All her sleepiness ebbed away as the mansion continued to grow as they rolled closer to it, slipped under a rough stone arch before continuing into a dip in the ground which led to an underground garage. Interesting she thought to herself. She had not been expecting that but she was wowed by the vehicles in the garage and it was hard to impress her because the Watchers had their hands on a lot of vehicles but these where classic, cars no longer in production, centuries old, or just too expensive and rare to even bother with. She blinked when she saw her bike parked in a corner with easy access to the exit.

She actually turned around to look at the Xia and gave him a small smile of thanks to which he acknowledge with a tiny nod before exiting the vehicle.

"HEY!" she shouted, all but diving out of the car, "You need to wait for me to come get you!"

"We are safe here."

"Are we? Anyone can be hiding behind any of these cars. The moment you exit the vehicle especially alone is an opportunity for anyone to attack you."

The Xia arched an eyebrow in disbelief and scoffed, "they would have to be nuts to try something here."

"Why? This is no better place then any. It doesn't matter how they kill or injury you, it just matters that they do. People with a cause know no common sense nor honor, especially the more radical of them. You are not to be alone at any time until the situation is back under control."

"Excuse me?" the Xia said, his voice low, cold, his eyes flashing with something dark.

Awendela remembered that the Xia wasn't use to having his thoughts, opinions or orders disregarded. She, however, was in charge of keeping him safe, and she would be damned if she would fail probably the most important mission she would ever have in life. She squared her shoulders, turning to look at him fully, approaching him swiftly, protocol be damned, she slipped right into his personal space. One thing vampires respected was strength, she wasn't about to slink back because this vampire wanted to have a power play.

"I am in charge of your protection. Not you, not your guards but me. You will follow my instructions regardless of what you think is best or where you think you are protected. You told me yourself, no where is safe."

She didn't want to say the words he had actually said about not being able to trust his own people, she didn't want to expose that card not in front of the other vampires who had exited their car to watch the argument between the two of them. Her own senses were tingling with the vampiric pheromones that was filling the underground garage. Awendela could feel the tension and probably could have cut through it with her blades. These vampires had never seen their King spoken to this way and it was then that she realized her mistake. She had just undermined the King's authority in front of an important group of subjects, her an outsider.

The realization must have shown in her eyes because she knew she hadn't dropped her mask but the Xia gave her the most minute yet arrogant nod, one she knew no one else would have noticed before he grabbed her by the throat, lifted her off her feet and then threw her into the windshield of the car behind her.

"OUT!" he snapped, and everyone including the guards scurried away out of the garage into the stairwell leading to the mansion.

Awendea groaned and shifted feeling the glass crack and snap underneath her, before she was able to shift and slide down the hood of the car and onto the pavement. She stretched her muscles, checked herself over, trying to delay looking at the king, because she knew she had screwed up. She should have had the conversation in private but at the same time, she had been right. Finally, she stood completely having finished brushing the broken glass from her clothing.

Awendela took a step back, the Xia's eyes were the color of ice almost glowing, he approached her slowly, his steps completely silent, the air around him was thick and dark.

"You are in charge of my protection but I am in charge of my people. You will not undermine my authority in front of my people again. If you have a concern about my safety we will discuss it in private. However, I can understand your need to discuss something in moment, even I am not foolish enough not to know that life or death hangs in the balance of a moment. So, to ensure this doesn't happen again..."

She backed up more, her legs hitting the car she had been thrown into, as the Xia approached her. Her hands outstretched to push him away, she wasn't stupid enough to try to attack him....yet. He grabbed her shirt jerking her towards him, she heard cloth rip, her breath came out in a silent gasp. Her hands went to defend herself but he caught her wrists in his hands.

"Don't move," he said softly, pushing her back so she was forced to sit on the hood of the small jaguar.

Awendela watched as his sharp canines extracted and he bit his own lower lip, causing it to bleed, the smell of blood hit her hard, but it wasn't the iron tang she had expected, it was something else entirely; dark, musky, sharp but almost sweet. He release her left arm, pulling her right hand to him, his nail slashed across the palm and she hissed in shock. She tried to pry his fingers off her with her free hand but it was like trying to move stone. He brought her bleeding hand to his mouth.

"NO!" she screamed, her knee coming up to strike him.

Suddenly she found herself pinned on the garage floor, his legs straddling her waist, one hand holding her arm down next to her head, while the other held her hand before his lips, she struggled.

"I am not drinking your blood, so stop fighting me," he said simply, before pressing his lips to the wound on her hand, mixing their blood together.

He lifted his head, "done."

The Xia released her, standing up to dab his lips with a handkerchief, holding out another one for her. She ignored him and instead used the bottom of her white button down shirt to wipe the blood from her hand, finding the wound already healed and scarred, a long white line.

Awendela noticed the his lip was also healed, "what the hell was that for?"

She had little respect for the man standing before her as it was, but whatever respect she had for him had just been thrown out the window. Protocol, politeness, respect of his position was the last thing on her mind.

"Why don't you tell me?" he asked calmly, his eyes having already returned to their dark grey color.

"Tell you!? I can understand being thrown into the car but I cannot understand why you did that!"

He gave her a smirk as if to say he didn't believe her, she opened her mouth to retort back when suddenly something slammed into her head. She winced, her legs buckled, she would have fallen if not for the car next to her, she braced herself against the jaguar. Something was in her mind. A terrifying dark power, swirling around her like smoke.

"Push it back," she heard through the pain.

"Wha-?" she asked confused and disoriented.

"Push it back."

She blinked, her vision was blurry but she closed her eyes and imagianed pushing the dark smoke into a large glass orb, it swirled inside, ice blue light crackling within. Immediately the pain and pressure eased. Awendela wiped her damp face and looked up at the Xia.

~Do you understand now?~

His voice echoed through her mind.

"Oh shit."

Notes

By the way the link for the trailer was fixed, for those unable to what it!

I am thinking of making a second trailer.

Enjoy! Please leave me comments of what you think so far! Comments keep me going!

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