King of Hearts (Book 1)

Heartbeat

I walked out into the hallway after letting the slave leave. Her brown hair swayed behind her delicate figure was actually beginning to tease me, I needed to feed before I do something rash and take her life before the night falls.

As I descended the titanic stairs and entered the second floor of my palace, the thoughts of my cousins were more audible.

Where is he? Should we start without him? Maybe the guard was right, we'll return at a later time.

These nuisances were quite loud and aggravating; in fact, I only keep them around due to their unwavering loyalty and efficiency in bringing me humans to feed on. Those morons were so gullible, thinking that I would spare their lives after they have proven to be useless for my well-being.

I might seem like a bitter vampire, but what everyone does not understand is that friends are simply useless individuals who come and go as time passes. I don't see the need for some low-life to converse with when I am bored. I have myself, my kingdom, and most of all, I have appealing blood that I so carelessly take from anyone and everyone.

I walk into the living room and there, standing with three humans, were Rio and Ramsey.

"Sire." They bowed to me as soon as they saw me and I dismissed them, taking a good look at the delicious humans waiting to be devoured.

Well, they were obviously clueless as to why they were here due to the lies they have been fed in the aim to lure them here. But whatever the reason, my fangs had already made an appearance. It seems as though one of them was already bleeding, probably from falling down.

I stalked closer, wondering what they were thinking. This is what I hate the most about my ability to read minds - it is useless when it comes to humans. I'm always wondering what goes through their heads as I sink my teeth into their necks, rip their flesh off and drink every last bit of blood.

The one in the middle was a boy who looked about fifteen, and the other two were female who seemed about the same age. They looked at me and I looked at them, but no sign of fear was evident in their face. I'd make sure to change that in a minute or so, maybe even faster.

"We're ready for our tour now." The girl to right says, and I notice that she's the one with the exposed blood on her knee which was incredibly appetizing.

Tour? So that's why they were here, well I guess I could at least play along before I take their lives, slowly and painfully. This would be an interesting kill; I could tell the boy had some fight in him, but not obviously not enough to take me on. And to think I was simply going to go to bed. How shameful would that have been? I guess the slave was in luck tonight, I might have to save her for later then.

"Well then. Come on, I'll show you around my palace." I say in an alluring voice. Humans were so weak, especially human women. All I had to do was plaster a smile on my face and hook, line, and sinker - they were dinner. I turned to walk down the next flight of stairs, taking us to the dining room. After all, I had manners. This is where I was going to have my dinner.

Meanwhile, the humans were looking at the picture frames on the wall and admiring the shelves of books that were in every room, not that I read any of that nonsense. I've been alive for centuries; I feel no need to re-enforce novelties and inaccurate facts of history in my mind when I've lived through history.

As I turned around, I noticed that they were so intrigued by their surroundings they didn't even know what was coming. Without a word, I lunged at the one that was bleeding already, she was just asking for it anyways. Who comes to a stranger's house willingly? It's a lesson that needs to be learned. Humans, what idiots.

I had tackled her onto the floor; I really was hungry, so I just got to it and sunk my fangs into her neck. I tasted the blood on my tongue and it was sweet, but not as good as the last slave had been - she was delicious.

As I was drinking her blood, I could hear the background noise of the others panicking. But most of all, it was the familiar rapid heartbeat that consumed my thoughts. This was the slave's heartbeat; I could distinctly tell, which meant that she must be near. I'd suddenly lost my appetite, which was strange because that never happened.

"Steven." My voice echoed, I called the guard after I'd gotten off the girl. The guard hurried in, taking note of the unconscious girl and the other two who were shrunk in a corner trying to hide. As if that would work if I'd wanted to kill them.

"Take these humans away, I do not want them anymore." I say authoritatively, but the guard just hesitates.

"Where to, Master?" He asks. This guy must enjoy getting on my nerves.

"TAKE THEM AWAY! QUIT ASKING USELESS QUESTIONS BEFORE I KILL YOU!" I yell, frightening everyone in the room. Imbeciles! Before I actually kill Steven which seemed like a rather pleasant thought at the moment, I walked up the stairs, following the heartbeat of my slave.