The Vampire Prince goes to High School (Book 1)

Unintentional Cause

A small meow came from behind me. I twirled around. The Prince made his way down the stairs one step at a time. He tittered on the edge of one step before dropping down to the next one. His face hit the carpet and he scrambled to his feet.

Oh gosh, he was so cute! Then, the anger hit. What was he doing here? I shot him a glare and pointed upstairs.

"Get back up there," I mouthed.

'You promised me some food,' the Prince said.

Before I could do anything, he darted past me and into the kitchen. I shot after him and immediately came to a stop at the dining table. My mom stared down at the kitten in front of her, her brow furrowed. 

"Hi," I said breathlessly. "I - I can explain you know. Th-there was this thing - the window there was something there. I didn't open it . . . well, I did but not before checking to see if there something there because obviously, I wouldn't let anything strange inside . . ."

"I see Arthur is up too," my mom suddenly said. She smiled at me before turning back to the Prince. "I'll get your food in just a minute, okay?"

I gaped at her for what seemed like the longest time. This was ridiculous. The Prince just seemed to have all these abilities that manifested out of nowhere. Why couldn't he just give me a list of abilities he had? That way, I wouldn't be surprised all the time. Would it kill him to tell me about it? I felt so out of the loop. I knew he could influence people because he had tried that on me the first time we met. Is that what he had done now? Influenced her to think that they had gotten me a kitten named Arthur?

"I'm going to put my bag in the living room," I muttered.

My dad folded his newspaper as I walked in. This morning, however, he didn't have the news on. Frowning, I dropped my bag pack on the sofa.

"No news today?" I asked. "Is everything okay?"

Dad smiled at me tiredly. Even in the dim lighting on the living room, I could tell that he wasn't getting much sleep. I bit my lip. I didn't want all of this mess with the Prince to affect them. 

"Everything is fine," he tried to assure me. 

"I'm sorry about all of this," I told him. 

I walked over to the recliner and sat on the arm. Sighing, I leaned against him, resting my head on his. 

"What are you talking about, kiddo?" he asked, patting my arm. 

I waved to the newspaper on his lap. "About the Prince and everything," I said. "I wish I could just go back in time and stop this before it happened. Now because the Prince was framed -"

"You believe he was framed?" he asked. 

I sat up feeling his gaze on me. "Yeah," I said. "I do. Call me crazy, but I feel like I know the Prince. He's obnoxious, arrogant, but I don't believe he could ever do that to people. He wants to be worshiped, not feared. He wants to be admired and envied even, and, gosh, he loves attention. Hurting humans like that hurt his image of the playboy vampire prince. So, yeah. I do believe he was framed."

Dad smiled thinly. "I see what you mean," he admitted. "You're probably right too but that way of thinking isn't going to get you a lot of friends."

I shrugged. "I don't plan to advertise it," I told him. 

"Well, don't get involved with any of this," he said. "Don't talk with anyone. Just go about your business. Mr. Keys gave us specific instructions on how to handle this. Okay?"

"I know," I told him. "I'm going get some breakfast."

Dad stood. "I'm right behind you."

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