"Alright, so we need to get everything done before 3:00 because that's when my sister gets out of school and we need to greet her at the door," Nick was saying in the limo. He was still wearing his casual outfit, but Don the butler was now them in a pristine suit.
Silver sat next to Nick, who, surprisingly, didn't try to scoot closer to him and kept a casual distance.
"Hey, Mr. Donald, how have was your sleep?" Silver asked. He respected the man immensely for putting up with a castle of vampires for so long.
The butler looked up from his pager, slightly surprised, "Um, fine, thank you, Master Silver,"
"Oh, you can just call me Silver," he smiled, "How long have you been working for the royal family?"
"About ten years," Donald answered, "Ever since the king found out his son was so reckless, he thought he needed a stricter butler."
"He's more like a babysitter," Nick chimed in, "He barely lets me go anywhere, especially now that I'm over 20 and need someone to marry."
"But now, Prince Nicholas has you, Silver," Donald smiled.
Silver rolled his eyes, "I'm flattered, but I don't intend to marry your prince."
"Not yet," Nick waggled his eyebrows, "Besides being a vampire, what don't you like about me?"
"You're too forward, and I'm still convinced you just flirt with every cute thing you see on the street," Silver answered. Nick leaned back in his seat.
"Too forward, eh?" he blinked down at his hands, "Alright, I can change that," he said and looked over at Silver with a smile.
"I'm still not marrying you," Silver narrowed his eyes, "Sorry to disappoint, Mr. Donald."
The butler just gave out a long hum of amusement and turned back to his phone. Silver then turned to Nick, "So what's first on the agenda?"
The prince sighed, "We're going to my animal house."
"You're what?" Silver's eyes widened.
"I have a house for my pets," He answered, "They have maids, but I like to visit for a few hours."
"You have pets?" Silver leaned forward, incredulously. "And you don't, like, eat them"
Nick's eyes widened before let out a hearty laugh that Silver would never admit sounded really adorable.
"You think I eat my pets?" Nick cackled, "Did you think I would eat you too? I wouldn't keep pets if I was just going to eat them. That's called livestock, not pets."
"Well, I just can't imagine you with a pet either," Silver scoffed, "Do have like dogs or something?"
"I have a few dogs, a few cats, a bird, and a fish," he explained, "And I love them all too much to eat them."
"You have animals? But that's so...cute," Silver shook his head, "But you're not cute."
"You don't think so?" Nick winked and poked the side of his cheek, "I think I'm pretty cute," he giggled. He literally freakin' giggled.
In truth, Silver found the prince extremely cute. And really hot most of the time, but he wasn't about to admit that. Telling the prince he was cute wouldn't make him any closer to getting out of the castle. He didn't care if that was how royalty worked, he wasn't going to marry someone he had just met. And he most definitely wasn't going to be turned into a vampire.
Not now, and not ever.
"You might be a little cute. But I'm cuter," Silver said, but Nick just poked the inside of his mouth with his tongue. The prince nodded with a small grin, leaning back again and closing his eyes, letting the small jostle of the moving limo lull him into a quick nap.
It was only then when Nick couldn't see him, that Silver gave a small smile.
***
The first day of classes was not fun. Klara had been getting a lot of people try and talk to her, which she didn't really want. She ate alone and sat alone in class. Being one of the few werewolves was tiring. Luckily, most people stayed off-campus during the day, since it was near a city.
Klara had avoided trying to make friends so she was just wandering around in between her first few lectures when she spotted Angie, who was surrounded by a group of people. Angie beckoned her over and Klara begrudgingly made her way over to where the Angie and a group of very pale caucasian potheads with bleach-blonde dreadlocks who were leaning against a pillar.
She gave a fake smile to the four people she didn't know. Angie introduced them, to which Klara made a mental note to immediately forget, and then they continued on in a conversation. Klara didn't listen, but whenever Angie laughed, she did too.
If Klara had to have one friend in college, it was going to be Angie, she had to live with the girl after all. She wanted to take college seriously, not get involved with a bunch of people. Yeah, she wanted to make a bunch of friends and live the typical college experience; but if her dad found out she was partying and cozying up to a group of vampires, she would be promptly taken out of her dream school.
It wasn't until the tallest of the group, the boy with the longest dreads and a five o'clock shadow, turned to Klara with a calm smile, "Sorry, what is your name again?"
"Klara," She said without expression.
"Klara", he felt the name on his tongue, "I'm Darius. We're also having a party at my brother's house. He lives in a house way up by the beach."
"Does he go here?" Klara asked, not really caring, but wanting to avoid being invited.
"Used to," the guys smiled, obviously thinking Klara was actually interested, "He works near here. But anyway, he's letting me use his place for the start of the year party. Freshman only, it'll be so sick."
"It sure does sound sick," Klara said, meaning it literally.
"Wanna come? It's literally in like a few hours, but any friend of Angie's is a friend of mine," He smiled, and Klara noticed that his smile turned seductive. She knew these people were vampires and she probably shouldn't get involved. She could only imagine the look on Silver's face when she tells him that she got invited to a party with vam-
Then she got a terribly wicked idea.
"Would you mind if I brought a plus 1? He doesn't go here, but he's also never been to a party," Klara asked with a full face smile.
Darius's eyes shone seeing Klara have an actual expression on her face. Angie raised an eyebrow, "Who is this person?"
"My cousin," Klara answered, "You'll love him. He's living at the castle right now, but I can text and ask if he's busy."
"The castle?" Darius laughed, "What castle? Is he, like, royalty or something?"
"Nah," She shook her head, "The prince of Virlaq is like obsessed with him or something. I don't know the whole story but our alpha was cool with it, so I don't need to get involved anymore."
"The prince of Virlaq Kingdom? As in Prince Nicholas Guilliam-Edward Schwarz of Virlaq Kingdom?" Darius asked incredulously. He seemed to forget that he was flirting for a second "No freaking way. Does he like your cousin? Your cousin's a werewolf?"
"Nah, my cousin's a human," she shrugged, "Like I said, I don't know the details. He's only there for protection reasons but the alpha said that they plan to get married or something, I don't know".
"It would be really cool if he brought the prince with him," Darius said, grinning like an idiot. Klara just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I mean, I guess," She sighed, "Anyway, I'm heading back to the dorm. I can bring my cousin, right?"
"Definitely" Darius winked, Klara just stared at him blankly before turning on her heel to where she and Angie lived.
A few seconds later, she heard footsteps close behind her before she was joined by her roommate, "I think Darius might like you," Angie gushed.
Klara raised an eyebrow without caring enough to actually make eye contact, "I sure hope not," was her dry reply.
Angie giggled, "You don't like him?" She linked their elbows together and kicked her feet as she walked happily. Even though she was shorter than Klara, they seemed to walk comfortably through campus, "He's a good guy, I promise."
"I'm not saying I believe you, but that's not the reason I don't wanna get with him," Klara semi-explained, "He's not really what I'm interested in."
Angie looked up at Klara, "Well, what are you interested in?"
"I'm not sure," she answered truthfully, "It doesn't seem like I'm very interested in most of the people in this college, I can tell you that."
"Awww. What about me? I thought we could be besties!" Angie beamed, "We're living together after all,"
Klara hummed in response without answering the question and they made their way back to the dorm.
***
"Ever since that incident, I'm always scared that the car won't stop," Silver confessed as they got out of the limo and stepped out onto the parking lot of a beach. It was a bit cold and the waves were louder than the people.
The only people there were a few vendors, who hadn't yet realized no one was going to come to a beach in the middle of fall. Even though Silver ate literally 40 minutes ago, his stomach chose to groan at the smell of hotdogs and corn on the cob.
He felt Nick's hand at the small of his back, leading him forward into the sand, "My house is right around that large rock-cliff. Let's get you something to eat before you're tempted to eat dog food."
"I'm actually not that hungry," Silver lied, even though his stomach said otherwise, "Maybe just a... slushy! Oh my god, I love slushies!" he pointed to the vendor man who stood there, contentedly.
Nick nodded and lead the smaller boy over. The vendor-man wore sunglasses, even though there was hardly a ray in sight. He had pale, grey-looking skin that patched in places it shouldn't. His sunglasses were so dark, Silver couldn't be sure if the man was looking at them or not. His apron was white and didn't have a single stain on it. Silver assumed they were his first customers.
"Hi, can I have coconut?" Silver asked, and the man slowly turned his head. He stared for a moment before nodding and getting to work.
It hardly took any time. The man scooped a bunch of coconut flavored slush into a cup and wrapped a napkin around it.
"How much?" Nick asked.
The man told the prince how much the prince handed it to him. Silver took the slushy gratefully and was about to lick it when it was snatched from his hand.
"Mind if I taste that first, darling?" He said, already slurping it without Silver's permission. The boy grimaced and let out a repulsed noise, right as Donald the butler finally caught up with them from the limo. He was ticking away on his blackberry phone still.
Silver reached for his snack but Nick held it up, away from his reach. He licked his lips skeptically and turned to the vendor man.
The vendor scooped up some coconut slushy with his big metal spoon and flicked a bunch of the stuff into the vampire prince's face. The coldness probably only threw him off him for only a moment, but that was enough time for the vendor man to book it at the speed of light. With unnatural speed, he was gone in about two seconds, flat.
Nick writhed, still standing. His fangs sprung out and he clutched his chest for dear life. He hissed, clinging on the nearest thing, which was Silver's shoulders.
"It's just slushy, dude. It's a little cold but-"
"Poison" he was able to hiss out. The Prince clutched his throat with one of his hands and grit his teeth in pain.
Realization dawned on Silver. "Oh my god! Oh my god, what do I do?" He kneeled over Nick hopelessly.
"He's fine," a hand landed on Silver's free shoulder. He looked over to see Donald grimacing at his Prince, "He's a vampire. He won't die, he just has to wait it out or-"
"I need blood," his head snapped up, and that's when Silver realized how close their faces were.
Nick's eyes glowed a deep gold and he breathed heavily, probably because it hurt. His breath smelled like coconut, but his cologne overtook Silver unbelievably and suddenly forgot why he was rejecting Prince Nick again.
Then he saw the prince's fangs. Oh right.
"No no no n-" Nick's head fell into the crook of his neck and Silver started to freak out, "No no no no n-"
"I'm not gonna bite you, Silver," He closed his eyes tightly, clearly in pain, "Don, take him somewhere safe, I need something to eat."
He didn't want to bit Silver. He actually didn't want to bite Silver.
Silver had heard him say over and over again how he didn't just go around biting people. Yet seeing Nick actually turning up the opportunity to bite Silver, considering drinking Silver's blood would probably really help him right now, as Silver asked him to struck something in him.
When Silver walked back into the car with Don, he suddenly felt very confused. If Nick, a super tall and handsome prince, really didn't wanna turn him into a vampire, why did he turn him down again?
Why did Silver even hate vampires? He suddenly couldn't remember.
But he would just keep this fact to himself, to save his pride.
***
Silver did not get to see the dogs nor the cats nor the bird nor any of the other animals. He didn't even see Nick for the next four hours.
Donald took Silver to a McDonald's because Silver was in the mood for some American food and felt too sick to eat the castle's gourmet meals. After he stopped trembling over his Big Mac, Donald took him on a few of his errands. Silver just sat through a few meetings and played on his phone until it died. He texted Klara and told her everything that happened.
To his surprise, she actually asked if the Prince was okay.
When he got back to his room, he found Nick sitting on his bed, "You're back!" He ran up to the prince and almost hugged him. Almost.
Nick gave him a lazy smile, "Actually you're back. I've been sitting here for an hour or two, waiting for you."
"Are you okay?" Silver chose to ignore the last thing he said and how creepy that was.
Nick ran a hair through his hair before answering with a large sigh, "I'm very tired. I ate like ten rats, not to mention catching them was gross."
"Why didn't you just come back here?" he asked.
The prince shook his head, "I needed blood fast, and I didn't want to attack a human."
"Why not? Isn't that what vampires do?" Silver rolled his eyes, "Not like you have a problem with biting people."
"I didn't bit you," He smirked, "But you're right. Biting, yeah I don't mind. But not killing people, Silver. I'm not a murderer." He grabbed Silver's shoulders with his strong, skinny fingers.
"You're a vampire, of course, you're a murder-ah!" Silver jumped when Nick's arms wrapped around him. Nick breathed heavily in Silver's ear. It actually took a whole minute for Silver to realize that the Prince was hugging him. He awkwardly patted Nick on the back.
"It still hurts," The prince said in a whisper.
"You should tell someo-"
"I don't want them to worry," he said calmly. He didn't sound like he was in pain. He sounded fine, albeit a bit tired, "Our little secret?"
"I'm sorry," was all Silver could say. It was Silver's fault he was poisoned, he probably realized it was poison and that's why he ate it.
"You should be," Nick let him go, "You couldn't come to meet my puppies. They're very cute; almost cuter than you,"
"I'm disappointed as well, believe me. I wanted to see your dogs," He assured the Prince. Nick grinned and opened his mouth to say something else right as Silver's cell-phone rang. It was Klara.
"Hello," he answered. Nick stared at him amused.
"Yo, Sil, how's the royal pain in the butt?" Nick narrowed his eyes and Silver laughed.
"Fine. Tired. But fine," he answered.
"Greeeeeat, so uh... how would you like to do something with me tonight?" the werewolf put on the voice she usually put on when she was avoiding saying something.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "That's very vague. Something like what?"
"I got invited to a party today and-
"Absolutely not," Silver didn't even let her finish.
"But Sil-"
"No, I'm definitely not going to some college party with a bunch of college kids, Kla- hey!" Silver's cell phone was suddenly yanked out of his own hand. Nick put the phone up to his own ear.
"Hi, Klara? This is Nick. Silver and I will be there... what time?... super... yeah yeah yeah...you have my number, right? awesome... cool... yeah, see ya," he said, and then hung up.
"How dare you!" Silver fumed, snatching his phone back. Nick wore a lop-sided grin.
"It'll be fun, and it'll be a great way to forget the scary stuff that happened today," Nick reasoned. Silver just shook his head.
"But you're exhausted. Not to mention you're the prince. You'll be noticeable!" Silver flicked the prince on the head, earning a wince.
"ow!" Nick half laughed, half flinched, "I'll change my hair, wear a hat, something I don't know. I go out all the time without people recognizing me. Most of the citizens have only ever seen me dressed like a prince."
"Yeah, but your face is all princely too," Silver pushed on, "You even look like you could be a prince just by the way you smile,"
"How so?"
"I- uh..." Silver felt his face heat up and he noticed Nick was smirking. Nick knew he was attractive and he definitely wanted Silver to say it. "Shut up. You're just obvious, and you know it."
Nick rolled his eyes and yawned "Well, we're going to that party, whether you like it or not. I just need a bit of rest before we leave though. It's in a few hours, at some beach house."
Silver crossed his arms and pouted, "Yeah whatever,"
"Would you mind if I napped here? I'm really am tired." Nick asked, already kicking off his shoes.
"Then where am I supposed to sit?" Silver crossed his arm.
"You could come to cuddle with me," Nick suggested, laying down under the covers of Silver's bed.
Silver blanched "I'd rather get bit by a vampire," he spun on his heel to go over to the armchair.
Nick just chuckled, "As long as that vampire is me."