|Chapter 9|

                                    

                                          
"Your blood is sweeter than anyone else's in the world, I can hardly ever imagine encountering someone better than you." Niklaus whispers, his warm breath tickling my ear. 
"Then drink your fill." 
I kept telling myself that this was just for me to get his trust and have his guard down and yet, for some reason, my heart is racing. It's as if I want my blood to get sucked. "Is that what you want?" He asked as if he could read my mind, I paused for a moment. 
"It is...If I am able to help and heal you." This would help me kill him, but sitting here with him I felt something, sympathy, pity?  
Niklaus's wounds were deep...Could I really say that I didn't want to heal him, at all? "If it is what you desire as well..." Niklaus embraced me, pulling me as close as he could, placing his head into the crook of my neck. 
His arms were surprisingly gentle, a grip which I could easily escape at any time. He could have just forced me. That would have been easier to hate him. To see him as the Blood King, the enemy to humanity...
"I hope I can keep control of myself." He whispered into my ear in a low, soft voice. The sweet breath that hit my ear made me shiver. Right when he touched my scar, I could hear his breath halt as if he hesitated for a moment. 
"What's wrong?"
Niklaus didn't answer instead, he sank his fangs on the other side of my neck. 
Waves of pleasure spread throughout my body, a tingling sensation hitting my spine. I moaned as I was struck with a powerful daze and almost clung to Nklaus's arm but when I saw the wound on his arm, I quickly restrained myself.
Niklaus pulled his fangs out and spoke through labored breaths. "Grab it if you want too."
"But it'll hurt if I do.."
"That will make us even...I don't mind you doing it." After those sweet words, he resumed sucking my blood. Lust lit a fire in my mind, and I grabbed Niklaus's arm on impulse. 
He must have felt some kind of pain, but he made no signs of brushing off my hands. Instead, he gently stroked my hair. Every move he made ruined me. I gathered up what little control of myself I could and bit my lip, not trying to let out another embarrassing sound. 
"There's pleasure in your voice, even though you're always so calm. You always make me lose control." Passion and pleasure leaked from his hoarse voice.
I found Niklaus's hands under my silk shirt, his cold fingers caressing the skin underneath slowly going up to their target. I took in a sharp breath and slightly arch my back as he twisted and pulled while he went back to sucking my blood. Unable to endure the sweet aching assailing me, I lost myself to the bliss I felt. 
The lustful waves receded when Niklaus finished drinking. Niklaus peered at my face, and I dreamily turned my eyes to his, my mind still in a haze. "What?" Without answering my question, Niklaus reached out from my shirt. The vampire then gently moved me to the side, setting me down on the bed before he got up and disappeared into the bathroom for a moment. When he came back, Niklaus held a new seal, placing it on my new bite mark before fixing my shirt. His movements were gentle, as if we were two lovers. 
"A caring Blood King...There aren't any storybooks that talk about the Blood King like that." I say, watching as he fixes me up a bit. "I'm just cleaning up." 
"You could just let your servants do it, or leave it to me...You're quite different from what I imagined." I tell him honestly. "Is that a pleasant surprise?" He asks, looking right at me. That question was surprising too. Instead of answering, I took his previously wounded arm in my hands. 
"It healed up quite nicely. That's good to see.." 
"Indeed." He nodded and didn't push for an answer. 
______
Next day, after enjoying my usual delicious breakfast, I decided to take a stroll in the courtyard. I glanced around as I walked, looking at the beautiful red roses that thrived."Good grief.." I heard a whisper from the other side of the hedge. 
"How long does the King intend to let that Dhampir in and out of the castle?" 
"But what's more concerning is how he treats that livestock." Another voice spoke up.
"He treats him as if a guest..Does he know what position the Blood King entitles?" They're talking about me and Matthew...I was impressed at how talented the servants here were, but I suppose not everyone's the same.
"Mika! Lovely weather, won't you say?" Hearing the man that they whispered and gossiped about sent the servants scurrying away. "Looks like we're both in pretty tough spots!" 
"You heard all of that?" I asked, surprised.
"I overheard the darndest things, you see." Matthew was all smiles despite what we heard. "It's one thing for the people in the castle to talk bad about a human like me, but for you to get dragged in too.." 
"Dhampir are kinda caught in between, but I don't really mind, though, people who have to hide from the sun can say whatever they want about me." Matthew laughed it off, but he must have still felt conflicted at what was said. 
"When it comes to something as ridiculous as discrimination, vampires and humans are not that different after all, huh." Not even my sardonic mutter could break Matthew's bright smile.