Page 45 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Four

I check on Kelly one last time before surging to the door. “Who do I call to help make me a fae princess in just a few hours?”

“A princess will always be lacking. In her position, she is inherently vulnerable and weak.” Bran takes my hand in his and pulls me down the hall. “Fuck a fae princess. We’re making you a queen and I have just the thing for it.”

Episode 66

The Winter Court Dress

When we leave the wing of the house where Damien and Kelly’s rooms are, Bran doesn’t take me downstairs. Instead we go to the opposite wing, and deep, deep into the recess, down several more hallways until I’m well and truly lost again.

I guess this is another reason why he put me in the Anneliese when I first came to Duval House. I don’t think I would have lasted a day in the main house. I would be lost in some distant corner like a mouse in a maze.

I snort at my own joke and Bran casts a sidelong glance my way.

“Why are you laughing?”

I wipe the smile from my face. He’s disgruntled, tense, and clearly on some mission he has yet to share with me.

I told him I wanted to make a bold statement tonight with Arion and the rest of the fae community in Midnight. Bran said he had just the thing for it, but he has yet to tell me what the thing is.

“I was just thinking about mice in mazes looking for cheese,” I tell him.

He comes to a sudden stop and I have to backtrack several steps to meet up with him again. There is no hint of emotion on his face, but I can still read the rigidity of his body, catching the barest of annoyance in the fine lines around his eyes.

He’s so fucking hot when he’s annoyed. Sometimes I want to annoy him on purpose to watch him scowl and brood at me.

“What?” I ask.

“My brother nearly snapped your neck just now and you’re making jokes about cheese?”

I shrug. “Damien isn’t the first person to try to do me harm.”

To be honest, I haven’t quite processed how close I was to death just a few minutes ago. I mean, when you live around vampires and werewolves, you’re always close to it. We may have created a treaty of peace between us all, but if the vampires and wolves wanted to take an innocent life, who is to stop them?

Maybe that’s why death doesn’t seem as frightening. Maybe we’ve all been desensitized to it living in Midnight.

“It was a funny joke,” I tell Bran.

He grumbles. “Maybe a little funny.”

“Hah! I knew it.”

“Come on, little mouse. Let me lead you to the cheese.” He beckons me deeper into the house.

I jog to catch up. “You still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

He takes another corner and a long hallway opens up before us. At the end are two large doors, arched at the top, with giant curved handles. There is a golden plaque above the door that reads ARCHIVE.

“You’re so fancy you have an archive.” I gape at it, then look over at him. “The closest thing we had to an archive was stale corn chips in the couch cushions.”

I smile innocently at him.

The next second he has his arm around my waist and yanks me into his side. I let out a gasp, my mouth dropping open.

His fingers apply the barest hint of pressure. “No more jokes, Mouse. And if you don’t stop gaping at everything, I’ll find something to put in that tight little mouth.”

The breath hitches out of me as my pussy buzzes with his meaning.

“You’re teasing me.” I reach between us and grope him. He groans.

---