The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 1: Chapter 9

Reclining on my chaise, I considered the conflict between Jamie and myself. Perhaps I was taking my little games too far. Upon my orders, Leif only had him standing around for a couple of hours in the morning and evening, but still, it might have been counterproductive.

I would deliberately walk past him once or twice a day. Every time, he was standing leaning against the wall, glaring straight ahead, as if he had taken my statue comment literally.

It was troublesome. I had decided on this as a task for him on a whim and now there was no way to stop him without looking like I was backing down.

We were in a stalemate and I would simply have to wait until something broke it. Maybe he would flip over the board, because I was not going to be the first to give in.

This whole matter was not going as per usual as well. Perhaps I was losing my human taming touch.

Or, perhaps I was just too invested, because I could not stop myself from admiring him and loving the way he refused to give in to me, even when he did what I said with that sulky, loathing gaze in those pensive dark eyes. My mind was clearly warped, because his hatred only made me want to push him further.

I exhaled in a memory of what it felt like to need to breathe and leaned further back.

He was such a problem. I could simply kill him and no one important would bat an eye about a dead human. Even though they tittered about my treatment of humans, surely no one would notice another slave death report in amongst so many.

Still, the idea was completely fanciful either way. I was not going to kill him. I wanted him to live as long as humanly possible since I was already entranced with the entertainment I gleaned from riling him up. It was better than blood, which was something I never thought I would honestly say, and was almost certainly a bad sign.

I could not afford to lose my edge. Everything was going perfectly. I was at the very top. I had power like no one else. I was in the position to make all my desires come true. Letting one little human trip me up, especially now, would be the most idiotic move of my life.

My wisest course was probably to stay away from him as much as possible until he was out of my mind, wean myself off the rush of being challenged slowly, then simply have him dumped out in the wilderness somewhere.

It was illegal to intentionally release a human. But, although the registration had already been sent in, I had not forced the branding issue yet, so even if he was caught again they probably would not identify him as feeder number 56 817. I should be in the clear. There was no way Enrique would remember him out of the thousands of humans in his mind and it was unlikely anyone else would, either, even though he was a treat.

Where would he end up if that happened? I was surprisingly infuriated at the possibility of another vampire getting their fangs into him.

I generally did not actually like other vampires near any of my humans, let alone Jamie. I did not like sharing.

Footsteps sounded in the hall outside my chamber.

"Open it," I instructed the guards.

Theo walked in. I admired him, with light brown skin, dark eyes and hair; he was as handsome as ever, even slightly frazzled as he currently was. His glasses were slightly askew. It was rather charming.

"What is it?" I asked.

He answered as he straightened his glasses. "There's a visitor."

As much as I enjoyed playing with the council members in the capital, I strongly disliked trespassers.