5

Jay's POV

I watched Kay as she gobbled up the packets of blood. Already, her wounds were starting to heal. As her powers grew and grew, her eyes began to flicker purple ever so slightly. Purple eyes are a sign of royalty.

'My guesses were correct. She really is the Lost Princess. It's amazing that I figured it out given the few clues I had; my influence doesn't work on her, she was somehow able to obtain a dark memory of mine (perhaps this is a unique ability of hers?), and her last name is Scarlet, the last name of the late King and Queen. Everyone, myself included, thought she was dead. Just what happened to her?' I pondered.

After a few moments of Kay relaxing on her bed, enjoying the blissful afterfeeling of her first feeding, her purple eyes fluttered open in my direction.

"So, what powers do I have?" Kay asked, cutting right to the chase. Her aura felt more confident than before, perfectly fitting for a princess.

"Well, if we're talking about basic vampire abilities, I can answer that. However, only you will be able to unlock your unique ability. It is unique to only you, so only you can figure it out." I smiled as Kay's eyes gleamed with curiosity. She looks excited about her newfound powers. "Anyways, the average vampire is typically stronger and faster than the average human. We mostly eat normal food just like humans do, but with the added entree of blood. The blood strengthens our abilities, so the more we consume, the powerful we get. Of course, there is a cap on each person's growth, depending on their genetics. I have yet to reach my cap, since I'm fairly young myself."

"How old are you?" Kay interrupted.

"If it were anyone else asking, that would be a rude question and I would be offended. But, since you are the Princess, I guess I must answer. I am 73 years old." I replied with hesitation.

Kay seemed disappointed in the answer, only nodding her head a little bit.

'That's it? She isn't shocked about my appearance? She doesn't have any questions about how I stay looking young? Ugh, perhaps if I were a century older she would be more amazed.' I thought.

"Moving on, you already know this one, but vampires heal at a very quick rate. The blood we drink provides us with power and added nutrients, so it only makes sense that we heal fast. That being said, our vampire biology is special, so if a human were to drink human blood, nothing would happen except maybe a stomache ache.

"Vampires can also influence people's minds. There are theories about why we can do this. I like to think of it similar to how a snake has venom. The snake uses the venom to paralyze, say, a mouse. I could do the same with my influence, forcing a human to stay still while I feed.

"The problem with influence is that it's already tricky enough to use on humans, so only the stronger or more skilled vampires would be able to use it against other vampires. Most vampires stay holed up in the Vampire City, so they never get the chance to practice using their influence. I have gotten quite good at it due to my own circumstances, so you can imagine my shock when it didn't work on you, especially since you seemed so... weak. No offense."

"No, it's okay. I am weak, I always have been. I guess now we know why." Kay giggled, taking no offense to my statement. It's a good thing she's so nice. If it were any other royal, my head would have been obliterated long before I even had the chance to say something like that, especially given my earlier rudeness.

"So, that's the gist of it. Speed, strength, and influence. You also have your unique abilities. Depending on your bloodline, you may have no unique abilities. Most vampires have at least one. You are a royal, so you're likely to have multiple, but only time will tell." I explained.

Kay nodded in silence, taking in all the information.

"So what's your unique ability? You can teleport, right?" Kay asked.

I smiled nervously. "It's not polite to ask other vampires their age or their abilities. Some of us tend to take advantage over others because they think they are weak, so they jump at the opportunity if they think it's a weak power. In other cases, a vampire would retaliate, assuming they are being called weak when asked such a question. They would then decide to prove their skills in order to not be publicly embarrassed." I replied.

"So do you think you're weak?" Kay asked.

"No! I am most definitely not weak. I'm just saying you should be careful. You're lucky you met me and not someone else, otherwise you would be scolded. I'm a nice guy, so I will let it slide."

Kay giggled. It was easy to tell what she was thinking. She thinks I'm embarrassed of my skills, but that's not at all what it is. I just don't trust her, so why should I lay my cards out on the table for her? After all, she is a royal. Even though her circumstances are different, she still has their blood coursing through her veins.

"I do have some other stuff I need to know." Kay said, straightening herself out to be serious. "What did you do to Sadie? She has false memories or something. Is that part of your influence?"

"Yes. I was actually planning to influence both of you, but your mind blocked my enterance. Sadie was easy to influence, especially since she has a weak mind. That girl will do what it takes to survive. She even considered leaving you to die while I was fighting that other vampire, but her body was too frightened to move. Why do you surround yourself with friends like that?"

"Shut up! Don't talk about Sadie like that. If I had to die in order for her to live, then fine! That guy was after me anyway, and besides, she didnt leave me, right?" Kay replied, sounding unsure at the end. She was unconscious, after all, so she didn't know what actually happened. She could only guess.

"Wait, did you said vampire?" Kay asked. "That was a vampire in my house? How did you even know about that, anyway?"

I sighed, and then explained to her the details of what had occurred at her apartment. I told her about how I wore a mask, fought the guy, and saved the two damsels in distress like a true gentleman.

"How did you know that guy was after us?" Kay asked.

"It's simple. He was following you all night at the bar. He was already on the run because he committed crimes in the Vampire City, so I was sent to take care of him. It was a very rewarding task, and I got paid quite a bit for that one. Whatever he did to piss them off, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes." I smirked, proud of my accomplishment. "It was just an added bonus that I got to save you and your friend. Actually, that was another crime he was committing. Vampires aren't allowed to hunt humans without a permit, and even then, there are strict rules in place. Chasing after you two was highly illegal, but I don't think you're ready to hear about those details just yet."

Kay pondered in silence for a moment before finally speaking. "He said something about how my misory tastes good? I don't remember exactly how he said it, but that waa what he implied. What was he talking about?"

"When humans are feeling despair, or any sort of negative emotions, it makes your blood addictive. It's like a drug, actually. Even then, vampires don't need to consume your blood to feed off your despair. Simply being near such strong emotions is empowering in itself. This is part of what made his actions illegal." I explained. "Even I could feel it when we were at the bar, though I don't typically enjoy those feelings. I figured if I stuck around you, the man would show up eventually. Unfortunately, you left before he or I could act, and I had to follow him, which led me to your home.

"After the whole incident, I was able to imfluence your friend's memories. She believes she went to the bar by herself, and she has no memory of me whatsoever. However, I was unable to access your mind. This whole time, even now, there is a clear barrier. Now that I know you're a vampire royal, it makes perfect sense. You simply just outclass me. At the time, though, I had no idea. You can imagine my annoyance when I had to wait 12 hours for you to wake up just so I could clean up my mess."

"Annoyed my ass! You didnt have to sit here, you could've just left me alone. I didn't even know what happened, anyway. All I remember is running away from that guy, Sadie peed her pants, and then I was out. I woke up with this weird thigh bruise and I thought he might've done something to me..."

Kay got quiet as she relived the trauma in her head. Her physical wounds may have healed, but a scar remained on her mind. I reached my hand out to hold hers in order to attempt to comfort her. It always hurts my heart to see a pretty girl in pain.

----

Kay's POV

I blushed when I felt the warmth of Jay's hand covering my hand. I thought vampires were supposed to be cold? Yet, his hand felt so warm. I pulled my hand away and glanced away, trying to regain my cool. My heart thumped louder and faster in my chest, causing me to hold onto my chest to try and control it. For some reason, it kept beating louder and harder, unwilling to stop.

"You know," Jay said softly, high eyes opened wide. "Vampires are also sensitive to senses. Our sight, smell, taste, hearing... even our sense of touch..."

My heart thumped louder after that sentence, something I didn't know was even possible. Does that mean he can hear my heartbeat? My face turned a darker shade of red than it did before.

"Agh!" I gasped, unable to breathe due to my heart rate increasing so much. The medical equpiment hooked monitering my body started beeping loudly, causing a medical team to rush in. At that moment, everything stopped, and Jay's eyes were light up red. Soon, the doctors unhooked me from the equipment and left the room.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked softly, careful not to disturb me further.

"I can't.. breathe..." I said, gasping for air.

"I'm sorry. I should've thought about how sensitive you would be after feeding. It isn't a problem for most vampires, but for those of us who have been starved, it's a powerful sensation to have your senses return to you. Even moreso for yourself, since you dont even remember the last time you fed, if you fed at all. This is all so new to you, I should be more careful with my actions." Jay apologized.

Jay walked me through the stwps to take deep breaths, and eventually my body started to calm down. He refrained from any sudden outbursts of touch, and spoke softly to the point where most humans wouldn't be able to understand what he was saying. I could hear him loud and clear, though, as my senses continued to heighten, only getting stronger.

"It's so strong." I said, scrunching my nose. "The smell of chemicals is everywhere. I can't breathe. It's only getting stronger, too."

"Your body isn't used to your power. We don't know what your limit is, and you drank a lot of blood in a short amount of time. Damnit, I should've made you pace yourself. This is my mistake. I can get you out of here if you want. We can go to my place. It's very vampire friendly." Jay said, still speaking softly.

"Take me anywhere, I just want to get out of here! I can hear people groaning in pain and I think someone just threw up. Please, I want to leave." I said, hunching over with my hands covering my ears. If it weren't for the giant cast on my leg, I would've curled up in a ball.

"Okay, I will be right back. I'm going to get you discharged, as well as remove your records from the hospital. You can tell Sadie you left with a friend so that she doesn't try to come back here.

I nodded and started to text Sadie through the cracked screen on my phone. Jay disappeared once again, doing whatever he had to in order to get me out of here. Once I sent the text to sadie, I relaxed my body fully onto the bed, lying down, taking in all my new senses. My head started to ache from all the stimulation, so I closed my eyes. After a moment, Jay teleported back to me.

"Princess, I've made the preparations for us to leave. Would you like me to carry you?" Jay asked.

"No, I'm healed now. I can walk," I said, pausing after looking at the cast still on my leg. "Actually... how do we get this thing off?"

"We can worry about that later. We must leave now, while my influence still works." Jay replied.

"Okay, carry me then." I said with my cheeks turning red.

Jay lifted me in his arms, carrying me like a princess. My cheeks were flushed red, and I felt my heartbeat thumping louder and faster. No, not just my own heartbeat. I felt and heard Jay's heartbeat also pumping. His was much more calm than mine, but it sped up slightly once he lifted me off the bed.

Suddenly, the room started to put itself back together as if it was preparing for a new patient. Once everything was complete, we vanished from the room.

I closed my eyes after getting a sense of vertigo, leaning my head onto Jay's chest to support myself. In doing this action, his heart thumped harder for a moment, but quickly slowed back down to how it was before. We appeared in a forest, the leaves of the trees thick enough to allow coverage from the sun.

"Wait, it's daytime!" I exclaimed. "Won't we die in the sunlight?"

Jay chuckled. "No, that's just a myth. It's true that vampires are creatures of the night, but that's just because our sensitive eyesight makes us uncomfortable in bright spaces."

"Oh," I said in response. I felt stupid for not thinking about it sooner, since it could've easily been my life on the line. Now that I've thought about it, though, it would make no sense for Jay to go outside with me, since he would've died too.

After walking through the forest for about 10 minutes, we approached a medium sized cabin. It was a beautiful sight to see. There was a large garden at the side, with chickens roaming around in a coop. The dark wood that built up the cabin looked like it was self built, but it somehow added to the charm of the place. There was a window in the top center where the roof was, leading into the attic. The door was made mostly of frosted glass, protecting the privacy of whoever was inside. Actually, most of the windows were made of frosted glass. The only window that was 100% clear was the attic. Just before I could ask about it, Jay walked me inside through the front door and sat me down on a sofa.

"So... now is the time when you take me to the cabin in the woods and you brutally murder me, using my body parts to make furniture." I half joked, hoping that wasn't actually the case. "I mean, I'm defenseless, stuck in a cast, and I have no idea where we are. I'm the perfect candidate for a murder victim."

"You should'e thought about that before agreeing to come to my house," Jay chuckled.

I glanced around the room, taking in my surroundings. It was mostly dark inside, complimented by a few light colored decorations here and there. The walls were the same dark wood as the outside, though they had a glossy shine to them. There were no electrical lights, only candles and oil lamps. There was a grand fireplace in the corner of the living room. In the kitchen within eyesight of where I sat on the sofa, I could see modern cooking appliances as well as a fridge, though the stove was a gas stove.

"Your home is so cozy." I said, relaxing further into the couch.

"Yeah, very vampire friendly, right?" Jay smiled.

I closed my eyes and took in my other senses. I could hear the chickens outside, as well as all the birds and critters of the forest. The sound was so vivid I could almost picture it.

The cabin smelled like vanilla and pine. I compared it to outside, which smelled like trees and wet dirt. Focusing more on my sense of smell, I noticed a familiar scent coming from the fridge. My eyes opened wide, and my body attempted to stand up on it's own.

"Oof!" I grunted and my body thudded to the floor. I completely forgot I still had that cast on. "I need to get this sfupid thing off..." I grumbled, prying at the edges of my cast. To my surprise, it began to break, thought the process was slow.

"Success! Now just a little more..." I mumbled as I strained all my arm muscles to rip the cast apart.

"You're going to hurt yourself. Allow me, Princess." Jay said, softly pulling my hands off the cast. He pulled on the cast, immediately ripping it in half. My leg was free, and I bent my knee a few times to stretch it out a bit.

That's when I noticed I was still wearing my hospital gown. My cheeks flushed red as I quickly covered myself with whatever part of the gown I could reach. Suddenly, black sweat pants and a grey t-shirt landed on my lap. It was oversized, since it was designed specifically for Jay. I looked up, and Jay had turned his face away in respect of my privacy.

"I'll leave you to get changed on your own. I will be outside with my chickens if you need me," Jay said, quickly walking towards the front door.

Once Jay was gone, I quickly got dressed onto the clothes, feeling a little naked without and bra or panties. It wasn't like I wasn't used to going commando, I did it all the time at home just to be comfortable. That being said, I never walked around wearing someone else's clothes, especially clothes belonging to a man I hardly know.

After dressing myself, I decided to explore the cabin a bit. The bathroom was the first room I found. after lighting an oil lamp, I checked myself out in the mirror. I looked like an absolute mess, my hair all tangled up and blood still caked onto my face and body. I quickly got undressed and decided to take a shower. All the soap products were man products, but it was comfy and I was dirty so I used them anyway.

Once I was cleaned up and dressed, I did my best to comb through my hair with my fingers, though nothing beats a real hairbrush. Digging through the drawers and cabinets, I found a wooden comb and decided to work with it. My hair had fully untangled, and I decided to braid it into two dutch braids.

I stepped out of the bathroom once I was finished, and continued on my exploration of the cabin. Leading up the stairs was a door, but it was locked. I decided to leave it alone for now.

I headed towards the kitchen, searching for a snack or maybe some juice. I remembered the smell from earlier, and quickly headed to the fridge. My eyes widened and a stupid grin plastered my face as I looked inside. There was a plate of homemade brownies on one of the shelves, covered in plastic wrap. I eagerly grabbed the plate, bringing it towards to counter to help myself to a bite.

Once I turned around, I almost dropped the plate as I jumped, startled, by the appearance of Jay. He chuckled, and took the brownies from me.

"Do you have a habit of raiding other people's refrigerators?" Jay asked.

"Yes, and I want those." I said, pointing at the brownies. "Please? Can I have one? I'm really hungry for some reason and they smell soooo good."

I could feel the saliva building up in my mouth just looking at the brownies. Even though they had been in the fridge, I could smell them as if they were freshly baked.

Jay sighed as he placed the brownies on the counter, allowing me to dig in.

"I could kiss you for this," I said with a mouthful of brownie. "I have the worst sweet tooth, you know."

"It's a vampire trait," Jay shrugged, taking a brownie for himself. "We are quite gluttonous. If it weren't for our quick metabolisms, we would all be obese."

I relished in another bite of my brownie, closing my eyes to fully focus on the taste. It was more powerful, and gave me quite the euphoric feeling. Nothing like the taste of blood, though. This was more like a child who had never tasted candy before, finally enjoying a lollipop for the first time.

"So," I said in between bites. "What do I do now? I don't want to go home, but I can't stay here forever. I have a job I need to go to, not to mention Sadie is probably worried sick about me. She knows I'm not at the hospital, but she also knows I don't have any friends, so it was strange for me to tell her I left the hospital with a friend."

I pulled my phone out to message Sadie, only to discover there was no internet connection. I frowned.

"We can head back to town if you'd like," Jay suggested. "Sadie won't recognize me, so you can just introduce me as a cousin or something."

"No, no. You're way too hot to be my cousin, that would be a total waste. Imagine the look on her face when I tell her you're my boyfriend." I said, laughing in my evil laugh. "No, I'm just kidding. I can't do that to you. My dorky presence would totally ruin your badass punky image. You could definitely do better than me."

Jay said nothing about my self deprecating comment, and instead focused his attention on his brownie.

"Why don't we just tell her that we're friends?" I suggested. "We met at the hospital and hit it off from there. It's not completely a lie, after all."

"Speaking of the hospital, your injuries are fully healed. She will be confused. We have to at least put your cast back on." Jay said.

"Can't we just do that mind influence thing?" I asked.

"No, I'm afraid it's not that simple. I've already influenced her too much. If I go any further, her mental state could collapse." Jay said.

"Oh. Yeah, we don't want that. But how do we get a new cast? We destroyed the other one." I said.

Jay snapped his fingers, and we teleported back to the couch. Immediately, the cast rewound itself back onto my leg and looked the same as it did before we took it off. It was an easy process, especially considering the sweatpants were baggy enough to bunch up out of the way.

"Wow, it's like magic." I said.

"It basically is magic." Jay responded. "I mean, I don't know what else we could call it."

"One thing though, I need crutches. I can't walk on my own like this, and you can't just carry me everywhere. That would be embarrassing for me." I explained.

Jay snapped his fingers, and a pair of crutches appeared in front of me. I smiled, thanked him, and started to practice using the crutches. It was pretty straight forwards, and since I didn't actually have an injury, I could use them to walk easily.

"I can't keep using my powers on you. My energy is draining. Besides, we can't just teleport out in public. We'll have to take my car." Jay stated.

"You have a car?" I asked. "But I didn't see one when we arrived here."

"It's in the garage." Jay smiled, and we teleported away.

I felt my head spinning in a state of vertigo. I closed my eyes to try and alleviate it, but it only made it worse. Once I opened my eyes, I landed on the ground of a car park, immediately vomiting onto the ground.

"Ugh, warn me next time you do that!" I shouted.

"My apologies, Princess. I didn't realize it would effect you so drastically. This didn't happen last time." Jay said as he pulled my braids out of my face while I threw up.

"I almost did throw up last time, too. I just held it in because it would be embarrassing to throw up all over you." I said, still shaking from the vertigo. "Ugh, what a waste of a good brownie."

I wiped my face and used my crutches to stand up. Glancing around, I could see a number of cars parked in what looked like a private garage.

"Woah, are all of these yours?" I asked in amazement.

"No, but I am acquainted with the owners of the other vehicles. This one right here is mine." Jay said as he walked to a large burgundy truck.

"How the hell am I supposed to jump into that thing with this cast on my leg?" I mumbled, staring at the gorgeous truck in awe.

"Allow me, Princess." Jay said with a bow, opening the passenger door. He reached out a hand to help me up into the truck. I accepted, and he gracefully lifted me into the seat. After putting the crutches in the trunk and closing the truckbed cover, he hopped into the driver's seat and started the engine.

"I think this is the most expensive car I've ever been in." I muttered.

"It's not a car. It's a truck." Jay corrected.

"Whatever."