Captured by the vampire.., p.1
Captured by the Vampire Prince: Enemies to Lovers Dark Fantasy Romance, page 1
Captured by the Vampire Prince
Enemies to Lovers Dark Fantasy Romance
Royal Vampires Book 3
Electra Cage
Copyright © 2022 by Electra Cage.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1 - Tatiana
Chapter 2 - Nikolas
Chapter 3 - Tatiana
Chapter 4 - Nikolas
Chapter 5 - Tatiana
Chapter 6 - Nikolas
Chapter 7 - Tatiana
Chapter 8 - Nikolas
Chapter 9 - Tatiana
Chapter 10 - Nikolas
Chapter 11 - Tatiana
Epilogue - Nikolas
About the Author
Books by Electra Cage
Chapter 1 - Tatiana
Moonlight glittered in the sky, draping shadows and milky light over the pathway between the compound and the snow-brushed forest of towering pines beyond. Tatiana perched on the flat roof of the dilapidated building, her sensitive ears prickling at the sound of feet crunching on frozen snow.
Vampires were mostly silent. They moved like hunting predators even when not on guard, and still, Tatiana heard him long before she spotted the shadowy figure gliding along the path. However, that was how it usually went. Her keen senses were one of the reasons she was caught in this tricky situation in the first place.
She ducked her head, sucking in a deep breath to slow her breathing and heart rate, to become indiscernible even to the most powerful supernatural senses. Like this, there was no way the vampire could detect her.
Vampires moved fast. Tatiana hardly had a second to flick the silver dagger from the hidden compartment in her sleeve before the vampire was within range.
Male. He looked like a human in his mid-20s, so he had to be at least 100 years old. Young for a vampire. Younger vamps were always the trickier ones.
All these thoughts flew through Tatiana’s mind as she silently launched herself from the rooftop. She sailed through the air with her blade poised to stab straight into the vamp’s heart. An enchanted blade penetrating the pericardial cavity was the only sure way to kill a vamp without magic.
Tatiana was a whisper in the wind. Silent as a gliding bird. The vamp didn’t so much as flinch or stray from his course as she pounced on him.
Right until the hair’s breadth of time before her blade would have pierced him.
Flesh turned to ash and smoke. Her blade jabbed into nothingness, sending Tatiana reeling forward, rolling through the cloud, and landing in the snow. Crystals crunched as she rolled and turned in time to watch the diffusing smoke whirl around her like a snake, solidifying into a vampire again two feet away.
He struck out. Elongated claws whipped toward Tatiana’s face, two of them biting into her cheek as she leaned to dodge away. With a hiss, she redirected her momentum into a whirling kick toward the vampire’s shin.
His legs evaporated into smoke, and Tatiana threw herself into the snow. She landed with a crunch, rolled, and was covered in a layer of ice. She held on to her blade with a white-knuckle grip, but her arm was twisted beneath her during the scuffle.
The vampire laughed. “You’re off your game today, Tattafae.”
Tatiana bared her teeth. She hated that nickname. Argyle came up with it to mock her half-fae blood. The best assassins were full-blooded fae. Everyone said so. The only reason she could call herself a Nightblade was because the Commissioner took pity on her. Everyone said so.
They didn’t say that when her blade was pressed against their throat.
But they liked to whisper it behind her back.
Argyle was the only one who dared to say it to her face. He knew intimately just how much it pissed her off.
She sensed Argyle, the vampire, hovering close to her crumpled form. He reached for her with his clawed hands, but Tatiana sprung up to meet him first. Her blade met his razor-sharp claws, clashing with her dagger like a powerful sword. Sparks flew, and he narrowed his eyes at her as he strained to shove her back into the snow.
“I can hear your heartbeat. Tut-tut, Tattafae. Where is your head today?” Argyle grunted, and with one last shove, he used his enhanced strength to push her into the snowbank. He shoved a knee into her abdomen and held her down. “You’re done. Surrender.”
Tatiana pursed her lips. She still had her dagger in hand. If she was fast, she could cut him at the same time as he marked her throat, and the training session would end up as a tie. Just as Argyle had not been in any real danger when she pounced on him from above—she would have diverted her blade last second just to slice his flesh rather than piercing him—Tatiana was not in any life-threatening danger now.
But she’d lost this exercise. She had to strike him before they ended up in combat. As fast as she was, Argyle was faster. She rarely stood a chance after she missed her first strike.
“I surrender,” Tatiana said placidly.
Disappointment whirled in Argyle’s dark eyes. “It’s unlike you to give in so easily. Even less like you to lose at all ….”
Argyle’s deadly nails caressed her slender throat. She shivered in disgust but didn’t dare move for the risk of him splitting her skin. This close, he could smell her blood, even through her skin. Craved it. The tamed vampire that Argyle was, that didn’t mean he didn’t long to plunge his fangs into her throat.
Most Nightblades thought that Argyle was completely prohibited from feeding. It was a well-guarded secret that the Commissioner reserved that punishment for the Nightblades’ worst offenses.
Tatiana would know. The Commissioner had personally seen to it that Argyle got a taste for her blood after her first escape attempt from the organization.
“… It’s almost like you crave me as I crave you …” Argyle’s fangs were dangerously close to Tatiana’s throat but moving even an inch would give him the chance to gouge her throat out. “Did you lose on purpose to tempt me?”
Tatiana gripped her knife tighter. “H-he would know you took from me without permission.”
Argyle laughed.
They both knew the Commissioner wouldn’t care.
The Commissioner threatened Tatiana with Argyle’s bloodlust often. He even used to let Argyle feed off her for lesser offenses because it was dangerous for Tatiana, one of their best assassins, to have any thoughts of freedom. That might give the others bad ideas, after all.
“His only regret would be that he was not in the room to witness what my bite does to you,” Argyle hissed against her neck. “You lost. Your blood is mine to claim … and mmm, what a glorious prize it would be.”
“H-how did you manage it? How did you detect me?”
“As I said, you’re off your game today. I smelled you from a mile away.”
She bared her teeth. “You let me believe I’d gone unnoticed.”
“Of course I did. Perhaps we haven’t trained together in a while, but I never walk away from an easy win, especially against someone with a reputation like yours.”
Argyle chuckled and pressed his weight down against her. His nails scraped at her throat, not quite breaking the skin. His hot breath lingered on the side of her neck. Tatiana willed her pulse to still and go slow. To show that she wasn’t afraid of him.
But she couldn’t. Her blood wouldn’t obey.
She couldn’t even hide the fact that she was terrified of herself. Fuck, how had she been so stupid?
These past years, Tatiana had made it her mission to be good and obedient. The very best of the best. So flawless they couldn’t find anything about her worth punishing her over. She fought her fucking hardest. She never talked back. Never thought of being free.
She’d stifled that flame, that dream, because she realized just how futile it was. Believing she could ever be free when the Commissioner and the Nightblades were all she had. All she would ever have.
Despite only being half-fae amongst an organization of pure-blooded assassins, she was the best of the best. They could mock her all they wanted. The other Nightblades didn’t faze her anymore.
Tatiana had come to realize that they all had their place. The Commissioner found a purpose for all of them, the humans, the fae, and little old Tatiana, too.
Argyle’s lips brushed the side of Tatiana’s neck, and she shuddered. He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and then finally drew back to look at her with a pointed glare. “You’re lucky. The Commissioner has explicit orders not to touch you today. He only threw me in your path because he has a special task in mind and needs you at your very best. He sent me to see if you were ready.”
He paused, and Tatiana knew what that pause meant as soon as his eyes swept across her body to the thin white bodysuit that helped her blend into the snow. Desire lit up in his otherwise emotionless expression, his eyes hooded with want.
“Unfortunately, it seems you’ve yet to recover from your recent … incident.” Argyle’s eyes crinkled with sick glee. “If I report your failure to him, you know what he’ll do, don’t you?”
Tatiana closed her eyes. She’d sink into the snow and disappear forever
It was far worse than having Argyle drink her blood, that was for sure.
Female assassins who survived to retirement didn’t get to live the rest of their lives in luxury. As soon as their performance slipped, all previous hotshots were taken from active duty and thrown into the breeding pits to make more assassins.
Her stomach twisted into knots at the thought. With the pressure Argyle was applying to her, she thought she might be sick.
“Oh, don’t look so green, Tattafae,” Argyle cooed while he caressed her cheek with a sharp nail. “You’ve had a good run of it, haven’t you? You’re younger than most retirements, true … but your skill is uncanny. The Commissioner will make sure you live long enough to produce the next generation of Nightblades.”
Argyle’s claw slid down her throat toward her collarbone, cutting through the white fabric between her breasts to reveal the pale skin beneath. The knife in her hand felt heavy with importance. She’d surrendered the fight, but she hadn’t yet lost. This wouldn’t be her end.
“I hear an offer in that disgusting explanation of yours,” Tatiana grated. “What do you want?”
“You’re too valuable to the Commissioner to offer to a lowly soldier like me.” Argyle licked his lips as he tore the fabric down toward her stomach and navel. Her bodysuit was shredded, and the unrelenting cold spilled in. “He carefully preserved your innocence to cultivate you as the best breeding stock.” His nail cut past Tatiana’s belly button, and she shivered with despair as he moved lower, indicating exactly what he wanted from her. “Give me your virginity. Now. And I’ll be sure to put in a good word with the Commissioner.”
Tatiana spat in his face. Argyle jerked away, then she jabbed her blade up into his side. There was a satisfying puncturing sound as the dagger dug into his flesh and then slid out. “Keep dreaming, you fucking pig.”
“Bitch.” Argyle slapped a hand against his side to stem the blood gushing from his wound, and Tatiana used the opportunity to slither out from under him. “You could have made an easy trade for a sweet gig and security once you’re too old and worn out to keep killing.”
Tatiana used one arm to keep her bodysuit from falling off and revealing her naked body to him. He’d humiliated her enough already. The last thing she wanted to do was give him more fap material for later.
Slinking away, Tatiana kept in a low crouch, her blade extended. “I’d rather die on duty than spend the rest of my days warming your bed.”
“It’s not my fault you fucked up and lost this match. I could demand you, now that I’ve beaten you and proven you’re no good in the field.”
Tatiana gestured to the blood painting the snow beneath Argyle’s kneeling form. Already it had frozen over and crystallized in the extreme cold. “What are you talking about, Argyle?” She pasted on her sweetest, most innocent smile. “I drew first blood. I didn’t lose at all.”
“You surrendered! You lost!”
“Would you let your enemy in the field surrender and not take away their weapon anyway? Maybe you’re the one who needs to be sent to the breeding pen.”
“You little—”
Argyle’s snarl was cut short by a sickening crack reverberating through his body. Even Tatiana flinched as the anti-aggression spell cursed onto his flesh and stopped him from ripping her apart on the spot.
It wasn’t the first time Tatiana had seen the magic work its torment on the vampire, and it wasn’t the first time that she didn’t feel sorry for the fucker, either.
“Aw, poor little vampire pet forgot that he’s not as powerful as he likes to think he is,” Tatiana said. “Looks like your master still has you on a tight leash after all this time. Wonder what that spell would do to you if you tried to take from me what isn’t yours?”
She wasn’t sure if the Commissioner would have cursed Argyle so he couldn’t fuck anyone without permission. Still, she knew how deliberate the commissioner was about keeping his female Nightblades pure. She figured that if Argyle had given the wrong cue, he would have been killed by the curse on the spot.
It was hard to feel any sympathy toward him after everything he’d put her through ever since she was a child, and she’d been groomed as a Nightblade. He’d earned his pain and suffering. Unlike Tatiana, Argyle had chosen to join the Commissioner’s organization dedicated to destroying the vampires’ stranglehold on Elysium and five of its six kingdoms. He was one of the very few traitors to his kind.
The smartest thing the Commissioner had ever done was decide not to trust any vampires who defected from their positions of power. They had so much power throughout the land. Even those vampires who were considered to be peasants. What reason could someone like Argyle have to give that up?
Tatiana wiped the blood off her blade in the snow, then carefully slid it back into its hidden sheath. The blade was so thin and lightweight that once it was against her arm again, she could hardly feel it was there.
After a few moments of agonizing pain, Argyle collapsed into the snow in a panting heap. The snow was stained with his blood, but as a vampire, although the wound was far from fatal, it would hurt like a bitch until his natural healing kicked in.
Beating Argyle had been a close call. “I guess I should be thanking you,” Tatiana admitted. “Had you been thinking with your head and not your dick, I’d be headed to the breeding pens by now. Now I have this special mission to look forward to, hmm? I wonder what it’s about?”
Despite being in insufferable pain, Argyle laughed, although the disturbing sound was interrupted by a coughing fit where he spat out a glob of phlegm into the snow.
“I’m not sorry to say it’s a suicide mission,” he said while maintaining his laughter. “I hope you get retired, bitch.”
Tatiana pursed her lips and started to walk away, back toward the secret entrance to the Nightblades’ hideout, which lay a few hours away. There was only one thing she could think of that was possibly worse than being retired or touched by Argyle: turning into an old, bitter, disgusting vampire like him.
The hike would be more than enough time for her to think about everything Argyle had told her and too long to avoid the inevitable twist of worry in her gut, wondering if he was right to make her worried.
What did the Commissioner want from her?
***
The Commissioner’s office was like a dark cathedral with its high ceilings, wide open space, and the tall, stained-glass window that towered over Tatiana from the other side of the room. She took confident strides toward the mahogany desk situated directly below the angular window, sitting in the streak of dawn that cut through the sky above.
The Nightblade compound was underground. The Commissioner’s office was at the highest peak, claiming a monopoly on the only place where they could get sun or moonlight underground.
He sat at his desk, hands steepled neatly on the polished surface. He wore a bloodred mask to hide his face from her, as he always did. No one had seen his face before, at least not anyone that had lived to tell the tale.
Expectation hung heavy in the air, and Tatiana let it guide her to her knees when she neared the Commissioner’s desk. “Your lordship,” she called out, keeping her voice crisp, steady, confident. “I bested Argyle in our training exercise. I am ready for my next mission.”
The silence was deafening. Tatiana controlled her breathing, keeping her gaze trained on the crimson carpet. She wouldn’t show any sign of weakness or uncertainty, not when the consequences would be so dire.
At last, the Commissioner’s chair creaked when he leaned forward to get a better look at her. Untamed wisps of Tatiana’s auburn hair curled around her shoulders and face, a veil between her and the monstrous man who controlled every aspect of her life.
“I’m surprised,” was all he said.
Tatiana swallowed. Not exactly the pleased, warm welcome back into the ranks of the forgiven that she was hoping for. Shit, had Argyle been on to something when he said that the Commissioner was about to send her on a suicide mission?
For the first time in months, Tatiana wondered if she should have chanced it, made a run for one of the vampire kingdoms, and taken her chances evading vampire authorities and the Nightblades the Commissioner would inevitably send after her.
