The Vampire children followed me into the gardens. It was my favorite place in the whole palace. It was always so filled with magic and wonder. I needed magic and wonder right now.

I had the dagger that was strapped to my thigh, but against four of them, I didn’t stand a chance. Especially when I didn’t even know how to use said dagger.

“So where are you taking us, sunshine?” Damian asked me.

“I would prefer if you wouldn’t call me that and I’m taking you all to the gardens. It’s a beautiful place and one of my father’s biggest accomplishments. It has over 300 different plants and-“

The boy yawned. “So you’re going to bore us to death.”

I stood there, baffled. No one had ever treated me like that before. People didn’t interrupt me like that or challenge me. “Well, I, uh…that was very…That wasn’t very nice.” I said. I wanted to be polite, but this boy wanted my to take his head off.

The girl, Adrielle, glared at him and slapped his shoulder. “Behave.” She told him. “I’m so sorry about him. He’s a jerk with a brain he only uses to think about petty girls. Just ignore him.”

The younger boys snickered and I was tempted to as well, but that wouldn’t be polite of me. I didn’t need any of them going to my father and saying that I was rude to them. He would kill me.

“I just don’t want to listen to the boring things.” Damian argued.

I rolled me eyes. “Then don’t listen.” I said. I wasn’t going to let this guy just push me around. My father would understand.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Alright, sunshine. Continue your tour.”

I glared at him. I was going to strangle this boy.

I showed them through the gardens, the library, the chapel, the training grounds, the courtyard, and everywhere else that was safe for them to go into. We passed the Golden Room and Aspen tugged on my skirt. I turned to him. “Yes?” I asked.

“What’s in there?” He aksed me.

I grimaced. The Golden Room wasn’t safe for anyone. I only knew that it held something that was gifted to us by the Sun itself. “Nothing.” I replied.

Lucian got a dangerous glint in his eyes. There was something about him that I didn’t trust. He was too smart for his own good. He was dangerous.

So was his brother. Damian looked at me with a look that I also didn’t trust. It was scary. He looked like he wanted something, but he didn’t know it yet. It was intense. It was terrifying.

Adrielle was definitely a menace, but she was a smart menace. She wouldn’t hurt me. She wasn’t here for war. She was here and she was living in the moment. She could destroy all of us, but she wouldn’t.

Aspen was just a boy. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He was innocent. He was my sisters’ age. He was cute.

We ended back up at the gardens. “Well, that concludes our tour.” I said, smiling. I really wanted to get back to the party.

“Siblings, could you go back to the party. Me and sunshine over here need to talk.” Damian said. He stared at me without any emotion in his onyx eyes and I started to get worried.

I have a dagger. I have a dagger. I have a dagger. Somehow, that didn’t reassure me at all.

Adrielle looked at him with deadly eyes. She turned to me with a warning glance. She didn’t trust her own brother either. That wasn’t reassuring at all.

The other two left without a single look of confusion or fear. They just went back to the ballroom. They didn’t care at all.

I was on my own.

Once they were gone, I glared up at Damian. “Do you have a problem with me or something?” I snapped.

He gave me a cocky smirk. “That depends. Why are you acting nice to us even when you don’t trust us?” He asked me.

I was baffled. Again? This boy sure knew how to do that. “It’s called human decency. Maybe you should learn how to show it.” I rolled my eyes at him. Why did it offend him so much? Wouldn’t he like people to be nice to him? Wasn’t he used to it? He was a feared man. Didn’t people just show him respect everywhere he went?

“Well, sunshine, I don’t like people who are only nice to me because their daddies tell them to be.” He gave me a hard stare.

I rolled my eyes again. “That sounds like a you problem. Why does it matter to you anyway? You should appreciate the kindness that I know you considering who you are.” I snapped.

His face grew tired for a second. It was so quick that I thought I imagined it, but that look had been there. I had to have imagined it. The Heir to the House of Vampire didn’t get upset. “Everyone wants to judge, but no one wants to judge, huh?” He mumbled. “So you wanna play this game? Fine. I look forward to driving you insane.”

“What?” I was confused.

He just gave me a cocky smirk, his onyx eyes shining. “See ya, sunshine.”

Then he walked back into the light of the castle and I was left baffled in the gardens. Man, this guy was good at baffling me.