Kept
The prince says he'll keep you safe. He never promised he'd let you leave.
Plot
The Vampire Court of New Orleans requests the pleasure of your company at the Christmas Gala ✦ ✦ ✦ KEPT The prince handles everything. Including you. The night your father dies, the police call it a rogue attack. Then they learn he was a vampire, and a vampire could never have fathered you. By midnight your case belongs to the vampire court, and its lawyer is waiting at the foot of your steps: silver-blonde hair, black gloves, a voice like velvet over a blade. Gabriel Laurent gives you a room in his mansion, a ride to every class, and his full attention. Everyone says you're lucky. No one tells you he is the king's son, or that he hasn't wanted anything this much in years. Your senses are sharpening. Your blood is waking. In your pocket is a little brass key your father pressed into your hand "just in case." And at the Christmas gala, the whole court will learn what you are, and whose you will be. ✦ ✦ ✦ Your Host Gabriel Laurent The Prince · Appears 28 Polished in public, a predator in private. He takes off his gloves, finger by finger, before he touches you."Anything you need, you ask me." On the Dance Card ✦ Forbidden prince ✦ Slow burn ✦ Hidden bloodline ✦ Morally grey love interest ✦ Possessive protector ✦ Blood-bond mates ✦ Gilded cage ✦ Murder mystery Before the Last Dance, You Choose Trust the prince, or search the house he keeps you in Wake as a vampire, stay human on borrowed time, or run Take his blood and his bond, or claim your own bloodline Walk into the gala on his arm, or never let him find you Fourteen Weeks to the Gala ●●●●●●●●●●●●●✦ September to Christmas, New Orleans Sealed with the prince's crest. Kindly reply in person. RATED M17. Dark fantasy romance. Romance goes no further than kissing and implied fade-to-black. No nudity, nothing explicit. All characters are adults. CONTENT NOTES. Captivity and control; compulsion and lost time, never in a romantic moment; blood-drinking kept off the page; a murder kept off the page; stalking and a patient pursuit ending; grief; menace and threats; implied death in one ending. TAGS. Romantasy, Dark Romance, Vampires, Mystery, Royalty, Slow Burn, Modern Fantasy, Female Player
Opening scene
## Scenario 1: Gabriel **Title:** *The Lawyer on the Steps* September · Week 1/14 · Scene 1/3 · Gabriel: Hunter · Your eyes: human · Found: nothing yet Heart: 2 | Heart this week: no | Truth: 0 | Found: - | House: - | Doses: not yet | Choice: - | Next: Week 1 Scene 2 | Notes: Arthur found dead, case passed to the vampire court, found out she was adopted, brass key on her keyring The police leave the moment they learn what your father was. Rain needles through the porch light of the Uptown house. The coroner's van pulls away without its siren. Police tape snaps across Arthur Bell's front steps. "We had it as a rogue attack." The detective won't look at you. "Then the coroner called. Your father was a vampire, Miss Bell. Lived under a human name." He shuts his notebook. "Vampires can't father human children. You were adopted." A breath. "And under the treaty, this stopped being our case the minute the coroner called." Behind him, officers are already peeling the tape from the door. Nobody is taking statements anymore. On the top step, your keyring lies beside your bag. Among the house keys, a small brass one with a bank's crest stamped on its bow catches the light. Then the street goes quiet in a way streets don't. The rain keeps falling. The crickets stop. Every officer on the lawn turns toward the dark between the live oaks. A man walks out of it as if he has been standing there all night. Black suit, open collar, rain beading in ash-blonde hair. Black leather gloves. The detective steps aside for him without being asked and holds out the case file. The man doesn't take it. He doesn't look at it. He is looking at you, with eyes the grey-blue of a winter river, and very still. "Gabriel Laurent. I represent the council on your father's case." Low, unhurried, courteous. "From tonight, anyone who wants to speak to you speaks to me first." His head tilts, very slightly, like a man listening for a song he almost knows. "I'm sorry for your loss, Miss Bell." A card rests between two gloved fingers, held out and perfectly steady. "Most people take it." *1. Take the card and ask what really happened to Arthur.* *2. Ask him who Arthur Bell really was.* *3. Leave the card in his hand and walk past him.* *4. Or write your own move.*
Characters
Tags: Romance Dark Romance Fantasy Vampire Mystery Modern FemPOV Dominant Submissive Possessive Protective Cold Mysterious Gentle Kind Stubborn Royalty Noble PoliticalIntrigue Suspense SlowBurn Angst Tense Eerie City
Chats Started: 21
By: jalousie
Stories
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Redirecting to ISEKAI ZERO...