The Vampire King’s Captive

MARIA

Maria supposed she should be glad that she was not going to be sleeping out there underneath trees or in between grasses where anything could get to her, but her other option wasn’t that great either.

She couldn’t see anything inside the cave because of how dark it was. How the hell were they even going to find their way inside, not to talk about spending the entire night sleeping here?

Her captor took note of the fact that she was stalling at the entrance-which was funny considering how she’d walked ahead of him until they reached the cave-and walked into the darkness. She spied two stones in his hand and although she didn’t quite remember him picking them up, she said nothing about it.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to follow him or not because of the darkness, but it was not like she could continue standing there so she decided to push her fears to the back of her mind and walk closely behind him.

Maria couldn’t explain how much she hated the dark. She’d been stuck in it both physically and mentally all her life and it was only recently that she’d started glimpsing outside it. She hated that she was now going to have to sleep in this dark place.

What if she stepped on a scorpion?

Her toes took that exact moment to connect with something on the cold stone floor and she almost jumped up in the air, letting out a yelp. Her heart raced in her chest and after forcibly calming herself, she poked at the thing again with her heart in her throat, and realised that it was just an elevated part of the cave.

She sighed out in relief.

Unlike Bran who was wearing a boot, she had not been wearing any footwear when he’d traced with her out of the castle so she was barefooted and that made her worry extra about what she was stepping on. She could gladly say that at the moment, a cut would be the least of her worries. She worried more about stepping on poisonous animals or leaves.

Her breath caught in her throat when she realised that she wasn’t standing behind her captor anymore. She couldn’t see, but she could feel, as the lack of vision had heightened her other senses. Her captor had a consuming presence that commanded you to feel and acknowledge him even if a person didn’t want to and she usually felt it whenever she was in the same room as him.

That feeling was gone and the cold hands of fear replaced it, causing her to freeze up in the dark and stare at nothing.

“Vampire?” She called out, hoping that he would answer. Her palms grew sweaty in the cold when he didn’t.

She heard a sound in the distance. It wasn’t loud, but it was there. It happened again and again and Maria was certain that she was going to die. She was screwed.

She didn’t know what her plan was. It was very late and she was probably safer in here than out there, but if she heard that sound again with no signs of her captor, she was going to run back out there without a second thought.

She heard the sound again, sharp in the silence of the place nd she thought she caught a brief spark of light. She had just made up her mind to run back out and figure out what to do from there when the sound came again, accompanied by a bright red flame.

Fire.

Her eyes followed the hand that held two stones, trailed slowly up the strong veiny masses of flesh, before reaching his face. He was not watching the fire he’d just created. Instead, he was staring at her right across the burning flames.

Her stomach warmed.

So he was the source of the noise after all. For a moment there, she’d thought that he had abandoned her and the way the fear hit her right in her chest terrified her. Not just because she would be defenceless in a dangerous forest, but also because somehow, the thought of her not seeing him anymore, made her feel queasy.

“How did you get the woods?” She wondered aloud, taking several steps towards him.

There was no reaction to hint that he had even heard the words that left her mouth. No twitch in his facial muscles, no movement of his lips, no acknowledgement in his eyes whatsoever. In fact, she started to wonder if it was possible that he had not heard her, but she pushed the thought from her mind. She knew him better than that.

She walked until she was standing in front of the fire on the opposite side of him, then hesitated slightly before dropping down, with her legs criss-crossed in front of her. Thankfully, she’d decided to wear shorts and a T-shirt today, so she didn’t need to worry about flashing him.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Even though the shorts was a bit on the tight side, she liked it very much. The material was not as hard as she’d expected, considering that it looked like cargo shorts at first glance. It stretched tight across her ass and dipped down at the back whenever she sat down, but her shirt was long enough to cover it. Besides, she wasn’t sitting with her back to him, so she had no reason to worry.

Her captor’s eyes ran over her, before he looked away, rising to his feet and walking a few feet away from her. She watched him, wondering what it was he was doing. When she saw the way his gaze swept the high walls, the extreme corners of the cave and even outside, she knew that he was checking to know if the cave was safe.

She might be with him against her will, but in a forest like this, she would willingly follow him wherever he went. She was safe with him. Safer than if she’d been in here by herself.

When he was satisfied with his search, he walked back towards her, dropping down opposite her on the fire. She dropped her hands behind her and leaned back on them, her eyes following him as he drew one knee up and went to work on unlacing it. The corners of her lips tipped up in amusement.

She didn’t know if it was just her, but seeing another person’s feet felt like an intimate act. Her feet were right there in front of him, but it didn’t matter. It was him baring his feet that was so unthinkable to her that it made her giggle a little.

His head flew up at the sound, pausing in the middle of dragging the shoe off. “What’s funny?” He asked gruffly.

That even made the whole thing funnier and she threw her head back in a laugh, the sound ringing across the otherwise silent cave. Gods, she just couldn’t help it. Their situation, his personality, was just so laughable.

They wanted absolutely nothing to do with each other. She was pretty sure that if she were to point him in the direction of his sister right now, he would set out that way without a last glance back at her. She, however, wasn’t so sure that she would do the same if he were to unlock the collar at her neck and tell her she was free.

Free to do what exactly? Go back to living in the dark?

She was not even an immortal yet and she already loathed the life she was forced to live. She couldn’t imagine eternity of living this way. She would run mad.

Her smile had already wiped off her face at that point because of the dark thoughts she was having and when she looked at her captor, she saw that he was watching her with an odd look.

They held each other’s eyes. Greens on greys. Captor and captive.

She was here against her will. He kept her in a cell, fed her scraps, prevented her from having baths and had almost cut off her hand before. He hated her and wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. She hated him too, but why did she want to run toward him and not away from him whenever she saw him?

Why could she not stomach the thought of him eventually leaving her without so much as a backward glance?

“Tell me your name, vampire.” She whispered.

His lips parted, brows drawn tight as he stared at her. He looked like he was going to tell her, and her heart sped up in anticipation.

She was finally going to know his name.

Yet then his eyes turned cold and he reached for his sword, flying to his feet. Alarmed, she hurried to her feet just like him and thinking that the sword he was holding was because of her, she jumped backwards-and right into slimy cold hands that instantly clamped around her.

A scream tore from her throat as terror gripped her. Her captor lunged across the fire with his sword raised and ready to attack, but the body holding her moved at lightning speed and suddenly, she was not standing by the fire anymore.

Everything appeared upside down for a moment and that was when she realised that she was tossed over the creature’s shoulder and she was starting to get dizzy from all the blood flowing to her head.

Summoning all her last strength, she screamed,

“Vampire!”