TAKEN BY THE DRAGON KING

Midnight Run

**

Elena

My heart caught in my chest and I froze. I could sense someone behind me, feel the sounds of their footsteps on the floor of the forest.

I didn’t know who it was, but the presence didn’t feel familiar. It didn’t feel welcoming. It felt as alien and harsh as the terrible hole in front of me.

I took a deep breath and didn’t turn around. My heart was thundering, and it was all I could hear, but I held my breath and took a step. I heard a sound behind me.

Someone exhaled.

And I ran.

I didn’t wait for anyone to make their move first.

I just ran.

I ran like my life depended on it. I ran like someone was chasing me through the forest, because I didn’t know if they were going to follow me or not.

I was living in a kingdom full of dragons. It had been stupid to run, to leave the protection that Dracul offered.

He might be complex. My feelings for him might have been a mess, but I knew that I had protection from him. And even he had been hiding me from his people.

I didn’t stop to turn and look around. I didn’t want to take the chance of tripping and falling, or worse.

I just had to keep going, had to keep moving, had to keep pressing onwards.

I didn’t know if anyone was on my heels and I wasn’t going to turn around and find out. I was running for my life and I knew that this was serious.

If this was a dragon, anyone other than someone working for Dracul, I was dead.

They didn’t know I was under the protection of their ruler. They didn’t know. And I was fair game.

A human wandering through their homes, through their forests. No wonder they were stalking me. I was being hunted.

My breathing came in short, rugged, rapid gasps as ran.

My feet pounded on the ground and I focused on nothing but what was ahead of me.

If I kept looking forwards, if I kept focusing on what was ahead… maybe I had a chance.

Maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.

I ducked and weaved through the trees, grabbing onto branches and throwing them on the ground behind me. If anyone was after me, I wanted to slow them down.

My father had taught me that, in the event that anything ever happened to me, as a princess.

But I had walked straight into this one. I was all but asking for trouble now. I had walked into the lion’s den and it was no one else’s fault but my own if they decided to chase me.

And then I heard it. I heard footsteps behind me, the sound of voices. Not just one person. More. Two at least.

I felt sick. I didn’t know how I was supposed to outrun two people. I didn’t know how I was supposed to get out of this situation.

I had wandered into the woods. And I had gotten lost.

My emotions had gotten the best of me and I was going to get myself killed.

Just like in this castle, but these guys had no need to keep me alive. For all they knew, I was just some stupid girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

They would be right about that, I supposed. That was exactly what I was. A stupid girl who had made a terribly dangerous choice.

I wanted to call for Dracul, but I had no idea if he could hear me. Maybe he didn’t even want to save me. I didn’t know.

I had walked out on him, had run away. Sure, he had left the room, but I had let my heart win instead of my head. I could have stayed put.

Sure, I was angry, but I could have stayed put.

I gasped as I ran, my lungs burning, everything aching as I rushed through the forest. I couldn’t see anything familiar up ahead. I didn’t know if I was even running in the right direction.

But I had to try. I had to try and make it. I couldn’t just lie down and die.

I could hear the footsteps gaining on me, with every thud of my own shoes. They were getting closer. They could have probably caught me already.

I knew that they were toying with me.

I knew that I should just stop and save myself the trouble. But I just couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t give in.

I had come so far. I had stayed alive when I thought I was destined to die, and I couldn’t accept that I was destined to die tonight.

Not because of a stupid mistake.

My legs were going to give out, but I tried to keep going. My body protested, but I pushed it. I should have stopped, but I wasn’t giving in without a fight. Maybe, if I just got a little bit closer. Maybe, if I just moved a little more…

Maybe, if I found the edge of the forest, Someone would hear me, someone would find me. Maybe I had a chance. I gave up now, it was already over. I couldn’t do that.

I stumbled and crashed into the earth.

My ankle ached where it slammed into a tree and I yelled as I hit the ground.

My hands broke my fall and the dirt scraped into them.

I scrambled to my feet, my ankle screaming in protest, my dress ruined from the mud and the brambles that covered much of the earth here.

“Took you long enough.” A voice laughed from behind me, cruel and ugly.

He was close. He was so, so close.

I stumbled up, pulling myself to my feet and taking a step. My ankle threatened to give out on me, and I bit my lip, holding back another yell.

I frantically looked around.

My hands found a tree branch and I grabbed it, gripping it tight between both hands, feeling the blood pumping through my veins. I braced myself against a tree.

I couldn’t run. My ankle was throbbing, and they were faster than me anyway. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. I would go down kicking and screaming.

I told myself to stay strong, even though the panic was blurring my vision.

In the darkness, I saw the sickly yellow eyes glow back at me. Two pairs. Just like at the castle. I was repeating my own stupid mistakes and this time, it was going to be too much.

This time, I didn’t think I was going to make it out alive.

I thought of Dracul, of his hands on my skin and his kisses on my lips. I thought of the way his eyes softened when he looked at me.

I thought about how confused I was about everything, how lost and scared and upset. I never should have run, but I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know who to trust, to turn to.

I wanted Dracul to wrap his arms around me and tell me he actually cared that this was more than just a one-night thing, that he actually needed me here.

I wanted to know that I was here and helping him and my people at the same time. I wanted to know that my life here wasn’t meaningless.

And now, it didn’t look like I was ever going to be able to find that out.

“What do we have here?” The voice echoed through the darkness.

I shivered and held the branch as tightly as I could.

“Human, that’s not going to do anything against someone like me.” He said, and I could almost see him baring his teeth at me.

There was something different about him. There was a wildness to him. I didn’t know if he could be reasoned with. He was close, and I kept the branch held up in front of me.

“Don’t.” I said, my voice coming out shakily, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

I didn’t sound like royalty. I just sounded scared.

I bit my lip, never taking my eyes off the two shadowy figures.

“Oh, but I think we do.” The other said, low and hungry.

I shuddered at the sound of his voice.

“What we’re doing? We’re hunting.” He said, a smile spreading across his dark features.

I felt sick to my stomach as I stared into the eyes of the men who were going to end my life.

“And when catch your prey, you know what you do with them.” He said slowly.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

I leaned against the tree, watching them both, my blood freezing in my veins.

He laughed and it was a low and ugly sound, “you kill them, sweetheart. And you make it nice and slow.”