The Vampire King’s Captive

BRAN

When Corey left the house last night and didn’t return, Bran knew that there was something wrong.

He’d held the feeling off for as long as he could but the longer Corey didn’t return, the more intense the feeling got. Bran wouldn’t even have felt as uneasy as he did if the man had simply sent a message telling him that he was going to be back late.

It wasn’t like Corey to just disappear without letting him know beforehand.

That feeling of uneasiness increased when one of Bran’s men who had left with him that night came into the house, terribly injured and missing an arm, his eyes darting around in fear.

“What happened to you?” Bran asked, shooting up from the couch he’d been sitting on.

The man’s voice shook as he spoke, “Men… they attacked us… have master.”

Confused by the man’s words that didn’t add up, Bran hurried over to him and gripped him by the shoulders, shaking him and his eyes blinked into focus. “What happened?” Bran asked again, forcefully this time.

The man’s throat bobbed on a swallow. “We were attacked by some men, every one of them heavily armed.” He swallowed again, eyes wide and awash with terror as he relieved whatever it was he’d gone through. “I don’t know where they came from, I don’t know how it was even possible, but they descended on us before we could see them…” The man trailed off and his eyes darkened again.

Bran shook him again, impatient, and he blinked, remembering where he’d left off. “We fought back as best as we could, but they had guns and machines with them. They overpowered us. They took Master Corey and two other men with them.”

“The rest?” Bran asked even though he wasn’t so sure that he wanted to hear the answer to that question.

“Dead.” The man said, confirming his thoughts.

Bran tensed and his hold on the man tightened unconsciously. When the man winced, Bran cursed and dropped his hands, remembering that the man was injured. But, hell, he couldn’t stop thinking about what the man had just said.

He’d never heard of any creature in the lore attacking with guns and machinery, not once in his entire existence, which meant that the men couldn’t be from the lore.

“They’re humans.” He muttered on a stunned breath.

“Yes,” the man nodded quickly, clutching his ribs with his one hand. “They’re humans and they came in great number. They came in a huge car that I can only imagine they use during war…”

Bran zoned off, turning his mind away rom the man’s ramblings. The only question running through his mind was why? Why would a bunch of humans attack his friend?

The creatures stayed as far away from humans as they could, creating their own realms instead of living in the same world as the humans to avoid scenarios like this. This was one of the disadvantages of living amongst the humans, and it was crazy because the demons didn’t live among them-they had their own realm.

It was only the specie of demons without horns that weren’t scared of living amongst the humans because the chances of them getting caught were incredibly slim. They ate just like the humans, looked like them-except for the fact that they were naturally more good-looking than them-and didn’t have fangs that would give them away.

But what on earth had caused his friend to go into a place where humans lived?

Only the man standing behind him could provide the answer to that question.

Turning back to him, Bran asked, “What was he doing there in the first place?”

“He got news that his cousin had been taken by a group of men, whether they were creatures of the lore wasn’t confirmed, but now we know the people that took him.” The man told him. “We’d just arrived, but we didn’t even have the time to get the details before we were attacked.”

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Where did this happen?” He asked the man, restless with the thought that his friend was in danger. He didn’t even want to consider the fact that more could have happened to him.

“Down Woodcove street.”

A frown settled on Bran’s face. “That’s in this realm.”

The man nodded.

“Humans know of the demon realm? How were they able to access it?” Bran asked to no one in particular. Then he cursed as he remembered that on the other side of the portal, was Chicago.

Could it be that the portal had been discovered by one of its citizens? If that was the case, then this new development didn’t bode well for them.

Bran had been to that place before and he could have easily traced there, but the sun was up and high and if he traced and landed under the harsh sunlight, then he was toast. Literally.

Tracing into his car downstairs, Bran started the engine and drove straight towards the destination, cursing when he realised halfway through the journey that he had not brought any weapons with him, but going back would only mean wasting precious time. He would have to fight with his hands.

That wasn’t so impossible, right?

His lips pressed down in a flat line when he remembered that the men had machines and guns. What hope did he have to fight against them without a weapon?

When Bran got to the location, he saw a huge car-if it could even be called that-driving away, the exact same way Corey’s man had described it. He could bet his ass that Corey was in that vehicle and it wouldn’t be wise to attack now. Sure, he could lift the vehicle and turn it over, but that could cause a fire and his friend was in there. He couldn’t do that.

Instead, he decided to wait until they arrived at their destination.

He followed them until they stopped in front of a huge building. That was his cue to strike. No one got down from the car but the gate slid open slowly. Bran was far behind them, keeping a pace that they wouldn’t suspect, but now that they were entering the house, he had to strike.

Speeding down the street, he parked his car behind the vehicle and jumped down before the car could even stop. He ran towards the vehicle and let himself go berserk, unleashing a fury he hadn’t let himself feel in a very long time.

***

“How did you find me?” Corey coughed about a half hour later when Bran, along with Corey’s men that he’d freed, had fought through the men and they were now lying flat on the ground, dead.Content protected by Nôv/el(D)rama.Org.

Bran was in the car sitting on the bench opposite Corey, trying to heal from the burns his skin had suffered under the scorching sun from when he’d fought the men.

“One of your men escaped,” Bran told him, his jaw tight as he took in the extent of his friend’s injuries. “Found his way to the house and filled me in on everything that happened.”

“Remind me…” Corey gasped, dragging in breaths through his teeth. “To tell him thanks later.”

“Sure,” Bran forced. “Later. For now, let’s focus on getting you out of these chains.”

The chains were abnormally strong-so strong that even Bran couldn’t break Corey out of them-and he focused on struggling with them so as to take his mind and eyes away from the injuries marring his friend’s body. There were several cuts on his body, a bone was shooting out of his leg at an odd angle and one of his arms was gone from the elbow.

It was going to take him at least a week to regenerate and heal.

Bran tried again to break the chains but they didn’t budge. Turning confused eyes on Corey, he saw that the man was already shaking his head. “You can’t break me out of them. They’re reinforced.” When the furrow on Bran’s brows deepened, Corey struggled to explain. “I think… they have someone working for them. The chains are enhanced with magic. You…” He shook his head, his eyes closing. “You won’t be able to bend it; I’ve tried.”

“Fuck,” Bran cursed, raking a hand through his hair. The movement caused the bullets in his chest to dig in more and he winced, dropping his hand immediately. “Then how do we get you out?”

Corey was chained to the vehicle. There was no way they could get him out of there without cutting the chain-well, unless they wanted to take the vehicle with them-so they were stuck until they found a way to get him out of there.

“In the armoury back at my house, there is an axe that cuts through anything,” Corey told him. “If you can get it, you’ll be able to cut me out of this thing.”

Bran shook his head. “It’s going to take a while for me to drive back to the house.” Then his eyes flicked to Corey’s men standing a few feet away, pain marring the lines of their faces. “Your men aren’t in a condition to drive either and I can’t leave you here defenceless.”

Corey gave him a confused look-well as much as he could manage in his condition. “Why don’t you just trace?”

Oh. That was true.

Fuck, Bran wasn’t thinking well.

Nodding, he said, “I’ll be back in a second.”

Bran traced into the living room where he’d been sitting before he left and blinked in confusion when he caught a blur of white.

He turned quickly and saw that the blur had actually been Maria running outside, and before he could even think about what he was doing, he ran after her.

And right into the afternoon sun…