The Vampire King’s Captive

MARIA

The maid stood frozen with the bed linens in her hands, staring at Maria as though she had spoken a language that Maria didn’t quite understand. With how wide and round her eyes were, one would think that Maria had asked her to behead a man and bring the head to her.

When the woman just continued to stand there without saying anything, Maria repeated the question. “Is there any other entrance apart from the one out front?”

The woman snapped out of her trance and stood straight, fixing Maria with a susceptive gaze. “Why do you ask?”

Maria shrugged nonchalantly. “Just wondering.”

To say that the woman didn’t believe her would be an understatement, but she wisely refused from questioning Maria further. “No, the house does not have any other entrance.”

The woman’s eyes darted away for a split second when she’d uttered the words and that was enough for Maria to know that the woman was lying to her. She probably thought that Maria was asking so that she would escape and if that was what the woman thought, then she was very very correct.

Rising up from her perch on the side of her bed, she made her way over to the maid who was gathering Maria’s dirty clothes, pretending to keep busy. Keeping her strides slow in order not to spook the woman, she went over to her then stopped directly in front of her and laid a hand on her shoulder.

The woman jumped from the contact and Maria quickly withdrew her hand.

“What’s your name?”

She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Olivia.”

Maria nodded. “You can trust me, Olivia, I have no evil intentions.”

Maria considered just how much she could tell the woman. She wasn’t foolish enough to tell the woman everything, but she wanted to give her a little bit of the truth in order to make the woman trust her.

Giving this woman some of her truths would be taking a long leap without knowing where she was going to land, but Maria was willing to take that leap if it meant that she was going to get out of this house. It didn’t have as much guards as the vampire’s castle did, but it would still prove difficult to escape.

However, Maria was willing to take that chance.

Gathering her resolve, she spoke. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that they don’t let me leave this room, have you?” She waited for the Olivia’s hesitant nod before proceeding. “They’re keeping me here because I made a mistake and they… they’re going going to kill me eventually.” When Olivia’s eyes widened in alarm, she nodded as solemnly as she could muster. “I can’t let them kill me, Olivia. I have to leave. I believe if you were in my shoes, you would do the same thing.”

Olivia’s eyes widened in alarm at the mention of Maria wanting to escape, and she shook her head, taking a step back. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I really am.” Maria already sensed a ‘but’ coming. “But there’s no way I can help you. I would be risking my head and my job.”

Seeing that Olivia was willing to help her but the only reason she didn’t want to was because she was scared of getting caught, hope bloomed in Maria’s chest.

She held fast onto the woman’s arms and tried to assure her. “I’ll never tell if you help me, you should know that.” She might think that Maria was just saying anything to get her to speak, but everything she was saying was true. “Even if I get caught, I’ll never let them know who helped me.”

Olivia shook her head and tried to step back, but Maria’s desperation ratcheted up and she held onto the woman tighter. “You don’t have to do anything else other than tell me where the other entrance is, Olivia,” Maria begged, “Please.”

When she saw how wide the woman’s eyes had gotten and the hint of fear beginning to show in them, Maria stepped back and let her go. “I’m sorry for getting in your personal space like that.”

The woman nodded and stepped back, rearranging the fabric of her gown. “Of course, ma’am.”

Olivia obviously wasn’t going to help her. She was too scared over getting caught and if she did get caught, even Maria knew that the consequences would be deadly.

Maria understood, and that was the only thing that kept her back from hating the woman and labelling her an enemy.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Olivia said softly, “I wish I could help.”

Maria nodded silently and stepped back, turning and walking over to the window to stand in front of it. The window had become one of her favorite places, coming second only to her bathroom. Maria had missed showering and as if she was being compensated for it, the bathroom in her room was a masterpiece.

Those were the only things that made her sane in her new glided cage.

She’d thought that Olivia had already left the room, so she was quite surprised when she heard her soft voice again. “Master Corey might be a tad angry at you, but I don’t believe His Majesty would let him hurt you.” That had Maria turning to her in surprise. “But then again, that’s just what I think.”

Before Maria could press her for some answers, the woman walked out of the room and closed the door quietly, leaving a puzzled Maria behind.

Why would Olivia think that the vampire wouldn’t let his friend hurt her?

She was probably only saying that because she hadn’t seen them interact. She hadn’t seen them back at the castle when he’d ordered his man to cut off her hand. She hadn’t seen him when he’d almost choked her to death.

If she had, then she would take back her words.

Turning back to the window, she looked through it and took in the emptiness of the grounds. There wasn’t much for her to look at, save for a single tree right in the middle of the compound, and some cars parked in a single line.

The house was completely void and seemed almost lifeless. A far cry from the vampire’s beautiful and lively castle.

She almost missed it.

She placed her hands on the window pane and streaks of sunlight kissed her skin, making her fingers warm and that warmth travelled round her body.

Something about the sight was strange, but she was having a hard time pointing out exactly why it was strange.

She frowned and stared at it, gauging the way the bright light from the sun made her palms glow golden, then she looked through the window again and her eyes landed on the rooftop of the next building. And it was then that it finally dawned on her.

The sun!

There was no sun back at the vampire realm, but she’d never thought about it until now that she was seeing the sun. She’d never heard of a realm in which there was no sun, not once since she’d been born. But apparently, they existed because all through her stay in the vampire realm, she’d never seen any glimpse of sun.

The sky was bright and they could see very clearly with the light, but she’d never once seen sun. How was that possible?

She knew that the sun killed vampires, but she’d simply thought that they avoided going out during the day and only went out at night. She would never have guessed that they didn’t have sun in their realm.

However, they had sun in this realm. Which meant that the vampire would not be able to step out during the day, else the sun would burn him.

A plan started cooking up in her mind. She hated that she was even letting herself think about something like that, but she had no choice.

She’d thought that she and the vampire had reached a truce of some sorts where she was allowed to bitch at him and he was allowed to ignore her as thoroughly as she wanted to. She’d merely thought that his words after their kiss that night had been his attempt at cruelty.

Little had she known he wasn’t just bringing her to his friend’s house because of the attack on his castle, but that he’d actually brought her here because his friend held a mutual grudge against her.

To make matters worse, he hadn’t denied that they were going to kill her.

Their conversation those nights ago was an eye-opening reminder that they were still firmly enemies and the status of their relationship wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

She couldn’t believe how much that realisation hurt her.

Maria had decided that since he had decided to kill her, she wasn’t going to sit and do nothing while waiting for her death.

She was going to find a means of escape.

And if it meant that she would die trying, then so be it.