The Vampire King's Captive

16

MARIA

If she focused on the sound of the person chasing after her, she would go crazy, so she tried to block it out and instead, tried to put as much force into her starving limbs and run faster.

As fast as she could considering that she had not eaten a decent meal in a while and she was weaker than ever.

Running back in the direction she had come from would mean going back to her cell and even though that might be a better alternative than letting whomever was chasing her catch her—she had a very strong belief that it was her captor—she still wanted to leave this fucking place.

She had to find her way out. She had to go back home. She didn't know how, but she would find a way. She just needed to get hell out of here first.

Her steps almost faltered when the suspicion that there was no way she was going to be able to escape hit her.

What exactly did she think she was doing? What was her plan? Did she hope to run out there and scream for help? And even if she did, did she really believe that she was going to get the help she wanted? From vampires that she had killed their king and queen?

They would seize her and return her back into the hands of her captor. There was no way they were going to help her.

The thought almost had her stopping and submitting herself to her fate, but then she remembered that her glamour had worn off and there was no way they were going to be able to recognise her. They wouldn't know who she was.

That sent a surge of strength into her battered body and she found herself running faster than she had ever run, her feet barely touching the ground before the other one lifted.

She spied a door a few feet away with bursts of light trickling in. Her heart face a joyful thud against her chest. She could do it. She was going to get out of—

A sharp tug on her hair had her crying out in pain. The sound was cut off abruptly when she was suddenly launched in the air, flying backwards until she slammed into a wall, then dropped on the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Before she could sit up and think about what just happened, two legs came into her line of vision and she tried to scoot away, but she already had her back to the wall; there was no where for her to go.

She could do nothing but watch with wide eyes and whimper in pain as the big man leaned down until he was bending over her. He yanked her up by her hand and with only his hand on her, she could tell who it was. Her captor. She had been right when she guessed that he was the one chasing after her.

He pulled on her hand until she was sitting with her back against the wall, her head tilted up as she stared at him, unable to stop the silent tears that trickled down her face, her back singing in pain from the impact with the wall.

Gods, she had never met such a cruel man.

As if he heard her thoughts and wanted to shoe her just how much more cruel he could be, his right hand gripped her face and it was so big that he covered the whole span of her face.

Eyes blazing with fire, he squeezed her jaws tight and continued to do it until she thought she was going to die from the pain. "You think to run from me?" His voice was beastly and if she didn't know better, she would have thought that he was an animal.

It was at that moment that she realised he could easily just kill her with a snap of his finger and no one would know. No one would come for her, no one would miss her. Because she didn't have anyone.

The only person she had could very well be dead.

She thought that he would kill her. She half expected him to. To end her life there on the floor like one of the lowly guards or maids back at the palace. Never had she thought that she would be in such a position.