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MARIA She fought against the men as they dragged her away, determined to make the task as stressful as it could be for them. "Stay still," one of them growled and yanked her arm, forcing her to move faster down the hall. "Fuck you," she retorted, jostling herself just to piss him off even more. Her legs skidded across the tiled floor as they pulled her along without care, and she tried to force her hands out of theirs so that she could walk on her own, but they tightened their grip, their hands like steel bands on hers, unbending. They dragged her up the stairs and her legs bumped against each step, the bone in her toes aching her. She gritted her teeth as she tried to block out the pain.She just needed to endure. That was all. She would endure for the time being and strike again. She was not going to let the vampire win. It might take her days, weeks, months, but she was going to escape eventually.She would not rest until she did.A loud crash rang out through the air, causin
BRANImmediately he stepped into the house, he knew that there was something wrong.It wasn’t just the fact that the gate was missing, that the walls supporting the gates weren’t there anymore, or the fact that three dead bodies awaited them in the yard. No, it was the fact that when he’d stepped into the main house, he’d heard nothing.Nothing at all.The sounds that usually came from the cook when she was busy in the kitchen, the children training at the back of the house, Corey’s cousin watching TV upstairs, none of it.There was just nothing.He supported Corey over to a couch and walked away, telling him that he’d be back shortly as he ran up the stairs, going straight to Maria’s room. His heart caught in his throat when he pushed the door open and saw that her room was empty. He stalked into her closet and checked, praying that she was miraculously hiding in there because she didn’t want to see him, but she wasn’t in there too.Her bed, clothes, everything was in there. But she w
BRAN "Please, no." "Don't make me repeat myself, child.""Oh, gods, no. I don't want to kill them.""You will.""Please don't make me do this.""If you want her to live another day, you will stop making me repeat myself, walk out of this room now and go do what I asked you to do."There was silence except for the distinct sound of her restricted sobs, her heart aching from the burden she was being forced to carry, aching from the knowledge of what she was about to do. She loved her mother too much to let anything happen to her. And if losing Maria's soul was the price she had to pay to keep her mother alive, then so be it, Maria thought, making up her mind to do what this man who called himself her father was forcing her to do. "That's my girl," he crooned, his face lighting up with excitement. He must have realised that she'd made up her mind. Turning away, unable to bear looking at him anymore, she crept out of the room, her long gown trailing on the floor behind her. She dress
MARIADespite all the things that her father had done to her—and there were a great number of things—never once had he locked her up in one of the cells down in the palace dungeon.She’d only been here about once or twice and on those occasions, she’d never been on the other side of the gate. Always on the outside, never on the inside. But now, she found herself locked on the inside, watching and waiting for the man she called her father to face her finally.Sitting on the ground by the gate, she leaned on it, wanting to stay as far away from the depths of the cell as she could. The bed, if it could be called that, was a wooden bench that was wider than the usual bench, and the cell didn’t have a toilet—it had a bucket, and Maria threw up in her mouth whenever she so much as looked at it.Gods, how ironic was her situation?She’d wanted to escape the vampire to come back here, but now she was here and being kept in a cell. Leaving one cell only to come to another. Well, at least her o
MARIA "Is someone there?" Maria called out after a few seconds of trying to convince herself that the voice was real. If the voice wasn't real, then that meant she'd started hearing things, which meant that she was going crazy and she didn't believe that. At least not yet. "Yes," came the voice again. It was soft and feminine with a lilting accent. Out of nowhere, Maria wondered if the girl could sing. It would be a wonderful thing to hear—and watch. Speaking of..."Where are you?" Maria asked the girl—it was definitely a girl—and she moved over to the gate, gripping the iron bars and craning her neck as she tried to look down the long dark corridor if the girl was standing out there. She wasn't. "In the cell next to yours," she spoke again, that lilting accent sounding both strange and oddly welcome to Maria's ears. "I saw them bring you in but held back from talking to you because, well, I didn't want to spook you." If she continued talking for an hour more, Maria was positive
MARIA It had been a week since she'd been here and all Ariti's attempts to get the collar off her have been futile. His frustration increased each time and after the last try, he'd backhanded her out of anger, looking away as she'd collided against the wall and fallen to the ground. The amount of strength he had in that his small frame never failed to amaze her every single time he wielded it on her. The strength of an immortal came with age, and by that rule, the longer an immortal lived, the stronger they got, irrespective of their species. Ariti was over a thousand years old. Therefore, he was a thousand times stronger than the average Sorceri. It was there, in that moment when she'd been lying on the cold floor of the court-room, the court-room where she'd once been the one torturing people and not the other way round, that she made up her mind that she was going to escape. It seemed an impossible feat and unlike before where she'd been careful in order not to get caught, th
BRAN Bran walked down the long corridor to Corey's private room, a thought running through his mind over and over like a record on loop, until it pushed out all his other thoughts and it was the only thing he could think of. When he reached the door, he pushed it open and barged in without knocking, announcing, "I'm going to get her back."The occupants of the room froze, shocked by his sudden presence and manner, and stared at him with similar expressions of shock mixed with wariness on their faces. Corey snapped to his feet, his eyes widening with surprise before he quickly masked his expression and with his eyes never leaving Bran, said, "I'll have to cut this meeting short. We'll continue later."The men nodded and hastily rushed out of the room, one of them reaching for a sheet of paper but Corey told him to leave it and he nodded sharply, hurrying out. "What the hell, Bran?" Corey asked, pushing away from the table and running his hand through his hair roughly. It was then t
BRANDamn, but the man had a shit ton of guards, Bran thought as he wiped the blood from his sword on the dead man's shirt, before continuing down the hall. The house was huge with several wings. He'd gone through some, checking the rooms in search of Maria, but he hadn't found her in anyone. Instead, he'd found a group of guards more than ready to chop his head off. Too bad they were the ones that had gotten their heads chopped. He was lucky, though, that the men hadn't raised alarm. Well, to be fair, he hadn't given them the chance to. He'd descended upon them before they could even raise their swords and the frozen looks of shock on their faces could account for that. He reached another door in the hallway and pushed it open, frowning when he still didn't see Maria. Where the hell was she? There were still a few rooms that he hadn't searched but in all honesty, Bran was starting to doubt that she was in any of them. What if she wasn't in one of the rooms? She hated her fathe