The Vampire King’s Captive

MARIA

She searched all the rooms in the house, even went down to the dungeons to check but she still couldn’t find who she was looking for.

Then she came face to face with the door to the room she wasn’t sure she wanted to enter. Its huge black mahogany door taunted her, daring her to push it open. To step into the room that she had not entered since she was a child. A room that was no doubt still filled with the presence of her late father.

But she shouldn’t be scared, should she? She was the Queen of Sorceri, and with every second that passed, the thought started to solidify in her mind.

With a wave of her hand, she sent the door flying back and she stormed in, her eyes sweeping the dark walls of the room where a single portrait of Ariti hung. Her powers had the frame crashing to the ground face-down.

The man in the picture was dead. It was fitting that the picture should be destroyed too.

Her eyes searching the room, she saw a door behind a shelf. The shelf obstructed the door so completely that she would have not been able to see through it, but her powers had heightened everything and the door behind the shelf became a bright light, calling to her.

She opened the door with her powers and creeped in. The room was dark and filled with restless energy that automatically drew her in. It transferred its energy to her and made her restless.

Restless and anxious to help the creature within.

Feeling along the wall for a light switch, she found it and flicked it, and the room was bathed with light. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness, her body slumped forward and a gasp escaped her lips.

Floating in the air smack in the center of the room, was her mother. Tall and curvy and so bloody beautiful, she made Maria’s heart ache.

When Maria had gone into the room where her father usually kept her mother and hadn’t found her there, she’d thought for a brief second that maybe her father had taken her out of the house, but then her powers had brought her directly into this house for a reason. There was no way her mother couldn’t be in here.

And with that thought, Maria had kept searching all the rooms until she’d stumbled upon Ariti’s room and something had told her to go in.

Her mother’s face was pale from years of being inside, her eyes closed as though she was sleeping. Her expression was peaceful, calm, and to anyone that saw her, they would think that she was merely resting, not knowing that she was in torment.

Knowing that her mother was suffering hurt her and she couldn’t bear seeing her like that anymore.

There was a spell for putting a creature in limbo and bringing it back out, but Maria didn’t know it. She’d never bothered to learn the spell because it was an incredibly powerful one and only truly powerful Sorceri could pull it off.

How ironic was it that she was now the most powerful Sorceri?

She started pacing, her head bowed so that the sight of her mother wouldn’t distract her.

How was she going to get her out now? She didn’t know the spell and didn’t know where the book of spells was in the house. Sure, she could easily go and find it or better still conjure it out of air, but-

Words slammed into her mind just then, causing Maria to stumble for a bit before righting herself.

Her mouth moved as she spoke the words out loud, her eyes widening when she realized that it was the spell that would take a creature out of limbo. A spell that would take her mother out of limbo.

But it was jumbled, the words not quite what they should be. They didn’t make sense to her, at least. So she rearranged them in her head, said them out loud, repeated the process again and again until they finally made sense to her.

Okay, okay.

She blew out a breath, bracing herself for the spell and any impact it might have on her. Squinting in concentration, she began to narrate it and instantly, there was a change in the atmosphere. The air grew thick with an ominous presence and the wind blew faster, sending the windows in the room flying open.

Maria, surprised by this but having expected something of the nature, focused on the spell she was reciting, her voice growing higher as she reached the end and the forces in the room growing more violent, more forceful.

As she recited the spell for the last time, it was like the forces holding her mother up gave way and she started to float to the floor, her long white gown pooling around her.

“Mother,” Maria cried as she rushed towards her, unable to believe that her mother was now free. That her body was finally touching the ground after over thirteen years.

When she reached where her mother was, she sat on the ground and lifted her until her upper body was lying on top of Maria’s legs. Placing a palm against her cheek, Maria felt her cold skin starting to show signs of warmth. She had always been able to breathe even when she was locked in limbo but now her breaths came faster, with purpose.

Maria cradled her mother, hwr head thrown back as she thanked the gods for giving her the gift of her powers. For making it able for her to avenge her and her mother, and to free the one thing she cared about most in the worlds.

Her heart gave a sharp pang as she thought about Bran, about how she had grown to love him and how he had become as important to her as air. Why was it now that her life was finally coming to make sense that she’d found out that he didn’t care for her? Or rather that he’d betrayed her?

Because she’d seen the look in his eyes. He still cared for her. He just had a crappy way of showing it-or maybe he just didn’t want to show it at all.

“I hope those are not tears I see in your eyes, my love.”

Maria’s breath caught.

Slowly, painstakingly slowly, Maria looked down with her heart in her throat. When she saw her mother’s warm brown eyes looking back at her, alive and so very well, a single tear slid down her cheek.

“Mother?”

“Yes, love?” Her mother lifted one hand and cupped Maria’s wet cheeks with it. “Is there a particular reason you’re crying right now?”

Her mother had always told her to stand strong and to never let her situation get the best of her to the point that she started crying.

Sniffling, Maria shook her head even as the tears poured more forcefully from her eyes. “No. I’m not crying.” She shook her head again, forcing a wet smile. “Not at all.”

Her mother lifted herself to a sitting position with some series of grunts that made Maria’s heart ache. Looking around the room, she asked, “Where are we?”

Unable to fight the urge anymore, Maria threw herself at her mother, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug and after a moment in which she was probably surprised, her mother wrapped her arms around her tight and they stayed that way for a while.

When they pulled apart, Maria told her mother that there was something she needed to do.

Taking her mother safely to the front of the house, Maria went back in. The house was empty and all Ariti’s workers had run for their lives, not wanting to have anything to do with him anymore.

Just as the man who had brought such evil to people far and wide was now dead, the house needed to die too and the best way to kill it, was to burn it.

Maria was going to burn it to the ground.

Before her eyes, a single line of fire appeared at the entrance of the house and spread out slowly, destroying things as it went.

Maria sucked in a surprised breath. She was still surprised, she wasnt going to lie. The things she could do with her new powers…

All she had to do was think something and it was already happening.

Before, she would have envisioned a gallon of fuel and a matchbox and she would have started a fire with them. But with her new powers, she just had to think about burning the place and it was set ablaze.

“As soon as we get there, you are going to tell me everything,” Maria’s mother told her from where they were watching the house go under.

“Everything,” Maria nodded and took her mother’s hand.

Hand in hand, they set out to their new home as the house they had both lived in for the past years, burnt to the ground, leaving ruin in its wake.

***

“I can’t believe your father put you through that,” her mother whispered brokenly, tears free-falling down her cheeks.

Over the past hour since they’d arrived at a house her mother had secured about twenty years ago when she’d been planning on running away from Ariti, Maria had narrated her experience at the hands of the man who called himself her father to her mother.

As expected, her mother had taken it personally, blaming herself for everything and Maria couldn’t bear it.

“He was a heartless man, Mother,” Maria wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand, tired of crying. She had cried enough for one day. “I’m just glad we don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“But the vampire!” Her mother cried, her tall frame folded in the grey couch in their living room. When they’d arrived, Maria had cleaned the whole place with her powers, doing what would have taken them days, in mere minutes. “What he made you go through. I can never forgive him for that.”

Sighing, Maria covered her face with her hands. She’d told her mother everything. Every single thing. But she hadn’t told her that she’d grown feelings for the vampire, that they’d grown to care about each other.

Well, at least that was what she’d thought.

“I love him, Mother.”

The room was silent but for the ticking of the clock.

“You love the vampire?” The surprise in her mother’s voice was evident. “The same one that locked you in his cells, starved and tortured you?”

Maria nodded, her hands still pressed to her face.

“Well, then I forgive him.”

Peeling her palms from her face, Maria peeked at her mother, wanting to see whether she meant the words or not.

“You do?”

Her mother nodded easily, her eyes lingering on Maria’s face. “I know for a fact that my daughter is no fool. If you love him, then he has to be… something.”

Emotion clogged Maria’s throat and fresh tears sprang to her eyes. “He is something, Mother.” She forced herself to swallow past the lump. “I love him so much but he hurt me. H-he doesn-”

“Come here, my love.” Her mother extended her arms and Maria hurried over to her, sitting next to her on the couch and burying her face in her mother’s neck as sobs wracked body.

Her mother held her as she cried, murmuring soothing words in her ear and running her hand through Maria’s hair.

When her sobs finally died down, her mother said, “If he has half a brain, my love, then he’ll realize that he’s made a mistake and cone after you.” Her touch was feather light, her words just as soft. “If he doesn’t, then he’s not the one for you. In the meantime, can you stand so that I can look at you? I honestly cannot believe how much you’ve grown.”

Despite how heavy Maria’s heart was, a smile formed on her lips.

They had a lot of catching up to do.

Gods, she’d missed her mother so much.