The Vampire Kings Slave Mate

Chapter 33

Chapter 33-Mary

I fight the urge to pass out. I need to get out of this place and quickly, if I pass out now I’ll die. I pull myself up into a standing position, my entire right side feels like its on fire, and I can barely put any pressure on my leg; my ankle was either broken or severely sprained. I gritted my teeth through the pain, slowly hobbling through the meadow, trying to find a place to rest and hide. I stub my toe on a rock, and fall back down. I cover my mouth so not to cry out and I let out a little whimper. Why, why was I so damn stubborn that I felt the need to run away. Why couldn’t I have waited for Nikolai to return back from his meeting and tell me what was going on. Why did I always find the need to do everything on my own. I would die in these woods tonight and I wouldn’t be able to revenge my family’s death, my hands going to the locket around my neck, as I open it up and stare down at my family. Thoughts of the day Nikolai had given it back to me, flood into my mind; I wouldn’t ever be able to tell him that I cared for him, that I no longer saw the monster in my nightmares.

No I would not let myself die, I would not give up. I wasn’t a quitter. I had too much to do, too much to live for still. I grit my teeth once again, pulling myself up into a standing position, with new determination, I begin to walk through the pain, even if my pace is slow, I am still managing to walk and try to seek shelter. I look all around me, trying to spot anything that might keep me safe through the night, and thats when I spot it, a few hundred feet in front of me, is a metal door that I am sure leads to an underground bunker. I can feel my hope begging to rise, things are finally starting to look up. I make my way slowly to the bunker. I am less than a hundred feet away from it when the smell of rotten decaying flesh assaults me and I can hear a loud hissing noise behind me. I try to run, but my injured foot won’t allow me too, suddenly the ghoul is on top of me, smelling me.

“You smell like the king.” It hisses.

“The king is my mate.” I respond trying to keep the quiver from my voice.

“The king took a human as his mate. How pathetic.” The ghoul hisses. “I knew he was weak.”

It surprised me how well the Ghoul could communicate, I had always heard that Ghouls lost their human side, but this one seemed to understand everything I was saying.

“King Nikolai is not pathetic.” I spit out, shit when would I ever learn to control my temper.

The ghoul lurches at me, and I shriek, as I jump and start falling on my ass, scraping my arm as I try to catch myself. “I can’t wait to see the look on the king’s face when he discovers his mate has died, and by who’s hands she died by.”

“Mary!” I hear Nikolai roaring in the distance.”Mary!”

The ghoul is on top of me in an instant, his hand covering my mouth. I bite into him and gag when the taste of rancid blood hits my mouth. “Nikolai,” I croak out through the distaste of the blood. “Nikolai.” I call once more, hoping he can hear me.

The ghouls hands wrap around my neck and my vision starts to fade. I can feel Nikolai’s presence in my mind. I know he is close by. The ghoul knows it too. He opens his mouth wide, all of his teeth

turning into razor sharp fangs. I can hear a rattling noise, the telltale sign that a ghoul is getting ready to devour their prey. I don’t want Nikolai to see this, I concentrate with everything I have and push at his presence, expelling him from my mind. I feel alone again, and I know that Nikolai won’t have to watch me die. At least I could give him this.

NIKOLAI

I let the mate bond and the scent of Mary pull me in her direction, I only hoped that by the time I reached her it wouldn’t be to late. The amount of fear she was feeling terrified me, I had never felt so much fear in

my entire life, not even during my mother’s reign of terror. Is this fear, what the humans

deal with daily? Is this why Mary hated all supernaturals?

Suddenly my senses were overwhelmed with the strong scent of death, Mary’s scent was intertwined with it. How did she manage out of the entire forest to stumble into a Ghoul’s hunting ground. Ghouls were rare and few. Vampire’s hated losing to the beast within them, we lived the longest out of all the supernatural creatures, with the Fae coming in a close second and couldn’t imagine being stuck in a state where our beast was in control of our every action. Vampires are born with their beast, from the minute our eyes open were taught how to control the monsters inside of us. We were taught to always quench are blood lust and to never let our beasts take control for too long. For centuries after my father was murdered, my mother reigned terror on the supernatural race and human race alike, everyone in the kingdom thought my mother had lost control of the beast within and that she would end up a ghoul. I was one of the few that knew my mother was still grieving my father’s

I pulled away from the memories of my past and tried to locate Mary through the smell of death and decay. She was near, that I could tell, but I couldn’t sense her nor could I detect her heartbeat.

“Mary,” I called loudly, not caring if I drew the ghoul to me, it would be better if I faced him than if he found Mary, no matter how strong my Queen was, she wouldn’t be able to defeat a ghoul on her own. “Mary!” I shout again loudly, as I walk through the hunting area. I try to use our mate bond to infiltrate her mind and see what she’s seeing, but our bond was still weak, while I had marked and mated her, I had still not accepter her as mine, therefore the bond wasn’t complete.

I hear a loud shriek and can smell the scent of fresh blood. With my heart pounding in my chest, I take of running in the direction of the sound, praying to the gods, that I wasn’t too late. “Mary!” I bellow as loud as I can while running.

“Nikolai,” I can hear her cry for me, she sounds far away and like someone is trying to muffle her. “Nikolai, please.” She cries, pleading for me to find her..

The closer I get to Mary, the stronger our connection is. I can start seeing images play out in my mind, while they are blurry I am able to figure out what’s going on. The ghoul is talking to Mary, taunting her before he feeds on her, Mary is on sitting on the ground and I can tell that she is badly injured but still she’s is looking for anything in her vicinity to protect herself, her strength still showing even while she is terrified for her life. I feel her sense of relief when she hears me calling her name, and her sense of panic when the Ghoul eases closer to her, his eyes turning into little slits, the entirety of his mouth turning into sharp razor like fang, the sound of rattling starting the tell tale sign that the Ghoul is getting ready to eat. Then the images go blank and I feel like something is shoving me out of Mary’s mind. I can’t feel her at all through our bond anymore, its like something or someone is

blocking our connection, the only thing I can tell is that Mary is still alive.

Although its risky, I let my beast take control of our body, it was the only chance I had at reaching Mary in time and saving her. I recede into the back of my brain as my vampire takes over. I watch as trees flash before my eyes and we reach an empty clearing. There in the middle of the meadow is Mary with the Ghoul on top of her. Mary is trying to drag herself to a metal door, likely a hideout shelter, but the Ghoul is holding onto her, not allowing her to move an inch. With a speed, I didn’t know I possessed, I ran towards the Ghoul, grabbing him around the head and yanking him off of Mary. I turn towards Mary, and am amazed by the sound of my own voice. My vampire is talking to her. “Get to the shelter.”

“But Nikolai,” Mary starts.

“No!” My vampire yells, the strength of our aura now blinding as our power continues to climb. “For once in your life, I need you to listen to me. Get to the shelter now.”

It was as if Mary, could sense that I wasn’t the one actually communicating with her. She starred into my eyes as if seeing through my soul, as she started to army crawl to the underground bunker.

The ghoul was already back on its feet, lurching towards me. I ran at him with my enhanced speed, my nails elongated, sharp as razors, he also came at me with every power he passed, it was a battle between two demonic animals. Blood sprayed the meadow floor, his old blood black like tar, and my blood as red as a ruby, intertwining together. I separated from him, wiping the blood that was dripping down my face out of my eyes. He charged at me, his only goal to silence me and devour Mary. I stood still my hands tightened into a fist and waited for him to attack. Once he reached the distance I had been waiting for, I through an upper cut into his jaw, sending him spiraling as his teeth scattered all around him. He lay on the ground gasping for breath, I slowly approach him, ready for this battle to end so I can take over my mind again and check on Mary. Once I reach the Ghoul, I step on his chest, down at him.

“You fucking thought, you could touch what is mine?” My vampire snarls down at the Ghoul.

The ghoul begins to cackle like a maniac. “Don’t you want to know who I am Nikolai?” He asks a large smirk on his face.

My vampire hesitates momentarily, not sure how to respond, I take the opportunity to take control of my body again.

“I don’t care who the fuck you are, “ I snarl, “today you take your last breath. I raise my boot to his throat leaning down and grabbing his face between my hands.

“Nikki,” the ghoul says, calling me a nickname I haven’t heard since my dad died, “Didn’t you ever wonder who planted the idea into the kings minds to betray your father.”

“The past is better left in the past.” I growl and I detach his head from his shoulders and use my claws to open up his chest cavity, plunging my hand inside, tearing his heart out and crushing his heart in my hands, watching as it shriveled to dust.