The Vampire King’s Captive

MARIA

The vampire stalked through the door, not even bothering to knock.

He took one look at Maria standing a few feet away from the bed with her hands behind her, struggling to pull up the zipper of the gown, his eyes falling to her thighs where the dress had ridden up to reveal a bare expanse of skin, then he turned away with a dismissive, “Get ready, we’re leaving in five minutes.”

She threw him a glare that he didn’t see because he was already slamming the door shut.

As if she was deliberately delaying on purpose.

The gown that the maid had given to Maria last night turned out to be even shorter than she’d thought it was, but if that was the only problem with the gown, she wouldn’t have been complaining.

Not only did the gown stop at mid-thigh-sure, she wore a lot of gowns that stopped mid-thigh, but then they weren’t flared-it also had a neckline that dipped very low, as low as the tops of her breasts, and to top it all off, the gown was tight. Which made it very hard for her to reach the zipper by herself and pull it up.

She finally gave up and sagged against the wall.

Her mind drifted back to last night. To the kiss.

That kiss was burned into her memory forever, ingrained so deep that it was impossible for her to ever think about forgetting it.

Forget it?

She couldn’t even stop thinking about it, so forgetting about it wasn’t even in the cards for her.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d yanked her head to hers so forcefully and dominated the kiss, couldn’t stop thinking about the way his erection had felt underneath her as she’d ground down on him, couldn’t stop thinking about the way those big hands had landed on her ass and cupped, like two brands of iron on her skin, couldn’t stop thinking about the way his definitely-not-cold hand had slipped under her shirt as it made his way to her breasts…

Gods, she was getting turned on by just thinking about him.

She squeezed her legs together and whimpered, need filling her until the only thing she could think about was dragging Bran back in here and begging him to put his hands on her.

But she was never going to do that. She was fucking Maria Hatzi-even though her situation kept challenging that fact-and she wasn’t going to do something as shameful as beg him to put his hands on her.

Her skin still burned with indignation when she thought about the mocking light in his eyes when she’d climbed off him.

“Not so cold, was I?”

Gah! Why did he have to go and ruin a perfect moment?

Well, he might have ruined the moment, but he hadn’t ruined the kiss for her. He could say whatever he wanted to say, but he’d been just as immersed in the kiss as she had been. He’d been just as lost in the moment as she’d been. His words said one thing, and his boner said another.

He just couldn’t do without making her feel bad about herself and that was what the cutting statement at the end had been, she was sure.

She swiped her tongue along her lower lip, feeling the cut that was starting to heal.

She still didn’t know whether he’d done that on purpose, of whether he’d just wanted to bite down on her lip and his fang had accidentally punctured the flesh.

That wasn’t really what bothered her. What bothered her was the fact that he’d tasted her blood.

Back when she was little and she’d still be allowed to roam, she’d overheard a female Sorceri and her friend discussing about her experience with a vampire, about how a vampire had drank her blood and how that didn’t bode well for her. She hadn’t been able to stick long and find out why it didn’t bode well for the sad female because they’d seen her eavesdropping and they’d cast little Maria a chastising look before walking away.

Now, she was curious. What would happen now that he’d tasted her blood? Would something happen to her?

Gods, she hated how clueless she was. How little she knew about other factions of the lore simply because she was never let out of the palace. How naive and helpless she was in certain situations simply because she didn’t know how dangerous they really were.

Such as now.

She really wanted to know what it meant when a vampire took another’s blood, but there was no one she could ask.

And asking the vampire to tell her would be pointless. Not only would he ignore her, he also wouldn’t want to feed her information about things like this. He liked her clueless. And if she showed just how clueless she was by asking him, that would make him all the happier.

Ugh.

The door creaked open just then and the man she’d just been thinking about poked his head in. His eyes darkened when he took her in and saw that she was still standing there, about as prepared as she’d been five minutes ago when he’d left.

A scowl settled on his face as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. “I thought I told you to get ready.”

“You did.” Maria said simply, deliberately trying to piss him off.

His scowl deepened even further and he took one intimidating step towards her. She tried very hard not to flinch-she was still very pissed and embarrassed from last night and letting him see signs of fear from her and watch him enjoy it would only piss her off even more.

“Then why the fuck are you still standing there?”

“I wasn’t able to zip up the dress myself.”

His brows rose. “And you didn’t think to call the maid?”

As casually as Maria could muster, she pushed off the wall and turned around, showing him her back. “I would, but I can’t really go out like this and call her, can I?” When she looked at him over her shoulder and saw the way his eyes flared as they took in her bare back, she said, “Thought so.”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Since the dress was tight, the whole of her back was exposed with the zipper open, and with the tops of her breast bare, there was no way she could walk out of this room without drawing eyes to herself, and it wasn’t like there was a bell in the room she could ring that would alert the maid.

She turned back to him and saw that his lips were compressed as he stared at her, seeming to mull over something in his mind. His shoulders tensed as he seemed to make a decision.

She’d expected him to say something annoying, storm outside to reluctantly get the maid for her, anything but walk over to her and stand behind her. 

Was he going to help her zip up her dress?

She went almost light-headed at the thought.

Maria almost jumped out of her skin when she felt his hand brush her skin as he touched the zipper of her dress. His presence behind her was making it impossible for her to think about anything else but him. That big body dwarfing hers, his hands a hairsbreadth from her skin and his breath brushing her hair with every exhale.

She felt his hands sift through her hair as he packed the mass in his hand and dropped it on one side of her neck, baring the skin there and making her back all the more exposed.

He pulled the zipper up slowly and stopped when it was having a hard time passing that spot. Letting the zipper go, he gripped the two sides of the dress and pulled it together with one hand, before pulling up the zipper again and this time, it passed smoothly.

Even after he’d zipped up the dress, he stood there for a while, just breathing. Maria’s spine tingled from his nearness, and reluctantly, images of last night flashed into her mind before she could stop them.

As if the same thing was happening to him and he wanted to push the images out of his head, he stepped back and she turned to him, looking at him from underneath her lashes.

“Thank you,” she breathed, her voice coming out husky.

He gave one sharp nod, then marched past her and out of the room.

***

When they walked out of the inn, but not before the vampire left her like a sack of potatoes to go see Elizabeth one last time, there was a black car waiting for them by the curb.

Later, she learnt that it’d been sent by the friend they were going to meet.

They were silent all through the car ride, and they only spoke when they arrived at the huge house and stepped out of the car-just not to each other. She told the driver thanks as he made to drive away, and she was so taken aback by what she’d just done that she didn’t notice that a man was coming out of the house.

He was a huge man with very light brown skin, and he dark horns running down his hairline to the back of his head. She found them oddly mesmerising because the horns she’d seen on the demon from last night had been standing up straight. She realised that she liked this man’s horns and they added to his appeal.

He was gorgeous. So gorgeous, he could give the vampire a run for his looks.

There was a grin on his face as he walked over to his friend, the vampire, and hugged him, giving him a slap on the back for good measure. The sight of the vampire hugging someone-actually hugging someone-was so strange, she looked on with a gaping mouth.

“It’s good to see you, my man,” The man grinned, stepping back and giving the vampire a slow once-over.

“Likewise,” The vampire said with something very close to a smile on his face.

Had Maria perhaps stepped into an alternate universe where she met a nicer version of the vampire?

The thought came to a screeching halt when Bran’s friend, Corey-as the vampire had called him-turned to her and his dark eyes swept over her curiously.

“You brought someone with you,” he noticed and his eyes swept over her once more, before looking past her as though he was searching for something. “But where’s the sorceress?”

Her heart dropped into her stomach.

Oh fuck.

Oh shit.

The vampire had told his friend that he was coming with her and Maria knew that she had wronged a great number for people. Was there a possibility that she’d wronged this man too?

She got her answer later when the vampire said, “That’s the sorceress.”

A confused frown settled on the man’s face as he stared at her again. That was when she remembered that she didn’t have her glamour anymore. If he’d seen her before with her glamour, then he wouldn’t understand why she looked like this now. And that was why he was confused.

Yet then his look turned into one of pure unadulterated hate and he took one menacing step towards her that had her heart beating into overdrive.

“You’re Maria Hatzi?” He sneered and suddenly, Maria felt a feeling of lightness wash over her.

Oh, not this again.

The man took another step towards her, and that did it.

She crumpled to the ground.