The Vampire King’s Captive

MARIA

Surely, she had not heard him correctly.

“What?” She asked, expecting him to say something totally different. Her ears had probably decided to play tricks on her, or perhaps the fever had affected them.

Was that possible?

“You’ll be spending the night here.” He repeated, pushing away from the doorframe and taking several steps towards her. “The same for the next couple of nights until the physician thinks it’s safe for you to go back.”

Oh.

Her eyes darted to Edgar, who was walking into what looked like a closet. “There was a physician?”

“Yes. He thinks your cell should be cleaned and aired before you go back in there.” Her captor said with a stoic expression, standing with his legs planted wide in a stance so blatantly male that she was left with no choice but to ogle him. “It is being cleaned as we speak, but seeing as the room isn’t very… open, it might take a while, which is why you wouldn’t be going there until later this week.”

So he was letting her stay in this room for the next couple of nights and only because a physician had said so. She didn’t know whether to be glad or angry. She supposed she was thankful that he’d had a physician come over to look her up, which meant that there was hope for her. She was feeling slightly better after the sleep already. She was also glad that she would be sleeping in an actual bed and not the ridiculous excuse for one in the cell.

But then what put a damper on her mood was knowing that there was a time frame. Knowing that she would undoubtedly go back to that cell.

Did he expect her to be happy about that?

“He also suggested a bath.”

“A bath?” She rose up from the bed so fast that she got a bit dizzy from the movement, but she could barely contain her excitement. She was finally going to have a bath! What else could top that?

A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Yes, a bath.”

“I want one now.” She said as she swung her legs over the side of the bed, testing her feet on the ground just to check if she could walk so soon. She looked up at him, saw how hard he was scowling and replayed her words in her head, seeing that they came off a bit like an order. So, she aded, “Please.”

This was a bath they were talking about. She would do everything short of getting down on her knees and actually begging him for it. And even that, she wasn’t completely sure that she wouldn’t do it.

She was just so tired of pouring the water she was supposed to save and drink down her body to cool herself sometimes and then bear the damp stench that came from the cold floor when the water found no where to flow out through, because her cell didn’t have a sink.

She wanted a bath. A real one with soap.

Gods, it sounded a lot like heaven to her. She could almost feel the water running down her skin, the feel of soap as she lathered it onto her body. Damn. She couldn’t believe that she had taken these things for granted once. She would kill for them now.

Edgar came out of the closet just then, nodded at her captor, then walked out of the room without sparing her a look. Okay, then.

“The bathroom is through that door,” He pointed at a door on the far side of the room. “Closet is in there. You’ll find something to wear after your bath.” This time, he pointed at the door Edgar came from. Her guess had been right. “The physician would be here to check on you later and food would be delivered as well. The room and bathroom has cameras so don’t even think about doing anything stupid.” With that last warning and a terrifying glare to complement it, he turned around and stalked out of the room.

The door didn’t even close before she was fighting her dirty tank top and shorts off her body-cameras be damned-and running for the bathroom as if her ass was on fire. She was not going to try to escape. The thought had not even crossed her mind.

She just wanted to have her bath, then maybe snoop around the room and then look through the window and see the view that it gave to her.

The bathroom was huge, not as big as her bathroom back at the palace, but definitely ten times bigger than her cell. A white towel hung on the rack, easy for her reach.

She didn’t waste any more time in turning on the shower and getting under it. She groaned when the stream of water hit her, cooling her skin and making her feel like she had just woken up from the dead.

Suddenly, she remembered his mention of cameras and she briefly thought about putting on a show for him, but then pushed the thought aside. She didn’t have the strength for that. Plus, he might not even be the one monitoring the cameras.

She would be putting on a show for a complete stranger.

She reached for the bar of soap, lathered up her body and her hair twice and rinsed them out twice. One might complain that she was wasting water, but she hadn’t had a bath in close to a month. She was merely making up for it.

When she finished, she squeezed the water out of her hair and stepped out, grabbing the towel as she went. She wrapped it around her body and walked out of the bathroom and into the closet. She felt a bit chilly now that she had stepped out of the goodness of the shower and that was reminder enough that she still wasn’t okay.

Not one, but five outfits were awaiting her. She figured that meant she was going to be living in this room for five days.

She selected a sundress that reached her knees-although it didn’t quite reach her knees on the back since her generous backside made it move up several inches-and she was surprised by how well it fit her. She wondered if it was Edgar that had them delivered.

If it was him, then the man was a good judge of size.

She was surprised to meet food covered by her bedside when she came out of the closet. The food had not been there when she came out of the bathroom, meaning that it had been delivered when she was in the closet.

Yet she had not heard anyone come in.

That was when she remembered that she was in the vampire realm. Anyone that had been in this room before, could simply trace in at anytime. The knowledge filled her with a sense of dread.

They could just come in at anytime, even when she was sleeping. If it was a vampire that wanted to kill her, he could easily come in when she was sleeping and kill her, and that would be it.

She shook the feeling off. No one would kill her. If anyone wanted to, it would be her captor and he obviously didn’t want her dead, else he would have just let the sickness kill her.

Pushing disturbing thoughts from her mind-along with the feeling of the cold collar resting on her neck-she sat down on the side of the bed and started to eat her meal. She realised just how hungry she was when she finished it in less than ten minutes later.

After downing half the bottle of water, she drifted back into the closet for snooping. She found absolutely nothing interesting enough to look at and there was nothing that could be converted into a weapon in sight.

He must have had the room searched and cleaned.

Eventually, she went back to the window and saw a sight so beautiful, it took her breath away. Somehow, maybe because she had been in that dark cell for so long-and maybe also because the king of this kingdom was such a dark, unhappy man-she had expected the castle and kingdom to be just as dark as he was. Never did she expect to meet such a beautiful sight.

The castle had high walls and from what she could see, it was huge. She could not see much of the realm, but the few she could see from this spot, was just as beautiful as the castle itself. Not only was it beautiful, but full of life.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

Gods, she had been so shrouded in darkness for the past few years of her life that she didn’t know what it felt like to be out in the open. She didn’t know what it felt like to live in such a realm with such beautiful colours and so much life it felt like she the place was bursting with it.

All she knew was darkness. She didn’t know what it was like to live anymore, and faced with such beauty and the impersonation of life, she realised just how sad her life truly was.

With the weight of her life choices bearing down on her, she dropped down on the bed, staring blankly at the white sheets.