The Vampire King’s Captive

MARIA

She’d never once heard about a dead person being brought back to life-she’d seen a spell like that a while back, but she had never really heard of anyone who had successfully used the spell before-and she was going to try it on Bran.

There was a huge possibility that it wouldn’t work or that it could go wrong, but what did she have to lose? He was already dead.

“You cast the wrong spell on him? What the hell?”

“Yes,” she nodded quickly. “The spells got mixed up in my head and I cast the wrong one but it wasn’t intentional, I swear to you. I’m going to try to fix it, just please-”

“No.” He was already shaking his head before she could even finish speaking. “You’re going to stay the hell away from him and you’re going to pay for deliberately-”

“Oh, for fucks sake,” she cried, frustrated. “I did not do it on purpose. I’ve told you it was unintentional.”

“And I don’t believe you.” Hate bled from his eyes, anger and venom pouring off his words. “Fuck, I shouldn’t have let you do this. I should have kept searching for another way.” He went on. “I should have kept you as far away from him as possible. I should have-”

She’d had it.

She’d fucking had it.

Her powers were screaming at her to go to Bran and she was positive that if they had literal hands, they would have slapped her in the face for disobeying them for so long, then shoved her in his direction. But since they couldn’t, they settled on yelling at her.

Corey’s voice trailed off when his eyes focused on her and saw what she was doing. They narrowed dangerously on her. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Yes, she would.

She very much would.

Her hands were lifted in front of her, palms out and fingers stretched. She pushed her shoulders back, and lifted her face to his, daring him as she stood her ground.

But it wasn’t the move in itself that had him taking a step back.

It was the purple magic that swirled from her fingers, billowing in the air like smoke, except stronger and definitely a lot more deadlier.

It also caused a lot more damage.

“Let me through.” Maria said the words slowly. A warning.

Corey merely stared at her through narrowed, calculative eyes, probably thinking of his next move.

Maria didn’t know if it was because her powers were back or if it was because of how strung tight she was, but she heard the lightest clink of metal behind her and she immediately knew that something was creeping towards her.

Not something-someone.

The guards!

With her eyes leveled on Corey, deliberately to let him know that she wasn’t in the mood for games, she turned the back of her palms to him, giving the men behind her the front of them and with a flick of her fingers, she sent them flying into opposite walls.

The hit was not strong enough to kill them, but it was definitely strong enough to make them pass out.

To quit disturbing her.

She hardened her eyes at Corey and with the same hard tone, repeated. “Let. Me. Through.”

Maria was giving him the chance to do the right thing because she didn’t want to hurt him. He was a good man and he was rightfully angry at her because he thought she’d killed his friend on purpose.

She would be angry too if the tables were turned and that was the only reason why she wasn’t passing him out along with the other men right now.

His eyes were wary and angry, his jaw tight with frustration. He knew that he couldn’t fight her.

He stepped to the side for her.

It was a small movement, but she took that as a yes.

She dove for Bran and knelt by his bed, her hands shaking as she placed them on his chest, startled and terrified by how cold he was. “Please work. Please work.” she whispered to herself repeatedly, fresh tears welling in her eyes anew and free-falling down her cheeks.

Maria nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, inhaling his barely-there scent. The tears wet his neck and when she felt snot start to dribble from her nostrils, she pushed away and sniffed, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“Okay,” she told herself, gulping a deep, shaky breath. “You can do this. You’re Maria Hatzi. You can do anything.”

Squaring her shoulders, she placed her hands on Bran’s chest and squeezed her eyes shut, reciting the spell of life in her head.This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

When she was done, she popped her eyes open and looked at him. He was still motionless on the bed.

Her heart was hammering in her chest, her lips trembling with the urge to cry. Not just cry-bawl hard and deep into his shirt. But she fought it back and closed her eyes, reciting the spell again.

Still, nothing happened.

She did it again and again and a-fucking-gain and still, nothing happened.

He kept lying there, skin stark white against the brown of the sheets, still bloody lifeless.

Unable to bear it anymore, she slinked away from him and sat on the ground by the wall close to his bed, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her hands around them as she cried.

The tears ran down her cheeks, unbidden. Her head fell back to rest on the wall and her heart ached in her chest. It felt like it was going to burst any moment now.

Bran was dead. He wasn’t waking up.

She’d killed him.

The thought made her cry even harder.

She felt a shadow hovering over her and knew that it must be Corey. He’d probably decided to end her life for killing his friend and frankly, she wouldn’t fight him. She deserved it.

Maria opened her eyes to tell him exactly that when she saw the look on his face and paused.

He was hovering over the bed, mouth slightly open in wonderment and eyes astonishingly wide in their sockets.

As if he’d felt her looking at him, he turned to her, shut his mouth, opened it, then shut it again. He swallowed hard, then opened his mouth again and this time, he produced words. “You killed him then brought him back to life. How is that possible?”

Maria leapt up from the ground at once, her eyes widening and her insides filling with hope, doubt, disbelief. “He’s… he’s…”

But Corey didn’t have to answer.

The vampire’s eyes flashed open, very much green and very much filled with life.

They locked on her and his mouth opened and whispered something that she didn’t quite catch, then they closed almost immediately and his head lolled to the side again.