The Vampire King’s Captive

BRAN

“Vampire!”

That was the last thing Bran heard before the creature dragged her farther up the cave and into the darkness, climbing father than Bran ever could while holding onto her.

He stared after the creature, his thoughts in disarray. But he struggled to calm them down. To put them in their natural orderliness so that he would be able to think properly.

But it was almost impossible.

Maria, taken from him. By an incubus.

Fuck.

An incubus was a creature that fed off sexual intercourse. They got their nutrients while they had sex, so basically, without sex, they would starve to death.

It didn’t take a genius to guess why they’d taken Maria. The major reason being that she was a female. Add that to the fact that she was an attractive one, it made her a prime target for incubi.

Bran cursed.

Another thing about incubi was that they rarely went alone. One would most likely find them in groups and Bran could bet on his life that there were more than two incubi up there. And they’d definitely not taken Maria up there because they wanted to have a friendly chat with her.

The thought of what they had planned for her… The thought of what they wanted to do to her while he was down here chilled his blood and at the same time, prompted him into action.

They wouldn’t rape her once and let her go. No, that was not the way they operated. They would rape her, feed her to strengthen her, then come back when they were short on nutrients and rape her again. They would rape her until she died since she was still a mortal, but if she eventually froze into her immortality in the process, then they would rape her forever.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

And she had no powers or weapons to defend herself with.

He was not hearing any more sounds from Maria-not even from the incubus-and he was starting to think the worst. What had they done to her? Since she’d stopped screaming, there had to be limited things involved. It was either they had gagged her so that she wouldn’t be able to scream anymore and draw attention to herself, they’d taken her out of the cave and into the night-he had not seen an opening above the cave, but he also had not looked, so he couldn’t be too sure-, or she’d passed out.

He didn’t know which option frightened him more.

Bran paused at the edge of the room, right where the incubus had taken Maria, and stared up at the darkness awaiting him. The wall was rough and would allow him to climb up, but he was not a good climber by nature and that was exactly why he stood there, stalling.

The more he stalled, the more danger Maria could be in.

At that moment, he contemplated forgetting about her and walking away. He should just let the incubi do whatever they wanted to do with her. It was none of his business anyway. She was an evil sorceress and she deserved any evil that would come her way.

The only reason he was taking her with him was because she was the only one that knew where his sister was-even if she wouldn’t admit it-and he’d lost enough because of her already. His parents were dead, his sister abducted and his castle was now in ruins because of her.

Maybe he would find another way to get to his sister. He should just let her go now.

But then he remembered that she was human. Remembered how excited she’d been about a bath. Remembered how innocent and fragile she’d looked in his arms when he’d carried her. Remembered how full of want she’d looked when she’d stared up at him, begging him with her eyes to kiss her. Remembered-the worst of all-that she was a mortal still.

And he knew that he couldn’t leave her.

He just told himself that he was doing it for his sister. That was all. Else, he would let the incubi have her.

Throwing his swords to the ground, because there was no way he could climb up while holding onto them-and cursing himself for not remembering to grab his sword sheath before he’d left the castle. He put his hands on the wall and began to climb.

He fell. Hard.

He groaned, got up and tried again. He made a bit of progress this time, but before he knew it, his leg missed the spot on the wall and he fell to the ground again.

Fuck this shit.

He was too agitated and angry to climb up there. The cave would be brighter by morning and he could just wait till then before trying again. But would the incubi leave Maria unharmed until then?

He guessed all he could do was hope. Hope that nothing happened to her until he would be able to climb up there tomorrow.

“Maria?” He yelled.

There was no answer.

The possibility that they had taken her out of the cave was starting to grow by the minute and he was hoping that they had not actually taken her out. That would mean that he’d lost her. Lost his only means of finding his sister. Which would mean losing his sister too.

If anything happened to Maria, he vowed to himself that he would go back to the real of Sorceri and burn her house to the ground in search of his sister.

He sat down on the floor with his back to the wall, staring at the fire as it flickered a few feet away from him.

There was no way he would be able to sleep a wink tonight. So he was going to stay awake till morning, then climb back up and hopefully, get Maria and get the hell out of there.

***

Morning didn’t fully come before Bran started scaling the wall.

In the mild light, he could see now that the walls were very high, but other than the light coming in from the entrance of the cave, there was nowhere else light was coming in from. Which meant that the cave didn’t have another opening.

Bran was not exaggerating when he’d said that he was not a great climber. He really wasn’t. And that was why he couldn’t believe it when he found himself throwing his leg on top of the ledge when he reached it. He used the leverage of his leg to pull his entire body onto the ledge.

He’d done it. Now, it was time to find Maria.

He turned, dusting off the dirt on his trousers, then froze when he took in the sight in front of him.

Three incubi stood in front of him with malice written all over their faces and spiked tails slithering dangerously behind them.

Bran had not exactly had a plan coming up here. All he’d known was that he needed to get up here, grab Maria and then get the hell out of here. What he’d forgotten, was that the incubi would be very reluctant to let Maria go and that they might even oppose him.

Shit.

He caught movement at the corner of his eyes and turned subtly, keeping an eye on the seven feet tall creatures in front of him. The movement he’d caught was from Maria and his heart leapt in his chest in excitement when he saw that she was unharmed. Correction-not that harmed. He smelled blood from her forehead. Either these assholes had bashed her head against the wall, or she’d injured it in her struggle.

He forced himself to believe the latter for the sake of his temper.

Just like he’d guessed, there was a material shoved into her mouth. It muffled her cries, but now that he was up here, he could hear them clearly. He’d been so focused on Maria, that he didn’t notice that an incubus stood beside her, wearing the same expression his friends wore.

The idiot thought that he was guarding his meal.

What he didn’t understand, was why they had not just taken what they wanted from her last night. He didn’t see any logic in them capturing her only to guard her like fucking dogs.

Maybe luck was on his side. If so, he needed to act fast.

He turned back to the incubi in front of him. “She’s mine. You need to let her go.”

The one in the middle inclined his head, staring at Bran as though he was trying to make sense of his words.

“The girl is mine. I’m here to get her back.” Bran repeated, slower this time. When the three of them exchanged confused looks, then stared at him blankly, it hit him.

If these creatures lived in this cave, then there was a possibility that they couldn’t speak English. They hadn’t grown in the midst of people like the other incubi he’d met and that was probably why they were more aggressive than the usual incubus.

If they actually couldn’t speak or hear, then there was no way he was going to get Maria back without a fight. And he was going to get Maria back.

Which meant…

Bran dropped into a crouch so fast, the creatures didn’t see him coming, then shot his leg straight out and in one powerful move, swiped their legs out from under them.