Chapter 3
I did not know what I expected when they dragged me through the gates of the vampire king's castle. Fear curled like a chill knot in my stomach, but I wasn't ready for the sheer scope of the place—dark and gothic, spires stretching toward the sky as if attempting to pierce heaven. The stones breathed life, an old energy, ancient secrets, and blood. Air was heavy, as if the deaths it had witnessed over the centuries were almost felt, like an oppressive weight upon it, suffocating itself within the walls of the castle.
My captors did not speak. They pulled me forward with a cold indifference, their hands feeling like iron shackles locking around my arms. My legs were weak, shaking with every step as we entered the castle's massive doors. Inside, it was even darker than outside. Torchlight flickered along the stone corridors, casting eerie shadows dancing on the walls.
Yet the farther I went, the heavier this place pressed upon me. I felt it—the heavy dread seeping into my bones, eating at the edges of my brain. The walls seemed to close in and my breaths shallower and more frantic. Every fibre of my being screamed for me to turn around and run, but there was nowhere to go. Not anymore.
We finally reached a big, ominous room. My captors pushed me forward wordlessly; I caught myself just in time to avoid falling on the cold stone floor. I knelt there, afraid to make a movement.
I did not want to see him-the king. I did not want to know what kind of monster ruled over this accursed town.
But then I heard his voice. Deep, authoritative, and laced with cold fury.
Bring her closer.
I felt a cold shiver slide down my spine, and with a growl, I lifted my head. At the far end of the room, seated on a throne carved from dark stone, sat the vampire king.
He was tall, his shoulders broad as his presence was broad, filling the room. His skin was pale, almost unnatural so, and his eyes—a piercing, cold shade of silver—glowed faintly in the dim light. His face was sharp, every angle perfect, but there was something not comforting about his beauty. It was a kind of beauty that could kill, the kind of beauty that lived on fear. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes. they burned with some fierce, unyielding intensity that made my stomach twist.
"Who dares trespass on my soil?" he demanded, his voice like a whiplash.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. "I. I didn't know. I didn't mean to trespass."
He tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. "Ignorance does not excuse the laws of this land," he said in a low voice tinged with an undertone of fury. "Humans and vampires live in fragile peace, a balance that can easily be shattered by the foolish curiosity of your kind.".
I was compelled to raise my eyes into his, attempting to stifle the urge to duck back from the glare he was emitting. "I wasn't trying to break any laws," I protested. "I was just here looking for some answers as to my parents.".
His lips curled up into a cold, predatory smile. "Your parents? Seems you've wandered into a world far beyond your understanding." He took deliberate steps down from the throne-movement intentional, all of them full of confidence that seemed to ooze with dominance. "I am Marcus, king of the vampires in this land. You, human, are a trespasser, and you know nothing of the dangers you face.".
My heart pounded at the heaviness of his introduction. "I came to find out what happened to them. I didn't come to start trouble."
He strode forward, his dark cloak blowing behind him like smoke. "You speak of peace, yet your very presence threatens it. You think you can simply waltz onto my domain and demand your questions? You think you are the first to come seeking what lies beyond their understanding?"
I peered up at him, feeling small under his scrutiny. "I'm not like the others.".
He raised an eyebrow at me, speaking as if he'd never heard the phrase in his life, in a casual way, "That's what they all say."
I tried to protest before he could keep going, but Marcus spun on his heel and faced the vampires holding me. "Lock her in the dungeons."
"What,!!?" I could feel my feet scrabbling for balance, and my heart was pulsating in my chest. "No — wait! Please, I'm not a threat, I just want to go home. I'll never come back again, I swear!
But he didn't even bother to glance my way a second time. "Humans who trespass are either fools or spies," he said, his voice abstracted, as though my sentence was already set. "You will remain in the dungeons until I decide what to do with you."
Two of the vampires dragged me along by the arms, their hands like cold iron, toward the doors.
Panic ran through me. "Wait! You don't understand! Please! I didn't mean to hurt anyone—"
My words were lost in the chill, stone silence of the castle as they dragged me down a spiral staircase deeper into its gut. The air was growing colder, damper; darkness was suffocating as we went deeper and deeper into this place.
Then we had to go down to dungeons—cold, stone cells with iron bars and a smell that made my stomach churn. They threw me into one of them without any care whatsoever, the heavy iron door slammed shut behind me.
I ran to the bars and was clutching them in desperation as I looked back to the vampires. "Please, please," I begged. "There has to be some way I can speak with him again, some way I can show him I didn't mean for this trouble!"
The vampires snarled. "The king doesn't have time for the pleadings of mortals," one of them snarled before they turned and left me alone in the darkness.
I fell to the stone-cold floor, my body shaking. What had I gotten myself into?
Gasps of breath whirled through my airways as I glared at the small, barred window at the top of the wall. There was no exit. No way back. And the king… he had no mercy. No kindness.
Yet, for reasons I could not understand, his strange flicker in his eye kept streaming through my mind when thinking of my parents.
There must be something he didn't tell me, something buried under that cold face.
Now, I'm literally stuck under the mercy of a king who would rather see me dead than listen to my story.