Chapter 40 A secretive shadow
Amara POV
I wake to the taste of iron and rot. It coats my tongue and clings to the back of my throat. For a split second I nearly think it’s my own. I try to inhale too fast and choke, a broken sound bubbling out of me before I force myself to calm down.
Cold stone presses against my cheek.
I blink. Once. Twice.
The world comes back in pieces instead of wholes. Torchlights first, trembling and yellow. Shadows dancing on the walls. The smell hits next. Old blood.. New blood. Vampire blood has such a wrongness to it, sweet and spoiled all at once, like something pretending to be alive.
And goddess, I..I’m covered in it.
My hands are slick, red-black up to my wrists, smeared across my forearms and chest. I’m absolutely covered.. my torn night gown is practically soaked entirely where it hasn’t ripped.
My heart stutters.
At least I’m not hurt.
That should comfort me.
But it doesn’t.
I try to move.
The sound comes before the pain. A dull clink. Metal answering metal.
Silver bites into my wrists. Searing, burning. I hadn’t noticed my wrists are practically raw from the silver now. I wonder how long I’ve been chained. Or how long I’ve even been out. Or missing.
I wonder what is going through Sebastian’s mind right now. I know there must be guards all over the kingdom searching everywhere.
The cuffs on my wrist are thick, etched with symbols that seem to dance when I look too long. I sit up and look at the chains, which are attached above me in the stone wall. The silver isn’t decorative. It’s deliberate. Meant to keep me powerless. These aren’t just normal chains. They’ve been spelled to hold a high ranking wolf.
A queen. Maybe if I was a lycan it might be possible to overpower them.. but I’m not. And I feel incredibly weak.
I grab my stomach as it groans, a sharp pain ripping through me.
My memory is starting to come back a bit.
I remember waking up and being carried away through some doorway that was never there before. I couldn’t move.. I couldn’t mind link Sebastian. I couldn’t do anything.. Being forced to drink blood.
My stomach lurches at the thought and I spew up the red contents. It drips from my nose and mouth as tears rush down my cheeks to mix. Why would they even do that? I’m a wolf.
More memories flood as I wipe my mouth with my gown. I tried to run, I attacked.. striking, my claws finding whatever they could and tearing it apart. I remember vampire’s face.. and me completely going animalistic.
After that?
Nothing.
Just black..thick, nothingness.
I stare at the blood on my hands again, at the splatter across the floor around me. How is it possible that two vampires can hold so much blood? Why don’t I fully remember what I did? Who chained me after I killed these two? And why leave their bodies?
My pulse hammers harder, not with fear but with a slow, crawling awareness. I feel drugged still.. like my wolf is being shoved away. but I also feel.. awake. Sharper than I should after losing time like I did. It’s an odd sensation.
Footsteps echo somewhere beyond the light causing my eyes to shoot in the direction of the door. Are they finally here to kill me?
I still my breathing instantly, letting my head fall back against the stone, lashes lowering as I close my eyes. Maybe if I just pretend to sleep, they’ll leave me be. It might give me more time to think of a plan to escape.
Inside, I try to open a link to hopeful contact Sebastian.
“I’m not sure if you can hear me. I’m okay. It’s vampires. I killed two of them. I’ll try to get away.” There’s nothing but silence.
I don’t bother to try again.
What do they want with me? Why keep me locked in this room?
Do they even want me dead? They didn’t kill me.. so I’m not even quite sure at this point. I may be an asset? They might need me. That’ll be good. It’ll give me a better chance at getting away. Hopefully Sebastian will find me before it even gets to that point.. but he may not.
A presence slides into the room without crossing the threshold of light.
“Well,” a voice says from the shadows, calm and amused. “That was inefficient.”
My eyes open, my heart jumping in my chest.
I can’t see him. The torchlight simply.. stops, as if it knows better than to touch what waits beyond it.
“They were instructed to drug and bind you first,” the voice continues. “A simple task.”
“You sent them,” I say, my voice rough.
“My master, yes.”
The words land easily.
“They were sloppy,” he goes on. “Overconfident. They mistook you for a weak creature. Forgot you’re now stronger than before since your wedding.. and.. marking, it would appear.”
The faintest edge of annoyance slips into his tone.
“No worries. They won’t make that mistake again,” I say.
A pause.
“No,” he agrees. “They won’t.”
I lift my chin, ignoring the way the silver drags at my nerves. “If you wanted me dead, I’d be dead.”
“Correct.”
“Then why am I here?”
The presence shifts, not closer, not farther. Just.. more.
“Because my master wants you alive,” he says. “He has plans.”
Plans.
My arms curl to defend myself despite the cuffs hiding me in place.
“Plans?” I ask.
It was silent for far too long, I was beginning to think he was never even really there in the first place until he spoke again.
“I see the ruby has been left behind..”
The words scrape against something old in my memory. The ruby. Is this.. that vampire?
“Are you..?” He cut me off before I could continue..
“Now,” the shadow says, “you rest. The silver will keep you cooperative. When my master is ready, you’ll be presented.”
Presented. Like an object. Like a prize. A tool he can use for whatever sick plan he has.
The presence begins to withdraw, the air lightening with each step I never hear.
“Wait,” I snap. “Just tell me. Who are you?”
He stops.
For a heartbeat, the shadows feel.. amused.
“We’ve met,” he says gently. “In due time you’ll know what you need.”
Then he’s gone.
The silence rushes back in, thick and watchful.
I stare at the two dead vampires on the floor, at the blood drying on my skin, at the chains holding me within two feet of the wall.
Two vampire captors dead.
A secretive shadow.
A master waiting.
I close my eyes and breathe.
Everything will be okay.