The Bride of the Vampire King

Welcome to the Playground

Aneela

The room felt damp and cold. Even before she opened her eyes Aneela knew she wouldn’t like any second she was supposed to spend here. Her skin crawled with goosebumps when she heard the crawling of something with too many legs for her liking on the wall somewhere too close to her back. Her mind still drifted in and out of consciousness and it was especially hard to figure out her surroundings now her wolf was silenced.

The realization she was almost as weak as a human didn’t sit well with her. A long time ago she had vowed to never be helpless and in need of rescue and being like this, chained and subdued only fuelled her anger.

Ever since Diana appeared to her, the ultimate gift the Moon Goddess could ever give to a person, Aneela felt almost invincible. Diana was mostly a presence, not a real person, but she was there to guide and protect her in a world that always tried to mold her into something Aneela could never be. A spirit to give Aneela strength and confidence and take the tension off when she felt lonely and weak in her father’s palace. And in that place Aneela felt like that almost the entire time growing up. There was not much to strive for when her life was decided for her since the moment she was born. She was a girl, the only child of a powerful alpha king - and as such Aneela was not supposed to be more than a bargaining chip in her family’s royal games of power. They threw her in the hands of wet nurses, maids and strict teachers almost immediately, and all these people had one thing and one thing only in mind - make her an obedient, never asking questions, shining jewel in her royal family’s crown, a gift for her future husband as he took over the alpha position and inherited everything that was supposed to belong to Aneela but would never be hers just because she dared to be born a woman. There was not much to strive for in life, the only consolation in her lonely childhood being the fact she learned to play that role so well she had almost convinced herself she was happy like this.

But then Diana came and changed everything. Aneela’s wolf was powerful, restless. She reminded Aneela how much she liked running till exhaustion under the moonlight, exploring, playing. She opened her eyes for the outside world and there was no way back to being that same lonely girl anymore. And now she was gone, suppressed. Just for this Aneela would make them pay.

When she finally opened her eyes, she had no idea how much time had passed. She was still dizzy from whatever the vampires had done to her to knock her out. The small room was dark, the smell of something rotten filling the entire space, making Aneela flinch in disgust, fighting the worst nausea she had ever had since she was five years old and had eaten some spoiled cake.

Her wrists were bound to iron chains above her head. The shackles dug into her skin, her armsaching all over from the strain. Her feet barely touched the wet muddy ground and the effort of keeping herself standing was exhausting, making her muscles ache and scream for release.

Aneela fought in the chains in a desperate effort to pull herself free somehow, but the damn thing just refused to give way. The more she tried to break it, the deeper the iron dug into her skin, making the pain and exhaustion even worse.

“Let me go you, bastards!” Aneela shouted and shouted, kicking and tossing in her restraints, but no one ever came to her no matter how loud and angry she got.

She had no idea how much time passed like this. It could be an hour, it could be an entire day - screaming and fighting with no real way out or explanation why all this was happening to her and why her mother and her warriors were not coming for her. She was tired, uncomfortable and aching all over, exhausted, hungry like never before. Her stomach growled in protest as she couldn’t even remember the last time she ate. The thirst was also there, getting to her. Her head felt too heavy for her neck to hold and Aneela desperately let it lean on her arms even though her muscles protested with every movement.

“What do you want from me?” She shouted from time to time to no one in particular as the hours went by and no one came.

The tears that filled her eyes were not ones born of fear or desperation. Not in the beginning at least. It was the anger and frustration that drew them out and let them fall fat and salty down her cheeks. The moment she felt the wet stains on her flushed skin, only the goddess knew how much time later, Aneela cursed herself. She was not some weak fragile girl in need of saving. She was not about to start begging her captors to let her go. She did not need to cry or show any emotion to her enemies, nothing that might be read as weakness.

Defiantly, she wiped the hateful tears by rubbing her cheeks in her arms and raised her head. Then she righted her position, standing taller. Yes, there was no one to see her right now, or at least she thought so. It didn’t matter. She had to do it for herself. Those damn vampires were not going to scare her with their mind tricks and they were not going to make her bend just because. If only this stupid water dripping on the wall behind her could stop the hell out because it was about to drive her crazy as seconds ticked by turning into minutes and then hours.

Aneela stood still now, perfectly still, forbidding her mind to go back to that water and that constant drop drop drop. Every breath hurt as a new kind of exhaustion came to her. She could barely feel her limbs and her chest ached with the strain of keeping her feet on the ground instead of dangling on the shackles. The anger was slowly growing inside her and she knew it was getting to a point it might be dangerous for her to even move. She rarely got this mad and when it happened, Diana was usually there to channel this anger. They’d shift in situations like this and run for miles under the moonlight until this rage died down enough for them to go back and pretend to be the perfect pliable princess. Diana was not here now. Someone had silenced her and the anger blinded Aneela like nothing else.

She had no idea when she fell asleep. When she woke up again, the cell was just as damp and filled with silence as before, the only thing breaking that silence was the hateful dripping of the water behind her. Her entire body ached at this point and it was hard for her to contain the trembling of her limbs. It was the exhaustion, and the hunger, and the crippling fear that was slowly catching roots in her heart.

Licking her dry lips, Aneela took a deep breath and again raised her head. Her neck was stiff from the uncomfortable position but it was neither the time, nor the place for moping about it. Trying to focus, she looked around, forcing her gaze into the deeper ends of the shadow filled cell as she looked for something, anything, that might be used as a weapon or a means to her freedom. No matter how hard she forced herself to listen, there were no other sounds that the ones she made and the dripping behind her. In the shadows in front of her she could vaguely distinguish a door, but there were no windows, no light came from anywhere.

Frustrated, Aneela wanted to scream again. This was a waste of time. Had they thrown her here and left her to rot completely forgetting about her. One might figure the vampire king would be less than bothered with an insignificant girl he believed was no more important than a maid. Aneela had been too good in her attempt to blend in with the crowd at the ball. Her clothes and makeup were nice and beautiful but would never suggest she was the princess. And she had never told the king her true identity. Maybe it was a good idea, maybe it was a mistake. She tended to believe it was the former as he seemed really keen on hunting down and killing the werewolf princess. He had killed Twyla because of her.

A specific kind of pain, one that went straight to her heart the moment she remembered her lost friend, maybe the only one she had in that palace, pierced Aneela’s chest. She had not forgotten how that vampire with his angelic face tore Twyla’s flesh and drained her blood. She would never forgive and in the darkness that surrounded her, desperate and helpless, she vowed in front of herself to make him pay one way or the other for what he did.

Drowning in these unhappy thoughts, Aneela barely missed the noises that suddenly came outside of the door. Steps, dangling of keys on an iron chain, a lock clicking. When the heavy metal door finally opened and the light from the torches outside hit her eyes, Aneela almost screamed from the pain. She had spent too much time in this darkness and now it felt almost impossible to adjust.

Bracing herself, Aneela squeezed her jaws and opened her eyes again, focusing on the tall slender vampire that stepped into the cell, holding a bowl with some white slob in it. He winced at the sight of her, a shadow quickly running through his pale handsome face but he chased it away almost immediately. Aneela recognized his scent right away - this was the man who had manhandled her at the ball, while his master and the vampire witch cast spells over her and her people and guests.

“You are still alive,” the vampire dragged, his voice, calm and almost soothing, sounded like music to Aneela’s eyes after all these hours of silence and dread. “For a second I wasn’t sure you were going to make it, delicate as you seem.”

Aneela scoffed. She may appear as many things, but delicate? She did not feel delicate at all as she held his gaze, unable to hide the challenge in hers.

“Untie me and I will show you how delicate I am,” she said, smirking. Her eyes didn’t miss even a single move the vampire did. She traced how the air current played with his long blond hair, the straight locks moving around him like they had will of their own. It was mesmerising, almost enchanting especially for someone who had only darkness to stare at for too long.

He stood a few steps in front of Aneela, sighing as he leaned to put the lantern he brought with him on the floor. There was a sardonic smile on his full lips as he stood up to face her again, that plump, almost boyish face with its fake innocence in complete contrast with the hardness in his dark blue eyes. Just as he made another step towards Aneela, she realized he wore a uniform - the coat in the same color as his eyes. Was he military? Some kind of police? What the hell was going on?

Aneela moved in her chains again, making the dangling sound of the clamping iron echo in the wet walls.

“So feisty,” the vampire dragged, taking her entire frame in with hungry eyes. He was playing a game with her, Aneela realized. All these long looks and deliberate slow movements. Was he trying to scare her off? To intimidate her so that she would talk? “To answer your request, I can’t untie you. You are not mine unfortunately so I can’t stay and play with you.”

“I don’t belong to any of you, bastards!” Aneela snapped, lunging forward despite the shackles.

The vampire only chuckled, not moving an inch. She could not reach him, no matter how hard she tried. His shoulders lifted up and down as he laughed silently at her and there was nothing Aneela had ever wanted to do more than punch him.. The realization she wasn’t able to only made the blood boil in her veins dragging her out of her stupor.

“But you do. You belong to my king, therefore we will do with you whatever the king orders us to, unless you decide to speak. And, as a sign of his good will, I brought you food.” The way he said the word food as he looked at the slob in the bowl told her he hated even the sight of it. Aneela tried to remember if vampires actually ate normal people’s food or not. Probably not, judging by the disgusted face he made at the bowl, but then again anyone in their right mind would be disgusted at this soapy watery white thing inside it.

“I am not eating that,” Aneela stated, her head raised royally in the air.

“Are you afraid it is poisoned?” The vampire asked with amusement as he took a spoonful of the slob and then let it drip back into the bowl. “I can assure you it is not…”

“You don’t sound quite convinced,” Aneela smirked. It was getting hard to talk with the dryness in her mouth. The effort to hold herself proud and tall since the hours, probably days being forced on her feet strained by this chain, was taking its toll on her too. “That thing should be banned as a crime against nature.”

“Demanding much, are we?” The vampire dragged again, digging the spoon in the food and shoving it towards her face.

Suddenly his entire expression changed. The mask of the cherubim looking, polite boy fell in an instant and an emotionless, feral beast took its place as he stepped towards Aneela and forced the spoon between her lips, part of its content falling all over her face and clothes as she fought to get away from it. Some of the food did get inside her mouth and Aneela choked on it as she drew a large gulp of air at the exact same time.

Coughing and spitting she fought for her next breath.

“You will eat!” The vampire shouted at her, the viciousness in his voice matching perfectly the one gripping his features. “I will not let you die of starvation before we are done with you!”

“What the hell do you even want from me?” Aneela shouted back, her voice hoarse now. “What could you possibly want from me?”

He smiled, eyes taking her in again. He had left the bowl on the ground while Aneela coughed and now he was standing next to her in a military position - tall, alert, hands behind his back.

“You know where the wolf princess is and you refused to oblige my king’s commands to tellhim. You are his toy now and you will not question what he wants to do to you. Something more, you will learn to accept it and even crave it once I am done with you.”

Despite her anger, Aneela could not stop the cold laughter that escaped her lips. That was absurd. These people were all insane. Was he telling her he wanted to turn Aneela into one of the king’s pets? But even though she refused to even think of what he was telling her, a fear crept deep into her soul. What if they did?

“Look at you, playing all tough and untouchable,” the vampire said almost tenderly. “They all do in the beginning. But you can’t hide that spark of fear, can you? Not from me. You will break. Just like everyone else. And when you do, you will tell the king everything he wants to know, willingly.”

There was no way to stop the chills from running down her spine this time. Nor could she ignore the way his eyes sparkled with excitement at the thought of breaking her. Wetting her lips, Aneela tried to bet on logic for at least once in her life. Maybe there was a way to calm herself down and reason with this madman. “What… what are you going to do with the princess if you find her?”

“Me?” He blinked innocently which made the hair on her neck stand with horror. “I won’t do anything. My master though, he’d kill her of course.” The words echoed like a verdict in the empty cell.

“Why? What has she ever done to him? He’s never even met her!” Aneela insisted, refusing to give up yet.

The vampire’s eyes filled with hatred and disgust. “She exists. She wasn’t supposed to be born, but she slipped through the cracks of life and she needs to be put down once and for all. She can’t be allowed to live anymore and she needs to be punished for her crimes.”