Page 16 of King of the Damned
I hear a commotion and some instinct within me tells me to hide, so I crouch behind a brazier and peek around it.
Down the corridor, I see the vampire that stopped Kaius from feeding on me in the cave, with a leash in one hand and a whip in the other. If I remember rightly from my eavesdropping, his name is Dravon.
At the other end of the leash is the man from the prison. The sickly one. He’s wearing only trousers, his bones sticking out to a disturbing degree. There are scars covering his back from a whip–some new, some old. He’s covered in dirt and blood.
The vampire whips the man while he scrubs the floor clean of dirt that isn’t there and his own blood. Dravon has a vile grin on his face as he tortures that poor man. What could he have possibly done to deserve this?
I can’t just hide and watch. I have to do something. Do I dare stand up to Dravon without Kaius here to protect me?
Before I can talk myself out of it, I stand up and walk towards them.
“Leave him alone!” I demand. Dravon looks at me and then down to the man. With a grin, Dravon spits and kicks him before dropping the leash and walking towards me. We stand at the same height, yet his coldness easily overshadows me. My cheeks heat as my false bravery crumbles. Dravon gently hooks his finger into the high neckline of my leotard, examining the skin underneath.
“Curious,” he says quietly. With another grin, he steps around me and disappears down the hall.
I rush to the man curled in the fetal position on the ground and kneel next to him. He whimpers when I touch his temple, where a soft stream of blood drips into his eyes.
“Here,” I say quietly, using the magic Kaius gave me to conjure him a goblet of water. His parched, chapped lips tremble as he takes a careful sip before drinking the rest. I refill the goblet again. “Drink as much as you need,” I tell him. He eyes me suspiciously over the rim of the cup.
“You’re a human,” he croaks, his voice hoarse and strained.
I nod. I shimmy out of the skirt I have on over my leotard and use it to soak up some of the blood on his face as he drinks. “What’s your name?”
“Saddiq.”
“Where are you from, Saddiq?”
“The Cambouri Desert. The westernmost part of the al-Abadi region.”
“My father visited the Desert once, before I was born. He told me that the sand is the most beautiful shade of orange, and there are strange spiky plants in the ground that hold water so crisp it could quench any thirst.” Saddiq gives me a half-hearted smile, and behind his eyes I can see the way he misses his home. “I’m Adelasia.”
“Why did you help me?” he asks. “He could have killed you.”
“He won’t,” I answer, even though I’m unsure of how true that is. “The Vampire Lord has forbidden him from touching me.” Saddiq eyes me suspiciously at that but continues to drink. My eyes trace along his skin and bones for legs. He’s so frail. I attempt to conjure some food for him, but I’ve not yet mastered this strange magic Kaius gave me, and my attempts are, quite literally, fruitless.
“I’m going to bring you some food. Stay here. Drink,” I instruct, before standing and rushing towards the kitchen. My nose carries me to the smell of roasting meat and sauteed vegetables. When I step into the kitchen, the vampires and human servants alike pay no attention to me. They walk past me as if I’m invisible.
Laid out on the long center table of the kitchen are trays of cheeses, fruits, and nuts. I pop a grape into my mouth and take a few handfuls of food.
As I reach for a thick slice of warm bread, a cold hand snatches my wrist, causing me to drop the cheese and fruit I had in my fist. I gasp and look up to find a particularly vile-looking vampire staring at me with distaste. His face is sallow, just like the vampires that kidnapped me.
“What do we have here?” he asks rhetorically. Some of the servants look over their shoulders at us, but most still pay no mind. “Looks like one of the cows has wandered out of the pen.”
I try to tug my wrist free. “Let me go,” I demand forcefully.
“You know cattle aren’t allowed in the kitchens.”
“It’s a good thing I’m not cattle then. Let me go!” I shout. The vampire only snickers and drags me across the kitchen until my back is flat against the wall. He holds me by my neck so forcefully I can only take shallow, unsatisfying breaths.
“Kai…Kaius said…”
“‘Kaiussaid’? Did you hear that?” he shouts over his shoulder, drawing the attention of the rest of the kitchen staff. “Disobedientanddisrespectful.LordKaius won’t miss you, I think. He’ll like you better mixed in with his wine.”
My head feels like it’s going to pop from the pressure of being choked, and the vampire laughs. “Or maybe I’ll just have you for dinner myself.”
His fangs grow longer and he releases my throat only to tug my head to the side and give himself access to my neck.
The vampire lunges for me, and I scream as I brace myself and close my eyes for the pain, but it doesn’t come. The room goes silent. No more clattering of pans. Even the roasting fire seems to go quiet.
