Dark Hunger

When Elize tried to open her eyes, she couldn't see anything. She struggled to move but she was tied. She was blindfolded. Her wrists and ankles were tied to a chair and her mouth was gagged. She heard liquid splashing around her chair and footsteps shuffling. It wasn't just any liquid, it was blood. "Uhnn!" She wrenched her wrists away from the armrest of the chair she was tied but she couldn't. 

"Don't struggle," a voice came. "It's no use," said Urhan as he splashed blood around her. He leaned behind her, his breath fanning her ears. In a low voice said, "Those ropes are spelled. You won't be able to break them with your magic or your power. I have cast a spell over you. You won't be able to use that either." He moved back and circled her more, splashing blood on the ground. When he came to stand in front of her, he chuckled. "I can't deny that I like the way you are tied up and at my mercy." 

Elize kicked her ankles in the chair as she groaned with pain when she tried to mutter curses at him. The way she was gagged, she was finding it difficult to breathe. She heard him pausing. His footsteps retracted and then she heard him speaking from a distance, "I am summoning those who have been working with me so far, and then together we will be killing you. Trust me Elize, I am going to kill you so slowly and painfully that Caleb will die thinking of you every second." 

Elize became still. She recalled meeting with him in the council room and after that all she remembered was getting surrounded by a miasma. Her thinking had become foggy after that. It was as if she was walking in a daze, feeling joyous. Where did she get that beautiful feeling from? How did Urhan manage to abduct her when she was so much on her guard? And where the hell was, she? Amongst all the smells that she could smell with her heightened sense of smell was that of blood. Urhan had purposefully poured blood around her in order to misguide her in case Caleb tried to mind link with her about the location or was he making her ready for a sacrifice? 

He continued, his words full of hatred, "I am going to chop in so many pieces and throw it in the square of Ixoviya to show the people what it is to challenge might Urhan and what it is to get a vampire as their queen."

She chuckled through her gag and shook her head. All at once she heard him coming near her with speed. She braced herself for the attack. Urhan backhanded her. Her face swung to the right and pain stung her cheek. She listened to his heavy breathing. "You think this is funny?" he said with a clenched jaw. He came closer to her and then leaned a little over her to open her gag. As soon he untied her mouth, she gasped for breath. She sucked in sharply. Tears rolled out of her eyes as the heat of pain in her cheek rose. Her throat was dry like a desert. Even breathing induced cough and more pain at the back of her throat. She swallowed her saliva and in a hoarse voice said scornfully, "In order to kill me, you need your group? If it were for me, I would have killed all of you single-handedly." 

"Bloody bitch!" Urhan held her hair and yanked her head back. His breath fanned over her face. "You killed my sister. Your death won't be easy. I am going to suck that magic out of you and leave you dry, and when you will be a mere immortal without magic, all I have to do is snap your neck. But first—I want that magic. That vast pool of ancient magic which you are showing off. You were nothing but a human and then was sired by Lazarus to become a vampire. And you thought that you could actually be our queen?" he scoffed. "The time has come I will show you your place, vampire!" 

"I already know my place, ass," she replied. "It seems you don't know. You still don't know anything, do you?" 

He shoved her head and left her hair. "All I know is that you killed my sister and you will pay for it." 

"Why did you send your sister?" she asked. She had to buy time. The man sounded maniacal. "It was you who was too ambitious. You fed those ambitions to Laurel. She started imagining her life as the queen of Ixoviya even though Caleb had come to seek me, even though Caleb and I are mates. And she greatly underestimated my powers. That is where she lost her battle." 

"Fuck you!" he shouted. He circled to come in front of her. He pinched her chin and tipped her head back. In a voice filled with fury, he said, "If you had died, she would have been the queen of Ixoviya. She was a much better woman than you. She was a born sorceress, a natural talent and obviously more powerful and beautiful. You sabotaged her plans at every step. And then in the end you sent her to her doom with the demon? He struck her so hard that a permanent scar formed across her face. Laurel struggled to live in that condition, yet she managed. She—" his throat choked. He swallowed his saliva down and said, "She was living miserably. A girl who had lived with so much dignity all her life—she was reduced to living a secluded life." He shoved her chin back 

"Yeah!" Elize replied, moving her jaw a little. "It's all about choices in the end." 

Urhan shuffled on his feet and then agitatedly walked away from her. He used his magic to summon his group with whom he had planned the execution of the vampire queen. He needed them because he had to suck the magic that belonged to her and in doing so, he wanted they to chant spells together. They were such powerful spells that they had to be chanted by them together and one couldn't make a mistake. And Caleb was such a might sorcerer that he could steal the magic of anyone he wanted without the person knowing about it. Urhan kicked the ground when no one appeared and muttered curses under his breath. He paced the room he was in. It was still broad daylight outside. Were they held by the king for another meeting? Or they refused to come? He gritted his teeth and rubbed his hands at the later conjecture. 

"Leave me and your life may be spared, Urhan," Elize suggested. She wrestled with the rope all over again. Suddenly she realized that she was more focused on wrestling with the rope, when she should be focused on her magic. 

"Fuck you!" He grew all the more restless. 

"They will never come," she said. 

"Oh, then you don't know them. They have worked with me for a long time—ever since you got married to the king. They all hate you." 

"Or is it that you have offered them better positions in the council?" she replied disdainfully. "How greedy you are, Urhan." She tutted him. "Still greedy? Hmm? After Laurel's death? And you know what? Before I killed her, my mate sent Edyrm to Galahar so that he is tackled by his son. So guess what?" she said sassily. "You are also in the enemy list of Prince Rolfe Aramaer."

His chest vibrated with laughter. "Who cares about Edyrm? Once you are gone, Caleb will follow you and Ixoviya will be mine. I will rule it for the rest of my life." 

"You do have wild fantasies," she smirked. "Instead of daydreaming, become practical. Look at what surrounds you and then make decisions. You forget that you are in the lands of Ixoviya, where one can feel the magic of its indomitable king ripple in the air." 

"I have taken care of that, Elize. He won't be able to find us," he replied in a boring tone. 

--- 

When Caleb reached his house, the servants informed that the High Priest had gone to Norhall Castle. His soldiers had found the corpses of Elize's personal guards, stacked in a hidden passage of the castle. So, he called the five councilmen who were supporting Urhan. 

"What do you know about his whereabouts?" he asked with cold fury, as they stood in magic infused chains, shivering, with soldiers pointing the spears at them.