31 — A taste of prison

Laura sat at the edge of her well made bed, dressed in a black silk gown and sighed greatly. She was really tired, fatigued one might call it.
Her eyes burned from all the tears she'd been shedding for days, her back burned from the forced dignity she had to portray herself with as all the matters of the kingdom were passed on to her shoulders. Even her face ached from all the smiles she'd been giving people.
Slowly, she climbed her bed and lay on it, her face down as she smelled the clean sheets. Few days ago—who was she kidding?— seven days ago, to be exact, she'd been dreaming of getting married.
Getting married to a man who'd snuck out of his bed, out of the palace and out of her life maybe,leaving a note as the only token and disappeared into the night like the night creature he was.
At first, she'd found the note endearing, thoughtful and had even smiled while reading it but now, seven days later and the note was tucked away from sight because it infuriated her anytime it was in sight.
She was guessing her infuriation was being caused by the acute loneliness she felt at the moment. She had no one to talk to, not even Elaine who was always stuck in the kitchen these days, too busy employing new maids and letting old ones go.
It seemed like the palace had breathed a little when the marriage proposal had come and then had lost what little life it had when her father became blind.
She didn't even have Mary to talk to. Mary was always busy, never here nor there. She didn't want to believe it but it seemed like everyone was afraid that now that she'd become acting queen, she would change or whatnot. It was stupid. People didn't change that easy, she thought rolling over on her bed.
She didn't want to think too much of her father because tears always came and she didn't want to think of Nicolas who still hadn't showed up even though he promised three days. She didn't want to believe he'd run off, just like that because he didn't seem like the kind of person who abandoned stuff. He had seemed passionate and his letter had spoken of many things, but where was he?
Sighing and wiping the stray year that had leaked from her eye, Laura got up from the bed and exited her chambers. Things were getting too hard to handle around here and she was too weak to bear it.
'Mother,' she painfully thought, ' I'm failing you again.'
*******
Lily stared at the unconscious body of the stranger who she'd fought with for a second. His head had been bleeding but it seemed the cut had covered up, his skin had gone back to its pale colour which was a good sign, she hoped.
With what she'd gathered so far, the paleness, the fast healing, the bizarre sword fighting, his clothing and face all meant he was a vampire. What she didn't know was what he was doing on her lands?
She knew the vampire kept a relatively friendly or respectful boundary from them because their beef was with the wolves. So what was this vampire man doing on kayaan lands? It made no sense.
As she stared at the attractive man still unconscious man on the ground, she regretted knocking him out with her staff. It was something she'd just done without considering how she was going to transport a man taller and far more bulkier than herself to a dungeon which was like few kilometers away.
Even with her strength, she would still find some difficulty carrying him.
Slinging her staff and placing it on its hold on her back, she took the man's sword and decided to hold on to it incase he woke up and maybe wanted to fight. Being caught unawares wasn't something Lily liked happening to her so she took necessary precautions.
Strapping his knife to her ankle, she nodded before slinging the man over her shoulders.
He just looked light, he was heavier than what Lily was used to so, she tottered on her feet before she could secure balance and began the journey back home with a captive around her shoulders.
As she trekked back home, she briefly wondered who this man was. What if he was a spy sent here to spy on them? Normally, it would be the bear shifters she would be worried about on a normal basis but they were gone so why was a vampire trespassing on their lands even though all supernaturals knew no one was supposed to?
It didn't make sense. The vampire king had no business with the kayaans even though they maintained a fairly okay relationship with the kayaans. So why was this man here?
Lily didn't know much about the vampires being that their main focus had been the bear shifters but studying the man's outfit, she could say he was a normal vampire, maybe a villager.
Hoisting him more firmly on her shoulders, she continued the trek, even though sweat was pouring in rivulets past her hairline, down her face and trickling down her back. This was labour and Lily who wasn't used to complaining found herself almost dropping the man who was too heavy to carry.
Villager or not, she decided, she would take him back to the village and bring the matter before the elders. Maybe they would have a better theory about why a vampire was prowling their lands .
Steeling her feet on the ground, she paused for a second before deciding she could no longer carry this man. She was already exhausted and tired and weak.
Her attention was brought to her bleeding thigh. She'd almost forgotten about it and now that she thought about it, it was probably the reason why she was so tired. She was loosing blood.
With a grunt, she let him off her shoulders and let him fall to the ground with a thud. He didn't stir, thank the goddess.
She scanned the small patch of bushes they were, praying the plant she was looking for was here. When her keen eyes found it, she moved quickly, snatching the flower and wilting it with her fingers, squeezing to get the drop of juice it produced on her wound. Baba Mbari had thought her that.
Feeling better that she would no longer loose any more blood and still had enough strength to kick this stranger's ass if she wanted, she walked over to his still form, rolled him over on his stomach, unstrapped the knife that was still at her ankle, held it to his neck and then took the water bottle that she now noticed was in a leather bottle on his waist and splashed it on his face.
She could no longer carry him but she would make sure he became a captive and didn't escape.
*******
Nicolas had one question for the universe. Why was it that people thought it was nice to hit him hard over the head just to make him unconscious? The thing hurt like hell.
He woke up to the cold feeling of water being splashed on his face and he opened his eyes quickly only to have water splashed into them.
"I'm awake for fucks sake!" He said, cleaning his eye with his sleeve before realizing he was on his stomach and cold metal was at his throat. Were they still at this? Playing the captor-captive game?
"Good to know," she said from above him. She had to be crouching for her to be able to still have him at knife point so her balance was not at its strongest. Nicolas was thinking fast. If he could just upset her balance, he would be able to do something to defend himself.
The girl seemed to have read his mind because she pressed her weight on his back and dug the knife deeper into his throat.
"Don't even think about escaping. I know how to wield a knife as well as a staff so any movements and I slit your throat." She threatened in a home that told Nicolas she could do it.
"Fine," he huffed out.
"Good. I'm going to get up right now, bound your hands with my belt and we're going to go into my lands to meet the elders. Try anything other than this and I won't hesitate to kill you," she said matter of factly, challenging him go respond with the arrogant way her head tilted.
Nicholas didn't even have the strength to argue. He would always scheme and plan something.
"Ok," he simply replied and she nodded. She did exactly what she said she would, bounding his hand and pulling him to his feet.
They continued to walk deeper into the kayaans kingdom but he hadn't seen any kayaans since they began to trek.
"We took a bush path someone told me about long ago, to prevent attention to ourselves. It's better and easier this way, trust me," she said, knife at his back as she led him from behind.
"Easier for you to kill me right?" Nicolas couldn't help asking and the girl scoffed.
"It would be a lot easier to just do that, I suppose. Is that what you want?" She demanded and Nicolas fell quiet. Something told him if he'd said yes, she would've really put the knife through him.
"Thought so," she said and silence fell on them. The bush path they'd taken was quite long but Nicolas wasn't one to complain. How had they gotten here? His body wasn't dirty so she had spared him the disgrace of trailing him behind her like a ragged doll. There was only one alternative and that was that she'd carried him.
"Did you carry me here?" He incredulously asked, turning to study her small frame and she huffed in obvious annoyance.
"No, we flew," she said in a deadpan voice that actually had him considering it.
"Pardon?" He just had to ask. Did the kayaans fly? He'd never bothered to read up about them before so even if she was mocking him, he wouldn't know but he'd never heard about another flying supernatural except the fairies and those guys were everything thing that was synonymous to nasty and evil.
"Of course I carried you. By the way, what do you eat? You're so damn heavy, like some mountain," she said in a voice that wasn't an insult but at the same time not a compliment.
He would've told her he was, in plain words, a blood sucker but then what was the use?
"When are we going to get there? This place is endless," he complained. His feet was starting to hurt.
"Soon enough." She plainly said, eyes ahead. Nicolas knew what that meant. It meant it was still far and he could've groaned at that. He was tired if trekking but then he looked at his captor, smallish but bleeding and not complaining. She'd even carried him but she was still walking so he knew he would survive.
After some time of walking and occassional talking, they got to a place buikt entirely of stone. The building rose high into the sky and Nicolas looked up at it, feeling awed. Woah!
The girl just let him take in few seconds of admiring becgjre she deadpanned again.
"You're admiring your prison cell?" She quizzically asked and then, Nicolas realized why the building was made of stone. Made more sense now.
"I didn't know it was a prison, but it's quite a decent prison," he remarked, remembering how the prison back home looked like. He shivered at the memory. It wasn't something he wanted to remember.
"I've never heard anyone call a prison decent before. It's oxymoronic." She cynically said, before pushing him inside the building.
"What are you doing?" He asked, moving out of her reach. She frowned.
"I'm keeping you in there. What are you doing?" She eyes him with distrust. They were on the same page and he was glad.
"You said you were going to take me to meet the elders, remember?" He reminded, still edging out of her reach as she continued to move forward.
"I can't do that. I need to keep you here for now." She said, holding his bound hand and pushing him inside.
"That's not what we agreed on," he almost yelled as she led him to a prison cell and pushed him in, securing the lock.
"We never..." She trailed off, clearly exasperated and then snapped at him.
"Why am I explaining my self to you? Stay here," she commanded, stalking away and leaving him to yell out after her.
"This isn't fair and you know it!" He sounded like a whiny child.
" Well, it wasn't fair that you trespassed first. Stay there stranger, I'll be back with news in your case," she barked back and then she was gone, her small frame disappearing into the night.