I tried to force myself and the chains down but the chains were not budging. I would just have to tell them that they were losing their minds. It would be fun to mess with my captors.
"Wasn't she sitting when we left her?" one vampire asked when they made it back to me.
"Obviously we left her standing, stupid," said another. "She couldn't have budged in those chains."
"I know that I tied her up sitting," Luke said.
"Just untie her," Adam ordered. "I don't keep you around to hear what you think."
He untied me and one of them blindfolded me.
"Hey!" Someone picked me up and I fought and squirmed only to be held so tight that it was difficult to breathe.
Why hadn't I had someone tell me what kind of powers and gifts I had? If I had some sort of idea what to expect, I would have been a lot more prepared to deal with these vampires. As it was, I had figured out most of my powers by accident.
I was thrown into some kind of car. At least they had the decency to throw me onto a seat so that I didn't land on the hard floor. As we drove, I tried to see if I could tell what direction we were going so that I would have some vague idea of where I was when we got there. It was obvious that they did not want me to know where that was.
"What are you planning on doing to me?" I demanded.
"We already told you. We're going to weaken you and hand you over to the Moretti's."
"What are you going to do to weaken me?"
"You will find out soon enough."
"What are you going to do with Tanner?"
"Stop talking."
"I want to know what you are going to do with him. Are you going to let him go once you've handed me over to the Moretti's?"
"You talk too much."
"Are you going to let him go?" I demanded.
"It's up to Samantha what she does with him. We will let her know when you are with the Moretti's, and then she's free to let him go or if she's already taken care of him, then that's that."
"You should let him go. He didn't do anything to anyone."
"We aren't concerned with insignificant humans."
"He's not insignificant. He's a good person."
"We don't care about mortals. They're nothing more than food to us."
"Have you forgotten your own humanity?" I asked in disgust.
"I've been a vampire for over fifty years. I can barely remember my human life."
"What about your family? Your friends?" I asked. "Don't you remember what they meant to you?"
"I was so hungry for blood that I killed most of them off myself."
"Uh!" I exclaimed. "Tell me you're joking."
"Welcome to the world of being turned against your will. It's not neat and pretty like being born a vampire princess. The stories that we could tell you would make your skin crawl."
"Killing your family is horrible. How do you live with yourself?"
Something hit my head and I lost consciousness.
***
The first thing that I noticed as I started to wake up was a strange smell. I hadn't opened my eyes yet and I wasn't sure that I wanted to. Images of being captured flashed through my mind's eye and I was sure that I didn't want to know what the smell was.
I tried to gain a sense of my surroundings before opening my eyes. I wanted to be ready for whatever I would need to be ready for. I was lying down and sensed that I was in a room and out of the moving vehicle.
Aside from the strange unidentified scent, I could also smell hay and must. The air was cool, not that I was bothered by it. I could hear a dripping sound and small critters not too far away. I couldn't hear any of the vampires who had taken me.
I opened my right eye just a crack and could see that I was in a room made of stone that was fairly bare. I opened my eye a little more and decided that nobody was in the room with me, so I opened both of them.
I was lying almost directly on the stone floor except for a small amount of hay underneath me. There was an unused fireplace off to the side and a couple of chairs across from it.
I sat up and my arms jerked back. There were shackles chained to each of my wrists. I sighed and scooted back against the cool wall so that I could sit upright.
The sound of the chains must have alerted the other vampires that I was awake, because I heard the noise of a lock being opened and the scraping of the huge and heavy metal door opening on the stone floor.
"Well, well. Sleeping beauty finally arises," laughed Luke, entering the room with another vampire.
"You've been out a while," the other vampire said. "You must have been pretty tired."
"Or you hit her too hard, you idiot," Luke said. "Adam is going to be pissed that we haven't been able to work on her yet. He's going to be back soon."
"Work on me? What do you think that you're going to do to me?"
"We need to make you weak and agreeable. That way we can hand you over to the Moretti's without any problem," the second one told me.
"Why do I need to be weak and agreeable? You don't think that the Moretti's could handle me if I wasn't?"
"Adam doesn't want you fighting or trying anything. The exchange has to go quickly, quietly and smoothly," he replied.
"Why are you telling her all of this? The more she knows, the more that she will have to use against us."
"It doesn't matter, because she'll be weak and agreeable."
"Are you guys the two stooges or something?" I asked.
Luke was in my face in a split second. "Do not think that we are not a force to be reckoned with. Do you understand me?"
"You tell her."
He turned to the other and growled, "Shut up, Danny."
I tried to stifle a smile. These two were a lot more humorous than they were scary.
Luke whipped back around to me. "You think this is funny?"
I gulped down a laugh and said, "Nope."
He took in a deep breath. "You still have some of your humanity left. Don't think for a moment that I won't drink your blood. I will bite into your neck in a second."
I tried to hide the fear that radiated through me, but I knew that as a vampire he could probably smell my fear.
He smirked. "That's better. Now listen up. You've been out for almost a day, so I'm sure you're hungry. You're not getting any food, so don't even think about asking. You can have water, because we can't let you die, but that's it."
"Is that the big plan to weaken me?" I asked.
"No, that's just part of it," Danny told me. "Adam is bringing a witch because he wants to cast some spells on you."
That sounded serious and I wanted to find a way out of this place before I found out what kinds of spells were planned.
"You guys will never get away with this. I am the Sonnast, descended directly from the Fyrsturae. Whether I live or die, you will pay, Luke and Danny."
Danny grabbed my neck. "Don't even think about threatening me. You are nothing. You've grown up as a human not knowing anything about vampire life. Do you really think that they would put you in charge of all vampires? Think about that."
"Of course they will." I glared at him. "Don't try to make me question that. I'm the rightful heir, and the fact that I was kidnapped has nothing to do with whether or not I will be on the throne. Rest assured I will be. The fact that my death was ordered by the Moretti's, and now you have gone as far as to capture me, shows just how important I am to the future of the royal line."
"If you're so valuable, then why hasn't anybody broke down the doors to rescue you?" Luke asked.
"They probably have no idea where I am. It's not like you sent out invitations."
Luke snickered. "You've got a sense of humor even though your life is about to end. I'll have to remember that for your eulogy."
I glared at him. "I wasn't trying to be funny."
"I like 'em feisty." Luke licked his lips.
I jumped toward him, but was yanked back by the chains. He laughed at me, and I vowed to myself to find a way out of this
place and to rid the world of all of them.
"Keep control of yourself, your highness," Danny whispered in my ear. "No matter how much you want us, you can't have us."
I jumped at him and because he was so close, I was able to knock him over. Although that was not what I was trying to do, I was glad to do it.
He landed on his butt, jumped up as quickly as he landed and grabbed my face and squeezed hard. "Don't try that again."
I spit in his face.
He grabbed me and slammed me into the rock hard wall. My head hit, and it sounded like a melon landing on the floor. My vision went double and two Dannys got right up to my face, so close that I could smell the fish-like breath. I tried not to gag.
"Do you have a death wish?" the Dannys asked.
"I thought that I was going to die anyway. Isn't that what you told me?"
"I have the power to make it easy or miserable for you. I can make your last days more comfortable or more terrifying."
"You're already starving me and have me chained to a wall in this cold smelly dungeon of a room. You're obviously not doing very much to keep me comfortable."
"I could do a lot more to make you uncomfortable." He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me to the ground.
I landed with a thud and small pieces of hay and black dust flew around me.
"We'll be back," he warned, and they left the room, locking the door between us.
I sat up and rubbed the sore spot on the back of my head. A lump was already starting to form and it was incredibly tender.
I noticed that strange smell again. It seemed to be coming from the little pile of hay that I was on. I started digging around the hay and found a lot more of that black dust underneath.
The further I went from the center of the hay, the stronger the smell became. When I had gone as far as the chains would allow, I was almost to the edge of the hay. I dug around and came upon something hard. I pulled it out and discovered that it was a bone.
I knew that it wasn't there for any dogs to chew on. I looked at it more closely and recognized it as a human arm bone. It could have been vampire for all I knew. I doubted vampire bones were any different from human ones. Whoever had been killed in here had been dead a long time because the bone was very dry.
I dropped the bone and dug around some more, and found that the black dust became more of a sludge the further down that I went. I pulled my hand out and it was covered in black goo. My stomach lurched and twisted.
What was that? It wasn't like anything that I had learned about in my CSI club.
Whatever it was, it started to make my hand tingle. I wiped my hand furiously on the hay to get it off. My hand began to go numb.
I threw up.
TWENTY TWO
I sat on the edge of the hay as far away from the black goo as possible and tried as hard as I could to not think about what it might have been. I had managed to get it all off my hand and the feeling had returned to normal.
I had managed to calm down since throwing up, but I wanted out of the horrible room I was in more than ever. I knew that I had killed that farmer not too long ago, but that was different. He was an evil person and I had been quick and painless. I got a feeling when holding the bone, and when the black mush was on my fingers, that the person had suffered greatly.
I decided to focus on the chains and finding a way out of them. That was the first order of business before getting out of this place. I was certain that the walls weren't solid steel, so I could get through them if I had to.
Closing my eyes, I imagined myself outside of the chains. I pictured my wrists going through the shackles with ease. When I had imagined it to the point that it felt completely real, I opened my eyes and looked at my wrists.
I was still in the shackles. I tried the process several more times with no more luck.
I glared at the shackles and said in exasperation, "Just get off my wrists already."
They fell to the ground, landing softly on the hay.
My mouth popped open and I stared at the chains in complete disbelief. I grabbed them, snapped them on again and ordered, "Get off my wrists."
They dropped to the ground again and I smiled.
"At least I learn new skills as I need them," I murmured to myself. "I'm going to need to learn a lot, quickly."
I heard footsteps and I grabbed the shackles and snapped them back on. I wasn't ready to surprise them with that yet.
The big loud door opened slowly and Adam walked in with a lady dressed in black.
"How are you feeling?" Adam asked with smirk.
I didn't give him an answer.
He looked at my pile of vomit and said, "Looks like you're doing even worse than I had hoped for. Perfect."
"Maybe I won't need to perform as many spells for you," the lady said.
"Don't jump to conclusions," Adam said. "We'll stick to our plan for now."
"Do you want me to start now?" she asked.
He looked at me for a moment and then turned to her and said, "Let's start with the first spell and see how it goes. You say that you've performed spells on royals before?"
"It's been several centuries, but yes."
"It worked?"
"Of course."
"Good enough. Get to work."
She gave him a look and then pulled out a bag from her coat and laid some candles, flower petals, and other odd objects out on the floor. She arranged the candles into a circle and placed the petals all around the inside of it. She placed the other objects directly next to one of the candles.
She spoke in what sounded like an ancient language, and the candles all lit themselves simultaneously.
"Place the girl in the middle of the circle."
Adam looked at me and said, "You will walk into the circle and stand directly in the middle. You will do exactly as we say or I will give word for Samantha to kill your human friend. Got it?"
My heart sunk and I nodded in agreement.
He unlocked the shackles and I walked into the center of the witch's circle and stood in place.
She started speaking in the strange language again and began walking around the circle. She pulled feathers and twigs out of a pocket and let them fall into the circle as she spoke.
She stopped when all of the objects had all landed in the circle and shouted unfamiliar words. The candles all went out at the same time. All of the items on the floor flew up into the air around me, swirling and tickling me. When the last object had fallen back to the ground, I fell to the ground too.
I tried to get up, but couldn't move.
"It is complete," the witch said.
"Good," Adam said. "Gather your things and I'll chain her back up."
She touched the top of my head and I was able to get up. Adam grabbed my arm, yanked me up and threw me down on the hay.
"What did she do to me?" I asked as he chained me back up.
"She removed the blessing that protected you from the sunlight. Now you are just like every other creature of the night. No more walking around during the day."
"What will happen to me if I go into the sunlight?" I asked.
He laughed. "You'll find out if you try to escape. I'll let you use your imagination for now."
"Is that it for now?" the witch asked.
"Yes, you can take a break before performing any more. In the meantime, we can get something to eat. I'm starving." He smirked at me.
My stomach rumbled and they left, laughing. The door closed with a loud thud.
I didn't bother getting up from the hay. My mind raced with the possibilities of what the sun might do to me. It would really make escaping so much more difficult.
With depression coursing through me, I closed my eyes and gave into to sleep.
***
I was running around a field full of beautiful, golden sunlight. I had several flowers in my hand and was singing a song that I made up as I went along. My hair was whipping around behind me as I ran, and the sun felt warm and loving as
it hugged my skin.
I heard the sounds of horses and ran behind a couple of trees at the edge of the clearing. I wasn't supposed to be outside and I was afraid that I would get into trouble.
The two horses rode into the middle of the field, and the riders got off their horses and removed their caps.
It was a young Cliff and his father.
I was so excited to see Cliff that it was difficult to keep myself from running out to give him a hug.
"Clifford, I need to have a serious talk with you," his father said.
"What is it, father?" Cliff asked.
George Montgomery set his cap down on the saddle and said, "I've received an alarming message from one of the prophets."
"Father?"
"Before you and Marguerite get married, there are going to be some…complications, son."
"What kind of complications, Father?"
George sighed and said, "It saddens me to have to tell you this, but she is going to fall in love with another and…."
"What?"
"Please son, let me finish. This is difficult enough."
"I apologize, Father."
"She is going to fall in love with another, and as a result, she's going to suffer a great deal. I don't know the details, but what I do know is that you must stay true to her no matter what. You will need to keep your head clear, because that is the only way that she will return to you and you will get our family line on the throne."
"This is a lot to take in."
"Yes, son, I know it is. You are young still and it is hard to imagine sweet Marguerite having eyes for another. I do not know why this must be."
"But she will return to me?"
"So long as you don't act out of jealousy and you are able to keep calm and stay true to her."
"This sounds difficult, Father."
"I could not imagine going through that with your mother. It will be very painful for you."
"I will do it, father. She is everything to me and no matter how hard it is for me, I will stay true to her and never stop loving her. I will fight for her and I will fight with her. We will rule the kingdom together. It will be a test and training in compassion to make me into a better leader."
The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5 Page 24