36

                                    

                                          

MARIA
Maria took note of Bran's eyes as they followed the woman as she came closer to them. They were still just as black as ever, but she caught the slightest bit of warmth and recognition from them. 
She was right. 
This woman was his lover. Although she didn't have horns. So what was she?
The woman stopped directly in front of her captor, seeming to lean slightly into him as if she couldn't stand on her own.
Terrific. Hadn't she just walked towards them? She could very well stand on her own, just like she'd been standing before she saw them. So why was she suddenly acting like she couldn't stand up without his support? 
"It's been so long, Your Majesty," The woman said with that infuriatingly seductive smile on her lips. "Why, I almost thought you'd forgotten us."
"I've just been very busy, Elizabeth." The words were clipped and precise, just like he normally spoke. The only difference was that he didn't pull his eyes from the woman. 
So this beautiful woman's name was Elizabeth. 
Maria didn't know why that piece of information was important to her, but she filed it down for later. 
"I understand. It's so good to see you after so long." Elizabeth placed her hand on her captor's super arm just then, and Maria's left eye started twitching in anger. 
Who the hell was this woman? And why were they acting like she wasn't there? Was she suddenly wearing her invisibility cloak? 
No, that wasn't possible. Because this damned vampire had placed a collar around her neck to nullify her powers. Fucking bastard. What did she even see in him? 
Maria decided then that she was not going to remain silent until they decided to bestow their almighty attention towards her. She was not an animal that would be fed crumbs of attention and love every single moment of it. No, she was the Maria Hatzi—even though she wasn't looking like it right now—and she was going to demand that attention be given to her. 
"Weren't we going somewhere?" Her voice came out hard, and they both turned towards her, as if just now remembering that she was there standing next to them. 
How insulting. 
"Oh." Elizabeth's brows dropped down as a frown found its way to her face. "You brought someone with you?"
"A relative." Her captor clipped, glaring at her with hard eyes. He looked like he very much wanted to kill her and hide her body where no one would see it, but for the life of Maria, she wasn't scared and she didn't know why. 
Elizabeth's frown deepened, looking even more confused than she'd been before.  Her eyes dipped to the collar on Maria's neck. It was a quick movement, but Maria caught it because she'd been looking at her. "A relative?" 
And she still hadn't taken her hand off his body arm. 
"Yes."
Maria wanted to talk. She very much wanted to say something bitchy to the both of them—but mainly to her captor for being such an ass—but she tamped the urge down and bit on her tongue, having to physically hold the words back. 
She was locked in a heated stare down with Bran and she couldn't pull her eyes away to look at Elizabeth and see if she actually believed what he said about her being his relative. 
His green eyes were focused on hers and her greys were locked on his. He wasn't going to look away and she wasn't going to either. She would normally look away when his eyes got too intense for her to hold, but right now, she was far too pissed to let him win.