44

                                    

                                          

MARIA 
She hadn't seen him in almost a week. 
She wasn't sure that she'd ever gone that long without seeing the vampire even when she still used to live in her cell, and she was now starting to believe that the vampire might actually want to kill her. 
But then why did he keep feeding her? Did he want her to die fresh and well fed? 
It had to be him ordering the maid to bring her food because it definitely wasn't his friend. The man probably hated her more than the vampire did and if it were up to him, she'd probably be sleeping down in the dungeons—or dead. 
Since the vampire hadn't told her much about Corey's mate that she'd supposedly killed, she'd asked the maid, Olivia, about her and the woman had willingly filled her in on everything about the late woman, down to her favourite meal. 
Maria noticed, however, that Olivia didn't speak about the late woman reverently. There had been no emotion or inflection in her voice as she'd talked about the woman and one time, Maria had wondered if it was relief she'd seen in the woman's eyes over being rid of the dead woman, but Maria couldn't be sure. 
Next, she'd asked Olivia how mating worked between demons. At this point, the woman had thrown her a puzzled look as though that was an odd thing to ask, pausing momentarily from her task, before explaining to Maria as best as she could. 
She understood why the woman had looked at her like that. One would think that a girl of her age should be familiar with everything in the lore by now. They didn't know that Maria was never been let out of her house and she'd never had the time to learn. 
They'd probably never believe if she told them, so she'd simply returned the maid's looks whenever she gave her one. 
Maria had found out that demons and their mates were extraordinarily close and they tended to feel when the other was happy, angry or in danger. When their mates were in danger of being hurt, they went into a blind rage and destroyed everything that would stop them from protecting their mates at all costs, and apparently, once a demon died, it's mate usually killed itself because they could not live with the loss. 
She thought that was interesting—and incredibly romantic.
She wondered if anyone would ever kill themselves because they could not bear the thought of living without her, but then her heart grew heavy because she didn't have to think before knowing what the answer was. 
A big fat no. 
One of the things that baffled Maria was the fact that Corey was still alive. 
If everything that Olivia told her was true, then why was he still alive even after the death of his mate ages ago?
Why had he not taken his own life?
When she'd asked Olivia this, the woman shrugged and told her that she wasn't the first to ask that question. 
That was very odd.  
Mated creatures were also stronger than the ones without mates, being twice more powerful than they usually were, and with all the information she'd garnered, it had her wondering if mating worked the same way with all creatures. 
She knew for a fact that it wasn't the same way for the Sorceri. Most of them didn't even have mates. They just found a woman they thought suited them best and formed a union, and in some cases, more than one woman. 
Her mother and her father had been mated and yet... And yet, he still did the things that he did. 
No, mating definitely didn't work the same for her species.