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.
Learning how vital a mate was to a demon's life, Maria was so filled with regret over what she'd done to Corey, that she was almost sick with it.
No wonder the man wanted her dead. No wonder he couldn't stand to look at her.
Honestly, she couldn't blame him. But at the same time, killing her wouldn't bring his dead mate back so she really saw no point in him killing her.
But then again, revenge didn't really have to make sense, did it?
Maria wasn't going to deny the fact that their revenge was warranted, but she was not a child. She was not going to sit down and wait for her execution. She would do everything within her powers to escape that horrible fate.
She didn't know how she was going to manage to get out of her room without being seen, not to talk of escaping the compound. It seemed almost impossible when she thought about it, but the main problem was finding her way out of this realm after she'd left the compound.
Just a week ago, she'd learnt that portals could be accessed without being conjured, but she didn't know exactly where the portals were and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to locate one before she got caught.
If only there was someone she could ask...
Olivia wouldn't tell her for fear of being caught and she knew no one other than Olivia in this house. Well, the vampire was there, but asking him where the portal was, was equal to asking him to take the collar off of her.
Impossible.
Sighing, she rose from the bed and walked over to the window, draping her hand on the window frame as she looked through it, staring down at the ground of the building, a sight she saw more often than not lately.
It was always the same. The dry stone grounds, a few men walking about from time to time and the single tree.
The different thing about it today was the two people standing there, obviously locked in conversation. The both of them with their legs spread wide in dominant stances, both tall and broad, both dark haired and both with formidable expressions on their faces.
But one in particular made her heart beat faster.
Leaning forward to get a better look at him, she saw that he looked... different.
Like he'd looked when he saw his friend for the first time. Not exactly smiling, but close. The look on his face was soft, easy and that was as close to a smile as he'd ever come.
He'd never looked at her like that before, and she hated it.
His inky black hair fell haphazardly over his face as though he'd been running his hands through it, and the sight was so inviting that her palm twitched with the urge to run them through his silky hair.
Tamping down the urge, she went back to staring at him, watching the way he easily discussed with his friend.
It was a dull evening, the sky was gloomy and the sun hadn't even shown it's face much today, so the vampire clearly had no issue standing outside.
She leaned against the wall beside the window and her finger rose to her collar, fingering it absently as she stared at the vampire.
As if he'd felt his eyes on her, he lifted his head and looked directly at her with intense eyes.
A millennium seemed to pass as they stared at each other, meanwhile in reality, it was no more than seconds. She was very far up and well, he was far down. His eyes wouldn't just land on her casually. In order for that to happen, he would have to have actually wanted to look at he.
Had he sought her out?
She squashed the feeling of hope that bloomed in her chest before it could grow and turn into something bigger. She didn't care. He wanted her dead.
She was going to keep remind herself that whenever she thought about him with anything other than hatred in her heart—which was almost all the time.
His eyes narrowed on her and she held his gaze unflinchingly.
Maria might have done a lot of evil things. She might have taken from people who didn't deserve to have anything taken from them and she had might have killed, but it didn't make her a monster.
She was only a young girl who'd had all other options—and her freedom—taken from her at a very young age.
Maybe they didn't understand now, but they would later.
Until then, she was going to have to do everything she could to protect herself.
Even if it meant slipping into the shell of the person she'd once been, the Maria Hatzi that was feared just as much as she was hated.
So sorry I haven't been able to update. School has been really hectic.