Escape (Vampire King Book 1) (4 page)

Someone cleared their
throat to my right. Glowing silver eyes peaked from the shadows, but I couldn’t
see who the eyes belonged to.

 
“Good night for the hunt, Samuel?” the mystery
person said.

“Indeed.” Samuel guided
me to the other side of him. “Any trouble this evening?”

“I’m the only trouble
on these parts.” The shadow’s deep voice delivered shivers up my spine. The
eyes disappeared. A woman screamed farther up. Figures raced away out of the
darkness ahead with something on their shoulders. It may have been the woman.

I stopped walking.
“What was—”

“You don’t want to know.
Just stick with me,” Samuel said.

“I’ve never been in
this area of
Capitol
City
. Where are we?” I
asked as he tugged me forward.

“The Bottom.”

An hour later, three
large figures approached ahead of us. I couldn’t make out their faces.

“Keep your head down,”
Samuel whispered with his gaze still fastened on me. “Three castle guards are
heading our way.”

My fingers shivered
within his heated hand. Bile swirled around in my stomach, threatening to
escape through my mouth.

“Maybe I should run,” I
muttered with trembling lips.

“I doubt they
discovered a maid’s disappearance so soon and that wouldn’t warrant three
guards.” Samuel guided me behind him and whistled the same tune Ty had been
whistling. “Relax, little maid. I’m signaling Ty. You’ll be fine. You paid for
the best.”

Ty materialized at my
side. Samuel’s hand went to the center of my back. “Please stop shaking.
Everything will be okay.”

I bit my lip and bobbed
my head up and down.
What will the king
do to me when he finds out I tried to escape?
My mind flashed back to the
dead dominas hanging outside the back of the castle. My maid had explained the
group of women were accused of conspiring together, but no one knew what they planned
to do or if they’d ever been plotting in the first place. The three guards
stomped our way. Their footsteps sounded like a battered drumroll, announcing
my death. Brown leather draped their scarred frames. They waved huge swords
with wooden blades.

“Where are you going?”
one of the guards asked me without looking at Samuel or Ty.

“She’s with us.” Samuel
stepped right between the guard and me.

“Today the domina’s
official color is teal.” The guard on my right raised his sword, targeting
Samuel’s head. “She wears a teal robe under the shawl.”

“Come on guys.” Ty held
out open hands to his sides. “She’s just a domina maid having a little fun with
us tonight. There’s no problem here.”

The guards waited for a
few seconds as if processing the information. It was a fifty-fifty chance they
would believe us. Some domina maids did wear the official colors of the day.
The guards liked us to all dress alike so we were easy to herd around and
watch.

“Take off that shawl,”
one of them ordered.

My heartbeats sped up.
Moisture appeared under my arms and around my forehead. People outside of the
Royal Court
were
ignorant to domina robing, day colors, or even the embroidery symbols. Even
some of the guards didn’t quite understand it. If they knew to check the top of
my robe, then they knew the intricate details of castle procedure.

They’ll
realize I’m untouched.

 
“Go ahead. Take off the shawl before I get
mad.” The guard bared his fangs at me.

“Okay.” I swallowed
down my fear. Inch-by-inch I raised my hands to my shawl, searching the dimly
lit street with my eyes and trying to decide which way I could run.

In a blur, Ty dashed
for the guard near Samuel, seized the sword, and cut off his head. Gasping, I
stepped back. The head dropped to the ground, exploding into a burst of murky
slime and pale flesh.

“Quick. Grab her!” a
guard yelled.

Samuel leaped six feet
into the air and dropped on the guard. Samuel bit into the guard’s neck,
piercing his skin with fangs. Blood pooled around Samuel’s mouth and sprayed my
face.

“Ah!” The guard’s hands
went to his neck. “Oh, Ambi!”

A chunk of the guard’s
neck lay between Samuel’s teeth as he ripped the rest of the neck apart. Red blood
and green mucus dripped down Samuel’s chin. Veins stuck out from the fleshy
meat as it still moved. He spat it out.

“No!” The guard waved
his arms. “Please!”

With a wooden dagger in
his other hand, Samuel stabbed him. Cold blood squirted on my arm. Samuel
shoved him into the street. The now dead vampire’s body crashed to the ground
with a boom. The stench of rotting flesh floated up from the corpse.

I formed my hands into
fists. I didn’t have Ty and Samuel’s strength, but I refused to return to the
castle. I would rather fight and die than be drug back to slavery. The last
guard battled Ty. They grunted with each lunge, punch, and block. I got behind
the guard and kicked his back. Pain bit at my feet, but he slipped on a puddle
of slime and collapsed to the ground. Ty soared in the air, landed on the
fallen guard’s chest, tore it open, and sliced his heart with a wooden knife. I
scanned the area. All the guards were dead.

“What were they looking
for?” Samuel’s hand captured me from behind. He dragged me to the edge of a
dark alley and pressed me into the brick building’s wall.

“I-I can explain.” I
climbed out of his hands.

Samuel wiped the blood
off his face with his coat. “Take off your shawl.”

“Ease up, Sam.” Ty
showed up by my side within seconds. “I was going to tell you once we got into
the sewers.”

I concentrated on not
vomiting and breathed in and out, desperately trying not to look at the blood
and mucus now dripping from Samuel’s coat sleeve.

“Take it off,” Samuel
barked.

With shaking hands, I
pulled the shawl off my shoulders and dropped it to the ground.

“You need to back up.
You’re scaring her.” Ty attempted to position himself between Samuel and me,
but couldn’t squeeze in. “She’s a domina. I knew in the bar when I saw the edge
of her robe.”

“And these white
symbols on the collar?” Samuel touched some of my embroidery and then yanked
his hand away as if they were repulsive.

I whispered, “It
means—”

“Silence!” Samuel
roared. “You had your chance to tell me the truth.”

Flinching, I leaned my
body into the wall. The grooves of the brick dug into my skin, but I welcomed
the tiny hurt behind me instead of confronting the huge vampire in front of me.
With my left hand, I fingered my locket at my neck. The cold metal calmed me a
little as I stroked it.

“She’s untouched,” Ty
explained. “No vampires have drunk her blood or had sex with her. That’s what
the embroidery means, unless the castle has changed their codes from the time I
guarded there.”

“You’re right.” I
tipped my head his way and hoped to find an alliance with Ty. “I’m untouched.”

“Why didn’t you tell me
this before?” Samuel gazed at Ty.

“Because we need the
money and I figured you wouldn’t do it if you knew.” Ty edged closer and
shielded me a little more. “She wants her freedom. That’s what we do, help
people find their path out of slavery.”

“But we don’t assist
the king’s whores,” Samuel spat out the words and narrowed his gold eyes on me.
My panic transformed to rage.

How
dare he?

“I’m no one’s whore.” I
released the locket and clenched my hand into a fist. “You don’t want to help
me, then that’s fine. Move so I can do it myself.”

I stepped to the side.
Samuel blocked me with his arm, so fast I almost wasn’t sure if it had been
there the whole time.

“You know my face and
my name. If you get caught, and you will, you’ll give me up as soon as they
even think about your punishment.”

“No, I won’t.” I shoved
his arm with all my strength, but it wouldn’t budge. I blew out an exasperated
breath. There was no reasoning with him. “Fine. Will you help me?”

“No. I’ll probably just
drain and kill you.”

Ty chuckled and moved
away from us until he was on the wall behind Samuel. “Don’t worry, domina. He’s
no killer of women. He’s only trying to scare you.”

Samuel’s lips lowered
into a frown. I remained where I was, just in case. I’d witnessed Samuel
tearing a vampire’s neck away with his teeth. I didn’t want to make him my enemy.

“I promise I won’t say
anything,” I mumbled.

“Dawn is approaching.
I’m too pretty to burn,” Ty said. “Let’s go and discuss this later.”

“No,” Samuel barked.

Ty whistled a tune and
peeked around the corner. “Dead castle guards aren’t a great scene to be
around. These guys are night watch. They march around the city making sure
dominas haven’t strayed off to forbidden places. The guys will be expected to
return to their post.”

Samuel remained quiet.
The gold in his pupils flared to a brighter shade.

“I can give you more of
my blood,” I offered.

Samuel leaned his head to
the side. “And has Octavia requested you give me something more?”

“No.” I wrinkled my
forehead.
What is he talking about?

“Those vials of Brie’s
blood could buy my
Victoria
a house and me several top brand horses.” Ty returned to us. “I’ll take her
myself if you’re worried.”

“No. She belongs to me
until she’s in Zumaya.” Samuel shook his head. “I should have never listened to
Octavia.”

“I don’t belong to
anybody,” I declared. “And all I need you to do is get me out of
Capitol
City
. I can find my way to Zumaya on my
own.”

“But you won’t. Not if
I have anything to say about it. Now take off your robe.” Samuel’s eyes
remained on mine as he snatched off his coat, threw it to the ground, and
pulled off the black shirt he had on under it. His waist rippled with sculpted
muscles. His chest and shoulders bulged and spoke of great strength. It was one
thing to assume he had a big frame, another to have it confirmed with the
moons’ light. Claw marks decorated his shoulder. Vampires could heal most
wounds quickly. I wondered what beast scratched him to the point the injury
could not heal.

“Wear my shirt so we
won’t have any more guards bothering us.” He slung the shirt at me.

I caught it. “Please
turn around.”

Ty faced away from me.
I waited for Samuel to turn, but he simply flashed a wicked grin.

“Go ahead and take off
the robe,” he said. “I’m not interested in what is under it. After your lies, I
won’t be putting my back to you.”

Whatever.

Slowly, I slipped out
of my robe. The chiffon slid down my trembling skin. “And will you want more
blood?” I murmured as the robe dropped to the ground.

The moons’ light shone
on my teal undergarments, but I didn’t flinch or cover myself. As a domina, I
had to undress in front of guards, castle doctors, and unknown inspectors at
least five times a day. They always checked my body for unpermitted bite marks.
What kept my hands shaking as I stood half naked in front of Samuel was the
possibility he wouldn’t help me, that instead he
would
just drain me of my valuable blood and sell it.

I swallowed a large
gulp of anxiety. Still smiling, his focus drifted down to my neck and then to
the curve of my cleavage as it pushed out of the satin bra.

“I can give you more
blood, as much as you want, as long as it doesn’t kill me,” I said.

“I don’t want your
blood. I’m no king,” he whispered, yet his fangs extended farther down from the
top of his lip. His hand went to my breast. I jumped as his fingertips touched
my locket.

“This will be your
payment.” He traced the silver locket’s edge with his thumb. Once again, my
blood reacted, rushing to the center of my chest. I pressed myself further into
the wall.