Maximus grabbed me from behind and sniffed my skin with a moan.
“Daylight and humanity. It’s all over you, my dear. You’ll be so useful. I reward loyalty, you know.”
“Like Arthur?” I said, remembering how Maximus had repaid his loyalty.
Maximus threw me to my knees, enraged. “Don’t speak to me of that name,” he shrieked, hysteria in his voice. I was surprised by how easily he became unbalanced, not what I expected from a vampire.
Maximus lifted his arms, closed his eyes, and made a show of breathing deeply. He then sat down and relaxed with a smile. I attempted to get to my feet.
“Do not move!” he screamed at me, his face convulsing with anger. “Stay on the ground like the dog bitch you are!”
One of the vampires kicked me back down, not holding back. I grunted loudly, winded, amazed by the sheer force of strength. Maximus smiled happily again. He was completely psychotic, I realised. I wasn’t going to survive for long, no matter how valuable he thought I was.
“Now,” he said, as if nothing had happened. “Why don’t you tell me all about yourself?”
I shook my head. “Not until my grandmother calls.”
Tutting, he folded his arms. “I don’t have time for that,” he whined.
I eyed him, wary, waiting for him to do something unpredictable.
He smiled suddenly and looked all too pleased with himself. “I’ll just have to tease it out of you.”
He jumped to his feet. Before I knew what was happening, he kicked me hard in the stomach. He lifted his foot to strike again, but this time I was ready. I grabbed his leg and tore a chunk of flesh and cloth away with my fangs. Someone grabbed me back by the hair as Maximus howled in frustration and pain, his cry a major exaggeration. The blond vampire’s eyes gleamed with excitement as he punched me in the face whilst the others held me still.
After my nose had broken noisily, they threw me forward onto the ground. Gasping with pain, I curled up into a ball as kick after kick rained down on me. My face, stomach, and back burned with pain as Maximus and his crew enjoyed their sport. It felt like an eternity, but finally, everything faded to black.
***
I awoke to something ice cold dripping onto my forehead. I was completely alone in pitch blackness, but I could sense it was daylight. The irritating drip persisted. I struggled to move my head away, but I was pinned down by something heavy. My arms were tied above my head, and it was cold in the room.
After a couple of minutes of futile struggling, I prayed for the intense pain of the night before so unconsciousness would claim me again. My arms ached, and the rope was so tight that my wrists burned with pain. The dripping was the worst; my head ached from it, but I couldn’t even move a centimetre to ease the relentless pain.
After an hour, I was sobbing, and by the time a couple more hours had gone by, I felt like I was going insane. I couldn’t relax for a second, unsure when the vampires or their human servants would come back—if they ever did. I shivered with a chill, and each movement felt like another kick in the stomach.
My arms had gone thankfully numb, but I had a persistent fear they weren’t there at all. My head pounded until I wanted to scream, but my throat was so dry, nothing more than a croak came out of my mouth.
I was exhausted, mentally and physically, but the waiting was the worst. It was so dark, I was so alone, and I couldn’t sense a thing. I wept for what seemed like hours. Each minute was both hopeful and devastatingly anticlimactic as I waited for something to happen, someone to come, somehow for it all to end. I couldn’t see a way out.
