Enslaved

Chapter 19

I felt as if my limbs were made of lead and I was sinking. Other than the physical immobility, I felt pangs of pain in my chest. It really hurt, physically and emotionally. Slowly, I started coming to my senses, first I heard the rattling of chains and light whispers and then came the stench of dirt and dried blood, vampire blood.

Suddenly, the pasts events came crashing down to me, making me snap open my eyes. In a flash, I was sitting in a crouch, taking in my surroundings. I was cuffed in a passage way surrounded by jail cells. The entire place was made up of stones which had claw marks on them, inflicted by the previous prisoners, there were also two metal drums by the entrance and smelled like oil. I grimaced as I realized they used it for burning our kind. Chaz and Jeffery were lying almost unconscious in the two cells in front of me, bleeding. My frantic eyes searched for my son, I heard a small rattle behind me. Relief washed over me when I saw him crawling towards me, unharmed, and sitting by the railings of his cell. His eyes mirrored mine, shining with relief on seeing me.

I tried crawling towards him, but my cuffs didn't allow me much movement. I tried to pull and break them but whatever Dorian had injected me with, had me too weak.

Dorian

Sharp pain again shot through my chest as another crack formed in my heart. I tried not to think of him, rather, I tried to think of ways of getting out of here with my companions and my son, unharmed. I was cuffed to, what looked like, the place where these hunters tortured their prisoners.

My freeing attempts paused when I heard footsteps coming towards me. Being a royal, my senses were still quite sharp even after being poisoned. Sitting down calmly, I looked towards the entry, hiding the view of my son, behind me. The door rattled somewhere above me and I could hear them descending the stone stairs. With a blank expression, I waited.

Three hunters stood at the entryway, two of them glaring hateful daggers at me and one awarding me with an emotionless gaze. No matter how much his emotionless eyes twisted my heart, I didn't let my expression drop and greeted all of them with my own blank gaze. What surprised me was that one of them was none other than Meredith. Now I came to think of it, it made sense. She joined just after I brought Dorian to the castle and was always around him, looking over him.

My attention shifted to the man in the middle. He had warm bronze skin with salt and pepper hair, standing around 5'11", his light brown eyes looked at me with disgust. But what stood out about him was the angry red scar which resembled claw marks, on his face. It was years old but still as angry as new.

" Well greetings Princess Epione Laskaris, " He mocked, " allow me to introduce myself, I am Steven Huntington, Dorian's uncle. " He finished with a satisfied grin.

I simply raised a bored eyebrow at this piece of information, making him chuckle coldly.

" I must thank you, for helping my nephew get his memories back. " pausing he asked, " Do you know what triggered them? " He slowly walked closer to me, stopping a safe distance away. " Your bite and vampire blood. It awakened the hunter inside him. So thank you for returning me my family and the hunters their future leader. "

Right then a young man with dirty blonde hair and sea-green eyes walked in and stopped behind Steven. Giving a quick nod to Dorian, whom I hadn't acknowledged since he walked here, he waited for his orders.

" As a token of thanks, you and your companions are our guests for the remaining days of your lives. " Turning to the man who had just walked in, " Make sure their stay is comfortable and enjoyable. "

Nodding at Steven he walked to me and shackled me around my wrist, ankles, neck and waist. Then walking to jail cell at the back, he unlocked it. Nodding in satisfaction, Steven regarded me blankly for some time. I met his gaze head on, daring him to look away. This made him let out another crazy laugh as if someone told him a joke.