"You're waiting for the Prince," I managed to say.
The voice remained silent. Of course, they were. Why else would they take me from my room? I took a look once more around the room. It was dark. There weren't any light sources. No shadows just darkness. Even the face in front of me was hard to take in any details. The face glowed almost too brightly. Were all vampires capable of this? Or was it all a trick?
I pulled against the restraints but they wouldn't budge. I couldn't tell how long I'd been sitting here. Or how long I'd been missing. Were the police looking for me? How had they taken me from my room? Nothing made sense.
"Is this really necessary?" I asked.
The voice from before didn't answer.
Even in my situation, it was hard not to be annoyed. Sure, I was terrified. My heart was ready to burst but, as of right now, I couldn't escape. My wrists were tied down, so were my legs. My kidnappers had wrapped something around my body and it wasn't budging. It definitely wasn't rope. For right now, all I could do was hope that someone was looking for me.
Maybe if I got them to talk, they wouldn't kill me outright. Or what if I talked too much and that got me killed? I glanced at the face. It was still hovering. Was it watching me?
"You can let me go," I tried again. "Let me leave and I won't say anything."
"Don't worry human," it said. "You're not going to be harmed."
Now it talked. Or was it a he? I couldn't tell. At this point, I didn't really care. Why did they have to abduct me? I wasn't involved. How did they know where I lived? Or who I was?
"Who are you, people?" I asked. "What is this about? Just let me go."
I struggled against the restrains but no success. Feeling my arms burn, I stopped. They didn't want me going anywhere. The chair felt like metal but I couldn't tell. It was also not moving in any way. Had they weld it into the floor or something?
"You have nothing to fear from us," the voice said. "You can relax."
"Yeah right," I shot back. "I was kidnapped and I'm being held against my will. So, no. I can't relax."
"We apologize for this crude method," it continued to say. "If there was another option, we would have taken it. Alas, there wasn't."
"There's always a better way than kidnapping someone," I snapped.
"We apologize for the inconvenience."
"This isn't a department store!"
I pushed against the 'ropes' and like before, they didn't break. Breathing heavily, I leaned back in the chair. This couldn't be happening. Why did they want the Prince so bad? Who were these people? Were they the Purists? No. They couldn't be. These people seem to know what they were doing. They were keeping me in literal darkness as opposed to Pat and Carlos who had let me waltz into their base.
"Don't worry," the voice said. "He will come soon. It won't be long now."
"What if he doesn't come?" I asked. "What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me?"
"He won't abandon you."
"Are we even talking about the same vampire? He doesn't care about anyone but himself. I am nothing to him. Honestly, I don't even know why he keeps hanging around me."
"Have you really no idea?" the voice asked. "He might pretend all he likes and try to convince himself otherwise, but those with eyes can easily see the truth."
"And what truth is that?" I asked.
"It's not our secret to tell," the voice answered.
Great. It wasn't a far-fetched idea to think that maybe these vampires were exploiting that secret. They still hadn't answered my questions either. Who were they? Who had the power to -? Ah. Now it all made sense. They were part of the Mafia.
I had been kidnapped by the vampire mafia.
Suddenly, it got harder to breathe. The room closed in around me. This couldn't be happening.
"Are you ill?" the voice asked. "We can get you some water."
It must have sent some sort of signal because a few minutes later, I felt a straw press against my lips. Weakly, I turned my head in the general direction from where I thought the source of the water came from. There was no glowing face at all.
"It's not poisoned," the same voice told me.
"I'm supposed to believe that?" I asked weakly.
"Miss Borek," it said, "I assure you that no harm will come to you while you are our guest."
"Yet you're using me as bait," I forced out.
The voice didn't say anything. Against my better judgment, I took a long sip of the water. For some reason, I believed the vampire. If they had wanted to kill me, they would have done it already.
Truth be told, I didn't know much about the vampire mafia. All I knew about them were from rumors. The vampire mafia supposedly had a lot of connections with both vampires and humans. They were extremely rich and they also headed the black market. Whether this was true, I couldn't really say. It wasn't like I could ask. Well, I could but they probably wouldn't answer.
Once I finished drinking, the straw disappeared. I couldn't help but wonder if they had restrooms here.
"Ah, he's here," the voice said.
My heart lurched. So, he had really come for me? Actually no. Who was I kidding? He was probably here to conduct some illegal business.
"Your Highness," the voice said. I imagined the vampire to bow when he said that.
"What's the meaning of this?" the Prince asked. His voice was cool. No hint of anger or annoyance.
"We warned you, did we not?" the voice asked. "If you had accepted the summons, we wouldn't have gone this far to get your attention."
"You will face punishment for this," the Prince told him. "Release her. I have no more business here."
"We can't do that," the voice responded. "You see if you don't hear us out, Miss Borek will be poisoned and we don't want that now do we?"
"She's not stupid enough to drink anything you give her."
I felt my face flush. Well, it was refreshing to hear the Prince hold me in such high regards. Unfortunately, this time I wasn't so smart. But, had they really poisoned me? My heart was ready to burst.
"It seems I spoke too soon," the Prince forced out.
I was glad for the darkness. At least I couldn't see his face.
"Now then," the voice said. "Let's get down to business."
"Then let's go somewhere private."
"I think this is fine," the voice answered. "Don't you agree?"
The Prince growled in reply.
"Let's not get aggressive. Let's not compromise Miss Borek's health."
I glared in the general direction of the glowing head. He/she was totally enjoying this. But why was the Prince following orders? He was the vampire's prince. Didn't he hold any sway on them?
"Don't start that with me," the Prince said in a low voice. "That may work on the King but it won't on me."
"Watch your tongue boy," the voice warned. "I have more power than you can ever imagine."
The room's temperature suddenly dropped. A silent battle was taking place within the darkness. I tried to make myself as small as possible. I didn't think I'd survived if there was suddenly a fight between vampires.
"What do you want?" the Prince forced out. "Haven't you done enough?"
I'm sure the other vampire was smirking. Call it a hunch.
"We've become aware of a troubling situation," the vampire began. "These Purists have managed to undermine our authority. This cannot stand."
My heart skipped a beat. This had to do something with the video. What else could he/she be talking about?
"Make up your mind," the Prince retorted. "First you think I'm instigating violence without your consent and had the King disown me. Now, you are back on my side wishing to punish those responsible for this mess. I don't get it."
My jaw dropped. What? The Mafia disowned the Prince?! How was that even possible?
"We had to be sure," the voice replied coolly. "Even now we both know that not everyone believe your innocence. However, that's the least of our worries. We want those responsible found and punished."
"You don't even know if the Purists did it," I blurted out. "It could have been done by someone else."
Neither of them spoke. There was no reason for me to defend Carlos or his pals but I couldn't let them get killed on just suspicion alone. Even if they were responsible, which I doubted they were, I couldn't just sit here and let it happen.
"I'll take care of it," the Prince finally said.
"See that it is done," the voice replied. "Oh and don't worry about Miss Borek. She is unharmed. I'm sure you can see yourself out?"
Seconds later, I felt the restraints around me slacken. I was roughly pulled to my feet. With a firm hand, I was lead forward. We walked in silence. There were a couple of turns through hallways but even then I still couldn't see anything. The Prince walked quickly. Even when I tripped over my own feet, he wouldn't stop. He kept me upright and forced marched me towards an exit.
A couple minutes later, we exited the hallway and entered into a large warehouse. Parts of the roof had caved in and the doors were missing but it gave me enough light to see by. I glanced at the Prince.
His face was stoic. His eyes stared straight ahead. I couldn't bring myself to speak. What could I possibly say to him? I had so many things to process. I knew this was complicated but it had gotten worse. A lot worse.