Her Vampire Master

Chapter 3

I was a little surprised to find myself in the same room as the one that I had spent the night before. The guard, watched me as I entered, though he looked none too happy about it.

“What’s your name?” I asked, trying to lift the mood.

“Gordon,” he replied, hesitating a little.

“Well… thank you, Gordon,” I said, and lowered myself to my bed. “I don’t know what I’d do if I was turned away… maybe be in a little back corner of a dark alley…”

“Don’t thank me yet. You’d be working here now. You very may well wish you had been in a dark alley.” He leaned in, and looked me dead in the eye.

“You know what we are, don’t you?”

I frowned, feigning my naivety. “Sensitive to the light, I guess - going by how pale you are.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure. Sensitive. We’re Vampires, so if you know what’s good for you - you’d keep out of the way. Not all of us have self control.”

With the unsettling whispers of the vampire hoard behind me, I watched the guard leave and close my door. If they all knew of my existence, it may be a damn sight more complicated than I gave my plan for - which would only work, if I was alive long enough to carry it out. And going by the guard’s warning - that may be a little bit of a struggle.

An hour passed before i was summoned to my duties. Washing the dishes of the meals of the night before, and as the guard predicted, it didn’t take long for the rest of the hoard to notice me, and a moment to realise that I wasn’t one of them. One, who particularly showed a new level of disgust towards me, was Drax - one of the guard’s security details - his right hand man. If I can’t get him to drop his guard around me, he may prove to be a new challenge all together. Gaining his trust was out of the picture, that was for sure. I bit my tongue as I scrubbed a dish, feeling his eyes drill holes to the back of my head.

“What do you want?” I snapped, turning towards him with a hard glare.

"If the master has shown an interest in you, then you must be something special," he hissed, a faint, predatory smile playing on his lips.

I swallowed hard, my heart pounding as I stepped away from the furnace. "I'm just a maid, here to serve Lord Darian," I replied, my voice quivering.

The vampire's eyes narrowed, suspicion dripping from every word. "A mere maid, you say? Are you a spy, sent to hunt us down?" His tone was accusatory, and his crimson eyes bore into mine, searching for any sign of deception.

Panic swelled within me. I had heard of hunters who infiltrated vampire nests to eliminate them, posing as servants. "No, I promise, I'm just here to do my duties. I'm not a hunter," I pleaded, my hands trembling.

The vampire studied me for a long, unsettling moment, his lips curling in a sinister grin. "We shall see," he purred, then abruptly turned and stalked away, leaving me alone in the kitchen.

I made my way back to my room, shutting the door and locking it behind me. If that man had anything going for him, it wasn’t the lack of intensity.

As the door clanged shut behind me, I was left with a lingering sense of dread. The vampires were not only fascinated by my connection to Lord Darian but also suspicious of my presence. I had become a puzzle in a world filled with enigmas, a pawn in a shadowy game I didn't fully understand.

I held my nerve and pulled myself together before I headed back out into the hoard. I still had to stoke the furnace in the basement, and then go and change the sheets on everyone’s beds - with any luck, making a note of the layout of the entire structure. After their murders, I was going to need it to find a way out.

With trembling hands, I finished adding the coal to the furnace, stoking the flames that devoured it. The castle's secrets were like the flames in the furnace, burning with a fierce intensity, and I couldn't help but wonder how deep I would have to delve to unravel them, and what perils lay ahead in this dark and mysterious world of vampires.

As I left the dimly lit basement and made my way back upstairs, I couldn't shake the unsettling encounter with the vampire who had accused me of being a hunter. The heavy iron door had closed behind me, but the sense of danger still lingered in the air, like a weight upon my shoulders.

As I ascended the staircase, my footsteps echoing in the silent corridor, I noticed two vampires leaning against the wall, their expressions filled with amusement. Their smirks deepened as they spotted me.

"Look who's come back from the basement," one of them sneered, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

I forced a small smile, determined not to show my unease. "Just doing my duties, as always."

The other vampire, a particularly menacing one with a cruel glint in his crimson eyes, stepped closer. "Duties, eh? We've heard rumors, you know. You're the master's little favorite. What's the price for that, I wonder?" He leered at me, his fangs visible as he grinned.

I felt my cheeks burn with indignation. "There's no price. I'm just the maid," I retorted, my voice firm. The rumors were twisting the truth, and it was infuriating.

The vampires exchanged knowing glances and chuckled darkly. "Oh, the maid who gets special treatment," the first one said, his voice heavy with mockery. "We've been around for centuries, and we know what kind of 'treatment' humans like you receive."

My patience waned, but I kept my composure. "You have it all wrong. Lord Darian just thinks I’m pretty to look at, and nothing more."