The Vampire Prince's Hybrid Mate

Captured

Kara POV

Strange whispers echoed in my ears as I came back into consciousness. I could still feel Annysia in the back of my mind, speeding up my recovery from whatever the hell was in those darts.

I tried to open my eyes but they remained glued shut. Everything was still a little fuzzy.

Annysia?

I felt her stir, but there was no response. She was still out of it.

Shit! Where was Piper? And what the hell happened? Whoever they were, they were good. They had stayed downwind of us and far enough away that we couldn’t sense them.

Panic stirred deep in my chest. Did they know what we were?

“Is she dead?”

“I dunno, but she smells dead,” another voice whispered, her tone filled with disgust

I groaned as the whispered voices became clearer, sharper.

“Oh, s**t! Do you think she heard you, Raven?” the first voice whispered, sheer panic filling the sound.

“Shut up, Jo,” Raven bit back, but I could hear the edge of fear in her voice.

I felt a nudge on my arm from what felt like a foot.

“Hey, you, are you alive there?” Raven whispered. I felt the nudge again.

Another groan escaped my mouth as I shifted, my eyes finally responding and blinking open.

I glanced around me to gain my surroundings and first noticed Piper’s prone form. Relief rushed through me.

She was alive!

We were in what looked to be the back of a van, with two seats running on either side towards a set of double doors. Behind Piper was a small glass window that had been tinted black.

I could hear the sound of the road beneath the tyres and feel the occasional bump as we travel god knows where.

My eyes met the gaze of a dark-haired girl who looked my age. She would have been beautiful had it not been for sunken look to her cheeks, and the sheer emptiness of her dark eyes. She looked like she hadn’t eaten for weeks.

“Where are we?” I muttered, pushing myself up.

It was then that I noticed the smaller, brown-haired girl who was hiding behind the first. Her chocolate brown eyes were huge, amplified by the hollow cheeks and protruding cheekbones. She was just as undernourished as the girl she hid behind.

“We?” the dark-haired girl spoke – Raven. Her eyes glanced down to Piper, who lay curled on her side, her breathing even and slow. “She with you?”

I ignored Raven and crawled over to Piper, brushing her hair out of her face to look at her.

Her face was smeared with dirt and she looked pale, but otherwise healthy enough.

“She woke up about 15 minutes ago,” Jo whispered softly, peeking her head out to look at me. “But she was still so tired. The drugs they hit us with are pretty strong.”

I took in her words but kept my eyes on Piper.

“Who are they? And I won’t ask again, where are we?”

I glanced at the two girls and saw them exchange a nervous look.

Raven licked her dried and cracked lips, her eyes darkening with her ill-hidden anger.

“They are human hunters – a special breed of vampire set out to capture as many of us as possible,” she whispered, her eyes darting nervously to the tinted glass window. “As for the where, I would say they are taking us to whoever hired them to capture us.”

Jo’s eyes widened slightly, her fear palpable.

“Human hunters – what are they?”

Raven scoffed. “Where the hell have you been all your life? Living under a rock?”

“Raven-“ Jo started, her voice barely a whisper but Raven held her hand up to cut her off, her eyes boring into mine.

“No, I wanna know. How the hell do you not know about the human hunters? Or are you just stupid?” She glanced at Jo briefly then back at me again, her brows raised expectantly. “I have never come across anyone that has never heard of the human hunters, and I have met a lot of people.”

I inwardly rolled my eyes, trying to contain my frustration. I could feel Annysia waking in the back of my mind and hoped that my cloaking spell was still working and was masking my scent. If we had truly been captured by Vampires, drawing on my magic, or my wolf would be the worst possible thing to do. Thankfully a cloaking spell omitted no magical energy and used up as little energy as breathing did.

I tried to think of a plausible explanation to her furious questions and decided on honesty – well as close to as possible.

“We come from a small village on the other side of the mountains.”

Behind Raven, Jo gasped.

“Werewolf territory?”

“Yes,” I said with a nod.

Raven’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, her mouth forming a thin line.

“Why would you leave werewolf territory? Surely you have heard of the risk you ran coming onto Vampire land.”

I winced. I wish I had known. In the back of my mind, I could feel Annysia’s apologetic whimpering. She had no idea. She had been so tired when we had crossed the mountain, she hadn’t even realised we had left the safety of werewolf territory and entered into the Vampire kingdom. This was not good.

I scrambled to think of something convincing when Piper groaned out loud and rolled toward me, her eyes fluttering open.

“Oh God, Piper, are you alright?”

She met my gaze and I could feel the anxiety peeking through. I tried to communicate with my gaze, knowing that calling on Annysia would be too dangerous.

Piper lifted her brow slightly in question, but I shook my head. Not safe.

Piper propped herself up and I scrambled to help her up onto the bench seat. Raven and Jo sat across from us, eying us both warily.

“I’m Kara,” I said finally, meeting Raven’s gaze. “And we had no idea Vampire territory was so close. If we had…”

I let my voice drift off, hoping that would be enough, but Raven was unconvinced. I could see it in the way her eyes drifted over us, glancing at our clothes, our build – analysing everything.

Jo on the other hand gave me a small, sweet smile even though she was clearly terrified.

“I’m Josephine, but you can just call me Jo,” she said softly, her voice wavering slightly.

“Piper.” She raised her hand, her voice gravelly from just waking up again.

“This is Raven,” Jo said, her huge eyes taking in Raven’s unhappy and defensive posture.

I glanced around the van as I felt the van begin to slow down.

“How long have we been out?” I asked, glancing at Jo.

“Couple of hours, give or take,” Jo responded slowly. “It’s hard to keep track in here, but we have been travelling for quite a while.” 

She gestured between herself and Raven. So they had been here when we were brought into the van, and had been taken from God knows where.

I wanted to hit something, to swear to curse, anything, but I knew it would do us no good. We had spent months evading all species after what had happened to our families, and just because of a freak coincidence, we were now here, at the hands of Vampires.

“Any ideas on where we could be going?” Piper chipped in, running a hand through her hair. She always did that when she was worried, and it doubled my anxiety.

It was supposed to be my job to keep her safe, to keep her alive and now it seems I may have failed in doing both.

We all lurched suddenly as the van came to a stop. The sound of the doors beyond the tinted glass opening and shutting met my ears and then the crunching of heavy footfalls on the ground.

My heart hammered in my chest so loud, and my stomach churned I thought I was honestly going to throw up. This was the moment I had feared. If our concealment charm didn’t work, they would know what we are. They would have caught our scent and we would be brought before the Vampire King to be killed – hybrids didn’t exist in their world, nor in any Species opinion.

The footsteps stopped outside the double doors and they were pulled open, but not before I heard the barely audible whisper from Jo.

“Wherever they have taken us, it’s not going to be good.”