Be Careful When You Bite Me

Chapter Five

The next morning came slower than the one before but at least I could say that I was getting somewhat comfortable in my new bed. I caught up on a couple of hours of sleep, mainly because I had hoped to dream of Damon. It was strange how often his eyes held captive the thoughts of my mind. I could lay in bed for hours just daydreaming of what it would feel like if he held me, looked me deep in my eyes, and tilted my head, planting soft gentle pecks along the side of my neck until he finally bit.

The thought caused shivers to run down my spine and I wondered where he was right now. We had a moment yesterday, in that closet after he pulled me inside and screamed at me. I remembered how he looked at my neck. I wondered why I wanted to see him again or if living in this castle has me going completely crazy.

I decided to cut myself some slack. There was never a cliche where the poor little human girl didn't have a slight crush on the sexy vampire.

Sexy, jaw-dropping, mouthwatering... insanely complicated vampire-

I quickly shook the thoughts off and reminded myself that the main goal was not to shack up with the vampire, it was to get the hell out of here. I thought of Xavier and if he was keeping his promise.

Had he called the witch? Did she agree to help me? Is she coming today?

I decided I needed to get out of bed and search for something to do. I grabbed the sandwich the maid had left for me and made my way through the echoed hallways and down the dark stairs. The castle was even more silent than usual today and I couldn't help but wonder why no one was around. I wondered where they kept the villager man from yesterday and debated finding him.

Where would I be if I was a human captured and waiting to be killed by vampires?

Dungeon.

The more I walked the more I discovered, more closets, more rooms, more of everything, but still no dungeon. I walked through the kitchen where Damon and Isabelle had been and wondered who Isabelle even is. It was clear that she had a certain romance with Seth but there was something with Damon too. Besides the Queen, she was the only other vampire girl I've met.

And been bitten by.

I had been walking for what must have been half an hour before opening up a pair of double doors that led outdoors. Not completely outdoors, just a few meters of grass before large metal gates lined the perimeters making it impossible to escape. I decided to take what I can get and walked on the grass, breathing in the fresh air that felt like the only normal thing left in my life right now.

I squinted my eyes and looked up at the sun. I realized I hadn't actually seen or felt the sunlight on my skin for days now and also realized that everything I had done outside the castle walls had been during the night.

I wondered if it was true that vampires couldn't be out in the sunlight and if that's why the castle was so quiet.

Are they.... sleeping?

I searched the trees in hopes of finding a bird or a squirrel, something to remind me of life before The Underworld but I didn't see a living creature anywhere. I let out a soft sigh and was about to head inside when I felt my shoes touch something that wasn't grass. I looked down at my feet to see a large square piece of metal that almost resembled the doors of an underground tunnel. The word dungeon echoed in my head as I reached down and slid my fingers underneath in an attempt to lift it up. I felt dirt slide up in my nails but continued to pull at the piece of metal. I was almost convinced that it was merely a piece of scrap stationed in the ground until the door lifted up abruptly, sending me flying backward. I stepped forward and opened it all the way, revealing a dark wooden stairway leading down into the ground.

My breathing quickened and I stood restlessly in confusion.

What do I do? Do I go down there?

Part of me was afraid of the journey down the creepy stairs but a majority of me was more afraid of what I would find.

My head was racing with a thousand thoughts of images that should have sent me running in the opposite direction. The sudden image of the lady in the village came to my mind. I saw her fall to her knees and cry out for the guards to spare her son. The pain in her voice had been so desolated, almost as if she had lost hope and they had already killed him.

I spun on my heels and looked around in panic.

If the vampires could somehow be sleeping right now...if the sunlight is the reason they aren't out right now to shout at me for being out....if that man is down there right now...how would I sneak him out of the castle if I couldn't even sneak myself out?

If I could somehow hide him until I figured it out or maybe-

It would be both our funerals.

I gazed up at the thick metal gates and wondered if he got up on my shoulders if he could somehow reach, but there was no way. The gates had to be at least four meters high.

I still had to go down there. I had to see if he's alive and if he is, I could come back up and figure the rest out later.

They would just go back and get him. There's no point.

I blocked off my thoughts ringing like alarms in my head and instead, took a step closer towards the stairs and then another one down.

I felt the nerves begin to take over and my breathing began to quicken. I swallowed back the fear and took a few more steps down until the light from the opening of the tunnel was above me. More steps down and I was relieved to see a small flicker of light.

There was a slight echo and the sound of a breeze, almost like wind over a body of water.

I carefully took the last step down and prayed my feet wouldn't land in water or manure as I placed them down now all the way down with the stairs.

I followed the flicker of flight and as I walked further, I could see that it was coming from a candle hanging from a ledge on the hard stone walls. I felt something scrape against my knee and winced in pain. I looked down to see a large boulder and stepped around it.

I followed the corridor, now lit with even more candles, and walked until I was face to face with a metal fence that closed off the rest of the path completely. I heard slight stirring and stepped back in fear that it might be a guard. When the noise stopped, I grabbed the candle off the wall and held it closer to the fence.

"Hello," I whispered," is anybody there?" I went to grab the metal fence when I heard a muffled manly mumble," Don't touch it."

The sound of shuffling echoed throughout the walls and I left out a gasp when I heard the person stand up and approach me.

I felt my stomach drop down to my knees and backed away. The man behind the fence was indeed the same one that I had seen with the guards in the halls, the same man that Damon kidnapped from town.

I didn't know what to say or how I would even help. His dark hair covered most of his muddy face. What was left of his dirty clothes were shredded," It will burn you." He continued. I couldn't see his eyes, only a part of his face that was visible under the shadow of the light-emitting from the candle.

I felt my head begin to ring and searched my thoughts for ways to help. Seconds passed by and my fingers began to burn. I snapped back to reality and threw the candle when I realized that the wax had been melting off and dripping down my arm.

There was almost no light now.

Shit.

I remembered the boulder that I had scraped my knee on. If I could somehow pick it up and break the fence open with it, I could lead him upstairs and figure the rest out before the sunsets.

"Wait," I said out loud and began to trace my steps," I'm coming back, j-just wait!"

I struggled to operate my limbs properly and the task to both run and breath at the same time became suddenly impossible.

I ran back the way that I came but couldn't locate the rock. I kicked my legs into areas that had no light hoping my skin would make contact with it but it didn't. I turned the corner into a lightly dim hallway that I must have missed before and wondered where it led to. I decided to take my chances and ran down the new corridor, hoping that if there was at least one boulder that there might be another.

The further down the hall I ran the more I heard noises and seconds later distinguished them as voices.

Two voices, arguing about something. I felt the blood in my system freeze cold and came to a halt when I recognized one voice as Isabelle's.

"You stupid idiot!" she snapped, her voice low and angry," I told you to go with them! You shouldn't have let him go alone, you should have been there to kill that villager and show the King that only you could finish the job."

I took a few steps forward and hid my body behind the curve of the hall. I could see her long black hair somehow still glowed even in the dark and her snow-white legs went on for days. She wore a black mini skirt with a matching crop top that showed off her slender perfectly shaped torso.

"Do you really think it matters?" A male voice snapped back," Father would never let him be king now, not after I told him about how he rescued the jester."

"He's going to make him kill the jester," she snapped back," but he's not going to take away the throne."

"I will find a way to make him, just like I did with Xavier," I finally recognized the voice as Seth's.

"Xavier mated with a witch, he was de-crowned by default," Isabelle let out an angry sigh," Damon has potential. Sparing the life of a human inst going to get him thrown off as King."

"You have to get closer to him, find a weakness that I can use."

"I cannot keep playing as his sad forbidden love anymore Seth!" Isabelle sounded like she's on the verge of tears," but I need to be Queen."

"I turn 18 soon, by law I am allowed to challenge him-"

"And you will lose," she interrupted, " Damon is two years older than you, that means two years stronger, you have to give your father a reason to hate him, to see that he is unworthy, to see that only you-"

I felt my leg hit against something hard and recognized it as the boulder I had been looking for. I winced in pain and froze in fear when I realized that my blood had started to drip and that Seth and Isabelle had stopped talking.

I tried to calm down my beating heart and blend with the walls but I knew that it would be impossible now.

"Shhh," I heard Isabelle hiss," who's there?"

"One of the villagers might have escaped," said Seth," I can smell it."

"No, I recognize this blood," said Isabelle," I had this blood."

They were about to turn the corner to come face to face with me but I didn't wait. I let my legs do the panicking for me and ran as fast as I can back down the halls. I came to face two different sides of the halls and knew one led back up the stairs and the other led to the dungeon. I couldn't remember which was which so I prayed to everything and anything out there before I made a sharp left, running as fast as my legs could take me.

I felt hot tears sting my eyes as my legs came to a halt, face to face with the metal fence. My heart thudded as if to break out of my chest and I couldn't help but wonder what they would do to me.

The villager man stood still behind the cell as if waiting for me.

"They found you...didn't they."

I couldn't respond, my speech was imprisoned by my panic. I heard a whooshing sound like a harsh wind and didn't have to turn around to know that they were behind me.