A MAZE OF GREED

The darkroom felt shrinking day by day. The rancid smell in the room made her eyes watered, but after staying captive in the same room for weeks, her all senses had lost their power of functioning.

Her wrists were sore and had turned black and blue as the chains scratched against her delicate skin. Her hair was a dirty mess on her head. Her dress that was on her body for weeks was torn at places with dirt blotches here and there.

She was starved, harassed, made fun of, but she fought with everything that she had in her. She could not give up in front of those whom she hated the most- the vampires.

Darius sat watching her for more than twenty minutes now, without battling his eyes even for once. In that sorry state of hers, he found her attractive in a different way.

He had been with many beautiful women-vampires, humans and even some belonging to other breeds. But something about Lisa had him captivated, pulling towards her..

Her face, her fiery will, her scent- everything about her reminded him of Grace.

Perhaps that was the reason he had not killed Lisa yet. Or was there some other reason?

"My Lord!"

Darius's mood turned sour in an instant upon hearing that irritating voice of the annoying person. He chose to ignore the man, for he was disturbing him from his newly found favourite pass time.

"My Lord!"

That man did not know the meaning of giving up.

"I am listening Marcus." Darius said in a bored one.

"If you are done wasting your time watching a worthless human, your parents have asked for your presence."

Darius clenched his jaw. If Marcus was not his father's favourite, he would not have hesitated to stab his chest with a wooden stick. The only way of ending a vampire's life.

"Are those my parents' words?"

"No my Lord, they are mine!"

That shameless man never hides his resentment against the young Garfield.

"Then you should learn to keep your tongue in check, Marcus or someday one will cut it in half. Now my father would not like a silent serving dog for him, right?!"

Darius stood up from the floor where he sat and dusted his pants. Adjusting the collar of his shirt and his pant, he strode elegantly towards the cell where Lisa was watching him with hatred in her swollen eyes.

He opened the gate and walked into her. Crouching down to her level, he gently pushed her unruly hair out of her place.

Lisa felt disgusted by his touch but had no energy to stop him.

"Lisa, sweetheart, I wish we had some more time for us. But looks like I have to go. But I promise I will come to see you soon and then we can have our sweet time together. Okay?"

He said sweetly. But Lisa's reaction was exactly the opposite of his words. She visibly shuddered to hear his voice so close to her face. The coldness of his touch made the hair on her skin stood up.

She did not say a word but turned to face away from him. She held her breath till his lustful gaze burnt her face.

His hand slowly moved down on her body. She could not hold the whimper. His dark eyes watched proudly at her body. She had bite marks all over her body. Some were weeks old while some were fresh. One of them was as fresh as made today.

Blood still oozed out of the wound in tiny drops. Darius lifted her hand to bring it near his mouth. Her sweet red blood enticed the creature in him.

Not paying any hid to her noises of protest, he planted his cold lips on her warm skin and sucked hard.

Hot tears streamed down Lisa's face. She cursed her fate and God for giving her life in Kinsville on the face of the earth.

Darius's dark eyes shone with red glint. His fangs were already put even though he had not used them to puncture her skin.

Lisa had seen that monster many times during these past weeks. He was not what terrified her, but what her fate held for her did.

Before he lose himself to his hunger and drink every drop of blood from her body till her soul give up on life, Darius stood up and hurriedly walked out of the cell.

Marcus had not moved from his place. He watched the exchange between Darius and Lisa in amusement. Lisa was not the first toy that Darius had brought to play. But Marcus had noticed something was different about her that made Darius more lenient towards the young girl.

"Poor human!" Marcus spat as if being human was a pitiful thing.

Perhaps it indeed was in Kinsville.

"Looks like our son just had a fun, darling!" Ambrose noticed Darius walking towards them.

Watching Darius with blood around his mouth or on his clothes was a common sight in the Garfield palace.

Aurora smiled at her son.

"Why did you call me?" Darius came straight to the point.

"Our son also does not look like in a good mood, honey." Aurora pointed.

Darius rolled his eyes at his parents who seek fun in pointing out the obvious.

"Is this what you wanted to talk with me?"

His parents turned serious instantly.

"We do not smell the smoke yet, son." Ambrose said with furrowed brows.

"And we will not smell it anytime soon, My lord." Hilton, one of the coven members entered the room.

"Mr Hilton! Please have a seat." Aurora said politely.

The man did as he was told.

"Is that something I need to bother with? I have done my part of job!" Darius shrugged.

"Your responsibility does not end there, My Lord!" Hilton glared at Darius.

"Then what do you want me to do old man?" Darius fired back.

"Darius! Do not speak like that with Mr Hilton. He is a respected coven member. And you know why he is so concerned about this issue." Aurora chided her son.

"Son, of course, you should be bothered with this issue and your responsibility does not end there. You are supposed to rule Kinsville and probably the whole world if everything goes according to our plan.

Other than that do not forget the one we lost was your childhood friend." Ambrose reminded Darius that made him clamped his mouth shut.

Turning to Hilton, Ambrose asked. "But Barret Addington said our this trike will do the trick. Then where we went wrong?"

Aurora scoffed. "We trusted Addington- a human. That is where we went wrong."

"Aurora!"

"I told you to not trust a human. They are weak, acts on impulse and thinks they have everything planned but clearly they do not know a shit!" Aurora spat in anger.

"Our one informer went missing weeks ago. And now we can not reach the other one. What does it mean, My Lord?" Hilton informed.

"What do you mean we can not reach our informer?" Darius asked with narrowed eyes.

"It means they are alert now!" Ambrose said lost in his world of thoughts.

"I knew it was not a right time to strike. We should not have underestimated our enemy, Ambrose. They are the O'Dells- undefeated, untouched for centuries." Aurora said.

"Yes. They did not lose anything even during the great war. It was we who had to lose everything because of them!"

It was clear from Hilton's body language and words how much he hated the werewolves, especially the O'Dell family.

He was not the only one in Kinsville with hard feelings against them. In fact, the whole vampire breed shared a strong resentment against them.

The Garfield went as far as sowing the seeds of hatred in the minds of humans living in the Kinsville.

"We striked at the wrong time, Ambrose. We should have waited for some more time. Now we have awaken the sleeping wolf. They will not hesitate to strike back, especially Edwin O'Dell." Aurora faces her husband.

Edwin name made two people's blood boil in anger- Hilton and Darius.

"I do not think so, darling. Even if they decide to fire back, they can not. We have already started rotting their alliances with other families. Right now Vincardine is under the watch of an espionage network that is not controlled by a single person but many families.

If they decide to attack us or point their finger at us, who would dare to go against the Garfield's? Not even royals are capable of that." Ambrose smiled wickedly

"I think father is right! We should not worry about their reaction. But what are we going to do about Addington?

The human is blinded by the hunger for power. He only wants the O'Dells at his feet.

But he has no guts to do it by himself. That is why he is using us. I do not think we should trust him anymore."

Aurora was glad to see her son agreeing with her opinion.

Lacing his fingers with Aurora's, Ambrose smiled at the three people who waited for his reply.

"That man does not deserve our worry. Let him think that he is using us. He thinks that we are blind and deaf because we do not cross the borders of Kinsville.

We need him right where he is. We need him for some more time and when he will of no use to us, you know what we do to useless things."

Rounds of laughter echoed around the room of the Garfield palace. Its consequences would be seen in the near future and would be experienced by everyone.