I find Maria's dislike for Elizabeth so amusing!
MARIA Bran caught Elizabeth around the waist and Maria's eyes zoned in on that point of contact, wanting to see if the touch was romantic at all, but he simply extricated her from his body and placed her on the ground next to him. Immediately he dropped her, his eyes shot to Maria's and she was sure she saw guilt in them, although she wasn't standing close enough to him to be able to tell properly. Her insides felt hot and alien, like her body didn't belong to her anymore. Knowing that the jealously she couldn't hide even if she tried to was showing on her face, she wove on a glamour of utter calmness. When both Bran and his ex saw her, they would think she had no reaction to them touching.Her powers came in handy sometimes. "What are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked him, obviously unhappy that Bran was putting her at arms length.Maria didn't know whether he had done that simply because she was there and it pissed her off. She hated this, hated not knowing what was going on his h
BRANMaria gave me an incredulous look. "You don't like animals?""I didn't say that." Bran shoved his hands into the sleeves of his shirt, rolling the material down. "They don't like me."As he left the closet, he caught his reflection in the mirror and couldn't help but be amazed at how different he looked. He didn't look different in the sense that his physical appearance had changed—that wasn't possible since he had frozen into his immortality ages ago. It was his eyes, his expression, the lines of his mouth. Even though he had a lot going on and he was more stressed than he would be normally, he still looked more relaxed. Younger. His eyes brighter and less shadowed. And it was all due to Maria's effect."But do you like them at least?" The woman responsible for the lightness with which he now carried himself, asked. "I feel nothing towards them."He heard a gasp, and her voice was curious when she spoke again. "What if I decide to get some as pets?"Not one but some? Bran wal
BRAN He was dropped into a kneeling position on the ground and his knees stung from the hard impact it made with the dark linoleum floor of his living room. The urge to get up and fight redoubled when two men dragged Maria into room. Her arms and legs had been bound and when they dropped her on the ground just as harshly as they'd dropped Bran, he saw tear-streaks on her face and a bright red spot on one cheek. Had one of these men slapped her?Bran saw red.The minute he was free from the chains, he would rip them in two. Extricate their limbs from their bodies bit by bit and enjoy their cries of pain. Even in death, they would remember to never lay a hand on anything that belonged to him. "Hello, daughter," Ariti said to Maria, walking over to her and dragging a finger down her face. She shook away from his touch but that didn't deter him. "This isn't the reunion I hoped for, but you have never looked more healthy so I can't complain."The asshole. As if he cared about her. Mar
MARIA"You must have done the calculations already, but just incase, I'll do it for you. Your sister is the female vampire from a royal bloodline and Maria, my clueless daughter here, is the Queen of Sorceri."After those words, Maria heard nothing else. It was like her ability to hear dissapeared and she could only think. Feel. What did her father just say? She was the Queen of Sorceri?How was that even possible? The Queen of Sorceri was basically the most powerful sorceress amongst the Sorceri and if she was that creature, then she was the most powerful sorceress in the worlds. But how could that be? She had never felt weaker than she did right now. And to think that her own father wanted to offer her as a sacrifice just to get his powers back. After using her to do all his evil work, he was going to kill her? Was she so worthless to him?Tears slid down her cheek continuously but no sound came out of her mouth. She was too astonished by everything she'd learnt today. First, fi
MARIA She searched all the rooms in the house, even went down to the dungeons to check but she still couldn't find who she was looking for.Then she came face to face with the door to the room she wasn't sure she wanted to enter. It's huge black mahogany door taunted her, daring her to push it open. To step into the room that she had not entered since she was a child. A room that was no doubt still filled with the presence of her late father. But she shouldn't be scared, should she? She was the Queen of Sorceri, and with every second that passed, the thought started to solidify in her mind. With a wave of her hand, she sent the door flying back and she stormed in, her eyes sweeping the dark walls of the room where a single portrait of Ariti hung. Her powers had the frame crashing to the ground face-down. The man in the picture was dead. It was fitting that the picture should be destroyed too.Her eyes searching the room, she saw a door behind a shelf. The shelf obstructed the door
BRAN "If you value what is left of your miserable fucking life, you will tell me where my sister is right now."Bran might as well be talking to himself because there was no sign on the man's face to show that he'd just heard what Bran said. His eyes remained completely shut and his face, blank. Making a fist, Bran reared his hand back and sent his fist flying into the man's face, getting him right in his nose. The asshole jerked from the impact and groaned, his hands flying to his face to cradle his broken bone, confirming Bran's suspicions that the man actually was alive but was just pretending that he wasn't so that Bran would think him dead and abandon him. This was the man that had betrayed him. The man that had given confidential information to Ariti. The man that had indirectly contributed to him losing Maria. At the thought, his heart gave a sharp throb and an ache started at the back of his right eye. Hating the man even more for what he had caused him, Bran sent two mor
MARIAWe need a cook, Maria thought as she stirred the mixture in the bowl while fetching pans from the rack on the wall at the same time with her powers. Over the past few days, she had taken on the task of hiring a live-in maid, a cleaner that would come every two days and gardener, but she hadn't employed a cook yet. She had not been allowed into the kitchen when she was younger and therefore didn't know how to prepare a decent meal, so for the past three days—because while heartbreak couldn't kill her, she could very well die of hunger—she had taken up the task of cooking. To save her time, all she would have to do was envision the meal she wanted and it would appear in front of her, but she had recently come to see how important a cook was. She wanted to learn how to make at least a few meals and it didn't hurt to learn with a cookbook. That was what she'd been doing for the past three days anyway, and the meals had come out okay—most of the time. The doorbell rang through th
MARIA "Why are you dressed like that?" It was the day for Iris' welcome party, and the host, currently standing on Maria's doorstep, was wearing a simple straight gown that reached her ankles. "What's wrong with my gown?" Iris frowned, pulling the material away from her body to examine it. "There's nothing wrong with it except for that fact that it's too casual to wear for your own party, don't you think?" Maria subtly stepped out of the way, making space for Iris to pass but she kept her feet firmly planted on the mat. "Oh," Realization flicked across her features and she waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that. I'll change once I get to the castle. There's time."Maria nodded, now understanding why she was wearing that gown. She had probably showed up like this because she didn't want her gown to get rumpled or stained while coming here. Still, Maria hedged. "Do you want to come inside for a few minutes before we go?" Her eyes flicked to the car sitting in the drive