It has been a little more than a month since we started healing again since I changed. Something that I have noticed is that I am obsessed with garlic now. One could even say it is my weakness. I have created the ultimate snack. Jalapeno poppers with a roasted garlic cream cheese filling, with the perfect amount of animal blood to not ruin the texture. Soooooo good. We have our own enchanted garlic and jalapeno plant we carry on our travels since I have become so obsessed with them. I carry them in my bag since they are my babies. When I am not actively eating anything, I like having just the stem of a jalapeno in my mouth. It gives me something to chew on. Something else I learned during this time, since Leo has been my familiar, is that he can't talk to the other familiars if he is in human form. Only in his wolf form.
We have been in this particular town for about half a week or so. We are eating dinner in our room from the inn's kitchen before we have 'play' time. It tasted really good and had plenty of my beloved garlic, but I still eat slowly in comparison to everyone else because of my eating habits. Once I finish, I stand up and go to take off my clothes, and I take my pants off and have my shirt halfway off when my eyes start to get heavy and everything goes black.
I wake up with metal mana-sealing cuffs on in some sort of underground room, chained to a mattress. AGAIN. I hate this 'Please kidnap me' sign on my forehead that has to be there. I see a familiar figure in black with a scar under his eye, "Oh. Look who's awake. Please tell me why you smell so foul? Did you roll around in garlic or something?" The first thing out of my mouth was, "Anton, what the fuck?!" I yell as I yank on the chains.
He says with that same sly look of his, "I am sorry, miss priestess. Do you not like your arrangements?" Tilting his head in amusement. I laugh, sarcastically, "So funny, Anton." He then responds, "We may be family, but family means nothing when it comes to money. A certain somebody really misses you and paid a lot of money to have you returned. When I saw your dossier come as my next mission, my first reaction was to laugh. I have hardly ever been blessed with a mission with someone I know so much about. It is as if the goddess herself placed you in my lap. I learned everything about you and your familiars, and your routines that you are so fond of. It was so easy to drug your food and take you off in the night while your precious lover and familiars were passed out asleep. I bound them up to keep them occupied longer to give us more time, too. Nothing personal."
I laugh at the absurdity of his words, "Ha! Nothing personal?! This is very personal!" I say, still yanking my chains. Anton then responded, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, "What? It isn't like they are going to kill you or anything. You are going to outlive them anyway and can return to Lysara when they are dead." He says, and that thought of that makes me gag. I asked him, perplexed by his decisions and behaviors, "Why did you even change me then?" He chuckles, "Once I saw both you and Lysara obviously in love. I had to do something to prevent a peace treaty with the humans. Changing you into a demon should have resolved that problem, though." I scoff while still yanking on the chain, "I couldn't care less about a treaty! I only desire to be with Lysara!" He holds his arms out upon hearing my words, and his sly face with a little sparkle in his eyes, "See? It works out for everyone! You just need to hold out a few decades. Speaking of, it shouldn't be long now." He says as he stands up and climbs the stairs, leaving the underground room, "Don't bother screaming, anti-eavesdropping magic has been embedded in this building. Only we will hear you screaming, and no one else. Feel free to test it out if you would like." Then he leaves me all alone for a bit.
While he is gone, I continue to yank on these chains. They seem to be reinforced to defend against stronger races because I can't break free. That does not mean I won't stop trying.I will never stop trying. I yank as hard as I can over and over and over. The door opens again, and my father comes walking down the stairs holding a glass with a weird-looking concoction inside of it, "Hello again, my little troublemaker. It is time you stop rebelling against me, child. You have a duty to become the next queen. Stop this childish fantasy of marrying a succubus. This, you being a Lez-Dull is just a phase. That idiot crown prince told me everything. I thought I could rely on him since he seemed like he would do anything for you, but he is just incompetent. He doesn't need to be competent to be your husband, though. He just needs to be king, and for everything to be perfect,you need to be queen." He continues walking towards me, "I spent a lot of money just now paying off those kidnappers. Just to have you returned to me. Now let's get you home." He puts the glass to my lips and makes me drink, though I resist, but he forces it down my throat. Whatever it was, it was drugged, and everything went dark.
I keep intermittently waking up, and they immediately drug me and put me back to sleep. Sometimes they feed me before putting me back to sleep. When they let me stay awake, I see I am chained to a bed, and I seem to be in Perdita again, judging by a conversation I overheard from the guards outside. I don't know how much time has passed since I was taken. I do know that I NEED BLOOD. I look down and see my lingerie still there. At least I have something on. I yank on my chains, and these chains are not reinforced. I don't think Anton told my father about my change, otherwise my father would have prepared. For someone who betrayed me, he can be loyal at the same time. Apparently, the only thing he is loyal to is money, though.
I yank on these chains and break free quite easily. I have a long chain attached to the cuffs still, and I peer out the window. It is dusk, and I see some knights patrolling back and forth around the building. They smell delicious. They are using light magic torches that work by putting a bit of mana into them, since it is getting harder for them to see. They are circling the cabin in opposite directions to give the illusion of random intervals while occasionally stopping to chit chat when they cross paths when they are bored. When I see one by himself, I drop behind him and wrap around his neck with the chain to silence him and pull him into the tall grass for concealment. He passes out, and since I am starving right now, I take this as an opportunity to feed off of him. I heal him so they don't figure out I am a vampire, and I wait for the other knight to come into view. Healing with these cuffs on my wrists really hurts, as if my body is on fire, but I can heal them.
I stay low in the grass and wait until the other one's back is turned, and I stealthily and very quickly dispatch him as well. I move a lot faster as a vampire. I pull him to the grass to conceal his body to buy myself more time as well as search both of their bodies for a key to my cuffs, but no luck. I feed off the second guy too, and heal him as well, so I can get more full. After I cast heal on the second guy, I started coughing up blood from the pain of healing with these mana-sealing cuffs. I try to get my bearings to figure out where I am, and I look around while staying out of sight. After stealthily moving through the tall grass, around the building where I was, I saw my family's vacation home in the distance. They put me in the upstairs apartment of the storehouse apparently. I contemplate whether I should just make a break for it or try and get the key to these cuffs. I decide it will be wisest to make a break for it. My father doesn't know of my new abilities, and the longer I stay trying to get the key to these cuffs, the more chances he will find out I am not human anymore.
Now that I know where I am, I start stealthily making my way to the capital. I have to see the king. Once I have the cover of trees, I start running full speed, which is a lot faster than I used to be. I feel like a wild beast with how fast I am running. With where I am at it will take me several days of running to make it to the capital at this pace. I don't have my bag or my purse. My father must have confiscated them when he abducted me. I need to go to Father Xavier first before seeing the king. I don't want to be a muddy, bloody, and practically naked mess when requesting the king's audience. They would laugh me away. I run all night, and near morning, I borrow some blood from a wild deer and force myself to heal it through the pain before falling asleep high in a tree for a few hours of rest.
When I wake up, the sun burns my eyes and I have no sunglasses to combat the sun. The sun feels so heavy as it beats on my naked shoulders. As time goes on, my vision gets blurry from the fatigue. Whenever I get hungry, I pounce on some unsuspecting wildlife and borrow some blood and heal them afterwards. Even though my vision is blurry, I can still smell very well, which helps me hunt. I just need to see a blob. I sleep for a few hours every time I feel exhausted, and I surprisingly don't miss actual food that much right now (except my jalapeno poppers) since I am still getting my blood. That and probably the adrenaline of being on the run with nothing, and constant pain from these terrible cuffs.
After several days of running towards the capital, I finally made it to the temple around dusk, completely exhausted. My vision is still blurry from the fatigue of being in the sun all day without any kind of protection. I stealthily approach the temple so as not to cause a scene from my appearance. I knocked on the door, and I must have looked terrible because the blob, who I assume is Father Xavier, came rushing to me when he opened the door, "Oh my goddess, Ari, are you ok? Is this your blood?" I hugged him immediately, "I missed you, Father." He hugs me back, "I missed you too. You never answered my questions." I responded, "I am ok for now, and a lot of it is." He pulls me inside the temple, "I might have a mana-sealing cuff key somewhere around here. A fun fact that is a secret. Don't tell anyone I told you, but all cuffs can be opened by any cuff key. These keys are universal." He says as he puts his finger to his mouth and winks.
He runs off for a few minutes, and then he comes back, "I thought I might have lost it there for a minute. It was hiding since I haven't needed it in a long time." He comes up to me and unlocks the cuffs as the cuffs and chain drop to the ground. Dried/wet blood lined the inside of the cuffs and the outside of my wrists. He yells, "Shiki, come quick." Shiki slithers to me, and Father says, "Heal Ari for me, please." Shiki bites me, and I feel the wounds on my wrists closing, though I can't see the healing through all the dried blood. Shiki then wraps around me, and Father Xavier says, "He missed you." I reach down and pet him, "I missed you too, Shiki." I say with a smile. Father Xavier says, "Let me prepare you a nice warm bath to get cleaned up and get you some clean clothes. While you are washing, I will whip up some food for you." I replied, sighing a sigh of relief, finally feeling safe for the first time in a while, "Thanks, Father. If I can make a request for something with garlic in it, please?"
After washing and eating, I tell Father Xavier the whole story. Even the vampire bit. He is fully supportive. He says, wearing an emotion-filled face that has hints of worry and also happiness, "You have gone through quite the ordeal, Ari. I am so happy you found someone you love and that they love you just as much. Once the king hears of your story, he will most probably call off the wedding to the crown prince and let you marry Princess Lysara for the sake of peace between kingdoms. We will seek an audience with the king tomorrow. How are you feeling about blood? Are you hungry?" I nod, "A little. Would it be ok if I had a little snack, Father?" He tilts his head, and I go up and bite him and drink a little bit, then quickly heal him when I am done, and say, "Thanks, Father." I say as I wipe his blood from my lips. He says, "You must be exhausted from these past several days. Let's get you to bed." He shows me to one of the temple's guest rooms and I quickly go to sleep from exhaustion.