[Completed] Riley Hayes | A Vampire Novel - Book I

Chapter 27 - mutual longing

Marianna was running while screaming at the top of her lungs. The last five days she has gone through hell, she had been treated fairly alright and only been hit a couple of times for crying but she was scared.

That thing... Had bright red eyes. It was the devil, she knew.

While running she ran into men wearing red uniforms who stopped her from running in a panic and tried to calm her down. They were asking her many questions about where she came from and if she had seen vampires running.

She nodded furiously but couldn't speak yet but only pointed to the way she was running away from. "They're gone." She managed to whisper. "By car..."

The man calming her and shushing her while rubbing her sides was none other than Ryan himself. "So, please... I need you to tell me everything."

And so Marianna did, everything from her capture to the changes the human girl named Riley made to the ID only to infiltrate the research center.

"She's alive?" Ryan whispered. He then held tightly onto Marianna, "are you sure? Are you sure she was named Riley?"

Marianna nodded, "yes blond hair, green eyes..."

"It can't be here, Ryan... Why would she help two of them escape?" His right-hand man, Oliver asked.

He shook his head, "I wouldn't know but it has to be her, no one else could forge a brilliant plan like this." Ryan had thought his inside spy had been confused and had mixed up his Riley with another slave but now... She must be alive.

"I need to save her."

During the car ride home Leuca had asked Amalia what they had done to her but she wasn't ready to say. Christina had answered for her that they were doing all sorts of tests on them.

I explained they probably were trying to find more weaknesses to a vampire's body while being dosed with different amounts of sedatives.

We arrived back at the mansion, "home", as we had called it before. Amalia didn't let go of Leuca as they walked in front up the stairs towards the front door.

I had seen him kiss the top of her head and heard him whisper she was safe now. The door had just opened by a servant but Lazarus was already storming through. "Oh, Amalia..." He stood in front of her and even pulled her into a hug. "I'm glad you're back safely..." Usually, the other siblings weren't such a fan of Amalia but Lazarus seemed truthful.

I even saw Bailey and Abigail snooping around the corner to check up on their sister. I found it a bit adorable, to be honest. "She's alright now," Leuca said as he glanced at me and then back to his siblings, "but I think she needs some rest so I'll take her to her room now."

Wyatt and Christina also entered the house and I had to take a deep breath before entering. Here I went back to captivity like an idiot. But instead, I saw Christina wait at the door for me. "Like to walk around the garden a bit before heading back inside?" She asked.

Was she inviting me? I thought she hated me. She rolled her eyes when she saw me hesitating and thinking too much. "Come on, he's distracted now anyway so take your chance." She walked back out and down the steps while waiting for me.

I shrugged and followed her. We slowly walked around the mansion and saw many servants walking around to attend to the garden. Picking weeds, even the tiniest ones that were just sprouting or mowing the grass, watering the flowers, and so on. "I think you were very brave for what you did, Riley," Christina said, breaking our peaceful quiet.

"How so?"

"I'd hate to admit it but I didn't think I would get out of there and I didn't want the Lord to come to save me... Those darts are very dangerous." She halted her steps and looked down to her feet, she held herself big in front of the others but she had some cracks in her wall. It wasn't broken like Amalia's was, but close. "I felt so weak and useless in there, I had no way out."