by Sofia Daniel
Captured
Royals of Sanguine Vampire Academy Book 1
Sofia Daniel
Copyright © 2019 by Sofia Daniel.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Want teasers for upcoming books? Join my reader group, Sofia’s Study Group.
www.SofiaDaniel.com
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
From Sofia Daniel
Chapter 1
I added another layer of mascara and frowned at my reflection. With my mahogany hair down and covering most of my face, I might pass for twenty-one. As long as the Velvet Lounge was dark, and their security staff didn’t look too closely at my fake ID. Erica arranged her long, black hair into a high ponytail. With curves like hers, she’d have no problem getting through the door.
My gaze dropped down to my push-up bra. Unlike Erica, I had to take extra measures to make myself look older than seventeen.
Daniel ran into my room, clad in his green, T-Rex pajamas, looking like he’d stayed awake to eavesdrop the entire evening. One side of his blond hair was mussed, and the other side flopped over his brows, adding to his cuteness. He grinned, revealing his missing front teeth. “Alicia, why are you going to the Velvet Lounge when you told Mom the party was at your college?”
“Thanks, Daniel.” I ruffled his hair. “Why don’t you scream it at the top of your lungs, so Mom and Steve can hear you downstairs?”
“Daniel poses an excellent question.” Mom pushed the door open and stepped inside, clad in the fluffy dressing gown she only wore during winter. “Isn’t the Velvet lounge the place they raided with sniffer dogs last week?”
My insides cringed with a mixture of guilt and embarrassment. Richley College really was having a party on the premises, but Erica’s ex was going, and we decided at the last minute to party somewhere else.
“That’s Club Insanity,” I said. “And we wouldn’t dream of venturing into that den of iniquity.”
Erica mouthed, ‘Sorry.’
Mom frowned at my enhanced boobs, making my guts writhe with shame. Sometimes a girl on the cusp of becoming a C cup needed a little help. Her gaze flicked up to my face. “If anyone acts inappropriately, you should—”
“Kick him in the balls, I know.”
Mom shot me a scandalized look. Not for my language but for repeating it in front of Daniel, whose mouth formed a perfect O.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry.”
Mom turned to Erica. “Please keep my daughter out of trouble. Even if you have to use your karate skills to stop her from doing something silly.”
“Yes, Mrs. Stephens,” Erica chorused as though she hadn’t originally suggested we skip the college party for the Velvet Lounge.
“Well…” Mom placed her hand on Daniel’s head and steered him out of the room. “Look after each other, girls.”
“Goodnight, Alicia,” Daniel shouted from the hallway. “Get me something nice from the Velvet Lounge.”
“Goodnight, bigmouth,” I shouted back.
“Your mom is so cool,” Erica whispered.
Warmth spread across my chest, and my lips curved into a smile. “I know.”
That’s what I loved most about Mom. She was laid back, unlike Erica’s mom, who fretted about every probable danger and had enrolled her in martial arts classes from the tender age of five. Mom and I had been the two musketeers since before I could remember. When she had married Steve and had Daniel, she had brought even more love into the family. I almost dreaded leaving for university, because I didn’t want to miss out on a single day of her and my little brother.
I slipped on my leather jacket and stuffed my phone in its pocket. “Let’s go before Daniel sneaks out of bed again and mentions the guys we’re meeting from Venus Chat.”
I didn’t see the men in the mirror, but the shrieks and shouts filling the ladies’ bathroom indicated trouble. My lip gloss slipped from my fingers into the sink, and dread kicked me in the stomach. The Velvet Lounge’s bathroom was one of those huge, underground chambers with stalls on both sides of the room and two rows of sinks in the middle, separated by a dividing mirror topped with makeup lights. I slipped around the row of sinks furthest from the door, crouched down, and observed.
The largest man I’d ever seen stepped out from around the corner dressed in bulky, black body armor. Guns and knives and batons were strapped to his body, but as he passed the wall mirrors, he cast no reflection. My skin prickled into goosebumps, and my heart knocked against my ribs, urging me to find a better hiding-place.
As he walked into a girl who stood in his way, I straightened and calmly walked to the stall next to Erica’s, keeping the man in the edge of my vision. The girl stumbled back, and he let her fall. Nothing about that man indicated he had come for our protection.
Without casting the girl a glance, the six-and-a-half feet specter strolled forward, looking from left to right, as though he knew the identity of his target. Behind him entered another armored man of a similar size, who raised his head like a hunting dog scenting its prey. My stomach tightened. What else could he be but an assassin, a bodyguard, or an abductor?
I slipped into the stall, shut the door, slid the bolt across the lock, and exhaled a relieved breath.
“Hey!” shouted the girl from the other side of the door. “Who the hell do you think—”
She shrieked. The doors of each of the bank of stalls on my side of the bathroom reverberated with the force of her body hitting the wood. Then she fell with a thud right outside my stall and didn’t get up.
I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth, pulled down the toilet seat, and climbed on top. Crouching low, I wrapped my arms around my shins and steadied my breathing. These men weren’t normal.
Muffled music thudded in from the dance floor, mingling with the cries and shrieks of the other girls in the bathroom. I closed my eyes and focussed on the sounds. From their sobs and grunts of pain, the men seemed to be grabbing each woman and doing something to them before throwing them on the ground with a disgusted huff.
“She’s not here,” said one of them.
Terror shuddered down my spine, and I hugged myself tighter. If they were looking for someone in particular, why did they need to inspect everyone? Did they not know their target’s face?
Someone slammed the door. “You said that in Club Insanity and at that shitty college party. This is the last place on our list. She has to be here.”
A palpitation reverberated through my chest and sweat broke out across my brow. I clenched my teeth to stop them from chattering. They weren’t looking for Erica or me, because we were no one.
As the mayhem outside continued, sweat poured down the sides of my temples, and I clasped my hands togethe
r in a sort of prayer. If they left without noticing my stall, I would become a better person. Give more to charity. Volunteer for the homeless. Anything not to be their target.
“Wait,” whispered one guy. “I hear her heartbeat.”
The other man snorted. “I hear them all.”
I pressed my lips together and calmed my breathing. They were obviously trying to sound extra sinister.
With a crash, a booted foot slammed my door off its hinges. If fell onto my head with a dull, painful thud. I clenched my teeth. Maybe if I kept still, I could stay hidden.
The man threw the door off me and grinned. I froze, eyes locked in his crimson gaze.
With a gloved hand, he reached down and pulled me out by my hair. Wincing, I stepped off the toilet seat, and he gave the side of my neck a huge, noisy sniff. A mix of fear and disgust and loathing prickled across my skin.
“Found her,” he rumbled.
Every ounce of blood drained from my face and sped into my thrashing heart. Pushing aside thoughts of why a man with no reflection would identify me by scent, I tugged at his fingers, trying to loosen his grip from my hair. Supernatural creatures didn’t exist. There had to be another explanation, like a secret government project. But why would they be interested in me?
His companion from the other side of the room made an approving grunt. “Take her to the van, and I’ll clear up.”
Van? I punched at the man’s fist, but he hooked a meaty hand under my arm and slung me over his shoulder. My escape was over before it had even begun.
As I writhed on the man’s shoulder, I took in my surroundings. Most of the girls lay on the ground, still breathing. I looked around for Erica, who had been inside a stall when the men entered the bathroom. She lay on her side, breathing hard. One of her eyes cracked open and stared up at me.
Stay down. Let them think you’ve passed out. Of course, she couldn’t hear my thoughts. Telepathy didn’t exist, but I hoped she would have the good sense not to run after me and attack with her karate.
“Hold your breath.” The man stepped out of the bathroom door into a cloud of yellow.
“What?” Gas burned the back of my throat. Eyes watering, I barked out a choking cough.
Rollercoaster-fast, he sped through the hallway, pushed open a fire door, and stepped out into the summer night.
Fresh air filled my lungs, and I coughed out my guts, making sure to jerk my body as hard as I could to fall off his shoulder. He carried me through a darkened alley and tightened his grip around my middle.
“I can’t breathe!” I wheezed.
The door of a van opened, and the man slung me inside. As I landed on my hands and knees, I met the haunted gaze of a girl about my age with pale eyes and dishwater-blonde hair. She sat on a ledge on the far side of the van’s interior, arms wrapped around her middle. The door slammed shut behind me.
“I got captured by the men at home,” she said in a voice numb with shock. “They broke my aunt’s neck.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth and gasped out, “Why?”
The engine roared to life, and the van pulled out from the alleyway. My new companion shook her head and stared ahead into the window. I gaped at her slack features. Like me, she wasn’t anything special. Just a regular girl, wearing pastel blue pajamas who didn’t seem wealthy or haughty enough to be the child of someone important. Nobody in Richley was important. It was the tiniest suburb in the ass-end of south London that didn’t even have its own station in the London Underground.
I turned from the window to where the girl cowered in her seat. “What’s your name?”
“Zarah,” she whispered. “Zarah Peridot.”
“I’m Alicia Stephens. What happened to you?”
She shrank into herself and sobbed. A wave of despair washed through my insides, snuffing the last flicker of hope that she might help us escape. I guessed she’d already told me what I needed to know and didn’t want to elaborate. In her position, I wouldn’t want to give grizzly details about how they’d killed my aunt.
“Do you know why they took you?” I asked.
Zarah shook her head.
I’m not sure how long they drove, but from the van’s gentle movements, it looked like our abductors were careful not to attract any attention of the traffic police. We seemed to be in one of those armored vans that security guards used to collect money from banks and stores. A tiny window provided a view of the concrete industrial estates that made up our suburb’s outskirts, giving no clues about our destination.
Eventually, the vehicle slowed and stopped opposite a nondescript brick building set within a tarmac courtyard and enclosed in wire fencing. I read the sign. Richley Juvenile Detention Center. Ice ran through my veins and made my muscles seize. Murders didn’t put young people into prisons. Was this where they would drag us out and… A slew of grisly scenarios, each ending with murder flittered through my mind.
Blood rushed between my ears, and black spots flashed before my eyes.
We had to get out of here.
Now.
“Hey.” I rushed over to the other side of the van and squeezed the other girl’s shoulder.
Flinching, she curled her spine and raised her legs. White light streaming in from one of the security lights around the detention center made her hair and pale skin shine like the moon. If it wasn’t for the warm flesh under my fingertips, I would have thought she was a phantom.
“Zarah,” I whispered through panting breaths. “As soon as the door opens, we should run.”
She clung tightly to herself and shook her bowed head.
The front doors slammed open and shut.
“Sit down.” Zarah raised her head, revealing watery, green eyes. “You’ll get us punished.”
“What?”
“They don’t want us to leave.” She wrung her hands. “If we look like we’re working out an escape route, one of them will get angry with us.”
“But this might be our only chance of getting away.” I turned back to the window. Two of the armored men rushed across the street and scaled the detention center’s gates with incredible speed. My insides jolted with shock. What kind of freaks were these?
Inhuman strength.
Above-average sense of smell.
Supernatural speed.
Cast no reflection.
My survival instinct kicked me in the gut, and I pushed my thoughts aside. Now was not the time to make speculations. Now was the time to escape. “Come on. We’re alone. Let’s see if we can wedge the door open.”
Zarah whimpered and hid her head in her hands. “We have to stay.”
I rushed to the end of the van and examined the seam between the doors. “Do you have a pin?”
“N-no.”
Grinding my teeth, I rifled through the pockets of my leather jacket. My cellphone was off, and when I switched it on, there was no service. I stuffed it back in my pocket and ran my hands over the lever mechanism holding the van doors tighter. As expected, they were all stuck fast.
“S-stop,” she said. “It won’t work.”
The pads of my fingers dug into the metal, and I clenched my teeth. “We have to at least try.”
“No.” Her voice was muffled. “They’re too fast, too strong, too clever. It’s futile.”
After several minutes of trying the doors, they swung open, and I fell out. As soon as my hands hit the tarmac, I pushed myself to my feet and started a sprint. Less than a second later, one of the men grabbed me by my hair. Pain burned through my skull, and my hands flew up. I dug my fingers into his meaty fists, trying to dislodge his fingers, but they were like steel encased in leather.
A sob burst in my throat. If I had a knife, I would cut myself free. Or cut him.
A low chuckle rumbled in his companion’s throat. “This one’s feisty.”
“Not for long.” He wrapped a muscled arm around my middle and flung me back through the van doors.
After a short fall, I landed on a larger body. He was
male and unmoving and dressed in some kind of green, prison tracksuit. I scrambled off the man and headed for the door, only to have it slam shut.
“I told you.” Zarah’s dull voice echoed with defeat. “You can’t win.”
“At least I’m trying,” I hissed.
She lowered her head to her lap and cried into her pajamas, blonde hair forming a curtain around her face. Wracking sobs shook her body, and guilt lashed me through the heart. These men had killed her aunt. She was probably still numb with shock. Or grief.
The van’s engine roared to life, and the vehicle sped down the road.
“Sorry.” I shuffled around the large man’s body and back to the hard seat. “But we have to get out of here. There’s something wrong with these men, and we have to escape before they take us to their lair.”
“Lair?” she gasped out.
“Alright.” My gaze dropped to the young man lying on the van’s floor. He was probably a year older than us, making him about eighteen. Possibly nineteen. A fading bruise marred the side of his cheek, meaning he was no stranger to fights. From his height and large frame, I guessed he had probably won more times than he had lost. “It might not be an actual lair, but wherever weirdos take girls these days.”
“Vampires,” she whispered.
My insides stilled. I’d pushed that word to the back of my mind because such creatures didn’t exist outside the realm of horror. “What?”
“One of them flung my aunt across the room like she was a rag doll. A-and they had fangs and eyes that slitted like snakes. The guy who put me in here told me to be good, or he would bite me.”
My fingers clutched at the edge of the seat, my arms stiffened, and my stomach muscles clenched against the churn of nausea and trepidation crawling up my gullet. “The guy who took me didn’t have a reflection in the mirror.”
