The following vault short was from a bit of character exploration I had done for the Maura’s Men Trilogy.

Origins: Maura’s Revenge

A Long Time Ago

Maura’s hands shook with rage, her belly clenched tight, and she stumbled back. Away from the impossible scene before her eyes.

How could he do this to her? He said he loved her. That they would be a family.

Her belly squeezed again, tighter this time. Her head swam with the pain of it. She pushed forward, thankful that everyone was more concerned about the grand affair she’d fled from to pay attention to her. A poor servant girl so round with child her dress barely concealed its girth.

Maura tripped over her feet, falling to the ground, she crawled. Like an animal to the edge of the woods. She could no longer stay here, would no longer be accepted at home. She moved further into the brush. Her heart raced, her skin slick with sweat and her belly crushing itself in agonizing synchronicity.

Thorny bushes tore at her clothing, broke her skin until blood flowed freely from her body. Not just from the scratches, but between her legs. She found a tree and rested her body against the bark. She closed her eyes and dreamed of home. Of the vast sands and papyrus reeds that lined the water's edge. Tan buildings, bustling markets. She’d been stupid to believe the pale visitors would provide her a better life. She’d gone from being served to being a servant. Worse, she’d assumed because he’d taken her to bed that they would be together.

A sharp pain sliced through her heart, almost as intense as the pain in her gut. She’d lost her heart, her love, and now it seemed she would lose her baby as well. Her clothes were tinged pink before deepening to red as sweat mixed with blood, soaked into the fabric. The world around her began to fade. It seemed the fates had decided to take mercy on her. To let her die here with her child, with her heart.

She smiled and welcomed the darkness closing in, the cold that spread from her limbs to her core. She was numb, heartbroken, body broken, but at peace. Her suffering was almost at an end. She let it settle over her like a soft blanket. She was free, floating in a sea of nothingness. She didn’t know how long she was in the darkness, but there always seemed to be a light in the distance, still just out of reach.

Suddenly she felt a tug, like a rope tied to her ankle. She was no longer floating but being dragged, further and further from the light. The peaceful calm faded into burning pain. Her skin blistered and reddened as the heat engulfed her. Fire in her veins, she gasped a painful breath. Heart racing, her eyes flew open. She was naked, covered in blood and in a strange bed. She tried to move, but her ankles and hands were tied.

“Good, you’re awake. I was beginning to think I acquired you too late.”

Maura searched the room, looking for the voice but saw no one. The man chuckled before he appeared before her. Tall and handsome he stood at the foot of the bed, holding a horse whip in one hand and the other end of her restraints with the other.

He pulled on the rope, urging her forward. Cautiously, she tried to move. Afraid of the damage to her body but to her surprise, she felt better than ever. She glanced down and gasped as her belly was round no longer.  The man pulled harder on the rope. When she didn’t move again, he raised the whip and lashed her across her breast. The tip was barbed and tore open her flesh. She cried out, and her captor grinned, revealing sharp fangs.

“What are you,” she gasped, scrambling back, anything to put distance between her and the monster before her.

The man chuckled, and in a blink of an eye, he was upon her. His sharp teeth sinking into the torn flesh of her chest. He moaned as he drained her lifeblood. She fought him, but that just spurred him on. He pressed her into the bed, his hands gripping her roughly. Even her dark skin wouldn’t hide the bruising he would leave behind. She closed her eyes and prayed. That was all she could do. Bound and in the hands of such a monster, Maura had no other recourse. She prayed he would kill her quickly, that she wouldn’t be forced to endure more than his bite, but she knew deep down that this was just the beginning.

Her people had long told stories of monsters like him. Demons who fed on the lifeblood. Power mad creatures who used and abused the human race for their own benefit. In her travels, she’d come across many names for these demons, Immortals, the accursed, shadow walkers, but the only one that came to mind as he took everything from her was: vampire.

Maura huddled under the coverlet on her bed. It had been decades since she became a blood slave. Yet that first night still haunted her. The beginning of the end of her naiveté. The master had stripped her of her dignity more than the father of her child had. It was worse when they traveled, but with the advancements of the recent decade, it made more sense for him to stay in one place. To amass his wealth and power to protect from the humans who were fed up with being his prey.

Despite the lush surrounding of the castle she now called home, Maura had to earn every creature comfort she had. Most importantly, she’d had to earn her family’s safety. Her legacy under constant threat of being destroyed by the Master. Her family, long gone now but that hadn’t stopped the master from taunting Maura with harm to her descendants if she ever disobeyed him.

Years of torn skin and broken bones, years of foreign objects being used on and in her body. She hated the master with all her heart, hated him so much that she would literally give her soul to end his long reign of terror. His blood and the energy of magic users were the only things keeping her alive.

A shrill scream rang from down the hall. The master had a new pet. The screams wouldn’t stop until she was either bled dry or passed out, maybe both. Then he would come for Maura. He always saved her for last. Kept her for his most brutal of tortures, because of all his pets, she was his favorite.

She studied her notes, mouthing the words of the incantation over her bloody palm. Poisoning her blood with the darkness she hoped would consume the Master. He would take her blood last and only after most of it had spilled to the floor and mixed with that of the others. She would save the last of the incantation for just before he struck with his fangs. She needed him to be unaware of her plans until the very end.

She glanced over to the empty bed beside her. Poor Alora had paid the price for Maura’s deceit. Maura had cursed Alora’s blood while the woman slept, the master had scented the spell immediately and laid waste to Alora’s body before burning her alive. It was then Maura knew she would have to be the one. She would have to sacrifice herself to obtain her ultimate goal.

The witches in town had been threatened with retribution for an attempt on the Master’s life. Of course, they denied involvement. They didn’t know that Maura had stolen their books to copy them every time the master had sent her to be healed. They, of course, would also not tell the master that they taught her a few spells to repair some things on her own. It was how she knew she could pull off this daring act.

She had energy within her. Weak, but there all the same. Enough to allow her to realize her revenge. To save her family and free not just herself but the world of the demon immortals who stole her away. The screaming stopped. The heavy fall of boots rushed towards her door. Maura quickly healed the cut she made in her palm and tucked her notes beneath her covers. She stood and waited for the Master’s henchmen to open the door. They weren’t allowed to touch her, she knew the routine so the head guard nodded and she walked passed them. Each step forward felt like a knife to her gut and a weight off her shoulder. She pulled on everything she had to keep her heart from racing, her hands from trembling. Any sign that she was any more anxious or nervous than any other visit to the master’s dungeon.

Any slip up, and he would know something was off. Maura took a deep breath just before knocking. She waited, one, two, three. He would be impatient to see her, but she knew not to set foot inside the room without his permission. His perversions stemmed from an obsessive need for control. She learned that in the first year. Any misstep and there were dire consequences. Not that playing his game got you any reward except occasionally being able to stumble back to your bed when he was through with you instead of carried broken and half dead to the witches in the village for faster healing.

“Come in,” the Master said.

Maura waited for the guards to open the door before she stepped inside. She stood just inside the doorway as the doors slammed closed behind her. The floor was shiny and red, slick with the blood of the women before her. Alora’s charred skull rested on top of the roaring fireplace, mouth twisted and agape in a permanent scream. The master stood by the fire, gloved hands warmed the long metal rod he would beat her with that evening.

Apparently, the new girl had put him in a bad mood. That didn’t bode well for Maura’s plan. She needed to be conscious to say the last of the spell. If he was readying the rod this early instead of starting with the whip, she might not last long enough to do so. Maura didn’t move as the Master held up the rod, its glowing red tip pointed directly at her.

“On your knees,” he growled.

Maura complied, sinking immediately to the floor. He strode over to her, touching the molten metal to her dress, burning it from her body and singing her skin along with it. She grit her teeth to keep from screaming. She couldn’t give him that right now. Not this early or he would surely punish her more.

“I see you are in good spirits tonight. Did Agnes’ screams wet your filthy cunt?”

Maura nodded yes, knowing that was the response he desired. As if to test her, he tapped the rod against her thigh. She jumped, expecting the searing pain of burning flesh, but instead, he’d touched her with the other end. Still warm but not hot enough to immediately cause pain.

He grinned before sliding it against her vagina, back and forth over her exposed flesh until it was slick with her juices. Maura tensed, waiting for the other hand. The Master never gave pleasure without taking back tenfold in inflicting pain. As soon as she thought it, the master flipped the rod around, slamming the molten end across her ass. She cried out, falling forward from the force. Her ass stung not just from the burns, but from the blow. He hadn’t held back on his strength.

Years of breaking bones told her he’d fractured her tailbone and possibly her pelvis. She gasped for air as the pain caused spots to form in her vision. She wasn’t going to make it. She was going to pass out. So she did the unthinkable. She grabbed onto his shirt and yanked him down to her. Unprepared he fell awkwardly impaling himself on the heated rod, right through the chest. Yet he wasn’t dead, just surprised and pissed. He pulled the rod from his body and grabbed her by the neck. Now was her chance. He would take her blood to heal himself before killing her. She whispered the final spell just before his fangs pierced the flesh of her throat. He roared and pulled away, his mouth falling to pieces. Large chunks of flesh dripping from his body. He lashed out, slamming her onto the rod, it impaled her stomach before his rotted corpse fell atop hers.

What was left of him and his blood seeped into her wounds. She could feel the darkness multiplying within her, growing and spreading as his blood fused with hers, coursing into her veins. Giving her life, giving her death, tearing at the fabric of her being. She convulsed on the floor, a raging fire burning through her flesh. Then in an instant, it was gone. The pain was gone, replaced by overwhelming power. She could see, hear, and smell things in a way she never could before.

She pushed the Master’s remains from her before removing the rod. Her skin knotted and reformed before her eyes. Healing flawlessly in a matter of seconds. She smiled as the realization hit her. She was now an immortal. She had the power to make sure that no woman ever succumbed to the whims of a man. The immortals would pay for what they’d done to her. Starting with her Master’s kin and then anyone who helped them, anyone who got in her way. Her revenge would not end until she saw this done.

Maura marched over to the doors and threw them open. The guards outside stood shocked for a moment before moving to apprehend her. Maura held up a hand, stopping them in their tracks. Her energy was intense, she could feel and manipulate the energy within them.

“You can try to apprehend me and die, or you can pledge your fealty to me. What shall it be?”

The men tried to move against her, but she waved her hand, and they fell dead in a heap. She’d stopped the energy from flowing to their brain. The bodies still lived, but they were useless lumps of flesh. Well, not entirely useless. Maura knelt down, running her tongue along her newly elongated teeth. She lowered her head slowly, pressing them into the side of the first guard's neck. Maura expected the taste of blood to disgust her, to make her feel sick but instead it tasted better than any food she had ever consumed. Instead of suffering, she felt even more powerful. She drained both men to dry husks, but her hunger wasn’t satisfied. Maura needed to find more men.