Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 531: Little black bird

The chirpy little thing landed right by Arabella’s face, on the floor, but it’s tweeting wasn’t of the happy kind.

The melody it sang was one full of frenzy and distress.

"By the fairy Godmother! What have they done to you?" the black bird cried.

"Floriel, is this you?" Arabella’s voice barely managed to squeeze through her dry throat.

"It is I indeed! What have they done to you?" Floriel wept.

"Please, calm yourself and lower your voice," the young woman tried to push her weight off the ground but failed miserably, plopping right down where she initially was, "We do not have much time. The prince might return at any moment. Do tell me, have the others infiltrated the castle yet?"

"No... No...No," the bird or Floriel shook its little head, its beady eyes seemingly focused on Arabella’s lower half, the bleeding half, "I came seeking you first since I am the most used to flying. I can do so naturally and don’t attract much suspicion even in this form," her words broke between every breath.

"Alright," Arabella nodded, rubbing her head against the floor beneath it, "It’s alright,"

"No! None of this is alright!" the hysteria wouldn’t end for as long as she stared at Arabella’s battered body.

"Floriel, please lower your voice," the young woman whispered, "Should they discover you, our only chance at saving my family will be gone,"

"But I cannot bear to see you this way," the bird squeezed its eyes shut and tucked its head underneath its wing. Well, it tried, the belly of the thing was so round, its neck refused to bend further.

"You must!" she hissed, "I need you to be strong and listen to me carefully,"

After swallowing a few times, shivering in her spot, Floriel finally agreed to reopen her eyes.

"Silas is being kept in the furthest, last guarded cell down in the dungeons. You cannot miss it if you tried," after a pause to catch her breath, Arabella continued, "As for my brother and grandfather-"

"Grandfather?" the bird leaped backwards.

"Yes, they have my grandfather as well," again another attempt at a nod was made, "They are kept together in one cell. I couldn’t remember exactly which common cell they are in, but you will recognize them as they have the same eyes as mine and the youngest is missing an ear," she was already out of breath once anew and needed a break, "I believe alpha Cynric and Edgar can infiltrate the guards,"

Floriel made several little jumps in her spot, practically hyperventilating as her little eyes went between Arabella’s withered face and her cut up body.

But after a few seconds, her demeanor finally shifted to a more composed one, "Right, I will transfer your message," her voice trembled but the way she tried to keep it steady was more than noticeable.

"Wait, please. There is more," Arabella’s words caught Floriel as her wings had started flapping, "I do have a mission for Morgana and the rest of the girls too,"

"I am all ears," the head movements of Floriel’s head as a bird were not uncanny per se, but quite distracting. The way it snapped so freely from one direction to the other was almost hypnotizing.

Almost...

"The king," she huffed some much-needed air into her lungs, "Word goes around that the king has fallen victim to an unknown sickness. Since then, the prince has almost taken the throne over," yet another quick break for a gasp, "I smell blood in the water. Let them make this their primary focus upon entering the castle and one last thing!" she did her very best to roll over to the side, thus covering her chest, "A witch! The woman that handles me as well as the other pleasure girls is some sort of a witch even though she has nearly no genetic traits to share with their kind. Tell them to be aware of her,"

Floriel clung to those words with her beak and little claws, taking off right that second towards the nearest window, but... Not without throwing one last devastated glance back at Arabella.

It wasn’t much, but at the very least they’d know where to put their feet in that muddy swamp.

Getting her family and Silas out of there was her first priority. Whatever happened to her in the meantime was simply collateral damage. Payback for the stunt that got all of them there in the first place.

Ear against the floor, the footsteps of the people that lived under that roof thundered across the skeleton of the castle. Some echoed far while others lingered closer.

Her heart sank, however, when realizing that her short-lived break was nearing its end as a determined pair of feet stomped in her direction.

Her expectations weren’t meant since the door did not burst open. It wasn’t the prince that had returned to lay into her and make every breath she took a reminder of her transgression. No, it was Zarah.

Not that her sight brought any relief, but at least, it meant she could be escorted out of there.

"Stand up, whore!" she stormed towards her, "You’ve sullied that beautiful floor enough!" the hag grunted.

For all that Arabella pushed herself, there was no hope, not a lick of strength to get her body up.

Zarah refused to wait and kept yanking on her leash even when her neck bent out of shape and neared its breaking point.

The young woman coughed and choked, clawing at the collar wrapping her throat for some alleviation as the hag hauled Arabella’s figure behind herself.

To no avail, of course, Zarah wiped the hallway floors with her already traumatized skin, painting them red. So much for not sullying the good marble they walked...

"It appears the prince will be held up for much longer than initially expected. He’s planned a long day for you tomorrow so you cannot stay up all night just waiting for his return,"

After those words, not much was intelligible as the young woman’s ears thumped with the drumming of her own heart. All since the blood in her coursed its streams twice as fast just to keep up with the urgent demand for air of her asphyxiated cells.