Bella should be the one afraid. She was a slave about to be sold to the most notorious vampire in the empire. She was bound to die.
Even if that did not happen, She was still the captive here but the guard was sweating and his eyes widened with fear.
"You want me to prove that his death was an accident." the man gasped, shocked and afraid, "how?"
Bella shrugged, making his eyes widened further.
"You can say that he slipped and fell. Or he caught fire while trying to burn other slaves. Or you can just throw his body out and fake ignorance about his whereabouts. All I want to remind you is that.. I must be delivered to the vampire lord or I will burn every single person here like I have killed him and free all the slaves." she stared hard at him with a look that demanded obedience.
If the words had been whispered by any other slave, forget about slaves, even if any other witch or vampire had claimed that they could shut down the century old slave establishment, he would have laughed it off. But when he looked at the deep eyes of the girl, he knew that she had capability to do so and she was fearless enough to use this ability.
Or how in the world had she killed the warden of the east wing in a few seconds!
The guard shifted his weight from one foot to another before cursing and bending to pick up the dead body from there. Bella was left alone. She had thought someone would come for her soon but no one came.
No food was offered or water was given even when hours had passed. She realized they were so weak because they were not fed! They must want slaves to be weak so that they could never attack their captors.
The corridor was dark where one could be lost forever. The person could lose their sanity, their soul if they stayed in such darkness for long. Without food, water and light.. Left alone so that you can not whisper a word.. How long could a man stay sane in such conditions?
But Bella was different. Though she had never been starved, she had been confined enough in her rooms to pass her time. So despite the stench of blood and feces, she wrapped her arms around her knees and slept.
How long had she been sleeping? But when she opened her eyes she met with darkness again. Though she was sure the day had changed, there was no way to confirm it. No way to know if the guard was going to return to fetch her or he had abandoned her and ran away.
Or.. he might have informed the other guards about her power. Her mother had made sure that she would not use her power by putting so many restraints on her body.
When she heard the footsteps, she raised her head only to see another two guards. They have brought a new girl and threw her on the adjacent cell. They left closing the door without looking at other slaves as if they did not deserve the attention.
She could hear the crying coming from other cells but she did not turn to look at them. If she did, she was sure she would burn the place and save every single of them.
"Is someone there?" a new slave called from their other cell, "please.. You have mistaken. I should not be here. My mother would be looking for me. Please, let me go." she whimpered when Bella closed her eyes.
She reminded herself that it had nothing to do with her. And even if she wanted, she could not save all of them without burning the whole establishment.
"Please.. My mother is sick. She would die without me." Bella squirmed. Her words did not sit well with Bella. It had been an hour almost since the girl had been brought but she had not stopped crying at all.
"That is it!" Bella stood up and touched the bars of the joining cell. Her hands started to burn again and she gritted her teeth but did not stop herself.
The bars started to burn, melt and fell on the ground like molten lava shocking all the slaves.
The slaves gasped. It was a miracle to see expressions on their numb faces. They did not scream as she had expected but they all looked at her as if she was a monster.. A demon.
The girl flinched and dragged her exhausted body back to make sure Bella would not be able to reach her. How naive of her to believe that she had anywhere to hide.
"I am not here to harm you." Bella whispered in the dark. Her voice was calm, completely different from other slaves, "did you not say you are here by mistake? I am giving you a chance to leave." the girl blinked in shock. Though she was shouting, she was sure that no one would hear her.
She had heard so many things about the place in the dark alleys. Once you are here, there is no way out until you are sold. She knew this much. It was just her foolish denial to accept the truth that forced her to cry.
"What can you do?" the girl sighed and shook her head, "even if you can burn iron, there is no way you can fight with so many. We are going to be sold soon."
Bella tilted her head, amused.
"Were you not crying to be saved? And now that I am saving you, you are giving up on hopes? You are a strange girl." Bella crouched on the ground and touched the iron chains that had bound the girl.
The girl hissed when hot melting iron touched her wrist but it soon fell on the ground leaving her without restraint.
"It is not a question if i can fight with so many guards or not because i am not going to do that. At least not today.. If you want to leave, you have to use this way!"