Inara walked towards Skyler and Dimitri's with Zaria. Skyler and Zaria were planning a girl's only day. Zaria had turned six, but refused to have a birthday party. She merely wanted to be left alone with a new book she had found. Skyler had finally talked her into a girl's only day much to the relief of Inara and Tiberiu.
" Mom, why does Skyler want a girl's only day? She enjoys spending time with Dimitri." Zaria questioned, her garnet eyes boring into her mother's eyes.
" Well, Skyler enjoys spending time with you too. She and Dimitri both do, but Dimitri thinks it best that the two of you get to spend quality time together as well. He knows you make Skyler happy." Inara explained carefully. Zaria stopped, looking up at her mother suspiciously.
" This isn't for my birthday, is it?" She questioned. Inara bit her bottom lip, secretly wishing Zaria wasn't as observant as she was.
" Zaria…." Inara began, unsure what to actually say to her six year old little genius.
" You promised, Mom! You said I wouldn't have to do anything for my birthday! I hate my birthday, Mom. I only get stranger every year." Zaria snatched away from her, glaring.
" Honey, you are not strange. Different, yes, but not strange." Inara said, looking at her daughter. Zaria gave her a dubious look.
" Mom, same meaning, different word. A female tourist in the village at the inn called me a witch the other day. A witch!" Zaria exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.
" You are not a witch. You are a bright child with a limitless future ahead of you. You can be anything you want to be in life." Inara said, bending down to look her daughter in the eyes.
" I hate being so different, Momma. I hate it." Zaria complained, sticking out her bottom lip. Inara merely raised an eyebrow at her. " Oh, okay. Let's go." She agreed, holding her hand out to Inara.
" I thought you would see it my way." Inara laughed, taking Zaria's hand and leading her towards Skyler's house.
Zaria suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream when two decaying hands closed around her, knocking Inara aside, slamming her into a tree. Zaria struggled, kicking wildly and clawing at the hands in an attempt to get to her mother.
" Inara, my dear, how sweet of you to return my youngest child to me." The vampire said, hoisting little Zaria over his shoulder, ignoring her desperate struggles.
" Sergey! No!" Inara said, launching herself at him. Tiberiu! She screamed, praying she could stall Sergey long enough for Tiberiu and the others to get there and rescue Zaria.
" I have no times for your games, my dear. I have what I need." Sergey Malinov-Zaria's and Damalia's biological father-taunted as he launched himself in the sky with a terrified Zaria.
" Mommy!" Zaria's piercing cry echoed through the night, tearing at Inara's heart as she tried to get her body to function, despite the broken bones and internal injuries.
Tiberiu was instantly at her side, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her. Inara shook her head, struggling against him. She had to get to Zaria. God only knew what Sergey was going to do to her. God only knew what he had planned for her.
" Tiberiu, he has her. He has Zaria. Sergey has Zaria." Inara sobbed even as Tiberiu carried her to the healing caves and Mikhail sent a group of hunters out to search for Sergey and Zaria or any trace of them. With them was Sergey's sister, Ivory, and her lifemate, Razvan Shonski.
Sergey carried a still fighting Zaria into the cave where they would remain until the next rising. He flung her down onto a bed of soil and watched as she scampered away from him, her eyes filled with fear, her bottom lip trembling. Despite being a vampire, he saw her beauty. This was not what he had expected to find. He had expected a son to be the one he needed, not a daughter. The first had not had the right eyes, eyes that spoke of hell-showed the past, present, as well as the awaiting future.
" Do not worry, little one. I will not hurt you. I am your father." Sergey said, knowing better than to provoke her. Better to lull her into a sense of security.
" Yeah, right. Did you forget that you are a vampire?" Zaria snapped, garnet eyes blazing at him. Sergey smirked at her, reaching over and grabbing her by her curly hair, snatching her up so she was eye to eye with him, her little hands holding his hands to her head and her little feet flailing helplessly.
" I know exactly what I am, little Zaria. I think it best you not forget that. You are far too important for me to kill, but that does not mean I cannot break you in other ways." He warned, slamming her back down in the soil so she landed flat on her back. Zaria rolled away from him, hopping nimbly to her feet on the other side of the soil basin. She glared at him, her arms crossed, eyes blazing as she tossed her thick curls over one shoulder-looking far older than any six years of age.
" So….this is to be my prison, Father?" She spat the word at him, her childlike voice dripping with contempt.
" No. Now go to sleep." Sergey commanded, layering his voice with compulsion. Zaria's eyelashes drifted down until she shook her head, glaring at him.
" Stop it! I'll go to sleep when I feel like it!" She snapped, glaring at him once more. Sergey sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. She was going to be more trouble than he had anticipated. She had a will of iron to be so young. He would have to break her spirit to gain control over her, but he needed her to cooperate and breaking her down would not do the trick. He would scare her into submission.
" You will go to sleep now!" He snarled, grabbing her by her slim throat and slamming her down into the soil. She looked up at him, the fear he needed returning to her eyes.
" Can I at least have a sheet, blanket, and pillow? I don't want to get dirty." She said, startling him. He gave her what she wanted.
Inara sat on the front porch of her home, eight year old Damalia wrapped tightly in her arms. She held Damalia to her, sobbing softly. All they had found since Zaria's kidnapping two months previous was a sheet, pillow, and blanket in a cave Sergey had used to hide from the dawn.
" We'll get Zaria back, Mom. I know we will. I can feel it." Damalia said, hugging herself closer to her mother. Inara tightened her grip on Damalia as Tiberiu put his arms around the both of them.
" Damalia is right. Zaria is a strong and brilliant child. She can survive when most cannot and we will not stop until we find her." Tiberiu said. Inara turned into him.
" Tiberiu, there is no telling what he is doing to her. Even if we do find her she will never be the same. She will be traumatized and abused to the point of no return." Inara said, keeping one arm around Damalia and slipping one arm around Tiberiu, her beloved lifemate.
Tiberiu who had been ordered to stay with his family and let the hunters look for Zaria and Sergey. He knew a part of it was that if they found Zaria's body, they wanted to be able to clean her up and hide any marks before Inara saw it. They did not her want to see her daughter that way. He tightened his grip around his family.