Round Two

by Eden Wildblood

  Yes, he was sure she had, and damn if that didn’t make him want her back all the more.

  He was out the front door and around the side of the huge building in a heartbeat, where he stood and took stock of the situation at hand.

  Camilla had spirited Wynter away and lured him to her bed, willing or not. Her chief minion had then taken steps to move his slave while they were too busy to notice them leave, and now she was gone and Marcus knew he wouldn’t rest until she’d come back to him.

  As he stared out across the huge areas of land around Camilla’s stately mansion, a plan began to form in his mind. There were a dozen or so underground bunkers lying head of him under the ground. They were shelters created for one purpose alone, to hide their contents. They were not a place to seek shelter should the threat of nuclear attack come, or a safe house for the slaves and their masters come the end of days, but quite the opposite. They were created to keep its occupants locked inside. Sealed away. Of course, they were the holding facilities for Camilla’s hordes.

  He sniffed out the group of most emaciated vampires from the collection of bunkers and approached the only entrance, a cover that was set in the ground above their nest. It was little more than a manhole, and he lifted it aside without any exertion at all.

  Marcus then looked down into the hole and spied the fifty pairs of shining red eyes looking back up at him. To anyone else it might be an eerie sight, but not to him. These men and women would soon become his brothers in arms. His comrades. His newest slaves.

  Each of the naked soldiers was clambering closer to the small source of light and—most importantly for them—the prospect of food. They were nothing but wild animals taught and trained through starvation and fear, but today some were going to be freed. They would be enlisted to help him. Do him a service.

  Exact his revenge.

  Using his teeth, Marcus tore open the vein at his own wrist and then held his arm over the hole. He then watched as his blood cascaded down into the pit, and gave it a few seconds before he healed the wound again and pulled his hand back. The soldiers below scurried to get a coveted taste of the precious life source, and soon he could hear them fighting over the remains.

  “What are you doing!” a shrill voice hollered from the house and Marcus turned to the sound with the biggest of grins on his face. He then watched as Camilla’s Priestess, Lola, approached at speed. She was clearly terrified of what lay in the pit behind Marcus, and rightly so, but she still ran forwards regardless and he had to stop himself from saying anything that might reveal what he’d just done. She couldn’t know until it was too late, for both her and her mistress.

  Lola soon reached him and Marcus watched her eyes dart from his mouth to his wrist. She spied the blood he’d spilled and inhaled deeply, ready to scream and warn Camilla what he’d done, but Marcus grabbed his prey and placed his hand over her mouth to silence her.

  “Now, now. Don’t ruin the fun, little witch,” he whispered in her ear before then tossing her down into the pit headfirst.

  The scurry of the many for a drink from their solitary sacrificial lamb was audible, but it was of course only a special few who properly took their fill. The strongest and most cunning, and of course those who had already had some blood that fateful morning. His blood.

  He listened as they drank Lola dry and then Marcus stood back, watching and waiting for them to act. To seek out their freedom and obey a new master.

  The first of the soldiers leapt up and out of the hole mere seconds later, followed by another, and another. When there were five immortal warriors standing before him, each of them covered in blood and lacking of both clothing and hair, or even colour, Marcus nodded and smiled.

  He looked at each of them and saw nothing but beasts. Creatures who were now ready and willing to do his bidding thanks to him having fed them his blood. It was an ancient rite that had bound them to one another, and had brought forth a covenant between them all.

  Marcus was their master now. Their new sire. The five had been born again thanks to his blood offering, and they would serve him until their last breath. “Welcome, friends. What say we have some fun?” he asked, receiving grunts from each of the huge men in affirmation.

  A wide smile spread across his face. This was going to be fun.

  He sent them a wordless order to follow him, and the biggest fell directly in line at his right hand side. Marcus looked the alpha of the small pack up and down, watching as he moved with stealth and precision to each and every movement. The man was built like a bodybuilder. He was a behemoth and Marcus was glad he’d absconded from Camilla’s reign and joined him instead. This one would make the perfect leader of his unholy army.

  Marcus led the handful of soldiers straight over to the mansion, where he pointed to the building and sent them another unspoken, yet clear, order.

  Kill them all.

  Hunt any stragglers down.

  Bring me my darling Wynter, along with Camilla’s head.

  Eighteen

  Jakob’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing again, but this time it was interrupting Wynter’s much needed rest so she kicked him out of bed to go get it. She tried to go back to sleep, but realised the moment he answered it that something was seriously wrong. He was shouting back to someone on the other end and Wynter could hear them screaming down the line at him from where she was still laid feet away.

  “Da,” he finally muttered in a stone-cold tone, and his body language changed entirely. The shutters suddenly went down, and he turned to Wynter who saw him swallow hard.

  Something life changing had just happened. Before he even said a word to her, she knew. It was over. Jakob hung up the phone and then physically crumbled onto the bed. She’d never seen him like this before and didn’t know what to do, so just tried to comfort him while asking what was wrong.

  “Please talk to me, Jak,” she implored after repeatedly getting nothing back off him, and eventually he turned his wide blue eyes upwards at her.

  “You were right. Marcus has retaliated because of your disappearance,” he croaked. “Camilla got away but she’s the only survivor.”

  “What?” she cried, trying to fathom what that could mean. The only survivor? Out of how many? Jakob stared down at her and he grimaced.

  “She’s coming here. I have to tell her where we are. I have no choice other than to offer her safety with us.”

  Wynter leapt to her feet and began pacing. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she knew before he said another thing what to expect when Camilla arrived. The vampire might be coming to seek refuge, but once she had it, it would be the human who was no longer safe.

  Camilla would do some retaliating of her own.

  “She’s your sire,” she whispered, a tear rolling down her face. “You protect her and no one else. Obey her alone, no matter what you want for me.”

  “No,” Jakob tried, watching her through hooded eyes, “I’ll tell her you’re innocent. That you don’t deserve to die.”

  “And then she’ll kill us both,” Wynter told him with a sad smile. Jakob opened his mouth as though he was about to disagree, but he couldn’t. They both knew what was coming for them, and it wasn’t going to end up with either getting what they wanted. One would have to concede.

  “I’ll have to kill you, Wynter. Camilla will force me,” he growled and sent a punch flying towards the nearby headboard. “You must run. Now!”

  She shook her head no.

  “You’d catch me. That or Marcus—”

  “Then choose Marcus. At least that way you’ll be alive!”

  Wynter breathed a deep sigh and clutched her aching belly. Yes, that was a viable alternative, but she wasn’t sure she could bring herself to go to him. Not after everything she and Jakob had shared and the decisions she had made to finally start looking after herself. She had a plan now. She was going to become whole and find a way to be free. A way to live her life for her a no one else.

  And especially after how amazing thi
ngs had been between them. Against all odds and them both having told each other it meant nothing, their liaison had indeed ended up meaning everything to her. She had felt free with Jakob and finally knew what it felt like to care again. To see the world without the cloud of hate and iciness looming over her. Wynter cared about so much again. She cared for herself, just like he had told her to, and didn’t want Marcus to touch her ever again.

  “His eyes glow when we’re together,” she told Jakob dejectedly, “his soul wants mine and if I go back to him now, we’ll merge and then he’ll turn me. The Priestess showed me my future before and I wanted to believe I could change it, but now I know for sure that if I go to him, what I saw will come true.”

  Wynter took a step towards Jakob and climbed to her knees before him. She then turned her gaze up to meet his and let her tears fall. “I don’t want that because I want you, Jak. I think… I love you. And, I choose you,” she then told him, “only you. Let’s run away together.”

  “He’ll never let us go,” the shocked vampire answered her, “he’ll kill us for trying, but I’m willing to do it if it means we can be together.”

  “Me too…”

  But then Jakob let out a garbled cry and he shook his head furiously. He began scratching at the back of his neck with rough, deep gouges while muttering words in Russian she couldn’t understand. Wynter wondered if he was trying to cause himself pain and reached up to stop him. She wrenched his hands away and held them to her cheeks instead.

  “She won’t let us go either. I will have to kill you,” he ground, “I’ll have no other choice!”

  And there, like a jolt to her chest, was the realisation that she had seen this before. Like some kind of sudden déjà vu, Wynter remembered the vision the Priestess had given her. Of her and the man she wanted instead of Marcus. The life she would try and choose for herself, even if it meant running from the vampire who was clearly not even remotely ready to let her go.

  And yet, there was no chance for them. She knew it now, and was sure Jak had known all along.

  Wynter decided enough was enough.

  “Okay, but I want you to do it. Because who better to take me away from this world full of monsters than you, Jak? When the time comes, I need for it to be you. Promise me…”

  As expected, Camilla arrived a few hours’ later and Wynter watched as Jakob walked to the edge of the property and invited her inside the magical perimeter. She could see the vampire do a double take, as if she’d seen nothing more than coastline before being given the power to enter the house through the magical warding, and was relieved to see that the spell cloaking them was indeed working.

  The pair of them then stopped just inside the boundary and Wynter saw them talking in hushed voices. She wanted to shout and tell them they needn’t bother on her account, but bit her tongue. She wasn’t after a fight and just hoped Jak could talk some sense into his sire. Plus, Camilla looked in a pretty sorry state. Someone had taken chunks out of her and she was far from the delicate and dainty woman Wynter had spied on just a couple of nights before. She looked a wreck, and as if it’d not been easy getting herself away from whatever had gone down at the mansion.

  She continued to watch them from the doorway and bristled when Camilla then suddenly approached her at relative speed. She stormed towards Wynter with a face like thunder and swiftly backhanded her, knocking her flying to the ground.

  She screamed in pain with the sting of it, but still turned her face up to glower at Camilla.

  “Let me guess, I somehow did something wrong, even though I was miles away?” she seethed, clutching her stinging cheek. “You brought this on yourself by messing with him. Don’t try and blame me.”

  “You do not speak to me, you insolent little bitch,” Camilla roared, raising her hand as if to strike her again, but Jakob got between them.

  “No,” he told her, making Camilla do a double take.

  “No?” she demanded, “where do you get off telling me no? Marcus has ruined me, Jakob. My entire life was in that house and now he’s taken it from me, along with the hordes. He… he,” she started to cry, “he killed Lola and then sent them after me. After everyone at the house. He won’t stop until he gets his little whore back so I’m going to personally see to it that he never does.”

  They all fell silent at her vicious words, each of them waiting to se what the other did like some kind of standoff.

  “I take it you want me to kill her?” Jakob eventually asked her coldly, and while she’d told him previously how she wanted it, Wynter hoped it was a front. That he was just figuring out Camilla’s game first.

  “No, worse,” the vampire answered with a sneer, “I want her to suffer like I have suffered. I want her to be broken and abused, violated and so far from the woman he knew that he won’t be able to stand the sight of her.”

  It was Wynter’s turn to cry now. This was indeed a fate worse than death. She was starting to wish she’d run when Jakob had given her the chance.

  “Then you don’t need my services,” he told his sire, shocking them both.

  He said nothing else on the subject and simply walked into the house as if nothing were awry, leaving the two of them out on the front step glaring back at him in disbelief.

  ***

  Marcus grew closer. He could smell Camilla in the air and as he tracked her, another scent began to invade his senses.

  Wynter.

  Her arousal had increased and her scent was tangy with the fervour of it. She had been having her share of excitement without him and jealousy flared within him. Was it due to a bite from her captor? For their sakes, he hoped not. But knew he’d find out soon.

  They were close. His personal soldiers were hot on Camilla’s scent too and together they ran beneath the full moon like proper creatures of the night, covering vast amounts of space with barely an ounce of effort. Just like the stories said, they were predators and would not stop until they caught their prey.

  They had each fed well back at the mansion too, even Marcus, and had energy aplenty for the run. And more than enough for the fight that then would lie before them.

  The suburban world their group were immersed in was chaotic with many scents and sounds to sort from, but soon opened up to reveal the ocean ahead of them. They had reached the edge of the country and were now running along the coast and for a moment, Marcus wondered if their prey had boarded a vessel and sailed away in a bid to evade him, but no. The scent of the wounded vampire stopped abruptly before a cliff edge. Not a harbour or a dock of some kind.

  He moved closer to the edge and tried to pick out the smell of either female he was tracking. Camilla’s scent had indeed come to an abrupt stop and then linger on the breeze, whereas Wynter’s scent seemed to surround him, but from nowhere distinguishable at all. She was close by but he couldn’t pin point her location, like she was there but had somehow been hidden.

  He edged closer still and felt that there was more than he could see and feel. Something beyond their reach.

  A safe house cloaked in magic. That had to be it. Jakob had enlisted the help of friends in both the human and supernatural worlds to help him hide Wynter, but he hadn’t counted on the foolishness of his sire. She hadn’t covered her tracks at all and had led them straight to their hideout. It was the only reason he’d let her escape the mansion in one piece after all, but she’d still not seen it. Marcus shook his head. He’d given Camilla far too much credit over the years. It was a wonder they hadn’t come to an end sooner.

  He then sent a silent order for his soldiers to stand in a semi-circle around the source of Wynter’s scent, and then lie in wait. To watch and not take their eyes away. To not leave for even a second. Not until he found a way inside, which was when they were to come in with him and take Camilla down. The others, he told them, were for their master.

  He would rip Jakob to pieces and then take his prized possession back where she belonged, and he would merge with her. And when she had turned, they would ret
urn to his newly acquired property and rebuild the house and business that Camilla had once owned.

  He would make it in his image though, and command the hordes forevermore, but this time, it would be with Wynter by his side.

  It was going to be perfect. All he had to do now was ensure the plan worked in his favour.

  Nineteen

  Camilla was pacing.

  Jakob was brooding.

  Wynter was wringing her hands and trying desperately not to stare out the window at the veritable gang of scary as hell vampires standing vigil outside the property. Who were those other five? She’d never seen them before, and couldn’t bear to keep looking either. They were like vampire zombies or something. Each of them had pale, greying skin and red eyes. They were each bald and had been dressed in a simple shirt and jeans, but none of them had any shoes on.

  They had to be the soldiers Jak had told her about. And if they were standing guard at Marcus’s command, then that meant their allegiance had changed. Camilla was no help to her now, especially not after having lost everything to Marcus, whose power was undoubtedly growing.

  “What’s the point of us staying here if we have no means of escape?” Camilla eventually shrieked and Jakob jumped to his feet and glowered at her.

  “Maybe if you’d thought twice about covering your tracks they wouldn’t have come within an hour of your arrival!” he spat, and then in a surprise move, came and sat beside Wynter on the sofa. He put his arm around her shoulders and held her close, shushing her sobs and the pair of them tried to relax, but it was no use. Camilla was right, they needed a plan, and fast.

  “Just let me go to him. I’ll lie and pretend I was here alone,” she tried, but Jakob wouldn’t hear of it.