Blood Bound

by Tay T

  It was terribly sad to see how much the addiction affected Maya. Even her personality was starting to alter from the ritual’s insistent demands.

  Talk about karma, Everette thought to herself. Her red eyes swept over Maya’s immobile form in uncertain contemplation.

  Wait a minute.

  Did Maya’s eyes always glow like that?

  “You don’t seem yourself,” Everette commented, more to herself than to the dark sorceress.

  “I’m fine,” Maya replied sternly. “I don’t want to piss myself. Hurry and take these off.”

  “I don’t want you to either, but I don’t trust you right now. So I’m not going to let you out,” Everette said calmly, crossing her arms over her chest. A wide smirk formed on her lips.

  For once, it felt good to say “no” to the sorceress.

  “Everette!” the sorceress exclaimed in frustration, but the dove only turned back around and trotted out of the room.

  Before Maya could blow up, Everette reappeared inside the room with a mug of hot tea in one hand and a cooking pan in another.

  Maya’s eyes narrowed.

  “Here’s a pan you can piss in for now,” Everette said, setting her cup temporarily on the nightstand next to the dark sorceress. She then bent down and placed the pan on the floor. “Take it or leave it.”

  The dove proceeded to giggle at the audacious idea of the dark sorceress primitively peeing into the pan.

  This was the day she had been waiting for.

  “Don’t forget the toilet paper,” Maya reminded, uncaring of the dove’s teasing laughter. Her mind was quickly calculating an escape route that seemed far too easy.

  Everette rolled her eyes. “How could I forget?”

  The dove-shifter quickly shuffled into the bathroom adjoined to Maya’s room for a roll of toilet paper. As she disappeared behind the wooden door, a dark smirk blossomed on the sorceress’s lips.

  Deviously.

  Demonically.

  Everette picked up a roll of toilet paper from the cabinet when she heard the slight movement of the chains dragging across the floor.

  Her lips pursed, and she made a sharp turn as her stomach twisted with worry. But by the time she made it back to the room, it was far too late.

  Everette was stunned and horrified as she watched the dark sorceress dump the entire cup of hot tea down the front of her immobile body, where the many spells laid.

  Everything went downhill from there.

  The mystic symbols on the seals sparked like when electricity met water, before the words blurred together in a blend of watered-down ink. The stained paper peeled off like wet stickers, and the silver chains rippled like ocean waves as it dripped off Maya’s spindly arms.

  Everette dropped the white roll of toilet paper and screeched loudly. But before she could do anything, Maya vanished in a cloud of black shimmering smoke and droplets of hot tea.

  “Damn it, Maya!” Everette screamed in frustration, stomping on the carpeted floors.

  CHAPTER 11

  Inside a dimly lit office, two Alphas sat across from each other as the blood moon filtered in from the large Palladian window to the front of them.

  On one side sat Alpha Xavier Thaeos, swirling a cup of red wine between his thumb and index finger, with a small smirk imprinted almost permanently on his lips. On the opposite side sat Alpha Deimos Ventrie, the Eastern Cardinal Alpha, known for his strict ruling and unforgiving ways.

  “It’s a rather dangerous ritual your mate is playing with, Xavier,” Alpha Deimos stated, thrumming his fingers rhythmically against the mahogany table, with a small curl of his lips. His features were sharp and defined, laced with a sternness of authority that could easily be detected at first glance.

  With hair the color of sunrays and eyes a beautiful shade of icy blue, he glanced over at Xavier, who was lazily reclined in the leather chair, and said, “If you’re not careful, you both will be burned.”

  Xavier raised the cup of red wine to his lips, barely letting the substance touch his mouth, and smiled mysteriously.

  “My mate is a stubborn little thing. Anything she wants to do, no one can stop her. Kind of like your mate, Deimos,” Xavier drawled. “By the way, how is your teenage spitfire doing? Not giving you any troubles or running away with that boyfriend of hers—is she?”

  Deimos scowled darkly in contempt at the word “boyfriend” and stated, “She hasn’t tried anything, not since I had to bail her out of jail a couple of weeks ago.”

  A Cheshire grin curled on Xavier’s lips, and he noted the deep furrow on his good friend’s brows. It was good to know he wasn’t the only one with a problematic mate, because that meant they were equally screwed.

  What better way to celebrate friendship than to suffer together?

  “Don’t try to change the subject,” Deimos quipped, tall nose wrinkling at the searing scent of dark magic and freshly spilled blood surrounding the golden-eyed Alpha. “I can smell the dark magic suffocating you. If your mate doesn’t show up—”

  “Maya will show up,” Xavier announced promptly, eyes narrowing on the glass of blood stationed near the open window. “And if she doesn’t…then I will go to her.”

  Xavier’s blood boiled in response to the thought, trembling hands almost shattering the crystalline glass of wine in his grip. But he forcefully controlled the predatory instinct to track, chase, and catch his mate.

  He refused to give in.

  “How romantic,” Deimos droned amusedly, pausing to mock the Southern Lord whose bravery was borderline insanity at this point. “Well then, I wish you the best of luck.”

  As Xavier set down his finished cup, the initial, tantalizing scent of spring blossoms was blown into the room, directly to his enhanced senses. Immediately, a pleased smirk gathered on the corner of his lips.

  Alpha Deimos raised a brow in question, until he scented the familiar dark magic laced indefinitely into the scent of spring blossoms and green tea. Without a doubt, he knew this must be the highly anticipated dark sorceress.

  The stern Eastern Alpha got out of his chair and said, “Now that your guest of honor has arrived, I will see myself out.”

  Xavier waved him off and grinned wickedly as one thought completely filled his mind: his mate was coming.

  _______________________

  The shadows of a long-limbed tree cast upon Maya’s pixie face in dark patterns. Her hair fluttered aimlessly around her face and blended with the light expelled by the blood moon.

  Maya had trudged two-hundred miles away from her apartment to the forest on the outskirts of the Southern Lands.

  With each step, her black magic expelled in bits and pieces, aiding her in the search for the cunning Alpha whose blood was a trail left behind for her to follow.

  The ecstatic scent was driving her forward, along with the bond forged by the wicked ritual. It held her by the throat and had grown rampant like uncontrollable weeds in the wild.

  As she struggled to control the bond, it surrounded her in a cocoon of magic that was as fortified as cement blocks and weaved like billions of threads all around her.

  It was pulling her in one direction—his.

  Although Maya was haggard from the effects of the addiction, that didn’t stop her feet from stumbling over themselves in a hurry to acquire more speed.

  At this point, nothing could stop her from hunting down her prey like any creature of the night.

  Maya inhaled slowly, tasting the air again for the satisfying trail of ecstasy leading her to him, and lifted her head to stare at the clear night sky.

  Because the moon was currently the color of blood, the dim lighting provided would not have been enough to guide her path. But since she had attained the Alpha’s enhanced senses, she currently had the skill to see clearly, sharply in the dark, without the use of dark magic.

  Just as Maya breached the Cardinal Alpha’s territory in the Southern Land, her delayed thought process managed to belatedly pick up the bit of inform
ation her usually lucid mind would have already noticed.

  How was she able to walk straight into his territory without alerting any guards? Why hadn’t anyone noticed or attacked?

  The entire area was deathly silent and there was no one around, almost as if they knew she was coming and had opted to ignore her presence.

  Perhaps, Xavier Thaeos was anticipating her intrusion and had cleared the way for her.

  Of course, he would.

  Maya’s dainty brows knitted together. Her green eyes glowed brilliantly, hauntingly in the darkened night, while a deep frown pulled at the corners of her red lips, dramatically darkening her pretty face.

  As she traveled through the vast land, past several sections of houses and big apartment-like buildings, she came to a halt right outside of a cream-colored villa standing three stories tall and spanning several meters wide.

  At the front door stood a set of guards, seemingly oblivious to the fact she was standing several feet away from them. The burly males remained moderately still, as if they were telling her to walk right through the front doors. But Maya didn’t intend to do that.

  With a hefty bit of her black magic, she disappeared from outside the villa and reappeared inside of its pristine depths.

  As she regained her footing and opened her eyes, Maya found herself in a long, winding hallway that was eerily quiet and dimly lit with a pale light.

  Her breath came out in heavy and uneven pants, and her heart pounded erratically in her chest, pulsing faster and faster the closer she got to her target.

  Maya’s bare feet tapped against the cold marble of the all-too-lavish hall inside the Alpha’s home, resounding harrowingly in response and announcing her encroachment within the white walls. She trudged on, feeling the painful symptoms of withdrawal lessen with each step.

  After a short while, Maya took a sharp turn to the left and met a set of oak doors.

  If her senses were correct, the cunning Alpha was right inside this room, waiting for her intrusion like when he had waited for her to barrel into his trap at the hotel.

  Maya greedily inhaled his heady scent as it seeped out through the cracks of the doors and fluttered teasingly to her nose.

  She reached out a trembling hand and curled her delicate fingers around the crystalline knob. Before she could turn the handle, the door swung open on its own accord, causing her breath to hitch in her throat and her heart to skip a beat.

  Standing only five feet away was Xavier Thaeos, with thick blood pooling from his wrist in dark ropes that twined together from one end to the other. Within seconds, Maya found herself, once again, kneeling at his feet as her body moved faster than her mind.

  “I was starting to wonder how long you could fight off the call,” the handsome Alpha drawled, watching her drop to her knees in front of him with a pleased expression on his face.

  Xavier peered down at her from above, analyzing her pale face, disheveled red hair, and trembling hands. He noticed the partially wet spot on her nightgown had matted on her well-proportioned breasts in what seemed to be a mixture of green tea and water.

  From where he stood, he could see the little indentations of her hard nipples poking through the thin fabric, without a bra to protect them from his heated gaze.

  His eyes darkened.

  “Welcome back, little sorceress,” he murmured, predatory eyes staring her down.

  Maya didn’t hear a word he said. Her gaze was trained solely on the strands of red dripping down his arms and forming a small puddle on the marble floor.

  Though she tried to fight off the call of his blood, she had pitifully lost. Her instincts made her bow her head and believe everything would be sated by the slightest sip.

  Before long, her mouth attached to his long fingers and her tongue swirled around the tapered appendages, trying to catch every drop into her mouth.

  Maya’s thick lashes fluttered as ecstasy coursed through her veins and centered on her core in pleasurable pulses. But before her vision could become a misty haze, she pulled away from the tantalizing droplets and drew up the last of her magic, conjuring a weapon into her left hand.

  With a silver dagger infused with mercury hidden behind her back, she lifted her arm and mercilessly aimed the lethal blade at the unsuspecting Alpha’s chest.

  Maya would have cut his throat if he hadn’t been a werewolf with regenerative abilities.

  Since she had read through all the scrolls about werewolves, she knew the only ways to permanently kill him would be to remove his heart from his body or cut his head cleanly off from his shoulders.

  With her current lack of focus and inconsistent strength, she couldn’t attempt to remove his head without leaving too many of her weak spots open. So her only option was to go for his heart since it was a closer reach.

  If she could remove the organ from his body, he would be as good as dead.

  Although this seemed like a difficult feat to accomplish, Maya was willing to try. After all, she was desperate and didn’t want to be bound to him in such an extensive way.

  And if that plan failed, she had one last plan. A rather dangerous but foolproof plan.

  A wide, feral grin promptly graced her lips as her dagger cut through the first layer of his thin shirt. Maya exerted more force and pressure on the weapon, leaning forward with her entire body weight.

  Just when she thought she had succeeded, Xavier Thaeos pushed her back before the sharp weapon could dig into his skin and through his chest cavity. He then smacked the dagger out of her hand, and it fell aimlessly on the marble floor with several metallic clangs.

  Complete silence ensued.

  CHAPTER 12

  Xavier Thaeos was obviously more skilled than Maya. He easily thwarted her attack and reached out in an attempt to grab her, but Maya quickly ducked out of his reach and dived for the dagger on the ground.

  Once it was in the palm of her left hand again, she stood up and stared at him, wiping the remnants of his blood from her mouth and chin with the back of her other hand.

  Her incandescent green eyes watched him with a haunting, dark and malicious glint, like an overconfident predator about to capture its prey. Then, she stabbed the dagger deep into her own arm, piercing straight through the delicate flesh and resilient muscles.

  Blood quickly oozed from the wound and trickled down the sides of her forearm, dripping on her curled fingers.

  Maya instantly choked down a gasp of agony and gritted her teeth to keep herself from making any noise.

  It hurt badly, but the pain momentarily pulled her away from the enchanting call of his blood and awakened her drunken mind until she was sober again.

  A wide smile graced her red lips, yet her eyes were hard and sharp.

  “How does it feel to be on the opposite side of this addiction, Alpha? Good, I’d imagine,” she mocked hoarsely, unaware of the danger she was putting herself in.

  The challenge she had posed and the delectable scent of her blood caused Xavier’s beast to immediately rise to the surface. His handsome features morphed and became more feral and bestial. His golden eyes bled red in thin streaks and his sharp canines elongated.

  “Foolish sorceress!” he chided sternly, true anger lacing his words, because she had chosen to harm herself without knowing the actual consequences of such dangerous actions.

  Had she known what could’ve happened to her, she would never have chosen to take this route.

  The Alpha’s brows pinched together into a tight line, and a disgruntled growl purged itself from his throat, echoing loudly in the silent halls like the striking of thunder in the sky.

  Within a millisecond, he stood inches away from her face and his powerful aura was moving all around her as it encased her stunned body in its vast elements.

  The air around the dark sorceress thickened like molasses and held her captive like a praying mantis would its next meal.

  Maya jerked back.

  The pupils of her shimmering eyes dilated, and her heart stutter
ed a beat in response to his sudden appearance. She attempted to step away from him but found herself unable to.

  The Alpha had wound an arm around her waist and cut off all her exits, holding her to his heated body with a steel grip.

  At this point, Maya realized she was currently at his mercy. Any struggle or fight was futile.

  The Alpha currently controlled the game, and she was just a player on his field, following the rules he created. No matter how strong she thought she was, Xavier Thaeos was still ten times stronger and one hundred times faster.

  His massive aura and undeniable strength were enough to pinpoint just how much more superior he was compared to her.

  The cunning male had centuries of experience and wisdom she could never truly gain from sharing his powers.

  How could she expect to be just as good as him when she was lacking in the skill and training he had over his long lifetime?

  Maya’s heart pounded loudly in her ears. Her throat was dry and scratchy as the emerging revelation circled in her lucid mind, unaffected by his blood or the addiction.

  Since all her plans had failed, not from her lack of trying, Maya was resigned to accepting her current predicament. In a way, she chose to submit to the situation due to the instinctual need to survive.

  Her instincts had clambered up on her and told her if she didn’t give in, there was much more to lose than just his powers.

  It was a dire situation that required her full attention.

  As a matter of fact, the ticking time bomb in her head was constantly reminding her of what little time she had left before the ritual would lose its effects and ask for reparations.

  And she had a feeling that if they failed to finish the ritual, it wouldn’t just take the powers back—it would take her life.

  “I have a much bigger appetite than you, little sorceress,” he huskily stated, guttural and dark. “You wouldn’t have any blood left if I were to reciprocate your actions.”