“The only thing I regret is leaving here without clawing your heart out first,” Vicq said.
“Many, many chances have been given, and still you won’t kneel. We’re brothers. We promised Zaket that we’d always stick together.”
“It’s a promise I cannot keep.”
“Theodore, come open up another vein. This time, on his neck,” Russo ordered.
A dude resembling a football linebacker came across the courtyard. He had a sword on his belt and dagger in his palm. Without flinching, he sliced a vein open on Vicq’s neck.
Elaina screamed.
Russo laughed.
“You see how much agony this bitch is in?” Russo asked. “Put her out of her misery. Just kneel.”
The color left Vicq’s face. It seemed that his life force was fading with every beat of his heart. Elaina could feel it now. She could feel his death as if it were her own.
“Kneel and become the servant you were always meant to be.”
“Fuck you.”
“Another,” Russo ordered.
The dude with the knives went in again, splitting a vein open on Vicq’s forearm.
“Vicq, please…”
Vicq lifted his eyes, which were now a dull brown. “I cannot.”
“Why?” she demanded. “He’ll kill you.”
“He’ll kill me anyway. And I promised my Maker I would never…” He took several deep breaths. “I can’t break any more promises.”
“The sword,” Russo called out from the throat. “In the gut.”
The dude with the knives tossed the dagger on the ground and quickly unsheathed his sword. He plunged the lengthy blade into Vicq’s gut.
Vicq lurched, but still he kept to his feet, not giving in to the pain and dangling from the restraints. “I’m sorry, Elaina.”
How conflicted he must feel to want to live and die at the same time. The agony was there on his face and in his demeanor, but still he would not accept defeat. Not while he still lived.
Elaina turned around, tears running down her face. “You animal!”
“Do you know what my Maker, who also happens to be Vicq’s Maker, taught me?” he asked. “When you give your word, you should keep it. I warned Vicq that if he turned his back on me that I would treat him in the same manner as everyone else under my command. He would receive no special privileges. And you know what he did…? He shunned me. Ran and denounced the Court under my leadership. I’m keeping my promises and my word to my Maker.”
“Please…” Elaina fell to her knees.
“The flames have already begun to diminish, Elaina. I will put them out, one by one, just like I told you.” Russo lifted his hand and again, calling more men with swords into the courtyard. “Finish him.”
Elaina called on a source of power she didn’t know she had, or maybe the amount of rage she felt inside fueled her. She shoved at the Superiors holding her, allowing for a brief second to free herself. Once she had room to move, she lunged for the dagger discarded on the ground and used it to slice straight through the neck of one Superior and then another.
You could have heard a cricket crawling in the room after the bodies dropped to the ground.
Elaina wasted no time. She went straight for the linebacker who’d plunged the sword in Vicq’s gut. After his entrails had fallen out, littering the ground, he fell face down on them. Elaina swiped his fallen sword from the ground.
Her training as a vampire tracker and combat fighter was not wasted. She may be skilled, but she wasn’t here to display fighting prowess. When she had the opportunity, she took the kill. But the wounds she sustained weren’t healing nearly as fast as the bruises from the car accident.
Elaina stood in front of Vicq with a dagger in one hand and a sword clutched in the other. When she looked up at the throne where the coward sat, she took a lot of pleasure in seeing the look of fear on his face.
“Hayward. Nathan,” he commanded, sending two more Dresdan into the square with swords.
Elaina cut them down one by one until sweat—theirs and her own—seeped into her wounds. She glanced behind her at Vicq, who’d regained some of his strength but still struggled to heal. Before she could race to feed him, a Superior barged in, shoved her off, and sent her flying across the quad.
This time, Russo ordered a series of lashes with a leather whip across Vicq’s back. The first strike echoed across the courtyard. Before the second lash came down across Vicq’s back, Elaina got back up and charged with a blade, which she ended up driving into her target’s spinal cord. While he was lying motionless on the ground, Elaina picked up the whip, tied it around his neck, and dragged him front and center right in front of the throne. She picked up another discarded sword and beheaded the paralyzed victim.
“Stop! Enough.”
Two Superiors froze on the way to the center of the courtyard.
Russo rose forcefully from his chair. “What kind of shit is this? How many of you does it take to stop a woman?”
No one said anything.
“Bring her to me,” he ordered.
“No!” She raised the sword. “If you touch me or any of them, I’ll proceed until I’m ready to die.”
Russo straightened his collar and came down from his throne once again. “Put the sword down or I’ll have no choice but to send more Superiors in.”
Elaina laid the sword at her feet within grasping distance.
Once he reached her, he said, “What are you trying to prove? Vicq will die, either by sentence or because he failed to give in.”
“Release Vicq. Take me,” she said.
Chains rattled, but Vicq was so fatigued from blood loss that he could barely muster a word.
“What’s that?” Russo asked.
“Prove your worth to the Court, and when the time is right, when he is vulnerable…take back what is rightfully yours.”
Mercer’s words came to her right when she needed them the most; as if they were meant for her. She only wished that Vicq had listened to him. But she’d made a promise to Vicq, too, and she wanted to honor it.
“I’ll kneel in his place,” she said.
“Elaina…don’t!”
Russo circled her. “They say you taste of sunshine,” he said. “And of a blood type so rare, it takes a Dresdan on the most delicious high.”
Elaina swallowed.
“You’ll be the most scrumptious blood slave I’ve ever had.”
“I’m not a slave,” she said.
“If you kneel before me, you’ll be whatever I want you to be.”
Chains clanged on the stones behind her.
“But I’m no fool,” Russo said. “I see your worth and how quickly you rose to Superior. In exchange for the life of the traitor there, you’ll be my Donor.”
“Is that your word?” she asked.
“I give you my word before the Court that if you kneel before me now, I will let the traitor go,” he said.
“I—”
“On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“He leaves the Court and never returns. If he steps foot back here, he will be murdered on sight, but first, I will make him watch while I drain the blood from you this time.”
Elaina turned around, only to find that Vicq had collapsed on the stones. He wasn’t kneeling, just collapsed, as if he’d given up. Hanging from the chains that tethered him to the posts. There was still life within him as he mumbled the same two words over and over again. “No, Elaina. Elaina, no.”
“He is Superior no more. His power against me is gone,” Russo said. “Make your decision. Or else he’ll be dead before the deal is done.”
“You’ll let him leave?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ll even send someone in here for him to snack on before he goes. But once you accept in front of my people, the deal you make with me can never be broken. Any bond you share with him will be shattered.”
“And my friends?” Elaina asked, referring to Melrose and Mark, who w
ere bleeding out on the floor.
“No, Elaina.” Russo shook his head. “I will not reunite the traitor and those who aided him. I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy.”
“Give me your word that they won’t become slaves,” she demanded.
“Fledgling,” he said. “And that’s my final offer.”
“I accept,” Elaina said.
“I’m going to have so much fun breaking you. Bring a blood slave to feed these idiots,” Russo commanded a Superior.
The same young woman that Elaina had threatened in the room earlier came out. She slit her wrist, knelt next to Vicq, and offered her arm. Vicq tried to protest, but his will to live was much stronger, especially when blood was offered freely. He grabbed her hand and fed until she had to be snatched away by a Superior.
“Do you see how easily sides can be won, brother?”
“Why, Elaina?” Vicq stood with the chains still holding his arms and legs in place.
It pained Elaina to see him this way after she’d all but accepted another vampire to do with her as he pleased. She lowered her gaze.
Russo traced the outline of her face with his fingers. “Kneel,” he said.
And kneel she did, to save the life of the man she loved.
“Rise,” Russo commanded.
Holding her tongue and all the hateful words she wanted to throw Russo’s way, she rose. Russo turned her so that she was facing Vicq and swept her hair off the back of her neck and over her other shoulder. The moment Russo’s fangs pierced her, Vicq closed his eyes.
Russo fed until her limbs were weak and she had no choice but to fall to her knees again.
“The deal is done. Go now. Before I change my mind,” Russo told Vicq.
Two Superiors unlocked the chains holding Vicq.
Vicq took one last look at Elaina and then shifted from the courtyard.
While emotionless and kneeling on the floor, Elaina had only one thought. One hope.
Come back for me. Take back your Court. No matter how long it takes.
Chapter 27
The pain in vicq’s heart raged and tore him down more than the stab wounds riddling his body. He couldn’t bear the thought she was lost to him forever. The willpower to turn around and whisk Elaina away was strong, but he feared that Russo might retaliate against Elaina instead of him. He just didn’t want to see her endure another moment of agony. He didn’t want her fighting his battles, but Elaina had a mind of her own. Why she thought it would be a good idea to kneel before Russo was beyond him? Yet, he knew Elaina more than anyone else. She knew damned well that he’d come back for her.
In his current state—drained of nearly half of his blood—he was no longer able to shift anywhere. Fuck, he hadn’t even been able to break the chains binding him to the floor. Even now after feeding on the blood slave offered to him, his body reacted by trying to lure him into a slumber. But he was on enemy’s ground and he had to move out fast. He sensed Russo’s vampires following him through the mountains and valleys as he walked through the territory. Only when he was out of the jurisdiction that belonged to the Court did he feel the other vampire presences fading away.
An hour later, when the sun begin to rise, Vicq took cover in a cave. Slumbering within miles of Russo’s territory was out of the question, so he fought the urge and continued to allow his body to heal at a slower pace.
Dawn seemed to take forever, but as soon as he was safe from deteriorating under the sun rays, he followed some train tracks to the nearest train station.
Right after crossing the threshold into his countryside manor, he collapsed on the floor beside the hearth, and his body shut down, taking him into a deep slumber.
Chapter 28
Vicq watched as Mr. Smith settled back in the sofa with the fresh cup of brewed tea that Leila had just handed to him. He pulled out a small flask from his pocket and splashed some whiskey into the cup with the tea.
It hadn’t taken Vicq long to find the new sanctuary deep within the valley of Niagara Falls by following Leo’s blood presence. For over seventy hours, he’d lain on the floor next to the hearth, dead to the world. He’d woken up to the screams of his mother. Still, after all these decades, the earthquake that had caused his parents’ deaths still haunted him in his dreams.
“How many vampires are there in this Court?” Mr. Smith asked.
“Hundreds,” Vicq replied. “Thousands if you count the Dresdan that have been stationed to carry out duties outside of it.”
Mr. Smith chugged down the tea without pause. “Are you certain my daughter is still alive?”
“She is. I’m her Maker and I feel her presence and I’m certain that she feels mine,” Vicq said. “However, Emory is in grave danger. Some days I feel his presence fade and other days it’s as strong as ever. This gives me reason to believe that he’s being held as a blood slave.”
“Blood slave?” Mr. Smith fumed.
“Humans who provide blood to Dresdan,” Eli replied, shifting in his seat.
“This is…this is just…” Mr. Smith shook his head and shot up from the chair and paced the small area. “I should’ve stayed with her back at Refuge,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry,” Leo exclaimed. “We changed rotation and …”
“No.” Mr. Smith stopped pacing. “It’s not your fault. Elaina has always been hands-on and tactical. Whatever she wanted, she went out and got it. I just didn’t know she would risk her damn life like that. Dammit.”
From across the room, Leila sighed and fell back into Leo’s arms.
“The point is, Elaina is our real victor here. She made a split second decision and risked herself so that the next mission could be carried out,” Vicq said.
“And if you were dead, that mission would have failed,” Brandon added. “The Court members honored the previous Master, Zaket, even in his last days. He had given his word that he’d choose another Master worthy of the Court. That Master was supposed to be you, and there are many who are beginning to realize that.”
“And what if this other mission fails,” Mr. Smith asked. “And you don’t take back your Court and you can’t free my daughter? Then what? Am I supposed to stand by and do nothing? Because that won’t happen.”
Eli rose and placed his hand on Elaina’s dad shoulder. “Look, Mr. Smith, there are many things you aren’t going to understand or even accept about us, but I’ve known Vicq for decades. He’s not going to let your daughter live the rest of her days with his enemy.”
Eli glanced Vicq’s way after reassuring Mr. Smith, but even he held a hint of uncertainty in his gaze.
Vicq rose from the armrest he was perched on. “Eli is right. Just like I planned, I’ll take back my Court and have my Queen. Brandon has already started the process of locating any covens who’ve denounced ties to Russo.”
Brandon nodded. “We’ve already gotten the support of Ghost. We’ve made alliances with the Crow coven from the north, the Lunar coven in Alberta, and the Azote coven down in Mexico. They’re more than ready to help.”
“All right.” Mr. Smith scrubbed his hand down across his face. “Just tell me what I can do. I’ll do it.”
“Elaina tells me that you have some bounty hunters and vampire trackers in your Refuge that are skilled at tracking down rogues,” Vicq said.
“Since we’re all being truthful here, yes, we do. We track down and kill the ones who murder,” Mr. Smith replied.
“I have reason to believe that there’s a coven of rogues out there somewhere without a leader and they’ve been without a leader for a very long time,” Vicq said. “When we released Mercer, he revealed that they referred to him as Master right before he was captured by District 5. I have reason to believe that if I can find that coven, I can find Mercer again.”
“Why would you want to find Mercer again?” Brandon asked. “I thought he specifically stated that he doesn’t want to be bothered.”
“I’m going to take my chances and I’m willing to risk dismemberment if
he goes batshit crazy on me, but Mercer may just be the answer to a unified Court. And I’m going to find him.”
Chapter 29
Two weeks later
The search for Mercer had taken Vicq more time than he wanted, but after trailing Mercer’s essence for two weeks straight, the evidence had finally led him to one simple resolution. He’d have to befriend some rogues, not just locate them. At first, they weren’t willing to give up where Mercer might have gone. When they learned that the warlock vampire was planning to end it all, they were more receptive to cooperation with the hopes that someone might be able to talk him out of it. And befriend a rogue he did, one who led him straight to one of Mercer’s caves.
“So, are you just going to die and leave your entire legacy behind,” Vicq asked.
“What legacy? My legacy lies within me,” Mercer answered, weak from continued exposure to the sun. “I take it with me.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I want to see Fatima again. I want to tell her how sorry I am for thinking that she could trust her brother.”
“You were mated to her?” Vicq asked, taking a seat next to Mercer on the dusty ground.
“Yes, we mated while she was human,” he said. “They’re so fragile, you know.”
“Yes, they are.”
“She wanted to be turned, but I wouldn’t do it. I failed her.”
“But to turn her, you would have had to kill her,” Vicq said.
“And I wasn’t ready to do that,” Mercer said. “I wasn’t even there when she needed me the most. She just slipped away, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Is that when you turned rogue again,” Vicq asked.
Mercer was silent for a long moment.
“I don’t know the exact moment. I tried to not take her death out on others, but I was lost without her. She taught me compassion for humans, and she showed me how to live my life. Before I met her, all I had were my gifts and my vampirism.”
“Before Fatima and before you overthrew the Court, what was your life like then?”
The Dresdan Coven Trilogy Page 31
