“What do you mean again?” Tatiana asked warily. “We have not met before.”
“No, not in this form,” Domin said. “But your gifts and I are old friends and old enemies. It all depends on the carrier.”
Tatiana shivered. “And what are we now?”
“We shall see, won’t we, child? Your future is blocked and forked.” Domin turned to look at Broderick. “Well done. You would’ve made a great seer, Broderick. It is as you expected. She is of the Addien line.”
“What are you talking about?” Tatiana asked. She wondered if the old lycan was crazy. “I was born Sinclair. Tatiana Sinclair. You must have me confused with someone else.”
Domin frowned. His gray eyes turned sharply to Leandro, who he’d been ignoring, and then to Broderick. “She truly has no knowledge whatsoever? Who has guided her? Who has trained her?”
Broderick merely shook his head, indicating no one.
Domin froze. “It is worse than I feared.”
Tatiana felt the coldness of the cave creeping back into her limbs as Domin’s hand left her face. She tried to shrug his hand from her shoulder, but it didn’t move. His grip tightened slightly on her and she knew his frail body held more strength than it appeared to.
“My mother,” Tatiana whispered. All eyes turned to her at the feeble sound. “She used to tell me stories about our ancestors.”
Domin sighed, looking mournful. “All that greatness reduced to mere fairytales. You would have been proud of all you accomplished.”
“It wasn’t me,” Tatiana said. “It was my ancestors.”
“Ah, but it is your blood. Your life’s history is in your blood. They are a part of you. They call out to you to remember. Can you not hear them in your head? Have you listened to them?”
Tatiana looked at the old lycan and debated. He seemed the only one so far who knew what she was and understood it. She took a deep breath. “I’ve seen them, felt them as if I was them.”
“Ah, visions of the past,” Domin said, nodding smartly. “They happen to all with the gift. We learn not to trigger them, but alas it is a burden we must bear.”
Tatiana almost felt relief that she wasn’t alone. She knew she could learn a lot from Domin, if he would be willing to teach her. A war waged inside of her. As much as she wanted to control her gift, she wanted Marcello by her side more. She had a feeling he wouldn’t be so welcome here. She felt the tension in Leandro standing behind her. She noticed how the lycan elder and the vampire did not speak directly.
“Can you tell me of my ancestors? You seem to have known them.” Tatiana’s voice wavered slightly. She was almost too scared to know the truth of it. “Were they good witches? Why did they lose their powers? Why did I get them back?”
“They were great and powerful witches, but like all species they were both good and evil. The power is just there, but its use lies within the intent of the carrier. The power was tapped out and had to renew itself. When it was ready, it found an opening so that it may be reborn into you. I would imagine it has been leaking back to your family for generations now, in mild gifts of intuition so easily explained away by others, but real nonetheless.” Domin began to walk deeper into the cave. His cool eyes glanced at Broderick and Broderick nodded in return. Tatiana was lost in thought and absently followed the hand on her arm. “You, like those before you, possess the power of foresight and hindsight. Once your mind is focused, if it can be focused, you will be able to see and understand a great many things.”
“And if it can’t be?” she asked weakly. They were walking through a rough stone passageway. Tatiana shivered. It grew colder the deeper they went into the cave, but she was the only one who seemed to notice it. The floor of the passageway was damp and slippery. She concentrated on finding her footing as they passed by long, striped ribbons of dripstone. The cave was a peculiar subterranean world that Tatiana was sure was just as supernatural as the creatures that dwelled in it.
“Then you will go insane. The images will get worse. You won’t be able to distinguish between reality, the past, and the future.” Domin stopped.
They were by a large cavern filled with spectacular crystals that gave off light. Rimstone stretched over the ground like frozen, brown water, shiny and smooth. In places it was as if a miniature mountain range of stalactites and stalagmites existed over the rock surface. Tatiana had read about such caves as a young girl, but the descriptions did not do them justice.
“How do I focus?” she asked, staring at a particularly long stalactite sticking up from the ground like a stone stake.
“Ah, there is only one way that I know of,” Domin said. His eyes rose over her shoulder and he nodded his head. “And for that, I am truly sorry.”
Tatiana began to turn. She never made it around. Broderick’s fist hit the back of her head and her whole world went dark as she tumbled blindly to the floor.
Chapter Forty-Five
It was just like Tatiana’s dream from when she was at Eastwich Manor—the dank stone walls, the manacles of iron gripping into her flesh, causing her to bleed as she struggled against them. And yet, it was more real than her dream of it had been. When she closed her eyes, she didn’t escape it. When she opened her eyes, she saw only her hell.
Her arms prickled until she could no longer feel them. Her wrists throbbed and ached. Time slipped and passed with mindless calculations until she no longer knew if she’d been held prisoner for a year or a day. When she did sleep, the nightmares would come, the same horrific images, only more vivid and real.
Sometimes, during the worst of her nightmares, she’d wake up sweating, and she would think of Marcello. Just the memory of him before her balanced her out and made the trembling stop. She felt him as if he was in the next room.
Hearing movement behind the thick iron door, Tatiana tensed. Her wild eyes lifted, expecting to see the female lycan who always came to feed her. The young, dark woman would sit, not speaking as she placed—sometimes forced—food and drink past Tatiana’s chapped lips. She’d tried to bathe her once with soft linen and a bowl of water, but Tatiana had begun chanting the words to an ancient curse. The woman had grown pale and ran away.
As the door opened and bright torchlight was brought inside the cave prison, Tatiana turned away, closing her lids tightly in annoyance.
“It shouldn’t have lasted this long.”
Tatiana heard Domin’s voice. His visits were rare, and he always left her feeling frustrated and angry.
“Has she gone mad?” Broderick asked. His words were barely audible, hoarse.
Tatiana looked up from her place on the floor to stare at him. He was crouched before her, his dark brow furrowed in concentration. She laughed weakly, sounding very much like a madwoman. “I dreamt of this.”
“She is crazy,” Broderick stated, standing. A heavy sigh whispered past his parted lips.
“I dreamt of this prison before he came for me,” she continued. Her eyes widened as she spoke. “I saw this place, felt these chains.”
Domin frowned. He lightly touched her cheek, and she jolted violently back from him as if his touch stung. She spat on him. He wiped it from his face with his sleeve, not reacting to her anger.
“Watch your emotions in here, Broderick,” Domin said softly, soothingly. “Until she is balanced, she is very delicate to how we react.”
Tatiana’s jade eyes glowed eerily as she glared at Domin. He smiled back at her. She felt herself responding to his calm. She felt them connect as if he was in her blood.
“Go get the vampire, bring him,” Domin ordered softly, not taking his soft gray eyes from Tatiana’s wild ones. When they were alone, he continued, “Do you know where you are?”
“In hell,” she growled, her eyes narrowing.
“Some would say you are close to it,” he chuckled. “No, you’re in the den of the lycan. Do you remember?”
Tatiana moaned. She felt him moving as if she were part of him. It was a strange sensation. Her body reached for hi
m, not to touch him or hold him, but to join with his soul.
“Yes, child, we are connected now. I have been feeding you my blood.”
Tatiana grimaced and tried to shake her head. Domin lifted his sleeve, showing the many scars on his arm that were slowly healing. She gagged, trying to pull away from him.
“I don’t want to be like you,” she gasped, horrified, rocking back and forth in agitation.
“You won’t be, child,” Domin answered, not insulted by her words. “It is my bite that you must fear, not my blood.”
“Why...would...you…?”
“Several reasons,” Domin answered honestly. “My blood marks you and protects you from my kind. It joins us so our powers may always call upon each other.”
Tatiana shivered. She knew he spoke the truth.
“Yes, so there will also be no lies between us.”
“Why?” she ground out. Her voice was hoarse. “Why chain me? Why do this? Why not just ask me?”
“You don’t remember?” he asked, not at all surprised. “It is a painful joining, for both of us.”
Domin lifted his wrists, showing that he too had been shackled. Red rings of flesh, scabbed and scarred, wrapped him like bracelets. “I was just now released.”
“I don’t understand,” she cried. Tears started coming down her face. Her body rocked weakly, back and forth, back and forth. “I don’t want this. Please, I don’t want this. Let me go back to the country. Let me marry Thomas. I don’t care about the parties or the money or the big house. I don’t care that I don’t love him. He loves me. He loves me. He’s the last one, only one, to love me completely. Please, please, please...”
Domin frowned at her words. She was losing her sanity again, warring with the madness inside of her. His mind pulled heavily at her. She stopped rocking. Domin forced his thoughts into her, soothing and warm in her brain. It was like the summer sun on her skin, glowing in her body. She smiled and relaxed.
“You are intended for more, child, much more than Thomas,” Domin whispered. His hand stroked her cheek, and this time, she did not jerk away. Tatiana knew he read her feelings and thoughts as she passed over the memory of it. “There is a reason you sent your thoughts to your vampire. There is a reason you did not let Thomas kiss you, and why you pushed the witch away from you.”
Tatiana waited on his every word, breathless.
“You are destined for great things, important things. You are a seer. But, your line has been dormant too long. Because of the strength of your ancestral birthright, you are confused. This is why I have taken some of your pain and why I have given you some of my strength. It is this connection that will save you. I can handle your insanity as my own and you, in turn, will be balanced by my wisdom and strength.”
“Why would you care? I’m just a witch,” she mumbled. “Just a witch, a witch, just a little witch.”
“No, not just a witch,” Domin said. His eyes glassed over. “I saw of your coming long ago. I was there the night the Addien powers drained. Your ancestors fought a great evil force, a goddess who would slaughter all of mankind with her hunger and greed. They paid the price with their lives. They were exposed and left weak. Humans, fearful of them, slaughtered them like animals. They took the sacrifice, knowing what would happen to them.”
“Broderick,” Tatiana whispered, remembering him in most of her visions.
“Yes, as a human he killed in the name of his church. He rid the world of much evil. But, he also rid it of good. Humans can’t distinguish between the two sometimes when it comes to our kinds. You must not blame Broderick for his human ignorance. He has blamed himself enough over his long centuries, and he blames himself still.” Domin sighed and stood. He looked weak, and Tatiana knew he was still feeling the after effects of what he’d done for her. She knew it was entirely possible that he’d saved her life. If the powers were to continue to grow uncontrolled, she wouldn’t have been able to understand or stop them.
“You did not find me in time,” she whispered sadly. “I still feel it. I still feel the madness.”
“Yes, I know.”
“You are to kill me, aren’t you? I can read the thought. You are to kill me if I can’t be balanced.” Tatiana smiled, nodding her head. “I should be killed. You must do it and soon. That is what you are thinking, always thinking, burn the witch.”
“You’re right. I am to destroy you and all your kin if you can’t find balance.” Domin perked up, and he looked toward the open door. “But, I have felt you find your balance. Tell me, what is it you think of when you calm yourself? What is it you are hiding from yourself and me ?”
Suddenly, Broderick’s thick frame filled the door. Stepping aside, she saw Marcello’s pale face.
“Marcello,” she whispered, a soft light entering her eyes at the word.
Domin glanced at the vampire and then back at the woman. A deep frown creased his features.
“Is there something you forgot to tell me about this woman and her vampire?” Domin asked. “I thought you said she was a slave to him, bound unwillingly?”
“She was,” Broderick said. “She never mentioned him once while we traveled. I caught her on more than one occasion trying to escape his hold. It is why we kidnapped her, to get her away from him.”
“Then how do you explain this?” Domin raged, jerking his hand back at Tatiana. His voice boomed in a mighty roar and Tatiana felt his anger inside her as if it was her own. She felt herself getting mad. She began to scream at the top of her lungs. Domin’s eyes flashed with gold, and he turned to her. She felt him forcing a calm over his limbs for her sake. She stopped screaming, lowering her chin to glare at Leandro.
“What?” Broderick asked. He followed her gaze over his shoulder to Leandro.
Domin frowned and waved Leandro inside. Leandro looked over Tatiana’s restrained form. A look of sadness and regret passed over his eyes.
“Talk to her,” Domin ordered, watching attentively to see what would happen. “Touch her.”
Leandro obeyed. His hand lifted to her cheek. “Bella donna?”
Tatiana’s face wrinkled in pain, and she shook her head, making a weak noise in the back of her throat. Mournfully, she cried, “You are not him, you are not him.”
She began to weep, horrible, loud sobs that poured her emotion out over them. She missed Marcello, needed Marcello, loved only Marcello. Without him, she was lost.
Leandro recoiled from her, stepping back. Her feelings were unmistakable and pure.
“You fools,” Domin said. “That is why she is not whole. The process worked. It is her heart that is broken. That is her insanity. You took her from the one thing that balances her.”
“She really loves him,” Leandro whispered weakly. He stumbled back as if he’d been kicked in the gut. He turned, storming away, leaving a surge of outrage in his wake.
Broderick let his friend go, knowing he had his own demons to face. He took a deep breath and shared a meaningful look with Domin. The old lycan nodded his head toward the door, quietly telling Tatiana that they would be back soon to release her.
“Are you sure?” Broderick asked when the door shut, and they were alone in the cave passageway.
“Yes,” Domin said dejectedly. “She loves that damned vampire, Marcello. But she also thinks he can’t return her love. That is her torment. That is why she can’t focus and see beyond herself. Yet, despite this heartache of unrequited feelings, she knows that she must take him any way she can to be happy.”
“Why did it have to be a vampire?” Broderick hissed. “She could’ve done great things for our kind. Let me turn her. I will take her as my mate, regardless of this love. I promise to make her forget him.”
“That is not your promise to make,” Domin said, “for you can’t keep it. Besides, though she has taken my blood, there is no guarantee she’ll survive your bite. Beyond a sense of duty and passing respect, you don’t care for this woman. Your heart is led by guilt from your human past. Mating yoursel
f to her is not the way to redeem what you have done. In time, I foresee you as friends, but not close. No, she is not destined to be a lycan. But, with my blood, she’ll be our sister. That is the best we can hope for. With my connection to her, if she were to foresee the demise of our race or the reemergence of the vampiric gods, we can only hope I will see it too.”
Broderick held still.
“I will stay awake as the others slip into a sopor,” Domin said. “The mystics have been torn on our future. But their visions are never very clear. Some say we will end with this next century if we don’t hide, other still say nothing will change.”
“What do you think?” Broderick asked.
“I think that, with time, whatever is meant to pass will pass,” Domin said, clearly exhausted. He rolled his neck, cracking it. He turned to the door. “Release the witch, heal her, and have Leandro take her from this place. There is nothing more we can do for her. There is no reason to keep her longer.”
“And what of our other prisoner?” Broderick asked warily. “What of Marcello?”
Both eyes turned to the cell where he was kept, right next to Tatiana. The vampire had been brave, storming into the den days after Tatiana’s arrival to try to save her. He’d courageously taken on most of the lycan guard to get to her. It was a fool’s mission, but suddenly Domin understood that Marcello might not have been able to do anything else. Perhaps his reasons were not out of injured pride as Domin and the others first suspected. Perhaps the vampire felt more for his witch than he let on. However, vampires were tricky creatures and difficult to read. They learned deceit quickly after turning.
“Give Leandro a head start with the girl,” Domin said. “Don’t tell him we have his brother, just that he must take the witch far away from here. My connection with her grows, and it is not wise to leave us so close together for too much longer. We feed too readily off each other’s emotions, and she doesn’t have the control yet to fight it. After Leandro’s been gone for a few days, send Marcello out after them. I care not to interfere with their personal war. Besides, if she has a need for me, I will hear her call and, in time, she’ll hear mine. The rest, Broderick, is up to the Mistress of Fate.”
Eternally Bound Page 24
