Claimed (Bound Mates #2)

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

“ A wave of bloodshed is rushing over Europe, as murders increase beyond all sense. People are restricted to their homes, living in fear as bands of unknown aggressors roam the streets by night, slaughtering innocents and appearing, at times, to drink their blood. More at eleven.”

Elena downs her third double whiskey of the day. Her hair, usually perfectly neatly done up with pins and such, is half-down. I don’t think she is aware, and I do not think she would care if she was. We are past the point of fine appearances. There are weapons laid casually on tables and leaning up against walls, close to hand. We are ready for an incursion at any moment. The castle has always been a sanctuary, but nowhere is truly safe anymore.

Elena turns her head toward me, her eyes slightly bloodshot as she weighs whether or not to give me shit. She gets up and pours herself another few fingers instead, then gives me shit.

“I’m running out of ways to tell you that I told you this would happen, Alexei.”

“We’re not responsible for the vampire rising, Elena. It’s a natural phenomenon. This is what humans have their little legends for. They’re supposed to know how to handle this,” Vlad says. He has been a godsend, helping organize much of the defense of the castle and wolf grounds further afield. He is also deep in a bottle, but he is much more reserved about it.

“They will handle it,” I say, quite confident. “We’ve already been in touch about the UV weapons. You can’t have a vampire rising anymore. It’s not the dark ages, and nasty as they are, vampires are vulnerable to sunlight. A few UV bulbs in streetlamps and the whole problem is taken care of.”

“You’re being flippant, Alexei,” she says. “What about people who don’t have streetlamps? Not everybody can afford UV weapons. And the vampires are getting smarter about garnering home invitations.”

She’s right that things are bad. Where she’s not right is that it is somehow my fault.

“You think if I unleashed the vampire we’ve been torturing for weeks, that would help the situation?”

“I think listening to me in the first place would have helped.”

“Well, it’s a bit late for that now, isn’t it.”

“Yes,” she agrees. “It very much is.”

She downs the entire tumbler and reaches for the decanter again. We are all drinking, though she is drinking more than usual. Paranormal wars take their toll on intellectual types who believe that we can just think our way out of things by seeing them in advance.

“You were right that the war was coming, Elena. But there was no stopping it. There’s never any stopping such things. Vampire risings are a force of nature.”

“They’re political as much as they are natural. They’ve not been this bad in hundreds of years. There’s a modern slaughter going on out there, and we are in here, lifting not so much as a finger to stop it…”

“Enough, Elena!” Vlad interjects. “You’re starting to sound disrespectful.”

“Oh, dear,” Elena says. “How dare I be disrespectful while thousands die. I suppose I better be polite…”

Anya enters the room, and everybody falls silent. We don’t like to discuss this in front of her, not because she is weak-minded, or lacks opinions on the matter, but because she has been through more than enough. She comes to my side and I scoop her up into my lap, wrapping my arms around her snugly.

“What are you talking about?” She asks the question with a slight smirk, probably because we all look a little guilty at her arrival.

“Nothing.”

“Sport.”

“Vampires.”

Three different answers come at the same time.

Her smirk grows. “I bet only one of those is true, and I know which one,” she says. “The vampires are really a problem now, huh? Every time I look at my phone, there’s another reel with someone getting gutted. It’s kind of fucked up. I feel like we should do something.”

“Yes,” Elena mutters to the bottom of her glass. “It is fucked up. If only someone could do something.”

Anya

There’s so much tension in the place at the moment. Vlad and Alexei and Elena and I spend the evenings together on occasion, but I don’t think we’ll be doing that as much from here on out. Elena has been cantankerous all evening, and Vlad has been doing his best to take her into some kind of hand, but she is harder to handle than anybody expected.

“I say we attack,” Elena says, swaying unsteadily. She puts her hand out to catch herself, but unfortunately what she reaches for is a good foot or two further away than she imagines it to be. She tumbles onto the carpet in a surprisingly slow and elegant fall, then sits up and finishes her drink, which somehow mostly remained in her glass.

“Haven’t you had enough to drink?” Vlad sighs the question as he helps her up from the floor.

Alexei’s brother is a lot like him, but slightly more studious and thoughtful. Where Alexei gives orders, he has more of a tendency to ask questions.

“She’s had enough to drink,” Alexei says, decisive.

“You don’t get to tell me when I’ve had enough to drink,” Elena slurs.

“He does, actually, pet. He is alpha, remember? I think it’s time you went to bed,” Vlad interjects. He gets up and does his best to usher her out of the room without further drama, but there’s been enough theatrics that the mood lingers for quite some time.

Alexei declares he is going to bed not long after, and I dutifully trail after him. He does not like me out of his sight.

We are on the way to our room when he remembers something he has to tend to. “I will be along shortly,” he tells me. “Go and wait for me.”

“Yes, my alpha,” I say, perhaps a little too dutifully. I earn myself a questioning look for my tone. He knows I’m not the kind to go around sounding overly demure. The look he gives me tells me that tonight is not the night to fuck around unless I want to find all the way out. Having already found out many times before, I am not interested in getting my ass whipped because he is mad at Elena. I know she’s been getting under his skin lately. She’s passionate and knowledgeable, and she challenges him. I’d almost be jealous, if it wasn’t for the fact that Vlad and Elena are clearly fated mates.

“I mean, yes,” I say, withering under his glare. “I’m going.”

“Good.”

Alexei turns on his heel and goes off to do whatever alpha business he has to attend to. I continue my way, when I am accosted by none other than the woman herself.

Elena pulls me to the side, into one of the castle’s many little nooks. She must have gotten away from Vlad. She still stinks of drink and desperation, both of which are very unlike her.

“The alpha won’t forgive me for saying this to you,” she says. “But someone has to. The war is going to claim the lives of thousands. We are safe enough here, but out there, people are dying. Wolves are being taken. There’s blood in the streets.”

I feel the weight of her words, and also the crushing anxiety of feeling somehow responsible, but also entirely powerless in the matter.

“What can we do to stop it?”

“We can let the vampire go.”

“The vampire?” I am confused. “What vampire?”

“Dom is in the dungeon. Alexei did not kill him. Decided to keep him prisoner instead. An ancient can and will take control of the vampire situation. We need to let him go. You need to let him go.”

I draw in a breath of shock. Why would Alexei keep Dom here? What an insanely dangerous thing to do! I thought he was dead! Alexei promised me he was dead.

“Stop looking confused. He lied. That is what men do when they want to control a woman,” she says bitterly. “Forget how you came to know this information, and be glad you know it. It means you have the power to make this all stop.”

“I do?”

“The vampire sees you as family. He will listen to you. He’s deep underground, in the farthest reaches of our dungeons, but I can tell you the way. I can get you the keys. And I can ensure surveillance is off while you’re down there. But you have to be the one to free him. You can talk to him. You can beg him for his forgiveness…”

“His forgiveness?” Again I am confused. Again I am entirely unaware of what has been going on beneath my criminally ill-informed nose. I am starting to feel like little more than a sex toy. Someone fucked and bred, but not trusted with any real information.

“They’ve been using the UV against him,” Elena says. “He’s been kept in a state of constant regeneration, wounded and then healing again and again. He’s likely to be enraged. The pain he has suffered…”

“Is probably nothing compared to what he was doing to those wolves in the basement.”

“You sound just like Alexei,” she says, her face twisting in frustration. “Neither one of you will listen to the slightest bit of sense. I am telling you, Anya. The vampire needs to be released.”

I shake my head. “No, sorry, Elena. I can’t. I mean, I won’t.”

There’s every chance he would take me prisoner again, and I do not want that. Elena’s treatments seem to have weakened his hold, and if he is weakened and in pain, it might just be that he doesn’t have the energy to control me anymore. But it’s not worth the risk.

“People are dying,” Elena hisses. “We have to do something.”

“We should listen to Alexei,” I say. “He is alpha. These decisions are his to make.”

Her expression is one of deep disappointment. “I thought you had more in you,” she says. “I thought you were a wild, rebellious young mate—someone who could balance Alexei, steer this place in a more modern direction. But maybe you were never anything more than a spoiled, selfish runaway.”

I know she’s not really angry with me, but her words still hurt.

“I’m going to bed now, Elena,” I say. “I think it would be best if you did the same.”

“Sleep well, knowing that hundreds will die tonight because of your inaction,” she hisses.

I do not know how to respond to that, so I say what has been taught to me is the most devastating letter to anybody impassioned.

“K.”