Chapter 19
CHAPTER 19
I t is very, very late by the time Alexei comes to bed.
“Alexei?” I say his name as the mattress dips next to me.
“Mmm?” He is sleepy, right on the verge of passing out. So am I, in truth. I have been quite tired since my return from the vampire’s lair. Getting over traumatic events takes time, and everything that has happened since I met him has been somewhat traumatic in one way or another.
“You killed that old vampire, right? The one who took me?”
“Yes,” he says. “Of course.”
I feel my stomach tighten as I register what I know in my gut to be a lie. Elena might have been drunk, but in vino veritas. She was telling the truth. I’m sure of it. And that means Alexei is not. He’s lying to me.
Perhaps he senses my tension, because instead of going straight to sleep, he rolls over and holds me tightly. “You are safe now,” he murmurs in my ear. “You’re never going to be taken from me again. I can promise you that.”
I don’t want to tell him what I know. I don’t have the energy to call him out, and I have some shred of hope that maybe, just maybe there is some good reason for all of this.
Alexei growls softly against the back of my neck and I smile as the pleasant chemicals run through me. I let myself relax into his arms, trusting him somehow with my body even though my mind is now set very firmly at odds. I don’t know why he’s lying to me about Dom, but I know he will always protect me. That is how I am able to snuggle up into his arms and close my eyes, trusting him to take care of me as he always has.
I wake up perhaps an hour later, maybe just thirty minutes. It is impossible to say, except that Alexei is leaping out of bed and shaking me awake as he does it. There’s an alarm going off on a small box next to the bed, a red light and a small siren wailing in a very irritating way.
“What’s happening?” I ask him the question as my eyes feast on his naked, muscular form. Alexei at any hour is a handsome beast.
“There’s been a breach. Stay here. Actually. No. Come with me. I don’t want you out of my sight. Take your wolf form. Now.”
I do as I am told, padding alongside my alpha as we move through the halls. I can feel his concern. Not fear. He’s not afraid of anything as long as I am with him. Alexei is one of the strongest men and wolves I have met, and I know I am biased in thinking that because he is my mate, but I also know him more deeply than anybody else ever could also because he is my mate.
He is steady, and he is ready to do what must be done.
But he is worried, because whatever has happened now has happened inside the castle. I can feel all his feelings right now. He is tempering his anger.
Vlad, Viktor, and Piotr come out of the side halls, all carrying weapons. They have an extra one, which they put into Alexei’s hands. Now the five of us proceed downstairs, to a dungeon I did not know existed. Alexei didn’t mention the dungeons before, but then again, why would he? I am sure this is one of many secrets I am yet to be a part of. I have barely gotten to know the castle, really. I’ve been far too busy being abducted, among other things.
But maybe I should have known. Maybe there’s no excuse for all this ignorance I keep encountering. Elena’s words ring in my ears. Spoiled and selfish , that’s what she called me. She held back from calling me stupid, but only just. I’ve got to get more on top of things. I have to be more responsible.
It’s harder to process these thoughts in my wolf form, but I feel them so much more keenly. I am the alpha female, and I am supposed to be responsible. I’ve got to start looking after the pack. I’ve got to start thinking about others who rely on me.
We go down the stairs and into the dark, which is quickly chased away in stages by lights being turned on one after the other. I start to smell something of great concern. Blood. Wolf blood.
Someone has been killed down here, and I already know who. Instinct takes over.
I let out a baying howl and run headlong into the darkness.
“Anya! No!”
The shouts follow me, but do not stop me. They can’t smell it yet. They don’t know it yet, but there’s a body down here.
My wolf form means I reach the scene much faster than the others are able to catch up with me. That means I am alone when I find her. It is too late to save her.
Elena lies slumped on the dungeon passage floor, her eyes open and staring into an abyss we will all one day face. The expression on her face is pained, but not frightened. She died resigned, accepting what was happening to her.
The vampire is gone, of course. His cell stands open. The UV lights have been smashed and the gathering shadows seem to wrap around me as a large, cold hand extends from the darkness and caresses the top of my head, scratching lightly between my ears as if I am a pet dog.
It is Dom.
I thought he was dead. I suppose, technically, he is. But this is not what I meant when I asked.
I stare up at him in shock, my animal eyes seeing him for what he is—an absolute apex predator. A perfect example of nature twisted by unholy forces into a creature whose sole existence is not to survive by taking lives where necessary, but to kill and kill and kill again, its existence entirely separate from its need to consume.
My animal brain tries to fight through the confusion and understand. Elena did tell me that Alexei had lied, but that was only an hour or two ago, and it’s something else entirely to find myself confronted with a disparate reality.
Dom is supposed to be dead. Permanently. Irreversibly.
But he is standing tall, naked, and muscular over me. He is a beautiful creature. He always has been. He could kill me in this moment, just as he killed Elena. To him, I am nothing but flesh and blood pumping through animal veins.
His stare makes me drop my wolf form, something in it compelling my human side to emerge. I crouch naked at his feet, vulnerable and eminently consumable. I imagine he must be absolutely ravenous with desire for revenge, and I would be the perfect feast.
“Hello, you,” he says, flickering a slight wink down at me. My blood rushes hotter, even as cold fear flashes over me. He has me in his thrall again, and I am almost certain that Elena’s potions and such have now entirely failed. I can feel him in my mind. I should be terrified, but I am not.
“Leave her alone!”
Alexei calls out as he finally reaches us and sees what is clearly not a shock to him. Dom’s presence in this place is a result of his actions.
Bright UV lights splash over the walls and floor as the guards open fire. They are terrified of the vampire and they have forgotten that UV bullets are still bullets. Lead is ricocheting dangerously close to me with every shot they take.
Moving with incredible speed, Dom stands in front of me, taking the barrage. They smash against his cold chest, burning him with every impact, but not making the same kind of destructive impression they would on a lesser vampire.
“Stop!” Alexei roars. “Anya is there!”
They hold fire, and by some miracle I am still unharmed. Dom pulls me out from behind him, and I see the places where the bullets struck already healing. They’re not going to take him down easily again. They might not take him down at all, not now that he has fed, and has me.
“Let her go,” Alexei says.
Dom does not so much as respond to that. He barely lifts the corner of his lip in a smirk. He knows very well that he now has control. I can see the devastation on Alexei’s face as he realizes his plans have once again been undone.
He thought he could hold this unnatural beast in chains forever, but he did not reckon on the conscience of his confidantes.
It was Elena that did it. Elena who let the vampire out. And Elena who has paid the price.
I am vaguely aware that there is a sticky substance on my feet. I don’t dare look down, because I know what it is. It is the essence of the woman who begged us all to listen to her. Nobody listened.
“She set you free and you ate her?” I find the question spilling from my lips in the heavy silence that stretches out between Alexei and Dom.
“She died sacrificing herself so the war might end,” he says, his voice soft while speaking to me. It hardens as he turns his attention back to Alexei. “And here you are, trying to, what… stop me from stopping the worst of the worst? The she-wolf was more community minded than either of you.”
“Anya. Come here,” Alexei says.
I try to move toward him, but I am stopped. Dom grips the back of my neck and keeps me in place.
We are all in a very big mess now, and I don’t think any of us really know what to do. I have questions that need to be answered though. Upstairs, in bed, I shied away from them. Now, standing in Elena’s blood, I ask them boldly and without deference to his station.
“You told me he was dead. Why did you lie to me?”
“I didn’t lie. It’s not your problem.”
My eyes widen as Alexei dismisses me out of hand, denying the lie simply because he thought I didn’t need to know the truth.
“You did lie. You told me I had nothing to worry about, and that you killed him. I have a lot to worry about, and he is alive. Well, as alive as a dead thing can be.”
“I don’t owe you explanations, Anya. I owe you safety.”
“Oh, and how is that going for me?”
Dom has said nothing, but now he interjects.
“Impressive, wolf, you’ve managed to turn your own mate against you.”
“Unhand her,” Alexei growls.
“I don’t think I will. I think she deserves better. And you’re still not married, are you? Not even a proposal, Alexei?” He tuts. “Not really good enough, is it?”
“Anya! Come here!” Alexei repeats the order, but I do not move.
“She can’t,” he says. “I won’t allow it. I told you, Alexei. I am her father. And you…”
Alexei shoots him right between the eyes. It does nothing. The UV bullet sizzles between his brows for a short moment, then the metal part of it simply falls to the ground with a light tinkling sound.
“You cannot harm me the same way again, unless you have one of your ultraviolet bombs on hand, and Elena assured me you had no more. She wanted very badly for me to command my armies to stop their march across Europe. Do you want that too, Alexei? Or will your arrogance mean you turn a blind eye to the suffering of thousands?”
“Let my mate go. She doesn’t want you.”
Alexei avoids the question. It’s not a fair question. Dom is trying to draw him into a position of responsibility for the atrocities that are being perpetrated by his kind.
“Of course she wants me. My blood still courses in her veins, and all the potions in the world won’t change that.”
“You’re playing with her mind! It’s not real. She’s not choosing you.”
“She never chose you either. Nor did you choose her.”
“What? I chose him!” I pipe up.
Dom looks down at me with a sort of pitying expression, as if he understands something I do not, but should.
“You’ve never chosen any male. Be it instinct or infection, you’ve been puppeted by biology. You and Alexei are fated mates. There’s no element of choice in that. He did not have the choice to choose you. He had to. Just as you had to choose him. The only one of us who has ever made a decision was me. I chose you, Anya. After you ate my progeny, I could just as easily have destroyed you. It would have been the proper and correct thing to do, after all. I alone made the decision to want you, to take you, to love you. Me. Not him.”
I stare at him and realize that he is right. There is no flaw in his argument. I have never chosen anything. I have never achieved anything. I have never done anything besides what was somehow preordained.
In this bickering, we have all forgotten something. I am not the only woman who has been loved in the passage. Vlad has been standing silent, too silent, and far too still since he came on this grisly scene. I do not think he has been able to process it. Seeing one’s mate dead and drained, left on the ground like a discarded snack packet has to be a sight that twists the mind until it snaps.
As his brain breaks, Vlad charges Dom. He lets out a roar of rage as it finally sinks in that the mate he had only just found has surrendered herself unto death in an effort to prevent a war. Elena is gone, and it is because nobody would listen to her. She was desperate enough to sacrifice herself to try to achieve what she believed in. And now her mate is trying to avenge her death.
It takes Dom less than a second to kill Vlad. He snaps his neck the way a farmer kills a chicken, without any malice or difficulty. Vlad’s body drops heavily into the embrace of his corpse mate, a terrible cruelty inflicted before my eyes.
There are now two bodies in the hall. This is going from bad to worse in a hurry. I do not think I can handle the toll that is being exacted all around me. It is all too terrible. It is awful. There is so much death, and it feels as though there has always been death when it comes to Alexei. Our every interaction has been marred by it.
I do not know how to react. I cannot begin to. Could not even if I wanted to. I am numb. The terribleness of what I have just seen will haunt me to the end of my days.
I look at Alexei. He has to fix this. Somehow, he has to make this right. But how? It seems entirely impossible to me. This situation is devolving into a deadly tit for tat that has no obvious end.
“You have killed my brother,” he says flatly. I have to wonder at his state of mind now, seeing what he is seeing, barely reacting to the most terrible of atrocities. “You have destroyed my most trusted advisor. You have infected my mate. And you have escaped the bonds I put upon you. You are going to regret this, vampire. Anya. Come. Here. Now.”
There’s something in Alexei’s tone that makes my body move. The sight of Dom killing has shattered his hold on me for the moment. For just a second I have the ability to escape the vampire’s grasp.
I rush to Alexei’s side, grip his arm, and look back at the dealer of death standing over those he has claimed.
“Why?” Alexei’s voice cracks ever so slightly as he trains his useless weapon on Dom. “Why has all of this happened this way?”
I take the question as being grief-ridden and rhetorical, but Dom decides to answer it.
“Two kopeks,” Dom says. “You gave me two kopeks. I give you two corpses. We are even.”
“Is that really what this is about? The coins?” Alexei sounds absolutely confused. I do not think he is able to understand what he has just seen either. Death usually comes with more fanfare and drama. It is rarely visited in such a casual fashion.
“The older one gets, the less tolerable little slights are,” he says with a slight shrug. “Imagine what I will do to you for the indignity of having been chained up in ultraviolet prison. This is not over, Alexei. I have lived for generations and I will live generations more. My vengeance will be felt for hundreds of years to come. Run along. Go back upstairs, and get your soldiers out of my way. I am not in a merciful mood.”
Elena and Vlad are dead—destroyed as if they were nothing, because to Dom, they are nothing. They are not on his breeding list. Alexei and I are alive because we are part of his game.
“Not you,” Dom says as we start to move. He extends a hand and I feel myself being drawn back to him, almost as if he were a magnet and I a piece of iron. In very short order, I am back in his grasp, at his mercy.
I see an expression of pure determination establish itself on my handsome mate’s face.
“I’m not going without her,” Alexei says. “I’m never going to leave her. I may not have had any choice in being her mate, but I will choose to die for her on any given day. She’s not yours, Dom. She never will be.”
He pulls his gaze away from the vampire, and looks at me. I see less arrogance and anger now. Instead, I see regret.
“I am sorry, Anya,” Alexei says. “I should have told you. I have exposed you to evil beyond comprehension. I have failed to protect you. I thought my lie might do that, but it has only done damage.”
I am starting to feel very afraid.
And I am starting to lose my temper.
I am furious at Dom’s murders. I am angry because he has taken away my sense of having been chosen by Alexei. Every single part of my world has been infested and corrupted by him. Every time I see this creature, something terrible has either happened, or will soon happen. I know I cannot end him, but I can hurt him. Sometimes all a bee can do is sting. They do so even knowing it will be their end. They do it because they have decided it is the right course of action.
I have come to the same conclusion.
I turn in the vampire’s grasp, and I sink my teeth into his hand hard, taking my wolf form as I do, so my canines rip into the cold creature’s flesh. I take a literal chunk out of Dom. The foul, aged taste of it would be enough to make me retch if it were not for my fury.
He can kill me if he likes. I do not care what happens to me. Everything good has been taken from me time and time again. Every time I tried to step out, to be something other than what fate or some man determined for me, it has been ruined.
I am furious with Dom, with Alexei, with Elena, with Vlad, and with myself. We are all acting on terrible impulses, and though my action now is no different, I imagine it will satisfy my fury somehow.
“Feral thing,” Dom notes, not so much as a quaver in his voice. He looks down at me, and I feel his will once more inside me. He wants to direct me, to control me. He wants to make me his…
I lean back on my haunches, and I go for his throat.
Alexei
I’ve never seen a wolf try to eat an ancient vampire alive before. The sight of Anya locked onto the vampire’s throat as the creature attempts to dislodge her without actually killing her is somewhat comical—or would be if it were not for the fact that my mate’s life is yet again in danger.
I am not sure if there will ever be a time Anya is soft, quiet, and safe. She is too fierce, too bold, too entirely full of life and lupine vigor.
“Stop it, you absolute miscreant!” Dom curses and manages to pin her on the ground, her wolf form heaving with rage.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult not to kill the pair of you,” he snarls, looking up at me under his brows. “It is as if you both court death, and would make a better pair of vampires than you do wolves.”
“A wolf cannot be a vampire,” I say. It is not much of a response, but the passage still contains the remains of my family. Elena and Vlad are gone together, strewn about like detritus. There is no dignity in death. And he is right, he could kill the pair of us in a flash if he wanted to. He is holding back because his twisted agenda forbids it.
I want Anya back, but if the vampire lets her go, she will likely try to tear his throat out again. She is not listening to either of us. I wish I was surprised, but she has always been wayward and willful, and frankly, wild. Her mother lived as a lone wolf much of her life. I think Anya could easily do the same.
“Are you sure?” Dom is busy holding Anya down as she thrashes and squirms, her animal body powerfully flailing, back claws raking at his body. “She just took a chunk of my flesh. She ingested my blood with it, you know, and she’s not sick as she should be. If anything, she’s stronger.”
“Wolves cannot metabolize vampire flesh.”
“She can. She has. Did you not wonder why I have taken an interest in her? The daughter of a servant who ran to America? Who then drew vampires to her, vampires who left her entirely alone when they came to kill her friends? Do you not remember that, Alexei? The incident that precipitated her arrival here in Russia?”
“What are you saying?”
“I am saying this girl has always had vampire in her. There’s always been more than a drop of the undead in this creature.”
I look at my mate, I look at the vampire, I breathe in the smell of blood and death, and I wonder if he is right. There has always been something unique about Anya, her inability to fall in line the way most mates would. I think Elena was trying to warn me, but she would never have dared to actually speak ill of my mate. Nobody could ever have said anything about her. I would not have heard it.
“What do you mean exactly?”
“I mean her father was a thrall. Not entirely a vampire, but he carried enough of the curse. He was one of mine. A cherished one, actually. His status inoculated her, in a way. Gave her just enough of the curse… it’s very interesting. If anyone were to study these things…”
“Elena studied these things,” I say. “But you killed her.”
“A pity. I could raise her again, if you like? I could raise both of them. Spare them eternal death?”
Suddenly, I understand the appeal of the vampire.
“But they are dead.”
“And so am I,” Dom smirks, scruffing Anya so tightly she whines, but stops fighting. “They are neither of them so dead they could not be rallied. I could return your brother, and I could take him, and your little scholar, and then we would be even more like a family. The uprising would stop.”
He is offering me a chance to undo the terrible things that have been done. He is offering a decision that would change everything forever. Elena and Vlad, restored to life. Their sacrifices rewarded with eternity.
I think Elena would like it. I think Vlad would hate it. And I know I will have this done, because their loss is too deep and too keen for me to bear.
“Do it,” I say. “And do it quickly, before I take the words back.”
“Then take your mate,” he says. “And contain her. I do not need a pup hanging off me as I make my new progeny.”
Anya has stopped being quite so fierce. I think she understands what is happening. I know she can hear it. The moment he started talking about her father she quietened a great deal. I am sure there will be much to discuss later. For now, I am glad she is shifted. Matters are simpler in the fur than they are in the human form.
“Come here, Anya,” I crook a finger at her, and she comes to me, crouching low, nearly belly-crawling. She knows she has been bad. She knows it, and yet she cannot help it. This is how she is.
Dom moves to do what should be unthinkable. I watch, holding onto Anya’s scruff and thinking how very terribly strange this day has turned out to be. I had no notion when I woke up this day that I would be watching my nearest and dearest suffering death.
I watch as he slashes his wrist with his fangs, dripping his blood into the open mouths of his victims. Nothing happens. I expected contortions, groans, some kind of immediate response, but they lie in their broken positions looking very much the same as they were before.
“When will it happen?”
“At the next moonrise,” he says. “And neither will be good company for some time. I will take them with me, in a transport you will ready for me. Am I understood?”
I bristle at being spoken to by him in such a way, but we cannot keep fighting. The vampire is family, just as he has claimed to be in one way or another all along. The war is over, and there have been losses on both sides. It is time to usher in peace, and suffer the pain that peace brings. We will have no more vengeance. The wounds inflicted will have to be endured and suffered and healed on our own. As for the evil he has been perpetrating on wolves, the experiments… we will have to enter into negotiations on that. Peace is not perfect. But sometimes, you take it, because it is the only way to keep what matters most.