Chapter 22 – Silas
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SILAS
Unbearable pain, red-hot boiling lava pumps through my veins. Every thought hurts, every flash of a memory causes an agonising surge of pain.
“I don’t know why you keep fighting it. If you relent, you’ll be changed in a matter of hours. If you keep fighting, it could take days; days of feeling this unbearable pain.” Morbius tuts, sitting beside me in his huge throne-like chair, sipping blood wine.
“I will never give up my memories,” I wheeze.
“You always were stubborn,” he sighs. “Oh yes.” He jumps up from his chair and crouches before me. I look up at him through my sweat-soaked hair. “I’ve invited your friends, your brothers,” he says, adding air-quoted fingers, “to come say goodbye to you.”
I smirk. “They will end you,” I hiss.
Morbius shakes his head. “See, I don’t think they will. They know we have a blood bond and a blood oath.” He grins. “If they kill me, there’s a high chance it will, in turn, kill you. And they love you so much,” he says in a mocking, whiny voice. “They won’t want to risk you. Especially Lilith.”
My gaze narrows as I glare at him. “She’s free. She won’t come back here,” I growl, my teeth gritted together, trying to fight off the pain.
“Oh, but she will. She may be angry—really pissed and upset—but she isn’t the type of vampire to wish others dead, no matter how much hurt they’ve caused her.
Look at me, for example; she’s been looking for me for years.
And I slit her throat,” he says, laughing at the last part.
“I literally killed her, and she still longed for me.” He laughs like she’s some joke.
I pull on the chains, trying to lunge for him.
He smirks, sitting down on the floor in front of me, just out of reach, crossing his legs and sipping his blood wine.
“I will kill you,” I snarl. The threat is a promise.
One way or another, I will find a way to destroy him, to erase him from existence.
Morbius rolls his eyes. “You can’t remember. We are bound by blood. Plus, that isn’t very brotherly of you.” He shakes his head.
“You wouldn’t know what it means to be a brother,” I spit, squeezing my eyes shut as the pain lashes through every part of me.
“Me?” He laughs in disbelief. “Me?” he repeats. “That, dear brother, is rich coming from you; the brother who turned his back on me. Enrolling me in the Dominion, like I was some out-of-control teenager you needed to send to boot camp,” he says, his words dripping with acid.
“I did what I thought was right. You were going to get yourself or someone else killed. You were reckless and driven by a desire for power. You were hungry for it. You still are,” I grit.
“I don’t care about anyone else,” he snaps back. “You care about everyone else apart from me. It was always about everyone else. I wanted power—I still do—but I wanted my brother by my side. I still do.”
I blink and look at him, his violet eyes burning with emotion. “You didn’t need to do this to get me to stand by your side.” I pause, pain slicing through me. I wait for it to ease. “You are my brother. I would have fought with you, by your side,” I tell him truthfully.
He swallows, his eyes boring into mine. “You lie. You have too much of a conscience. You don’t have what it takes.” He smirks. “Big bad vampire on the outside, soft and pathetic on the inside,” he sneers.
I force my lips to curve in a smile. “That right there is why we could never be brothers. You have evil coursing through your veins, a selfish darkness that you should fight. Instead, you embrace it because it’s who you are.
I know this now. For years, I made excuses for you and cleaned up your messes.
But I should have seen it then. I see it now.
There is no saving you from yourself. Death is the only way,” I grind out, my body trembling as it fights to hold on, fights to preserve me.
“If wanting a better life for myself is evil, then yes, I am evil. We had our mortal life stolen from us—ripped away—and we were given this life, this honor of living for eternity. We can have it all; we can rule and be feared. We should be worshipped. We are the gods of this world. Instead, we’re made to hide, to sneak around like we are rats.
Vermin,” he rages, his violet eyes darkening.
“Forever made to hide in the fucking shadows; no more. We live to rule!” he chants, insanity consuming him.
My heart breaks for the little brother who would always be by my side, the little brother who had so much good in him.
How? How could he turn out so bitter and twisted?
“Do you remember when we stole the bread from the market?” I wheeze, wincing, agony dragging such an old memory to the surface.
Morbius’s eyes squint as if trying to remember. “Mr. Elderton. Chased us all the way home.” I smile a pained smile. “Mother was so furious with us, she made us muck out the pigs for a week.” I cough a laugh.
“He tried to hit us. Mother threatened him with her cleaver,” Morbius grins.
“She did.” I nod. “She gave him a gallon of milk as compensation. And when Father returned from harvesting the crops…” I pause, swallowing through the agony. “He beat my ass. It hurt to sit down for a week,” I scoff.
“He beat you?” Morbius asks, frowning.
I give him a small nod. “You were only seven; I was eleven. I took full responsibility for anything. I didn’t want you feeling the wrath of Father.” I squeeze my eyes shut as every muscle spasms within me. “Fuck,” I hiss.
“Why don’t I remember this?” Morbius asks, his brow furrowed. If it weren’t for his violet eyes, he’d look every bit like my younger brother from our mortal life; innocent, sweet-natured, loving.
“He used to take me out to the barn,” I tell him. “Mother would always have the tub filled with warm water for me afterwards and would plead with me to behave. I never did.” I smirk.
Morbius looks down at the ground, lost in thought.
He blinks, and it’s as if someone has flicked a switch.
He gets to his feet and dusts himself off.
“I must prepare for our guests. I’m sure they’ll be barreling through those doors any moment.
” He grins, turning on his heel. He claps his hands.
Three vessels come scurrying out. “We have guests arriving shortly. Prepare the banquet table,” he orders.
They don’t speak, scurrying off. As if a bolt of lightning had struck my spine, a jolt of excruciating pain ruptures through me. I arch my back, a feral scream tearing from my lungs. “Ah, not too long now, brother. Not long at all,” Morbius cheers as he leaves the room.
I watch him go. Once, my brother, and now I no longer recognised the monster he has become.