Chapter 15
Fifteen
Nero
I’d been right. There were camps all along the border. I was beginning to believe the prime knew exactly what he was doing when he sent me on this mission.
I’d been fighting all day. As I thought, there were others camping close by, and they’d come for me.
Now I was covered in my enemy’s blood and surrounded by bodies. The old royal house needed to be cleared out to ensure peace prevailed, but the new king could have sent his own warriors to do this.
Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t my fight. I shouldn’t even be here. Was the prime trying to reignite a war? Or had he used this mission as a distraction to keep me occupied? To get me out of the way?
Surely he wouldn’t go after Mina. Surely he wasn’t so arrogant and stupid that he believed he was above our laws, that I’d let him get away with harming her in any way.
“Fuck.”
I’d underestimated him.
That’s exactly what he was planning.
He’d decided to go after Mina. He’d known about her before we’d even walked into his office. This had always been the plan. Of course, it had. I spun and ran at top speed through the forest toward the city. How could I have been so blind?
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I quickly pulled it out.
Wet coughing echoed down the line before I could say anything.
I slowed. “Pretender?”
“M-Mina.”
“Where is she?” I already knew, though, didn’t I?
“P-Prime… He came for her.”
With a snarl, I shoved my phone back in my pocket, ducked my head, and exploded through the trees. The prime had made his move in an attempt to control me. He’d taken my female.
He truly thought his position as prime would protect him. That he could commit the most heinous crime one vampire could commit against another, and that our ancient laws wouldn’t apply to him. He was so very fucking wrong.
His position would not protect him, not now. Not from me. He would die for this, they all would.
How quickly that death was depended on the condition my Lalka was in when I finally got to her.
Mina
“You’re still a virgin,” the prime said and licked his thin lips. “I can’t wait to taste you.”
I stood in a grand room, a formal living room, full of priceless antiques, art, and furniture that looked pretty but no doubt felt like a bed of nails to sit on, and stared at the terrifying male, swallowing down the acid curdling in my stomach. How could he know that?
“I can smell it, Mina,” he said as if he’d read my mind. “A female’s scent is different once she’s been claimed by her mate. His scent blends with hers. Once he’s been inside her, he seeps from her pores.” He licked his lips again. “Nothing tastes quite as good as virgin blood.”
A shudder went through me, and I curled my fingers into tight fists, my nails digging into flesh. “What are you going to do?”
“Oh, that will be a surprise, lovely Mina. Now you’ll go with Gretchen here, and she will prepare you for this evening’s festivities.” His red, glistening tongue slid along one pointed fang. “It will be a night none of us will ever forget.”
I turned to the female, Gretchen, when she lightly took my elbow. She looked pale, her gaze downcast. She couldn’t even look me in the eyes. She was just as terrified of the prime as I was.
As soon as she led me from the room, I grabbed her arm. “Please, you have to help me.”
Her eyes shot up to me, and she shook her head, tilting her head toward the room we’d just walked out of. The prime was old and incredibly strong, and going by the fear in Gretchen’s eyes, might still be able to hear us.
I shut my mouth and let her direct me down a wide hall, around a corner, then turning into another.
“Will you help me, please?” I said when I thought we were far enough away.
Her eyes met mine again, and they were filled with regret, and fear. “I’m sorry. He’ll kill me if I even try.”
Whatever this was, letting me go would put her in serious danger, would mean punishment or worse.
My mouth went dry, fear prickling over my skin like tiny pointed needles. “What is he going to do to me?”
She stopped by a door and quickly let us in. It was a large bedroom, as opulent as the rest of the house. I hated it. Gretchen started toward the open door on the other side of the room, and I grabbed her arm, stopping her again.
“Please. Tell me?”
Her gaze darted to the closed bedroom door, then back. “Tonight, the first night, y-you will be presented to the…the elders.”
“What will happen? Why am I being presented to the elders?”
She shook her head. “I’m not permitted to say, Mina. I’m so sorry. You will survive this. I promise. You will get through this.”
“They did this…whatever this is, to you, didn’t they?”
Her spine stiffened, and she looked away. “Come, we need to prepare you.”
“I won’t do it. I won’t go.”
She turned back to me then, and there was pity in her eyes. “They won’t give you a choice.”
This was the prime, the elders, they were all powerful. No one could help me. No one could stop this, not even Nero. The prime’s word was law.
Whatever was about to happen, I had to endure. If I wanted to go home to Nero, I just had to survive this.
I pulled my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them. The raw linen of my smock was rough against my cheek, just as it was against the rest of me. It smelled fresh, as if I could still smell the field the cotton came from. It hadn’t been washed or treated with any harsh chemicals. The soap and shampoo Gretchen had told me to use had been the same, no scent.
The only scents on my body were my own.
I curled my toes into the damask fabric under me, pushing deeper into the chair as my stomach clenched hard. Gretchen left me in this room after that, locking me in, and told me someone would come for me when it was time. That was several hours ago.
As much as I wanted to, there was no use lying to myself anymore. I knew what this all meant for me. The prime was going to feed from me.
Most vampires hated unnatural or strong chemical scents. It interfered with their enjoyment of feeding, filling their senses and distorting the flavor of the blood they were drinking. My father used to hate it when my mother wore any kind of perfume or used scented soap.
The prime had said himself he couldn’t wait to taste me, and it was happening tonight.
The lecherous, repulsive old creep was going to drink my blood. I bit down on my lip when a moan of horror tried to slip past my trembling lips. My blood wasn’t his to drink, it was Nero’s. Only Nero’s.
You have to do this. There’s no getting out of it.
I wanted to run, to escape this place, to find Nero and hide—but there was no escaping the prime.
Besides, this place was swarming with guards and security cameras. I’d seen the cameras in the halls and several guards out the window. I wouldn’t get far even if I did somehow manage to get out of this room.
A loud knock had me jolting in the chair. The door opened and a large male walked in. I jumped to my feet and backed up until I hit the wall behind me. The male strode forward with a smirk, then grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”
He dragged me from the room, marching me down the halls, turning one corner after another. This place was huge and cold and soulless. For the first time since Nero took me to his home, I longed for my little pink room. I wanted to be there with him more than anything.
I screamed his name in my mind, as if I could somehow reach him that way, as if he might hear me and come for me. But that wasn’t how this worked, and even if I could reach him through our bond, I doubted it would even work because we weren’t mated yet.
My escort stopped in front of a door, shoved it open, and dragged me into a large, dim, candlelit room. The glow from the candles should have made it feel warm, but it didn’t. It was cold and frigid and as devoid of a soul as the rest of this place.
A large, mahogany dining table stood in the center of the room, and my escort dragged me to it. He grabbed me unceremoniously and lifted me off my feet. I shrieked and fought as he laid me on the tabletop. Gretchen appeared at his side and tied my wrist down while he held me immobile. They moved around the table quickly, until my wrists and ankles were pinned down.
Gretchen didn’t meet my eyes as she lit several more candles around the room, then quickly left, leaving me alone and utterly helpless, stretched out on the table like a side of roasted beef.
I was breathing hard and fast, my head spinning from the blood pumping forcefully through my veins. My throat was impossibly dry, too dry to scream, and sweat prickled over my skin.
The sound of footsteps came from beyond the door, not just one set, several. A moment later the door opened again and the prime walked in, followed by the other four elders. One by one their cold, hungry eyes sliced to me. My stomach lurched as ice-cold terror slid through me. My blood froze in my veins and my world spun as if my very soul had tried to lurch from my body in a desperate bid to escape this horror. But that wasn’t possible. I was stuck here. There was no escape for me.
I tugged at my binds as the elders closed in and positioned themselves around the table, one at each foot, and the other two at my wrists. The prime strode to the head of the table, standing so close to me that his stomach brushed the top of my head.
“It has been a long time, brothers, since we have received such a gift. The position of prime, of esteemed elders, has stood long before our laws were created. These positions of power have existed since our creation, and since that time, virgin blood was offered for our nourishment, as our right as the most exalted members of our race. And as such, we are not beholden or tied by laws. We are above them. And tonight we take the blood of this female as is our due. We thank our loyal servant, Nero, for this offering, for gifting us such a sweet virgin to feast upon this night.”
The others made approving sounds, their sharp, hungry eyes moving over me.
Nero didn’t gift me to these monsters. These males were so used to getting what they wanted, without repercussions, that they just assumed Nero wouldn’t make a fuss, that he might be angry but he’d accept that they’d abducted his bonded and tortured her this way, or at least, that he had no way to stop them, to stop this. They truly believed they could control him.
The prime slid one of his long, sharp fingernails down my throat to the top of my smock, then sliced through the fabric. As soon as he made the first cut in the linen, the other four grabbed at it, shredding it with their nails, tearing it from me and exposing my body, as if they were skinning fresh meat to be devoured.
“Please, no…don’t—”
The prime grabbed my jaw. “You do not speak,” he hissed, giving my head a rough shake before his gaze lifted. “Brothers, feast.”
The ancient males all lurched forward, one by one, latching on to me with their long yellowed fangs, sinking them deep into my flesh. Pain lashed through me instantly, so horrific that no sound left me when I opened my mouth to scream. My body bowed on the table, suspended, locked in agony. The prime jerked my head to the side, and he sunk his fangs into my throat.
A scream burst from me then, forced from deep inside me, raw and guttural, like a tortured animal.
They chose to make me scream in agony rather than pleasure. When a vampire fed, it was their choice, and every male at this table had chosen pain.
But as excruciating as this was, I was glad of it. Being forced to feel pleasure during this would have been far more horrific. I would rather this feeling of being torn apart than the alternative.
My stomach heaved, and I lost control of my body, vomiting on the table as my bladder released, both pooling beneath me.
The five ancient vampires seemed to get even more excited by it, their fangs tearing from my flesh only to sink in again, deep into my thighs, my waist, my breasts.
The warmth seeped from my limbs, and they grew heavy, pins and needles starting at the tips of my fingers and toes. Swirling darkness creeped in from the corners of my eyes as I struggled to keep them open.
Let go. Stop fighting it.
The sooner I let the darkness take me, the sooner this would be over.