Forty-Four
“Well, this is fucking depressing,”
Aleric says as he stares at the picture he’s holding in his hands. “I thought you said you could draw? I was really rooting for you to survive this round.”
The kid in front of him starts to cry as Vlad shows me down the stairs of his boss’ house. “Aleric,”
Vlad says.
He sighs as he crumbles up the drawing. “I’m kind of in the middle of cooking here, boo.”
“Dinner can wait.”
“It took me forty-five minutes to prepare this –”
“It. Can. Wait.”
He sighs even more exaggerated this time. “You’re lucky you’re my favourite kid,”
he says as he turns around to us. He tosses the crumbled pic over his shoulder. “Get back in your cage, Bella. I’ll need to think of a tiebreaker between you and Blue anyway.”
His eyes slide to mine. “You look like shit.”
He chuckles. “And not a healthy shit either but one of those you get after eating at Ta–”
“You wanted to know about Mother and Caden,”
I cut in, not in the fucking mood for any of his shit. My jaw clenches at that, but he doesn’t smirk at me like he normally would. His eyes are on his second as he sticks both of his hands in the pockets of his surfer shorts and rocks back on his heels.
“Am I killing him?”
he asks joyfully.
“No,”
Vlad says as I stop on the stairs, only a couple steps from the bottom. The hairs on my neck rise. I don’t know what I have just done to insult him, but if he’s this volatile, perhaps this isn’t the best time to strike a deal. I don’t have much control of my magic, and I can’t move fast enough to draw a knife before he’s on me. None of my brothers know where I am either; I snuck out of the house after they fell asleep so I could have this meeting in private.
I am completely alone in the lion’s den.
But Micha’s pain is eating at me even through the walls I keep erecting, so I can’t turn back now. Not when he could have the answers I need to save her.
“Pity.”
He inhales strongly, his smile one of ease. “You would’ve been a lovely meal. All that magic in your veins.” He walks towards me, and I stand still, unflinching.
“Tell me everything you know about blood bonds, and I’ll make sure Mother answers all your questions,” I say.
“If I wanted lies from her, I would’ve asked her.”
“What do you want then?”
I have already told him all I know, but he refuses to accept my answers. So if he wants something I cannot give, then I’ll have to revert to Plan B – figuring out a way to beat the information I want out of him.
Except, he’s a masochist as well as a sadist, and he cares about no one but himself. Torturing him will be damn near impossible, but I’ll figure out a way to break him. Even if I have to use Mother to do it.
There is not a single line I will not cross to save my wife.
“That cage Maddox made for the Shadow Domain,”
he casually says. “I want to go in it.”
“Fine.”
I don’t ask him why because I don’t give a shit. All I care about right now is the intel inside his head. I’ve used up too much of the blood bond; every time I pulse, the uncontrollable burst of magic destroys the wall I put up between me and Micha; in the time it takes me to rebuild, I can feel so much of her pain. Even now, it lingers in the back of my throat, a heavy weight in my chest, and I’m terrified I’ll use up just enough to not make it in time to save her. I need to figure out a way to extend it.
“While it’s in the Shadow Domain,”
he adds on. “Pull me out every few days, but I want to be in there for a year – unless I decide I’m done with it.”
My eyes narrow as curiosity starts to dig its claws in. I push it aside, however, staying focused on why I’m here. “Fine, but the book you read about blood bonds, I want it first.”
“It’s gone.”
“Bullshit.”
Knowledge is power, and barely anything is known about blood bonds. He’d be able to name his price to anyone who wants to look at it – just like he has with me. Over and over again, as long as it stays in his possession.
He holds up both hands and shakes them in exasperation. “Okay, yeah, you got me. It’s upstairs.”
He vanishes in the blink of an eye.
Vlad reaches for me, but I step back. “Why did he ask you if I was to die?”
His jaw tics. “He thought you saved Micha but not Rudy.”
My eyes narrow, but his hand is on me, and my thoughts are ripped away as we phase.
We land in a library with a tall ceiling, two floors high, but Aleric is nowhere to be found. The door opens before I can ask where he is, and he strolls in with a small leather book in his hand.
“This stays here,”
he says. I reach for it, but he pulls it back. “And you’re to tell no one about it. I’ll take a blood oath now.”
Paranoia burns a brand into my brain, urging me to give it thought – a blood oath cannot be broken without severe consequences. I pull a folding knife from my pocket, then lift up my shirt. Cutting the palm is only done on TV and for initiation rituals that symbolize the giving of the hand, of one’s service. Otherwise, it’s a dumb place to cut as the wound gets agitated all the fucking time.
I look down at the flat of my stomach. Normally, I would choose the top of my forearm, but I don’t want Khalid to know what I’ve done.
“With the gift of the gods,”
I say as I carve a V into my flesh, “I bind their blessing to my oath.” Breaking it means I won’t just be risking my life, I’ll be risking the wrath of the gods. “I’ll never mention the next book I touch to anyone other than the two vampires with me now.”
“Or take it from this room,”
Aleric adds.
“Or take it from this room.”
I add an S after the V, then wipe my blade across my thigh, fold it, and slip it back into my pocket. Still holding my shirt up with one hand, I use the other to gather up a bit of blood and draw a silence rune over my initials.
The magic of the oath pulses through me – hot and cold, life and death, a blessing and a curse. “It is done.”
Aleric tosses me the book, and I catch it. My eyes widen as my gaze flies back to his in a rage. “This is Caden’s Book of Shadows,”
I say through clenched teeth.
“Hence why you can’t fucking talk about it.”
He grins cheekily. “Sau will be pissed to know I have it.”
“You stole it.”
“What? No!”
He slaps both his hands over his cheeks and turns to Vlad. “How could you let me stoop so low! Letting me take the pups from the school to force them to compete to live another day is one thing, but stealing? Dude! You’re supposed to be my moral compass!” He turns to me as my jaw tics. One of these days, I’m going to kill him – once he stops being so fucking useful as an ally.
He smirks at me as he drops his hands. “What are you looking for anyway? I might be able to save you some time reading it.”
He’s fishing for information, wanting to see what else he can use against me. Ignoring him, I flip open my father’s grimoire. Feelings of loss and discomfort settle in my belly as I stare at his name, signed in thick black ink across the first page.
Caden Shadow
He wrote this after he married my mother – the Shadow last name is always the one taken.
And he didn’t abandon us because of me, because I failed to hit my ascension. Because he knew I wasn’t his but was the firstborn of another man... He left because of her.
The emotions inside of me swirl, a cesspool of memories rising up to complicate them even more. He used to always have time for us. It didn’t matter how many drawings or bugs we wanted to show him. Or at what hour we decided to wake him. He was always there – loving, laughing, and he never treated me any differently to his real sons.
Until he started to drink.
Until whatever Mother did to him cut too deep to bear; he isn’t innocent for his actions, but neither is she.
My stomach clenches, wondering about the secret she’s still keeping hidden. Is it in here? The reason father finally left? Was it merely the cost of creating the blood bond like she claims? Or was it something else? Something –
“Watch him while I go eat,”
Aleric says, and I push those thoughts aside. “If he tries to leave with it or make copies, come get me. I could use a good hunt. The kids run soooo slow.” He vanishes with a drawn-out sigh, but neither Vlad nor I pay him any mind.
I flip through the leather-bound book, searching for the information I need.
“How are we going to save him?”
Vlad demands, his voice tight, his thick arms crossed over his chest.
Not them. Him. The man he can’t help but care for.
I walk over to an armchair and collapse inside it, my head lowered to read. I skim the pages, flipping past spells and notes about magic and creatures of sacrifice, searching for something about blood bonds.
“I don’t know yet,”
I say honestly. We’ve gone through four teleporters so far, and they’ve all said the same thing. Eduardo’s safety spells aren’t difficult to break, but he’ll know as soon as we tamper with them. I need a witch who is stronger than he is, more clever, but Ryker, the Boss on the other side of the portal, refuses to kidnap anyone of status. It’s too risky, and there isn’t an amount I can pay or a threat I can make that will make it worth his while. He’d rather lose the portal entirely than draw the attention of the Elv’ve’Nor. Smuggling people to Earth and dealing in illegal human goods is only a fraction of his empire.
And I don’t have the resources or knowledge to slaughter his soldiers and hold off any reinforcements until I find a powerful teleporter myself.
All we can do is watch the teleportation circles so we can grab Antonio or Eduardo if they try to use them. Neither of them have been seen though; the witch must be leaving the boat to get food and supplies, but he’s using a circle we don’t fucking know about.
If we break into his network, we’d be able to track all of them eventually, but the risk of him having more than one network is too great. He could just destroy the one we have access to, and then we won’t have any way in at all.
So we’re forced to wait.
But I can’t wait any longer. He has my wife.
“But the book will help?”
Vlad demands.
“Not Rudy,”
I say softly. My chest tightens as I look up at him. “Khalid says they haven’t broken him yet.”
“What are they doing to him?”
His voice is tight, his control held only just. It’s the first time he’s asked, but I know he’s been slipping down the same edge I’ve been for a while.
“Attempting to breed him.”
“He’s gay.”
“They’re giving him Ricks.”
The male equivalent of a V.
Vlad turns from me so I can’t see the pain on his face, but I don’t need to when his soul screams just like mine. I look back down at the book in my hands, searching for any way to stave off the payment of the blood bond. She’s been gone for nine-and-a-half weeks. With how much I pulled on the magic to find her and how much of her emotions I have felt since… Khalid thinks we might only have four or five weeks left before it starts to kill her.
And so I read because I know in the pit of my soul that we will not save her before then.
We might not save her at all...