28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Damyr
T he ruins of Morley Hall sat proudly on a hill. Still looking serene despite the dilapidated state that the roof was in. My heart clenched as I thought of the summer I’d spent walking the gardens here with Edwin by my side. Looking back on it now, I knew that what I had felt for Edwin was a mere puppy love compared to absolute obsession I felt for Benjamin. I’d been infatuated at a time when my life had lacked any kind of direction, and I’d clung to Edwin like a life raft.
Aleksey and Byron were waiting by a blacked out SUV at the bottom of the driveway with someone I assumed was Bishop, Byron’s twin. He looked exactly like Byron, albeit with longer hair and lots of tattoos. All three of them were dressed in full black combat gear looking lethal as fuck.
“I don’t know what’s waiting for us in there. Silas has either got an army of people or he’s on his own.” I hoped he was psychotic enough to believe that he could do this on his own, but just in case he thought putting an expendable army in my way was his idea of fun, I’d brought back up.
Byron cocked his gun and eyeballed his twin. “I don’t want you going in there.”
“Fuck you, Byron,” Bishop said with a laugh. “I’m going wherever I want.”
Byron scowled. “Nope. Not happening.”
Bishop checked his own gun, a smile splitting his face. It was odd seeing Byron seemingly out of his element. He was usually so put together, but he seemed to be hovering around his twin like a little mother hen.
“At least wear a bullet proof vest,” Byron chided.
“You’re not wearing one,” Bishop said flatly.
“Perhaps you should,” Aleksey said with a snort. “Might stop you getting shot.”
I had no clue what was happening here, but I was grateful Byron came back. “Thank you, for coming back.”
Byron scowled. “It’s not me you should be thanking. Bishop persuaded me to come and he’s here because I haven’t finished with him yet.”
I held my hand out to Bishop. “Then thank you. You’re more than welcome to stay, as long as you like.”
“Thanks,” he replied, shaking my hand. “Maybe it’s time to stop running.”
Byron barked a laugh. “Like there was ever any chance of you running from me.”
I turned to Aleksey and found him watching the twins with a confused expression knitting his blonde brows. I knew the feeling. Their dynamic was unusual. “Where are Acheron and Wilder?”
“Imminent,” Aleksey replied, not taking his eyes off Byron and Bishop.
There was the sound of a twig snapping and we all turned, guns aimed and ready to shoot.
“Jeez, you guys are on edge,” Wilder drawled as he stepped closer.
Acheron swatted him in the chest. “Have some tact. We’re on a fucking rescue mission.”
“And hopefully a murdering spree,” Byron said gleefully.
Wilder scoffed in disgust at Byron’s words but paused when his eyes clocked Bishop. A tell-tale flush crept up his skin as he stared at him.
Fuck, I didn’t have time for this. “I’m going in. Aleksey, you’re in charge. Take the team around the perimeter. Take out anyone you see.”
“What about you?” Aleksey asked as he tied his long hair up in a messy bun.
“I’m going through the front door.” I had to believe that Silas wanted me alive. He wanted to play a game, that meant, he wanted me walking through the front door.
Aleksey gave me a final nod and disappeared into the shadows with the others.
I walked up to the front door, my heart trying to escape up my throat. It was taking all my restraint to keep my pace leisurely. To walk like I had all the time in the world when really, I wanted to fly through the house and slaughter the ghost from my past.
I wasn’t surprised to find the door unlocked. It was barely hanging onto the door frame, but I kicked it in all the same. I could hear the faint thud of Benjamin’s heart echoing from somewhere deep in the house. It was louder than the others but that was only because it was familiar. As I listened, I counted at least twenty other human hearts. Silas was a fool. Those men would be dead in seconds. I was almost disappointed he hadn’t given my men something more worthy of their talents.
Floorboards creaked beneath my feet as I climbed the staircase, following the sound of Benajmin’s heart. It was beating fast, a rapid rhythm that had panic flaring in my chest. Vlad’s was steady and slow, but he was always calm under pressure.
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” I called into the darkness.
“Always so impatient, Damyr,” Silas taunted, his voice as soft as I remembered, and I wondered how much of the quiet, shy boy remained. “Why don’t you come and find me?”
I knew I was walking into a trap. Knew that his plan was for me to lose everything so, as I stepped deeper into the dust filled depths of Morley Hall, I asked myself, what choice did I really have?
The door to Edwin’s old chamber was propped open.
Yep. Definitely all the hallmarks of a trap.
I pushed the door open and struggled to wrap my head around what I was seeing. Two glass coffins lay side by, both positioned on long tables to keep them off the ground. I wasn’t expecting any of this. Benjamin was in the left one, Vlad in the right. Both were bound with black gags over their mouths, and their hands tied to their chests. They looked peaceful but that was probably because there was no room for them to kick and scream.
My heart lurched as I continued to listen to Benjamin’s heart. It raced, panic and fear speeding it up. I never thought I’d ever be so affected by a human, but there I was, staring at him and deciding what was the quickest way to get him out just so I could hold him and never let go of him ever again.
His eyes met mine for a brief moment and a surge of anger ripped through me as I saw the injuries on his face. My beautiful Benjamin, what had he done to you?
“Hello again, Damyr,” Silas said as he stepped out of the shadows at the other end of the room. I was struck by how similar he looked. He still had his boyish features and white blonde hair, but his eyes were different. When he was alive, they’d been the palest blue. Now, they were a bright ruby red. He’d been sired by a Master Vampire. Fuck. That meant he was more powerful than I could probably imagine.
Madness stared back at me from the shadows. Madness and manic glee.
“Silas. It’s been a while.”
He laughed, but there was a harshness to it. “Let’s get started, shall we? Some of us don’t have a lot of time.” He tapped his nails on the glass coffins.
The sound of gunshots filtered through from somewhere deep in the house.
“I see your friends have found the welcoming committee.” Silas walked closer, his red lips pulled back in an evil smile.
“You didn’t think I’d come alone, did you?”
“Of course not. I’d have been disappointed if you spoiled all my fun.”
From what I could tell, Silas wasn’t armed. His charcoal grey shirt and black slacks didn’t exactly leave a lot of room for hiding weapons.
“I’m not armed,” he said, confirming my thoughts. He tucked his hands in his pockets, looking far too at ease for someone who had kidnapped two people and caused havoc.
“Cut to the chase, Silas,” I managed to get out through gritted teeth. “What’s the catch?”
His grin widened. “Catch? There is no catch. I meant what I said, Damyr. You can choose one. Both of them are lying down on a pressure sensor. You move one, the other person in the other coffin gets stabbed with something lethal. For Vlad, there is a solution of tiny silver particles in a syringe poised just beneath his back that will shoot through his ribs and directly into his heart. For Benjamin here, same thing but a syringe filled with potassium chloride. Basically, a lethal injection but without the sedative. You’ve got ten minutes to choose, or they both die.”
I pulled out my gun and aimed it at him. “I could just shoot you.”
Silas pouted. “You could, but then you’re running the risk of losing both. Save one, and I’ll release the other. Kill me, and you’ll lose them both. Tick tock, Damyr.”
I looked at both the cases, trying to find a weakness in them but there was nothing I could obviously see. I fired a bullet at the one with Vlad in but only a web of fractures appeared in the surface. I should have guessed that the glass would be bullet proof, but it was worth a shot.
“Tut tut. Do you really think I’m that stupid? Come on now, you’re running out of time.”
Vlad looked at me through the side of his coffin, his eyes conveying more than words could ever say. He already knew my choice and he was okay with that. He knew it long before Silas had put him in the box.
He nodded and closed his eyes. Ready to surrender to death.
I rushed forward, ignoring the way Benjamin’s eyes widened. There was a small black rectangular pad at the base of the coffin. I’d missed it when I first looked at the coffins, too distracted by trying to save Benjamin.
“So predictable, Damyr,” Silas drawled as he pressed his thumb against into the pad. As soon as the lid opened, I ripped the gag from Benjamin’s mouth.
“It’s a trap,” he shouted as I unfastened the ropes around his wrist and chest. He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. I lifted him up and out of the coffin, releasing the mechanism in Vlad’s coffin. A sinking feeling had the pit of my stomach dropping like lead. Vlad cried out in pain and I couldn’t look. I was too much of a coward to see what my decision to save Benjamin had cost me.
I turned to the door and found Silas blocking the exit with his gun pointed at us.
“It was never about us,” Benjamin said as his clung to my jacket. “It was always about you.”
“What?” I said, struggling to put the pieces together.
“Your little pet is right,” Silas spat, his anger making his hand tremble as he aimed the gun at us. “All these years I’ve waited for this. Did you really think I was ever going to let you go? Come on, Damyr! Think! I hate you for what you did, for what you stole from me. My family was murdered . I was an outcast, forced to beg for scraps on the side of the road until I managed to find the Hunters who had killed Edwin. I was lucky enough to find a vampire willing to make a deal and he tortured me for years as his plaything. He didn’t even see his death coming, the fool. Now, it’s your turn to suffer.”
The next few seconds happened in a blur. Silas pulled the trigger, intent on hitting me with a silver bullet. I prepared to fly towards him, to tackle him to the ground, knowing that I was probably going to get shot in the heart. But I didn’t care. I was taking him with me.
Except that didn’t happen.
The gun fired and, at the same time, I heard a sound that made my blood run cold.
One minute Benjamin was behind me, the next he was stood in front of me, his eyes wide with shock as he fell to the ground with a thud.
No!
Time froze. It couldn’t have been more than the smallest portion of a second, but it felt like a lifetime.
Feet pounded into the room but I couldn’t take my eyes off Benjamin. What had I done?
I surged towards Benjamin, not caring if Silas had the power to shoot me or not. Without Benjamin there was no point in living. He was my everything.
If he died…
He was breathing. Thank God. But there was so much blood. I pushed down on the wound in his chest, but the blood just kept seeping through my fingers.
I looked around in a panic. The others had made it into the room and were taking in the chaos in front of them. Silas had been forced to his knees as Bishop held a gun to his head. The bastard was still smiling as he watched me fall apart.
“Damyr,” Aleksey said as he knelt down beside me. “Turn him.”
I shook my head. He wasn’t sure what he wanted, I couldn’t take that choice away from him. “No. I can’t. We… I… We haven’t…”
Silas laughed bitterly. “Poor Damyr. Too afraid to turn your precious love?”
“Get him out of here!” Aleksey barked.
“Wait,” I said, my voice sounding distant. “His thumb opens the case.”
I heard the twins move Silas around the room and the soft hiss as they got into the coffin holding Vlad. I’d think about all that later, though. I needed to save Benjamin. I knew I had to turn him, knew it was the only way to save him, but I had hoped we’d do this differently.
“Benjamin,” I choked out. He was barely conscious. His eyes fluttered and they rolled back into his head. “Stay with me, just long enough.”
Just long enough for me to save you.
I slammed my fangs into the side of his neck and prayed I was doing the right thing.