Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
The Queen stood towering and imposing. A long, red silk dress with an opening at her upper thigh covered her muscular frame. Golden threads embellished the front and sides of the dress. Her blood-red lips curled in a cruel smile, revealing sharp, deadly fangs not fully extended.
Her crimson hair flowed over her shoulders like a river of blood. Tiny golden clips kept a few strands on the front away from her face, and her eyes looked like emeralds aimed at Torin.
She moved toward him with a grace akin to a predator, reminding me of how he used to stalk me as his prey. Her beauty was hypnotic, which drew her prey in before ensnaring him in her grasp.
Her presence sent shivers down my spine as she approached him. Victoria commanded attention and struck fear in everyone.
But it wasn’t fear I felt for the cunning vampire woman.
Only hatred for what she’d done to Torin and her other victims consumed me.
I hated her for sentencing him to a life of constant search for sustenance and the meaning of what he had become, and for sending him to kill my uncle.
Torin had never embraced his newfound immortality.
Not like the vampire Queen, who reveled in it.
The way she watched Torin with the obsession of a madwoman made my pulse race erratically.
Although I understood the vampire Queen desired love and companionship like the rest of us, her yearning drove her to desperate measures, as she sought to bind Torin to her forever, even if it meant sacrificing his humanity.
But she hadn’t given Torin a choice in the matter.
From the stories Dad told me about the vampire Queen, a long time ago, when she caught the vampire King’s attention, she was torn between salvation and destruction.
He turned the human woman into a vampire, only to abandon her later.
And that changed her to seek power and love, intertwining passion and danger.
But somewhere in the process, the woman turned obsessive and toxic.
After committing the biggest crime in the supernatural world, the vampire Queen had given in to the darkness and was as far away from redemption as the distance between the sun and the moon.
I wasn’t sure if I could forgive Torin, but I was sure I could never forgive the vampire Queen.
The vampire woman walked around with her crown on her head.
A snarky remark pushed at my lips, but I pressed them tightly together in a line.
Like my mom and dad’s crowns, the vampire Queen’s seemed to be made of platinum, a captivating piece that symbolized her power, elegance, and eternal reign.
Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, it exuded an aura of darkness and eternal beauty.
Her crown had delicate vines with thorns, reminding me of images of Gothic architecture I had seen in books.
Embedded with crimson rubies, it symbolized the Queen’s insatiable thirst for blood and her dominance over her vampire subjects.
The spiky vines wrapped around the gems and added a touch of danger and fierce power to the design.
I lowered my gaze to the holster of her sword around her waist. The same silver sword that left Dad’s shoulder forever damaged and scarred Torin’s chest. The sword was slender and had an elongated blade.
Black leather wrapped the hilt, and the cross-guard was fashioned into elegant, sweeping curves.
Behind the woman, about fifteen vampire guards dressed in black suits and ties stood alert. Her gaze aimed at Torin as if there was nothing else in the world that mattered to her. Torin glared at the vampire Queen.
There was no way out of here but to fight. I was the only one she couldn’t compel, but no one else was safe from her vampire powers.
“Come to me, Torin,” she said in a musical voice that made me gag.
She could make Torin do anything.
His body jerked, and he took a defensive stance, ready to fight. Her thin eyebrows rose, and her porcelain face clearly displayed her displeasure.
“You can’t fight your master.”
“But I can try,” Torin said, and without disconnecting his scowl from the Queen, he added, “Hayden, take Anna away.”
No. Torin needed me and Hayden. We could figure out everything else after we defeated Victoria by some miracle.
The vampire Queen finally moved her gaze away from Torin and shifted it to me. I held her intense gaze, not letting my anxiety show.
“I have a different plan for her,” she said.
Torin clenched his fists. He planned to fight his sire, believing he could not escape her clutches. She regarded him for a moment and ordered her vampire guards to stand down.
Still in his human form, Torin sprinted toward the woman.
He didn’t attempt to shift into his wolf.
Did Torin think he could fight against the Queen’s sword better in his human form?
He did not call on his vampire for extra strength because he would otherwise be even more susceptible to the Queen’s compulsion.
As Torin closed the distance, now only a foot away from Victoria, Hayden tossed him a silver dagger.
Torin caught it in the air and struck toward the Queen at the same time.
He swung toward her throat, but she was so fast that she lifted her sword and blocked his attack.
His dagger hit the sword blade with a clank.
“You’re attacking me after everything I did for you, Alpha?”
“You only hurt me. You turned me into a monster.”
Torin swung again toward her heart this time. After she blocked with her sword again, the woman made a tsking sound with her tongue and shook her head.
“I made you stronger, one of a kind,” she said.
Her eyebrows furrowed in a deep wrinkle, and anger flashed behind her crimson eyes.
She jumped back, looked Torin straight in the eye, and shouted, “Stop.”
That was all it took for Torin’s body to freeze, holding the silver dagger in midair. It was as if a sudden chill seeped into his body, causing him to tremble. Every muscle tensed.
“You will obey me, Alpha,” she said. Then she looked at me, and I knew what was coming next. “Now kill Princess Breanna.”
I swallowed the sudden dryness in my mouth and carefully watched Torin’s every move. At first, Torin only stared at me. A flash of hesitation crossed his expression. Then his gaze lingered on the dagger in his hand, his weapon ready to strike me, but he didn’t want to hurt his own mate, right?
But then, his expression hardened, and I knew Torin was tempted to kill his mate for a second time. The first was when Layla and Mark cut my palm, taunting Torin to drink me dry, but even then, he resisted.
Now, under the control of his cruel master’s compulsion, his humanity would be lost. This time, there would be no going back from the darkness threatening to consume us both.
Torin’s body shook, and he made himself drop the dagger. His hands clenched and unclenched. He fought himself, but then his transformation began. His silver hair appeared, and his eyes stayed permanently crimson.
“Run,” he yelled at me.
“There’s nowhere to go,” I said.
My bodyguard glued himself to my side.
The Queen nodded toward Hayden—her signal for several vampire guards to sprint toward him. He put distance between us, bringing the fight away from me.
“Kill him,” Victoria ordered.
With my bodyguard now distracted, I faced my fated mate alone.
Torin’s vampire looked murderous. And I realized that the strength of our mate bond was not enough to allow him to withstand the compulsion of his sire.
Torin believed the only way to break away from Victoria and keep me safe was to kill the vampire Queen. He was so sure he could do it. And yet he walked toward me now with determination in his crimson gaze to kill his fated mate.
After all, it was in the nature of vampires to relish murder.
And I was looking at a monster now. Not my destined mate. Torin said he loved me, but it wasn’t enough not stop him from killing me. My heart twisted as he stepped closer.
I willed my bracelet to extend into a golden whip shimmering with fire. Scorching flames appeared and encircled it. When I cracked it over my head and toward Torin as a warning to stay back, he reached out and snatched it, unharmed.
My weapon’s magic couldn’t hurt my mates. He let the whip fall to the ground, and the rope recoiled to my wrist as if it had surrendered.
I was at his mercy. He now stood in front of me, and I was no match for the vampire Alpha. With no spells to cast and a stolen wolf spirit, I could only endure for as long as possible.
Torin reached out and grabbed me by the throat precisely in the same way he did to Uncle Derek. Next, he would rip my throat, and then when the compulsion faded, Torin would regret it and break even more.
His fingers squeezed around my neck. But then he blinked, and a sudden surge of recognition sparked within Torin as our gazes locked. I saw a flicker of familiarity, a sliver of his humanity surfacing.
He placed his other hand on the one holding my neck as if trying to make himself release me. He bowed his head and groaned as if he were in pain. And when Torin lifted his gaze in that fleeting moment, we forged a connection. My heart skipped a beat.
I was the very person Torin was meant to protect and cherish. But with a snap of his fingers, he could take my life away.
Perhaps he wasn’t too far gone. I decided to reach for his soul and bring him back. Maybe there was still a glimpse of hope that my love and our bond could withstand the vampire Queen’s power over him.
“Please,” I pleaded, my voice cracking, “Torin, come back to me. I won’t fight you.”
I hoped the Queen’s compulsion would weaken with each word, but Torin’s eyes didn’t regain clarity. A moment of recognition flashed across his face, and his hand around my throat shook. But then Torin’s grasp tightened, and his fangs protruded.
He would go through with it. He would bite out my throat like he did Uncle Derek’s.
My own mate would kill me. That was why he kept away from me all this time.
Why my father disapproved of him as my mate.
Not so much because he was a vampire, thirsting for my blood. But because he had a vicious master.
Torin’s love for me was not enough to keep me alive and withstand the vampire Queen’s compulsion.
The realization hurt like a thunderbolt, shattering my resolve to fight or talk him out of it.
Torin hurt me, physically and emotionally, as he squeezed my throat and growled.
I could deal with the bruises, but not with a missing piece of my throat.
But then his hand shifted into his wolf claw covered in silver fur, like his wolf was trying to help break the compulsion. His wolf wanted his fated mate alive, but the vampire was brainwashed to kill her.
Torin’s scrunched-up face revealed the internal struggle within him.
At last, Torin tossed me a few feet away from him. I fell on the ground, my butt and back hitting it first. With the whiplash motion, my head also hit the cold hard ground, and I lost my vision for a moment. Everything went dark, although I could still hear the low growls around me.
I regained my sight, but my vision was still a little blurry. I wanted to get up.
“Breanna,” Hayden shouted and dashed toward me, probably after he saw me lose consciousness.
Hayden helped me stand up.
Torin’s eyes flashed amber for a few seconds. He seemed close to breaking through the compulsion. What was he going to do now?
He gave me one look full of regret and abruptly sprinted away. He was trying to remove himself as a threat to me since he must not have felt strong enough to stop the compulsion completely. Torin was gone, and there was no coming back.
If he were to come back, nothing but death and pain waited for Torin. Depending on who got their hands first on my mate, the King would kill him as a punishment, or the vampire Queen would torture him as part of her pleasure games.
“This man never listens,” Victoria said and scowled in the direction of my mate’s disappearing figure.
She called for five vampire guards to accompany her on her chase after Torin, but another ten surrounded me and Hayden, closing in, their movements eerily synchronized.
Even Hayden hadn’t confronted such a large group of vampires at once. My vision was still hazy, and my head pounded from the blow it had taken.
“Activate your bracelet, sweetheart,” he whispered to me.
My hand flew to the golden bracelet wrapped around my forearm. Wishing it to extend, I gripped my jewelry tight, feeling it transform in my palm into a deadly weapon.
Hayden’s charming smile, reserved only for me, finally returned.
“Good girl,” he said and looked at me, his eyes radiating confidence and determination.
I blinked repeatedly. “Why are you so calm?”
“With you by my side, I could do anything,” Hayden said in a soft voice that did something to my insides.
However comforting his words were, reality loomed over us like a storm cloud ready to burst. I didn’t share Hayden’s optimism. Our prospects didn’t look so good.
With so many vampires blocking us, there seemed to be no way out.