Blood & Binding
DAMIEN
Emptiness and dread consume me the second I lose my grip on Eloise’s fingers. As a shade, I usually find the darkness soothing, but the shadows I command are gone, magically stripped away to leave nothing but void. I fall and fall and fall. Until I land in a crouch, blinded by a ring of blazing light. My wings flare and my talons itch to tear through as many Gowdie witches as possible. How I’ll make them regret the day they chose to take me again.
Not happening. Not again.
“Welcome back to the Palace of Night Haven, Damien. It’s been too long.” The hair on the back of my neck stands at attention. I know that voice and she is no Gowdie witch.
“Valeska.” I spread my wings until the tips are singed by the bright circle containing me. I retract them with a hiss. That’s sunlight. Actual sunlight. We’re underground, in Night Haven, during the darkest hours of the day, but this is the real thing. I squint against the painful glare in order to see the vampire queen on the other side.
No wonder Valeska is carefully keeping her distance from the walls of my magical containment. Although sunlight weakens me, it can kill her. At least there is that. She can’t touch me without breaking the magic that binds me, and if she does break the spell, for any reason, for any length of time, my shadows will slaughter every being in this room, including her.
How could I have missed the trap she set? She is as ruthless as she is cunning, and she’s tasted my blood. Tore my flesh and left it dripping onto her marble floor. I should have foreseen this possibility.
Valeska’s bright red lips draw off her fangs. Not a smile. She bares her teeth to intimidate me, although a true smile from her would have the same chilling effect. If Valeska has conjured me here, she must know my secret. She must know I’ve been freed from the Gowdie curse. And if she knows that, then she knows my excuse for refusing her invitation to be her consort is no longer valid. I’m still a citizen of Night Haven which makes me her subject and fair game. Never mind that I have no interest in the position.
Valeska has never concerned herself with the wills of others.
“Damien.” A slight tip of her head conveys the greeting. “Allow me to introduce you to my new friends.” She gestures toward two humans to our right, twins. The exceptionally tall and narrow Korean men have spiky, golden-tipped hair and high-collared dusters embroidered with a sun sigil over the left breast. “This is Tae and Lang of the Kim family of witches. I’m sure you’ve already guessed that their family’s keyspell is sun wielding. I have to admit I hesitated to employ their services, considering our general distrust of each other as a species, but when Lazarus explained how you were originally captured by the Gowdies, I realized the beings who could bind you would also be the only ones strong enough to free you. The Kim family owed me a favor.”
The figure-hugging dress the queen wears is composed of silver panels that reflect the light of my cell as she circles me. It gives the illusion of armor. Or maybe it is armor. One can never overestimate her ambition. She could, even now, have her troops poised for battle, only waiting for word that she’s obtained me, her secret weapon. I long to break apart and flee her presence, but the light holds me.
A low growl percolates in my chest, and I search the boundary for vulnerabilities. The light keeps me from using my shadows, but if I can charge through the beams, I might be able to escape.
“Don’t try it,” she snaps. “I promise you the Kims will not allow you to leave this room without my permission.”
“And when will that be?” I grit out. I position myself at the exact center of the symbol where the light is only a mild irritation.
She stops, her nostrils flaring. A vampire’s sense of smell is unparalleled. There’s no doubt about what she’s picking up in this closed space. Eloise. We had sex not ten minutes ago. I am covered in her. I dig my talons into my palms as my protective instincts rage.
“Imagine my surprise when I engaged the Kims to break your Gowdie curse only for them to discover through their private network that the curse had already been broken!” Her eyes widen. “What luck. I’m sure it would’ve been only a matter of time before you shared the happy news with me. I’ve made known to you twice now, I am in need of a consort.”
“Let me out and we can discuss it.” One shadow is all I need.
She huffs. “Oh Damien, don’t take me for a fool. The stench of human sex is coming off you in waves, along with the unmistakable musk of bonding. You’ve already mated someone. It didn’t take you long to find a willing partner, although I am surprised you chose a human.” Her eyes shutter, her gaze hollowing, impossibly darker and even more soulless. “They are so incredibly breakable.”
Every part of me longs to knock Valeska’s head off her body. Mentioning the vulnerability of my mate is akin to a threat, and it takes all I have in me to suppress my murderous response. But I must suppress it. Valeska is deadly in her own right, but weakened by sunlight as I am, my only chance at freedom is to convince her to release me. That won’t happen if she knows I’d kill her the second I had the chance.
“Why have you brought me here, Valeska? What do you want from me?”
“You know what I want.”
“I won’t be your consort.” Even vampires have rules and limitations. Vampire tradition forbids taking a mate without their consent. As queen, Valeska could ignore that prohibition and would likely escape any reproach, but she can’t ignore that I am already mated. My biology will not allow me to mate another as long as Eloise is alive.
However, it’s exactly that limitation that alarms me most. The last thing I want is for Valeska to target Eloise. And so, I seek to distract her from the mating scent. “I’ll be returning to my home world as soon as I find a witch who can open the rift. I’m the wrong choice for you.”
“That would be counterproductive, Damien. You’re needed here. You see, I find your specific talents to be exactly what I’m looking for in a mate.”
Yeah, the ability to serve as her combination blood bag and watch dog makes me the ideal companion. Only problem is, I hate the bitch, and the idea of spending a single night in her bed, let alone hundreds, turns my stomach. I’d rather fall on my blade. “Not interested.”
“Maybe you just need the proper motivation. Who is it I smell on you? Who is this human woman you’ve mated?”
I say nothing. I’ll die before I offer a single thing about her.
“Who is she?” Her shrill voice echoes off stone.
I glare at her from my prison of light.
Our eyes lock and I don’t mask my hatred for her.
She releases a frustrated hiss. “Conjure the woman!” she commands the Kims.
Tae and Lang exchange worried glances. “If you have a vial of her blood, we can attempt it once we are rested,” Tae says.
“Of course I don’t have her blood. Use his. He must have drank from her.”
Lang swallows hard, then bows. “Your majesty, it isn’t possible. The light has made him mortal. If her blood remained in his system, its magical properties would have changed?—”
“Bring the scribe!” the queen commands before Lang even finishes.
I whirl at the sound of footsteps to find Lazarus being escorted into the room. My friend and confidant’s conformation is worse than normal, his skin ashen and papery as if he’s underfed. The guards thrust him forward, his oversized nocturnal eyes blinking against the bright light that surrounds me. “My Queen?”
“Is there a spell in that vast pile of books you keep that the Kims can use to conjure Damien’s mate? Something in the lost or forgotten magic section perhaps?”
Lazarus frowns, his bulbous eyes seeking mine out for a fraction of a second before he rushes forth an answer. “No, my queen. It is impossible without her blood.”
I wince. In all my years of friendship with the scribe, he’s never called something impossible. There’s always more research to do. Finding lost magic is his specialty.
Valeska’s scowl turns deadly. She knows he’s lying. “How can you be sure, scribe, unless you check every book?” She bares her fangs. “Guards, escort Lazarus back to the stacks and keep him there until he finds a way to be more… helpful.”
“Yes, my queen.” One of the guards bows, then takes Lazarus roughly by the arm and ushers him from the room.
Valeska redirects her rage-filled glare to me. “Who. Is. She? Tell me now and I will show you mercy.”
Mercy my ass. Eloise poses a problem for Valeska and she knows it. A vampire can’t mate another vampire who is already mated. The magic won’t take. A vessel can only hold so much and mine is filled. Even if Valeska could force me to consent to being her consort, she can’t complete the ceremony while Eloise is still alive, which means she can’t force me. She can’t control me. And I will never give her Eloise’s identity.
“Who is the woman?” she demands again.
“Come to me through the sunlight, Valeska, and I’ll whisper it in your ear,” I say through a wicked grin.
The vampire queen paces around me once more, her hands clasped at her waist. Her nails are sharpened to points and blood beads where they dig into the back of her hands.
“Tell me her name.”
“Free me, and I will.” Right before I slice your head from your neck.
Valeska laughs, and the sound is like shattering icicles. Frigid. Brittle. Heartless. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, Damien. You see, I may not be able to mate you or take you as my consort under the circumstances, but I am within my power to keep you as my political prisoner for as long as necessary.”
“Political prisoner?”
“Yes, you see, you’ve admitted to me that you come from a different world, a different kingdom. How do I know you haven’t been spying on Night Haven the entire time you’ve been living among my vampires, taking advantage of our hospitality?”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
She shakes her head. “One way or another, you’ll remain at my side. Give me your mate’s name and your living conditions will be far more comfortable.”
“I will never give up her name.”
She turns toward the Kims. “Please escort our guest to the cell we’ve prepared.”
Tae lowers himself into a crouch, and circles his forearms at the elbow, hands clutching invisible spheres. I’m temporarily blinded by a flash of light that stings my skin. Weakness and fatigue settle on me like a disease, and I stagger forward just as the symbol dissipates. Immediately, I attempt to escape through the network of shadows, but my power fizzles, and it doesn’t take long for me to understand why. My wrists are bound in cuffs of pure sunlight. My knees strain with the effort to remain standing.
Valeska flashes an evil grin. Unhindered now, she closes the space between us until her chest brushes my shoulder. I cringe as she brings her blood-red lips close to my ear and whispers, “In time, you’ll be begging to be my mate.”
My teeth grind, even as my bones ache where the light penetrates my skin. My voice holds every ounce of hatred I feel for her as I respond, “Don’t. Bet. On. It.”
Thankyou for reading A Bargain With The Shadow Prince, A Shadow’s Bargain, book 1. If you enjoyed this title, please leave a review wherever you buy books!
Damien is captured, but this time, he won’t accept his servitude so easily. He’ll do anything to reach his mate or die trying. Eloise has the power to free him again, if she can find him and tap into the magic of her house and sigil to face a ruthless enemy. It will take both their powers, working together, to survive what is to come.