Chapter 27 Danni
Danni
“There you two are! Egor’s about to give his speech. I thought I’d have to send out a search party.” Celeste appears at my side, linking her arm with mine. I frown at her pale veiny arm.
“What are you doing?” I ask, glaring at her while trying to pull out of her grasp.
Why is she being so friendly?
After our conversation earlier, I know she doesn’t want to kill me as badly as she did before, but what about her argument with Knox?
The bond certainly doesn’t like her right now.
Her kindness could all be one big plan of hers to get him back, to lure me in with friendship and then steal Knox away from me.
No, that wouldn’t happen. He wouldn’t do that. Those words, those thoughts, those feelings… It’s just Damon’s poison spreading doubt through my mind.
Celeste rolls her eyes and sighs. “Body guard, remember?” she hisses haughtily.
Of course, everyone here has their own little roles to play, especially since so many of the vampires want my head on a spike. A tiny flicker of fear ignites inside of me. I can only hope nobody will notice.
But the way Knox takes hold of my hand and squeezes it makes me think I’ve already given myself away.
I lean into his touch, the charge between our skin earning me a satisfied thrum through the invisible attachment between us.
I focus on that feeling and all of the dangerous admissions that were said in secret. My fears melt away.
With the dancing at an end, the crowd around us begins to turn their attention to the balcony above.
Knox moves deeper into the crowd, using the various over-the-top costumes as camouflage while Celeste holds my arm in a vise-like grip.
Clearly something is wrong for them to be flanking me like this, but I keep my focus on the bond and how happy it feels to receive his affection.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Egor announces from the balcony. “Thank you for your attendance tonight. I know everyone is eager to begin the real celebrations, so I won’t keep you long.” Dark chuckling fills the room and Knox’s body grows tense against mine.
What does Egor mean? Hasn’t the party begun already?
“Tonight, we celebrate the closing of the Familiars’ training, a series of games we all look forward to.
But this year was special. As you all know, Knox, the sole heir to council member Cyprian, has finally agreed to fulfil his duty as a member of our coven by taking a Familiar for the first time in one hundred years. ”
The crowd erupts into applause. I glance over at Celeste to see her hanging her head, those blood red garnets fixating on the floor.
“For those of you who are wondering why this is so important to us, I will indulge you all in a little history lesson.” Egor’s eyes gleam as he searches the crowd.
I don’t need to be a mind reader to know who he’s looking for. And sure enough, when his gaze fixates on me, his eyes swirl with malice.
“Our race was created by a group of powerful beings, many centuries ago. You know these beings as witches, but we called them binders. Since they could manipulate magic to do their bidding, we were created as the ultimate weapon, built to hunt and destroy any human in our path.”
I swallow and try to retain all of the information Egor is so freely offering.
“When the binders began to cause too much of a stir, the humans took it upon themselves to burn the magic wielders at the stake. It was a bloody time in our history. But from the ashes of the binders rose our creator. A young binder who dabbled in dark, forbidden magic, saved their own race, and created ours. The humans didn’t stand a chance, of course.
We slaughtered so many, driving ourselves to the brink of insanity with bloodlust. The young binder allowed us to sully our souls, commanding us to save them from being burned, before ultimately turning on us by casting a hideous curse upon our coven.
“Sunlight burned our flesh. We felt our emotions again. And we were given the gift of immortality, forced to relive every single kill. We won the war, and then we were banished deep beneath the earth with only a trickle of power to sustain us. That power is fortified by a ritual—we call it the binding. Where each of your oldest leaders agree to share their power with humans so we might survive another year.”
All this information is too much. I need a notebook and a pen.
“So now, I raise a toast. To Knox and Danniella: may this celebration provide a bountiful harvest, thanks to your sacrifices.”
Sacrifices?
I turn to Knox, the ice blue veins in his neck thumping hard against his translucent skin.
“What sacrifice?” I whisper as the crowd claps and cheers in our direction. I watch his throat bob.
“When you are bound to me, you will become something different than what you are now.” He keeps his hard eyes fixed on Egor.
“Different? Knox, what are you talking about?” I break my arm free of Celeste’s grip to turn toward him fully.
“And now, as is tradition…” Egor’s voice carries over the crowd, dragging my attention back to him. “I commence the harvest!”
Upon his words, chaos ensues.
It all happens faster than my human mind can process.
Shadows move in a blur and the chandeliers above us shake. Screams echo throughout the ballroom.
Then there’s blood.
So much blood.
It splatters across my dress and face. The world is nothing but ribbons of free-flowing plasma, distorted faces and pearlescent sharp teeth as the ballroom becomes a slaughterhouse.
My mind screams at my body to do something, to help stop the massacre taking place before my very eyes. But I’m frozen.
“Knox, get her out of here,” Celeste shouts. Her voice sounds different, deeper and husky.
I turn to her, and Celeste’s face has twisted into the monster that lies beneath her skin. Dark crimson eyes. Heavy-set eyebrows. Wrinkles deforming her pale flesh.
“I can’t control it. Get her out of here before they all descend upon her.” Her whole body trembles as the smell of copper floods the air.
Knox’s arms are around me a second later, and we move quickly up the stairs toward the double doors that flank the balcony.
“No, I have to help them!” I can barely get the words out. “You can’t help them, Danni. They knew what they signed up for,” he says casually.
“I refuse to believe that any of those people would sign up to be harvested like pigs!” I spit back, my anger rising at how calm he is about the carnage. How can he be so desensitized to it all?
A cold wave of dread washes over me.
“How many harvests have you taken part in?” The question slips from my lips as the heavy golden doors close behind us. As Knox places me on my feet in the empty corridor, shame and embarrassment flickers behind his eyes.
“More than you can count.” Knox’s voice is monotonous and distant as he speaks. He refuses to look at me.
Bile rises in my throat. “How many people will be killed tonight?”
His eyes finally snap to mine; with one hand, he grasps the side of my face tightly as his fingers wind in between strands of my hair. The bond thrums again and I curse it. I don’t want to feel anything for him. How can the world be so cruel to entwine my life with this monster?
“They won’t be killed. The harvest is for feeding. Not slaughtering.” His eyes plead with mine as I discretely slip my hand into the small bag around my wrist.
“Please, Danni, just listen to me—”
“And how exactly will I be different after the binding?” I yell, cutting him off. I’m done listening to half-truths.
Knox’s jaw ticks. “There is a price to accessing my power. You will become something in between a human and a vampire. You will only be able to survive by drinking my blood, and I yours. Anything else is poison to us both during our time together.”
My heart pounds against my ribs as my fingers grasp the cold wooden stake.
“You said you were doing all of this to protect me. But that was all a lie to keep me here, isn’t it?
To be your food, just like everyone else in that ballroom.
” Salty tears burn my eyes as I pull the stake from my bag.
My face is still cradled in his hands. His eyes are still fixed on my own, relentlessly pleading with me in the silence between us.
His lips part and I inhale deeply as he leans in closer. His lips brush mine as he speaks.
“Everything I have done is to protect you. That wasn’t a lie.”
The bond constricts and begs for me to kiss him.
“How can I trust you, now that I know what you’ve done?” Sweat forms across my brow. My body shakes beneath his touch as I fight against the connection growing inside of me.
“You don’t have a choice.”
No. I do have a choice.
I’ve had a choice this entire time, and I chose to trust him at every turn. I could’ve been home now. Alone. Going about my daily business. If only I had listened to my gut and stopped myself from being blinded by him and this hellish place. I was foolish.
I kiss him softly as fireworks explode behind my closed eyes, and then I plunge the wooden stake into his side as hard as I can.
Knox pulls away, his hand still gripping my hair, with understanding etched into his pale face.
“And so now, you hate me?” he whispers.
“And so now, I hate you,” I reply.
Expression empty, Knox stumbles back as the bond inside of me rages. It rattles against my bones in hysterics as I watch him unflinchingly pull the stake from his side.
“At least I know where we stand.” He throws the bloodied stake to my feet as he rolls himself up to his full height. “I’ll see you at your final training tomorrow.”
I blink and he disappears.
I sink down onto the floor, each rapid breaths threatening to tear my lungs into shreds. I glance over at the stake covered in his blood. Forever imbued with his betrayal and my foolishness. I pick up the wood and run my thumb along the sticky mess that encases it.
My pulse quickens as I examine his blood on my thumb. My mouth dries and a curious burning sensation licks the bottom of my throat. Without thought, I bring my thumb to my lips and smear his blood across my mouth.
What am I doing?
I pull my bottom lip into my mouth and taste him.
Instantly, the world explodes into a technicolor fever dream.
Various doors appear in the bare walls and the horrible noise from the harvest assaults my ears.
I can hear multiple conversations happening from the other side of the doors, all of them happening too fast for me to decipher.
The colors in the hallway change into a spectrum I’ve never seen before, and the ache in my bones disappears.
And then it all dissolves back into the familiar world I’ve always known.