22. Alexander
22
ALEXANDER
“ Y ou will have to come with us.” The vampire wore the black and gold of the U.C. I recognized him from the front desk, but the stare still infuriated me. As did the command. I was being told what to do. That I had to follow his instructions, even though Emily needed me now.
“I have places I need to be.”
“The elders demand your presence.”
A second member of the security team had exited the building and stood next to the first. They weren’t going to let me leave.
I followed the vampires into the building, seething that I was being forced into this. Emily was in danger because of Cassia, and I couldn’t reach her now. Disobeying a direct order from the elders meant ejection from the U.C. It was almost as good as a death sentence or exile. The alternative to joining the U.C. at this time was being a part of Sanguine Nox or going solo.
And being on your own was … dangerous for normal vampires. For me, it would be a disaster. Sanguine Nox would stop at nothing to get me back into their organization.
The guards brought me to the elevator, and I entered with both of them. They stood at either side of me, which only served to increase my irritation. “I do not need an escort.”
“It’s a security procedure, Mr. Knight.”
I gritted my teeth but didn’t respond.
I had never met the elders. During my time at the U.C., I had only dealt with Haldren, even though my arrival had caused shockwaves through the New York City coven, mostly because of my past association with Sanguine Nox.
The elevator’s glass walls looked out on the city, and it pained me. Emily was out there, and she needed my help. I couldn’t allow her to die.
Why not? Is she not just a human? Collateral damage?
That was how the U.C. treated the deaths of the few. If it was for the greater good of humanity, it was fine.
But the thought was repugnant to me.
The elevator continued upward to the very top of the tower in Manhattan, so high that the cars were dots far below us.
The doors behind us opened onto a long corridor decorated in deep crimsons, the walls made of a thick paneled wood and decorated with sconces that cast warm light. The members of the U.C. security team didn’t follow me as I stepped out, nor did they need to direct me.
There was only one door in the entire hall.
It was at the far end, and it was carved with fleurs-de-lis, the door handle encrusted with a ruby gem that flickered in the half-light. I reached the door and stopped in front of it, listening for sounds from within.
A gentle rustle of paper, the occasional murmur—the words muffled.
I knocked once.
“Enter.” The voice came immediately.
I opened the door, a sense of foreboding coming over me, and entered a circular chamber that held a bench rimming its interior. Hooded figures in velvet sat along the bench, waiting for me to enter.
Haldren was notably absent. I was alone in this meeting with them. Alone with vampires more powerful than any I’d encountered before, bar one.
The circular bench contained an opening which led to the center of the chamber, where a single chair waited.
“Take a seat, Mr. Knight.” The voice came from the vampire who sat directly opposite the central chair. He lifted the hood from his head, and I stiffened.
The vampire was entirely bald, pale as a sheet, his skin so wrinkled it hung in sheets around his skull. Two golden eyes blazed from within. This was what happened to vampires when they were “alive” for too long.
The others around the bench removed their hoods, and I was relieved—not all of them were wrinkled and aged. There were women and men, all with those golden eyes, blazing with focused intention.
“It’s fortunate that you could join us on short notice,” the elder said.
I took my seat. “I wasn’t afforded a choice.”
“Would you have chosen any differently?” a female vampire with raven hair asked. “It’s a great honor to be called before us, is it not?”
“It is.”
A silence followed, and they watched me closely. Their gazes would’ve made any vampire’s skin crawl, but I withheld my reaction to it.
The oldest vampire raised a hand and clicked his fingers, and another shadowy figure emerged from behind him. The figure placed the book in front of the elder. The copied book.
I kept my features still. The last thing I needed was them discovering what I had done, particularly before I could save Emily. The longer I stayed here with them, the higher the risk became that she would die from the curse or from an attack.
“We have brought you here in part to congratulate you, and in part because we have much to discuss regarding the contents of this book.”
“The contents? You have examined them already?” I asked.
The elder pointed toward the same raven-haired vampire who had spoken previously. “Elder Saskia has a particular gift for absorbing knowledge at a high rate of speed. I will leave her to explain what we have discovered regarding the book.”
“Thank you, Elder Finnian.”
The conversation was eerily controlled. Vampire culture was always like this. Externally controlled with an essence of predator underneath.
Saskia cleared her throat, drawing every eye in the room. “The book,” she said, “served as an interesting read. I assume you know what it contains, Mr. Knight?”
“No, I haven’t read it.”
“Forgive me, I meant that you surely know who wrote the book.”
“I have a basic awareness,” I said, not willing to give anything away.
“Then I will tell you everything I have gleaned,” Saskia said, with a swift smile that showed off her fangs. She had no need to hide them as there weren’t any humans around. “The book was written by a French vampire. A nobleman who had started his own coven with his partner. A human woman.”
“A human.” It wasn’t unheard of for vampires to court human beings, but never to take them as partners, wives, or husbands.
“Correct. But not just a human. She is, according to the book, a Guardian.”
“A Guardian.”
“Yes. And that is exactly the information we’ve been seeking for decades,” Saskia said. “Every reconnaissance mission for the last ten years has been about finding this book. This information.”
I didn’t say anything.
“We have been working hard against Sanguine Nox, and this discovery,” Elder Finnian said, “changes everything. Everything. ”
“The Guardians are human beings who are not what they seem,” Saskia said, excitement bubbling through in her tone. “They are magical beings in their own right because they help protect vampires. Both strengthen and weaken them.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Vampires bond with Guardians by feeding on them and turning them. Except they don’t turn, not entirely, and they wind up stronger, faster, and with psychic abilities. The Guardians do. And the vampires—their ability to fight, to survive, is far stronger. A bonded vampire’s strength is the equivalent of three vampires. Three! Do you know how that would turn the tide of our war against Sanguine Nox?” Saskia bounced on the balls of her feet.
“You said that they’re weakened by Guardians too.” The sooner we got past this, the better. Emily needed me.
“That’s correct,” Saskia said, but she didn’t sound any less excited. “They’re connected. So if one dies, so does the other. Which makes it incredibly important to protect the weaker party—the Guardian, in that case.”
“That’s a problem.”
“Protecting humans would be easy,” Elder Finnian inserted. “For us. We could have them live at the U.C.”
“You mean entrap them?” I bristled.
“Not entrap them,” Saskia said. “Never that. But those with the potential to be Guardians would need to be protected.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are humans who have a natural potential to be Guardians, at least according to the book,” Saskia said. “And once they’re ‘unlocked’, they start attracting vampires. This ‘unlocking’ can happen when they encounter a vampire, mostly through sexual contact.”
I frowned.
“Which means that most vampires who have come into contact with humans haven’t activated any of them,” Saskia said. “Because, of course, most vampires are interested in feeding on humans, not having sex with them.”
“Which brings us to our next point,” Elder Finnian said.
A strange calmness fell over the room, and the skin on the back of my neck prickled.
“It’s for this reason we need you to bring your friend, Emily, to the U.C. headquarters. Today.”
“What?” The word came out as a bark.
“We know, Mr. Knight. We know that you have had relations with Emily. We know that she has the potential to be a Guardian. And we need to protect her from the vampires that are going to keep attacking her. Sanguine Nox will try to get to her so they can capture her and use her, if you don’t bring her to us. And when you do,” Saskia said, “she will be given to Elder Finnian to bond with so that he is stronger and protected.”
Rage hollowed out my chest.
“We understand that you may have formed an emotional connection with this human through doing your work for us,” Finnian said.
“I have not.” The lie tasted terrible to me, but I said it, regardless. I didn’t need them believing that I cared for Emily.
“Then you go about sleeping with humans regularly?” Saskia asked, arching an eyebrow.
“No. It was necessary to do whatever it took to get the book.”
“And that didn’t include killing her,” Saskia murmured. “In retrospect, that was a fine decision. Not only have you brought us the book, but you have activated a Guardian. A Guardian who will help keep the entirety of our New York coven safe. You will be richly rewarded for what you’ve done. But you will have to bring her to us. Do you understand, Mr. Knight?”
“Why me? Why not send someone else?”
“She will trust you,” Saskia said. “And we are giving you this task directly. Do not disappoint us, Mr. Knight. ”
“The consequences will be swift.” Elder Finnian gave me a look that sliced through to the core.
I gave them a nod and then left the room and headed for the end of the hallway, quietly seething. I wasn’t going to bring Emily to them. I would find another way to save her that didn’t include “bonding” her to me or anyone else.
Being bonded was the same as being tied to the U.C. or to being subjugated. If I had had a choice, I would never have come here. I would never have joined Sanguine Nox or the U.C. While their goal was noble, not all of their methods were, and I wanted to be rid of the pressure to perform now.
Why now? Because of her. She’d helped me realize what was important. And I had added another set of names to my list prepped for revenge.
The walk to my car was a blur. I got in and started the engine, speeding off toward Emily’s apartment building, images of her in danger in the front of my mind, driving me onward. Not only was the book a problem, but now the bonding.
She was a Guardian, and our sex had awoken it in her. Her being in danger was entirely my fault, and I would ensure that she was safe and free, no matter what. Even if it meant that I could no longer be a part of her life.