Chapter 56
Lock
After Sam kicked Davi, I wanted to grab her and get her the fuck out, but the barrier was still up. Seraphim was supposed to take care of it. I wasn’t privy to the exact details of the plan, which left me unprepared and pissed off.
We should have accounted for the likelihood that Sam would divert from her own plan. She was unpredictable. In the best way, of course, but in this case it could lead to our deaths.
The pressure returned to my head, but I pushed through it. Sibon could only cause me pain. After the first time, when she caught me off guard, she couldn’t affect me with her annoying mind shit again. I could tell Sam was under the spell, her emotions being twisted by a force she couldn’t control. She was seeing something in front of her that had her eyes watering.
Lunging for Sibon, I managed to lock a hand around her throat. She smiled as I crushed her windpipe. Seraphim made a sound behind me, and I watched him drop to his knees, clutching at his own neck.
Pulling my hand back, I tried to take in the situation. Sibon brushed her fingers through Seraphim’s hair, her eyes fluttering as the dark marks on her skin disappeared. He braced his hands on the ground, gritting his teeth.
“There are so many things you don’t understand about these bonds,” she said with a sigh. “Do you think I expected every one of you to accept this without a fight?”
She stepped up to me and ran a finger down my arm. It must’ve helped Sam claw her way out of the illusion because I felt her anger at Sibon’s touch. I held out an arm to block her from attacking and shifted her so she was slightly behind me.
“You’re a man of power, Hemlock,” Sibon went on. “I imagine you analyze every situation before you walk into it. You’re prepared for every direction it can go. Am I right?”
“You’re a bitch is what you are,” Sam muttered, watching with orange-tinted eyes as Davi muted Seraphim’s magic.
“Tell us what we need to do,” I said.
Sam stood straighter, her gaze on the side of my face almost overwhelming. Sibon smiled before turning to her.
“You must bind yourself to me. Enter into a pactum that allows us to form a connection.”
“I don’t trust you,” Sam snarled. “You’ve tried to kill us already.”
“If I wanted you dead, you would be. Davi is emotional with the loss of his partner, as you can imagine. He will move on.”
She looked at Davi expectantly. With a tight set to his lips, he dipped his head. He probably didn’t have much of a say in the matter unless he wanted to end up dead as well.
“See?” Sibon clapped her hands together. “With the loss of one, we will acquire another with greater strength. I’m incredibly relieved to have my Flame returned to me.”
The fa?ade she put on grated my nerves. I wanted to have her under my blade and demand she drop the act. I couldn’t torture her, but it wasn’t the only way to get information, even if it was my favorite. If we did manage to get out of here through whatever Seraphim and Vas had planned, I wanted to leave with more than we came with.
“What’s the purpose of this?” I asked. “You want us to submit and work for you, so I’d like to know why.”
Sibon shrugged. “I’m happy to simply consume you.”
The threat made my skin prickle. “Maybe that’s what you should do.”
“Perhaps, but we’re missing one thing and Sam is the best way for me to find it.”
“Let me guess,” Sam drawled in a bored voice. “My last Nexus member.”
“Exactly. Join me or become part of me. Those are your options, as they were for all the others. Either way, you will help me find the last one. You took the other from me and I can only hope your Anem is what I need.”
“Can’t there just be simple terms for things?”
“Simple terms for simple things, Sam. We are not that.”
A door opened and Vas glided in. He stopped at Sibon’s side and she turned to kiss him on the cheek. It made my nose wrinkle, the gesture reminding me of my time under Liah, plotting and pretending.
Vas straightened two fingers and Seraphim came up on Sam’s other side, his pinky touching hers for the briefest moment. It would’ve been nice to be in on the hand signals. Putting my trust in those two was not ideal, but knowing Mark was on the other end of things helped to a degree.
“You know,” Sibon went on, pacing toward the front door. “When I was a child, my kind were already dwindling, but there were enough of us that we could have rebuilt. In that time, we were revered as gods, as it was meant to be. Humans are greedy creatures, though, and naturally, they wanted to possess what we had. They thought mixing our blood would result in beings like us.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” I asked. “More of you.”
“The offspring were impure. Weak.”
“Sounds racist.”
She scoffed. “Something as trivial as the color of our skin has no bearing on this.”
Vas extended one finger and I let my gaze travel around the room. I couldn’t hear anything, but that was likely because of his magic enclosing the space. He was the only one that knew what was going on outside.
“Until then, we had no quarrel with the humans,” Sibon explained.
“Does story time have a point?” Sam sighed.
“It is the conception of your kind. The magic in our veins was pure and strong, but we were betrayed.”
She held out her hand, palm up, and a vortex of flame spun in it. Making a fist, she snuffed it out.
“We were bound by the moon and that which carried life. Blood. It was during the new moon we would replenish our magic, when the night was darkest. It was also when we were weakest. That leads me to my first point. Betrayal from within.”
I fought to keep from tensing. Vas didn’t show any signs that he was concerned about her statement, which may have been a good sign or it could have been a way to feign innocence.
“Those that served us were vetted, employed because they were loyal to us. It’s easy to get complacent, especially when you think you’re infallible. As leaders, we look at those beside us and just below us, knowing they have the most valuable information to use if they wish to turn against us.”
Vas shifted his neck, just the slightest shake of his head. I assumed that wasn’t a good signal.
Sibon flicked her wrist and the front doors opened. A few unfamiliar vampires filed in, then I saw him.
“Mark,” I said, the surprise evident in my voice.
He was staring ahead, refusing to meet my gaze. There was a serious expression on his face and when he glanced toward Sibon, his shoulders hunched inward.
More vampires came in after him, quickly filling the room. Sam squeezed my arm, her fear seeping through the bond. I pushed back against the feeling, not willing to let it affect me. I needed to keep a grasp on myself, not become clouded by trivial things such as emotions.
“What the fuck is going on?” Sam demanded, taking a step forward. Seraphim and I followed, not allowing her out of our hold.
“I’m foiling the grand plan,” she replied, looking too smug for my liking.
“Mark, look at me,” I said.
He did as I said and his lip curled. There was fury in his eyes, the kind that grew and festered, infecting every fiber of your being.
“You’re in his head.”
“Aw. You don’t think your right-hand man would betray you?”
“No,” I replied simply. “There’s only one person Mark has looked at with that level of disdain and I watched his head roll down the university steps.”
“Well, that’s no fun. You’re right, though. Right now, he’s lost in some very unpleasant childhood memories. From the way he’s trembling, I’d say he’s terrified and desperate to get out.”
Sam let out a shuddering breath. “Please, let him go.”
“After you tried to trick me?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Hm. I do believe you. I poked around in your head. That doesn’t excuse what has happened, though. You really should be more aware of those in your ranks. Sometimes, it’s the ones that pass by unnoticed, the ones at the very bottom.”
Someone came through the door with his hands in his pockets. Sam gasped beside me while I was torn between laughing and losing my mind entirely. Turning to Seraphim, I gave him a pointed look.
“I didn’t know,” he insisted.
“You’ve been watching me this long?” I asked, directing my attention to Sibon.
“You are the strongest pure vampire we know of and you were looking into our operations. I make it my business to keep an eye on those that could pose a threat to me. He served as my eyes and ears and he endured so much in order to infiltrate your tower. Didn’t you, Moriarty?”
“The fucker took my eye,” Arty replied, looking me up and down with a contempt he’d expertly hidden all this time.
“I’m gonna be sick,” Sam said, turning her face into my chest.
It made too much sense and I hated that because it confirmed that I’d become an imbecile. He was at the Halloween party, no doubt spiking the drinks. All the time, he was quiet, never causing any problems. Sneaking around, befriending the others in the tower. I was stupid for choosing mercy for someone that wasn’t part of my bloodline.
“It was a good thing I sent him there,” Sibon went on. “Little Samara blinked into existence when she took those pills and the game was set. All I had to do was wait for you to change her so that I could snatch her up.”
“You knew?” Seraphim balked.
“I know everything, Seraphim. Well, except that you would find yourself bound and submitting to her. That threw me for a loop when you revealed it to me. And here I thought you’d simply become a failure and run your course. This is better because I get to keep you and her, in addition to whoever her Anem is. Hopefully someone strong and with a cock so something good can come out of this.”
“You’re not fucking my wind person,” Sam snarled, her nose wrinkling in disgust.
“You are in no position to make demands. It’s time to move on to the point of this exercise. Come here.”
She flicked both her wrists and I collapsed, my knees snapping inward. My elbows followed suit, leaving me on the floor and defenseless. Sam screamed, trying to crouch beside me, but two vampires came up behind her to secure her arms. I wanted to move, to tear their limbs from their body, but Sibon’s magic was keeping me broken, not allowing my body any time to heal.
Sam was powerful, but she wasn’t strong enough to fight them off without her magic. I could feel how different she was after losing Joseph and I could tell she hadn’t healed from it enough to be at full strength. Even if she could contend with them, she wouldn’t make it far before more overpowered her.
I looked at Vas, noting the way his hands were balled into fists. His gaze was locked on Seraphim, his brow creased with concern. It was clear he wanted to do something, but I knew he wouldn’t.
The front doors opened again and a large group of vampires was ushered in. Our vampires. Priscilla and Marley were thrown to the floor, then restrained by Sibon’s people. There were at least fifty in here and more were being held outside. The entirety of the San Francisco coven was here and they were at her mercy.