Chapter 18
ALEXANDER
Vladimir pursed his lips. “Are you sure of what you saw? Recount the scene you came upon in the mortuary one more time.”
Alexander’s teeth ground together as his father questioned him for the fiftieth time.
They were back in Vladimir’s study, the candles placed around the room filling it with a vague burning scent.
Maria was lounging in an armchair, but he could see that even with her insouciant posture, it was all an act.
She was as tense as he was, even if she was trying to appear otherwise for their father’s benefit.
“I’m not sure quite how to explain missing corpses and gouges in the morgue cabinets holding them.
” Alexander fought the urge to pick up something heavy and throw it at his father to knock some sense into him, but settled for gripping the back of the cracked leather armchair he stood in front of even harder, his nails digging into the long-dead flesh.
“We know it’s a vampire doing the killings – that’s the entire point of you having me investigate, right?
And so now I’m telling you that whoever it is isn’t just murdering people who have some connection to me.
They’re doing it and somehow turning those corpses into vampires. ”
“Made vampires.” His father stood stock-still, no part of him moving except the tiniest twitching of his right eyelid.
Even though Alexander wanted nothing more than for his father to just get out of his way, it was in moments like this that he remembered that he was standing in front of the most lethal predator in the world.
Vladimir’s deadliness might have been disguised behind carefully cut dark hair and pale skin and perfect bespoke suits, but that didn’t change the fact that if he wanted to rip Alexander to shreds, he wouldn’t have much difficulty doing it.
“It would seem that way,” Alexander confirmed.
“But why,” Vladimir drawled, “would someone be idiotic enough to think that would work?”
“The making vampires part, or the challenging you with their own coven part?” Alexander needed every ounce of his self-control to not sound as impatient as he felt.
He needed his father to marshal the entire weight of the Damianos family to finding and putting down these made vampires, because until he did, no one was safe.
Tobias wasn’t safe.
“Both.” Vladimir gave a dismissive flick of his fingers.
“It isn’t hard to create made vampires – you simply have to know precisely when to stop draining the mortals, and then leave their corpses somewhere safe until the infection can take them.
Apparently, a human morgue is the perfect place for a newly made vampire to convalesce while building up their strength, which is something good to know. ”
Alexander felt vaguely sick. He tried to swallow it down, and only half succeeded as his father carried on.
“But as to creating a rival coven, I suppose the natural answer would be some combination of not clearly understanding the dynamics of power, and having failed to coalesce support within the existing power structure.” Vladimir’s eyes narrowed.
“The only question is who has the power to challenge me, to create their own vampires, and a distinct lack of support which couldn’t possibly be ameliorated any other way. ”
Father stared at son for one long, unblinking moment.
“Oh,” Alexander said, finally recognising what his father was implying. “Oh.”
An almost hysterical laugh bubbled up in his throat, the idea that after all this time of hating his father and hating his position as the heir and doing everything he could to give himself some kind of freedom and life beyond what he’d been made to, his father was accusing him of treason.
He tucked his arms around himself, unconsciously protecting the parts of him that Vladimir cut to feed, hoping that he wasn’t about to be subjected to a forced bloodletting to prove his innocence.
Vladimir cocked his head. Maria was on the edge of her seat, now, looking nervously alert. “Father, you couldn’t possibly–”
“No.” Vladimir held up a hand to silence her. “Let your brother explain.”
“You really think,” Alexander said derisively, “that I’m the one behind this? That, what, I’ve been playing along because you ruined my plans by sending me to investigate? Father, if I wanted you dead, you really think I’d do it that way?”
Vladimir bared his teeth. “Your fixation on mortals is still inconceivable to me. And perhaps, yes, that’s why you’re doing this, and I caught you off guard.
After all, the mortal-loving son protesting their deaths would perfectly cover his tracks if he were to kill mortals and turn them to gain his vengeance, wouldn’t he? ”
His father circled around the desk, his hands twitching. Maria shot up from the chair she’d been sitting in and sprung between them. “Father, you cannot seriously–”
“Maria, leave.”
Vladimir so rarely used compulsions on her that it was shocking when he did. Maria went rigid, and she pivoted on her heel and marched herself out of the door. Alexander, at least, was relieved to see her gone from the room. It was one less person for him to worry about Vladimir hurting.
“It wasn’t me,” Alexander said as steadily as he could manage despite the feeling of danger hovering in the air around him. “You know it wasn’t.”
Because as bad as his hatred of his life was, he’d never once actually thought about trying to take over the Damianos family. His entire life had revolved around running away from that very responsibility.
“Maybe you resent what I take from you,” Vladimir hissed. “Maybe you resent what I made you into, because you cannot bear your own potential for greatness. Tell me if it’s you.”
The force of the command rang in Alexander’s ears, his entire body going rigid as he instinctively fought the command.
He didn’t need to – he had nothing to hide, not in this regard – but the thought of his own magic being turned against him was infuriating enough that he expended more energy than he truly had fighting off the compulsion, biting his lip so hard that he drew his own blood.
“Do you think,” he ground out when he was free again, “that just because you sired me, you have the right to command me too?”
He took a step forward and his father flinched.
Alexander knew he had won, then, and that the show of strength had done more to get Vladimir off his case than any amount of denial ever could have.
“I suggest you stop fucking around with me and start figuring out who you created who feels that they have the liberty to go around making mortals into vampires. We’re lucky there haven’t been more killings with three freshly made vampires on the loose,” he growled at his father.
“I–”
Vladimir stopped at the same moment that Alexander did, both of them snapping to attention as someone banged on the door with a heavy fist. Uncharacteristically, the bodyguards who yanked the door open and swarmed in didn’t wait for permission.
They surrounded Vladimir, leaving Alexander on the outside of the circle of well-muscled bodies.
“What’s the meaning of this?” his father demanded.
One of the bodyguards cleared his throat. “Sir, we’re taking you to the safe room. Someone left a drained animal out in front of the estate. We think it could be a threat, and we need you protected until we can assess the situation.”
“Animal?” Alexander sniffed the air, and sure enough the tang of blood was carried on the faint breeze moving through the hall.
“One of the newly imported water deer fawns.” Another of the more experienced bodyguards, who looked significantly less nervous than the first man, shrugged. “Kind of a shame, they’re pretty cute.”
Deer.
Little deer.
Alexander didn’t wait to explain himself. He bolted.
He didn’t remember anything about the drive back to the city. All he could focus on as he bounded up the stairs to the flat was simultaneously wanting to rip to shreds whoever was threatening Tobias this way, and needing more than anything else to make sure that Tobias was safe.
Alexander was going to have to replace the door to his apartment with the way it splintered around the lock as he pushed it open.
But it was nothing next to the relief that flooded through him when he found Tobias sitting on the couch with his friend, both of them looking startled.
“Tobias,” he gasped out, feeling as though he was about to fall to his knees. “You’re alright.”
Kate shot them both a look, remarked that Alexander was home early, and then hightailed it out the door.
“I–” Tobias swallowed, his throat working, his face gone white. “I – why wouldn’t I be alright? Are you going to explain what’s going on, now?”
Tobias looked so vulnerable, so fragile and small, that for a minute Alexander wondered whether he should cut this off right then and there.
How could he bring Tobias, with his wild blue eyes and freckles and angelic blond curls, into the Damianos family?
How could the two of them possibly carry on any kind of relationship?
Tobias would be eaten alive, maybe even literally, when Alexander was forced to reveal how much he cared for Tobias when his father drank his blood at the centennial ball.
He only had until the next Damianos masquerade until he was forced to divulge that secret.
And wasn’t that the root of it, truthfully?
Alexander could no longer deny that Tobias had woken something within him, had irrevocably captured a part of his heart that he’d never known he had.
There was no way that he’d ever be able to be around Tobias and any member of his coven and not reveal precisely how much the mortal meant to him, how desperately he wanted to protect him.
Tobias was a weakness, and that made Alexander a danger to him.
But Alexander had never done what he should have. He’d done precisely what he’d wanted to, even if that wasn’t how he’d explained it to himself at the time. And he was far, far too weak to deny himself now.