Chapter 26 #2
When they reached his father, Vladimir shoved a glass of blood into Alexander’s free hand.
He reluctantly raised it to his lips and drank deeply, hating it but knowing that he would need every bit of strength he could gain to survive the night.
He grimaced as the blood hit his tongue, thick and syrupy with a too-sweet taste.
“Do you like it?” His father arched a brow. “A new experiment, this time. We drugged the mortals before we killed them, to see if it would transfer in their blood. Like seasoning a meal. And it seems as though it’s made for quite the thrill.”
His father’s pupils were blown wide – with more than excitement, Alexander could now tell.
The worry in his chest expanded until it was pressing against his ribs, and he fought against the dulling of his senses and the floating sensation that he could feel already from whatever he’d been dosed with.
“Are you ready for the festivities to begin, son?” Vladimir laid a heavy hand on Alexander’s shoulder, and he fought not to flinch. “You’re going to have to let go of your toy. Come with me.”
His head was swimming from whatever was in the blood, and he could feel his father using his own magic back on him. The compulsion ordinarily would have been easy enough to resist, but Alexander found himself slackening his grip on Tobias.
“Alexander, what’s going on?” Tobias’ panicked whimper cut through some of Alexander’s fog, and he shook his head to clear it.
“Stop fucking with me,” Alexander growled. “I’ll come with you, Father, but on my own terms.”
“Then allow me.” Maria stepped between them, and Alexander could have kissed her. “Tobias promised me a dance, after all. Shall I claim that now?”
Maria’s offer was certainly a workaround of the compulsion Alexander had used on Tobias.
“Is this what you want?” Alexander asked, not looking anywhere but at Tobias.
“Maria will look after me.” Tobias gave a quick nod, his eyes wide behind his mask. “I trust her.”
“I trust you don’t need this warning, but I’ll give it anyway. Keep him safe and don’t let him out of your sight,” Alexander said, low enough that he hoped Vladimir couldn’t hear. He would only take it as a challenge.
“Your little human is in safe hands.” Maria patted him on the shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about, brother. Tobias and I are going to have such a good time. I’ll show him the sights.”
Alexander grimaced, not really wanting Tobias to be exposed to what he knew would be in the main ballroom and beyond – dancing, yes, but also vampires giving in to the lust that feeding could inspire, coupling with each other right out in the open.
He didn’t want anyone laying eyes, let alone hands, on the man who was exclusively and utterly his to possess.
But he didn’t have a choice, not unless he wanted Tobias next to Vladimir as Alexander was bled.
Tobias’ lips parted, but before he could say anything else, Maria swept him away and they were swallowed by the crowd.
Alexander had no choice but to trust her, and he swallowed his fear as his father pulled him forward by the collar, towards the entrance to the ballroom at the other end of the foyer, and then through a door into an adjacent chamber.
Vladimir’s closest allies in the court were all gathered around a table on a dais, which was bare of everything except a basin and a single glass.
Alexander hated the way it made him nauseous, seeing that bowl waiting there to receive his blood so that Vladimir could drink from it throughout the night.
He hated the way this humiliation came with an audience every single time.
He hated his father, come to think of it, and everything about being a Damianos.
So when his father handed him a knife and took the glass out of his hand, Alexander did something he’d never dared to before and said, “No.”
There was a beat of silence as Vladimir froze.
Then rage swept across his features as he grabbed Alexander by the back of the neck and slammed him forward into the table so hard that he saw stars, his cheekbone cracking in what was likely a fracture.
“You dare to deny me what is mine by right? I gave you life, son. I own your life.”
The soles of his shoes slipped across the marble of the ballroom floor as he fought his father’s grip, but Vladimir’s elbow came down hard between his shoulder blades and pushed the air out of Alexander’s lungs.
There was a violent tearing noise as Vladimir used his other hand to rip the cuff off of Alexander’s shirt and tear through the sleeve of his jacket, stretching his arm out on the table as though Alexander was a sacrifice.
And, when he thought about it, that’s all he was. A sacrifice to Vladimir’s greed and need for power.
The drugs made him too sluggish to fight back when Vladimir reached for the glass that he’d placed on the table, smashing it against the edge and holding up the shards, glistening with candlelight and the remnants of the mortal’s blood that had filled it previously.
“You do not deny me, Alexander. Be glad it’s your blood I will drink tonight and not your human’s.
Defy me again, and I’ll take him before dawn. ”
And with that, Vladimir stabbed the broken glass right down through Alexander’s bared wrist, severing the artery and shredding muscle.
All Alexander could sense, before he passed out from the white-hot agony, was the splash of his blood as it filled the basin, and his own desperation that this wouldn’t last long so that he could end this humiliation and get back to where he belonged – by Tobias’ side.