Thorns of Fate

by Hayley Todd

  “I’m sorry,” I sighed, unsure how else to improve the situation.

  He tipped my chin up again, still smiling softly down at me. “There’s nothing to apologize for. It takes a long time for some vampires to get a grasp on their overwhelming emotions. Honestly, Anton is doing you a favor. Most vamps go through a ‘teenage drama’ kind of stage. Some ending worse than others. I know several individuals that have wreaked havoc on towns in a fit of rage, absolute blood baths. I know others who have done nothing but cry and scream in frustration for weeks at a time, leaving the spell only to feed. You’re doing much better than that and he’s taking the time and care to help you. I don’t fault him for that.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say and just danced quietly with him for several minutes.

  I could’ve lost my mind with rage by now. Or fallen into a pit of despair too big to crawl out of. Anton had helped me weather that part of the change. Without ever being asked too. I couldn’t count him among my enemies and I was beginning to think I counted him as a friend.

  “What will they do with Henrick’s position?” I asked, suddenly.

  Carson reacted as though we’d never lapsed into silence. “I’m not entirely sure yet. I don’t think they’re entirely sure yet. Technically the title falls to Anton but he’s far younger than the other council members. By hundreds of years. And has nothing to secure himself in that position.”

  “What would that mean for Anton?” I asked curious and a bit concerned.

  “It would mean that he needs to find a bride, sooner rather than later. One who can actually issue him heirs.” He looked down at me as he spoke the last part then averted his gaze, watching Kellic and Anton giggle and sway across the floor.

  They were entirely oblivious to the world around them. I was kind’ve surprised that Anton had broken away long enough to lend me his aid.

  “You radiate to him,” Carson said, dragging my eyes back to him. “Your emotions are...intense. It’s like a drowning wave. He can’t escape them while near you.” He’d somehow guessed my train of thought.

  “Why does he stay then?” I asked.

  Carson looked thoughtful for a moment before replying. “I think partially, he feels as though he owes you. For one, his family is why you’re in the mess that you’re in. For another, this marriage was arranged for him as much as it was for you. He had no choice in the matter either. Your imprint freed him. Our imprint did.”

  I saw Anton in a new light. A young man--a young vampire—who had been driven all his life to accept his fate. It has been thrust upon him in a way that even I hadn’t had to experience.

  I would’ve thought Anton would have either followed his father or done as he had asked. Why would he throw everything away? For me? He barely knew me. Why would he risk all that he had been born into? Unless…

  “Carson,” I asked as we swayed, trying hard to stay in rhythm with him. He pulled me a little tighter, guiding my feet as we swayed. My mind began to connect puzzle pieces, to collect my thoughts. I recalled Valeria, the vampire seductress who had imprint on Carson. I recalled the way she was careless to anything that wasn’t him. “Are most empaths that sensitive? To feel my emotions every time they start to get out of hand?” I asked him, my head spinning.

  He looked down at me, his eyes searching my face. I knew the moment he’d understood my where my questions were leading. And I knew by the expression on his face that it was entirely possible. The music swelled to a crashing crescendo, then the room dropped into silence.

  My father stepped toward us. “It’s time,” he said with a grin and took my hand, leading me away from Carson and back towards the dais. I glanced over my shoulder and could only barely see Carson through the advancing crowd. He stood completely still, his face a mess of rage.

  Damien stepped up to a microphone that had been set on the stage. My mother stood beside him, an intricate lawyered wooden box closed in her hands.

  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” my father called across the crowd, drawing them into hushed whispers. “I would like to personally thank you all for coming out this evening and celebrating the reunion of my daughter and princess with our family and people.”

  The crowd erupted into shouts and cheers, with even a few excited whistles thrown in.

  “We’ve finally reached the best part of the evening,” he gestured to my mother who brought the extravagant box closer. “As a people and as a community,” he lifted the lid of the box revealing a stunning silver crown that resembled my tiara in every way except that it was an actual crown and it had grooves within it that would fit around my tiara. It had the same glimmering silver sheen and was laden with rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. “I would like to formally introduce your future queen, Kyra Lucius.”

  Damien lifted the crown from the box and held it above my head. He lowered it onto the tiara and it clasped onto the tiara’s shape.

  I had not yet heard the court’s full volume until that moment. Their elated whoops and cheers shook the room, but my eyes flickered back and forth between Carson, still where he had frozen, and Anton, standing beside Kellic but eyes locked on me.

  My heart beat fast and I knew I had a fierce blush on my face that I couldn’t even begin to hide. Though I knew the entire crowd stared at me, I mostly felt both men’s gazes.

  The expression on Carson’s face terrified me. His eyes were ablaze with fury, his face contorted into a snarl. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of me since Damien had begun his commencement but it was as though he didn’t truly see me.

  “The festivities will continue late into the night! Feel free to enjoy and revel in the advancement of the Magick clan!” Damien finished with a flourish, bending at his waist and stepping away from the microphone. He led my mother and myself from the stage and I allowed myself to be led, unsure of where my next steps might take me, unsure of what to say or how to react. The more I considered it, the more certain I became.

  I caught Carson’s gaze as he neared. Anton and Kellic wove through the crowd towards us and Gabrielle and Liam came from the other direction. I touched my father's hand, needing to be alone for a moment, breathing hard, panic filling me.

  “Dad, I need to use the restroom,” I said and turned into the crowd without waiting. I thought I heard him calling for me as I pushed past dozens of bodies back the way we had come. I was desperate to be out of this room and collect my thoughts. If I was right, things were even more complicated than I had previously thought, and I was sure that had already been more than enough.

  Faces whipped past, some paying attention to me, others lost in their own conversations. I didn’t care if they gaped. Right now, I didn’t care at all. I just knew that I couldn’t breathe and that I needed to be alone and out of this room. I needed to collect my thoughts. They were spinning so rapidly inside my head that I was worried I’d give myself whiplash.

  I reached the exit doors and threw them open before the servants even got a chance to grab their handles.

  I had just launched myself through the doors when the building shook and debris rained down around me with the force of a concussive blow.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The building shuddered around me and I drew to a halt where I had stopped in the foyer. The doors behind me were swinging closed but I caught just a glimpse of the chaos inside.

  Fire rained down from the ceiling, large portions of plaster crashing down on the floor and its residents. People screamed from every direction and I could see figures sliding down ropes from the roof.

  What the hell was going on?

  I ran back towards the room, my anxiety and overwhelming emotions lost in the shuffle. Everyone I loved was in that room. Everyone but Will anyway.

  I lurched toward the doors, about to swing them wide when they opened before me. I caught sight of a golden mop of hair as Liam darted out and grabbed my wrist, pulling me toward the door.

  “What’s happening?” I shrieked, pulled against his hold. He didn’t
relent and had a stony expression on his face.

  “The ballroom was bombed. I have orders to get you out of here,” he replied, hard, tugging me toward the front door. I pulled against him again but he was stronger than me an didn’t let go.

  My heart was hammering in my chest. I didn’t like this. I could help. I could do something. But Liam didn’t release me, yanking the front doors open and dragging me through them.

  The building shook with yet another impact and I wanted nothing more than to run screaming back into the ballroom. I needed to get people out. I needed to get to my parents and my aunt and Kellic and Anton. And Carson.

  The ground shook beneath me as I stumbled over the front steps, torn from the foyer by Liam’s intense grip. He was hurting me but it didn’t seem to matter right now. His fingertips and nails dug into the skin of my wrist.

  “Come on,” he urged, pulling more fervently. He stepped behind me, placing his palm against my back and forcing me farther forward.

  “I can’t leave them to die, Liam!” I exclaimed, pulling again at him, trying to dig my fingers under his hand on my wrist to no avail.

  He whirled on me suddenly, his blue eyes glowing. “Running back in there only means you die too.” He turned and yanked hard, sending me tumbling down the steps.

  I lashed out against him. “I can help!” I cried.

  “I was told to get you to safety. We’re leaving,” he replied, uncaring.

  There was a big black SUV at the bottom of the steps, waiting with open doors. I tried one last jerk against him but he still clung to me.

  “Alright,” he said and for a moment I thought he was going to release me. “I tried being nice.” Then he reeled back with his arm and cracked his fist into my mouth.

  My world exploded into agonizing colors before fading to black.

  I awoke in a dark room, some sort of gag strapped across my aching face, my hands bound behind my back. I couldn’t move and blinked hard, trying to force the starbursts of black light out of my eyes. The more I forced my eyes open and closed, the clearer the room around me became.

  I sat in some sort of basement or cellar and it reminded me of the room outside of where we had found my mother and Gabrielle. Across the floor, dark spiraling designs had been sketched with paint around a large circle.

  “I told my son to leave well enough alone,” came a deep voice from the darkness. The figure shifted forward, exposing himself to whatever little light seeped into the room. Henrick stepped closer to me, lifting my chin with one finger. “I told him to force an imprint with you but I didn’t realize how it would end up affecting him.”

  He knew I couldn’t respond but I glared daggers up at those amber eyes. He grinned down at me and the look was predatory and hateful.

  “At least you ended up being a pretty one,” he said, huskily, running a hand from my chin over my breasts and down my belly. I felt sickened at his touch and wanted nothing more than to writhe away from him but I couldn’t move.

  He stepped away from me and I watched him, wary. As he continued his monologue, dozens of cloaked figures appeared from the darkness, lining the circle on the floor.

  “I had told that witch to either finish you quickly, or stay long enough to ensure that he had imprinted you properly.” He barked a harsh laugh. “She and that bumbling Vampyre left a mess that has twisted my entire plan.”

  What? What the hell are you talking about? I said.

  Well, I tried anyway. It came out as a blur of grunts and groans through the gag. He looked me over, sighed, then stepped forward and pulled the gag from my mouth.

  “What was that, princess?” he asked, spitting the words.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I screeched, my words hurting my own aching head. He tried to touch my face again but I twisted from him as far as I could get. He laughed, watching me struggle and dropping his hand.

  “Valeria knew that Carson would be nearby that night. She had hoped for it. Had she accomplished her task without failure, she would happily have him right now and I would not only have my throne, but my son would have an imprinted, pregnant, bitch to carry my line. But alas, he is a failure much as she is.” He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes curving along my body in a way that made my skin crawl.

  “You still haven’t pieced it together yet, have you?” he asked, gazing at me.

  “Pieced what together?” I hissed, the words spat through clenched teeth.

  Henrick clucked his tongue, turning to watch the group behind him gather and line candles and some sort of dark colored liquid around the circle. I couldn’t see its color in the odd half-light but I could smell blood in the air.

  “The incidents leading up to your coma?” he said, in a nearly condescending tone, staring down at me with his golden brown gaze. “Valeria was the one at the club.”

  Those violet eyes flickered to life in my memory, the pale face and what I had thought had been blonde hair…

  “She had one of my Vampyre lieutenants and of course The Beast to either kill you, turn you, or allow Anton his opportunity to force an imprint on you. He’s one of the few with such a talent and he seems to have squandered it.”

  The images I had glimpses that night flirted through my memory, one after another. There were gaping holes in my memories. He could have been. I wouldn’t know. I couldn’t.

  Henrick sighed, watching the thoughts as they filtered across my face. I was struggling, trying desperately to coalesce my broken mind into understanding. “I believe my son chose to do more with his ability than I had authorized.” He stepped closer and jabbed his fingertips against my forehead. Swirling colors appeared in my vision, blinding out my present until I was experiencing that fateful night once more.

  My eyes flickered open, blood dripping into them from some sort of gash across the top of my head. My limbs didn’t respond but I could see everything that was happening, unaffected by my pain and concussion.

  I lay in the street, my back pressed to the alley’s pavement. My dress had been shredded; it’s strap broken and the skirt ripped into pieces. It was hiked clear to my waist and my chest was bare though covered in open wounds. Blood trickled down from punctures at my neck and I knew immediately that my arm had been horribly broken. It was twisted in an impossible angle and lying against the asphalt.

  The wall beside me that divided this alley from the next was completely decimated, a large hole bored through the center, leaving ancient chunks of brick on the alley floor. On the other side of the wall, Raoul stood, towering over Carson. He shot a glance in my direction, absolute rage had completely taken over his features.

  Tyler lay against the club door in a crumpled pile, bleeding from the back of his head and maybe his neck, lying in a pool of his own blood. He was pale, his eyes shut, and I wasn’t sure as to whether he was breathing or not until I finally saw his chest shudder in a strangled gasp.

  A figure approached that I had never seen when these events had actually taken place. He was tall with lithe lean muscle, dark auburn hair, and golden amber eyes. Anton stepped from the darkness, rounding the block as though he had come from the club’s main entrance. He caught sight of me and slid nearer, watching where Carson and Raoul fought carefully.

  I didn’t respond to him. I hadn’t. I hadn’t been capable.

  He knelt beside me and his eyes flickered over me, horrified. He stared for a long moment at the broken bone in my arm and the blood welling from my neck. His eyes were hungry.

  He looked around, leaning close. He pressed his fingers against the side of my neck and I wanted desperately to cringe away from him and the pain that elicited but found myself still unable to move. He lowered toward my neck, his eyes yielding a starving desperation. He sank his fangs into me, and a warmth radiated from his hand against the other side of my neck.

  As he drew, I felt the bond connect through his touch. It was like trying to snap a magnet together, straining to make up the distance between and then, with a click it m
et its match.

  He pulled away and the sorrow on his countenance was palpable. His eyes had lost their hungry eagerness and had been replaced by an overwhelming sense of humanity.

  “No, no, no…” he gasped, leaning away from me and looking over my decimated form. He seemed disturbed, as though regretting what he had done. “I...I can’t do this.” His gaze flickered to my exposed lower body but he lurched back, gaining his feet.

  He was shaking his head as he lowers a hand and pressed his finger to the center of my bloodied forehead. “I can’t...I can’t be him…” then with a blinding red haze in my vision, he vanished, along with my memory of the incident.

  I was hurled back into the present as Henrick lifted his hand from my face. My head spun and I wanted to shake the recollection of pain and helplessness from me. I was a different woman now, and more than capable of taking care of myself.

  Anton had imprinted me. I had felt it through his touch. He had funneled his experience through me and I knew the moment the connection had occurred. I was right. He had been imprinted to me all along. But instead of forcing me to imprint him or even taking advantage of how Raoul had left me to further his lineage, he had erased my memories and ran. My heart swelled with pride for a moment. He really wasn’t like Henrick. Even if his father tried his damnedest to force him into his own image.

  Henrick stepped away, pacing as he continued his villainous monologue. “Yes, my idiot offspring forced a one way imprint and left. He left. He had the perfect opportunity to force a mutual imprint. He can do that. Just as he can break them. He could’ve impregnated you and continued his line. He could’ve done something!” He growled, his volume escalating as he went.

  His hands were balled into white fists of rage at his hips and they glowed faintly red. Then he whirled back to me. He jabbed a finger painfully into my chest. “Then you and your pathetic hybrid ruined all of my well placed plans. Your imprint with him is true. It wasn’t created. And it is mutual. The damn thing overpowers everything Anton created.” His hand locked around my throat suddenly and I choked out a gasp. His narrowed amber eyes burned into mine, his face so close I could feel his breath. Then he shoved my head back and stepped away from me again.