The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3)

by Michelle Hazen

  I scoff, too loudly so that my denial sounds almost desperate. “You were his prisoner. Somehow I doubt there were too many informed consent forms running around in the basement he had you locked away in.”

  If anyone could forgive someone for torturing her, it would be Lia. She’s just like Elena that way: she feels for others so deeply that it makes it all but impossible for her to condemn them. But I don’t want to—I can’t—believe she would join them of her own free will.

  Lia isn’t a vampire hater. She never even hated the other prisoners who attacked her for her blood, in the violent days after they took us off our human blood ration. She worked in a hospital as a nurse for years because she liked to help people. But she’d killed humans, too, and it didn’t leave her brooding into ten thousand journals like Stefan. She did the best she could after her transition, and I think she figured other vampires did the same.

  Lia didn’t judge. It’s one of the reasons we used to get along so well. And it makes no damn sense that she’d join a secret society based on nothing but condemning vampires.

  She leans forward, her delicate jaw set hard. “I rebuilt the society, Damon. I helped Dr. Manning fake his own death so you’d stop looking for him, and I helped him select allies who wanted to find a way for vampires to live in peace with humans. I even figured out how to help the new vampires control their nature so they could be trusted not to leave and start feeding on humans.”

  My fingers jerk convulsively. “And I guess you were too busy to call and say, ‘Hey I didn’t bite it after all, maybe we can grab coffee sometime now that we’re not undergoing major surgery twice a week?’ I mean, if you were really free, they should at least have allowed you a phone call, right? Even penitentiaries do that much.”

  She reaches for me and I step back before she can touch me, because I can’t stand it right now.

  “I couldn’t!” she protests. “Because I knew you’d react like this. You can’t see past the name Augustine to recognize all the good we’ve done since you escaped.”

  My eyes flare furiously. “Give it to me straight, Lia, because we’ve never lied to each other. If you chose to rebuild this fucking society, if that is your freak show yoga studio outside this bank vault door, exactly how long have you been planning to end me?”

  She rises slowly to standing, letting me box her into the corner. Careless of her, or carelessly trusting. I’ve killed things stronger than her, killed people I’ve known longer than her, and she damn well knows that.

  “Did you give the order for them to murder Elena?” I whisper, because if I say it louder than that, I will absolutely lose my shit and I don’t know yet if it would hurt more to watch her die at my hands or to leave her alive.

  I have no idea who she is anymore.

  She catches both my wrists and holds on with an eerie strength when I try to shove her away from me.

  “I would never hurt you,” she says, low and fervent. “I’m trying to help you. But I’m not the only one in charge, okay?”

  “Answer the fucking question!” I roar, my voice slapping back into my own ears as it ricochets off the close-set walls of this room that pretends not to be a cell.

  Lia steps closer, her breath tickling my chin when she says, “The walls are reinforced; difficult to hear through unless we shout. I know you’re angry but please try not to draw attention. They’re very protective of me and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  I glare down at her, filled to bursting with a feeling that staggers between rage and nausea. “Your pet scientist told Elena that the Augustines have a vampire all the others are sire bonded to. One loyal vampire, controlling all their other little puppets. Is that the kind of protective they are? Is that your trick to ‘help’ them control themselves?”

  “It’s not a sire bond. It’s another process we’ve developed that can be used on new or existing vampires,” she corrects quickly, but I notice she doesn’t deny it, and I can’t take this. It can’t be her, can’t be Lia behind all of this.

  I use a burst of strength to break her grip on me, and I refuse to rub my sore wrists when I stalk away. “What do you call it, Pussy Whipped to the Ninth Power? What the hell, Lia? You hated being locked up. It made you sick to watch them try to brainwash all of us with their weird little propaganda videos, with all their lists of our crimes. Did that Nazi doctor screw the brain straight out of you while you were playing house together in his dungeon?”

  I don’t even see her cross the room until after her hand cracks me across the face in a slap so hard that my teeth cut the inside of my cheek and I’m left swallowing down the bitter traces of my own blood.

  “You don’t know anything,” she seethes, her temper as quick as mine has ever been. “You’ve been gone for half a century, Damon. Do you think I’d still be here if it was anything like you remember? Did you see vampires strapped to tables out there, smell any vervain in the air? The new Augustines are too strong. It’s not safe to make creatures that powerful if they can take off and wreak havok on the human world anytime they get moody. But I only turn volunteers, so sire bond or not, we’re here because we want to be. Because we believe there’s a better way to live as vampires.”

  “There is,” I spit at her. “With your fangs buried arterially deep in the kind of people who would steal your free will. That’s how I live.”

  She takes a deep breath. “Look. When Elena Gilbert wanted to join the society, they ran a routine background check on her and found that in her registration paperwork for Whitmore College, she listed you as her emergency contact. Your name rang every alarm bell this society has. Dr. Manning died in the early nineties, but everybody knows the story of how the Augustines were nearly wiped out. You’re—” She falters, gesturing apologetically. “You’re kind of the worst case scenario. The story they tell about what happened when the Augustines tried to do all this the hard way, with involuntary experimentation and forced bloodshares.” She winces. “They think you’re crazy, Damon.”

  I take a dangerous step forward. “Maybe they’ve got a few brain cells left in the top rank brass after all.”

  Her face is shadowed. “By the time I found out the other leaders had sent a group to your house in Mystic Falls, they were already on their way and I was terrified that they might hurt you. Once you escaped, I was left doing damage control back here, because you’re so high profile that not even I can declare you off limits.” She takes a step closer, her eyes pleading. “I demanded that they take you alive. I was going to fake your death once you got here, help you get a new identity so they wouldn’t look for you anymore.”

  “Screw that,” I spit. “The Augustines took my name from me once, and I’ll kill every one of them before I let them take it again. And what about my family, Lia? Your goons had my brother for a midnight snack.”

  She flinches. “Stefan was with you? They told me you had friends over when the attack went down but I got the impression it was mostly you and your girlfriend who lived at that house and—”

  “Fiancé,” I snap.

  “Fiancé,” she echoes with delight, her face brightening for a minute before she takes a step closer, dropping her voice to an even more private pitch. “Look, I know you’re not really in the mood, but we need to talk about that. When I heard you had a girlfriend, I thought maybe you finally got Katherine out of the tomb, but then Katherine—your Katherine—showed up here with this crazy story about how she became a human and you were dating her doppelganger and she handed over the address of your last hotel like a piece of junk mail.” Lia raises an eyebrow at me. “Apparently your love life became a lot more dramatic while I’ve been busy.”

  “You can cover a lot of ground if you don’t spend your time sire bonding an army of vampires to yourself,” I say acidly.

  She sighs. “It’s a safeguard thing. It’s not like I use it that much. And I’d think you’d be thanking me considering you’ve made yourself Public Enemy #1 for our cause and the only reason you’re still alive is
because I protected you. Anyway, you’ve got bigger problems than nitpicking my life choices, Salvatore. Katherine’s trying to take over the Augustine Society.”

  I drop my head and groan. “Of course she is. She’s spent her whole life making enemies on every continent and now that she’s human, she needs a bodyguard. Or a sired vampire army of bodyguards.”

  “Exactly,” Lia confirms, propping a shoulder against the wall and folding her arms. “She has five hundred years worth of knowledge of vampire hotspots and she’s using it to make herself very useful to the other leaders of the Society. She’s already trying to convince them that bonding some of the new vampires to her would be a smart backup plan in case something happens to me.”

  I bite back a sound of frustration.

  Katherine just painted a target directly on Lia’s chest. As soon as enough of the vampires belong to Katherine, Lia will have a convenient “accident” of some kind and I’ll have a vindictive ex-girlfriend running a very well-armed version of the Society for the Killing of Damon Salvatore.

  “And you want me to do what about Katherine, exactly?” I ask. “Forgive me if I got a little confused about our relationship somewhere between the welcome-back-from-the-dead hug and the part where you escorted me to a guest room with a door that looks like it should be guarding the Hope Diamond.”

  Lia’s chin lifts stubbornly. “I can handle Katherine,” she says. “I just didn’t want you to be upset if you saw her here.”

  I just shake my head, huffing a breath of complete and utter disbelief at how messed up my life can get. As if it’s not enough to figure out how to escape this place, now I have to worry about internal Augustine politics, too?

  “It was easier to keep the other leaders from going after you before, but you killed so many vampires in the raid on your house...”

  She’s silent for a long moment, and I don’t say a word. I’m sure she knew the people we killed, and Hallmark’s not going to be conveying my condolences anytime soon. If her friends wanted to live another day, they never should have stepped foot in my home.

  When she raises her head again, there’s a wistful smile touching her lips. “Does this mean you and Stefan are finally getting along? God, I’d kill to get to actually meet him.”

  My eyebrow kicks upward and she winces.

  “Ouch, poor word choice. Sorry.” She sighs when my expression doesn’t change. “Come on, Damon. You know me, better than anyone else ever has. Stop letting your temper run away with you and use that great big brain for something useful. We’re in a hell of a mess, you and I, and the security here has upgraded with the times. I know it’s not your style, but neither of us can get you out of here unless you play by the rules a little bit.”

  I flare my eyes, letting the whites darken slightly. “Fat chance, but if you want to play appetizer in my all-you-can-eat buffet, I could be persuaded to eat like the natives all the way to the front door.”

  Lia just gives me a half-fond, half-patient look that reminds me so much of Elena I look away, fighting back the angry prickle of my fangs.

  “To become an Augustine, you go through three procedures. One of them makes you able to live on vampire blood instead of human.” Her eyes are kind as she watches for my reaction. “It takes away that edge we all have that craves violence, the submission inherent to death. Damon, it’s like magic, like breaking an addiction you never knew you could be free of.” She takes a step closer, exhaling as a soft smile takes her lips. “You have no idea how relaxing it can be, not having to fight the worst parts of yourself all the time.”

  I refuse to give ground before her, but my muscles are so tight I can practically feel them crackle beneath my skin.

  She swallows what looks like a sigh and goes on when I fail to react. “Another procedure bonds the vampires to me, for safety. And the last one increases their speed, their strength, so that they are more than a match for ordinary vampires.”

  She turns and walks across the room.

  There’s nowhere to go in here, nothing to look at but the mattress. But I think she just doesn’t want to see my face when she says, “They’ve given me an ultimatum, Damon. They can kill you, or you can submit to at least the first two procedures, all three if you want them.”

  I laugh. Loud and hard. “If I want them. So nice that an organization built around brainwashing hasn’t lost their sense of false courtesy.”

  Lia’s shoulders snap straight. “You think it’s about power, but it’s about freedom, and it’s much bigger than you and your friends. There are enough of us now to begin the changeover, and when we’re done, there won’t be a single traditional vampire left in the world. Vampirism has never been fair to humans, because they are completely unmatched, but with our modifications vampires can choose their own path.”

  She looks proud for the first time since she started talking, her eyes lit from within with the light of real passion.

  “If our new breed of vampires wants to hunt, they can hunt their own kind, who are actually equipped to fight back. If they want to live without stealing or hurting anyone, it will finally be an option for them. And for those vampires like your brother, for whom bloodlust is a cruel joke played on the person they used to be...” She shrugs gently. “They’ll finally be free.”

  “Don’t bring my brother into this,” I warn her in a low voice. “Your minions nearly killed him and I’d have to be about sixteen decades dumber to buy the idea that now the Augustines want to ‘help’ him.”

  “It is help. You’ve seen it yourself,” she says, her voice rising. “We’re driven to kill, to take victims and our bodies love it. And we’re all so damned twisted from trying to live with that. We hate ourselves, or we hate everyone else. We make these insane bargains with our ourselves about what is right or wrong, like it’s okay if they don’t remember or if we heal the wounds, if we only prey on criminals or animals or adults.”

  Her face tightens.

  “It’s why we all fell apart when they forced the bloodshares. It was like the Augustines made a list of all the bullshit we were selling ourselves and threw it up on a billboard for everyone to see.” Her eyes burn, and only now do I remember how relentless she can be when there’s something she believes in. “You always called yourself a sinner and laughed like you didn’t care, but you starved rather than let anyone taste the truth of your sins.”

  I keep my gaze locked on the wall behind her, because her eyes strip me bare in a way that leather and cotton can’t fix.

  Lia shakes her head, calm creeping back over her face. “You’re so scared of anybody really knowing you that you endured five years of torture without blinking. But then you clawed your way out of that prison less than a month after the bloodshares started to show all of us what liars our bloodlust had turned us into.”

  I manage a single cough of a laugh, but it scrapes with a hollow kind of scorn, and I feel lightheaded with all the shit she’s throwing at me. It’s been a long time since anybody but Elena or Stefan could hit my buttons the way Lia is doing.

  “You don’t have to create victims, Damon. You have a fiancé you obviously adore. Don’t you think life would be better if she was all you needed? If you never had to watch her feed on another man?” She tilts her head, trying to catch my gaze. “Wouldn’t she like you better if the darkest parts of you just...faded away?”

  Six months ago, I would have killed her for saying that. A month ago, I still would have snapped her neck, just to make a point. This time, I only shake my head and wish I had a drink.

  “I give my girl the best version of me I can, Li. But she doesn’t want the censored edition.”

  She nods slowly. “Good,” she finally says, very quietly. “I’m glad for you, Damon. More than you’d ever believe right now. But the other Augustine leaders aren’t going to let you go as is, not after everything you’ve done.”

  I make a dismissive sound. “Kids nowdays. They never appreciate a classic in mint condition.”

  Lia l
aughs, her eyes warming. “I missed you. You know that?”

  “That’s what all the girls say before they try to change me,” I drawl. It’s easier than admitting to the humiliating tightness in my throat that says I missed her, too, and seeing her today didn’t ease the feeling of loss one bit, because the vampire I knew is long dead, just like I thought.

  Her smile turns sad and then vanishes altogether as she pauses with her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll hold the other leaders off as long as I can, but you’re going to have to make a choice, Damon. Join us, or they’ll execute you.”

  So they’re giving me the choice to be something I hate, or to be nothing at all, and they’re cocky enough to assume I can’t wring a third option out of this whole sorry situation.

  The door closes behind Lia and I smile thinly into the empty room. Bring it on, fuckers. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.