Bound (Legacy Series Book 4)

by Ellendale, Max

  "I'm very angry," I agreed, nodding to her. "A vampire decides to waltz into our lives because she couldn't control her own fledgling and systematically tries to destroy my psyche, hurt my family, and kill my old friends. I think I should be mad."

  "Damn right, Nee," Xany said, lifting her crossbow above her head, sending an arrow into the air. The sound of the recoil drew the attention of the Sept. "Whoops."

  "Xany," Mal growled out her name as the arrow clattered through the branches. Just before it hit the ground, my mother's hand shot out and caught it. She handed it back to Xany as if returning a toy to a child.

  Vanessa shot up suddenly, her eyes trained on the sky. Mal leapt to his feet as did Caden. The Sept's response followed. Men and women moved into formation, back to back with the bonfire in the center.

  "What's going on?" Xany asked, aiming her crossbow to the night sky though this time with purpose.

  "There's movement in the treetops," Caden said. "Do not break rank."

  If she wants our attention up, she's definitely not there. I turned and trained my eyes on the tree line around the edge of the magical barrier. My mother stood beside me, looking in the same direction though she kept glancing away as if trying to look through her periphery only.

  "I know you're there, Ileana. Whatever scent masks you've got going or distractions in the sky aren't going to matter," I called out, drawing the attention of some of the Sept.

  "You're too smart for your own good, Doctor Twofeathers," Ileana's sweet voice rang out from the nothingness, echoing eerily in the trees.

  "I have something for you. As well as an answer, a name." I wove my way through the wolves, ducking under arms and around bodies as I tried to find the source of Ileana's voice. Vanessa tried to stop my movement twice but I kept on. Caden watched me with caution and I sensed my mate bonds seize. My movement broke rank which was against Caden's orders. He allowed me because I asked to lead the talk. Anything else would push my luck.

  "Shawnee, what are you doing?" Xany's whisper pressed in on me as I passed her.

  "Trust me," I told her.

  "Keep your eyes down." Mal snarled in Xany's direction.

  "Doctor Twofeathers, what makes you believe I need or even want something from you, hmm? How do you know my army hasn't surrounded yours? An army immune to your silly magics," Ileana said.

  "We'll risk it," I said, pausing to gaze out over the trees again.

  Silence fell around us and a soft breeze blew, wafting the flames to the east. Vanessa growled first, followed by several others. Barron's shadow grew four times its size as he shifted beside us, Henry's followed. A screech rang out from above sending images of dying birds flashing across my mind. Human shaped bodies dropped from the sky like bombs, flailing as they landed in the circle around us. Xany jumped out of the way and my mother grabbed her as one of the body's hit the fire. It erupted in a flash as flames swallowed it, blackening its flesh as it screamed and whipped about. Reduced to ashes in seconds.

  "Vampires, she's throwing vampires!" June roared, bringing her hand down across the throat of a leech that tried to rise from the ground.

  "They're jumping." Hank snatched a vampire off Henry's back and tore it in two, it's innards splashing on the snow at his feet.

  Another one landed in the bonfire, though as his skin burned, it spit volcanic particles into the air. It hit June's mate on the arm and caught his jacket on fire.

  They can handle it. Focus, Shawnee.

  "You're a coward. How long has it been, Ileana? A thousand years?" I stepped to the very edge of the barrier. "I have something for you. Don't you want it?" At the same time that I drew the gun, I pulled the empty flask from the holster. "Recognize this?" I held it up in front of me, dangling it like a lure to a fish. Vanessa broke away from the chaos to stand beside me, her eyes scanning the space in front of us. She grabbed my arm and aimed my gun to the left, firing one shot. In the flash-bang of the gun, I saw Ileana's outline emerging.

  "Don't look," Vanessa demanded and I dropped my gaze.

  "What do you think, Ileana? I solved your damn riddle." I waved the flask about until her tiny form, clad in her usual white ski jacket and fluffy boots, appeared a few feet in front of us. Her head tilted to the side. "The fall of the Byzantine Empire and your connection to it. The voodoo magic you used to remove your own heart. You told me all about it when you killed Oliver, didn't you?"

  "Clever, Doctor, very clever," she said, ignoring Vanessa entirely. Her body jerked and quaked in her usual creepy stop-motion way as her feet came to a pause on the same spot my mother's had earlier that evening.

  "It wasn't all that hard. You gave me enough riddles to solve." I shrugged, ducking as something that resembled an arm went flying over my head. Blood splashed, bones crunched, and growls sounded from behind me. How many vampires dove to their deaths? They couldn't enter the circle if they carried her blood, how had she managed to convince so many others to sacrifice themselves for her cause? Maybe that's what it takes to lead an army, convince them of your purpose.

  Convince them.

  "How's Daddy doing? Did you enjoy seeing him? Dakota is a lovely addition to your family, don't you think?" She tilted her head as I stared at her chin, a spiteful smile spreading across her thin lips. "He's quite a looker. Tastes a tad like you as well." My mother's profound energy pressed in on me as her attention fell to Ileana at the mention of her mate's name. "Oh and there's Mommy. How lovely. Such a-look-alike." Ileana giggled. "She was much harder to find, you know. Dead people are much more difficult to resurrect than the living."

  Thoughts of Robbie rising from the dead flashed across my mind. Had she tried to do the same to Dakota? Is that why my mother treated him so differently?

  Focus, Shawnee.

  "She isn't dead." I clenched my teeth, wavering on my stance when she mentioned my mother.

  "No, she isn't. Neither is Daddy now is he?" Ileana tilted her head from side to side. I cringed at the skipping motion. "You were so easy to find. Did you know you're famous, Doctor Twofeathers? Court cases, school registries, jobs. Right down to Mercy General. And all those medical papers you contributed to, hmm? You might as well have left your front door open for me to walk in. The newspaper article from the summer, now that one was the lovely."

  "Shut up."

  "Don't like that, no? Finding your friends was the easiest ever." She nearly giggled. "Hardly any of them left the park. Too bad your house is gone. Trapping you there would've been the perfect plan."

  She was getting the upper hand as my rage boiled, seething my skin as if threatening to erupt. I dug my nails into my palms and forced myself to focus. Make this about her.

  "What happened to you, Ileana, at the Hagia Sophia that you decided to preserve your black heart there? It was in the museum, you know, in the basement. Tossed aside like a piece of useless trash." I turned the flask upside down. "Too bad, though. It was eager to break free." I tossed the flask and it hit the ground with a thud, rolling to a stop at her feet. Ileana's attention dropped from me to the flask. She bent to pick it up and, as soon as the container touched her hand, her eyes flashed red in the darkness. "Didn't like that, did you? Your heart is mine."

  "What are you doing?" Vanessa spat when I lowered the gun, nudging my arm back up.

  "It won't matter if I shoot her," I said. "She's got a hollow chest."

  "They're coming in droves," she said, and I felt a quiver along our mate bond. I hadn't been paying attention to the battle behind me until that moment. I had to hurry.

  "My heart belongs to no one, Doctor Twofeathers," Ileana finally spoke, slipping the flask into the pocket of her jacket.

  "Wrong. It's mine, and very well protected. But that's not why we're here, is it? I know who you are, Ileana. I know what you've done. You're written in history after all. Leading the great Empire until your little boy grew up and kicked you out. But that wasn't enough for you. You came back, didn't you? Blinded your own son so you could rule as Emperor fo
r five whole years. Not Empress. No, don't confuse those terms. You and your armies, your siege. And then you died. So sad." I shook my head as I watched Ileana stand stone-still like a corpse planted in the ground instead of a gravestone. "Died centuries before the fall. Became a saint even. But you stayed and watched until the very end. Your great Empire fell and what did you have left? Nothing but stories. Stories of the great Emperor Irene." I shrugged, lowering my gun as Vanessa took a swipe at something beside me. My mother's body turned and a scream rang out soon after. By the time she returned to my side, she tossed an arm at Ileana's feet as if giving a dog a bone.

  "You are clever, Doctor Twofeathers," Ileana finally spoke. She wasn't moving in rapid succession anymore and something about her face changed. Her cheekbones sharpened as her fangs nicked her lips. Her eyes now steadfast red and glowing like an otherworldly beast. "Very clever."

  "Thanks. But this doesn't solve anything yet does it? You still need your answer or the war doesn't stop, right?" I said, stepping out of the way of an arrow that implanted itself in the ground by my feet. Thank Gaia I couldn't see what was going on behind me. I couldn't tell if my family was safe, save for my mother and Vanessa. I lost Mal to his beast long ago as he raged inside me, slaughtering and slashing at anything in his way.

  "Right again." Ileana abandoned her quips, her sharp tongue, her game-playing for simple words. I was going to win this game. "Now, if you would please pay my price." She gestured in front of herself, as if laying a blanket down on the ground.

  "If I offer you a satisfactory childe, this ends," I posed.

  "It ends," she repeated.

  "All right." I took a deep breath, lifting my gaze from the ground at her feet to look her directly in the eye. "I name myself as your childe."

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  "Shawnee!" Vanessa shouted my name and grabbed me by the arm, yanking me backward.

  "Let me go." I struggled to get away. My declaration drew a furor in the pack. Caden roared and Xany shouted. Mal's tirade slowed. My mother, with her hands balled into tight fists, stood beside me. Her face contorted into the deadly mask of betrayal she had in her heart. "Listen, just listen a minute."

  "That's your choice, Doctor Twofeathers. You name yourself as my childe, and it is done," Ileana said, taking a step forward.

  "No!" Vanessa's grip tightened on me as our mate bond thrashed, igniting Mal's and alerting everyone else. War raged inside me now as I had spoken the one thing they never thought I would.

  "Just trust me, dammit," I said through clenched teeth. "All of you."

  "Come now, Doctor, as to not waste time," Ileana, or Irene as she should be called, sounded rushed as if she knew what was to follow.

  "Shawnee," Vanessa pleaded, looking to Caden for something, anything.

  "What have you done?" Caden asked, his voice deep and gruff in a way I'd never heard before.

  "Trust me," I repeated.

  "You're gonna get yourself turned into a leech!" Xany revolted as she slammed the butt of her crossbow into the head of a vampire that rushed past.

  "No, I'm not." I turned away from them to look back at Ileana. "Isn't that right, Irene?" With narrowed eyes, I held her gaze. Her red eyes bore into me like laser light, searing my corneas with a deep sensation that pressed but never penetrated.

  "Don't look at her!" Hank shouted from behind me.

  "Come here now," Ileana spat, her composure now fading as her true nature began to show. Her skin whitened, hardening to that of a waxy corpse and accentuating her sharp cheekbones. She extended a hand to me, her once pretty pink fingernails now razor-like talons.

  "Nope. Sorry. I can't do that." It worked! "And I won't do it. You can't thrall me, can you?" I tilted my head, watching her in all her fallen glory as pieces finally began to fall into place. The first time I saw her at the hospital, as Mal pointed out, she had her chance there when I met her gaze. "You tried, though. When we first met and I saw your translucent eyes. And then again in your dungeon. You were in that room with me, weren't you? Trying desperately to gain control. But all you could do was get me to sleep. Steal my mother's voice and words, then put me to sleep. And you didn't like when I staked your baby leech, did you? Too busy having a tantrum to catch me running off."

  "Come here!" she shouted, stomping her foot once which sent a shockwave to my knees.

  "No. I won't." I shook my head. "You've made this mistake before with Izzy, didn't you? You couldn't thrall her but you turned her anyway. Look at the mess she made." I gestured around us. "That girl was sick. She was sick and you took advantage of it. She had leech sickness because you turned her, because you turned a mind that was fractured."

  Ileana's shoulders broadened, her chest heaved with breaths I knew she had to take.

  "Her mind was fractured just like mine. You can't thrall us. You won't turn me because you can't control me. I'd make a pretty sick leech, too. But I am your childe, Irene, and I've named myself. Our deal is done." I took a deep breath and continued to stare at Ileana, holding her gaze as strongly as before. No matter what she did, no matter how she moved, I didn't waiver under her glare. There wasn't any dominance, no signs of power over me. As long as the barrier held, as long as Adia guarded her heart, we were safe.

  "You little bitch," Ileana heaved with each word. She tossed her head back and screamed a deadly birdlike cry. Vampires stopped attacking, and some of the wolves shielded their ears.

  "I have one question for you, Irene," I said.

  "What?" she spat so fiercely that a mouthful of blood left her lips.

  "Do you want to live? Do you want to continue walking this earth as an ancient? As one of the firsts?" I tilted my head, awaiting her response as I stared down the very demon-beast that she was. My pack glared in her direction, but I knew no one could see what I could.

  It took Ileana several seconds to answer as the remaining vampires gathered around her, some of them bled from holes in their bodies or from amputated areas where limbs once hung. She seemed to consider my question with seriousness, though I couldn't be sure if she pretended to act that way.

  "Yes," she said, finally.

  "Then you'll take your herd, close your disgusting club immediately, and vacate our territory. You won't kill or turn anyone else. I'll keep your heart and we end in a truce," I offered. Vanessa had finally released me and Caden's hand on the back of my neck told me I had pushed my luck but not enough for him to supersede me. "And you'll address my wolves, my army, with respect. There will be no retaliation in the future. Those are the terms."

  "A truce?" She hissed out the final word, her blazon eyes searched my expression for a lie.

  "A truce. You agree and we walk away. You don't agree, and I shove a tiny little stake into your slimy thousand-year-old heart like it was nothing more than a hors d’oeuvre," I said, holstering my gun and crossing my arms over my chest.

  The vampires by her side protested but she lifted her hand to silence them. Her eyes bore into me again with the same ceaseless pressure as before as if she tried one last time to take me. I fought back, pressing my own will back on her. In time, the sensation faded and her shoulders evened. She gripped the flask in her hand again, rubbing her thumb over the mouth of it in an affectionate caress.

  "Truce," she said.

  A satisfied smile melted over my mouth. "Checkmate," I said, glancing to Vanessa. Understanding washed over her expression followed by an angrily furrowed brow.

  Ileana turned her back on us and I watched as she led what was left of her vampires back through the woods.

  I turned around to face the Sept. Most of the wolves back in their human form with blood dripping from everywhere. June, with her lips pressed tightly together, tugged Vincent toward the bonfire and began throwing body parts into the flames.

  "That was a damn gamble," Henry said, sounding mildly amused.

  "What were you thinking, Shawnee?" Vanessa rounded on me before Caden could even open his mouth. "Do you know how badly that co
uld've turned out? Naming yourself to a leech!" She grabbed my shoulders, tugging me to stand in front of her. "You can't do this anymore. Risking yourself for whatever greater good you think is out there. What if she could thrall you? What if you were wrong? When you risk yourself, you risk all of us. Everyone." She gestured around us. I didn't answer her. She was right, everything she said was right.

  "How did you know she couldn't thrall you?" Caden asked as a whoosh of flames rose from behind him when June tossed in another vampire corpse. Barron joined her in cleaning up.

  "I didn't at first. Things started to make sense while I talked to her. I've felt it before when she had me at her house. She tried to press her will on me and it didn't work. I told Mal she was an ancient by the way her eyes looked. He knew I looked at her without getting thralled." I looked between the angry, worried faces as they bore down on me. My mother and Xany's silence unnerved me the most. Mal, my steady, even Mal, stood at my side. He, like the others, wasn't angry. Something radiated through our bond. Was he proud? Relieved? I couldn't quite tell.

  "Is that true?" Hank asked Mal, his brows lifted, smoothing out his former glare.

  "Yes," Mal's simple response relaxed the shoulders of almost everyone. Xany didn't look pleased at being left out again. "I suspected that she couldn't thrall Shawnee just as I suspected that was the reason for Izzy's uncontrolled nature."

  "But you weren't going to tell me that." I nodded to him. "The images I send you through our bond. You get them stronger than Vanessa and you have seen into me."

  "Yeah, love. I have." He moved beside me, slipping his arm around my middle. "And I knew what you were planning."

  "What?" Vanessa rounded on him, her anger and hurt raked through my center. "Why didn't you stop her?"

  "Because." He gestured around us, glancing over the faces of that stared at us. "It ended as it should."

  "Ileana walks," Vanessa's deep guttural voice had me shivering. My mates hadn't argued in months and feeling their power inside me had me frozen in place. "How is that how it should be?"