by Eve Newton
“Check this out.” I let go of Cole and spin in a circle, arms outstretched and in a swirl of black, I complete the circle fully dressed, hair, nails, jewelry, the works. “What do you have to say about that?” I say with pride as I smooth down the flowing skirt of my strapless black satin dress, not concerned with the tattoo due to the company.
“Wow. That is some trick,” Devon says in delight with Cole agreeing wholeheartedly. Even CK looks impressed.
“You look ravishing as always, my sweet,” he says with a frown. “Maybe too much. You are not to leave my side tonight. I don’t trust him not to try something and if he gets you behind the wards, there won’t be much we can do to get you back.”
Cole looks terrified on my behalf.
“Gee, think you might want to ease up on the doom and gloom there, Granddad,” Devon says using a familial term that makes me snicker into my hand and makes CK look like he is about to blow a gasket, or two.
“Call me that again and you will find yourself without a head, my boy. Aefre, we have to be aware of what he might try.”
I nod, still struggling to keep the smile off my face. He sends me a scathing look that could tear strips off a lesser Vampire.
“What is with him and these family terms anyway? I mean, nephews? I thought I was going to puke,” Cole says briskly, buttoning up his shirt and pulling on a jacket. I note that the other two are equally well dressed. Did they expect to be asked to a smart dinner or what? Vain fools.
“It is very creepy,” I agree. “It’s all very incestuous and gross.”
“I think that is part of the reason he does it,” Constantine says with distaste. “Please do not ever call me… that,” he says to me in earnest.
I grin at him. “No worries, as long as you never call me… that.”
“Agreed.”
“And while we are at it,” Cole pipes up, “don’t ever call me… that.”
“Nor me,” Devon says.
“Fair enough. Now that we have that established, shall we go do this, whatever it is?”
With our new terms agreed, we head out of the room and downstairs. As we reach the bottom step, we are greeted by Tatiana, who leads us to the sitting room we were in earlier.
Lance is already in there with several other Master Vampires, not siblings, and a few Greater Immortals that are his own.
“Ah, there she is,” he says smoothly as we enter. “Ladies and gentlemen, my sister, our liege lady.”
He is completely comfortable in his surroundings now that it is dark out and that worries me. A lot.
I get a short round of applause, so I gracefully incline my head in response. It would be rude not to.
He moves across to our party and leans down to kiss me on each cheek. I resist the urge to punch him. He pulls back and looks into my eyes. I can feel the magick coming off him and I narrow my eyes at him. He is trying to get me under his spell! I can’t believe the nerve of this man, but it isn’t working, I think with delight. Whatever my new Power entails, fending off other magick is apparently one of my new gifts. Although, how he is able to wield this power is still a mystery.
He hisses softly as he realizes I’m not under his control and turns his attention to my newest charge, our weakest link.
“Try it, Lance, and I will end you,” I whisper in a tone that makes it perfectly clear that I mean business. He smirks and backs off.
“I see you have gained a whole new set of skills, my dear. I will just have to try harder. I nearly broke you once, I will succeed,” he says mildly and saunters off as if he has just uttered pleasantries to us. So much for playing nice. He is going down and the sooner the better.
“He knows. Watch yourself, Aefre. And don’t let anything he says affect you. We are here and we will protect you if it’s the last thing we do,” CK mutters in my ear.
I nod grimly, very much affected by what Lance said to me. CK doesn’t know. Devon and Cole don’t know. No one knows. Well, almost no one knows, that he did break me. Twelve years of being under his mistreatment and I finally broke like a china doll. I was minutes away from giving him what he wanted, when I was rescued by my sire, my savior. CK swooped in on his proverbial white horse and got me out of this place. And now here I stand, as if nothing happened and it all gets a bit too much. I turn and head for the door, with my three boys hot on my tail. I burst through the front door and into the dark, fresh air breathing deeply to clear the fear.
“I’m okay,” I say before they can even ask me, but head towards the gates rapidly, needing to be as far away from the inside of this castle as possible.
Following me at a close distance, they fall back, giving me my space as I get closer to the gates.
“Tell them to open it,” I call back to CK, who does as I ask.
They open the gates. I step out, my heels sinking into the damp forest floor as I pick my hem up and walk.
Breathing in calm, deep breaths, I relax and gain control of myself again. See this through and all will be well, I tell myself.
A soft noise to my right catches my attention. It’s the wolf from before. The Alpha. He comes to me and brushes up against me. I drop to my knees and stroke him. I sense his pain as his bright green eyes bore into mine.
“Hey. It’s okay. Whatever he has done to you, you will be avenged. I’m going to kill him, and you will be set free. I promise you,” I whisper to him. I think he understands. He nuzzles my hand and licks me.
I giggle. “I will come back and find you again,” I say as I stand, resolute as to how the next couple of hours are going to go. I head back to the castle. Magick bearers or not, this ends tonight.
“Are you sure?” Constantine whispers to me as I stalk past them.
“Seriously, how do you do that?” I stop and ask him.
He shrugs, taking my elbow and leading me back inside the castle walls.
“There are a lot of people here who will protect him,” he says instead of answering me. “If you do this now, be prepared to kill more than just him.”
I flinch at his words, but I have made up my mind. If anyone tries to protect him, they die too.
“I am going to take care of this tonight. Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself. Both of you watch Cole, and Constantine please, watch over Devon as well. Whatever your quarrel was earlier, I need to know you will protect them both.”
“Of course, I will. You have no need to ask me,” he says.
“Thank you.”
Back in the foyer, Lance greets us. “Please, we are ready for dinner now. If you would join us.”
Following him to the dining hall, I pause briefly at the foot of the stairs as we pass.
“What is it?” Cole asks.
“I… I’m not sure,” I say, a bit shaky as an immense feeling of dread washes over me. I move off to the side suddenly.
“Aefre,” CK calls to me, but I ignore him and push open a door. The kitchens. Three maids look slightly startled as I stalk into the room. I head for the door towards the back. They rush forward to stop me, shouting at me in Romanian.
CK catches up with me and pulls me back. “Aefre. What are you doing?”
I stop in front of the door and look at him. He knows as well as I do what this door opens up to. I put my hand on the handle, but he pulls it away, shaking off the women who are trying to stop us.
As expected, it’s locked. Holding my hand up to the heavy wood, I also feel magick. Reinforced wards. Closing my eyes, I pull up my mental map. I see us in the kitchens, and I push out with my mind to encompass the dungeons. Blocked, just like I was at Ponte. I push harder, holding my hand flat against the door. Still nothing. Determined to break through, I put every ounce of my Power behind it, physically pushing against the door as if I might break through it. I hear Constantine saying my name, I feel him touch me and I pull on his energy, giving me an extra boost. He grips my arm in protest as I keep pulling on his ancient source of power, pushing the mental map to expand and show me what I already
know. It breaks through as I break out into a sweat, my knees giving way at the amount of energy I have used. Constantine is still holding onto me, which keeps me on my feet as I whimper in distress.
“Aefre?”
“Liv?”
I hear my name, both of them, a dozen times, but all I can see is the flashback of me being dragged down the stairs from the tower, by my hair, and across these kitchen floors, through this door, down the stone steps and past a number of cells to my very own. It is now currently occupied by a girl, who looks like me. Not just a girl. A Vampire. Not just any Vampire, but a sibling. A charge of my sire’s that looks just like me, that Lance has chained up to a wall in my former cell.
“What is the meaning of this?” Lance thunders as he stalks into the kitchens.
Catching me shaky and off guard, he smirks and says, “If you wanted to go back down there, Lucretia, all you had to do was ask.”
“Who is it?” I yell at him. “Who is down there?”
He looks perplexed. “There is no one down there.”
Grabbing Constantine, I say, “There is someone down there. A girl. Like me. One of yours. She's yours. She looks like me.” I ramble on unable to get control of my thoughts.
Constantine grips both my arms. “Aefre, what are you saying?”
“She’s down there,” I yell at him. “Make him undo the wards. We need to get her out.”
“Lucretia, you are clearly distressed. Perhaps the stress of this new post has you not in your right mind.”
Turning to him, I snarl, “I know what I saw. Undo the wards and get her out of there.”
“There is no one down there, my dear,” he says, his evil black eyes focused innocently on mine.
I know that innocent look. I see it on my sire, our sire, all the time and I don’t buy it for a second.
Turning back towards the door, I close my eyes again and try to force the door open. Only problem is, I don’t really know how. The Power is there and wants to help but I don’t know what to do. Dammit, I slam my palm against the solid wood and feel the wards give a little but then snap back into place.
Turning again to Constantine, I say, “She’s one of yours. She looks like me. Don’t leave her down there.”
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
He looks utterly dumbfounded, as do Cole and Devon. Lance just looks mildly amused as if I have lost my marbles. Have I? I wonder. Did I just see myself down there in my memory? I shake my head, not willing to accept that.
Again, I close my eyes and focus. Lance does nothing to stop me, fully confident that his wards will hold, and I won’t get through them.
I see her again, chained to the wall by her neck, as I was, unable to move. Starving, weak as a kitten, so as not to break away from the chains.
“Who are you?” I ask in my head. “What is your name?”
She looks up as if she can hear me and I try again. “Who are you? I want to help you.”
“Polly,” she whispers. “My name is Polly.”
“Polly! Her name is Polly!” I turn to Constantine. “Does that mean anything to you? Is she one of yours?”
His eyes widen in shock. The truth slams into me like a freight train. She is one of his. My sibling. Who looks like me.
All Hell breaks loose then, as Constantine launches himself at Lance, fangs and claws drawn. “You took her? You did it again? What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yells, pinning him to the floor, claws sinking into his neck.
No match for his sire’s strength, Lance struggles nonetheless, spitting out, “You said you would always share with me. That we were alike, that you would teach me, and we would always be together, share everything. And we did, until you met her. A tiny, weak, green-eyed, blonde bitch that you wanted to keep just for yourself. I hated her when I found out you were keeping her from me. You knew I would want her, and I did. And when I found out about her methods, just like us, vicious, unfeeling, I wanted her even more. I wanted her but you wouldn’t let me have her. You told me all about her and how much you loved her, and I wanted her too, but you wouldn’t let me have her. She was coming in between us. I wanted to punish her. So, I took her. I took her from her castle and tried to make her mine.”
What? Is he talking about me now or Polly? I wonder vaguely.
“She would never be yours because she was mine. Always mine. The thought that you laid hands on her makes me sick to my stomach and I should have killed you for it. If she had let me come back for you, I would have made you suffer in ways you could only dream about. She could never love you because she loved me. Only me,” CK says and slams Lance's head into the floor as I just stand there, mouth, agape.
“She was mine. She was mine while I fucked her. I fucked her until she was raw and bleeding and then I turned her around and fucked her some more until she cried. She always cried, eventually. The longer she took to cry, the harder I fucked her. And when she cried in her sleep for you, for you to rescue her, I punished her that much more.”
“You are a monster and not worthy of being in her presence. Not worthy of living,” CK spits out at him.
“And what about your own monster. The one you keep hidden. Has she seen the real you, Father? Does she know what you are capable of? Does she know that you taught me everything that I did to her? Clearly, she doesn’t know about the substitutes you made to abuse. If she did, I doubt very much she would be here with you now.”
Substitutes? Abuse?
“What is he talking about?” I ask shakily.
Lance just smirks as I have confirmed what he thought.
“Don’t listen to him, Aefre,” Constantine says quietly. “Open the door, Lance. You get one chance before I rip your head off. And you will be lucky at that, if she gets to you first you will wish it had been me who finished you.”
“You chose well, I have to admit, and you instructed her to perfection, but she is no match for the real thing, is she? Are you sure you want me to open the door? You will have some explaining to do.”
“Open it. Now.”
Lance motions to Tatiana, who has been hovering in the doorway. She looks scared, but does as he asks, muttering words in her own language. The wards that I was still pushing against break down and I move towards the door, pulling it open. But then I stop dead. I can’t go down there. I look back to Constantine, who still has Lance pinned to the floor.
“Go, Aefre. You can do it,” he says to me.
I shake my head. “I can’t. I’m sorry. I can’t go back down there.”
“You can. Go.”
I still hesitate. Devon moves forward and grabs my elbow. “We’ll do this together, like we’ve done everything else that’s been thrown at us.” Peering into the black hole, he adds, “Take your shoes off.”
I kick them off and he pulls me forward. In an instant, Cole is at my other side and gripping my arm. We all move forward and down the steep, slippery steps. It’s pitch black and it takes my night vision a second to kick in. Thankful that I have discarded my heels, I take it one step at a time, my stomach in knots as I sense the blood and fear. My Vampire comes out at the distress that I feel. My claws dig into both Cole and Devon as I grip their arms too tightly.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I pull away from them and glide forward as if back in my own nightmare. I slowly work my way down the cells, thankfully all empty, to the one at the end. My one. I see the altar there still standing after all this time and behind it, Polly. Weak, bedraggled, filthy, covered in her own bloodstains, slow healing cuts in her flesh.
“Help me. Please,” she whispers as she sees me.
Pulling on the cell door it is, of course, locked. I focus and picturing what I want to happen, the Power does its job and the door springs open. I quickly move to her and with my normal Vampire strength break the chains around her.
She flops forward and I offer her my wrist. Too weak to bare her fangs, I rip my wrist open and place it at her mouth. She feeds hungrily. Taking in too much, I force her back and she gr
owls at me. I would give her more, but I need my own strength to fight Lance, as I am still not going to let CK kill him. “Dev, give her more.”
He obliges and she drinks deeply, regaining her strength. Her wounds start to heal, and she relaxes.
Pulling back, she whispers, “Thank you.” She stares up at me with eyes so similar to my own, I want to hurl.
“How long have you been here?” I ask her as I help her to her feet.
“What date is it?” she replies.
I tell her.
“Three months,” she says and my heart clenches.
“Your sire?” I ask, dreading the answer.
She perks up. “Constantine. Is he here? Did he come to get me?”
Lance was right and that hurling feeling rises even more. “He is here,” I say.
She looks so relieved; I want to die right there on the spot.
“You must be Aefre,” she says as we reach the stone steps. “He said I looked a lot like you.”
I stop dead in my tracks at her words. “He told you about me?”
“Oh, yes. I know all about you. I was made to be just like you.”
“What?” I snap at her and she shies away, closer to Devon, who has a strong grip on her. Cole, who has a strong grip on me, tightens his fingers painfully on my arm at that nasty revelation.
“What do you mean?” I ask more pleasantly at her fearful look as we all hesitate at the bottom the steps.
“He didn’t tell you?” she asks.
I say nothing and she shakes her head. “Then I won’t betray him.” She tries to go up the steps, but I pull her back.
Sensing that she is roughly about two hundred years old, I have the upper hand and ask her again, less pleasantly, “What do you mean made to be just like me?”
She shakes her head again and I tighten the grip I have on her arm. “A lot has changed since you were brought here. I am your Queen now and you will answer me or suffer the consequences.”
I feel bad about playing that card with her after what she has been through, but I want answers and I want them now.
Her eyes go wide at the threat, and she senses, if not my Power then my superior Vampire strength. “He found me and turned me to be like you. So, he could love you, but also take his liberties with you. He never wanted to hurt you, never wanted you to see his bad side. But I didn’t mind. I was happy just to be with him. I love him and I would do anything for him. He wanted me to be like you, so he could be himself with you.”