Warning: This is made for mature audience. This is not for light-hearted readers. If you are triggered easily I suggest you don't read this chapter. I'm labeling this as a trigger warning for good reason. Death & Violence will occur!
Brendon's POV:
"Wake up,"
a
warning
voice
hummed
in my head
at a high pitch.
Not my wolf. I have long but heard his voice. Never have I forgotten it. It was a female's voice. Nor was it my mates. Pain throbbed across my body. The pain was too excruciating.
My eyes flashed open. The piercing eyes I long forgotten were staring me down. Cold blooded. Murderous witch. Her icy glaze was emotionless. This vampire Queen staring holes into my head was a woman worth every ounce of hatred I've ever felt for another being. I thought I gave up these useless feelings for this life... But, looks like I was wrong to forget about her. She had the face of a siren. A seductress. With a clever way of getting any man to do as she pleased. She was a demon in disguise. Her eyes soulless. She was empty inside. Like a void. She had a hunter's appareled about her. She was dangerous. Frightening really. She was hiding that beauty under a cloak. Something I've became aware of. Vampires used them to move around in sunlight. That didn't prevent me from seeing her as she truly was. This stature of a woman... was a predator.
With porcelain skin that was lacking blood flow. She had been starving. Like a hungry animal. She had waited for this exact moment. It was all down to this for her. She didn't look so good... really. She had stained red lips from worn off lipstick. A shade that wasn't doing her face any justice. Her once silver hair was now graying in the light. My disgust reflected in her eyes.
This was Lamia Dragavei. The vampire queen responsible for some of my pack members dying last year. She had plotted to enslave my pack members. She singled my mate, Vivienne, out the most. Because she believed Vivienne to be fantasized by Eder Dragavei. A man also known as a vampire king and her husband. I do not know entirely what became of my pack. I had found Vivienne barely alive. No... dead in fact. She had came back from life by a miracle. I snuck her away from the vampire's layer before anyone could notice.
We ran and turned our backs on our people. My helpless pack... I wish I knew what has become of them. I ran away... I carried Vivienne as I took her far away. I only wanted to protect her. Keep her safe. Start a quiet life as a family. Apparently I didn't go far enough. As the monster stood in front of me. My heart pounded nervously.
My hands were stuck. I was at a cross as I couldn't move. I wanted to reach over. I wanted to put my hand on Vivienne and wake her up. Nothing would allow me to move. Her eyes landed on my body and I looked down at what she was watching. A cold smirk lighting her face when I noticed. My eyes grew wide. Stakes were piercing my flesh and nailing me to the bed. The smell of iron rusted rods were making its way through my bloodstream and poisoning me. Wolfsbane coated the surface. I was nailed to the bed in a cross position. My feet nailed together and my hands separated.
VIVIENNE!
VIVIENNE!
VIVIENNE!
My mate. Where is my mate!?
My worry aimed at her. Only days ago did she finish childbirth. It had been long since I've seen that evil look from the bloody vampire before me. How did she find us? Lamia's smirk was meaningful. Her determined eyes shined as she wanted to let me know she had the power over me now. Her goons were standing behind her with lowered heads of respect.
"You thought you could escape from me?" Lamia asked.
"Vivenne!" I shouted. She was gone. She was missing. No longer asleep next to me. I searched the room for her. "Vivienne!" I screamed.
"I don't know how she survived... I don't know how you did it..." She trailed off as her head ticked to the side. A cry broke her chain of thoughts. I could hear my son's cry in the other room. Her face turned to darkness for the noise. "Someone stop that infernal racket!" She screamed. "Bring it here!"
"Lamia! It's a baby! Don't hurt my child!" I yelled at her and tried as I must to pull myself from the stakes and set myself free. I was lost in strength. No longer the man I once was. I gave up my life as a strong alpha to have this quiet one with my mate. Now it was all for nothing. Edmund's frail newborn body was brought into the room. I looked into her eyes. Begging her to spare his life. "Lamia, don't kill him! Please!" Where was Vivienne!? Was she already dead? Vivienne! Vivienne! Vivienne! No!
Lamia reached out as my son was passed over to her without hesitation. She held him out at arms length. Her anger showing deep on her face as her eyes pierced it's flesh with hatred. Her eyes looked out at me suddenly. She brought him to her mouth and bit down into his neck. His screams grew louder. I thrashed. I couldn't watch. I must save him. My son! Suddenly getting a hand free and going to free my other. The goons surrounded me. Their hands holding me down and forcing me to watch her. She drained him. My son! My boy! My life! He was drained. His crying became dying. Until his last breath was taken. She held him back out as she showed him to everyone in the room. Her mouth was leaking his blood.
"This!" She shouted at us. "Is what will happen to all their kind." Her eyes met mine. I glared her down with hatred. "Your kind, wolf. You will all pay for what you did! My homeland is ruined! The fire spread across my beautiful town and burned it to crisp. I haven't been able to step foot back into my territory. There is no shade to hide there. Except for the tunnels where rats live." Her eyes twitched. Mine were clouded with sorrow. I was fighting back tears as I twisted in their arms. How did she find us? How did she hunt her down to here? I had been so careful to cover our tracks!
"Fuck you!" I yelled at her. "You took everything from us and you still want more?" I asked her. "Don't you see we wanted to live in peace?!" She kicked the bedframe. I felt my body shake as their claws scratched me. Hisses corrupted the air around me. Pain locked me here. I was spared the grief. I was purely angry now.
"I don't know how any of you managed to fool me once..." She trailed off. "Where is my husband?" She asked as she reached down to the bedframe and held my Edmund out towards me. This is why she came?! I don't know where that man is! "Tell me or I will feed him to you. I'll start with his heart first!" She threatened. I shook my head.
"I don't know!" I screamed. "I don't know where he is!" How would I know?! She hissed.
"Wrong fucking answer," she tsked out. "I'll give you another chance."
"I don't know you crazy psycho bitch! I would have told you already if I did!"
Lamia's fingers lingered over my son's chest. Her nails ripped into the cloth as she threatened to tear into his shirt and do exactly as she pleased. I turned my head away and wined as I couldn't give her what she wanted. I don't know! I don't know that! I don't know what to tell her! Think! I have to tell her something! No! No! No! She pulled away from the bed. Her eyes widening in rage. She gently placed the baby down into the arms of another vampire. As if for safe keeping of the corpse.
"Bring her in," she instructed the group.
Vivienne's naked body was brought in by force. She thrashed as she fought against their arms. She looked at me as agony was across her face. She was still too weak from childbirth. She was tore up and bruised from head to toe from the attack I never witnessed. She was pale and drained of blood. Her neck still bleeding from a wound. She was shoved to the ground in front of Lamia. The vampire mistress leaned down and scooped my poor sweet mate's head up into a hand and forced her to look at what became of her baby. Vivienne's eyes widened as she began to ball. Her tears breached the surface as she tore her nails into Lamia's arm to fight. Lamia slapped her back across the ground and suddenly stomped her signature heels into Vivienne's foot. My mate shrieked in terror. Her eyes popping out of her head as she wailed. I was in pain as I was forced to watch. Helpless. Too weak to transform and save her. I too left drained of life. As if I had become a snack first.
"Where the fuck is Eder!?" Lamia screamed at us as she threw her hands up into the air. "WHERE IS MY HUSBAND?!" Vivienne trembled as her eyes looked up in rebellion.
"Even if we did know... We will take it to our graves before letting him fall into your demise again! Your death is coming!" She laughed as she looked half crazed by the thought. We both don't know where he is. She was making it up. We would die either way. Lamia backed away from her as furry struck her expression. She leaned over the bedding as she huffed in a boiled rage. She was thinking. She pulled her hair until blood oozed as she detached a set. She dropped it on the bed as new pieces sprouted out instantly to grow back in its place. She shook. Her shoulders trembling.
"I really thought..." She trailed off. "He would have told you..." Her eyes looked out to Vivienne. "It was plain as day I figured he wanted you. He loved you... Was I wrong? All along? Was I missing something?" She mumbled to herself. Vivienne coughed up blood. Too weak now to hold her head up. She was shutting her eyes and not paying attention.
"He was only a good friend," I whispered. Vivienne never once thought of him after we mated. She was mine and I was hers. We left together that night I found her reborn from her mother's wishes. Vivienne and I only crossed their paths once in our escape. He was running with Niall's corpse into the night. "He fooled you. Probably to get away from you. He fooled us all in his little game. If he's missing he's never going to let you find him again. I can tell you only one thing I recall from that night. He was running with Niall's corpse in his arms."
"Yes, that adds up..." Lamia trailed off in her thoughts. She raised her body as she looked pale. She was easy to read all of a sudden. Her wall broke down as emotions crumbled on her face. Betrayal. She had been defiled in her mind. Her husband had run off. Escaped. He was never coming back to her. The one thing she cherished most in the world. Her plaything was missing. Her plaything... She pulled out a sword from the hip of one of the guards. She suddenly struck him in the heart. His body exploding all over the room. Her vision was blurred with rage. Her cooperative stood unphased. They were lifeless. Obeying with blind faith. Lamia licked her lips as she shook until she dropped to her knees.
Make a decision. There was something she had to do with us. We were utterly useless to her. Nowhere near us would be her plaything. Her beloved husband. It was now obvious she had corrupt thoughts of possession for him. She looked at her loyal vampire guards. The hooded figures. Pale skin, crimson colored eyes, and fangs that frightened me to my core. She dropped the sword and walked over to the bed. She crawled in on top of me before sitting down on my chest. She stuck her fingers into my mouth until I was forced to reveal my teeth. She yanked away until she pulled out the first to last of my k9s. She tossed them aside as she stretched my lips apart and stared into my mouth.
"I hate you," she cried out as her eyes began to leak blood. She was crying? I had no sympathy for her here. I ravished at her misery. Her eyes were crimson like the rest of her goons. I had no feelings for any of them. My eyes looked towards Vivienne. She was frozen stiff. Barely breathing. Lamia gripped at my attention as she wrapped her fingers around my neck and squeezed. Oxygen.... I was loosing it. I could feel myself slipping. She'd ease up before I fell over. I coughed as she allowed me to breath. She must have heard something for her eyes looked over at my baby's lifeless body. Suddenly the vampire holding him patted his bottom. I heard the first gurgle of air. The same sounds that came when he was birthed alive. He spat up blood and cried suddenly. Vivienne's eyes shot open as she looked for her baby too. Lamia was up and hovering over my child. Her hands hovering over his face.
"How is it alive?" She asked suddenly. Vivienne? Did she give a life to our baby without my knowledge? Was she down a life- now? How many did she have left? "Its impossible!" Her eyes looked at Vivienne. "You're impossible. Like mother like son.." She trailed off. This was a new opportunity and I saw it in her eyes.
"DON'T HURT HIM!" I begged and flung forward. The vampires made sure to keep me from reaching her. Lamia's face turned into an unlikely mother's affection as her eyes turned savage in a split second. She tore into her wrist as the stench of her venom hit the air. She brought her wrist over my newborn's lips. Suddenly forcing her blood into her mouth. Disrupting and drowning his sounds. She snapped his neck suddenly and handed him over like a doll towards a vampire. Again- I mourned his life for a short period but it couldn't compare to my worry for Vivienne. My mate. Down a life?
"Edmund," Vivienne cried out quietly as she reached an arm out towards him. Lamia's face turned into a crooked smile. She stomped over towards Vivienne and put her foot over her head. Pressing downwards. Vivienne screamed and dug her nails into the vampire's skin as she clawed. I heard her bones break before I saw what happened. Lamia finished putting her weight down on her head. Thunk. The eyes plummeted first out of her skull. Lamia looked at the vampires surrounded me.
"Pull him apart," she ordered. "He cannot be of any use to me now."
"What about the baby?" The vampire asked holding my son's corpse.
"Raise it," she instructed. "I don't care whatever happens to it but do not kill it." It's already dead, Lamia. He is. My son. My baby. Kill me too so I can be with them. Lamia's eyes laid on my own. The vampires began to pull as I screamed and thrashed. Apart. My limbs stretched as their hands tore my skin, bones, and body apart. I became limbless as they yanked me away from myself. I was draining out. Dying. I couldn't scream as I sunk there. They dropped my body parts on the bed beside me. I was in agony. Bleeding out and loosing myself. I was thankful this would end soon.
"Brendon..." Lamia's voice echoed. "Tell the bitch to stay wherever you go in the after-life. I don't like seeing her face breathing. It bothers me." I could see her tilting her head as everything faded around her as I began to loose sense. "Come back and I will hunt you down and we can do this all again. However many times it takes. Stay. The. Fuck. Dead, ok? I'll take care of your offspring for you. It'll live a fulfilled long life." I couldn't trust her. I would not trust her. Neither of us could. "If you both come back again I will burn you alive," she promised.
I want to kill her. I want to kill every last bloody vampire. I want to see them burn in the light of day. I want to send them back from which they came too. I was angry. I was in denial this was happening. I was drained. I was dying all over again. This time I couldn't stop it from happening. I was just as helpless as the first time. When does it all end? Hasn't my kind suffered enough? I thought I could protect her... I've failed! I failed the moon goddess! What have I done? How could I have been so careless?