25. ~Alena~

25

~Alena~

Everything hurt.

All I could smell was the scent of my own blood.

I’d come to a few moments ago, my head swimming and weakness permeating every part of me.

I’d found Constantine leaning against the wall of the basement, arms folded as he watched me in his usual creepy way.

Blood from dozens of vampire bites oozed down over my arms, my throat, my shoulders, my legs, and from the damage Constantine had done between my legs too. My healing capabilities were barely doing anything because I was so weak from extreme blood loss and a lack of nourishment.

I was in the chair again, bound by that special Dark Fae metal, the cuffs binding my wrists to the arms and my ankles to the legs, the same that had been used on Saryan.

The last two times I’d woken up, I’d found myself in the high-backed metal chair instead of hanging from those awful chains. I hadn’t been able to hold my own body weight up any longer after four back-to-back attacks from Constantine’s vampires, then him.

I was now covered in one of their crimson robes. I’d heard Constantine order one of his people to cover me with it so as not to have my nakedness tempt him, along with my blood pooled all over the floor around my chair.

So much for his claimed infallible control. Even he had his limits.

“Must we continue with this ordeal?” he finally spoke after just staring for so long.

“Why?” I croaked. “Growing a conscience all of a sudden?”

“Surely not. It’s grown tiresome.”

“Then you’re shit out of luck.”

With a burst of speed, he was right in my space.

He had me grunting as he grabbed my jaw and squeezed painfully, forcing my weary gaze right to his. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

I frowned as he released me, then whistled, and the door opened.

One of his acolytes strode on in.

One unlike the others.

For one, they wore a black hooded robe, rather than the standard crimson for the rest of them.

And this one also had their face concealed by magic, making the appearance little more than a blur. Their voice was also distorted, like that creepy sound generated by those voice modifier devices.

The faceless figure swept toward me.

Adrenaline sparked as they reached out and pressed their gloved palms to either side of my head.

“This will hurt a great deal,” Constantine spoke, looking on with a sadistic smirk.

Gray magic with flecks of black in it emanated from his accomplice’s palms and then I jolted as I felt an unsettling cooling sensation permeate my skin. It had me shuddering.

“What are they doing?”

“Reaching into your mind and gaining a hold.”

“So you can force me to unleash my magic, because the rest of your despicable methods have failed miserably?”

I eyed the Orb in the corner on a stone table, just waiting for me to do so, and give Constantine what he wanted.

“This is Dark Fae magic, foolish Nephilim. It will achieve the desired results. But given your resistance, it will leave your mind severely damaged. I’d wanted to avoid this, because I desired to have you by my side. However, your continued defiance has led us to this.”

Despite his words, relief coursed through me.

Because I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it wasn’t possible.

Thanks to Orpheus.

The cooling sensation escalated to a freezer-burn like feeling.

But it only lasted for a few seconds.

And then the best happened.

An explosion of purple magic erupted and blew back his accomplice.

Constantine moved swiftly and caught them, stabilizing them, and preventing them from smacking into the wall.

“No. It can’t be,” the shadowed figure spoke in that weird fake voice.

For the first time in so long, I smiled. “Oh, but it is.”

“What happened?” Constantine demanded of them.

“She’s been protected from Dark Fae mind meddling.” They hung their head. “By the Dark Fae Prince.”

“What? No. I would have seen the mark.” Constantine groused, storming up to me and calling his power. He swept his crimson magic over the length of my body, all over, until he came to my wrist and abruptly stopped. He snatched the site, uttered an incantation, then the mark became visible. “Smart boy. He glamoured it.”

“It wasn’t him. I sensed Saryan’s magic on her.”

“You’re sure? He’s already spelled her to siphon my black magic infection.”

“It’s not the same. Yes, I’m sure.”

Constantine cursed. “When they were in the same room together alone briefly while I was holding him captive.”

“Yes. He must have recognized Orpheus’ mark.”

And the shadow had just revealed themselves as Dark Fae to me, thinking I’d be in no state once they’d performed their twisted spell to be able to disclose it to anyone.

That narrowed it down, seeing as though there were no other acolytes of that species, because Saryan Hart kept his people on a tight leash. Too tight, but that was an issue for another day.

Constantine lost it, spinning and thrusting his fist into the wall, taking a chunk out of it.

I braced myself as he vamped out, snarled, then stalked toward me.

The door flew open, thankfully pulling him up short, as one of his vampire acolytes burst on in.

“Sire, our campaign at Electi Academy has been thwarted.”

“Impossible. They’re mere students.”

“Not so. The Dark Fae Prince had an army.”

“I was informed recently, but they were nowhere near ready to pose any sort of threat to us.”

“I guess Orpheus didn’t tell Cornwell everything, huh?” I cut in, grinning from ear to ear.

He snarled at me, then demanded of his acolyte, “What’s the status concerning the phoenix?”

“Cornwell succeeded in provoking him into a severe rage, but our soldiers weren’t able to apprehend him, while also fighting the army. To make matters worse, Abigail Rose arrived and sealed our defeat. She’s re-erected her ward barring us from accessing Talon Creed once more.”

The shadow stroked Constantine’s arm, telling him, “We’ll create another opportunity. All is not lost.”

“You’ll die before you get another chance,” I spat.

He went for me, only to be pulled up short by a thunderous sound that rocked the room and no doubt the rest of the mansion beyond.

“The ward has been breached,” the shadow spoke.

“It’s black magic. Abigail is at Electi Academy and Saryan is in no condition to do so,” Constantine responded. He cursed. “Sabre must be here. He’s used Abigail’s blood in one of his tech devices before to enable him to briefly wield a small amount of celestial magic.”

“Go,” the shadow told the vampire. “Hold them off, then convene at the alternate location.”

In a burst, the guy was gone, rushing off back up the stairs.

As the door opened, I heard thuds, crashing, screaming, and hell knew what else coming from upstairs in the mansion.

Hope sparked in me after so long.

They’d finally found me.

“Get her out of here,” Constantine told the shadow, gesturing at me. “I’ll deal with Sabre.” He started toward the door, muttering something about grabbing the Hellborn from upstairs.

But he barely made it a step outside the room before he pulled up short, his eyes widening. He doubled back and snatched up the Orb with a burst of vampire speed, a split-second before an explosion of purple power blew him back and propelled him all the way through the wall on the other side, blowing him clear outside.

Purple!

Oh my God!

In the next second, the shadow suffered a similar fate, purple flames rushing toward them and sending them crashing into the wall opposite me, taking several chunks out of it.

And then it happened.

I could barely believe it.

Orpheus rushed on in.

He took quick stock of the situation, then his attention landed on me.

“Motherfuck,” he choked at the sight of me. “Little angel.”

He hesitated for a moment, clearly overcome by the state I was in, and he looked out at the shadow still reeling face-down and groaning, and Constantine still outside.

He took a chance and skidded toward me.

His hands shook as he rapidly pressed his power to the Dark Fae metal and broke through each cuff in turn.

“I’m okay,” I said, trying to reassure him.

But I could tell he didn’t believe me one bit.

He carefully opened the robe a little, seeing the bloodied wounds all over my body.

“Alena, any way I transport you out of here is going to hurt.”

My limbs finally free, I grabbed his hand. “I don’t care. You’re here. That’s all that matters.”

“I’m so fucking sorry it took us so long.” He cupped my face gently, emotion swimming in his eyes. “It’s over now. You’re coming home.”

“Absolutely not,” that awful voice sounded a moment before Constantine burst back into the room and fired his crimson power at Orpheus.

I screamed and Orpheus jumped back and spun with his purple power flaming just in time to catch the bolt before it hit.

He growled and threw it back at Constantine, but the bastard dodged it with his vampire speed. It hit the ceiling instead, causing damage to the structural integrity of the room, debris crashing down and threatening to bring the entire ceiling with it.

Orpheus thrust his power my way and a shield enveloped me, protecting me as more debris started to fall, the room collapsing.

What about him, though?

“Orpheus!” I cried.

He thrust his palm up toward the ceiling, holding it in place with the sheer force of his power, while Constantine then took the opportunity to attack with his dark magic again.

Orpheus grunted as he held his stream off with his own.

“You are wasting great effort,” Constantine told him. “Look at her. The damage I’ve done… I’ve ruined her. For you and anyone beyond. She’s still infected with black magic and every moment that goes by is killing your father. Leave her with me and I’ll break the spell and spare him.”

“No deal. And don’t bullshit a bullshitter. If you knew how to do that, you would have already done it. Alena could never be ruined to us. She’s ours and she belongs with us, no matter what occurs, no matter how hard you’ve tried to take her from us.”

Emotion clogged my throat at his beautiful words.

“Because of her, your father will die. Are you really that bewitched by her that you’d allow that to happen?”

Orpheus roared and his power flared to an exponential level that I’d never seen from him before. It tore right through Constantine’s stream, all that magic slamming into him and making him shriek as it blew him through another section of the wall.

Before Orpheus could revel in that, the shadow got to their feet and fired at him.

He grunted and fell back as it hit him in the gut.

It was all the distraction they needed for Constantine to rush back through the wall and run at Orpheus, driving him into the wall right beside my chair, his hands wrapping around his throat.

Orpheus growled and grabbed at the fucker’s arms, burning him with his purple power.

Constantine gritted his teeth and threw out his arm behind him, his power flaring.

He was summoning something.

All too quickly we found out what that was as the Hellborn ripped through the door and flew into his hand.

“No!” I screamed, as he went to activate it to harm Orpheus with it.

Somehow, against all rhyme and reason, adrenaline and my terror for Orpheus had me lunging out of the chair and throwing myself into Constantine.

It was just enough to rip him from Orpheus and make him stagger back.

But then he whipped back around, firing the Hellborn.

I reacted off instinct, pushing Orpheus behind me, then throwing out my hand, my golden magic coming to life and barring the Hellborn from making contact, forcing it to still mid-strike.

Constantine snarled and pushed harder, trying to break through my magic.

Normally, that wouldn’t be possible, but I was so weak, I could barely hold it at all. My hand was shaking and I could feel my nose bleeding too.

“Alena, stop. You’re damaging yourself,” Orpheus urged me.

“I do and you burn.”

“Rather that than you suffering. It’s already been far too much.”

“No,” I ground out, resolutely, even as my hand shook more violently.

“You’re powering the Orb as you do this,” Constantine warned me, grinning with partial victory. “I can feel it. Can’t you?”

In my peripheral vision, I did see it glimmering through his cloak.

Shit. It was either this or Orpheus would burn.

I couldn’t allow it.

To make matters worse, the shadow came at Orpheus.

“Stay down!” he roared, enraged by the entire situation.

He thrust his power at them and I started as a female shriek sounded as, this time, when it struck, it hit them in the face, breaking through their concealment, including the voice aspect.

A woman came into view.

A shock of shoulder-length spiky white hair could be seen beneath the hood of her robe and purple eyes just like Orpheus’ shone out at us.

“Fuck… Mom?” Orpheus uttered, shocking me.

I couldn’t believe it.

All this time it had been Lenora Hart. The Dark Fae King’s former wife, and Orpheus’ estranged mother.

“You’re making all the wrong choices,” she hissed at him.

“Me? You’re working with this madman!”

“You have the potential to rule far more than the Dark Fae Realm. Yet you squander it in the name of morality. You disappoint me, son.”

A flash of cobalt-blue magic slammed into her, blowing her right through the hole in the wall that Constantine had taken a couple of trips through.

And then smoke snaked around Orpheus and me, a moment before it swept us up.

“Sabre! No!” I heard Constantine screaming a moment before teleportation consumed us.