Chapter 11

ChapterEleven

The reality and the fear of everything that was about to happen didn’t hit us until another few minutes. Till then, it was all laughs and giggles about our first times together.

However, the moment my back hit the cold marble of the lobby floor, thanks to Justin tossing us upon it, it all came back to me like a Tsunami. Justin was really starting to dig the whole pretend act even if he was under my control. The floor was really hard and cold.

"This is the vampire’s den," he said. It was nothing more than just a deserted mansion very unlike what I was expecting. The word vampire always made several images of chandeliers and centuries worth of wealth pop up in my mind. Is this how they actually lived?

In cold deserted mansions with furniture gathering dust around the corners and surfaces. What a bummer, I muttered to myself. A few moments passed by and then the click-clack of boots made us all tense up. I shivered in anticipation of the next hour.

What could the consequence be? I could die?

"Oh Justin, you’ve done the gods’ work," exclaimed a terrifyingly calm voice with a soft clap.

"T-Thank you." Justin smiled, nodding his head in acknowledgement.

I couldn’t see the person he was talking to from the position I was in. Just his voice could be heard.

"Brilliant, turn her around please."

Justin untied the rope that held me and Asher back to back with each other. Soon we were both standing with our eyes locked with a skinny and tall man in his mid-thirties. There was a sinister grin on his face and his eyes were bloodshot red.

I had seen red eyes before, of course, I had. Asher himself had amber-red eyes but these were the eyes of a killer, a psycho that I saw. "I am Raven Nicholas. The Vampire King, as you might know me. It’s so great to see you up close Elaine Lyca." He grins wider.

"Can’t say the same for you," I mumbled spitefully.

Nicholas laughed, throwing his head back in mirth like I was the funniest person on the planet. "Hilarious darling, hilarious! I would like to chat a little more with you but there is something more important right now. Justin? Where is the necklace?"

Justin swiftly moves, just like I had instructed him to, and tugs at the chain around my neck till I whimpered.

"Well done, please let them join me for dinner. They are both our guests after all."

Everything goes according to plan as Justin roughly pushes us down on the seats around the circular table. Asher sits to my left and Raven across us on the table. I grunted in protest to make things a bit more realistic. It seemed like he was buying the whole act.

Great.

"Justin’s such a brilliant kid. I wonder why your father never saw his potential." Raven clicked his tongue in what I assumed to be annoyance. "He was always at Asher’s service like he’d become something else in the span of a minute. It was quite agitating for Justin too. Am I right?"

Justin nodded from behind Nicholas with a solemn expression he was instructed to wear.

"Now he’s been working for me for over ten years and I believe we have a good relationship. He’s a faithful one." He then placed both palms on the table and leaned forward to speak the next words into Asher’s angered face. "You know, like the dogs you really are."

"Raven," we growled in sync, but he waved a hand and laughed it off.

"Oh, come on! I thought you were a funny person? Anyway, now let’s get down to the business talk. The main deal is that you, Elaine Lyca, are the only wolf carrying the Eden wolf blood right now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great thing. In fact, as a creature that has existed over the centuries, I am honoured to have you here tonight."

"I’m not here via my own will you fricking idiot," I argued, trying to keep my wolf at bay. It would be terrible if we blew our cover right now when we were so close to the climax of the plan.

"I don’t care." He shrugged. "We should really be more friendly to each other, though. I mean, we share a heritage of over a thousand years. Cut me some slack, I’m an old man."

"We do not care," Asher cut in sharply. Raven ignored him and turned his head to talk to me.

"Your great grandfather, your grandfather, and your father knew me and I knew them quite well, too. We’re family friends sweetheart," He raised his arms to both sides in grandeur and while he went on to talk about himself during the last hundred years, I cocked my head to the side with eyes locked onto Justin.

Justin took the hint and exactly as I had planned, he threw his left arm around the vampire’s neck in a chokehold. Asher and I tore the loosely tied ropes apart. We jumped up from our positions. The tables turned in a second.

"What an idiot! I could’ve given you everything." Raven laughed in Justin’s face.

Raven was... surprisingly strong.

He easily tackled Justin to the floor and in the blink of an eye, plunges his throat inside out. The sight made me gag, but I forgot it all when Asher ran forward to pull Raven up from the ground. I followed him, everything happening in a blurry daze and no matter how much I tried to pull the vampire in my hold, he managed to scratch Asher on the way.

Blood poured out and soaked the front of his shirt, which was already littered with mock bloodstains. I growled and tossed him onto the floor before shifting. My eyes were burning with anger and so was my skin. I wasted no time in pouncing upon Raven Nicholas.

I scratched down his chest and throat with my claws but he only laughed wickedly like it wasn’t affecting him in the least. Asher backed me up, but he was already too injured to fight. If it had been any other wolf in our place, they would’ve already died of the heavy wounds.

Me and Asher, however, had no intentions of backing off. He continued to hold back Raven’s feet while I tried to bite his torso or any place that was enough to hurt him. He flips around and pins me to the cold marble floor before digging his claws deep inside my belly.

I gasped and writhed in pain but there was no way a vampire could defeat the strongest wolf in the world just like that. I tried to push Raven off me until he bared his teeth at me and sunk them into the meaty part of my shoulder. The feeling of blood pouring out and flowing onto the floor was too much for me. The smell of iron made me dizzy and I knew this was a lost fight.

Gathering as much strength as I could, I pushed him off myself. Raven’s back met the stone pillar and he coughed out a little blood, which I realized to be mine! He had my blood in his mouth! This meant I could bend his will too, right?!

I tried to squint and talk to my wolf. "Come on, come on, tell me something!" I urged desperately. My wolf stirred and tried their best but my body had grown too weak. I had no choice but to resort back to my human form.

Like I had guessed, there was blood everywhere on my body. Especially my stomach was gushing out a red stream like I was part of some horror movie.

‘The power is in the blood,’ I could remember my wolf telling me. I could do this, I just had to try harder. My feet trudged over one another and I was starting to cough up more blood due to my injuries and wounds. "Come on," I growled when my knees were about to give up but before I could fall; cold clammy palms held me in place and two large fangs pierced the flesh of my neck.

Raven!

"Leave me alone." I gasped, elbowing him in the gut, but he was far stronger than me at the moment. Raven Nicholas continued to squeeze the life out of me by sucking my blood. His nails were sharp and pressing crescents in my biceps.

I was immobilized in his hold.

"You know Elaine," he stopped and panted against my skin. "I can sense that you’re trying to figure out why I’m stronger than you. A vampire stronger than an Eden Wolf? Suspicious, isn’t it?" I cried out in pain when he rubbed a thumb over the two holes in my neck.

"Shall I tell you why?" I shot my eyes open and searched for Asher but he was nowhere in sight. I could sense he was near. Not close enough. Not strong enough. And definitely in need of help.

"Quit your games," I gritted at the vampire despite my weak state.

He then laughed and nodded along. "Fine. Let me tell you what happened to your father. Jeffery Lyca, what a gentleman. Smart but gullible. He actually thought I was a friend to him, so when I bit him and sucked the life out of his body, the man was shocked to the bone!"

I thrashed around with my limbs. Raven was far stronger than me. "That’s what gave me strength, the power lies in the blood Elaine and I drank the blood from him first. I have the same powers as you except I’m smarter, so now my strength is doubled with your blood."

"No!" I whined, kicking my legs back. My vision was blackened and blurring due to the lack of iron and blood in my body. There was not enough energy in me to kick him off either.

’The power is in the blood!’ My wolf spoke suddenly. ’Try your best Elaine! Try your best and bend his will for yours and Asher’s sake! Make him a consciousness puppet, too!’

Nodding my head up and down, I closed my eyes and tried several times to get Raven to listen to me. Even once would be enough. Just once would be enough.

After multiple futile attempts, my wolf seemed to have given up. ’I don’t think you can bend his will El, he is a Vampire King. A vampire is in fact not a wolf. This is not possible.’

’He is too strong.’

My willpower was starting to give out and the powers were knocked out of me like a soccer ball out on the field. I gasped for more air, more power, more energy, but nothing came. I was losing. We were losing. Who knew this could be the end of us?

Raven, once done with sucking my blood, let my body fall to the floor. I screamed in pain, feeling hurt in every inch of my body. What was going on?! There had to be some way out of this!

I gave up my full strength and ended up with my cheek pressed against the cold surface.

From my position, I could hear and see the vampire’s boots click into the direction away from me. I squinted and focused a little to find Asher’s body, lying exactly like I was with his eyes looking right into mine with an apologetic expression. The pain that coursed through me at the thought of him dying made me scream again.

"Asher! Watch out, Asher! Escape while you can!"

He shook his head and while Raven crouched down in front of him, I tried to crawl in his direction. Asher gulped painfully and propped himself up on his elbows.

Asher shifted his claws out, still just as weak and at the same damn time, Raven lunged forward with his teeth bared. The room echoed with my cry of pain, blood splashing, and finally with that of a headless body thumping against the floor.

The head landed somewhere further before I blacked out completely.