Chapter 61

Lynda trembled, fighting against her bonds. Her heart lay raw and shredded at seeing one of her lovers having a seizure with no way to comfort him. “What did you do to Pierre?”

“The bonds are magical.” Boris grinned.

So only a witch could touch them. “Bastard!”

“Come now, even you are an opportunist like me.” His white brows drew down in a frown.

Her stomach curdled at his words. “No. I don't use people for my own purposes. Draining my magic, my blood, it won't get you what you want. Eventually, it will wear off and you'll be the same as before. A pitiful excuse for a vampire.”

He slapped her hard across the face. Pain surged up half her face. A metallic tint coating her tongue. This vampire was a monster in sheep’s clothing and she’d bought into his act.

“Even so, I have the names of the human women able to carry a half-vampire and will use them to fill my army. Plus, at some point in the future, one of them will have the trait of magic and I'll have perfected this transfer of blood and power enough to make it permanent.”

“You created the Nosferatu blood-rage virus. By dabbling in making yourself perfect and invulnerable, you caused all of this damage.” Lynda jerked on her chains wishing they had more give so she could wrap them around Boris’ throat. At least, Pierre’s seizure had stopped. He lay still but his steady breathing showed Lynda that he would recover soon. She just had to buy time and let him know that they needed Grace or another witch to get her loose.

Boris smirked. “I'll admit I jumped the gun as you Americans say. From the last time you were with us, I'd salvaged some of your blood. I and a few others volunteered to try the clone sample of your blood. I got the purist one which is why I didn't turn Nosferatu until later, but you healed me.”

“And that’s the reason you had Natasha make me agree to the blood contract. In case I discovered the truth, I would be obligated to help and heal you.”

He nodded.

God, she'd been such a fool. Her fear and concern about Dracula had overshadowed the other dangers.

A scream rent air. Boris turned away from her, snarling.

Lynda lifted her head as far as the chains allowed. Were Grace and the others winning?

With Boris tearing away from her, she coughed at a surge of acrid smoke filling the air from one of the witches’ spells.

“Pierre!” Lynda yelled in between coughs. “Can you hear me?”

He groaned as he pushed himself to his feet and swayed. His fingers grasped the marble table.

“Don't touch the metal chains,” she said. “There a magical conduit or something.”

He gave her a half-smile. “Yeah, I kinda figured that out the hard way.”

“Sorry.” Should've figured that out earlier before he got hurt. “We need a witch to break it. Where’s Grace?” Natasha could've gotten Lynda out too if she hadn't sided with Boris because of the damn blood pact or whatever it was called. And Lynda suspected that Boris would push Natasha into a volcano if it meant he got to live longer or gain more power.

Pierre kissed her forehead. “Hold on, I'll go get her.” He made it seem that he was going to jog over to Grace's house or something and not that witches and vampires were trying to exterminate each other.

“Be careful.” She snagged his shirt and pulled him closer.

After another kiss, he was gone.

“Complete the chant!” Boris shouted somewhere out of her range of vision.

A handful of tattered-looking vampires shuffled forward and followed the master vamp’s orders. Pinpricks ran all over Lynda’s skin, then the pain turned into feeling like sharp daggers stabbing her flesh over and over. She screamed. Unable to stop even when her throat was stripped raw. A burning tore through her like someone was yanking her shattered soul out of her pores. When the pain subsided a fraction, she panted. Blood coated the table underneath her. Hers. The bastards were draining her blood and her life away.

It wasn't fair! Vampires and witches both were trying to kill her. Witches because they were afraid of what she was and what she could do being a necromancer. And vamps craved her powers for themselves. Dracula himself wanted her dead out of his arrogant pride and jealousy. All she wanted was to live and love her three princes.

The jeers of the non fighting vampires morphed into a chilling, guttural chant. It vibrated through Lynda’s bones, a primal sound that scraped against her nerves.

Then a searing pain, sharp and ruthless, ripped a line across her flesh. A scream tore at her throat, but she clamped down, and the sound reduced to a strangled gasp. Just as abruptly, the torture ceased. The vampires surrounding her froze mid-snarl, their fangs bared in grotesque grins. Their bodies remained locked in place like statues.

“Give me a bit to figure out this spell.” Grace pushed past the unmoving hooded figures.

“Thank you.” She’d never been so happy to see someone in her life. “As soon as I’m free, I’ll help you and the others.”

Grace laid a hand over the metal cuff at Lynda’s wrist. Frowning, she closed her eyes, muttering under her breath. When she opened them, her face was bleak. “I-I can’t break this. It’s got a death curse attached to it.”

“What does that mean?” But Lynda already had an idea. Only death would loosen the bindings.

“Let m—” Red blossomed on Grace’s white shirt. Her panicked gaze was terrifying as she glanced down at her chest. Boris shifted behind her with a smirk at Lynda.

“It means the only way out of those chains is for you to die.”

Rage snapped through Lynda’s veins. “After you then, asshole.”

As soon as Grace slid to the ground, the vampires around her zapped back to life. They looked around as if somewhat dazed.

“Finish the ritual. I’ll get the others in place for the sacrifices.”

Bile coated Lynda’s mouth in a sore taste. He was going to murder more just to get her powers? She strained and lifted her head to figure out what he was going to do.

Vampires held Pierre between them. Half of his face was blood yet he struggled and snarled at his captors but he had a metal collar around his neck and Lynda’s gut clenched. They dragged him forward and hooked him up at a chain that linked to the ground near Lynda’s left.

The agony of seeing them again yet in their current state made her heart plunge into her stomach. She wanted to touch them, hold them, make them better. Take away all the pain they had suffered. Kiss them until they couldn’t remember anything but her embrace and she, theirs.

Then Mihnea was led forward also with a chain around his neck. His blood-lust from the Nosferatu was still apparent in his crimson eyes and fangs that hadn’t receded like they should have if he wasn’t feeding. He was chained to the ground at her feet. Next, Andrei was strapped to a wheelchair with an identical chain to that of his brothers and chained to her right. Still in a coma, she wondered why they’d bothered chaining him but her guess was the bindings were magical like her own. They didn’t deserve this. To be chained like cattle…no, like sacrifices.

Wait. She looked from all of them to her position.

Shit! It was a goddamn magical circle with her and her men in the positions of the four elements.

Boris nodded. “So you see my plan. First I eliminate the four elements and then you.”

“Four?” She frowned. “There are only three besides me.”

“No.” He chuckled. “There are five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. You, my dear, are the final. The one that has all four and none of them.”

Like that didn’t sound like a magical mumbo-jumbo she didn’t know what did. God, she wished she’d paid more attention in magic theory class that all species had to take for one semester.

“I will stop you,” she seethed. “One way or another I will come to end you even if it means returning from the grave to do so.” She was a fucking necromancer, resurrecting herself couldn’t be that hard, right? And what about her men? Even though Andrei wasn’t moving and Mihnea looked like he wanted to rip her throat out, she loved them. Somehow she had to fix this. Destroy Boris and whoever followed his beliefs.

“Many have tried,” He leaned forward, whispering down to her. “But I survived my cousin Ekaterina and many, many others that came after her. And I will survive you. A silly matchmaker girl who didn’t know anything about power and magic yet inherited the abilities that should belong to me.”

She smashed her forehead into his nose and he reeled back. His slap was so hard it felt like she chipped a couple of teeth.

“Where’s Natasha!” he bellowed.

The half-vamp dashed forward. “Here, sir.” Her gaze never moved to Lynda as if her resolve would crumble if she did look her way.

“Is everything prepared?” He took out a handkerchief and dabbed at his bleeding nose. It would heal all too soon for Lynda’s desires.

“Yes. We just need to put the element of earth in the north, at the chains near her head.”

“Good.” He looked past her to two vampires.

One yanked a gag over Natasha’s mouth. She kicked him in the gut, yanked the BSDM device out of her mouth, then another vamp punched her in the jaw.

“Hemchir!” she shouted and the vampire burst into flames. But when she raised her hand to Boris, a female vampire smashed the back of her head with a wooden plank.

“No!” Lynda’s body shook as she strained anew against the magical shackles. Natasha realized the danger now and Boris had her attacked when she stood up to his insane plans. “Fucking Bastard! Let me out of these chains and we’ll settle this you and I.”

Boris ignored her and gestured to the vampires around Natasha. “Gag her and tie her up. We can’t take any chances that she won’t try to stop us despite the blood debt.”

Lynda’s heart hammered in her chest as she fought to see what the vampires were doing with the half-vamp. Was she going to be the sacrifice? Is that why they wanted to gag her so she couldn’t fight back with her magic? Did the blood contract prevent Natasha from defending herself against Boris?

Then movement drew Lynda’s attention from the vampires tying up Natasha. The boy. Natasha’s son that Lynda had resurrected when the building collapsed.

His eyes were wide and tears streamed down his face. “Where’s mommy?” he asked.

“She’s sleeping.” Boris led the boy to the chains near Lynda’s head. “But she wants you to be very brave and stay here so that I may grow stronger, can you do that Daniel?”

“Yes.” He sniffed.

Lynda’s heart shattered. “No, Daniel. It’s a trick.” She struggled anew against her bindings, the metal scrapping against the marble. “Don’t listen to him! Run!”

But the young boy watched her with dark eyes as Boris chained him to the ground. His eyes silently pleaded for her to save them. He’d been one of the ones she’d resurrected after the building collapse, but something told her this time she wouldn’t be able to bring him back. All of them were going to die and she couldn’t do a fucking thing to stop it.