CHAPTER 282

CHAPTER 282
NICOLAI'S POV

There was a time I used to be scared of my potential, of the power that came with being related to my father. He was from a lineage of powerful men, all of whom were swallowed by the greed and emptiness that came with the territory.

But as I looked at the massacre my mate and I had wrought, it was obvious I shouldn't have ever tried to play with myself like that.

I wasn't in control of my movements, I was a stranger in my own body but I didn't mind honestly, the results were better than anything I could have imagined. When I used to fight the darkness, it would completely knock me unconscious but now, it felt like we had an agreement, I was a passenger and it drove us through the world, every location knowing that there was a wild beast approaching.

We'd gone through the list we'd created in that war room like wildfire. And since Elly didn't pause to heal anyone, we were faster.

In four days, there were so many dead vampires around us that the humans were throwing bonfires just to burn their bodies.

The first time I actually took a life, without the help of poisons, just digging my claws so deep into the soldier's neck and sucking the life out of his eyes, I felt so alive I fear I might be addicted. I'd thought I was going to hate it, I had expected guilt too but it was like a reward for letting my body be used for this purpose.

Every vampire connected to Vlad was different, my mind saw the red flakes in their eyes that showed they were being controlled by my father and all I wanted to do was snuff it out.

The need was impulsive, overpowering and I had no intention of stopping.

By the fifth day, there was almost no army to fight, they were beginning to resist their master, and in desperation, Vlad was turning more humans.

“We have to find him now,” Elly insisted for the third time today.

The darkness wasn't on board with that, all its impulse wanted to do was snuff out those red flakes, to cut out the connection to the main source.

But even I could tell this was a bad idea, we would soon run out of humans. He'll turn every single one of them if he could and considering the staggering amount of these creatures, that could take forever.

The main goal had been to rescue our child, but we'd gotten sidetracked by this.

A streak of guilt trickled into my head, I remembered all the years I was under my father's power. He's cruel in ways one cannot imagine.

Yet here I was, chasing after his minions while my child suffered.

The darkness, falling for my manipulative thoughts eased up. It was a sentient being weirdly, it was obsessed with control but feared upsetting me too much so I don't rebel.

“Let's go,” I told my soulmate who was more lost to it than I was, yet was my anchor to reality.

She grabbed my hand and stood for a few seconds. I watched her head turn to look at the destruction behind us. We were standing on a hill, and there were bodies all the way down.

A shard of guilt struck through me but then the image of my child in Vlad's hold appeared in my head and I blinked. It was a necessity.

Then we were off.

In this form, zipping was like flying; our feet barely touched the ground, and we'd been heading towards the headquarters Vlad had spent so much time building, wasting as many lives and resources as well.

So although it was about a one-day drive from our former location to it, it took us about four hours. It was a lot forcing the darkness to keep moving, to not stop in the towns surrounding it to continue killing vampires waiting for us.

I didn't want to give Vlad the impression that he had us figured out. He thought he still had some time, he was basically pouring vampires down our path, not as a security measure since he knew they'd all end up dead, but as a delay tactic.

The darkness agreed, I dangled the big apple in its face, catching and killing Vlad was becoming more of an obsession, a need.

One that would end everything.

When we finally got to that building that I'd been seeing only through a screen as he showed off his achievements to people he was ruining their lives, I took a shuddering breath.

There were so many soldiers here, more than we'd come across since the beginning of our journey.

The darkness was salivating.

“Nic!” Elly's voice snapped me back to place and I realized I was already moving in.

“What are we doing?”

“Remember the point of coming here was to surprise him. He's built a tunnel before, I'm sure he's done the same here so we only have one chance to get Xander. We'll fight later.”

I realized that the darkness morphed according to one's needs, it wasn't even her speaking to me but you wouldn't notice if you didn't really know Elly.

“We'll go through the back,” I decided, the large gates before us filled with a literal army.

“Or we could split in two,” she muttered, dark eyes blinking in thought.

“Hell no!” I snapped, the fear of losing myself completely terrifying.

She's my anchor, every time I felt myself losing control, I found her eyes in the midst of the bloody fray, and the memories we'd created would force me to take a deep breath.

Without her next to me, going into that large army before me would fuck me up completely.

There's no point rescuing my son if I'm going to become a worse version of my father.

“Back gate together it is then,” she nodded and took my arm

We made to move out of hiding but I heard Elly take in a sharp, terrified breath.

I followed her line of sight, all the way up to a figure on the third floor of the building.

Vlad.

“I know you fools can see me!” he yelled, his form glowing red due to the darkness seething with desperation to end him. That was why I didn't notice it on time.

“What is he doing?” Elly gasped.

“You have one chance to retreat! If you don't, I'll slice this brat into twelve pieces with this knife! It's coated in fae and witch blood, there's nothing that can live once it comes in contact with it! Go back to your hell hole or watch him die!”

That's when I saw my son, dangling on one leg as Vlad held him over the railings, a long, dark coloured knife held above his head.

I was overwhelmed with rage, but that made me lose control and the darkness shut me out.

I should have fought harder, especially when I know that its priorities are quite different from mine.