CHAPTER 287

CHAPTER 287
The hall calmed down after a while but there were still murmurs and sly pointing of fingers but I'd grown up with that, I was used to it.

Even the lady brought the blood, she quickly dropped it and ran off.

“How come she didn't recognise me earlier?” I asked as I picked up the blood pack and put it to my lips hungrily.

I don't remember the last time I had this, while out of it, the darkness preferred live feeding.

Probably why I'd not dried up after not feeding for so long.

My ears picked up the absolute lack of sound in the hall as I fed, finishing the pack in seconds but I didn't pay attention.

I couldn't.

I went through the three packs with desperation that was found in the worst forms of our kind, like my human side had faded completely.

I licked my fingers, and every trace of it on my chin and chest wasn't ignored.

Not very princess-like, I'm afraid.

Then I looked up and everyone's eyes were looking at me, even my mom.

Although she was smiling, her eyes were shining with mirth.

I turned back and the new vampires were still staring at me and I could smell the fear leaking out of their pores.

I stared back, the blood seemed to have fed me with irritation and their eyes on me itched.

“Boo!” I blurted and everyone jumped in fear and went back to their food.

They weren't being fed only blood here and that was good. Feed other parts of you, my mom had said.

“You asked me a question earlier,” she got my attention again, while handing me a paper towel. I nodded before she continued. “The version of you that was out there is quite… different.”

I frowned.

She pulled out her device, which was different from what I was used to, glassy and transparent.

She pulled out a video and handed it over to me.

My hair was a stark red, and I wore a half mask.

My eyes however, were an obsidian pool of nothing. Sadness and grief poured from it, yet anger coated everything it set its eyes on.

I watched as my body was used in ways I didn't even know it was capable of.

I jumped from a building, landing on my feet and going after a group of soldiers that were trying to stop me from breaching their town.

Nic was right behind me, encouraging the violence with a smirk.

The phone was taken from my hand wordlessly. I didn't need to ask why.

But it then occurred to me what I needed to do.

Thankfully, my witch was waking up, and I just had to wait till she was done hating me so we could try to save our mate.

“Why would I hate you?” She groaned groggily.

“Hazel?” I perked up, my eyes glazing as I disconnected from the physical room I was in.

“My head hurts, ugh.”

“I'm so sorry,” I whispered, “they had to keep me locked without you guys to prevent me from using your powers to escape.”

“Why are you referring to that fucker as yourself?” She glowered at me.

“Because I let it win,” I confessed, the guilt crawling up my throat again, like it had never left to begin with.

“We lost our child. If you hadn't gone nuts, Riot would have gone feral, and who knows what I would have done? It was either one of us or all. I just need to know how that thing lived in us for long and no one even noticed it.”

“Mom has done extensive research on it, we'll take time to go through it later. But for now, we need to get Nic out. He's gonna hate that we're rescuing him again but the alternative is him being killed.”

That was enough to startle her completely awake.

“What do we need to do?”

“Deceive the darkness,” I sighed, “although now that I think about it, I don't know if it'll work. I don't remember much about everything.”

“I do and I can create a glamour that's strong enough to deceive it. But it won't last long.”

“I just need a minute or two to know the exact state of his mind.”

“Hopefully he's not too far gone.”

I blinked my eyes, getting back to the present, mind resolved.

“Mom?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Let's go again, I'm ready to try again.”

“Are you sure? Remember Sade told you not to pressure yourself,” she reminded me.

“I know. I have an odd plan. You said I should follow the bond right?”

“Yes, that connection you guys have always shared. It's in your mind, your wolf holds one, your witch does too and the third one leads to your mate's mind. It might seem like there's nothing at the end right now but in proximity, you can get something out of him. You just need to remind him you're here, that's all. He'll do the rest by himself.”

I nodded, her words pulling out the threads in my head, just like she'd said.

I stood up after her and I ignored the stares again as we walked back the way we came.

When we got to the last corridor, I gave Hazel the go-ahead.

“Elly?” My mom asked in shock.

“Trust me, Mom,” I assured her.

As we walked into Sade and her furrowed brows, my mom shook her head.

“Don't ask,” she chuckled.

With a shrug, she opened the door and I noticed the chains were already pulled taut, he was given very little space to move.

I let Hazel take over, she walked differently, made a sizzling sound with her throat and the darkness gasped, eyes wide open in shock and mild excitement.

I took a deep breath as we bent down and slowly grabbed his fingers.

The connection was instant but not responsive. Like, I could tell he was there, but he wasn't responding. My mum said he would decide if he wanted to come back or not but she didn't say anything about him being flat out, and that scared me more.

“My queen?” the darkness asked, the voice nothing like Nic’s own.

But I was done playing, I knew I wouldn't get any chance to be this close again.

“Never,” I snarled, “now you listen to me,” I screamed into its struggling face as he tried to detangle from my hold, “if you don't let him go, I'll kill him myself! I'll die too, we're bound in every way and you'll never get the chance to possess a body as good as ours! So you either take all or nothing.”

Instead of replying, he gurgled and began pulling me back and forth quickly, trying to shake me off or hurt me, I couldn't pick which.

“NICOLAI! COME OUT RIGHT NOW!” I screamed, pouring all the power in my vampiric form into the compulsion.

I was desperate and with every lack of response, I kept screaming.

As the darkness fought me, I screamed louder. I ignored the injuries it was causing my body, the blood that was pouring out of me, and the aggressive screams it was releasing to drown my voice.

But even as the door opened and soldiers rushed towards me, I didn't stop screaming the compulsion, tears and all.

And as they dragged my nearly mangled body, I didn't scream anymore, but the words kept coming out of me.