Chapter 69 Make Her Completely Obedient
Vanessa's POV
The sound of the front door slamming shut echoed through the cramped apartment like a death knell, and I felt something inside me crack wide open.
Liam was gone, had actually walked out and left me here alone in this rotting excuse for a home, and the panic that surged through my veins made my chest tighten until I couldn't breathe properly.
I lurched toward the door on instinct before the curse marks on my arm flared to life with searing agony that dropped me to my knees on the warped floorboards.
The black and purple bruises pulsed like living things beneath my skin, sending waves of pain radiating from my wrist to my shoulder, and I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste blood as I tried to breathe through the worst of it.
My phone, I thought desperately through the haze of pain, I could call him and beg him to come back. But when I crawled across the floor toward where I'd last seen the device, I found only shattered remains scattered across the stained carpet in a dozen glittering pieces. I'd smashed it myself in a fit of rage.
I slumped against the wall with a sound that was half sob and half growl as the reality of my situation crashed over me. This was Liam's fault for being so stubborn and self-righteous, and it was Mom and Dad's fault for getting caught, for being so careless with their magic that the council had found evidence and torn our entire world apart.
But even as I tried to direct my hatred outward, I knew with bitter certainty that the person I hated most was Elara Sterling, the girl who'd somehow survived eighteen years of carrying my curses and emerged stronger while I rotted away here.
The light outside the windows faded as evening turned to night, and my stomach cramped with hunger that reminded me I hadn't eaten since this morning. I forced myself to my feet with my good arm braced against the wall, stumbling toward the small table where Liam had left takeout containers before our fight, probably expecting me to eat them after he left like some kind of peace offering I was supposed to be grateful for.
The food inside was cold and congealed, cheap noodles swimming in sauce that had turned greasy and unappetizing hours ago, the kind of meal that would have been thrown away as garbage in our old kitchen where the staff had prepared fresh dishes three times a day.
I stared at it with disgust rising in my throat, my mind flashing unbidden to images of Elara sitting in some luxurious dining room at the Alpha King's estate, probably eating off fine china while Kaelen himself fed her delicacies and told her how precious she was.
The rage that thought triggered was immediate and all-consuming, burning through my veins like acid as I swept my good arm across the table and sent the containers flying to crash against the opposite wall, noodles and sauce splattering across the already stained wallpaper.
"This is all because of you," I hissed into the empty room, my voice raw and broken. "Everything that's happened, every horrible thing in my life right now, it's all because of Elara."
The shadows in the corner near the broken door began to writhe and expand in ways that defied natural light, spreading across the floor like spilled ink, and I heard the door creak open again with a sound that made every hair on my body stand on end.
Relief flooded through me so powerfully that my knees went weak, because Liam had come back after all, had realized he couldn't just abandon me here and returned to make things right.
I kept my back to the door deliberately, crossing my arms over my chest in a show of defiance I didn't really feel as I spoke without turning around. "So you decided not to abandon me after all? What changed your mind, guilt or pity? Either way, don't expect me to fall all over myself thanking you for coming back. You don't get to walk out on me like that and then stroll back in expecting everything to be fine."
Silence answered me, heavy and oppressive in a way that made my skin crawl with wrongness. Liam should have responded by now, should have sighed or made some sarcastic comment, but instead there was nothing except the sound of breathing that didn't match my brother's rhythm, didn't sound human at all in its rasping quality.
I turned around slowly, my body moving with the jerky reluctance of someone who knew they were about to see something terrible, and my pupils dilated with shock as I took in the figure standing in my doorway. Not Liam, my mind screamed in panic, not my brother at all but a stranger who'd broken into this apartment.
The lights flickered violently overhead before stabilizing, and in their harsh illumination I could finally see the intruder clearly.
He was old, perhaps seventy or older based on the deep lines carved into his gaunt face, with skin that hung loose over prominent bones and eyes that gleamed an unnatural dark red in the overhead light. His frame was thin to the point of emaciation.
"I am here to help you," he said, his voice like gravel scraping against stone, rough and grating. He took a step further into the room without invitation. "I can help you deal with Elara Sterling, can give you the tools you need to make her suffer the way you've suffered."
"Who are you?" I demanded. "How did you get in here? What do you want from me?"
"My name is Malakai," he replied. "I am the one who created the blood-draining circles for your parents eighteen years ago, the one who calculated Elara's birth chart and determined she would be the perfect vessel for your curses."
I stared at this man who claimed to be the architect of the magic that had sustained me my entire life. "You're the black magic practitioner they hired? The one who disappeared after they set everything up? We thought you were dead!"
I stumbled forward without thinking, my words pouring out in a rush. "Everything's fallen apart since you left! The council found the array and destroyed it, arrested Mom and Dad and sentenced them to life in prison, and Liam and I lost everything because of what they did. I'm stuck in this horrible apartment with these curse marks spreading across my skin every day, and my brother just abandoned me here!"
Malakai's expression twisted into something ugly as he yanked his arm free from my grip, his red eyes flashing with anger that made me flinch backward. "You think your family is the only one who suffered when that array was destroyed?" he snarled. "Let me show you what happened to me when she broke the circles your parents paid me to create."
He shoved up his own sleeve, revealing curse marks that made mine look like minor bruises in comparison, spreading from his wrist past his elbow in patterns so dark they were almost black, pulsing with sickly purple light. "This is what the backlash did to me."
Malakai said. "When Elara destroyed the array, the magic turned on everyone involved. Your parents are suffering in prison, you're marked with spreading bruises, but I nearly died that night from the agony of having my own spell rip itself apart inside my body."
He let his sleeve fall back down. "I spent years recovering from injuries that should have killed me ten times over, years learning to live with constant pain. So don't tell me about your suffering like you're the only one who lost something."
"But if the array is gone," I said slowly, "then how can you help me now? The connection between us was severed when the council broke the circles."
Malakai's thin lips curved into a smile that made my skin crawl. "The array may be destroyed, but the connection it created between you and Elara Sterling runs deeper than simple spell work. For eighteen years, you lived off her life force, and that kind of parasitic relationship leaves marks that can't be erased just by breaking a few stone circles."
"Your blood still remembers hers. All I need is a sample of your blood, fresh and willingly given, and I can use it as a conduit to reach Elara no matter where she is or how well protected she thinks she's become. I can make her completely obedient with the right spell."