Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (48 page)

Alec nodded his head towards Xavier who was refilling glasses and preparing drinks.
 
Alec could certainly use one right now. Steven held his glass up to show it was still full so Alec walked to the bar alone.

Everyone stood talking with a glass of wine in his or her hands, all except Laramie and Cassandra.
 
They both had glasses of blood.
 
Laramie saluted Alec with his glass and took a sip and smiled maliciously.
 
Alec almost rolled his eyes but caught himself in time.
 
He merely nodded, his face and body posture neutral.
 
He wasn’t about to let that son of a bitch taunt him here in front of everyone.

Steven was talking quietly with Marcus, their heads close together.
 
Alec knew they wouldn’t be talking about anything private.
 
Both knew everyone here could listen in on their conversation.
 

Alec watched as Steven turned to find Alec.
 
Suddenly, Cassandra was standing in front of Steven.
 
Alec didn’t have time to do anything and watched helplessly as Steven bumped into Cassandra causing her to
accidentally
throw her glass of blood into Steven’s face and all over the front of his shirt.
 
It must have been very full because there was a lot of it.

Steven stood in shock for a moment and then he freaked out.
 
Some of it had gone in his mouth and he was gagging and trying to spit it out while wiping his face so he could see.
 
He was covered in the red fluid.
 

Thankfully, Xavier had pulled a towel from somewhere and was attempting to make his way to the young man.
 
Laramie, however, was standing in his way and impeding his progress towards Steven.

Steven was not happy.
 
He was crying, cussing and generally freaking out from having human blood thrown in his face.
 
In the short time he had been doused he had called Cassandra every name he could think of.
 
Alec knew that Cassandra had planned this, just like he knew that this wasn’t headed anywhere good.
 
This night was starting look like a potential disaster.
   

VonBell sat quietly in his cell.
 
There was nothing else he could do really.
 
The bars were steel reinforced with silver.
 
Even if he tried to bend them using his shirt to protect his hands the silver would still radiate its baneful weakening properties and sap all of his strength.
 
He was still weak from the silver handcuffs that the abomination Alec Carson had placed him in.
 
His hatred for Alec Carson was only matched by his anger at Senator Taylor for being foolish enough to keep detailed notes and emails, and on his own damn computer.
 
VonBell wished he could wring Taylor’s neck himself.
 
Stabbing himself in the mouth repeatedly with a letter opener was the least that man deserved.

That thought sobered VonBell up quickly and cooled the fires of his hatred down to embers.
 
He was in a lot of trouble.
 
He knew with the evidence against him he wouldn’t be allowed to live.
 
His usefulness was over.
 
VonBell couldn’t see a way out of this mess that ended with him alive.
 
It was frustrating.

VonBell knew eventually that He would come or send someone to end VonBell’s life.
 
A shiver of fear raced down VonBell’s spine.
 
Just the vague
thought
of Him was enough to cause his compulsions to flare up threateningly.
 

He knew what had caused Taylor to stab himself repeatedly in the face.
 
If VonBell tried to talk about Him, he knew he awaited the same fate or worse.
 
There was nothing he could do to save himself.
 
Even if he tried to offer up information about Him in exchange for his own life, something bad would happen.
 
The others were wrong.
 
There was
one
vampire that could control anyone’s mind he wanted to, even another vampire.
 
Again a shiver went down his back.

VonBell contracted in pain and vomited dark blood onto his cell floor.
 
Just thinking about the vague possibility had caused that to happen.
 
He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt if he tried to tell Silas or the council anything at all, he would live to regret it, but only for a while.
 
Once he had suffered sufficiently he would be allowed to die.

VonBell wasn’t afraid, vampires didn’t fear much; he was terrified.
 
Without warning the lights in the cellblock turned off.
 
The back-up power didn’t kick on to bring them blazing back to life.
 
VonBell looked up at the cameras up and down the hall.
 
They should at least be flooding the area with infrared light, but they weren’t.
 
They had all stopped moving and were frozen in place.
 
Even the red power lights on the cameras were dead.

A cold hard knot of fear formed like a boulder in VonBell’s stomach.
 
Without hesitation he dropped to his knees in the blood he had expelled earlier and bowed his head to the floor.
 
Not offering obeisance to Him would cause further suffering.

The entryway door to VonBell’s cellblock across the room opened quietly.
 
From his place on the floor VonBell could hear footsteps slowly and methodically working their way to his cell.
 
His cell doors remained locked but he knew that this in no way whatsoever protected him from what was about to come.
 
Silver couldn’t stop Him from hurting or even killing VonBell.

The footsteps stopped in front of VonBell’s cell.
 
He knew better than to raise his eyes without permission so he remained on the floor, head bowed.
 
He waited like that for several minutes before his master spoke.

“So my son, it comes to this.
 
You have failed.”
 
The voice was male and spoke slowly and very quietly.
 

“Yes Master, but if you’ll just give me another chance…” VonBell’s voice shook with fear.

“No.”
 
The word was almost a whisper, but VonBell knew it was final.

“Carson is stronger than he should be,” VonBell blurted out trying to find something, anything that would appease his master and possibly prove he was still useful.
 
He knew he didn’t stand much of a second chance, but he was desperate.
 
“He’s stronger than me.”

“I know.”
 

The barely audible words hit VonBell in the gut like a sledgehammer.
 
He had nothing that his master wanted and his usefulness had come to an end.
 
It was over.

“You have one final part to play,” the voice above him whispered.
 
“Look at me.”

VonBell raised his head and saw the cloaked and hooded figure of his master standing on the other side of the bars of his cell.
 
The figure reached up slowly and pulled his hood back.
 
VonBell met the eyes of his master and knew with certainty that this would be the last time.
 
His purpose would be given to him and he knew as soon as it was finished he was done.
 
He would die one way or another after he had served his master’s final wish.
 
VonBell’s life was trickling away from him like sand through an hourglass.
 
Soon it would be over.

Thankfully, Marcus stood between Steven and Cassandra.
 
Cassandra looked ready to kill and Steven was cussing her like a sailor.
 
Marcus had his eyes on Cassandra and ready to move if she so much as twitched towards Steven.

Laramie was furious and had walked over to stand beside Cassandra.
 
The woman herself was furious and ready to take Steven apart.

Laramie turned and glared at Silas.
 
“Is this how guests are treated in your house?
 
You allow them to be spoken to in this manner?
 
I demand you punish this human this instant!” Laramie was practically shouting.

“You demand?” Silas asked quietly.

Laramie was in no mood to back down and glared at Silas.
 
Alec was afraid that if anyone were to walk between the two they would instantly burn to ash.
 
Both men’s emotions were intense.

Steven had finally calmed down once Xavier had reached him with a towel and he had started to clean most of the blood off himself.
 
He still glared at Cassandra but it was starting to sink in what he’d done and he was starting to look a little scared.

“I merely went to speak with Marcus and accidentally spilled my drink on this human when he turned and blundered into me.”
 
She still looked like she wanted to kill someone.

“Not exactly,” Alec said causing all the heads in the room to turn towards him.
 
“I watched you purposefully zip over and put yourself directly in front of Steven so that he’d turn into you.
 
You knew he couldn’t react fast enough and that gave you the opportunity to throw the blood in his face.”
 
Alec met Cassandra’s glare with one of his own.
 
“You knew exactly what you were doing and had plenty of time to either move out of the way or cause an
accident
.”

“Silas, you need to do something about this.
 
You humans as
guests
.
 
You allow this abomination to question the word of my second.”
 
Laramie shook his head.
 
“You aren’t even in control of your own house.” Laramie spat the words at Silas.

“Actually, Alec is correct,” Doctor Schubert said from where he was still seated.
 
Of everyone there, he’d have the best chance to see what had actually happened.
 
Laramie glared daggers at the Doctor but Schubert completely ignored him.
 
“Cassandra put herself in the way of Steven so that he would run into her.”

“How dare you,” Cassandra said from between gritted teeth.
 
“I did no such thing.
 
He turned and ran into me.”

“So, you’re telling me,” Doctor Schubert said slowly and clearly, “that a mere human
bumped
into you and a powerful vampire such as yourself didn’t have time to react?
 
Is that what you want us all to believe, that a mere mortal tripped you up?”

Cassandra looked like she wanted to say something nasty but Laramie shot her a warning look and she dropped her gaze to the floor.

“No one here believes for one second that you are the victim Cassandra.
 
You should apologize to Mister Reynolds and let us continue with this mess.
 
I have more important things to do,” Schubert said standing.

“How dare you,” Laramie spat out.
 
“One day you won’t have such powerful friends to shield you.
 
And when that day comes you can look for me to be there.”

Doctor Schubert started laughing.
 
“I look forward to it.”

Laramie stood enraged for a moment.
 
Alec watched in fascination as Laramie’s eyes turned a soulless black and his fangs grew.
 
This was getting serious and Alec didn’t know what to do.

“
ENOUGH
!” Silas shouted into the quiet room.
 

It was like some sort of sonic bomb had gone off but without the sound.
 
It wasn’t Silas’s voice that had caused the event.
 
It was more like a force of Will.
 
Alec had to fight just to remain in control.
 
He felt his own will power trying to drain away but he fought it.
 
Steven looked completely stunned and on the verge of passing out, Dorn was little better.
 
Most of the other vampires had stopped in their tracks, Laramie with his mouth hanging open.
 
His eyes had returned to their normal blue and his fangs were gone.
 
The only ones seemingly unaffected were Silas, Schubert and Alec.
 
Thankfully, Xavier had had the sense to leave the room as soon as he’d handed Steven the towel.
 
That would have really rattled the frail old man.

Before any of the vampires could clear their heads and take note, Alec pretended that Silas’s Will had affected him as well.
 
Alec let several of the other vampires, notably Laramie and Cassandra, recover first before he pretended to pull himself together.
 
He looked around and noticed that Schubert was staring at him with eyes narrowed.
 
That man didn’t miss much.
 

Dorn and Steven had walked over and slumped unceremoniously onto the couch.
 
Both looked like they might be sick.
 
Alec wasn’t even aware that a vampire could do what Silas had done.
 
He recalled Silas telling him earlier in their relationship that siring gave a vampire certain abilities that he wouldn’t talk about.
 
Maybe this was one of them.
 
It certainly made sense.
 
If you had sired several vampires and they were fighting and out of control, exerting your Will over them would certainly be one way of calming them down or controlling them.