5. Escaped or Execution
1737 Words
MALAKAI
The heavy iron gates of the coven
shut behind the Mercedes, sounding like the teeth of a trap clicking into place.
I stepped out of the car, my legs still feeling like they were made of water. The O-negative Mina had given me was sitting like lead in my stomach. It hadn't satisfied the hunger; it had only reminded me of what I was missing. Every breath of the damp London fog felt like it was scraping the inside of my lungs.
The estate rose out of the mist like a gothic beast waking from a long sleep. It was a sprawling fortress built on centuries of secrets and the bones of anyone who had tried to take them.
"Don't do anything stupid, Malakai," Mina whispered as she stepped out beside me. Her voice was uncharacteristically small. "Just... listen for once. He is very mad at you so be careful".
I didn't answer. I couldn't. I was staring at the front doors.
Two tactical guards stood at the entrance, their faces obscured by matte-black helmets. They weren't vampires; they were "Turned" humans.low-level thralls with enough vampire blood in them to give them speed, but not enough to give them a soul. They held rifles loaded.
My father didn't trust his own bloodline. He trusted technology and the fear he inspired.
I walked past them, my boots echoing on the ancient flagstones of the entrance hall. The air inside was cold.
I passed the grand staircase, and my heart—the traitorous thing—gave a violent thud.
The portrait was there. It had been moved to the center of the hall, framed in heavy, gold-leafed wood. My mother. She looked exactly as I remembered her: soft, golden, and radiant. But my eyes didn't stay on her face. They dropped to her throat.
The artists had tried to cover the scars with a high-collared lace dress, but I knew what was underneath. I’d seen the red ruin of it five years ago. I’d heard the wet, tearing sound of the wolf’s fangs.
I looked away, a growl vibrating in my chest.
The Council chamber was at the end of the east wing. I pushed the double doors open without knocking.
The room was a cathedral of judgment. A massive table of black marble ran down the center, lit by a dozen flickering torches that cast long, jagged shadows against the walls. Around it sat the twelve—the High Elders of the Coven. They were ancient, their skin like parchment pulled tight over bone, their eyes glowing a dull, predatory red.
They were discussing trade routes and blood-tax, their voices a low. They looked at the world like it was a game of chess, and right now, I was a piece that had moved out of turn. If only they knew what I had done this meeting will not be going on today. An execution could have been going on.
At the head of the table sat my father.
Lord Alaric Von Voss look like a god. His black hair was slicked back, and his grey eyes were fixed on a ledger.
The moment he saw me, the air in the room seemed to freeze.
"That will be all," Alaric said. His voice was a blade.
"But Lord Alaric, the treaty with the council —" one of the elders started, his voice thin and reedy.
"Out. Now."
Alaric stood up. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. I felt the fine hairs on my arms stand up as his Alpha-Vampire presence flooded the chamber. The elders didn't ask a second time. They bowed quickly, their robes whispering against the stone, and scrambled for the side exit.
The heavy doors slammed shut. We were alone.
I walked over to the table and threw myself into the chair at the opposite end. I kicked my boots up onto the polished marble, the mud from the airport smearing across the surface. I let a lazy, arrogant smirk hit my face, even though my insides were screaming.
"Miss me, Dad? Or did you enjoy the peace and quiet while I was in Norway?"
Alaric’s eyes snapped to mine. The grey was gone, replaced by a deep, lethal crimson.
"Remove your feet from that table Malakai. ."
I didn't move. I wanted him to break. I wanted to see the mask slip.
In a blur of motion that my eyes even with their vampire speed could barely follow, Alaric was across the room.
His hand caught my throat and slammed me back against the high-backed chair. The force of it made the wood groan. My feet hit the floor with a heavy thud, my lungs seizing as his grip tightened.
"You fool," Alaric hissed, his face inches from mine. "You killed one of our own. You drained a vampire in an alleyway like a common animal. Do you have any idea what I’ve had to do to keep the Council from finding out? The favors I’ve burned? The blood-debts I now owe?"
"He was... hurting... her," I choked out, my fangs dropping in a reflex I couldn't stop.
"A girl you were using to pass the time!" Alaric mocked. He let out a short, jagged laugh that sounded like glass breaking. "You risked our entire dynasty for a common human who wasn't even your blood host."
He tightened his grip, his eyes boring into mine.
"By your age, I had already found mine. I knew what it meant to have a source of power that mattered. But you? You’re still chasing trash because you're too weak to find what belongs to you."
The insult hit harder than the slam against the chair. My blood boiled.
"Is that right?" I spat, my voice turning into a serrated blade. "You found your host early. You found the woman who was supposed to be your everything. And yet..."
I leaned in, ignoring the pain in my windpipe.
"And yet, you let the wolves rip her apart, didn't you? You watched them tear my mother’s throat out and did nothing but hide behind your Council table."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Alaric’s face went pale. Then, his eyes exploded with rage.
He threw me.
I flew across the room, my body slamming into the marble table with the force of a wrecking ball. The stone cracked. I hit the floor, coughing, as my vision flared white and then black.
"You dare speak of her?" Alaric roared. He stepped over me, his feet suffocating like a mountain. "I didn't hide. I survived so this Coven would have a future. A future you are currently burning to the ground with your incompetence."
He kicked my side enough to make me crawl. He released the pressure of his aura, and I slid to the floor, gasping for air.
"You've been a disappointment since the day she died," Alaric hissed, his voice cold and clinical again. "A liability. A stain on the Voss name."
"Then kill me," I choked out, looking up at him. "If I'm such a stain, send me to join her. End it."
Alaric looked down at me, and for a split second, I saw it. a flash of something that wasn't hate. It was pity.
"No. ..Death is too easy. You don't get to escape Malakai. Your mother escaped but you....you don't get to escape that easily".
He straightened his coat, adjusting his cuffs as if we hadn't just been in a life-and-death struggle. But what does he mean by my mom escaped?.. escaped what actually?.. does it mean there is more to my mom death or she is still alive?. I was drown in my own thought when his voice snapped me back to reality.
"I've made arrangements. Halloway has buried the body in Norway, but the rumors are already starting. You need to be gone before the Council starts asking for a blood-audit. You start Monday at Thornewood Academy."
I wiped a smear of blood from my lip. "A mixed school? You're sending me to a cage with wolves? With animals?"
"Exactly. Perhaps being surrounded by your enemies will teach you to control that pathetic temper. There are rules, Malakai. Strict ones. Your powers will be suppressed by the school's null-field. You will be watched.One mistake, one scandal, and I withdraw my protection."
He walked toward the door, his silhouette tall and unyielding.
"The Council will have your head if they find out what you have done. Your mother begged me to be patient with you before she... before the end. Consider this her last gift to you."
The massive doors slammed shut, the sound echoing like a coffin lid as he walk out the room.
I stood up slowly, every bone in my body screaming. My hands were shaking with a rage so hot it felt like it would melt my marrow. A school full of wolves. A school full of the creatures that killed my mother.
I walked to the window, watching the rain smear against the reinforced glass.
My father thought he was punishing me. He thought he was sending me to a place where I would be forced to play the part of a good little heir.
I didn't care about the Council. I didn't care about the Voss name. All I could feel was the phantom weight of that silver tether pulling at my chest. I could still smell her and feel the pain of yearning for her blood.
I was prey. I was being sent to a school full of monsters. Monsters, and one of them had blood that made my fangs ache with a hunger I didn't understand.
I stood there the window watching the city go by, feeling the weight of a bond that was destined to turn into a war if I ever let it manifest.
I just needed to get my head straight and forget the way her scent had crawled under my skin. A vampire who's blood host is a werewolf. It shouldn't be.it just shouldn't be.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD