Bound To My Vampire Captor

Chapter 4

The floor exploded upward in a flash of orange fire and shattered marble.

The shockwave hit my chest like a physical blow, driving the air from my lungs. Screams echoed through the grand ballroom as the Court scattered, velvet robes and silver chains tangling in a frantic, animalistic rush. Dust, ground plaster, and the sharp metallic stench of ozone filled the air, stinging my eyes.

I hit the floor hard, my hands scraping against jagged stone. My red silk dress was torn at the hem, coated in gray debris, but I didn't care about the fabric, I cared about survival.

"Diane!"

Sheldon’s voice sliced through the chaos. Through the swirling dust, I saw him vaulting over a fallen crystal chandelier, his eyes blazing crimson as they locked onto me. He reached out a heavy, pale hand, aiming to pull me back to his side.

He wants me in his grip. But right now, his grip is the only thing keeping me from getting trampled.

Panic surged, but so did calculation. As his fingers closed around my wrist, I didn't just cower I used his momentum to pull myself to my feet, leaning into his strength just long enough to gain my footing before yanking back toward the shelter of a thick stone pillar.

"Stay behind me!" Sheldon roared, his body shielding mine as another secondary blast shook the ceiling.

"I'm not going down in the middle of this room!" I yelled back, keeping my eyes fixed on the crumbling exit archway.

Before we could reach the perimeter, a shadowy figure dropped from the ruined balcony above. One of Victor’s rogues emaciated, with feral, bloodshot eyes landed three feet in front of us. His gaze bypassed Sheldon entirely and snapped directly onto the mark on my throat.

"A Sanguine," the rogue rasped, his lip curling over yellowed fangs. "She smells like—"

I didn't wait for him to finish. Slipping my right hand down my sleeve, I grabbed the silver letter opener I’d concealed earlier and drove the sharp point straight into the rogue's exposed forearm as he reached for me.

The silver scorched his skin with a sickening hiss. The rogue shrieked, recoiling in shock.

It wasn't a lethal blow, but it bought two critical seconds. Sheldon capitalized instantly, tearing the rogue away and throwing him into the collapsing marble stairs.

"You brought a blade?" Sheldon rasped, a flash of pure, stunned shock crossing his features as he looked down at me.

"I told you I wasn't going to be a pet," I snapped, though my hand was trembling violently against the silver handle.

Before he could answer, the central support beams gave way with an earth-shattering c***k. The entire section of floor beneath us disintegrated.

Gravity ripped us downward.

Wind whipped my hair into my eyes as we plunged into the dark, yawning cavern beneath the Spire. My stomach plummeted, but I didn't freeze. I reached out through the Tether in my chest focusing every ounce of intent on the bond connecting us.

The invisible chain snapped taut. Sheldon felt the sudden flare of my mental grip; in mid-air, he pivoted his body, wrapping a heavy arm around my waist to absorb the impact as we crashed through wooden support beams and landed heavily on a mountain of rubble three stories below.

The force of the landing rattled my teeth. Sheldon took the brunt of the stone, his frame taking the crushing weight of the fall.

We lay in the pitch-black shadows of the basement, dust settling over us in heavy sheets. Sheldon pushed himself up slightly, his chest heaving, his dark hair disheveled. His grip on my shoulders was tight his hands shaking with a rare, uncharacteristic tremor.

"Are you out of your mind?!" he growled, hovering over me in the dark. "You drove a silver letter opener into a feral vampire?!"

"He was going to bite me!" I wheezed, pushing against his chest to create space. My breath was shallow, my body bruised, but I forced my eyes to meet his crimson gaze in the dim light. "I don't need you to fight all my battles, Sheldon. I need you to get us out of here."

Sheldon froze. In the faint, glowing red of his eyes, I saw a subtle shift. The arrogant, absolute controller flickered, replaced by a sudden, heavy quiet.

"I am not trying to break you, Diane," he whispered, his voice dangerously low, almost pained. "I am trying to keep you alive."

"Then stop treating me like property and start treating me like an ally," I replied, holding his gaze without flinching. "Because if I die down here, your precious asset is gone anyway."

Before he could answer, heavy boots crunched against broken stone in the dark corridor.

"How touching," a smooth, cruel voice drawled from the shadows.

Victor stepped into the shaft of moonlight filtering down from the hole in the ceiling. In his left hand, he held a heavy iron chain wrapped in glowing, nauseating purple runes. Behind him, three rogue enforcers blocked the only visible exit.

"You really do care for her, don't you, Sheldon?" Victor sneered, his gaze sweeping over us. "Just like you cared for the last."

Sheldon surged to his feet, instantly placing himself between me and the intruders. A low, guttural growl ripped from his throat, his fangs fully bared. "Shut your mouth, Victor."

The last one? The words hung in the air, sending a cold chill down my spine. There had been another Sanguine Bound.

"Oh, she doesn't know," Victor laughed, raising the glowing chain. "She thinks you're her savior, when you're really just repeating history."

Victor whipped the chain through the air. The moment the purple runes flared, a violent spike of icy agony drove straight into the center of my chest.

"An anti-Tether ward," Victor whispered, "It severes the bond by burning the human from the inside. Beautiful invention, isn't it?"

Beside me, Sheldon dropped to one knee with a harsh gasp, dark blood spilling past his lips as the feedback hit him twice as hard. The bond wasn't just pulling on me; it was tearing at his core.

"Diane..." Sheldon rasped, trying to reach for me through the blinding purple haze, his body buckling under the spell's weight.

Victor stepped over Sheldon’s kneeling frame, reaching out icy fingers to grab me by the hair, forcing my head back. "Come along, little Sanguine. Let's see how much your blood is worth without Thorne's leash."

The pain in my head was deafening, but through the blinding light of the burning Tether, I looked past Victor's sneering face and met Sheldon’s eyes.

He was bleeding, grounded, and struggling to move not because he lacked power, but because the bond tying him to me was being used as a weapon against him.

I didn't pass out. I gritted my teeth against the searing fire in my veins, reached into sleeve of my torn dress, and locked my fingers back around the handle of my silver blade.

"I told you..." I wheezed through the agony, staring directly into Victor's glowing eyes, "...I don't belong to anyone."

And with everything I had left, I drove the silver straight into Victor's knee.