The Immortals of Sumer

Chapter Ten

“My Lady, you will be restrained and taken to Vlad unharmed either way. Besides it’s ungentlemanly to hurt a woman, no?” He answers and I scoff. Until I started see an alternate reality, another vision-a finished vision-overlapping this one. Tony was dead, his eyes empty as the blood pooling more and more around him. Jocelyn lay near him and I had to look away from her throat.

I looked toward the manor to see Devin’s feet on the balcony floor still but his cousin was half hanging out of the window of the first floor below him. I gasp as the vision flickered twice more between the gore and death to the conversation we should have with Radu.

Finally, it settled on the conversation with Radu as Uri mutters that Radu is full of s**t and wants us to go inside but I shrug him off. I know what this was meant to warn me. I bring the fire down and within seconds, Radu is beside me. I let out a gasp, stepping back, but he catches my upper arm and pulls me that step back to him.

So I glare up at him, saying that he must keep his word. He nods to me before turning a slight bit back to the soldiers. “Round everyone up…gently,” he said and I sigh, knowing it had to be done this way.Suddenly, the vision ended with a harsh snap back to reality. My flames were dying as Uri held me, shouting my name. His voice sounded like it was far away at first before I came back to myself with a gasp. “Selena! Selena, wake up! Your fire…Selena, you have to stay awake!” Uri was demanding, realizing I was having a full-on vision.

I came to enough to double the height of the flames surrounding the house. Uri cradled me to his chest, like our dad used to when I was hurt, and carried me inside in a flash, asking me what I had seen. He set me down on the couch. “It was bad, if we don’t do what they say…We have to make him keep his word. Radu-he will keep his word, you know,” I said, my head spinning from the vision. It made Uri mumble not to just give up like that and I sighed, sitting up more. “Brother, we’re surrounded! They’re not leaving. They know where we are and wherever we go they’re ready to follow. This is personal, I think.”

“Of course, it is personal,”. Uri muttered some more, “Radu probably hates our grandpa as much as Dracula does for being a traitor-a witch lover! Regardless, this isn’t gonna end well if we just walk over to them. That’s stupid!” He said and I sighed.

“What do you suggest then?” I asked as the rest of the group came sneaking into the room.

“What is going on?” Tony asked and my brother caught everyone up. Devin came in with the rest of the group, bloody and glaring at me the entire time.

“No need to whisper, they’ve heard us this whole time. They know we are here. There’s a whole army out there, waiting and watching the manor and she can only keep them at bay for so long.”

I finally said, “They want us to come out peacefully, surrender, and if we do then no one dies. If we make him ‘wait’, he will send the soldiers in for blood. It’s a group decision…should we, I don’t know, vote?”

There was a harsh laugh from outside and I jumped. Tony and Uri went to the windows with a few others to look but I knew it was Radu. He shouted into the house, “A vote? Little nymph, be a leader and decide… now. I’ll not wait much longer.” Jocelyn’s hand wrapped around mine in my lap and she smiled to me.

“Then let’s get to it. For the sake of the kid, let us go peacefully. That is my vote,” she said and I seconded her words. Uri and Tony disagreed then Hayley agreed and so did Devins’ cousin. Four to two…Kyle voted against, four to three… Tyler voted for surrender, making it five to three with only four more to vote. Two of them were males, Nick and Jimmy, and an elderly woman named Ruth were all that was left of the secondary group to vote.

They voted against and she voted for surrender. Devin finally spoke up, voting against it and making it even. A stalemate. I stood up with a heavy sigh. “Well, I guess we’re stuck for a moment, so let’s all take five minutes. Burn anything you don’t want to share with vampires. Pack the rest up and let’s go; whether they come in or we get out, regardless-get ready for it, make your peace, and whatnot,” I said as I flung a spark at the fireplace. It flickered to life as Tony instantly booked it upstairs with Jocelyn and the rest of them dispersed. Uri came up to me, displeased.

“I know we disagree right now, Uri, but this isn’t sitting right with anyone, okay?” I asked shortly before I sighed. “Hey, regardless, this isn’t the end of our fight, do you hear me, Brother?” I asked solemnly and he caught on, thinking over what I meant. He nodded, turning away to go upstairs. “Oh and toss my s**t in my pack for me too,” I shouted up to him as I walked back out to Radu. I was a little startled. He held my petticoat out for me.

“So you did take my coat…” I said, reaching for it over the flames. He came behind me in a flash and was holding it out for me to put on! I turned back to him with a scowl. “You think it’s comforting for me, having you at my back? Stay where I can see you, Creep,” I said, yanking my coat from him and put it over my arm while I glared at them all as I backed up a bit towards the house.

How did he even make it over the witch fire? I was asking myself and he could tell. “We have nymphs on our side too. The Elite have been spelled to not burn. Though you voted and were not smart in your decisions, we will do this peacefully for your sake. However, do not think you are in charge here!” Radu hissed down at me. Hunter came out of the house suddenly, shouting.

“Get away from her!” Hayley ran out after him, telling him to be quiet, but the kid reached out for me and I grabbed his hand. Radu looked the kid over, chuckling.

“Hmmm, how cute. You have fans,” he muttered as he grabbed my upper arm and yanked me away from the kid. Hayley held him where they stood as two soldiers stepped up and held them at gunpoint. I gasped but Radu already repeated that it’s still peaceful, it’s just a warning. Some warning! He yanked the coat out of my hands and turned me around roughly, making me stumble. He caught me by the waist, steadying me before he put one of my arms through the coat, and then cleared his throat before motioning for my other arm.

I put it on without much fight until he yanked both of my wrists behind me, overlapping one on the other. I cried out, looking over my shoulder at him to ask, “Hey! What the hell are you doing?!”

“Restraining you,” was all he said as he motioned for a soldier to come here. “Cuffs.” And the dark short haired soldier pulled his out instantly. I heard the cold, solid block of Kevlar and metal strap down on each of my wrists with a klink, klink, klink. Suddenly, there was a pain again across my bad hand and I hissed, looking over my shoulder to see Radu wrapping my hand in a white silk cloth. The f**k…?

Once he had tied the wound up, Radu grabbed my upper arm again and pulled me close, saying, “Whatever fight you think you still have…stops here.” I looked up at him and stilled for a split second, debating, before smiling at him and then spitting right in his face.

“You don’t know me or my fight,” I said and he growled, his hand flashing up before my eyes but he stopped dead in his tracks before his hand contacted my cheek. I let out a shuddering breath and smirked.

“Ah, ah, ah-you gave me your word,” was all I said before he snarled in my face. He took a deep breath before he turned away, wiping at his face.

“Take her away! Get her in the car!” He shouted and two soldiers came forward, each one grabbed one of my arms and began dragging me around the house. I saw most of us were being herded into the front of the house where army green Jeeps were waiting. What the hell were these kinda vehicles doing here? Duh, transporting an army, girl, but these types of vehicles were saved for the vampire special forces. What would happen to everyone? Are they going to get sold to the vampire nobility?

I tried to dig my feet in and fight but I got loaded up into the Jeep first. I saw the women get loaded in after me but into separate vehicles behind this one. Finally, through the window, I saw my brother being dragged out of the house, bound too, but I watched the dark short haired soldier from earlier push him right up to Radu.

Radu pointed to me and then leaned in to tell Uri something that made his eyes go wide. Uri got mad and tried to headbutt Radu but Radu was already stepping aside. He looked at me, knowingly with a smirk, and rammed his fist into my brothers ribs. No! I thrashed but the brunette soldier in the backseat beside me merely pressed me against the door until I calmed down. “Behave, witch, or this whole ride will be uncomfortable for you,” he warned and I scowled.

I watched my brother stand back up straight with a grimace. Radu shoved him towards the Jeep I was in and Uri got loaded into the Jeep’s passenger front seat. He looked back at me with a nod and I smiled at him, asking, “You okay?”

“Yeah, of course, we’ve had worse scrapes than this, right?” He asked, trying to comfort me so I nodded. Radu opened the Jeep door beside me and got in, putting me in the middle of the two vampires. My brother was up front with the dark short haired soldier vampire driving. We were leading the rest of the Jeeps.

“Where are we going then?” I asked Radu beside me. He looked into my eyes really intensely.

“I’m taking you and your brother to Vlad ‘Dracula’ Tepes. You will stand before him in less than 8 hours, darling, and to make sure it goes smoothly,” he muttered as he reached into a jacket pocket. He pulled out a syringe and I started to shift against the seat belt, against the brunette soldier to my left, so the soldier grabbed my shoulders and held me where I was. I thought the syringe was for me but Radu plunged it into my brothers neck in the front seat.

Uri had turned around, bound from behind, to tell the soldier to get off me and it left him exposed. It allowed for Radu to reach behind the headrest to the right side of my brother while he was distracted over me and jabbed him directly into the neck. Uri grimaced but Radu had emptied the contents of the syringe and pulled it out already.

“Uri?! What was that? Radu, what have you done?” I asked him, panicked, but Radu merely pinched my chin in his slender hand and made me look away from Uri’s drooping eyes into his dark eyes.

“Relax, little nymph, he is gonna sleep the whole ride. It’s a guarantee that he doesn’t fight back and so that you stay here for him. You would never leave your brother behind, would you?” The brunette soldier beside me let me go.

“I do have a name! I’m no nymph. My name is Selena, goddammit!” I said to Radu before telling him, “And no, I’d never leave my brother alone with the likes of you creatures.” The soldiers in the vehicle growled, the feeling of the Jeep frigid, as Radu looked haunted. He ran his hand across my cheekbone with a very dark chuckle and I shuddered away from his touch as much as the limited space allowed.

“The King will be so pleased,” he said distractedly, like he wasn’t even speaking to anyone in the vehicle, but more as a thought said out loud.

“Your own grandmother, Elena, said something like that to him and I on our first night of meeting her. What you said before, however, is slightly incorrect, I’m afraid. It is personal but not because Michael was a traitorous ‘witch lover’ but rather he stole the Kings’ lover, his witch, Elena.”

“None of us even realized they had been having an affair behind our King’s back until they were just gone one night. We pieced it together later. They had found out that she was pregnant with you…or is your brother the first child?” Radu was so casual as he dropped this information bomb on me. It was so hard to digest what he was saying… my grandma was with Dracula?! I shook my head back to the question at hand.

“No, we’re twins. Delivered together through an emergency C-section; we were caught on our umbilical cords and dying. Can’t say who is older than who because of it,” I muttered.

Radu shrugged, saying, “The King will be pleased regardless.”

“Why? For revenge against my dead grandmother after all these years?”

“No, he will be happy just to have you close to him,” Radu answered and I scowled.

“He doesn’t even know me,” I said and Radu rolled his eyes at me.

“He has an eternity with you to learn everything there is to know about you. Trust me when I say this, little one, he will not let you go so easily as he had with Elena,” he said and I got frustrated with the fact that that made no sense! I looked around the car but it’s not like any of these guys were gonna stand up for me and help.

I just sighed, readjusting the cuffs so I could at least sit comfortably, as I watched Uri to make sure he was still breathing. He was and I used his steady breaths to keep myself calm, breathing deep. It helped the time pass too. A couple hours had passed before the vehicle’s radio chirped up for a status report and they pulled it down to the driver, saying, “This is Romeo2, en route with prize.” I scowled, making Radu chuckle, as the Jeep got a response.

“This is Tower, we receive you, Romeo2. New coordinates for rendezvous being sent.” We stopped while the GPS loaded a new screen of the terrain and I was confused as to why this was even happening. We did an abrupt left and drove for another hour, during which Uri started to rouse, before we finally stopped.

I looked to Radu for the first time since we had spoken earlier and he instantly looked at me too. “We’re refueling and giving you humans a chance to stretch your legs. While we are here, you might as well meet the family,” he said as he opened the door and pulled me out. The region we had driven to was beautiful, full of tall trees, moss covered buildings, and…a clear path of soldiers. Oh!

It was a fort or soldiers camp or something. But the sheer amount of vampire soldiers made my blood run cold for a moment, a true fear moment where your legs feel numb and tingling. My gods, we were gonna be destroyed! I felt dismay as Radu dragged me into the thick of it all by my upper arm. The soldiers all separated down the middle to make way for Radu and saluted as he passed but I heard mutterings of me as soon as we passed them.

“That’s the kings witch…no, she’s too young!… That boy-you don’t think they’re Michaels kids…” all the talk of the camp didn’t bother Radu, who kept a steady pace to the center of the camp. I looked behind me to see a wide awake Uri being dragged behind me by the two soldiers from our Jeep. A wide, big tent was at the center of the camp with soldiers guarding it but they didn’t stop him as he entered with me in tow.

Uri was walked past me and then shoved onto his knees with a grunt in front of the desk in the back of the tent. I tried to shrug out of Radu’s grip but he gripped tighter and pulled me closer despite my fight. There was a man standing there behind the desk, facing a huge screen with a map on it. He finally looked over from the map he was scrolling across and seemed to look over Uri first.

When his eyes met mine, he smiled, saying, “Hello, my lady, it is nice to meet you. You look like your mother.”

“Elena was my grandmother,” I stated and he tsk-tsked.

“Has it been that long?” He asked and Uri scoffed. It drew his attention down to Uri and I got worried, my gut clenching. “Hmm, you’re young, boy, I on the other hand have been on this earth for centuries and let me warn you now, your attitude will only get you so far here.” Uri’s sneer deepened.

“This is a military station, my boy, where we break punks like you and remold them into soldiers. Stay silent or you’ll be out there in the barracks with the men while your sister stays here with me and Radu,” the vampire hinted suggestively and Uri lunged at him. The soldiers didn’t even react because, before I could blink, the vampire was across the desk and had my brother by the throat.

“No! Uri! Please, don’t!” I screamed and the vampire looked at me again.

“Radu, what do you think about the sister-brother duo here?” He asked and Radu looked all of us over before looking back at him specifically.

“Well, Uncle Bogdan, I believe Selena here got her grandmothers’ witch magic and Uri got his grandfathers’ vampire strength. A full dose of midazolam only knocked him out for four hours so, I believe, he has a quick immune response. Her magic drains her half as quickly as normal nymphs and her visions are quite strong. He acts like an older brother to her, very protective, despite being twins. She is so much like her grandmother she even repeated the same words Elena said to us.”

“She said: ‘I have a name! I’m no nymph. My name is Elena, goddammit!’ But Selena…Selena-Elena…it took me right back to the car ride home from your night club.” He said and Bogdan’s eyes met mine again.

“Hmmm, perfect,” was all he said as he tossed Uri back onto the ground. I fought to get free from Radu and go to my brother but he clenched onto my arm tighter, making me cry out. Uri was grabbed by the two soldiers as Bogdan said, “I received a note from the King. He is coming here on Induction business and will arrive by morning. Take him to the barracks for the night, gentlemen. She will remain protected, here, with us.”

My gut clenched as Uri was dragged out of the tent, cussing. I disliked being taken away from my brother but, more so, Dracula coming here…by morning! “Cuff her to the cot,” Radu ordered as he shoved me to the dark haired soldier from the Jeep. He roughly dragged me over to the cot to the left of the desk in the tent as he undid the cuffs. As soon as they were off, I tried to yank my arm back but he merely shoved me onto the bed with a growl.

“Don’t-you dare-touch me,” I huffed, struggling with him to avoid him from grabbing my freed wrist but also trying to shove him away. He snarled down at me, making me gasp, as he moved fast as hell to grab both my arms and pinned them to the bar at the head of the cot. I swore at them all as he clicked the cuffs on tight as hell. I was on my knees on the cot, tugging on the Kevlar, until something touched my chin.

I gasped, looking up at Radu, who was pinching my chin between his thumb and pointer finger. “So much like your grandmother…I truly can’t wait for the King to meet you.”

Bogdan agreed behind Radu and I glared up at them but didn’t move, knowing I was pinned and outnumbered right now. I had to tell myself this wasn’t the end of my fight. Radu stepped away to read a paper Bogdan handed him and Bogdan took the opportunity to step up to me. He looked over my face very intently and then smiled.

“Welcome to the family, Selena,” he said and then sniffed. He looked at my hand immediately and so did I, only to realize it was bleeding through the white silk. What a waste of cloth. I clenched my hand together to test how f****d up my hand really was, which wasn’t too bad, but I had accidentally squeezed excess blood from the cloth. Bogdan growled softly, turning to Radu and asking how that happened. What, like I can’t answer what the hell happened to me?

Radu looked back at me and sighed. “A human male was going to r**e her. Before I could intervene, she had shattered something glass from the sounds of it and she cut him a couple times. She got away and we acted immediately afterwards to ensure no more harm came to her. We have the human male with us for Vlad to deal with, apparently when he arrives in the morning. We will remain here for the night, little Selena.”

Bogdan went over to the desk and tapped on something once. Not a moment later, someone-a human boy-walked into the tent with a bow. “Master Bogdan, what can I get you?”

“Fetch a medic for the woman,” he said succinctly and the boy turned and left with a bow as quickly as he came. I glared at him for the use of a boy slave and he ignored me the entire time. Radu and him began pouring over the screen of the terrain until a human woman came to the tent with a bow. ”Ah, yes, the woman needs her hand bandaged. Thank you.”

The human woman nodded to Bogdan before coming over to me with her duffel bag in her hand. She saw me basically chained to the bed and I saw pity in her eyes for me as she unwrapped my hand. She inspected my hand before she sighed, digging through her bag for rubbing alcohol and lots of gauze.

She softly said, “I would give you stitches for how deep the cuts are but, with it being on your hand, stitches aren’t the best. I will keep checking on this daily instead; you need to keep your hand still as often as possible in the mean time.” I nodded to her as she finished wrapping my hand and tying it up. With my hands cuffed, I doubted I would be doing much with my hands right now anyway.

She finished and smiled down at me before turning to leave with a bow to Bogdan. He didn’t even pay attention to her as she left. Rude ass. I spent some time yanking on my cuffs before I finally felt uncomfortable and had to sit down on the cot to get the pressure off my knees. After a moment, I looked very closely at the cuffs. I was trying to reach the Kevlar with my cuffed hand when I heard a growl above me.