Текст книги "Ties That Bind"

Автор книги: T. A. Grey

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

CHAPTER 17

Telal approached the king's dais in long strides. His brother's appearance made him frown. What the fuck had happened to him? Gone was the auburn hair, the violet eyes, and golden skin and in its place was black hatred, without a soul.

The royal congregation stared openly as he climbed the stairs to the throne. His brother eyed him, cold and calculating. He looked across the dais and saw his mother sitting at a regal table with white linen draped across it. Her hand held a golden spoon poised in midair like she'd been about to sip from it when he entered. She'd changed too. She'd never been a maternal mother, his nurses had cared for him more than she did, but even now he could see her eyes were darker, more sinister. Others sat at the table too, wearing the clothes of wise men, Alrik's council. He didn't see his father though.

He should kneel before the king, but he didn't. He stopped in front of Alrik's throne, his soul burning to ask so many questions that have long gone unanswered.

“What's brought you here, brother Telal?”

“I need to talk to you.”

A dark eyebrow went up. “After all this time, you think you can come here and make demands of me.” His voice was quiet, hard.

Telal chose his words carefully. “I would just like to talk. I'm not trying to make any demands.”

Alrik scoffed, his lips pulling into a mean grin. He stood and Telal saw just how much he'd grown from the little boy he'd known. In his memory, even as he'd wondered what he'd grown up to look like, to be, he'd never have guessed this. They were about the same height, but aside from that there were no other similarities.

Suddenly, Alrik's gaze cut to the other side of the dais. Two women came through a red curtain partition, one with skin like glittering milk, the other a vibrant shade of ebony. Fleeting recognition crossed him as he gazed at the lighter-skinned one. She, too, paused when she saw him, her lips parting in surprise.

Alrik growled. “Come with me.” Telal nodded, following him back through the curtain and down to the study at the end of the hall that used to be his father's. It was the king's study, and only he or his special guests were allowed to enter.

Alrik swept open the doors and they slammed shut behind them, the loud crack echoed in the massive room. It looked the same, he noted. A large wooden desk, the walls filled with books and ledgers, the plush handmade rugs on the floor, and family portraits on the wall.

Alrik dropped into a tall-backed chair, his eyes cold as ice. “Tell me what you’re doing here.”

Telal took a seat across from him. “I'm here to talk business.”

Alrik laughed, the sound like insects crawling along his skin. “Business. I'm intrigued. What business could you possibly be talking about, brother?”

Telal held his questions about his family at bay. “I've finally started the negotiations to have the rift opened again.”

That seemed to take Alrik by surprise; both eyebrows flew up and his hands clenched the arm rests like he was trying to strangle them.

“Why would you want that?”

Telal stared at his brother for long moments. He'd never anticipated he wouldn't want the rift open. Not once in his life did the thought cross his mind.

“I think the better question is why wouldn't you want that?”

He came back with his own question. “You've come back to claim the throne. You know father died that night.”

“I don't want the bloody throne, Alrik. I always knew you were better for it than me.” As he said the words he cringed inside. After seeing his brother, he wasn't so sure. Something sinister wafted around him.

Alrik relaxed back into his chair, his eyes drifting off to stare idly at the wall. “My brother's come back to open the rift. Just how do you plan to do that?”

“I have an agreement with the Commander of the Atal Warriors. I have the documents with me so you can see the proposal.” Leaning forward, he took the folded proposal out of his back pocket and tossed it on the table between them. Alrik made no move to pick it up.

“Tobius en Kulev? I think I'm surprised you'd work with him, though I guess I shouldn't be since you've done it before.”

The jab cut straight to the quick. Telal stood in a rush, ready to get all the shit out. “No, Tobius died a long time ago by some renegade demons. His son, Tyrian, is in charge now. I have a loose acquaintance with him.” He left out the part involving the Bellum sisters. “He'll agree to the proposal but there are some 'ifs'.”

Alrik smirked. “Some 'ifs'...”

“Listen, that night I didn't betray you—”

His brother's booming laughter overshadowed anything he might have said. Alrik stood and walked to a long wooden table against a wall that held bottles of various liquors and glasses of various sizes. He poured himself a tall glass of frenzia, strong demonic liquor, and tossed back the harsh drink then poured another and did it again.

“I had an arrangement with Tobius to have the nether two rifts closed off for protection. I was trying to help us from all the attacks.”

Alrik nodded as if he understood. “That makes perfect sense, brother Telal. Go to our enemy the vampires and get help from them without consulting our father first. Perfect...sense.”

Telal clenched his jaw. “I know I was wrong now and foolish, but I'm trying to make things right.”

Alrik quickly turned around, his strange dark eyes swirling with an eerie energy. “Bad news for you, brother. I am king now and I don't want the rift opened.”

Telal shook his head. “Why wouldn't you that? It makes no sense.” Telal quickly thought back to all of his plans, years of planning, and already so many unexpected things had happened to throw him off. This especially he'd never figured into the equation. Of course, he didn't know his brother would be tainted too. Tainted with what? A voice asked in the back of his mind.

“Do you wish to challenge me for the throne?”

“A fight to the death? You have to be kidding me. You are my brother.”

Alrik's cool gaze turned positively icy. “As if that means anything to me.”

And just like that Telal's heart broke in his chest. A cold numb feeling drifted lazily through his body, filling his limbs and muscles with lethargy. Everything he'd worked for, to get to this moment, was shattered. He had the distinct urge to port home, put a gun to his head and blow his fucking head off. The one person he'd ever loved, his blood, hated him. How couldn't he? logic demanded. Fuck off, he told it.

“You have not become a good king.”

He had nothing left to lose now, even if his brother killed him it wouldn't be any worse than what he felt now. Hell, that would be a relief to the raw burning agony in his chest.

 Real anger surged in his black eyes. “You're here for five minutes and think you know everything about my kingdom?”

Telal took several hard steps towards him, his hands curling, ready to throw the fuck down. “Where are the prolitare? Why are all the stuffy royals drinking gaily in their finery in the castle? If anything, it looks worse now than when father was king.”

Alrik roared and charged at Telal like a massive battering ram. His shoulder slammed into Telal's stomach, shoving all the air out of him. It felt like he'd tried to shove his innards out through his spine. Telal went stumbling back, his feet slipping on the rug, then he caught his bearings and dug his feet in deep, pushing back with a roar of his own.

They both went down to the ground in a roll, elbows digging into the ground, knees cracking on the floor.

Alrik pulled back his head then whipped it forward, cracking Telal's nose like a toothpick.

“Fuck me!” shouted Telal and pulled back his fist letting it fly. He only got in one good shot before arms wrapped around him and pulled him off his brother. He fought the restraining arms and slid several feet closer to his brother who stared coldly at him from the floor. He wiped at the blood at the corner of his mouth and smeared it across his cheek.

“Get off of me!” He started channeling his magic, breathing heavily, then let his power fly. The men holding him were shot backwards as if a wave crashed into them. They slammed into tables and walls, breaking everything in their path.

Alrik cocked a brow. “Your powers have grown too, I see.”

“Pull off the guards and fight me,” he growled.

Alrik gave the order and the men slowly got to their feet and shuffled out of the study. “I have a better idea.” He jerked his head towards the door and left. Telal followed, apprehensive, his blood positively boiling in his veins with the need to lash out. Alrik led them back to the throne room. Again he saw the woman and, like a punch to the gut, recognition hit. It was Arianna...his fiancé. Surely she'd moved on a long time ago. The marriage had been prearranged by his father and mother with her parents.

His mother rose when she saw him. She wore an exquisite gown of golden sequins and diamonds that trailed behind her as she slowly came towards him. She stopped before him, her pale hands clasping together gently at her waist.

“My son Telal. It's been a long time.” She said it as if she hadn't seen him in a year, not a thousand.

“Mother,” he acknowledged. Something was different about her. Her eyes, he realized. They were harder, darker. He hadn't thought that'd be possible.

“Whatever are you doing back here?” she asked softly.

Alrik came up to them. “Now's not the time for that.” She glared at Alrik as he whisked Telal to the center of the dais. He stood in front of his great throne and looked out over the throng of royalty. “My brother is back, ladies and gentleman, and wishes to open the rift to the Atal Warriors.”

Gasps of shock echoed throughout the great hall. Alrik held out his hand and the voices quieted. “According to him he didn't betray us. What say you to that?”

The response came immediately. Everyone stood, screaming and shouting, their fists coming down hard on the tables and rattling their golden plates. Telal watched the sea of red-faced royals with a dispassionate gaze. Alrik turned back to him with hatred blazing in his eyes.

“And you didn't come alone.”

Telal tensed, his mind searched to figure out what he meant, or if this was a trap. Had Kearnyn followed him after all...or did...no that was impossible?

Satisfaction filled Alrik's demented gaze. “Bring her in!” he ordered.

Telal's gut clenched. No way. She couldn't be here.

* * *

The bars to the door opened and Lily was shoved face first inside. She slipped on the hay-covered floor and fell. At the last second, she turned her head so only her cheek slammed into the ground. She groaned as hot, flaring pain throbbed in her jaw. Footsteps came up behind her and before she could try to scramble away, someone cut the ropes at her wrists. The steps retreated then the metal barred door crashed closed behind her.

Lily slowly turned around to a sitting position, her hand rubbing weakly at her jaw which felt broken. She knew it probably wasn't, but damn if it didn't feel that way. She looked around to survey her cage. Next to her cage, which was only about the size of a bathroom, no more than six foot by six, were dozens of more cages filled with people just like her. Well, she thought, not just like her. Many were multicolored demons with strange or unique skin and hair colors, both men and women. Most only gave her a passing, pitying glance then went back to talking in demonic to their cell mates.

Lily looked around her cell and saw a bucket. The smell of it quickly burned her nose with the putrid odor of bodily waste. She gagged, bile rising hot and thick in her throat and this time she couldn't hold it back. Quickly scurrying to the opposite corner of the cell she retched, part potion, part dinner she'd eaten last night. When she finished, she grimaced. Burning liquid pooled in her eyes but she squeezed them shut to keep any tears from falling. She rarely acted foolish but now she had to agree with Telal—she'd thoroughly fucked up.

There wasn't a bed, hell, not even a pallet of some kind. Just a bunch of dirty hay strewn about the dirty floor. Lily winced, her arms burning from being dragged about by the arms. She crawled to the back of the cage and leaned against it, her head falling on her knees. She wanted to cry but couldn't do it here. Not out of some female rage against tears but because others were around and she'd be even more embarrassed. For the first time in her life, she truly felt like a fool.

She wiped the foul taste off her lips with her sleeve. A faint tremble began in her fingers, then spread to her hands. She wished like hell she had her special juice from back at the apartment. She should have drunk some before she left. Her stomach rolled with nausea, the first symptom of withdrawal from it.

A hissing sound had her head jerking to the cage next to her. For the first time she noticed the person inside. An older woman, so skinny bones protruded from her knobby wrists, fingers, and shoulders. Her clothes hung loosely from her body as if she'd once filled them out but had loss significant weight. Her hair was a matted, dirty mess filled with knots and clumps from never seeing a brush. Her head jerked constantly as if she couldn't keep it still.

“Did you say something?” Lily asked hesitantly.

The woman suddenly crawled to the bars separating them by moving on her knees and fists like a monkey. Lily flinched as the woman's pale bony hands curled around the bars. Her hands were black with filth, but it was her face she was more interested in. It was her face she couldn't see. Dirt covered it, and what the dirt didn't cover, her matted hair did.

“You...you are new,” the woman hissed softly.

Lily's heart started to race with fear. The woman looked like a wild animal. Lily had the urge to go to the opposite corner of the cell, to get as far away from the woman as she could. But her choice lies between being close to the woman or the rotten excrement bucket. She chose the woman.

“Yes, I am.”

“What-what did you do? Steal?” She laughed, the soft sound hoarse, wheezing.

“No, I didn't steal anything.”

Suddenly the woman's head stopped shaking. Her grip on the bars tightened. “You...you don't speak in Demonic.”

Lily's brow raised. She'd assumed the woman knew she was speaking in English since she did as well. “Yes, of course. I don't know Demonic.”

The woman jerked as if she'd been hit, then frantically started shoving chunks of hair out of her face. Her eyes, glaringly white against the dirt on her face, shone wide and frantic as she stared at her. Her eyes raced over Lily’s face and hair.

“You, you are not demon.”

“No, I'm not.” She paused as she thought about it. “And neither are you.”

The woman didn't respond, but her eyes widened on hers with an edge of madness to them. “No one here is not a demon. No one.” She shook her head several times to prove her point.

She was right, but Lily didn't know what to say, so she shrugged. “That's probably true.”

The woman shook her head like she had bugs crawling in her hair and she was trying to get them out. “No, you don't understand. I am the only one who isn't a demon. Me. Who are you?”

Lily wrapped her arms around herself. There was a definite chill in the air, but the woman's word made her even colder. “My name's Lily.” It probably wouldn't matter but she withheld her last name from the deranged woman.

“Lily...” the woman said softly. She repositioned herself, plastering herself against the bars until her bony knees squeezed through the tight metal bars and her face squished through. “That name is familiar. So familiar.”

The hair on the back of Lily's neck stuck straight up. Finally having enough of the crazy woman, she scooted backwards, away from the partition between them. When she had some distance between them, she felt a little bit safer, no matter how crazy that might be.

“What...what's your name?” Lily asked, mostly out of politeness.

The woman's lips parted and a faraway look came to her glossy eyes as she lifted her head skyward. There was no sky to see here, only a black metal roof. “My name...” Her head slowly drifted side to side, almost as if she were humming a tune in her head or dancing a waltz in a past time. “My name is Mary. No one, no one calls me that. No one.” The faraway look disappeared in an instant, a candle snuffed out. She shook her head again and again as she said the choked words, her hands releasing then squeezing the bars over and again.

This is what I'll become if I stay here. The thought sent dread down her spine.

“If you aren't a demon then what are you?” The rift had been closed for so long; this woman must have been captured before the Great War. A thousand year sentence was an awful long time to be imprisoned. Lily could easily picture herself being worse off than this woman was.

“Succubus.”

Lily sucked in a harsh breath. Her eyes screwed up in amazement, shock. “So am I.”

The woman jerked again and started rocking, using her grip on the bars as leverage. She looked so much like an autistic child seeking comfort. Lily's defenses finally came down, and she crawled across the dirty floor to the woman, wanting to comfort, hug her, something. The woman stopped rocking as she neared, her eyes, half hidden by hair, peered at her shrewdly.

“May I ask you a question?” Lily asked. Well, right now she had several. Btu she felt the woman's fear and hesitance, too, and didn’t want to scare her off.

“I don't know,” the woman said, her body pulling back in a subconscious gesture.

Lily kept her voice quiet and relaxed. “How long have you been here?” The woman had to be well past her 29th-year, which meant she went through her new moon. Thought succubus could live to a really long time, like her father did, if they stayed well fed. How was she still alive? A succubus without sex of some kind to feed her, killed her.

“Can't be sure,” she said quickly. “Days runs together, never end. Long time ago.”

“Was it before the Great War?”

The woman's eye flew open with fear. “Not that long. Not that long.” She shook her head side to side and didn't stop.

“Do you...do you know your last name?” Lily's heart pounded as she asked. Something inside her told her this was important. She didn't know why, but maybe if she got out of here then with the help of Telal, she could get this woman out of here. Get all of these prisoners out of here.

“Forgot long ago. Lucky I know my first name.” She paused, her eyes bulging. “If that is my first name. Is my name Mary?” she whispered.

Lily kept her voice calm and low. “Yes, yes it is.” The woman looked relieved at her answer as if she could somehow give her information into her own life. “Can you try to remember your last name? I might be able to help you.”

The woman scurried back a few feet on her knees, scraping the skin but making no show that she cared. Her hands ran jerkily up and down her arms as she rocked. “I don't...I don't know.”

“Can you try, Mary?”

Maybe it was having someone use her first name, or just being kind to her, but she stopped rocking and stared at the floor, her face hidden by hair. “Beagle. Blue. Bells.” After each guess, she shook her head like she knew it was wrong. “Balls, low, bell, bells.” She was rocking hard now, each guess sending her voice higher, more frantic. Her hands gripped her hair in tight fists and pulled. “Bellum. Bellum. Bellum.”

The last word echoed in Lily's mind. She couldn't say anything. Couldn't even wrap her mind around it. At first, she analyzed the woman's words, tried to figure out if when she'd introduced herself she said her last name. But no, she'd been too hesitant to do that. Her last name didn't come up at all. This woman, this older woman... Lily scrambled across the cell to her. The woman jerked at her frantic response and scrambled away.

“Don't come. Don't come near.”

“Are you Mary Bellum? Are you Mary Bellum!”

The woman started shaking, her hands frantically covering her ears as she rocked and rocked, her head held low. “I don't know,” she whispered fiercely. “That...that could be an old friend, just some name I remember from the past. I don't...I don't know.”

Lily did know. It all lined up, fused together. “When did you get down here? Why? How?” she demanded, her patience waning in the need for answers.

The woman backed further into the shadows of her small cage, further away from her.

“Answer me! I need to know!”

“Years ago...years ago.”

Lily gripped the cold bars and leaned in. “How long? About twenty-nine years?”

The woman shook her head. “I don't know. I don't know. Stop talking. Don't talk to me anymore. I don't like.” She wrapped her arms completely around her head and rocked with her head between her spread knees.

A door opened at the end of the hall and some frantic force inside her made her speak to this woman in fast, rushed tones. “Listen to me. My name is Lily Bellum. My father is Francis Bellum. I have two sisters named Willow and Chloe. Does any of this mean anything to you?”

The woman made a whining sound, her voice blocking out Lily's questioning.

“Answer me, please! I have to know. Are you my mother?” The heavy footsteps, two sets of them came closer. One stopped at her cage. Lily only spared the demon a parting glance. “Answer me! Are you her?” she practically screamed as the key in the lock turned and the cage was pulled open.

The woman keened higher as her own cage door was opened. The guard came forward with a length of rope in his hand. Lily launched at her cage. “Don't touch her! Stay away from her!”

The demon gave her a laughing look. “Time to feed, succubus.”

Lily's face paled and she watched as the woman stopped moaning and stood, watching the guard with wide, terrified eyes. The guard made a lunge for her and she hopped to the side and darted for the open cage door. She didn't make it out. The guard recovered quickly and grabbed her in a brutal grip, then wrapped the rope tightly around her wrists until the skin around it turned pink from the circulation being cut off.

“You-you can't take her,” Lily said slowly. Her mind was in shocked overload. She couldn't be witnessing what she thought she was. The truth was too awful to comprehend.

The demon ignored her, and the woman bowed her head as he dragged her out of the cage, her feet scraping against the hard floor.

“Mary, are you her?” she shouted one last time as the demon in her cage pulled her arms behind her and trussed up her hands.

The woman and the guard neared the door. The demon opened it and at the last second before the woman disappeared, her face lifted completely, the hair free from covering her face for the first time, and Lily saw her sister's eyes.

“Mother!” she screamed as the door slammed shut.