Struck (A Vampire Novel) ✔

Forty-Four

My legs were numb. I couldn’t stand, due to the restrictions the chains caused me. I tried to muster up some supernatural strength to loosen the bindings, but they apparently were built to be extremely sturdy. When this didn’t work, I tried to focus on connecting to Jacobi’s spirit. I grasped for that familiar electric pull, but it was like trying to get warmth from an ice cube. There was just nothing there to connect to. Whatever seal Vincent’s witch used, it was working impressively well.

After my attempts to escape were thwarted, I opted to scream out for help in hopes that I wasn’t located too far from Jacobi’s territory. Some part of me hoped by some miracle he or a member of his coterie would be nearby to hear my screams, but nobody answered. I had never quite felt so alone.

I couldn’t be sure how long I was left there. As time passed, my familiar fear only kept me company, drawing out multiple scenarios in my head as I tried to make sense of what was going to happen to me. Here I had thought I had finally won my life and now Corentine had made sure I wouldn’t keep it. It disturbed me to know that she had accepted a bondless fate, lonely and empty, in order to finally be allowed to kill the daughter of the hunter who killed her mate.

I had fallen asleep after the longest time, dozing in and out until the exhaustion was settled deep in my blood. I was hungry. I felt filthy and uncomfortable. I couldn’t understand how long I had been in Vincent’s grasp. It could have been hours or days even. I had nothing to give me a sense of time. All I knew was that my time was running out and I was nowhere close to figuring out how I was going to save myself this time around.

The door to my prison opened abruptly. I jerked awake, scrambling to grasp at my own bindings as though by holding them I would keep myself from being torn away. It wasn’t like I wanted to stay in this prison forever. But I preferred it to being fed to a vicious vampire.

Vincent stepped into the room, walking purposely to where I sat. He removed a key from his pocket and grabbed my wrist tightly before beginning to remove the chains around my wrists. I yelped at his rough grip, panic beginning to flood my thoughts.

“No!” I cried out, struggling against him. “Leave me alone! Let me go!” When he lifted me from the ground sharply, I kicked out at him, attempting to tear away from his hands. I tightened my own hands into fists, pulling viciously in his grip. He quickly twisted behind me, snaking his arm around my neck in a clearly threatening manner. I froze.

“I don’t recall you being so feisty,” Vincent growled into my ear, the first trace of life twisting into his words. It was as if I hadn’t gotten his full attention since the moment he had met me until now.

“Please, let me go. I’ll make sure Jacobi doesn’t retaliate. I won’t tell him anything. Don’t do this,” I whimpered, though I knew if Jacobi asked I wouldn’t be able to refuse him the truth. I didn’t know how he’d react to Corentine, but he deserved to know what happened to her.

“Begging. Pitiful,” Vincent was bored once again, “Come. Our little vampire has completed deterioration. She’s waiting for her meal.” Without releasing his chokehold, he began dragging me from the prison and into a small hallway. I struggled against him, but found the more I did the less I was able to breathe. The last thing I wanted was to be thrown into a room with a rogue Corentine while unconscious.

I was now trying to come up with desperate last minute ideas in order to preserve my life. Perhaps rogue vampires weren’t what I thought they were. Maybe they were just normal vampires with more of an… appetite or something. Maybe they could still be reasoned with. If I could just reason with Corentine… but it was such a long shot. She hated me and not just because of her Mate’s death. I had unintentionally ruined her life with her Coterie, Maker, and then sent her reeling as a bondless vampire. Sure, it was also partly her fault. She could have sucked it up and stayed in Jacobi’s coterie. Or she could have waited for Jacobi’s spirit to recover and been rebounded to the coterie. A lot of it was her choice, but still…