The Compelled (8 page)

“Take your blood?” I repeated, hoping I’d misheard.

Lady Alice nodded briskly, not moving her arms. “Yes. With your fangs, please. Vinculum happens when a witch freely gives her blood and a vampire freely accepts it. No spells, no compulsion, no lying. Just an honest exchange. You will be bound to me, and I’m bound to my coven. But again, if any deception occurs, or any lives are lost, vinculum is broken.”

“What happens if vinculum is broken?” Damon asked.

“It varies,” Lady Alice said smoothly. “Broadly speaking, it means we have to face the wrath of the other species. All propriety and rules are forgotten, and we battle until we feel balance is restored. In this case, we’d kill you. And I assume you would kill us,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Seems fair.” Damon nodded, but I felt dread creep through my veins. The witches were brutal. If things didn’t go according to plan, we’d suddenly have a powerful new enemy.

“Are we agreed, then?” Lady Alice asked as she pushed her wrist under my nose. Her skin smelled of gardenias and jasmine and I wanted so badly to taste the blood running underneath it. I staggered back.

“I can’t. Damon will just have to do it,” I said.

“All right,” Lady Alice said uncertainly, turning toward Damon.

“No.” I turned to stare at Lavinia, who was shaking her head. “Either both of them do it, or I won’t allow this bond to happen. Why doesn’t the vampire drink?”

“I don’t drink human blood,” I mumbled. I’d always been proud of my resolve, but here, when blood was being offered, I felt weak. What if I couldn’t stop at a sip? What if I ruined everything?

“Then how did you ever expect to fight this Samuel?” Lavinia asked, her eyes boring right into me. I glanced over to Cora, but she looked down at her hands folded in her lap. “You said that you were bringing vampire strength to this battle. But if you’re refusing blood, then you’re refusing that strength within you,” Lavinia said.

“We only need one vampire to do it, right? Maybe it’s better…”

“Not for me,” Lavinia said flatly. “Either this vampire feeds on Alice’s blood, or the deal is off.”

I looked at Cora, and she nodded encouragingly. Still, she didn’t
truly
know what human blood did to me. In her mind, I was a wishful hero. She didn’t know me as the monster who’d never, ever have his fill.

“Go on, brother,” Damon said. It was the same phrase he’d used to egg me on countless times, ever since I was a child and he’d dared me to jump off the Wickery Bridge on
the first warm day of the year.

I didn’t have a choice. I slowly pulled her wrist to my mouth. My fangs sliced into her skin, releasing the pungent, sweet smell of blood into the air. I plunged my canines into the tiny blue veins in her wrist and was hit with waves of ecstasy I hadn’t felt in almost twenty years. I allowed the blood to wash down my throat, feeling it soothe all the pain and fear I’d carried. It surged through my body, making me feel safe and strong and alive. This was better than the blood in New Orleans, better than the oceans of blood I’d drunk during the murderous sprees of my youth.

Better than my father’s blood.

I wanted more, as much as possible, enough to fill my veins and my heart. A growl escaped from my lips.

“Vampire!” Lavinia called sharply.

I pulled back and wiped my mouth. I felt all eyes on me.

“I’m sorry if I got carried away,” I said stiffly.

“You did exactly as I asked,” Lady Alice said, but her face was pale. “Damon?”

She held out her wrist and I watched as Damon slowly took a small sip, as though he were drinking a fine champagne. I couldn’t help but feel he was being so mannerly on purpose, to show the blood-hungry brother how proper feeding was done. I knew that even though I’d drunk from Lady Alice’s wrist briefly, I’d revealed part of my true
nature. I was too greedy, too insistent, and I’d heard my angry, guttural growl as clearly as everyone else had.

When Damon finished, Lady Alice brushed the excess blood away with the inside of her sleeve. “Now, Damon and Stefan, come join our circle.” She held out her hands. Instead of standing next to her, I chose to stand between Damon and Lavinia. It seemed safer. Because now that the taste of Lady Alice’s blood was on my tongue, it was all I could think about.

Lady Alice began to chant, and, one by one, the other witches joined in. I allowed my tongue to run back and forth over my teeth; the filmy coating left by the blood felt like both a blessing and a curse. The flames from the fire dimmed, sending the room into semidarkness.

“Vinculum,” Lady Alice said. The rest of the witches echoed the word.

Vinculum
, I said under my breath. I hoped it worked. It had to. Lavinia dropped my hand. The room brightened.

“It’s done. We’re bound,” Lady Alice said.

“Good. Now, let’s discuss the next steps,” I said, glancing pointedly at Damon until he settled onto the bench next to the blond-haired witch. “What we need to do is trap Samuel, and the best way to do that is to use Mary Jane as bait. We can lead Samuel to her,” I said.

“How will you do that, vampire?” Lavinia asked.

“I thought we could have Samuel spot Mary Jane in the
East End, then attack,” I explained.

“No, no, no!” Lavinia protested. “Far too messy. We can’t have the battle where humans are. We need to do it somewhere hidden.”

“My house,” Mary Jane said quietly. “It’s the perfect spot. We have a spell on the property that keeps the rent collectors away. Humans don’t seem to notice it, even though it’s right there.”

“Good thinking,” Lavinia said approvingly.

“I suppose one of
us
could be used to bait Samuel,” I suggested, thinking on the fly.

“Too dangerous.” Lavinia shook her head. “Weren’t you paying attention? Vampires are crafty. He’ll kill you without thinking twice. You need Samuel to know you have something he wants. You need to tell him you have Mary Jane.”

“He already knows,” I said numbly.

“Does he know
he’s
involved?” Lavinia asked, jerking her chin at Damon.

Damon shook his head.

“I say Damon goes and offers to bring Samuel to the girl,” one of the men suggested. “I know Samuel, and he wants power. No matter what you’ve done to him, even if you’ve stared in his eyes as you’ve attempted to stake his chest, he’ll forgive you, if it means he’ll get what he wants.”

“All right.” Damon nodded. “I can talk him into listening to me.” His eyes gleamed, and I knew if anyone could pretend he was going to the dark side, it was him.

“Damon will bring Samuel to Mary Jane, and we’ll attack,” I said, finishing off the plan. The witches nodded in agreement. It seemed simple.

“Are there any spells that will protect her from a vampire? Vervain won’t work. And Samuel has a witch on his side, so we need to protect against that, too,” I said, emboldened by the way the witches were agreeing with me.

“Who is the witch?” Lavinia asked.

“Seaver. He’s the groundskeeper at the Magdalene Asylum.”

“Don’t worry about
him
,” Lavinia said with a derisive wave. “Stefan, you can take him on. He’s not as powerful as you. All you need to do,
if
he appears, is simply kill him. A knife to the heart will do the trick.”

“All right.” I nodded. I’d killed before. I could kill again.

“And now, on to the most important thing. Protecting Mary Jane,” Lady Alice prodded.

“Should we do praesidium?” the middle-aged witch suggested.

“Not a bad idea,” the man next to her said.

“Praesidium is ideal,” Lady Alice agreed. “Of course it’s not foolproof, and it’s putting Mary Jane right on the
front line. As her guardian, I wonder…”

“You’re not my guardian,” Mary Jane said. “I’m a grown woman. I can make my own decision. What exactly is praesidium?”

“A protection spell,” Lavinia said. “It will make Mary Jane’s body impenetrable to a vampire’s touch. It’s like a shield, but one that causes tremendous pain to a vampire if he touches it. The pain isn’t fatal, but it will momentarily stun or surprise the vampire. That way, the spell is twofold. It will protect Mary Jane from Samuel’s clutches, and it will—”

“Allow us to attack,” I finished. “That sounds perfect.”

Lady Alice nodded. “It seems the best spell under the circumstances.”

“I’ll do it,” Mary Jane said resolutely.

“Good.” I nodded at her. “Damon will let Samuel know he has Mary Jane. He’ll tell Samuel to come to us two nights from now, sending him right into the trap. We’ll meet at five at Miller’s Court and perform the spell before he comes. And then we’ll be waiting for him.”

The blond witch waved her hand up at me as though she were a schoolgirl and I were the teacher. “All of us?” she asked.

I glanced around the group. It was small, but the room was tiny. “Do we need everyone for the spell?” I asked.

Lady Alice shook her head. “It’s very simple.”

“Good. Then no, not everyone should be there. Just Mary Jane, Lady Alice, and Lavinia in the house, and the rest in the alley, waiting as backup if the plan doesn’t work. But it will,” I said, reassuring myself as much as the witches.

Ten stories above, I heard the lone, singular
caw
of a raven. The sound echoed in my ears, and I knew it was foreshadowing
something.
I only wished I knew what.

“I’ll be there, vampire,” Lavinia said finally.

I locked eyes with Lavinia. “Good,” I said. I meant it. Whether we liked it or not, we were bound to the witches. And they were bound to us.

T
he next night, I was hiding in the bushes that surrounded the fence of Samuel’s Lansdowne House estate. A few hundred paces away, Damon hunched in the shadows of one of the large portico columns of the Georgian mansion.

Damon turned toward me and I nodded to him. I was ready in case things went sour and he needed backup.

Damon knocked on the door and was unsurprised when, seconds later, Samuel himself answered. His eyes were bloodshot, and his pale skin was almost white.

The wind had picked up and was blowing toward me, making it sound like the conversation was taking place only inches away.

“Listen. I’m here to offer you a deal,” Damon said stiffly, before Samuel could say anything—or stake him.
“A business transaction. From one
vampyr
to another,” he said, using the ancient, foreign-sounding term for one of our kind.

“A deal,” Samuel repeated. An inscrutable expression—was it amusement? Curiousity? Anger?—flickered across Samuel’s face. “You killed my brother. I ruined you. And yet, now you come to me to try to negotiate. Why?”

I held my breath, lest Samuel should hear me. Watching my brother talk calmly with a man hell-bent on destroying our lives, it was all I could do to sit back on my heels and stay quiet. Maybe it was the eleuthro from several days prior or Lady Alice’s blood, but something had changed within me. My nerves were on edge and I was ready to spring into battle at a second’s notice. After all, the next few hours wouldn’t merely determine Damon’s and my fates—they would determine the fate of the entire city. In the words of my brother when he had a particularly good hand of poker: We were all-in. But right now, there was nothing I could do but watch the scene unfold.

Damon shifted back and forth on his feet, and I knew he was exercising every ounce of his self-control not to lash out and attack Samuel.

Say it
. Damon’s head jerked back to glance in my direction, even though I hadn’t even said the words out loud.
Admit he’s won
.

“When I was a human, I was a soldier in the Confederate
Army,” Damon said through gritted teeth. “I know the difference between victory and defeat, and I know when to wave the white flag. I’m done fighting. I just want to make a deal, one man to another. Give me my life, my freedom, and I’ll give you something you want,” Damon said, bowing slightly.

Samuel threw back his head and laughed, looking like a wolf baying at the moon. “What could you
possibly
have that I want?”

“Your purebred witch,” Damon responded.

Samuel stepped toward Damon, slamming him against a column. I cringed as Damon’s skull hit the wood, leaving a lightning bolt–shaped crack in the plaster. “How do you know about that?” Samuel asked, emphasizing each word.

Damon shrugged, seemingly unperturbed by Samuel’s violent outburst. “I overheard you and your minions discuss your search for a purebred witch. Stefan has Mary Jane. And now, thanks to his foolish rescue, I know exactly where she lives. She’s defenseless and gullible. It’ll be easy for me to get her for you.”

Samuel tapped his slim, tapered fingers together as he scrutinized Damon.

“So my torture wasn’t in vain. I’m glad you came to your senses. But I’m still not sure if I’ll let you go free. After all, what of your brother?”

Damon smiled chillingly, a look I knew all too well as
one he gave before he was going in for a kill. “I’m sure you can remember from when we were…friends,” Damon said, choking on the word, “how little fondness I had for Stefan. While he was of assistance recently, I can’t say his help has made me like him any better. He’s made his choice about how he wants to live, and I’ll be damned if he drags me down with him. He’s nothing to me,” he said dismissively. “He’s not one of us. Here he is, playing the hidden hero to fallen women of the East End when he could have the world at his feet. I can’t associate with a vampire who doesn’t embrace his true nature. Even if he was once a brother.”

Samuel nodded once. “Well, he’ll be easy enough to take care of. Tell me more about the girl.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Damon said. “I’ll bring you to her tomorrow night. She lives in a two-bit slum with a few other witches, but I’ll make sure none of them are around. Come alone. That is, if I have your word that you’ll clear my name of these silly charges and stop trying to kill me.”

Samuel’s eyes gleamed like two lanterns in the darkness. “You have my word. I’ll exonerate you of all this Jack the Ripper nonsense as soon as the witch is in my possession, alive and well.”

Damon stuck out his hand for Samuel to shake.

Samuel grabbed his hand, and I expected a crash of thunder or spark to ignite as they shook. But there was
nothing except for the whistling of the wind through the bushes.

With a final nod of agreement, Damon turned and walked down the path.

Had that been too easy? I imagined what it would be like if Samuel were able to compel other vampires. The idea filled me with dread. Compulsion, controlling the desires of another soul, was worse than killing. And when creatures already stronger and more lethal than any normal human being were compelled…I didn’t want to imagine that. It
wouldn’t
happen. We’d make sure of it.

Across town, Hyde Park was lush, empty, and prime hunting ground, especially since the Lord Mayor had imposed a curfew on the parks in the wake of the Jack the Ripper murders. That was perfect for me—the fields were free for squirrels, sparrows, and groundhogs to roam.

I stood behind an oak tree, ignoring the rustle of squirrels darting from a leaf pile. I needed something more substantial than a squirrel to quench my thirst. I really needed human blood, but drinking from Lady Alice had made me more determined than ever to refuse it. Her blood had left me feeling more alive and more out of control than I had in years. And I couldn’t take that kind of risk right now, especially when Cora and Mary Jane were depending on me.

Drink human blood.

Ever since Cora had said it, I couldn’t stop thinking it. If Cora, a human girl, could imagine—no,
encourage
—me to feed on humans, what was holding me back? It was my true nature. I was a vampire.

A rustle in the bushes caused me to whirl around. It was a woman, laughingly leading a man through the trees. Her sleeve exposed a milky-white shoulder. Their clothing was faded, but clean, and I imagined they were both servants at one of the large houses surrounding the park.

Unbidden, blood rushed to my gums and my fangs elongated. It would be so easy. I wouldn’t even have to kill. I could compel. I could approach them saying that I was lost and looking for directions. Then, I’d quickly attack, drink, and leave.

“Freddy!” The girl grabbed the boy’s arm tightly. “Did you hear something?”

All I heard was the quickening of the girl’s blood.

“Just a squirrel, most likely. Besides, I’m here to keep you safe. Give me a kiss?” the man asked.

“Let’s go,” the girl said nervously. She guided him by the hand back through the gates, their feet crunching on the fall leaves.

I could have run after them. I would have enjoyed the hunt, in fact. But that extra step—needing to take that action—stopped me from making a huge mistake. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Couldn’t give in to that
desire. Not now.

I trained my eyes on the ground, but I was no longer in the mood to hunt. Finally, I grabbed a squirrel from a nearby branch, drained it, and threw the carcass to the ground. I kicked a few leaves over it and wished that I had someone to share my hopes and fears with. In a city of a million heartbeats, I was on my own.