Enslaved (9 page)

Viktoria
dragged the heavy black garbage bag across the terrain of a patch of fall-painted trees. The crisp air pushed the scent of the blood in the bag away from Tori's nose as she lugged the body bag closer to the pile of eroding, smelling heap of bodies, garbage, and wasted blood.

She heaved the bag over her shoulder and mustering as much of the vampire strength the vamp blood gave her, she threw the bag onto the waste.

Sighing, Tori looked at her hands- they were bleeding. She had sliced them on a rock when she
 
tumbled off the side of a cliff on her way to the dump heap. Tori had been urging the bag containing Maria's body across this one part of the mountain where there was a sheer drop-off into pure air and gray cloud. She tripped on something, possibly a rock, for a blast of pain to her head had distracted her. Tori let go of the bag instantly so she could grab onto a nearby shard of stone jutting out of the face of another cliff that towered above her threateningly. Tori remembered feeling the sharp slice of pain in her palm, remembered the scent of her own blood, saw the crimson on the grayish-white surface of the bluff...

A hard and heavy headache forced those mesmerizing thoughts away. It started at the space between Tori's shoulder blades, traveled up her neck, throughout her skull, and seemed to force itself into her brain. The pangs of horrid energy was so intense that it caused Tori to scream
aloud and fall to the floor, clutching at her head with both hands, tears streaking down her face as if they could some how release the agony.

She was drowning in her own torture, but when cool hands seized her by the tops of her arms and picked her up, molding her body to his own, the pains seemed to ease...It was like the blood that ran through Vince's veins calmed the blood that he had put into
Viktoria's
system.

"The change is almost over,
Viktoria
, darling. Rest and when you wake up, we'll be together for all of eternity." Vince whispered in her ear, lips brushing soothing against her tender skin.

"Yes," she whispered back.

She slipped into the cold, numbing world where the vampire blood took over, where it shut the human in her out, meaning
Viktoria
Cabot was slowly disappearing into herself, dematerializing slowly. Soon, all that will be left is the faint memory of the human she had been...releasing the vampire within her that had been locked away in some deep part of her soul....within a few days, the mortal
Viktoria
will be gone and the vampire she was meant to be will no longer be enslaved.

Chapter 18

"Have the Guardians arrived?" Vince asked Jon once he had gotten
Viktoria
into his room unseen.

Jon scanned the room with his black eyes and said tiredly, "Not yet, brother, but beware, they come at the worst of times. It seems to be one of their things."

Vince sighed, running a hand through his black mane of hair as he smiled charmingly at a
vampiress
that bowed to him formally. She was an ambassador from France, Vince could tell by her thick accent and clothing. There were a lot of ambassadors in his Hotel from all over the world that come from different vampire territories.

Some of them were more dangerous than him, though, and he needed to be careful about how he talked to vampires and who he conversed with. Some had extra abilities....psychics, telepaths, mediums who talked to the dead. Vince didn't have a power and he didn't really care much for the people who did, they were very cocky...

The room seemed to go cold and silent out of nowhere. The doors were pulled open swiftly by two servants who were posted there. The atmosphere changed from light and thirsty to tense, thirsty, and...
scared
.

Vince glanced at Jon and, despite the fact that they were enemies, they moved together towards the four vampires that had just entered the Hotel. They walked gracefully and passively, all differences aside for the movement.

At the door were the Guardians of Death. There was one woman and three men.

The woman was lean and curvy with long, blond hair the color of gold and eyes such a rich crimson that it looked like blood had pooled in her irises. Her skin was pale like milk, but smooth and unblemished, stretching over aristocratic cheekbones and a slim nose. Her lips were a naturally rosy hue as if she had been kissed all night without a break and in the center of her
forehead, not looking out of place on her exotically beautiful face, was a silver diamond directly between her eyes. Vince recognized this deadly woman as
Carmina
WhiteHell
.

The men were all handsome, tall, muscled, whipcord-tough and slim. One had long, waist-length raven-black hair and strange silver-red eyes- Carmine Dread. Another had fire-red hair that fell around his face like a devilish halo, his eyes were narrowed and the same color as his mane, but contrasted strangely with the three sterling slashes on each side of his face starting at his high cheekbones and ending at his jaw line-
Everit
Young. The last male vampire was the tallest and more muscled than the others. He had white hair the color of- well the color of moonlight like
Viktoria's
, his eyes were a light crimson laced with silver like Carmine's, and on his masculine face ringing the bottom of his eyes were silver crescents that seemed to drip down his cheeks in strange symbols- the leader of the Guardians of Death, Savant Zero.

They had all fed....broke tradition.

"Welcome," Vince murmured to Savant, his voice steady and contained an edge of challenge as if to dar
e them to enter his territory.

"Ah, Vincent
DeChorello
."
Savant purred, looking down his nose at Vince as if the vampire were a human child. "What a surprise that YOU of the two
DeChorello
siblings would host this Gathering."

Jon scowled slightly to have the attention all trained on Vince, but he knew that it would be on him soon enough.

"Ah yes, seeing as my brother here doesn't like to take care of the big events," Vince shot Jon a look before continuing, "I had to take them into my own hands while he was off doing Lord only knows what."

Savant laughed deeply, the sound resonating throughout the Hotel. "Young Vince, you have such a humor. Not to mention a reputation among the vampires of the States, for a twenty-year-old you have made yourself known."

Vince smirked, "I have my ways, Savant. Have connections, too..."

"That reminds me,"
a high-pitched voice murmured.

Vince glanced over at
Carmina
.
"Yes,
Carmina
?"

"Where's your cousin...Splice is it?"

"Yes, well he couldn't make it to this
Gathering,
he had...business to tend to across the country." Vince
lied,
he knew his favorites cousin was off searching for his illegal human mate somewhere in Europe.

"Ah, I see. He was a rather...interesting vampire by my standards,"
Carmina
mused thoughtfully.

"Yes, he is a very SPECIAL vampire." Vince said just as wonderingly.

Splice was a young vampire, maybe eighteen. He was a copy-cat, literally. He could steal and change peoples' shapes...he had displayed it one time to
Carmina
, seems he had unintentionally caught her attention.

"Well, let us feast, for we have a night of debate ahead of us," Jon interrupted the eerie silence that seemed like an infectious virus that had spread throughout the building.

"Yes, let us." Savant announced and let Vince and his brother lead the way to the monstrous dinning room.

Vince didn't feel comfortable any longer, Jon had sounded TOO excited about getting to the debates. The crescendo was coming, Vince could practically SMELL Jon's glee at getting back at
his hated brother...This Gathering wasn't going to end without a death in the
DeChorello
family, both brothers anticipated the possible outcome....it wasn't all that pretty.

Chapter 19

Vince didn't enjoy the feast as much as he had in the past, his mind was on
Viktoria
and he hoped that the mind readers in the dinning room didn't try to find out more about the mysterious distraction drawing Vince's attention from the blood.

He downed a whole goblet of blood as he eyed Jon skeptically. Jon was squirming in his seat like he knew something was coming and he couldn't wait until it arrived, sort of like a child
awaiting
a birthday present.

"Well," Carmine said suddenly his deep bass, catching everyone's attention as he rose from his seat, goblet in hand. "Let us get to the reason of this Gathering this year. Danger is afoot for our kind," He said bluntly, "the Oracle Heather has told us of disaster, Heather, why don't you explain?"

A small, petite vampire stood up, she was very beautiful, her looks even more exotic than
Carmina
. Heather had long, glossy umber waves that fell to her ankles and framed her heart-shaped face. She had naturally smooth bronze skin that was on the verge of looking like a dark brown, her lips were full and no matter the situation they always uttered the
most wisest
words one has ever heard while her dark blue eyes said nothing. She couldn't have been taller than five-foot-one or any older than seventeen, but looks for a vampire were deceiving and Vince knew that Oracle Heather was nearly one-hundred-and-twenty years old.

"I don't mind in the slightest," Heather's voice sounded faint and musical, she sounded aged like she had seen too many years of time to be phased by the problems that the vampire world was faced with. "I have had a vision that the world we know will end, not only for vampires, but for humans, too. Both species will succumb to the Siren and her mate. The Siren will be able to wield any
vampiric
power that is imaginable, she will either enslave all races or she will rule them with peace, guide them to their potential.

"The only problem is, the Siren is not human or vampire, she is a mix a- a hybrid. She can blend in with humans and mingle with vampires, she has both the races' instincts and she cannot be killed, for she is truly immortal. She is a goddess sent to Earth and her council is spread all over the world...there are ten council members and they are far more powerful than the Guardians. And her mate is the only one who can sway her judgment, for his input will decide the fate of
every human and vampire." Heather murmured and suddenly her expression went blank, her body shivered and collapsed to the floor.

A vampire was up and moving before anyone else could slide their seat back, his name was
Tole
and he was the Oracle's mate.

"She is seeing the future, hush for noise will disturb her sight,"
Tole
cautioned quietly, cradling his mate in his arms.

After a few moments Heather awoke and was helped to her feet by her mate. Her eyes were dull and tired-seeming as they swung around the
table,
searching...they finally rested on Vince with a quizzical look to her dark blue irises.

"You, your name."
She ordered, pointing a slightly shaking finger in Vince's direction.