Kindred (36 page)

“I don’t want you to do this,” Daisy says, her face downcast.

She walks over and sits next to me on the edge of my bed. I don’t look up. I continue to stare downward at the floor, my arms suspended between my legs.

“Are you doing it for yourself?” Daisy says, “Or, are you doing it for her?”

She goes on when I don’t answer.

“Isaac, she wouldn’t want this,” she says with heartache in her voice. “Not if she knew….”

“You’re right,” I say, finally lifting my head to see her. “No, she wouldn’t, but I think it’s time for a change, Daisy. And that’s something she
would
want. It’s something that
I
want….”

“It’s
brutal
,” she says, shaking her head and crossing her arms. “I can’t bare it…and you can’t change it. Not as long as Father is alive.”

I sit quietly for a moment, looking at my sister with silent resolve. “Then this is the first step toward ending his reign.”

Daisy’s face is assailed by trepidation; her eyes dart toward the door as if fearful someone might’ve heard my blasphemous admission, but her head never moves.

“Oh no…
no
Isaac, you
can’t
.” She reaches up a hand and rests it on my shoulder. “No one has ever…Isaac; no one has attempted it since Viktor. It’s suicide….”

“I don’t fear death,” I say. “I fear a life of imprisonment and as long as he lives, this cycle will never end. We’ll always be under his foot and more of our blood, our brothers and sisters; they’ll die because they aren’t strong enough.”

“Isaac—”

“They’ll
continue
to die whether by his hand or on his orders and they will never be given a choice.”

I look away from her now and stare out ahead of me.

“A choice is a valuable thing, Daisy,” I say, thinking of Adria. “And I intend to take ours back.”

“What if you die?” she says. “Then you can’t take back anything.”

“If I live through today, then I’ll know I’m strong enough to go on with my plan.”

I stand up from the bed, dressed in my finest ceremonial clothes: black Armani suit, white shirt and black tie. I wear my father’s six hundred year-old ring, pure gold encrusted with six onyx stones and the Prvoven
c
ani crest. On my upcoming twentieth birthday, July 20
^th
, my age Abating will begin.

Today, I become Alpha.

The house has been cleared of all half-breeds and werewolves of no rank. All that remains are my brothers and sisters, the Governess, who aside from my father taught me everything I know, thirty members of the Elder Council, and my father, Lord General Vuka
š
in Prvoven
c
ani.

I take the stairs slowly, my hands folded in front, lying against my pelvis so that the ring can be fully seen as I enter the room. I keep my chin raised, for if to lower it at all during the ceremony, I disgrace my father’s Lineage and he will kill me where I stand.

This ceremony is different than Seth’s was. Seth was given a lower-ranking Alpha position
under
my father. My
advancement, like Nathan’s, has always been predetermined and makes me right-hand to my father. The only thing standing between he and I that would make me his equal is his life. I will be tonight just as my father was to his before he killed him and took control of everything.

Daisy joins my brothers and sisters away from the center of the room where my father and the Elders stand waiting for me. The Elders bow only their heads as I appear before them.

Of course, I keep my chin high.

“Are you prepared to face your fate and assume your position as Alpha?” my father says, standing in the center of the room in all of his dominant glory. His hands are folded just as mine are, his chin always two inches higher than anyone else’s. He wears a long black leather coat split down the sides.

“Yes, Milord.”

I am afraid; only a mindless fool wouldn’t be. We’ve only ever heard stories of this ceremony growing up. I have nine more brothers other than those who have lived in this house with me. Most of them I have never met, but the only one left alive is Andrei.

Five of the others died during this very ceremony, all of them on the end of my father’s sword.

I suppose that if Adria ever knew about this detail, things might be different. But it would not change my mind about wanting to change
it
, to set in motion a new era that has been unchanged since before my father became Lord General more than six centuries ago.

I take two more steps forward, chin high, and I raise my hands out to my sides. Two Elders, both tall with slicked-back brown hair, come on each side of me and rip open my suit jacket and shirt to expose my bare chest.

I don’t have to look to know that all of my brothers and sisters stand watching in restrained, terrified shock. We are connected in this way, able to feel one another’s most tumultuous emotions. Daisy can barely stand. I can feel her heart breaking, the absolute fear tearing it in half. I feel her tears just below the surface, but she knows she cannot outwardly show emotion during this ceremony in front of our father. And Nathan, he holds his emotions well, but I know that if I die tonight that he and my father will become mortal enemies.

I wonder if my father knows how he feels, or if my father feels nothing, because he shut our link off to him many years ago.

His link to Aramei was all that he could handle.

Another Elder breaks the perfect oval-shaped line and steps into the center of the room holding my father’s sword carefully in his hands. He bows to my father at the waist, holding the sword out for him to take.

I shut my eyes.

I think of Adria. I let my mind wander through that life I had with her and still hope to have again one day. I dream of her face, the tiny freckles that I loved so much and she hated. I dream of the way she used to smile and how her laugh sometimes made me laugh because it sounded like an evil, giggling child. I picture the way she walked, the way she ran and the way her body felt so delicate and light when I held her in my arms. I think only of her because if I’m going to die, her face is the last thing that I want to see.

Pure silver rips through the center of my chest and I see
Adria’s
life flash before my eyes. The pain is so intense that it alone I know might kill me.

I gasp for air. My body slumps over onto the floor. Blood spews from my mouth, pours from my chest into a pool beneath my body. I can’t open my eyes. I can’t.

I feel the life draining out of me, the silver burning through my veins, hot like lava. And just before everything goes black, I hear my father’s voice whispering in my ear: “You
will
survive this, my son. I know this because we are alike, you and I. I’ve known about your Blood Bond since the night you performed it, but I could never kill you. I could never kill you….”

I think I’m dead…It’s strangely peaceful here. Wherever I am. I can’t tell if my eyes are open or shut. I hear nothing. Taste nothing. Smell nothing. But I feel
everything
…My body has become a shell for emotions and they’re all swirling around inside of me.

All except for fear. I’m not afraid of the Unknown.

This is the Unknown….

I’m starting to see things. Wispy coils of light, different shades of white: ivory, bone, ecru. But…maybe I don’t have eyes. I can’t actually
see
the coils, not with eyes. I-I don’t understand….

I’m convinced that I’m dead. Nothing in life can be this calm. Nothing. The senses don’t exist here, but my mind hasn’t changed. I still have this unending need to know what’s happening to me, to be able to understand my fate.

If I am dead then why do I care? Why am I starting to feel anxious. Closed-in. Trapped.

Is this my Hell?

I can’t wake up from this. I’m starting to feel frightened. The peace and the calm and the light that I somehow see, they’re all becoming something darker.

I
must
be in Hell.

Heaven could never be like this, not any Heaven I’ve ever heard of.

Is that
sweat
?

I think I’m sweating. How can this be real?

Just let me die. Either bring me back, or let me die…

Blackness. All I see is blackness.

My eyes have finally opened. I think. I feel a soft hand on my forehead. Warmth. Wetness.

“Just sleep,” I hear Daisy’s voice somewhere above me.

I’m still connected to her and I know those emotions. She’s afraid I’m going to die. She’s convinced of it.

I’m going to sleep now. My mind is disciplined. I can do this; I can push this enigmatic nightmare into obedience and allow myself to sleep. Even if it’s my final sleep. I have to let go.

26

WATER DRIPS CONTINUOUSLY FROM the bathtub across the hall, hammering through my brain. Slowly I wake up fully, allowing my eyes to adjust, forcing my keen sense of hearing down to relieve the throbbing in my head. The pounding sound of water droplets fades from my ears.

For the past five days the only ones allowed in the house while I heal have been me and Daisy and occasionally, the Governess. I’ve not been awake for most of it. A wound like this, one that kills more often than not, doesn’t heal as well on its own. Not like other wounds I’ve sustained. For the first two days while awake, I couldn’t move my back, much less bathe myself or lift my hand to eat. Daisy has been at my bedside most of the time.

Slowly, the house has been coming alive again. Nathan and my other brothers and sisters are home. Zia and Sebastian just walked in. I can hear Zia’s voice coming up the stairs.

I wonder if she was drilled before coming here, if she and Sebastian know how to address me now that I’m Alpha.

This should be fun.

I rise up from the bed and slip on my robe and stand near the window, peering out at the sunlight washing over the tops the trees.

My bedroom door opens.

Strike one. She didn’t knock, as usual.

I don’t turn around yet. I’m waiting to see how many strikes she has in her.

“Hey, Isaac—well, you
seem
better,” Zia says from the doorway. “Physically anyway.”

Strike two. She didn’t address me as Lord.

I hear my bed squeak as she plops down on it. “Any word on Harry?” She doesn’t want to bring up anything about Adria for obvious reasons.

Strike three. Absolutely no respect.

I turn around fully, my back straight and proper, my hands folded in front. My face shows only one emotion, easily distinguished by Zia as she swallows and carefully gets up from my bed without the usual spring in her step.

She goes into a deep bow so that I can only see the top of her white-blond hair.

I flash Sebastian a grin before Zia raises her back again.

“Forgive me, Milord.”

I can definitely get used to this.

Finally, I let the smile slowly creep up on my face and when Zia realizes she’s been had, she runs over, squealing out a laugh and pushes me in the chest. “You jerk!”

I try to keep the smile on my face, because really, more than anything it was another unsuccessful attempt to take my mind off things.

Nothing is ever going to make this better.

“I need to get dressed, if you don’t mind,” I say with no emotion in my voice.

“Oh, Isaac,” Zia says sympathetically, “Maybe she—”

“Stop,” I interrupt softly, “Not right now, alright?”

A faint smile softens her eyes. “Alright,” she says. She smiles brighter, walking over to Sebastian still standing in the doorway. “We’ll be downstairs if you need anything—hell, you’re Alpha now, so I guess all you have to do is ring a bell and we’re all supposed to come running, right?” She looks around the room. “Didja’ get a bell?”

She puts up her hands, “Alright, alright, we’ll let you get dressed.”

~~~

Things are changing in our pack. Now that I’m Alpha here in the States, Nathan will be going back to Serbia to be right-hand to my father there. No doubt, Nataša will be unhappy about this since Seth will not have the opportunity to prove himself right-hand material anymore.

Our politics are…complicated.

I began my training—battle as well as politics—before I could speak. My father’s legacy is without a doubt brutal and revered. I know our ways better than I know just about anything, but the one law we were never permitted to know in full detail was the one concerning the Blood Bond. On the third night of my healing after becoming Alpha, the Governess came into my room and explained everything. A little late, yes, but nothing I can do about that now. According to our history, which stretches back more than three thousand years, there has only ever been four Blood Bonds recorded. Adria is not counted among them. Not yet. And Aramei…she has outlived them all.