The Consort's Will 《COMPLETE》

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

It saturates the air and seeps into the walls, branding the moment with an invisible tattoo. Years from now, the ghosts of today will whisper their vengeance to generations to follow. Forever trapped, forever haunted within this realm of hell. Their pain bleeds into their cries, the very essence embodying the demon of dismay. Humans, Secondaries and Vampires alike beg for their lives. Mostly, however, they beg for death.

My eyes scan the wide expanse, looking for a way to escape with my human. Familiar blood scents intertwine with the unfamiliar. Some of Axel's followers are among those being held captive. I smell Axel's distinctive flair coagulating in their blood. I also smell Mark, the human leader of this uprising. I cannot locate him in the dim light; there are too many bloodied facies and bodies. But I know they are here, rotting and clutching to their own form of life.

There are too many prisoners for this to have happened so quickly. Far too many. Thousands are dead. Perhaps hundreds of thousands. Yet even more are waiting for their turn with the grim reaper. Florescent vials of the serum are being carted throughout the floor. They act as demonic lightening bugs, a final glimmer of translucent color before taking their next victim. The Secondary army isn't wasting time getting them dispersed. More vampires and humans are dying by the second.

"Why are they killing the humans too?" I mutter.

"They're giving them a choice," Leo answers behind me. "To die or to become subservient to the Secondary people."

His voice trails off, but his thoughts are aligned with mine. It appears most humans are choosing the first option, leaving this world of their own accord and clinging to whatever dignity that remains. Despite my own distaste for Mark and his followers, there is a level of respect knowing they refused to abandon their cause. They refused to live out the rest of their days as puppets to a man spun together with the fibers of evil.

"Welcome."

Reyo's voice booms through the underground dome. His gaze fixates on me as I squint through the darkness, identifying the black thread of a microphone pressed against his lower lip. Leo tenses before coming to stand beside me. Reyo's eyes flicker to my human companion, and he chuckles.

"I've been expecting you both for quite some time. Though Leo, I must say, you continued your act of loyalty to the Secondaries far longer than I anticipated." He waves a dismissive hand around the room of massacre. "Unfortunately, we had to begin without you. But please, do join me up here."

Neither of us moves. Footsteps shuffle in from behind us and Secondary blood fills my nose. A sharp point of a needle presses at my back, not hard enough to break the skin, but enough to give a warning.

"One wrong move, and you'll be at Death's doorstop faster than your vampire friend, Kelly."

"Regardless of my fate, you have just sealed yours," I whisper darkly. "Before the end of this night, you will die by my hands."

Tegan growls at the back of my neck. "I'd love to see you try, vamp."

Two, additional guards flank my sides. Each of them binds me in an individual cuff made of a metal I have never encountered before. It is heavy, and as soon as it connects with my skin, it begins to dull my senses and deplete my energy. The guards tug me forward. For the first time in my immortal life, I do not fight back.

Only one guard monitors Leo, and the six of us climb over a floor of dead bodies as we make our way up to the platform. The deeper we move into the pits of hell, the more my humanity slips away. I am dead, after all. Death incarnate. I was never meant to feel or experience emotions the way humans do. I was always willing to live peacefully, but I am of a different species.