Final Chapter - Bogdan's POV
The double doors close and seal our fates with a single, dull click. Streaks of blood remain on floor. It lays in pools on the chairs, a macabre reminder of the humans that are now rotting in their final state. A few drops spill over the edges of the chairs, plopping onto the ground and seeping into the earth. While they are merely succumbing to gravity, there's a symbolic element to it as well. It's as if they're fighting to be remembered. A permanent, physical reminder of the destruction that caused their demise.
I remain close to Kelly. His labored breathing stirs the silence as angst and sadness rolls off him in waves. It is a bit foreign to me, mourning the loss of a heart that does not belong to you. Yet he remains true to her still, devoted and fighting for Fiona beyond her last breath. My human watches me from across the room. He wants to be near me, I can feel it, but he does not want to jeopardize me. He believes this is a trap.
The Secondary guard beside Tegan moves close to her. He drops his voice to a whisper, laughable given the presence of a vampire.
"Any additional orders from Mr. Primary while they say their goodbyes?" he mutters.
Tegan positions herself in a way that faces us, forcing the guard to turn away. He doesn't notice her wavering gaze, or the way she eyes me sharply before glancing at a spot in the wall five feet away from me. Her eyes drop down to me a second time before she does it again. And again. It's on the third time that I follow her path – to a small, barely-visible camera hidden in the cracks of the wall.
Ah, we are being monitored. It must be the only camera in here, or else her gaze would have traveled to other locations as well. A warning, perhaps? No, Tegan and I are creatures of war, both keenly aware of the tactics used in situations like these.
I arch a brow and she gives a slight nod towards the camera. She holds the Secondary guard's attention, diluting his mind in a plan that that will never come to fruition. She is creating a diversion for me, a chance to disable the camera to set in motion whatever plan she has up her sleeve. Disabling it herself would prove that she is a rat among the Secondary kingdom, helping the enemy in a time of war. No, this must appear that it is my doing, and mine alone.
Without our small interaction on the walk, I would have never trusted her. Her silent signals would have gone ignored. Now, there is a single thread of trust, so fragile and frail it can be broken at any instant. It is enough, though. If I take care of the camera, she will take care of the guard. It's an unspoken agreement, and the time to act is now.
I give a single squeeze to Kelly's knee. It's a gesture of double meaning – a warning to stay still as well as a reassuring promise that I will do all I can to get us out of here alive. In the moments that follow, I move onto the table and eye the camera. As agile as I am, I will only get one chance to jump and pull it from the wall, effectively ending the live feed.
My legs tingle in anticipation, and the table creaks beneath my weight as I leap into the air. It's too much noise for Tegan to ignore. Her eyes widen in feigned surprise. To anyone monitoring the camera, she is playing her part well.
"Stop him!" she hisses at the Secondary guard.
He spins on his heels and reaches for his weapon just as my hands curl around the virtual eye on the wall. I rip it away, and in a simultaneous motion, Tegan cracks the brunt end of her weapon into the guard's skull. He crumbles to the ground. No longer under the eyes of the Secondary kingdom, Tegan makes quick work of pulling a bit of cord from her back pocket and tying his arms and legs together.
My human runs to me, throwing his arm around my waist as soon as my feet hit the floor.
"I was so worried about you," his muffled voice says into my shirt. "And they killed them. F-fiona, so many humans."
His emotions are so potent, so thick with depth that I can nearly taste them. It is as if they are seeping into my pores, and I am becoming drunk on emotions that I am unable to feel for myself. Whether out of instinct or from learned behavior, I wrap my arm around him.
"It is alright, human," I whisper into his ear. "I'm here now. I'm here."
"That camera disablement is sending a signal to the main unit in the war room," Tegan says, pacing in front of us and chewing on the end of her thumbnail. "Luckily, Reyo isn't there to give commands. That buys us a bit more time, but not much – minutes at best. Another wave of guards will be here shortly, and I'd like to see you two well on your way before then."
"The two of us?"
My human beats me to the question. Tegan nods her head towards Kelly.
"If he has any chance of survival, it's with you," she says, addressing me. "When you're safely out, you need to feed Kelly your blood. Every other vampire who has taken the serum has died within hours," Tegan further explains. "Kelly is the only one who has survived this long. Reyo still doesn't have the answer and thinks it has to do with Nirv dosage in the serum, but he's missing a key part to the equation – a key part we know but he doesn't."
Finn tenses beside me. "Bogdan was the one who changed him."
Tegan snaps and points in my human's direction. "Bingo. Bogdan, the only vampire is immune to the effects of Finn's blood, is the one who changed him. It's Bogdan's blood that resides within Kelly, providing the only form of anecdote to the serum. It's the reason he's alive now. I don't know if too much damage has been done at this point, but it's the only chance he has left. Take him with you and feed him your blood. If my hypothesis is correct, it will act as a counteragent to the serum, reversing the damage and healing Kelly back to his human form."
"Consider it done," I say quietly.
If I had a clear mind, I would have drawn this conclusion of my own accord. I could have saved Kelly from this fate. Instead, Reyo's assessment was true all along. My human is my weakness, the one person who can cloud my judgement and impair my senses. The one I would be willing to do anything for.
"I'm not going with them, then," my human says softly, tightening his hold on me. "Am I?"
In the silence that follows his words, I know that Tegan's plan is to leave my human here, with her. My human's emotions bubble up into a state of frenzied panic as he pieces this together as well. Tegan pulls a small pouch from her other back pocket and holds it out to me. The small parcel fits into my palm and I slide my fingertips against the items, trying to discern the contents.
"It's not much," Tegan says. "But in this bag is a key to your escape. To your survival. You'll find a small map to get out of here, as well as a set of coordinates to find once you've successfully escaped. Find that place, and you will be safe. Hidden."
Tegan turns to Finn. She reaches out and squeezes his arm, a rare gesture of affection from an otherwise cold-hearted warrior.
"I can't promise Reyo won't come looking for them," she says, using calm tones with my human. "But Finn, if you're with them, Reyo will have everyone – and I mean everyone, looking for you. He's obsessed with you, and he wouldn't give up until he had you."
"Because he needs my blood," my human mutters. "He needs it for his war."
Tegan frowns and purses his lips. "That's true, Finn, but it's more than that. I've seen the way he is with you. The way he protects you. I'm his most trusted advisor. If I wasn't, we wouldn't be in this room right now without him. To that point, even if you left with them, Reyo would kill me as punishment for allowing you to escape. And I promise you, when he found you, Finn – and it is a when, not an if – you would have no one inside the Secondary palace to help you."
Tegan steps back, and I feel in her energy that our time is running low. She levels her gaze on me and holds up her right hand before curling it into a fist.
"From this moment forward," Tegan states, unblinking. "I pledge my loyalty to you and Finn, to fight on your behalf, and yours alone. I vow to get him back to you. And until that day, I will be here to protect him on the inside. I pledge this to you."
It is her last sentence that vibrates to my core. Tegan pushes aside her humanity, pulling the vampire blood within her to voice this sacred, immortal vow. Human vows are meant to be broken. They are based off what they believe is logic as opposed to emotion. Vampire vows are unbreakable. Once made, they cannot be broken.
Our eyes remain locked as Tegan waits for me to accept her vow. I nod a single time and say the words that will solidify her vow, forever.
"Your vow has been heard, and it has been accepted."
The invisible vow threads between us, binding our vampire sides together in a way that can only be broken by death. Distant shouts creep into the soundwaves, hitting my ears in warning. They are still too faint for Tegan to hear, but I know our window of opportunity is running low.
"They're coming," I say. "We need to leave."
Tegan nods and works to get Kelly on his feet, leaving a small token of privacy while I am forced, once again, to say goodbye.
"Take care of him," my human whispers, his voice on the edge of tears. "I wouldn't trust him with anyone but you."
"I will, human. I promise. I will see you once again."
I cup his cheeks in my hands and place a single kiss to his lips. Their warmth spreads over me, and in it, all the emotions he reserves for me. I realize I do not deserve them. I always believe humans to be weak, but my human is the exception. He loves me with a power far greater than any of my own. I pull him into me while we kiss, giving him my thoughts in the only way I know how.
When my human breaks our moment of intimacy, he is breathless. I can feel his desire, his want, and it mirrors my own. I also smell his scent, and the aching pain of hunger rumbles through my veins.
"Before you go," he says, grabbing my arm, and looking up at me with pleading eyes. "I have a request of my own."
It's loud enough to pull Tegan's attention to us.
"Change me," my human says. "Reyo is obsessed with me, and it's not just for my blood. He'll keep me no matter what form I'm in, but at least if I'm changed, he can no longer use my blood as a serum to kill vampires."
"No, human. I cannot risk it."
"Finn's right," Tegan says, assisting Kelly towards the door and pulling rope from her back pocket to begin tying herself up. "Reyo won't kill him. Even if he's not human, Reyo's obsession is deeper than that. Even as a vampire, Reyo will want to test Finn's blood, to see what use he will be to the war. He can't kill him; Finn will be indestructible. But at least this way, he won't be the single source used as a weapon against the vampires."
The shouts become louder, and I tighten my hands into fists at my sides.
"Are you sure, human? Are you sure this is what you want?"
He nods. "I'm sure."
I do not think about it. I cannot. If I do, I my instincts will go into preservation mode. My human's blood is the only one that can truly sustain me. Changing him means a future of unending agony. Our tie will be severed, his memories erased. I know he does not think of these things as he makes his request; he simply wants to take charge of his own life. To no longer be used as a weapon in a war.
I feel his love as I breathe in his sweet scent, allowing my fangs to elongate. I close my eyes and lean forward, feeling his soft, creamy skin against my lips. He lets out a cry of pain as they pierce his neck, more harshly than ever before. Unlike prior feedings, I do not savor the taste. I gulp his blood down as fast as possible, and in exchange, I push my vampiric blood into his system.
The effect my blood has on his cells is immediate. In seconds he is unconscious, slumping into my arms. I continue my work and tremble as our bond wanes, growing weaker and weaker before it severs completely. No longer can I sense his emotions. No longer can I feel his whereabouts or his experiences. Now it is nothing but silence, a hallow void that will haunt me for eternity.
I drink from him our memories, his emotions, and his human essence. I unapologetically indulge, becoming drunk on his blood for the last time. In exchange, I give him immortality and a brand-new life. A life without me.
It is this sobering thought that causes a foreign feeling to creep up my throat, forming a single tear at the corner of my eye. My human will not remember me, or this act of self-sacrifice I am giving to him. I will be the one to carry our memories and our story, fighting for him in the shadows for years to come.
But in the end, our fates play out the way they were always meant to. Instead of my human making a final sacrifice for us, it is now my turn to make a final sacrifice for him.
For my Consort.
My Consort's Will.
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A/N: Thank you all for reading through to the end - for your patience between updates and your support along the way. I appreciate it, tremendously.
Please note that the third and final installment of this series, The Consort's Fate, is now posted, for those who wish to continue reading!
Thank you for all your support!