Hi,

What Anna is seeing in this one: Is it real, part of her imagination, or is it somewhere in between? What do you think, can she defeat Vladislav and if yes, how?

Lara

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Chapter 60

I couldn't stop watching Alexander. Wherever or whenever this memory originally happened, Alexander was already a vampire. Still, something about him was different. Dirt and blood marred the white cloth of his tunic and its sleeves were torn. The impeccable Alexander looked disheveled, as if a long fight had worn him out to the point of exhaustion.

Alexander came to a halt a few feet in front of the throne, staring at Vladislav with defiance.

"Did I not make myself clear? You were ordered to kill humans that defied me. Any humans," Vladislav said. "Yet my second in command told me you spared a group of five men yesterday. Why is that?"

Alexander stared at him for a long moment.

"Why are you asking me things you already know?" he finally said.

I looked at him closely, drank in his features. A fierce blend of contempt and anger burned in Alexander's eyes. I had rarely seen that much emotion on his face. It made him look different. More human than vampire.

Alexander, what did you do?

Vladislav lifted his forefinger.

Time moved forward, slipped through my fingers like grains of sand. The two soldiers had moved with vampiric speed. They were holding Alexander in a tight grip. Alexander didn't move, didn't even attempt to shake them off as Shinji stepped in front of him and punched him in the gut.

I gasped. No. Shinji hadn't just punched Alexander. He'd torn right through skin and flesh.

Alexander grunted and slumped forward. Shinji stepped away from him, his right arm bloody and loose at his side, and bowed to Vladislav.

Alexander righted himself slowly and looked up, his eyes a burning, vivid sea of determination as he stared at Vladislav. It was similar to the two-thousand-yard-stare he'd often used in my presence, but different. This was pure defiance.

"Thanks to you, many of these humans are on the brink of starvation," Alexander said. "These were once my men. They already served under my father."

"And now they no longer are yours to command, Adorján. Your loyalties lie with me now. They have since the day I killed your father and turned you into a vampire. And they will, until you die."

The words echoed through the throne room, bouncing off the stone walls, crawling under my skin like cold, poisonous pins and needles.

Vladislav's pupils had dilated and widenend. "You will kneel, when I tell you to. You will crawl when I demand it. And you will be utterly loyal, to me and to me alone," Vladislav said.

Alexander didn't avert his head, or bow as I expected him to. He remained where he was, not moving an inch.

"That is where you are wrong, Vladislav. My loyalties lie with my men and they will remain there until I decide otherwise," he said.

It was as if a visible storm had moved into the throne room and infused it with a compulsive need for motion. Some of the soldiers started murmuring, hushed whispers that might only be picked up by vampiric ears. Most openly stared at Alexander.

Was it the act of defiance? The will to go against the vampire that turned him that gave them pause? Was this the reason why they had watched his entrance with a sort of gleeful anticipation?

Vladislav stilled even further. "You are whatever I want you to be, Adorján."

The atmosphere in the room changed, as if a long, dark shadow had been cast over the ceiling. "They said that you were stubborn, but I will bring you to heel, just like the rest. You are the dog I will send out to punish those I deem worthy of punishment. You are the dog that will fetch the stick as often as I please. You will serve."

Alexander lifted his head.

That look. Pure defiance and determination. Even though he was bloody and beaten, in this moment Alexander looked like the real king in the throne room.

There you are.

I stilled. I knew the voice. It wasn't mine and it didn't come from the memory I had accessed in Vladislav's mind. No it came from him and from the here and now.

Vladislav knew I was in his head.

Get out.

The words lifted and thundered through the room in a deafening whisper. My vision flickered, then vanished, as if someone had snuffed it out like a candle.

I shook my head and tore my eyes open. The scent of ash and burning skin prickled my nose and my eyes watered. I blinked, trying to see. Slowly my vision sharpened and opened up into a view of an endless sea of flames across the horizon – in between small black shadows.

I squeezed my eyes against the stinging smoke, trying to see more. Shadows and smoke. I shook my head, looked again. No, these weren't just shadows.

My eyes widened. Crosses. Crosses with humans impaled on stakes, some of them alive.

I gulped in air, breathing hard. This was more than vivid imagination or whispered legend. It was proof of something I had feared, namely, that for once history got it right.

Vladislav was Vlad the Impaler.

I shook my head, trying to claw myself out of the vision, but it wouldn't go away. The smoke was hurting my eyes and I could barely breathe. The vision of crosses and human corpses swam in front of my eyes like a veil moving and fluttering in a hot breeze.

I turned. Smoke billowed from a castle in the distance, drifting through the endless rows of crosses like poisonous mist.

I started running, moving past rows and rows of crosses.

The great three witches help me.

I had to get out of this nightmare, or else I-

My foot caught on something and I tripped. My knees and hands took the brunt of the fall, but it hurt like a bitch. I sucked in air and opened my eyes. The black soil underneath my fingers felt warm, as if it was still cooling after a major wildfire.

I stilled. The black earth just moved, as if something, an animal maybe, was clawing its way out of the earth. No, it was bigger, like-

A pale hand shot out of the ground latching onto my neck, squeezing. It was trying to pull me down! I clawed at it with my hands, fighting it, but ... I couldn't breathe. Black dots marred my vision. I clawed at the hand, trying to pry it away.

Then my vision blackened out.

* * *

I opened my eyes, only to find myself back in the here and now, face to face with Vladislav. His hand was wrapped around my neck. I was breathing hard and my cheeks were wet with icy tears.

"Don't ever attempt to get into my head again", Vladislav said. His face was truly motionless, a mirror that showed certain death. He was going to kill me at some point. But he would take his time.

I gulped in air, staring at him in silence, then shook my head.

"I still don't understand. Why are you here in New York?"

His eyes were void, emotionless. "I told you. Adorjàn needs to be put in his place. He killed Titus and Ramondo."

Why did Vladislav think Alexander killed Titus? That was impossible.

No matter what, I had to distract Vladislav from Alexander. If he went after Alexander, he would-

I shook myself mentally. I couldn't think past that line of thought, couldn't even end it.

I was going to do it: tell a half-truth to one of the most powerful vampires I ever encountered. I'd had opportunity enough to perfect the art of lying by omission with Alexander. Time would tell if it would be enough to fool Vladislav.

I swallowed, keeping my eyes on Vladislav's chin. "You're wrong, it wasn't Adorj-, I mean Alexander. He didn't kill them." I swallowed. "I did."

Vladislav stared at me. I could feel his eyes like a set of cold hands touching my face. Reading, adding and subtracting like a mathematician.

"Partial lie," he said. "You only killed one of them, most certainly Ramondo."

"Alexander didn't kill Titus. That's unlike him, you would know best. Even if Alexander held a grudge against Titus, he wouldn't gain anything by killing him. Alexander would never risk a potential war. Not as the head vamp of New York," I said.

I tasted the truth of my words on my lips. That was Alexander. You could call him a lot, but as head vampire he was loyal to his vampires and a brilliant strategist. He would never bring a war to his territory.

"Yet he did kill Titus. I want to know why," Vladislav said, moving closer.

With the words the world tipped and tilted, and with it my vision was gone. The scent of death drifted into my nose – relentless and final. I was surrounded by blank stone walls, thrown back into the fortress of my mind. The walls were shaking, pieces of rubble and stone falling like snowflakes.

And then I realized. Vladislav was trying to take over my mind.

No. No!

I got up slowly, facing the entrance to my fortress. I was thrown back into the vision, trapped inside my mind. My hands were shaking, crumbling into fists. I was not going to let Vladislav in. No matter what. Whatever strength I had, I focused on the entrance of my mind, barricading it with all I had. The scent of air magic drifted in and settled around me like a second blanket.

Slowly the walls solidified and stilled. For a long moment I heard nothing.

They died because of you.

I stilled. The words seemed to come out of nowhere, bouncing off the walls and crashing down on me in a rising echo.

My parents, Maria and Blaze. The memories of their deaths weighed me down, drifting in front of my eyes in a slow, torturous dance.

The wolf wasn't dead when I took him. Vladislav's voice scraped against my walls and echoed through the halls of my mind.

My heart stopped beating. Blaze? Was he talking about the night I turned rogue? About Blaze?

Don't you want to know how he died?

I shook my head. No.

The hard deaths are always the most entertaining.

I clamped my hands over my ears. I didn't want to hear. I couldn't-

It took a while before I could access his whole mind.

Slowly my arms fell to my sides and I sunk to my knees. My face was wet with tears. I didn't even know where they came from and how they had ended up on my face. I was one thing above all. Numb.

"Blaze, I'm so sorry." The words came out as a trembling whisper.

The sound of footsteps rose in a slow crescendo. He was coming. The vision around me darkened, then faded into black.