What in the actual fuck is going on?

Cordelia teleporting Cane from his house to the palace was not supposed to happen. That's not something I have ever heard of before in all my decades, and I've seen a whole lot of strange shit. And the chains...one second she is yelling from the sidelines and the next she is binding him in silver.

We aren't ready for this. Regardless of my hyping up Cordelia and telling her she can do it, we are not ready. I do believe she can do it; I believe she can do anything she sets her mind to.

But we weren't prepared to do this right now. We don't have the supplies ready, we don't have the room prepped for the ritual, and most importantly, we don't have the blood to replenish Cordelia. I am terrified that this is going to go horribly wrong.

And seeing her so close to him, knowing that with one wrong move, he could annihilate her, it's killing me.

"Cordelia, be careful," I hiss.

"I'm fine, Elias," she murmurs, tightening her grip on him.

I hate the way Cane leans into her as he claws at the chains around his neck. He's too close.

"Now you are going to chain me like a dog? Perhaps build me a house in your backyard? I can be the royal pet." Cane says, his voice gruff with pain.

She yanks on the chains and a wicked smile pulls at her lips. "What we have planned for you is so much worse."

"Death," he hisses.

"No," I say with a finality that leaves no room for discussion.

We can't tell him what we have planned. Cordelia is right; his fate is worse than being the vampire court pet or even death. What happens next will be the worst punishment Cane can imagine.

"What then?"

I ignore him and jerk my chin at Cordelia. "Come on. We're taking him to the dungeon."

Her eyes widen. "Not the se—"

If the situation weren't so dire, I'd laugh at her reaction. "No, Cordelia. Not that dungeon. Just down the hall, though."

It takes Cane a moment to realize what she was about to say, and he groans. "Oh, for fuck's sake. You two are disgusting. Please, knock it off."

Cordelia tightens the chain around his neck just enough to restrain his speech. "I'm tired of hearing you talk. Let's go."

"You should have told me that you like being tied up, coelhinha. I would have been happy to strap you to the bed. Does he spank you as well? That's your kink, isn't it?"

I bite down on the inside of my cheek. This is just as much Cordelia's fight as it is mine. I won't jump into her battles unless she asks.

"I wouldn't have wanted you to do it. You were already holding me captive. I didn't need you tying me up too." A derisive chuckle slips from her lips. "Not to mention, you already tried to introduce me to a new kink: orgasm denial." She wrinkles her nose. "Didn't like it. 10/10 would not recommend."

I snort as my brother narrows his eyes at her. "I never denied you an orgasm."

"Considering it's my pleasure we're debating here, I can tell you that that day I poured my fucking heart out to you and you wanted to count to 69...well, you only got to 68 and then patted me on the ass and told me good job." She shifts her attention to me. "I know not all the members of your family leave a girl hanging."

"Nope. I'd say he disgraced the Dagon name. If one can't handle giving pleasure while receiving it, perhaps they should take care of the lady first. But I understand, your mouth is absolutely fantastic."

Cane grunts his disapproval. "Is this your plan—to kill me with the boring banter of lovers?"

Cordelia smirks and raises a brow as we walk into the dungeon. Luckily, I at least got the electrical wiring in order down here and the medical table prepped.

Leading him over toward the area where we plan to go through with this plan that now seems half-baked at best, she guides him down on the table and straps him in. She doesn't even need my help; the silver has weakened him a bit, but mostly, it's because she's gotten so strong.

"I don't know, Cane," she says with a grunt as she buckles the last strap before glancing at me with glittering eyes. "It might be the ultimate send-off if we just fuck right here in front of you. Again. This time knowing you'll never have me."

"You two are sick. I'll never understand why Andres chose you over me. I just wanted to give our people the station they deserve over the other beings."

"I chose Elias because he understands true order," says a fragile voice from the doorway.

All eyes land on Andres as he shuffles his feet to move into the room. His facial features are gaunt, and his body hunched over. He is a far cry from the vampire who saved our lives all those decades ago.

"Of course you are killing me because a senile vampire says it's the only way." Cane looks our sire up and down. "You smell like antiseptic and rotting flesh."

"Shut up, boy. I received word that Cordelia's plan is to be executed early."

Cane stops struggling against the restraints and his attention darts to her. "What plan?"

Cordelia's cheeks turn pink and she scratches at the delicate skin on her neck, the skin I was just feeding from the other night when we bonded. Just the thought of it makes my cock jump.

Calm the hell down, Elias.

"You've not told him what you plan to do?" Andres asks, a grey eyebrow raised.

My shoulders slump and I cock my head to the side. "No, we had to restrain him first. Then we..." Andres continues staring at me and I don't bother to lie. "Then we were just fucking with him a little."

Andres huffs out a breath. "For fuck's sake, son. Could you not? This is important."

I open my mouth to answer, but Cordelia steps forward. "I know. I'm sorry. We were just sort of in shock because we weren't prepared to do this right now. I—I just went to start phase one of the plan, and then I...I sort of..."

"You sort of what, Cordelia?" Andres asks.

"I grabbed Cane because I was losing his attention and then...I kind of...well, I teleported him here."

Andres' eyes widen and he looks at me. "Did you know she could do that?"

"Absolutely not; it's a mystery to us as well."

Andres thinks for a moment and then says, "Did you complete the primal bond?"

Cane makes a disgusted sound from the bed and Cordelia glares at him. "Yes. Just the other night," I say. "We now share a Zenith bond."

Andres looks up at the ceiling and then shakes his head. "That shouldn't have allowed her to use your power like that."

Cordelia stands up straighter. "Wait."

"What, belle rêveur? What are you thinking?"

"I...I fed on you. Remember? I took a lot of your blood. Could that have been it?"

My eyes widen and I meet Andres' gaze across the room. He nods. "Yes. With you being a Dreamwalker, having just ingested a fair amount of vampire blood...it could have given you temporary access to his powers in your dreams," he says, his voice full of wonder, like this is one of the most amazing things he's ever heard.

It kind of is.

"Holy fuck," Cordelia whispers.

Cane's head falls back onto the mattress and he stares at the ceiling. "Lucky me. It sounds like you all have this figured out."

I close the distance between me and Cordelia. "Are you sure you are ready to do this? I don't have any provisions if you need them. If this goes wrong—"

She places her finger on my lips. "I know. And I'm ready."

I'm glad one of us is because I'm second-guessing everything. We don't have the back-up blood yet. And who's to say this even works? But it is now or never. We can't leave Cane bound by silver for too long. The metal will drain him to the point of making it impossible for his body to survive the change. And if we remove it, he will teleport out of the palace as soon as he can. He won't be caught a second time. If he isn't, our realm will fall into disarray without a ruler.

"Can one of you tell me what the fuck is going on?" Cane asks.

Cordelia presses her lips to mine and cradles my face in her hands. "We got this."

"Then I leave you to it. I look forward to hearing about the results of your efforts," Andres says. He nods at me, a small gesture to let me know he approves, before walking out of the room.

Stepping to the bed, Cordelia removes all the silver from Cane's body and I can see his strength returning.

"Cordelia, wait until he's got his str—"

"I know," she says softly, sitting in the comfortable reclining chair I placed near the bed. She's close to Cane, but I'm not worried; he may be regaining his strength, but he still won't be able to escape those restraints she has him in.

"Delia, please," he begs, and I cannot help but feel a pang of pity for him.

She swallows and I recognize right then how hard this must be for her. Even though she's in love with me, the two of us share a Zenith bond, and she chose me...there is no denying that as long as my brother is still a vampire, he is her soul-bonded too. And she's about to risk killing him, and even if he does survive, he will never forgive us.

Everything about this is terrible. This is just the way that at least keeps him alive.

"Please," he repeats. "Just tell me how you're going to do it. So I know what to expect."

She shakes her head and runs her fingers through her hair. "I'm not going to kill you, Cane. No one is dying today." She chuckles but there's no humor in it. "Except maybe me if this doesn't go as planned...and I mean, I suppose you could too, but it would be a total accident."

The metal tray lined with needles and tubes clinks as I roll it to Cane and Cordelia. I start with the arm farthest from her and insert the needle that will draw Cane's blood. He watches with wide eyes as I set the other end of the tube into a drain in the floor.

"Elias?" The terror in his voice slices straight through my heart. I don't know if he understands what we're doing to him, but he knows that without blood in his veins he will slowly die.

I can't bring myself to talk to him, needing to keep this procedure as clinical as possible. It guts me that I'm taking away his freewill and essentially attempting to kill him again. I may not be trying to end his life, but I am bringing his time as a vampire to an end. If he is anything like me, he doesn't even remember what it is like to be human. I'm thrusting him back into a life he has long forgotten.

Stepping between him and Cordelia, I insert another needle into his other arm. I leave the small tube at the end capped and turn to Cordelia. She holds her arm out to me with the inside of her elbow up. There isn't a trace of fear on her face. This is what she wants to do, and I stand behind her decision. I place a kiss on her delicate skin before inserting the needle.

With the blood set to drain from Cordelia, I move to connect the other end to my brother. It is then that Cane understands our intentions. He thrashes against the bed.

"Please, Elias. I would rather you kill me. Don't do this. Don't send me back to a life I hated."

It doesn't matter how much he struggles, he is too weak to stop me. I try not to think of that night on a tiny boat and the hurt in his eyes. I would have happily given him the throne, forfeiting my own life so he could live a long one. At one point, I had told him as much. That is before I knew what he would do if he were to become king. I betrayed him just like I'm doing now. This time I have a reason and I will do whatever it takes to give her the life she deserves.

I want to answer him, explain to him why I'm doing what I'm doing, but I can't. I physically cannot open my mouth to talk to him right now, or I might cry. I can't break right now. I can't.

This is too important; it has to be perfectly timed or I will lose him.

And worse, I could lose her.

"Elias!" He tries to raise his voice at me, but he can't. The blood is draining from his veins faster than I expected, and he's weakening. "Goddamnit, Elias. You must fucking hate me more than I ever realized to do this shit to me."

I close my eyes and try to block him out, but Cordelia's voice breaks through my thoughts.

"Cane, please. Please understand. He can't have killing you on his conscience. And I—" A sob tears through her throat, shocking all of us, even herself. "I don't want you to die, Cane. Please. No matter what happened between us, I can't stand the thought. So please, please understand."

"Fuck you. I hope you both burn for what you're doing to me."

Little does he know, a piece of me is already burning. It is shriveling under a blazing sun. I'll never admit it to him, nor will I tell Cordelia. I won't have her carrying that guilt. But I won't regret what I've done. Never. I would burn this kingdom, this realm, my entire being if it meant just a chance for our happily ever after.