Bride of Alvar (Redemption Saga, Book 1)

Chapter 25

Alvar's Past - The Collar

"Why did you do this to me?" Alvar asked, his body wasn't his own anymore. Before he'd had the ability to control his actions, now he was a slave to Saul's will. He'd transformed twice, from man to Cursed, Cursed to man and again. Panic ensued upon him at first, but now an icy terror crept into his soul.

"I just wanted to see how it worked," Saul sneered, and then added tauntingly, "You don't mind, do you?"

Ysta stood next to Saul. "You told me you'd pay me after I'd finished the Fe collar for you."

"Yes, Ysta, go ahead, take some more blood from our Cursed friend," Saul said.

Without his willing it Alvar held his hand forward and he watched in horror as Ysta approached, opened her mouth and bit into the skin of his wrist and sucked the blood. Her mouth, chin and nose stained with the red of his blood and he couldn't even struggle away from her, his teeth clenched as he endured the pain.

Finally she finished, looked up at him, wiped her mouth, and kissed his lips, pressing her tongue into his mouth so he could taste his own blood. "There. That wasn't so bad now was it?" Ysta patted his cheek with a blood stained hand, then turned to Saul, "Thank you for the blood, Saul. I'll be leaving now." She gathered up her things and exited, leaving Saul alone with Alvar.

"She's not your wife," Alvar said, he was such an idiot! For the rest of his life he was going to pay for trusting someone else, for thinking he finally had a home...

"Of course not. I don't even know what her real name is. It was a ruse, my boy. A ruse to get you to become my weapon. Everyone knows you can't kill a Cursed unless you have the proper weaponry, and as far as we know, all such relicts have been destroyed. With you, I can have whatever I want. You were quite foolish you know... to care so much about not harming human beings to have your own way. I wish I had your gifts. You're really part of an ancient bloodline. A bloodline of people that used to be revered as the gods of Axus."

"You said--" Alvar began.

"I lied," Saul interrupted. "You now have no choices left. You were so desperate for acceptance--for a family--that it was almost too easy." Saul held up the silver key. "You will do whatever I want as long as you wear that collar. No one can take it off of you but me. My blood was in the forge with yours. I added it before you added yours. We're bound together now. Forever."

"Why did the Sorceress want to drink my blood?" Alvar clenched his fists and tried to stave off tears.

"Because, she's a sorceress and your blood is worth more to her than anything, although she won't tell me why," Saul stated, but then he shook his head and rolled his eyes laughing, "I'm done talking with you, you'll stay down here until I can come up with our first plan of attack."

"May the gods curse you," Alvar seethed at him, even though ever fiber of his being wanted to he couldn't move to attack the man nor shift into his more dangerous form. The invisible force of Saul's will stopped him.

"There are no gods," Saul spat back at Alvar. "Just me. The new god of Axus."

Alvar's Past - Death and Destruction

Alvar couldn't get the taste of innocent blood from his tongue. Every man in this town dead except one.

"Do tell those in other villages about me," Saul told the man, "Tell them about the horrors you witnessed here and how if they want to avoid it they'd best join me. Saul is my name. Repeat that to them. Tell them that if they submit, their lives shall be spared."