Ruler [Blood Magic, Book 3]

Chapter 16: Bond Magic (revised)

As I watched Keel sleep, I thought of all the girls who'd been torn from society and imprisoned by human monsters. I'd known of a few before the Nosferatu snatched me - mostly from watching America's Most Wanted with Fredrick on Sunday nights - but never gave much thought to what being kidnapped meant. My adoptive father was the true crime buff; I just enjoyed the daddy-daughter time. Then when I escaped the compound and returned to New York, Estella had given me a stack of books she thought might help, including several written by girls who'd been taken and were found months, sometimes years, later. I couldn't confess to what really happened to me so that's what she imagined. I read those books, and remember thinking, Wow, they had it so much worse. Keel's father took a lot from me, he beat and tortured me, left me drained and close to death more times than I could count, but he didn't take everything, and during much of that time I had Keel and magic. No, those poor human girls suffered on a scale that remained unimaginable and somehow they'd survived. As I sat chained up in the royal chambers, I found strength in their strength.

This was not that, after all. This was a game between supernaturals. 

Plus, the night hadn't been a total bust.

Though it remained unspoken, Keel and I both knew the shackle was a fraud. I could free myself anytime I wanted to; my magic may not work on him but inanimate objects were still fair game.  But this wasn't about imprisonment, it was about submission and compromise.

The bond, silent now that Keel was right here, no longer reached, pulled, searched or wanted. In its stead, a deep, abiding sense of peace and familiar rightness washed over me. I once thrilled at those feelings but now they chaffed like a too-small pair of once-favourite jeans. I shoved it all away. The past was a trap.

Keel didn't stir in his sleep and he didn't snore. Hollywood vampires had little in common with actual Nosferatu but it looked like they'd gotten the slumbering lifeless bit right. His Majesty slept like the dead.

There weren't any clocks in the royal chambers so it was impossible to chart the passage of time, but it crept and crawled, each minute swelling into what felt like a dozen, a bloated slow-moving beast. My right leg fell asleep, so I shifted and straightened it; repeating this a short while later when the same happened to my left. I tugged halfheartedly at the chain in the wall. It didn't budge. I wondered what I was supposed to do if I needed to pee.

I searched for ways to pass the time. First, I listed all the things I'd learned tonight in my head: only Keel's blood affects me, he can use the bond to impose his will on me, and he's got one of his goons on Lucia. Each of those things marked a critical weakness.

But then, he given me his blood and this chaise and hadn't forced me to drink more than a gulp of that lady. Though he'd made terrible threats and I'd said horrible things, there had been no violence. In vampire terms, the evening had been downright civilized. In fact, Keel had waged worse abuses on the surrogate me while I'd been riding along in his head than anything he'd doled out so far. There was still the charade of the shackle, but I'd agreed to play along.

I cursed it all the same. The digs might be nicer but it proved just as impossible to get comfortable. The metal cuff dug into my wrist, leaving scrapes and stinging abrasions whenever I moved too fast and forgot it was there. If I didn't heal it later, it'd be bruised and purple for days.

When I started to doze, toeing that thin hallucinogenic line between wakefulness and sleeping, I didn't fight it like I'd planned. Keel had been out cold for more than an hour and exhaustion was overtaking apprehension. As the adrenaline from our dinner party wore off, the muted light made my eyes ache. It muddied up the details of the room, and I had to strain to make out anything more than shapes and shadows. It'd be nice to close them for a minute. When I did, they hurt less, so I left them shut. I'll listen, I told myself, even though I knew Nosferatu could be ninja silent. I'll listen to the bond. The bond will zing if he's close. I can't stay vigilant forever, I have to rest sometime. No can stay...