Bound in Blood (Broken Bloodlines Book 3)
Bound in Blood: Chapter 51

59 MINUTES BEFORE THE LIGHT GOES OUT

My fingers wrap around my brother’s wrist, and I squeeze hard, stopping the blade from slicing any deeper into my son’s neck. Giorgios gapes up at me, his face a mask of shock and fear. He should fear me, for nothing in this universe will save him from my rage.

I squeeze harder, crushing the bones in his wrist until he drops the blade, and the writhing shadows spread out and fade before disappearing completely. Malachi and Axl are bound by their hands and feet, kneeling on the floor. Xavier lies bound and unconscious. But they are all breathing. They are all alive.

“You are too late, brother,” Giorgios sneers.

The wraith’s bloodcurdling shrieks fill the room, then it disappears in a torrent of darkness. My brother does not seem at all perturbed by the wraith’s sudden departure. It is almost as though he expected it. A cold shiver runs the length of my spine.

Ophelia, do not leave Anikêtos’s side! She quickly voices her compliance.

Anikêtos, if I have ever asked anything of you before, know that it meant nothing compared to this. Do not let the wraith near her.

I am faster than any wraith, Dragon Whisperer. I will not let him near her, I assure you.

Satisfied he will keep his word and that she is safe in his care, I direct all my attention and anger back at Giorgios. “Not too late to tear your head from your shoulders, dear brother.”

He moves backward, his dark-blue eyes fixed on mine. “You can try, little brother, but I think we both know who is the more powerful between us now, do we not? Despite what our father would have you believe.”

“Our father is dead, Giorgios. His head was removed by one of your allies. He used his last breath to appoint me as the official head of House Drakos. And the first thing I did was remove the oath placed on dragonkind.”

He snorts. “So you will have one of your dragons kill me?”

I can read every thought in his mind. He is trying to figure out why he cannot transport out. “I do not need the aid of a dragon to kill you, Giorgios. And you will replace you cannot transport from within either of the Ruby Dragon houses. Had you ever shown any interest in our family enterprise, you may have known that.”

His eyes narrow, and he looks past me to the door at my back. I shake my head. “That is not the way you will be leaving this room, big brother.”

He surges forward, trying to catch me by surprise, but I am ready for him. The blade he had in his possession when I entered the room is in his hand again, and he swings it toward my neck, but I have always been faster. I dodge him with ease. Dropping to my haunches, I punch him in the kneecap, splintering the bone and causing him to drop to the ground. He swings the blade again, and I dodge backward. It whispers past me, but even without feeling the sting of its blade, I feel the malevolence embedded within it.

When did my only brother align himself with such dark forces, and how did we not know?

“Why, Giorgios?” I ask, standing over him.

“For the same thing we all strive for, Alexandros. Power!” He rises to his feet, wincing as the bones in his knee fuse back together.

I shake my head. “I do not believe you. If it was merely power you wanted, then you would have killed me rather than imprisoning me.” I lunge for him, and he surges at me too, trying to defend himself, but I overpower him easily and tear a chunk of flesh from his throat. He holds his hand to the wound and snarls.

“So what was it, brother? You already had power. You are the firstborn son of Vasilis Drakos, heir to the family throne had you not betrayed your own kind.”

“No!” he bellows like he has been pained by something greater than the wound I inflicted. “I was never the heir, was I, Alexandros?” He spits my name from his mouth like it leaves a bitter taste. “I was always the second. The spare!”

“If you were ever second in his eyes, it is because you made yourself so.”

His lips curl back over his teeth, fangs glinting in the overhead light. “I had no choice. Once he had a son who could talk with dragons, what chance was there for me?” He lunges for me, his sharp fingernails scratching my lip, and I throw him backward.

His back slams against the concrete wall, and I step closer. “You are a whiny, self-serving piece of shit. And yes, Giorgios, I have always been superior to you. And I have spent my entire life trying to make you feel better about that fact. But now you are about to learn just how superior I am.” I lift him by his collar and slam him into the wall again.

He spits blood from his mouth. “Were you trying to make me feel better when you stole the only woman I ever loved from me? Elena was mine, and you took her.”

I should have known. Of course it was always about her. Within the maelstrom of thoughts and memories swirling around his head, she is there at the center of it all. Peaceful and serene, a calm within the eye of the storm. Just as she was in life. “Why did you have him kill her, brother?” I ask, my rage giving birth to a deep well of sorrow. “Why did you force him to kill his own mother and our innocent children? Why not simply kill me and take her for yourself?”

He screws his eyes closed and presses his lips together as though that may stop me from replaceing the answers I seek. But if he will not tell me, then I will discover them for myself. I comb his memories, shoving aside all the ones he pushes to the forefront of his mind as I delve into the heart of his darkness. His bitterness and jealousy. His cowardice. He knew he was never strong enough to kill me, so he did not even try, at least not in physical deed. Killing me was not enough. He had to make me suffer—to make me feel as he did. To watch me lose everything I ever loved. My beloved firstborn son. My kind, beautiful, innocent daughters. My wife. He had her killed simply because she was mine and he could not have her.

“Revenge!” I shake him like he is a puppet on a string before slamming him back against the wall. That he has caused so much pain and suffering for something so petty and human as revenge only makes this all so much more tragic. “This was about your petty, mindless revenge.”

He snivels, pathetic and weak. “You never understood. Never loved her like I⁠—”

“You never loved her, Giorgios!” I scream the accusation so loud I am sure I can be heard in the netherworld, but then I drop my voice and hold him close, for I want him and him alone to hear every word of what I say. “For if you had, you would not have been able to cause her even a moment’s pain.”

“I loved her,” he whimpers. “And she was mine.”

I shake my head. “She was never yours.”

And now I am assaulted by his thoughts of Ophelia, of his desire to bond with and impregnate her. To defile her. Not because her loves her. But because he hates me. The ugliness of his intent toward my sweet Ophelia makes me recoil, but not long enough for me to forget why I am here or to give him any room to escape.

“You are despicable.” I wrap my hand around his throat. He struggles, clawing at my arm, but his strength is no match for mine. It never has been. I have always been the better of us, and it has truly taken me until now to see it. “Is that why you kept me alive? So you could take Ophelia from me? Impregnate her with your spawn and ensure I would live to see it?”

“It is no less than you deserve,” he says, snarling.

“Know this, brother. I would have loved her still. You could have bonded to her and sowed your evil seed in her, and still, she would have loved me.”

He laughs, and the sound is completely unhinged and so shocking, it makes me inch back, though I keep a firm grip on his throat. “And the irony of it all, dearest brother, is that you have brought about your own downfall.”

He is stalling for time, and I have no more patience for his games.

“The downfall of us all.” He cackles, his eyes alight with glee.

“Okay, I will relent. Tell me of this downfall I have supposedly brought upon myself.” I hoist him higher but loosen my grip enough to allow him to speak freely.

“That would be far too easy, Alexandros. But if you had let me simply take the girl, then all of this could have been avoided. The dragons were a surprise I was not expecting. Yet they have sown the seeds of destruction even I did not anticipate. I shall be reborn, brother. And your precious little Ophelia will be swallowed by the dark.”

Indescribable rage hurtles through my veins. I wrap my other hand around his throat, and in my peripheral vision, I see he has again conjured the sword. But it does not matter. It is too late. My fingers are already digging into the meat of his flesh, crushing his windpipe and tearing through sinew and arteries.

His hand falls to his side, but whilst he still has life in his eyes, I deliver him the cruelest blow of all. “Elena and I were not fated mates, Giorgios, but we did love each other deeply. And she confided in me as soon as we were married.” I press my mouth to his ear to ensure he hears every word. “She only ever felt pity for you.”

Summoning every ounce of rage in my body, I tear his head from his shoulders. It dangles from my fingers by strands of fascia, and his body drops to the floor.

I drop his head and stare down at the remains of the man who was once my brother.