A Bastard's Allure-Chapter 142: More Human Than Bastard

The cellar was dark and dump, even cold for a vampire. His wounds had healed painfully slow. With a ragged breath, he had crawled around the void of darkness until he found a corner to lean on.

It was in the dark that the voices haunted him, as if the silence was meant to amplify them.

’No one’s coming to save you.’ The smirk on Brandon’s face was unmistakable. Faces hovered in front of his blurry vision: Elena enjoying her time in the throne hall, his mother in some foreign land. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

He expected to see more but those were the only two people who would even consider saving him in the first place.

He hated every bit of it. The thought of looking forward to being saved. He wasn’t born to be saved, a fact he knew since he was a child. His mother was never present when he needed her the most. Why would she be his knight in shining armor now?

And Elena? She was a human he had let into his life not more than a year ago. If not for his father, he would never have met her in the first place. She also had responsibilities for her kingdom now that they had just recovered from a war and near extinction.

He silently cursed, hissing in pain when his injured back rubbed against the rough surface of the wall.

He heard footsteps approaching before a key was inserted into the slot, turned and the armored door pulled open to let in a burst of sudden light that rendered him momentarily blind.

Shielding his eyes with the back of his hands, he saw a figure step inside before the doors were closed from the outside. It was dark again.

He heard him circling around the cellar wordlessly until he came to a sudden stop.

"How are you even surviving here?" There was no mistaking that voice. "For a purebred royal vampire like me, I can barely see you, let alone your annoyingly glowing eyes."

"To sit in the dark with no one to talk to, cut from the joys of this world. Now that must be lonely."

Gabriel hissed when his wounds came into contact with the wall again, making Brandon’s heart race momentarily.

"And Elena? She’s probably snuggled in her royal chambers while her servants tend to her needs. Now that you’re gone, the council is going to pressure her to marry one of their own and produce a suitable heir."

That caught a nerve in Gabriel. If not for the chain tied around his ankle, he could have squeezed the life out of his excuse of a brother.

"What? Did I offend you?" He jokingly asked when the chain rattled.

"Mother wants me to kill you and be done with it." He paused in his tracks as if expecting a reaction from Gabriel. He could have sworn he saw his golden eyes piercing through his soul in the dark.

"Be done with it," Gabriel spoke for the first time since their interaction.

"Not so fast, dear brother," Brandon scoffed. "Where would be the fun in that? My mother’s boring. All she does is trying to control me, tell me what to do. I hate that.

Little Elle is growing fast but I was never fond of her. She might get a better suitor before the rise of the full moon."

He turned to look at Gabriel’s direction in the dark.

"But you, you’re something else dear brother. Spill your guts and they’ve already regenerated within an hour. You don’t give commands like mother. You’re the closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have. Shame you were born a bastard."

Gabriel could detect remorse in Brandon’s voice. He knew Brandon well to tell when he was lying. This was not one such moment.

He looked up in the darkness and somehow he knew Brandon was looking back as well.

"Why don’t you take these chains off then?" Gabriel asked, earning a smirk from him.

"You don’t think I’ll fall for that, do you?" His nervous laugh echoed in the silence.

He took a step closer, crouching low that Gabriel could hear his heartbeat.

"Say I unchained you right now. What would you do?"

Gabriel’s chain rattled as it dragged along the ground. He hated just a few inches away from where Brandon stood, much as the chain allowed.

"Why don’t you take these off and find out," he replied, his voice low and dangerous.

Brandon chuckled. His golden eyes were now visible, and there was nothing in them but malice.

"You’d kill me!" Brandon said it to himself more than Gabriel, his voice a mixture of horror and surprise.

He stood up, dusting his royal robes. "Maybe mother was right. You deserve to die after all."

Gabriel listened to his receding steps until the armored door pulled open again. This time, he looked away to avoid the light.

But the door didn’t close. Instead he heard footsteps approaching quick before two knights grabbed him roughly by his hands and started dragging him out.

His feet came into contact with the rough ground peeling his skin off until they met with the smooth tiles of the hallway.

His eyes had still not adjusted to the light. His body left a trail of blood as he was dragged to another room. His eyes finally accommodated the light when he was being tied to an iron chair.

In front of him sat the masked executioner who had taken his fangs previously. Beside him was a fire burning and throwing sparks high in the roof. A piece of metal heated on the side, glowing golden at the tip.

Before he could even register what was about to happen, the two knights held him in position. The executioner rose gracefully as if that was his cue. His gloved hand grabbed the end of the metal, the tip glowing even more when removed from the flames.

One of the knights held his chin tightly forcing his mouth open amidst the struggle. Gabriel’s heart raced when he saw the glowing metal approaching his face inch by inch.

The executioner was damn good at this, he had to give him that. The metal caught his flesh, burning his gums slowly. He let out a shrieking scream as his teeth started falling one after the other.

"Let’s make him more human!" Brandon said as he took a sip of blood outside, enjoying Gabriel’s screams.