Bound: A Vampire Romance (Marked by Night Book 2)

  Bound

  Marked by Night Book Two

  Sara Thorn

  Edited by

  CGW

  Copyright © 2020 by Sara Thorn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Bound

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Thank You For Reading!

  Read Book 3!

  Join The Marked!

  About the Author

  Bound

  Return to the dark, intoxicating world of Mystreuce, where two dark princes battle for the heart of one girl.

  Trapped within Athan’s stronghold, all I want is to be rescued.

  But when that day finally comes, it’s not at all as I imagined. There are no white knights, romantic reunions, or happily-ever-afters. Instead there’s Cassius and Quinn, and a trail of blood, death, and insurmountable pain.

  Even when we do escape, the demon’s that lead us to this point still linger. When fierce jealousies rise, a single betrayal compromises everything—and everyone.

  And now, there is no going back. Because everything before, is long gone…

  Bound is the second book in the New Epic Vampire Romance Saga, Marked by Night from Author Sara Thorn. Perfect for fans of Stephanie Meyer, Bella Forrest, Cassandra Clare, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.

  Chapter One

  I wasn’t sure why they had bound my hands and feet; It wasn’t like I could have gotten out of the prison cell even if I didn’t have the metal shackles binding my limbs to each other. Athan’s dungeons were the real deal, impenetrable whether you were trying to get in or out.

  The cell they had put me in was dark and cold, with only one small opening that reminded me of the wrought iron fences some people used to line their brownstone courtyards in Boston. I missed Boston, sometimes a lot and sometimes not quite as much, but there was always an ache inside me somewhere that missed it.

  As I lay curled up in a frigid corner of the dank room, I found myself replaying moments from the city in my head that I had no idea would ever be important enough for me even to remember. Like the way the subway pushed warm air into your face on the platform just before it arrived at a stop. Or the ramblings of street people the commuters would turn up their noses at and dismiss as crazy, when in fact, if you really listened to them, you could tell that they were intelligent people who had just gotten fed up with the bullshit society force-fed to everyone. It was funny that those would be the memories that would stick in my head. I remembered reading something once in a psychology class that said people look back and remember things more fondly than they actually were, once those things were taken away from them. I hadn’t understood it at the time, but I got it now.

  As much as it tortured me to know I’d probably never see that city again, I’d still much rather linger on those bittersweet memories than to think about the last memory I had of Cassius. The anguish on his face as he had watched me get dragged away by Athan’s men, knowing that there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening, was a nightmare that haunted my every thought—both awake and asleep. I’d rather rot away in this putrid cell than be used as a means to torment Cassius again. I wondered what he was doing now. I wondered what they were all doing…Quinn, Sen, and Cassius. I hoped that none of them were too severely injured during the fighting, and I really hoped that they weren’t trying to plan some rescue mission to come to retrieve me. I hadn’t seen much as they had dragged me down into this dark pit, but I had heard enough to know that Athan’s forces were numerous, and they well-outmatch the fae.

  I tried to stop thinking for a while and just allow my mind to fall into nothingness as my cheek rested against the rough stone ground. It was easier that way, just to not think. But even that small bit of peace was interrupted.

  “You looked a lot prettier in your dance clothes than you do laying in tattered pieces on my dungeon floor,” Athan jeered.

  “Perhaps it was the company I kept,” I mumbled back to him. I was too tired and too cold to get up and face him with any real sort of comeback.

  “Still an insolent child, I see.”

  I heard him sit down on the ground next to me. Brave. He must not think that I am any more threatening to him than the vile-looking bug that just crawled in front of me at eye-level.

  “Did you just come to heckle me, Athan?” I asked. “If you did, then I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time. I couldn’t care less about you or anything else.”

  “What about your foot?” he asked. “Do you care about your feet? You’re a dancer, so you must prize them at least a little bit.”

  My feet were cold and rough and without shoes. I curled my toes under to try to keep them warm against each other.

  “I was thinking,” he continued, “that the best way to make a point to my vexing half-brother would be to take something he likes away from him.”

  “I’m pretty sure you already did that,” I said, recalling once more the pained look on Cassius's face as he watched me helplessly as they took me from him.

  “True. But I thought that perhaps a more visual reminder not to cross me might be better. One that would remind him of his loss every time he saw it.”

  “Is this a pity party about the loss of your hand?” I asked when I saw where the conversation was heading. “I don’t think you ever used that hand much anyway unless it was to pleasure yourself in your womanless life. Maybe if you weren’t so horrid, someone might actually allow you to bed them.”

  I could hear the rage rising in him with every audible breath he took. His exhale soon began to sound like spouting volcanoes.

  “Let’s see how bold you are when I take one of your feet for my repayment to Cassius and his disgusting fae slave who took my hand.”

  Quinn. I wish he were here with me now, too. He always makes things seem less dire than they actually are. I don’t know if he uses magic, or if it is just a natural reaction to being around him, but everything seems to calm in his presence.

  I wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of losing a foot, though, so I dragged myself up to a sitting position to look at Athan.

  “Well,” I said, “if you took just one foot, then I wouldn’t be able to dance anymore, and Dregon would be receiving damaged goods. That is what you’re planning on doing with me, isn’t it? Giving me to Dregon as his prize?”

  When he didn’t say anything, I figured that I was probably correct in my assumption. His threats were as hollow as his heart. He was just trying to scare me because fear was something that made him feel powerful over others. He didn’t actually have any intention of chopping off my foot.

  “So why do you hate him so much?” I asked. The question had burned in my brain since the moment I’d arrived here, and I figured now was as good a time as any to get an answer since I had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.

  “Who, Cassius?”

  “Yeah. You seem to spend more energy hating your half
-brother than building your so-called kingdom.”

  He laughed. “You have no idea what plans I have. My kingdom is being built as I sit here talking with you. As for Cassius, I hate him because he is a coward just like his mother was.”

  “He’s not afraid of you.” Sitting here on the floor, taunting Athan, was the one great pleasure that I could indulge in now. However, I did probably need to try not to provoke him too far.

  “He will be,” Athan sneered.

  “Why did you hate his mother so much? What did she matter to you?”

  “She didn’t matter at all to me; it was her influence that did. His mother made our father weak, much like you make Cassius weak now. My father would have been even more powerful had he not been constantly distracted by trying to protect that fragile, pitiful woman.”

  “You think humanity is a weakness?” I asked.

  “It’s the weakness. Look at yourself as an example. Here you are, such a pathetic creature, trapped inside the box that you will likely die in. Cassius’s mother needed to be put down, too, just like he does. He is not a vampire nor a human. He is an abomination, a weakness and a cancer upon Mystreuce.”

  Usually, when people called other people “abominations,” you had to look at the source. Most of the time, the person wielding the term was the problem.

  “Do you even understand what he is?” Athan asked. His lips curled around his words in disgust when he spoke of Cassius.

  “Yes,” I said. “A dhampir.”

  “And do you know very much about dhampirs, Mara?”

  “I know that they are half-vampire and half-human, that Cassius shared your vampiric father but was born to a human mother.”

  “Is that all?” he asked as though he were testing my knowledge.

  “I know Cassius has all the powers of vampires, but none of your weaknesses. He can walk in the sunlight and isn’t as controlled by bloodlust as you are. It would seem to me,” I said, “that you are the weaker of the two.”

  Athan laughed, and the sound of his voice bounced between the walls of the prison cell. “You know nothing. I’m guessing from the sound of your ignorant innocence that Cassius hasn’t shown you his true form yet. That time will come in time, I’m sure.”

  I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but it was pointless because everything that Athan said was a lie anyway. I didn’t believe anything that came out of his mouth. I trusted Cassius.

  “What about your true form?” I asked. “Were you ever the man you pretended to be in Boston? Those years that I knew you as a dancer and a mentor, and I trusted you, was any of that real, or was it all just part of the façade you created to trap me and bring me here?”

  Even in the dim light of the prison cell, I could see him pause as if he were capable of being pensive.

  “My mother was a dancer,” he said. “She was a beautiful dancer. Her feet moved across the floor as if she were dancing on the silvery surface of the moon.”

  “What happened to her?” I asked.

  “She died.”

  “Your mother was an immortal vampire.”

  “Immortal does not mean that you cannot be killed, foolish girl.”

  Of course, it doesn’t. I know that. I am just too tired to think clearly. Everyone can be killed in some way. I’m sure Athan will remind me of at least one of the ways to die when it comes time to consider my own fate.

  “Whatever part of you that you were back in Boston, that was the stronger man. I am sure that was the man your mother would want you to be.” If I could just get through to him, maybe there was still a small part of Athan that could turn the course and end all of this needless strife.

  His look hardened over, like a molten rock once it had cooled. He stood up and let his wounded arm hang in a stump next to his thigh. “Do not speak of my mother again,” he said quietly. “She would have wanted me to be the strongest and most vicious ruler Mystreuce has ever seen. She would have wanted me to slay my half-brother and use his bones to decorate my throne. You don’t know anything about us, so stop pretending that you do. Or the next time, I won’t hesitate to take both your feet.”

  “How long are you going to leave me in here?” I asked as he walked to the barred gate to leave.

  “Don’t worry, Mara. Dregon will be back to collect you shortly. After all, I still owe him his prize.”

  I would have rather stayed in that cell until my last breath than go anywhere with Dregon. At least there was some aspect of civility with Athan, enough that we could have an intelligent, albeit malicious conversation. There would be no trying to reason with Dregon. I doubted he even used more than a dozen words on any given day. He was nothing more than a giant brute who collected lives as prizes.

  “You should take me with you,” I pleaded. “I would be much more useful as a negotiating piece than as some prize for one of your minions.”

  “What makes you think I need to negotiate? I’m the one in a position of power now.”

  “Then take me because it will enrage Cassius to see me with you.” I hated hearing the words come out of my mouth, but somehow, I needed to avoid going with Dregon. And it was true, Cassius would be infuriated to see that Athan had me.

  “Trust me, my half-brother knows of Dregon well. He will be equally infuriated to see that you are with him. Don’t worry; I’ll tell Dregon that he needs to leave both of your beautiful blue eyes in place. Whether or not he wants to do other things with you is up to him. It’s not often that he has such a beautiful woman to satisfy his needs, I am sure.”

  The thought of it made me want to be sick. I wished for Cassius to be here. I wanted him to shove Athan’s other hand down his throat, pluck out both of Dregon’s eyes, and then carry me far off away from here. But the only part of the fairy tale that would likely come true was the part about being trapped in a tower with an evil villain.

  When Athan left, I crawled back into the corner and tried to hide in the shadows. Maybe it would be a while before Dregon came to get me, or perhaps he would forget entirely and I could just die quietly down here by myself.

  But it wasn’t long before I heard the heavy footsteps of some giant walking toward my prison cell. I looked up and saw his crooked smile and the flash of his wicked eyes. Dregon unlocked the gate and stomped toward me as I stayed huddled in the corner.

  “Consider yourself fortunate to be able to leave this place and come with me,” he said smugly. “Get up.”

  I didn’t move. If Dregon wanted me to go with him, he would have to drag me kicking and screaming.

  Dregon grumbled something into the air as I defied his command and stayed affixed to the ground. “Fine,” he said as he reached for my hair and grabbed a thick handful of it within his fist. “I will enjoy this just as much whether you come willingly or not.”

  With that, he dragged me out of the cell by my hair as my body hauled behind. There wasn’t much I could do still shackled except to let myself be dragged. The clothes that I had on—that were already torn and tattered from the fight, which had resulted in my capture—were barely hanging on by frayed, bare threads. I felt my body being hauled across the floor along with the scrapes, cuts, and friction burns that my skin was becoming blanketed with. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of hearing me ask him for anything. But I was counting the seconds until the pain stopped.

  Finally, we were in front of a door that had a large wooden emblem carved into it. Dregon pushed open the door and tossed me inside. To my surprise, the room looked quite comfortable.

  To my horror, it was Dregon’s bedroom.

  Chapter Two

  Getting the shackles off felt good, at least. I was surprised that one of the first things Dregon did when we got into the room was to pull a key from his pocket and unlock the cuffs. Then he stood there and looked at me as if I were an oddity.

  “You need to bathe,” he said. “You smell bad.”

  He left the room and locked it behind him. Obviously, I checked the door to see if I cou
ld escape, but it was no use; I was bolted in.

  Dregon’s bedroom was massive and militant. Giant paintings depicting some sort of supernatural war with piles of vampiric soldiers standing on piles of bloodied fae corpses hung from the walls. Charming.

  The rest of the room was fairly plain—a giant bed (not surprising considering Dregon was an enormous man), a large table set with fruits and carafes of wine, and a fireplace hearth with no fire lit. It surprised me how much all the vampires seemed to like fireplaces and fire in general. Maybe it was their substitution for the light and warmth of the sun that they could never have. There was also an opening in the back of the room that looked like it led to the bath. I got up and walked toward it.

  The bathroom was all marble, with the exception of a giant porcelain tub. I ran hot water in the bath, set what looked to be a clean towel on the side of the tub, and dropped my clothes to step inside. Then I sat in hot water and closed my eyes as I let it pull the chill from my bones. I soaked my wrists and ankles under the water, and they stung from the raw skin that the shackles had caused. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but when I heard the bedroom door open, I quickly reached for the cloth and stepped out of the bath to wrap it around me.

  Dregon appeared in the doorway. He said nothing as I stood there, dripping wet and holding the long towel up against my body. He pulled his shirt over his head and dropped his pants to the ground. I was prepared to fight him off if he came near me, although I was so weak and weary from lack of sleep and food, I wasn’t sure how successful I would be.