Chapter 25 – Bogdan's POV

Reyo poses the question with feigned amicability, a strained smile spread across his venomous lips. The malice behind his words is not lost on those bound around the table; no one stirs. The vampires do not deign him their attention, and the humans merely blink in response. Finn clenches and unclenches his fists beside Reyo, and I feel his sadness morphing into a most unpleasant blend of fear and angst.

Nonplussed at the lack of reaction, Reyo hums under his breath before nodding towards the guards. On his silent request, they react as one, moving to their designated captive and ripping the tape away from their lips. Various grunts and groans follow. The smell of blood fills the tainted air as layers of skin are physically torn away from the humans' chins and lips. Fiona and the two men beside Mark try to spit away the blood, but Mark licks it up, swallowing his own blood without a flicker of emotion crossing over his features.

Whether done out of sheer madness or defiance, it has the intended effect. Reyo's lips tighten into a scowl. He pulls a blade from the nearest guard, but he doesn't make it to Mark. Instead he stops behind Fiona, sliding his arm around her, and putting the blade to her throat. She tries to keep calm, but he presses hard enough to force a single drop of blood to slide down the length of her pale neck. The vampires tense from the other side of the table. I can see it in their faces, their blood-red eyes desperate for sustenance.

"Mark, I believe it is," Reyo growls, eyes flicking between Mark and Fiona. "You may not care what happens to the rest of your kind. Or yourself, for that matter. But this little tartlet," he growls, tightening his hold around her neck, "might be enough to get that quiet tongue to speak."

Mark keeps his eyes trained ahead, the swollen lids proving helpful to hide any change in his expression.

"No?" Reyo asks and presses the tip of the blade into her skin hard enough to produce another few droplets of blood.

Fiona whimpers at the pain, or perhaps the fear. Kelly's labored breathing picks up beside me. He grunts in protest, but no words form. He trembles, so many emotions locked inside his youthful mind, yet unable to rise to the surface. Instead, all he's able to produce is a cough that rattles through his lungs with enough force to push a bit of phlegm to the surface of his lips.

Although physically nearing death's door, Kelly is mentally still with us. He is aware of what's happening around him. Mark may not care if the mother of his child lives or dies, but Kelly's love and loyalty remain. Despite it all, even in his final moments of life, he fights for the red-haired traitor, the woman he vowed to keep as his soulmate, regardless of his form.

"Reyo," my human pleads, taking a hesitant step forward. "Please stop. You don't have to do this."

Reyo tilts his head to the side, watching the dribbles of blood sliding over Fiona's collarbone. "My dear Finn, I told you I would use this vixen as a bargaining chip, didn't I? So, you see, Finn, I cannot stop now. I am a man true to my word, so I do need to do this. What kind of a man would I be without my word?"

My human's eyes fill with tears. He lifts his gaze to meet mine, silently begging me to step in. This time, I cannot. I reply with an almost imperceptible shake of my head. No. I cannot save her. Reyo's eyes cut to Mark and he snarls a final warning.

"Surrender, or she dies."

Kelly shakes with fury. I tighten my hold on his knee, commanding him to be still. We cannot change her fate. It is not in our hands. All eyes sit heavily with Mark, awaiting his response. He swallows once, his adam's apple slowly bobbing up and down.

"I cannot accept your terms to surrender," Mark responds, his voice gravely and cold.

Reyo hisses. "Then your fate will soon be hers."

He nods to the guard beside him. The Secondary produces an identical knife, putting it to Mark's throat as well. He waits for his leader's command, and with a single nod, the two slice their victims' throats. Kelly whimpers a no, but the helpless sound is drowned out by the gurgles and heavy sounds of blood spilling onto the chairs and floor. It takes only seconds before Fiona and Mark slump against the table, lifeless.

A single tear falls from Kelly's face, and my human begins to sob, falling to his knees in dismay. The sobering moment is not acknowledged. Reyo steps into Mark's pool of blood, letting out a sigh of relief as his footprints stain the floor with his enemy's life source. He moves to the next – one of Mark's second-in-command.

He doesn't bother wiping Fiona's blood from his blade before pressing it to his neck.

"I don't believe I got your name," Reyo says, staring at the frightened human. "But it matters not. For purposes of this meeting, I shall call you Ethan. Tell me, Ethan, do you wish to surrender?"

I smell the urine before I see it, the bodily fluid soaking through the pants of the man beside me. It is not Ethan, but someone who appears to be another second-in-command captured under Mark's leadership. Based on the fear emitting from his pores, Ethan was the fearless manpower, while the man beside me was the brains, building the plans alongside Mark but never executing on them.

"Like my leader," Ethan says, voice cracking. "I will never surrender."

Perhaps this is the reason for the piss. He knows what Ethan lacks in intelligence he makes up for in loyalty. To his dying breath.

Reyo makes quick work of Ethan, cutting him faster and deeper than Fiona. Blood spurts from the gash, spilling all over the table and down the front of his shirt. It spills on the man beside me, and he flinches, his fear growing tenfold. Reyo takes a step, readying himself to go through the motions all over again.

Leo stands, interrupting the scene with a scrape of a wooden chair against an uneven floor.

"Mr. Primary," he says weakly. "While I have served time under your leadership, as well as a Vampire's, my true place started and remains with humankind."

Reyo arches a brow, relaxing the blade just slightly. "What are you getting at, Leo?"

Leo stands a little taller, breathing through the terror bubbling inside him. "On behalf of humankind, I officially give you our surrender."

Reyo lets the words sink in, enjoying the sound of subservience. "Humankind won't listen to you. Not after you abandoned their cause."

Almost anticipating this response, Leo holds his hands up and shakes his head. "I never abandoned our cause," he argues calmly. "I had to say I did, for obvious reasons. But the entire time I was undercover, my sole mission and purpose keeping Finn safe."

Reyo squints. "Why?"

Leo gestures to my human, doing well to keep his emotions intact. "You said it yourself, Mr. Primary. Whoever has Finn at their side will win this war. He is, as you coined him, the greatest weapon."

My eyes dance down Leo's body position. He is tense, his heartbeat racing with every lie he tells. This is all a ruse, a means to end this dinner massacre. Nothing more. If this was all were all true, he would have spoken up well before now.

No...he knew Mark and Ethan would have dispelled his lie without a second thought. Now that they are no longer a threat, he is banking on the lie, hoping that the fear in the urinating man next me is stronger than his loyalty.

Reyo presses the blade against the man's neck again, growling close to his ear. "Is what he said true? Will mankind listen to Leo if he surrenders?"

Leo glares down at him with contrived confidence, but his eyes are imploring. This is their small chance at victory.

The urinating man clears his throat, blinking back visible tears. "Yes, M-Mr. Primary," he stutters quietly. "It's true. They will listen to Leo and still look to him as a leader."

His testament seems enough to suffice. For now. Reyo releases his hold on the piss-stained man and begins the abhorrent task of coercing a surrender from Axel's followers. From what I know of the precious Mr. Primary, however, he has a special hatred for vampires. If he truly has been plotting this moment for as long as he says, he will enjoy it. Savor it. If one can consider the death of those humans merciful, I can only imagine what horrors lay in store for my species at his hands.

Instead of approaching them with a weapon, Reyo claps his hands together. "Guards, please dispose of the deceased. I think our other guests are ready for their meal."

The double doors swing open, just long enough for to make way for a single, silver cart to come through. The plate ware clatters against the serving tray as the Secondary pushes it over the uneven floor. Unlike the Secondary guards around the table, this one blanches when he sees the human corpses being pulled from the table. His eyes follow the blood that trails behind them, mixing into the dirt floor and turning to a deep brown.

His wets his lips and tears his eyes away from the morbid scene. With shaking hands, he pushes the cart around the table, and sets small cups in front of Axel's followers. They're filled with blood. My nostril's flare as I pick up the owner of its scent, and my eyes narrow. My human's blood. Nirv's blood.

Axel's followers stare at the liquid with eager eyes. Torture, they can handle. Starvation of blood, they cannot. You see, starvation puts vampires into a trance-like state. It consumes us. All logic is cast aside; every cell in our bodies force us to act, like a tether to an anchor, drowning us of our our self-control. Drink.

True to our species' nature, they lean forward to take the bait. With hands still tied behind their backs, they grip the cups with their lips and tip them back. Their throats bob up and down as they drink my human's blood. They finish it within seconds, spitting the cup aside, and licking their chins to lap up the remains. My human's blood is of a euphoric quality. They have never tasted anything like it. Soon, they will discover why.

Reyo seems pleased with the outcome, with how little coercion is needed for his other captives to fall into his plan.

"How...delightful," he whispers, eyes flickering among them.

He doesn't have the patience to watch their demise. Perhaps, at this point, he is desensitized to it. Either that, or the promise of announcing the humans' surrender is too close to his fingertips to resist. Reyo pushes away from the table and points to Leo, then the man with the pissed pants.

"You two," he says. "Put on a smile. Today marks a good day. Today will forever go down as history, the first day of a new future - together. We have a war to end, gentleman. Let's move."

Leo and I share a final look before the guards surrounding us yank him from the table. In his eyes lie the same message we have shared between one another for quite some time. A silent promise, to keep my human safe, no matter the cost. They move towards the door, leaving me, my human, Kelly, Tegan, another Secondary guard and Axel's followers behind.

Two of Axel's followers begin to convulse. The third glances at his allies, and realization dawns. They drank their deaths. My human must realize it too, because another wave of sadness pushes through me in waves, emotional shackles that ties our bloodlines together. He hangs his head in defeat, but there are no more tears left to cry. Not even from my human.

"Tegan," Reyo says, yelling over the painful cries of death from my fellow vampires. "Five minutes. No more."

Reyo then stares at my human, a look so feral and so potent that my fangs elongate in warning.

"Consider these five minutes as my final gift to you, Finn. An apology as well as a thank-you of good faith. By now, you must realize, you are mine, Finn. Indefinitely. Now that the war is coming to a close, I cannot risk having them there, constantly plotting ways to take you away from me. So," Reyo says, gesturing slowly to me, then Kelly. "This is your chance to say good-bye, Finn. Use it wisely."

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A/N: BIG NEWS! Alright, ladies and gents. After months of deliberation and planning, I've made the decision to make the Consort a 3-novel series. This novel will be wrapping up in the next chapter or two, and the start of the final novel will be posted shortly after that. That's all I can say for now, but just know - there is more to come!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to those of you who have stuck with this series since day one, patiently waiting for updates as I worked through my writer's blocks. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all of your support, and I look forward to your feedback for the third novel, for those of you who choose to read!