Chapter 668: Tragedy Of The Werenation
Quiet settled over the room, the air so thick with oppression my chest felt tight.
"My friend, Galleytrot, was able to free Raoul." I met the werewolf's eyes. "And Charlotte and some of her friends. I know he can help the rest of you."
Oleksander nodded, sitting forward again, hunger flaring in the wolf that rose to his face for a moment. A grizzled muzzle and fiery eyes transformed him from a man to a were and back again. "He did, you are correct. But the bond he destroyed was the one to the Dumont family. We are still created from the sorcerers, and once the Czar had possession of Raoul and the others again, he was able to reestablish his hold."
"Is it like the bond?" I really had no freaking clue. But if I could free them all permanently, I would.
"No," Oleksander said. "The bond is something entirely different. Done on purpose, with purpose, by the werewolf to one he or she chooses to protect out of love or duty." He growled softly under his breath in Ukrainian before going on. "The hold Yure Danko has over us, the Black Souls, comes from our very creation."
There has to be a way. I ducked inside, addressed the girls.
Agreed, my vampire sent. But it might require maji power, Sydlynn. Power you don't have access to right now.
To hell with Applegate. My demon's rage bit through the conversation in a flare of flame. These people have suffered long enough with this asshat.
Shaylee sighed. It's possible. But I believe we will need Galleytrot's guidance to tell us what he did, exactly.
Oleksander must have known I was gone from him because one hand gently touched mine, regaining my attention. "The Czar has done everything he can to break us over the years, from public beatings to selling us to a certain witch family to prove our weakness." The Dumonts. Right. They had to have been in league with Yure or, at least, knew him well enough he understood their twisted coven would be the perfect choice. "But my grandson, Danilo, managed to escape. Pushed past the boundaries the Czar has allowed us to live inside." Pride shone in his eyes, sadness in his voice. "He had been working with other witches, searching for help. He even went to the Steam Union," Oleksander glanced at Piers, "and brought us a message of hope."
"Danilo was my friend," Piers said, voice soft, thick.
Was. "The Czar killed him." The only explanation for their sudden grief.
Oleksander's face twisted, one hand fisting in front of his mouth as he turned his head away a moment. "Shortly after Charlotte's near death, her brother was murdered."
"Did she know?" My heart skipped, clenched. I thought of Meira and what I would do if someone hurt her. Rage and grief bubbled for Charlotte as Raoul stared into the fire, face lit orange as he answered my question.
"She did," he said. "When she appealed to me for help about her bond with you, I was forced to tell her."
How had she stayed with me for so long, not told me, knowing her own brother was dead at the hands of her enemy...? And yet, the weird behavior I though tied to the loss of our bond, the way she was always so short with me, how she acted when I found out I was supposed to marry by twenty-one. All of it fit together like a sick and tragic puzzle. And now I knew, I thought back, realized just how unhappy she was, how tense, withdrawn even more than I was used to. How angry.
Not at me.
Oh, Charlotte.
I wept then, unable to hold in my tears, hands over my mouth to keep control of my sobs. Oleksander's big hand squeezed my knee again as I pulled myself under control.
Yure Danko was a dead man.
"With Danilo's loss," Oleksander said, voice thick, "Charlotte became the prime focus of the Czar's attention. I am old." He shook his head. "And while I am the leading member of our family, it is Charlotte who represents the future of our people." The whole room sighed as the werewolves gathered shifted as one, exhaling their thin hope. "When the Czar looked for Charlotte and found she bonded to you, he became enraged. It is his intention to marry her, his final act of degradation. To turn her not only into his slave, but his forced bride, to finally crush the last of our family pride into dust with her wedded enslavement. I shudder to consider what abominations she might bear him."
"Charlotte would not allow that to happen," Raoul said. "She would end her own life, first."
Holy. Crap. "No one is ending anything," I snarled at her father. "And Charlotte is not, under any circumstances, marrying that nasty piece of work." I fixed Oleksander with a scowl. "I promise you that."
He bobbed a nod, wiping at his own wet cheeks. "I knew she had a faithful friend in you, Sydlynn," he said. "I had to believe it."
Yeah, he'd better.
The whole Yure Danko was a dead man? Times that by a million and throw in some creative demon torture and a Sidhe earth stomping while he burned forever in the white flames of vampire fury.
"The Czar sent Charlotte Danilo's bones," Oleksander said. I shuddered. Witch bones were sacred, the last connection to their magic, their echoes. Were werewolf remains the same? "To taunt her. Claimed he had Raoul in his clutches."
"Which wasn't true." Charlotte's father trembled, hands clenched at his sides, punching his own thighs in a steady rhythm.
"She didn't know," Oleksander said, tone soothing. "When she tried to reach both of us, Yure blocked her at every turn. And so she returned when Yure said he would do the same to her father as he did to Danilo if she did not accept his offer."
I could only imagine the war going on inside Charlotte, her need to protect me, her grief for her lost mother and brother, her fear for one of her only remaining family members. Of course she would do the right thing and choose her biological family.
I would expect nothing less of her. But, damn her. I could have helped.
"It is our belief," Piers said, standing from his perch on the arm of the sofa, coming to stand next to Raoul, "the Czar believed Charlotte was still bonded to you. Luring her here would mean capturing you at the same time."
I flashed a snarl at Piers. Wished that had been the case.
"He would have had a bit of a shock, I'm thinking." I let my demon play out a scenario in my mind, one where the over-done palace lay in rubble on the snowy ground and the arrogant and deluded Danko pleaded for mercy at my feet.
Piers laughed. "I think you're right. And he still might."
"When the Czar discovered Charlotte was alone, the bond broken, he insisted she agree to his terms." Oleksander shifted in his chair, anger rising, a living thing, feeding the fury of the gathered werewolves. "Back in his clutches and forced to bond to him personally, she had created her own trap."
"Out of options, her soul sold to save me," Raoul grimaced as though he wished she'd let him die, "she did the only thing she could do."
Oleksander nodded sadly. "She kept her honor. And her word. To an honor-less man who doesn't deserve her."
Damn it, Charlotte.
Werewolf sensibilities were going to get me into a lot of trouble.
***
