The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 247

There was no time now to wonder or worry or try to plan for what Caius had in store for me deeper into the cave. He was waiting for me, that I knew. The rigged entrance that trapped us inside here with them... He knew we were coming, and he had a plan. I surged on through another opening in the back of the cave, the only other one I could see besides the crevice through which we'd entered.

I knew that. But I had no choice. There was no turning back. The re was only forward. The only way out was through.

The speed of everything that happened next is inexplicable. Many, many things happened, all at once.

I was hit in the head. Hard. Knocked off my feet and slammed into a wall. I scrambled in the dark, seeing stars, fought to get to my feet, went down again, cut my cheek on something sharp, and then felt the hot sear of heavy silver chains slapping into my flesh, burning my skin everywhere the metal lassos touched and tightened. And I was dragged across the sharp, jagged stone floor of the cave, making my whole backside light up with searing pain.

It all happened in a matter of seconds. I was wounded, captured and bound in the blink of an eye.

I'd been taken... somewhere. Another cave, a smaller one.

A small fire burned at the edge of my vision. I blinked against the blinding brightness, forcing my eyes to adjust to the new light. The fire was... a torch. Lying on the floor.

No. Leant up against a wall. I was the one on the floor, lying on my side, I realized

Slow footsteps neared

I was still trying to get my bearings. The impact to my head had my brain working irritatingly slow. I tried to move. My ankles were bound together. My thighs were bound together. My wrists were bound together behind my back.

I thrashed violently against the binds and was reminded what they were made of. Silver sizzled into my wrists with a loud hiss and asmell like meat cooking. I discerned that my wrist and ankle restraints were also bound to each other by an additional length ofChain. Twas hogtied.

A pair of shoes came into view. A very large man's feet in dusty but still wildly out-of-place black dress shoes.

"Caius," I croaked, finding the wind had gone from my lungs.

"Alexander," he practically purred. "So nice of you to finally join us. We've been hoping you would drop in."

I forced my throat to swallow, even though it was dry, and coughed.

But before I could respond, Caius continued, launching into a manic rant.

"You know what I realized?" he asked, his loud voice dripping with condescension. He said the next sentence slowly, enunciating every word as if he were teaching a child an important lesson. "Why keep chasing after someone who is hunting you?" Finally he moved into my view.

Caius was hideous. The oldest of all known living vampires, and some sort of hybrid being, for sure. There were no other vampires walking the earth today that were built like Caius. At least none I'd ever heard of. He was big. Even taller than me, if you counted the length of his horns. His bald, wrinkled head was atrociously huge, his fangs double the length and thickness of an average vampire's.

The beast's lips curled into a thin, evil smile, and his black eyes glimmered. His big fangs were already out, stretching down to frame his long, pointed chin. He tried to meet my eyes, but I looked away.

Then he started pacing slow circles around my body.

"I gave up on trying to lay traps for you out in your world," he said, continuing his lesson. "And decided just to wait for you to find me.

That was how you got us last time, after all. You got very good at finding us. Dogs are good at that - sniffing out a trace. I knew it was only a matter of time before you would turn over the right rock and find us here. So I decided just to wait for you. And to prepare, this time, for your arrival."

"You turned your own stronghold into a trap? Set up your own troops to die?" Suddenly my voice and my breath were back. And I was mad. "Did they know, Caius, that you were using them as bait - as cannon fodder?"

He laughed quietly. It was a dry, hollow, bone-chilling sound. "of course not. But soldiers are expendable when victory is on the line, Alexander. You ought to know that better than anyone."

"I have lost many soldiers in battle," I roared, "but I have never set them up to die!"

Caius stopped his pacing when his feet were an inch away from my head.

He squatted down and turned his big, horned he ad sideways, and tried again to look me in the eye. I blinked and threw my gaze down the line of my body, remembering just in time that he could take control of my mind if I let him latch onto my eyes for too long. He could force me, if he wanted to. He could grab my chin and force my eyes open. But I got the feeling he was just toying with me. He didn't actually want to overpower me like that. He wanted to fight me with his hands. His teeth.

"Keep telling yourself that," he said smugly. "No one walks away from war with clean hands. And yours... Your hands are the bloodiest of all."

He spat in my face.

It smelled like iron. Werewolf blood diluted with the beast's saliva.

He'd been drinking from one of his victims shortly before we began this scuffle.

I didn't give him the satisfaction of any kind of reaction.

"I'm smarter than you give me credit for," he hissed, bringing his demonic face even closer to mine. "You're so arrogant. That's how I got away from you once before. You underestimated me. And that is also what is going to get you killed today." The sneering vampire rocked back onto his heels, made another dry, snickering sound, and rose to stand. He resumed his pacing, circling my body.

"Wolves," he said, drawing out the word like he found it disgusting.

"So soft and sentimental. Nothing but dogs with bigger teeth... I may have lost some soldiers today, Alexander, but I'm still standing. You?

You are not getting out of here alive. And you know what that means?"

He paused behind my back.

And kicked me hard at the bottom of my spine. A growl tore from my throat.

I could hear the smile in his voice as he cried, "Stupid dog, it means I win."

Strangely enough, these words gave me a sudden rush of hope and a second wind.

Because Caius had gotten ahead of himself. He really thought he had already won.

But this was far from over. And his ego was getting him distracted.

He did have the upper hand right now. He could have already finished me off, if he'd only worked faster while I was still dizzy from the impact to my head. But he couldn't resist showboating, and it'd given me time to recover and read the room. I had another level. I had more in the tank. I was not done fighting.

I had promised someone important I was not going to die today, and I intended to keep that promise.