Binded (The SHIELD Series) (3 page)

The Doctor was compassionate, but nodded.

“Exposure to the Shield meant they began to move again. As of now, I’d say he has 12 hours before they burst.”

“But he’s immortal,”
James protested. “We are the Elders, nothing can kill us.”

“Vampirism did not cure
Cooper’s issues, it just immobilized them, as I suspect it does with many other diseases. The body is not cured, it ceases to live and so illness doesn’t matter. But if they burst, he will cease to have brain function at all. And if he dies a human, without being turned again, then his body will not retaliate.”

“So
Cooper is dying,” Phil said, slowly. “And if Carmen..”

“You mean him no harm, my dear,” Dr.
Octivia said. “But listen to me. If word gets out to the Shield community that one of the Elders has this weakness, it could be the end of him. The rest of the Shields will do anything to take down vampires, its why they were created. And we caused quite a disturbance leaving the house the way we did, I imagine.”

James
’s eyes suddenly widened.

“
Cooper! Cooper’s alone!”

With not quite vampire speed, they rushed back to the MRI room,
Carmen on their heels. To their horror, the room was empty.

Chapter 3

“It’s going to me, of course,”
Carmen had enough of listening to the bickering that was existing between the brothers. After searching the hospital, in every nook and cranny, they had reconvened at home. All of Cooper’s favourite places had been searched, and it was becoming more and more clear what had happened; exactly what they feared. They had attracted attention of the Shields, and somehow, the hospital had been infiltrated. Wherever Cooper was, he didn’t have much time. The clock was counting down the hours until he ran out of time, especially if he was with the Shields.

“
Carmen don’t be stupid,” Nathaniel snapped at her. “It’s no secret that every single Shield wants you dead. With you out of the way, a new active Shield can be chosen, and they don’t have to deal with their Queen Shield being a rebel who helps the very things they were created to kill.”

“They want me,” she confirmed, her eyes not leaving
James. “Yes, of course they do. And so when I walk straight into their arms, and offer my cooperation, they will accept a trade or I will take my own life, there and then. And you know as well as I do a Shield lost in pain will never transfer the powers.”

“
Carmen,” James barely spoke her name, his gaze so intense it could cut through walls.  “You cannot…”

“I can and I will.”

Phil took one glance at his brother and slammed his hand down on the mantel piece.

“
Carmen, James is king and you will…”

“No!” her voice was sharp, her eyes full of fire. “
James is king of the vampires, and until my chest no longer draws breath, I am Queen of the Shields. You want your brother back, I’m your only bet and you all know it. I have to go alone, you three will be no use anyways, as mortals. If they see you there, they could very well cut his throat. Remember that you are mortal around my kind, I’m the one with the upper hand.”

“
she’s right,” James sounded so broken and weak at that moment, nothing like the strong king that he normally was. What an impossible choice it was, to choose his brother or his wife. “She is right.”

A silence fell over the room, the only sound the mortal heart beat of the
Shield which might be extinguished. She stepped forward, taking James’s hands.

“I will come back. We have unfinished business.”

He laughed, although his eyes were shiny with tears.

“Yes, I know. Please do.”

“ I will,” oblivious to the rest of the room, she leaned in and kissed him. This wasn’t a normal kiss filled with passion and lust. This was a slow and quiet kiss, so much communication passing between them in a single moment. This was a kiss filled with love, something they had never exchanged in their ten years together. “Got to go.”

Carmen
knew exactly where the Shields would be congregating if they had Cooper, and she pointed her car in that direction without a second thought.  There was a scared burial ground, not too far from here, where many Shields were buried. After all, this was the Hell mouth, where all supernatural creatures fought for space.

She turned off her phone, not wanting the boys to distract her from what she had to do. She played over the scenario again and again in mind, thinking how she would word it, what she would say. But what kept
interrupting her thoughts was not fear, but James’s broken expression, watching her go. She had never wanted to be beside him more than right now.

It was almost nightfall before she reached the burial ground, and she could see, even from a distance that she was right. There was an unearthly glow from the graveyard, where hundreds of candles were lit, and the
Shields, all in white, were gathered.

She had never felt any
connection to them, distant relatives and supernatural’s just like her. She had nearly rotted in Foster Care for years, and they never pulled her out, disregarding her as a broken child when her parents died. It had been a vampire who rescued her, who sponsored her, and another vampire who married her to save what she loved, and she never forgot that.

She pulled over to the side of the road, pulling out her car keys, but not locking her door. With any hope, she would need it open to make a quick getaway.

She was all in black, a contrast to the white Shields, who turned when she approached.

“
Carmen Rouge,” one of them stepped forward, a redheaded Shield just like her who she vaguely recognized. Carmen cocked her head, with a sadistic smile.

“It’s
Carmen Black, actually, technically. I haven’t been one of you for ages. I believe you have something of mine.”

The
Shield sneered.

“A marriage made in hell,”

“Not quite,” Carmen replied, holding her ground. “I’m proposed to make a trade, so listen up. The Black Prince safe and sound. For my life.”

This made them pause

“Your life.”

“I’ll take my own life,”
Carmen had a knife in her hand lightening quick, pressed against her wrist. “Or you may take it for me. Or who knows, you may even beat me into submission,” she smiled. “Do whatever you want, but you give him back.”

“You see,
Carmen, that almost fits into our plan,” one of them said, approaching closer. All of a sudden, Carmen felt a knee in her back and she grunted, doubling over. The knife clattered to the ground, and she felt strong arms grab her. “Except we’ll have you in our grasp and the Black Prince dead at our feet. See? Almost the same.”

She screamed at the top of her lungs, thrashing her legs, but it did no good. They pushed her forward at a rough pace and all she could see was a haze of white as they passed through the hundreds of
Shields in white robes. She gasped for breath and before she knew it, she was hurled into a cold stone tomb, into the darkness. She spun around, screeching but it made no difference. The door was pushed shut and Carmen was left in darkness.

“ARG!” she spun around, trying to feel for the wall, trying to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. And then she heard him.

“Carmen?” Cooper’s voice was broken and cracked , such pain she had never heard from a vampire before. Following his harsh breathing, she found him curled up against the wall, every muscle tense with pain.

“
hey, Hey. I’m here, it’s ok. Are you ok?”

“
Urg, no,” he seemed to be fighting every instinct to not crush his skull with his hands. “I can’t take this anymore, Carmen, I can’t do this anymore.”

“Hush,” she pressed her lips to his forehead, which burned. “Hush, I’m going to figure this out.”

“There’s no way out,” he said, his voice breathless. “I’ve tried everything. The only way out is that door, which takes the strength of 10 men to move. And surrounded by so many Shields, I barely have the strength of a child.”

“Ok, so that’s not our only option,” she said, trying to think. “ We could... do you think if they believe you are dead, soon enough, they’ll let me take your body home?”

“I’m human,” he reminded her. “I’ll be dead soon enough, but before then, there are ways to check that.”

“Right,” she gritted her teeth and he nearly crushed her hands as another wave of pain took him. Come to think of it, she had never seen anyone in so much pain, human or vampire.

“Is it true?” Cooper asked her, and she cocked her head, confused.

“What?”

“Are you married to my brother?”

“I—oh,” she looked away, even though they couldn’t see each other’s eyes. “Yes. You didn’t know?”

He laughed a bit, although it was pain filled.

“You two are the poster children
for make sex, not love. You’re always go on about how it’s not love. But now this?”

“
Cooper---I needed a visa to stay in the country, that’s all. Your brother was kind enough to help. That’s part of the reason I came here. This sham has gone on long enough, we were signing divorce papers , now that I’ve gotten permanent residence status.”

“Oh,” he said,
half heartedly. “That’s sad.”

“Yeah,” she said, after a moment. “It kind of is.”

He stifled a sob and tried not to cry out and she bit her lip, settling against the wall. Her thin arms wrapped around her brother in law, they sat in silence for a long moment, Carmen’s mind whirling.

“I thought it would work,” she said, after a while, into the silence. “I thought that they might take me back. But they’ve just proved to me that the vampires are the only real family I’ve had.”

“Carmen, when I die can you at least make sure that my brothers have my body?”

“You’re not going to die, love,” she said, but she could already feel how weak he was. She knew that being across the tomb would make no difference to him, not with the other
Shields just outside the wall. Plus, she didn’t think she could stand to watch him whiter in pain anymore.

For the first time in her life, she wished that
James was beside her. Carmen had always been an independent woman, making her own moves, creating her own path, and she was stubborn. Carmen was often described as a woman who knew what she wanted. When her best friend had helped propel her to fame, she had promised him her binding, promised him that he would have the power that a Shield had over other supernatural creatures. And because he was bound to her and unaffected by any powers of Shields, witches or other vampires, he would be the one to give her immortality. It had always been that way. After all, vampires who recklessly gave humans immortality were subject to the law coming after them. It was just as dangerous as exposing yourself to a human, they could be found out. Changing a human was a big choice, and not just any vampire would do it for her. But Donovan would, had promised from day one.

Over the centuries,
Shields had been forced into slavery, whipped and punished until they became bound to their masters. James had abolished that rule when he married her, changing the course of history.

James
she closed her eyes, gutted by this. Divorcing him, whether they said it or not, meant that everything would change. She likely wouldn’t be around as much, and maybe this time, they would actually lose contact.

It wasn’t like this was a
one night stand that had led to a Vegas wedding. This had been 10 years of helping each other out when they needed to, 10 years of sharing a bed, and 10 years of coming home to each other, periodically.

She knew
James’s story, that his heart had been broken by the death of his first love, a sickly human girl who probably loved him with her last breath. Carmen wasn’t anything like that, her strength coming from inside, her head over her heart, her body lean and strong from dance. And she didn’t depend on James for her every breath and need either. She was probably the farthest thing from a wife he had ever pictures.

She had never believed in love either; to her, love was just a
fairytale, a thing people wrote stories about. She didn’t see herself in the same clothes twice, yet alone with the same person forever. Since she was 12 and first dancing in a professional show, she had been on the move, living out of suitcases and in hotel rooms. She liked it that way, a different boy every night, a new adventure whenever a stranger smiled across the bar at her.  There were no terms to her marriage, no rules, it was a sham.

Then
why did she want his strength beside her now?

“
Carmen, please,” Cooper was sobbing in her arms.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked, broken hearted. She was out of strength now, out of ideas. Learning that the
Shields really were rejecting her, that there was nothing left for her, was the final straw in her heart. Without them, there was no hope of another family somewhere, and when she signed those divorce papers, there was no hope of anyone to come home to either.

“I would you to kill me before this takes me. Please.”

“Cooper, I can’t do that,” she said, quietly. “Your brother will kill me with his bare hands if he found out I snapped your neck.”

“He wouldn’t!”
Cooper protested. “He wouldn’t and you know it.”

“I actually don’t,” she replied. “I mean, he’ll slit my throat when I break his rules as a vampire, what difference does doing it a little earlier make?”

“Carmen!” Cooper’s voice had laughter in it, even through the pain. “Are you so blind? Can you not see? James loves you.”

She shook her head in the darkness.

“James and I have a business agreement, and some good benefits that come with it.”

“
Then you do not know him at all,” Cooper replied. “Because I know my brother, have known him for a thousand years, and I’ve never seen him more in love than he is with you.”

“No…”

“Oh ppht. You two can deny it until your blue in the face, but it’s true. He loves you, and you love him. No harm will ever come to you, whatever you do to me.”

“Right,”
Carmen took a shuddering breath, closing her eyes and feeling her blood pound in her temples. She knew what she had to do, and she might hate it, but she knew it was the right thing. Cooper was withering in pain, and the pain she would cause James was unbearable.