Betrayal

The alchemical ropes bit tightly into my wrists, laced through with silver and silk treated to inhuman strength. They would need all of it. The scent of death, real death an the long death curled with with unholy glee, assailing my nostrils.
I kept my head low. The ancient stone floor slick with modern blood. Mortal blood and my own. Ironic as that may seem to the living. One. Two. Three... six separate sets of foot steps. Had they known who they were catching? Or were they simply after the insanity that was the newly risen?
I had never known that insanity. Lighter steps. A mortal likely wouldn’t have heard them. Light but not delicate. A male of our kind. Unsurprising. I counted three bodies here that would rise to the long death... they were what had drawn me into this foul trap.
“Well, well, what had we here? I set a trap for a recruit and I catch the Master. It has been some time, Hanno.” The voice echoed through my brain. Impossible.
I looked up and my eyes narrowed. No. But yes. Anuma. Anuma behind this. “It has been. I thought you were still in America?”
“Obviously not. Now, what shall we do with you? I had not expected to catch one of the Council here. I think this will work. Yes. Finding your staked corpse here... yes. “ He motioned to one of the others, mortal, who had been restraining me. Not that that would help them.
I strained against my bonds. They stretched tight and I felt a snarl. For once I embraced the frenzy, rather than fighting it. “Curr, villain! Unhand me you havering jackanapes, you half breed son of a pig and a monkey! You treasonous mother-fucker. I will stake you for the sun. I will rend you until even the devil can’t find your bones. I will wax your ass!”
At each word the pressure on my bonds grew tighter. I could feel them straining. A mad cackling laugh escaped my lips. The modern tongues slipped away from me and I swore at him through all six millennia of my life. A little farther...
He laughed, “Oh how the mighty have fallen, to swear like a common thug. Don’t bother with the ropes, they are strong enough to resist even you...”
I lunged forward, and the chords on my wrist frayed, then shredded. I slashed upwards, even as I launched myself across the room, drawing claws, suddenly long, across the face of my oldest ally.
It bought me time. Time to reach the door. None of the mortals could catch me. Time to catch the dawn. I could survive it, in the shadows. We would see if Anuma could any longer with this treason on his soul.

---

This is the spark for my Long Death novel series (WIP).