Page 1 of Captive
Chapter One
Sebastian de la Sang stepped between the child and his brother, every motion deliberate. Blood, not the carefully processed sustenance he normally consumed, but raw, unfiltered, filled the air with its terrible sweetness. The human girl couldn't have been more than eight, her dark eyes wide with the same terror Sebastian remembered from his own taking. Between her small fingers, she clutched a wooden doll; real wood, not brass, not synthetic. The kind of toy his father had banned centuries earlier for being too "primitive."
"Don't." Sebastian kept his voice cold, steady despite his revulsion at what was about to happen. Showing genuine concern would be death, not just for him, but for the child as well. He'd seen what happened to the "gifts" his brothers received. Had heard their screams echo eerily through copper pipes for weeks afterward.
Zarek circled them like a shark scenting blood, his movements too smooth to be natural. "How deliciously thoughtful," he said as steam slithered between his brass-capped teeth. "I haven't tasted one so young in months." He reached for the girl with fingers tipped in steel.
Sebastian positioned himself more firmly between them. "Going soft, brother?" he let contempt fill his voice. "I just don't want my gifts spoiled by lesser fangs." His canines descended against his will at the child's scent, cutting his tongue. "Unless you're challenging my right as heir?"
From the shadows, their youngest brother Dominic watched silently, brass eyes recording everything. His once-porcelain skin sheened with copper threading, every movement accompanied by the soft whir of hidden gears. Always watching, always waiting for hisbrothers' inevitable mistake.
Two hundred years ago, the halls had been marble and gold, before his father's obsession with progress had transformed their ancestral home into a copper nightmare. Only the obsidian floor remained unchanged, reflecting endless shadows and steam. Blood was less obvious on obsidian than on white marble.
"My, such tension between brothers," Lady Elisandra observed. Her brass fingers caressed the child's hair with unnaturally precise movements. "Perhaps we need something to break the ice." Her head tilted at an angle no human neck could achieve, the motion more predatory than elegant. "My betrothed, I understand your former nurse has reached optimal harvesting age. A demonstration would be... enlightening."
Sebastian's hands clenched. Elena. She was the woman who had held him through his turning fever, who had sung him to sleep when memories of his human family threatened to drive him mad. The only person who still remembered him from before, when he'd been fully human. Her name sent steam venting from his collar, betraying emotion that no noble should display.
"An excellent suggestion." Zarek's grin widened, brass joints gliding. "Shall I have her brought up from the feeding chambers? Show your bride-to-be how House de la Sang handles resource management."
The child's heartbeat spiked. Her wooden doll slipped from trembling fingers, clattering against the obsidian floor. Sebastian watched Zarek's eyes track the movement, saw his brother's pupils dilate at the spike of fear in her scent.
"The feeding chambers would be more appropriate." Sebastian bent to retrieve the doll. Unlike his brothers, he'd resisted most "improvements," keeping only the necessary modifications from his turning. No brass-tipped fangs like Zarek, who had replaced his entire jaw with articulated metal. No copper-threaded skin like Dominic, whose flesh rippled with visible circuitry. Dominic’s long dark hair remained the only visible part of him that was purely organic.
In the distance, the low vibration of the resonance beacons announced the return of his father to the citadel. The brass towers would be emitting their precise frequencies through the ground, feltrather than heard by most, but to Sebastian, the distinctive tremors were unmistakable.
"How traditional." Pale steam curled from Lady Elisandra’s collar in a pattern of amusement. "Take our gift to the preparation rooms," she commanded her synthetic servants without turning to them. "We'll begin her processing after the demonstration."
The servants moved with unnatural grace, their cold brass hands gentle but inexorable as they reached for the child. Sebastian had watched them evolve over centuries, from simple automatons to these newest models with their glass eyes and quicksilver movements. Over time, they might even become faster and more deadly than the vampires who created them.
Sebastian slipped the doll back into the child's trembling hands. For just a moment, he felt the warmth of genuine human skin, something so rare in their synthetic world that it almost burned. In her dark gaze was the same desperate hope he'd once felt, looking for mercy in faces that had long since forgotten its meaning.
"Come, brother." Zarek gestured toward the lift that would take them to the feeding chambers, brass components gleaming in the artificial light. "Let's see if you remember how to properly express our house's appreciation for a wedding gift."
The descent into the citadel's lower levels always felt like being swallowed by some great brass beast. Each level they passed revealed another layer of his house's degradation into synthetic horror. Sebastian had made the journey countless times, but never with such precious cargo waiting above. The nameless girl was embedded in a peril she didn't deserve.
They passed the research levels where House de la Sang's artificers developed new ways to merge flesh with machinery. Through brass-framed windows, he glimpsed things that had once been human thrashing on examination tables, their screams muffled by the thick glass.
He remembered Elena sneaking him away from these levels during his early days, when the sounds of pain and despair threatened to drive him mad. Somehow, her singing had made the screams fade from his mind.
The lift stopped at the deepest level, where the citadel's most vitalmachinery churned in eternal motion. Ancient gears turned endlessly in the walls, their rhythmic grinding a counterpoint to the more organic sounds of suffering.
And there, in the nearest feeding station, hung Elena.
Sebastian had known what to expect, had seen countless donors in similar states, but the sight of her still made his chest tighten. Brass tubes emerged from her major arteries, feeding into the citadel's blood supply. Synthetic arms held her suspended, periodically adjusting her position to prevent clotting. Her eyes had been replaced with glass lenses that recorded her vital signs.
Other than her eyes, her face remained her own. The face that had smiled down at him during his turning fever, that had wiped away his tears when the brass first met his flesh. She'd been the only one who'd seen him cry when they'd taken his human voice away. The only one who'd understood why he'd kept some small parts of himself unchanged while his brothers rushed to embrace every new modification.
And his father meant to make him kill her.
Zarek produced an ornate ceremonial knife, its surface etched with House de la Sang's crest, a rose wrapped in thorns of brass. The blade still held its original silver beneath the brass plating, a reminder of when vampires had feared such things.
"She remembered you earlier," Zarek circled the feeding station. "Called your name. Begged you to help her. Father had her vocal cords removed, of course, but he saved the recording. Would you like to hear it?"
The knife trembled in Sebastian's grip. Elena's synthetic eyes tracked his movement, recording everything for his father's archives. But beneath the glass lenses, in the small part of her that remained human, there was something else. Something that looked like permission. Like forgiveness.
The blade moved before he consciously decided. A mercy killing. Directly into her heart. Her synthetic components whirred in protest as her organic systems shut down, the sound like a song ending mid-note. For just a moment, before the glass lenses went dark, he thought she smiled.
Alarms blared. From the pipes around them, steam poured out insustained bursts. The feeding chamber's emergency systems activated, trying to preserve their precious resource.
