Bound to You

“You were right, sir. She managed to escape.”

Sean smirked at his lackey’s words as he looked over from the picture window where he stood, looking out at the expanse of wheat fields surrounding his property. It was in the middle of nowhere, true, but he had chosen the location for a purpose. The area was easily surveyed by few guards, and the home had been in his family for generations. Or so the world thought. Sean himself had bought the land early in the 1800s, building the majestic mansion he stood in now sometime in the mid-1800s when he’d gotten bored with the original home. For the most part, he was self-sufficient here, needing to leave for very few things.

“Did she kill James as I suspected she would?” Sean questioned, moving his gaze back to the window. The sun was just beginning to set; he knew Leana wouldn’t have gotten far. She would in time though, he smirked. She’d fallen for his trap hook, line, and sinker; now it was only a waiting game. And Sean was very patient when it came to waiting.

“No. He is unconscious, though. She did a number on him, though; it looks like she hit him with a 4x4.”

Sean smirked again, a deep chuckle emanating from his throat as he listened to the lackey’s words. He made a small yawn before stepping away from the window and beginning to walk towards a hallway which would lead him to the room he kept his blood sources in. “Kill him. If she managed to overpower him with her size and condition, he’s of no use to me.”

“Sir? I thought you were fond of James.” The lackey said hesitantly. Sean stopped cold in his tracks and turned an icy glare over at the young man. He, like James, was eighteen. This boy had chosen to work for Sean because he had no other options; he’d committed murder once before he’d come across Sean, and he would have gone to prison. Working for a psychopathic serial killer seemed a far less dooming fate than a twelve by six prison cell.

“I’m not fond of any of you. You are all quite pathetic, really. You kill because I tell you to; not because of passion or reason. You do it because you have to, not because you want to.” He said, his voice eerily calm as he began walking up the stairs.

The boy’s face went pale as he quickly walked out of the room towards the basement to do as Sean had told him. Some days, he wondered if he might not just prefer a prison cell. At least there he wouldn’t be forced to kill his friends, he thought to himself as he descended down the staircase.

-x-
With Leana
-x-

It was getting dark at, and Leana couldn’t distinguish the ground from the sky as she sat underneath the tree, cursing as she felt a throbbing pain in her hand, the gash from the barbed wire beginning to ache more than it had earlier in the day. She was beyond exhausted and she knew she looked like hell, but that was the least of her matters.

She needed to let the others know. They couldn’t let Michelle back in; she had no doubts that they would never suspect her. She had been around as long as Val had been—Zack would never assume Michelle to be the traitor. She also needed to warn them about the new girl, Leigh. She wasn’t a threat; far from it, if truth be told. But she was dangerous just the same.

She wasn’t human. Whether the others knew this by now or not Leana didn’t know, but she knew that both Johnny and Leigh wanted her to be turned. It couldn’t be risked. She’d heard Sean discussing the matter with one of his lackeys through the floorboards, and had been disgusted by the cold man’s words.

“The girl at the grocery store, did you get a positive I.D. on her?” Sean’s voice carried out through the house loudly in an angry manner, causing Leana to look up at the ceiling of the basement with curiosity.

“We did, sir.” The lackey’s voice was quieter, though still loud enough for the battered Leana to decipher clearly. “There’s no doubt that it’s Leigh. Your Leigh.”

“She was never my Leigh, Jacobs.” Sean snapped. Leana heard footsteps start moving back and forth over a small expanse of the basement’s ceiling, and she assumed that he was pacing back and forth. “So she’s being harbored by Sevenfold, then?”

“Yes.” Jacobs replied. “Why are you so interested in her, sir? You’ve never given other innocents a second thought, but you’ve been hounding us to get all the information on this girl that could be found. What’s so special about her?”

The loud sound of a sharp slap echoed to the basement and Leana almost felt bad for the person on the receiving end. Almost, but not quite. She could never feel sympathy for someone who worked for the likes of Sean Castro.

“What’s so special about her?” Sean said a moment later, his voice furious. “I’ll tell you what’s so special about her, Jacobs. She is my creation. She is my gateway to a stronger group of soldiers. She is my ultimate experiment. She will never die, though she will never need blood to sustain herself.”

Leana had no idea what Sean meant by his words. Zack had never known anything about Sean keeping experiments, and before Leigh had come into the mansion with Johnny, none of them had known she was connected to Sean. If Zack hadn’t discovered this piece of information—that Sean had somehow altered Leigh’s DNA to make her essentially immortal—he needed to know now. They had no idea what they were messing with when it came to Sean, or if he had put some sort of trap within Leigh to destroy Avenged Sevenfold. No, Leana needed to let them know as soon as possible.

She looked at the cellphone resting on her leg, torn between calling Zack and letting him know everything and throwing the phone away. She had no doubts that Sean had done something to the phone that would tap the receiving phone lines, or even worse, disclose their location. On the other hand, she had no other way of getting in touch with them. She had no idea where she was, or where Zack would have moved them to. She was in the dark, and the only way to get in touch with Zack would be to call him directly.

Did she want to risk it? Was the threat of Sean knowing their whereabouts worth letting him know everything she had learned while being held hostage? Even more pressing, Leana thought about Jimmy. Beyond a doubt in her mind, he was worth everything to her. He was her life. But was he worth risking the downfall of Avenged Sevenfold? Would he do the same for her? She would hope not, she thought with grim realization. She wouldn’t want their destruction on her head. She sighed, leaning her head back against the tree as she tried to think of what she should do.

-x-
At The Complex
-x-

“Guys, open up!” Brian banged on the door to the Complex, supporting Michelle’s weight with one arm wrapped around her waist as he did so.

Zack looked between Matt, Benji, and Joel, a grim expression on his face. He knew he’d said to let Michelle and Brian back in, but now he wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. Letting anyone in without being cleared, even someone they’d known forever, like Michelle, was a risky idea. She may not be a traitor, but Sean could have somehow gotten to her while she’d been on the outside. Was it really safe to bring either her or Brian back in?

“What do you want me to do, V.?” Joel asked, looking from the computer monitor back to Zack again. “It’s your call.”

“Don’t do it, Zack.” Matt said, his voice stern. “Until she’s been proven innocent, we can’t let her in. That includes Brian. We don’t know what either of them did while they weren’t here, man.”

“It’s Michelle!” Val said, her voice louder as she glared at him. Right now, it didn’t matter that they were as in love as two people could be. Michelle was her sister and Brian was her friend, and neither of them would ever do anything to jeopardize Bat Country or Avenged Sevenfold. It was wrong to let them stay on the outside and risk their lives because of an issue like this.

“We had to clear you before you came in, Val.” Matt said quietly. “It won’t take long, you know that. But it’s in everyone’s best interest. What if Sean had a tracker put on her? She was in the hospital, wasn’t she? Sean could have any number of his people in the hospital just waiting for an opportunity like this. He won’t think that we’ll leave them outside; he’ll think he has an automatic in. We can’t give him that advantage.”

“She’s my sister, Matt!” Val hissed. “She’s not evil! She’s not a goddamn traitor! I can’t believe you’re even saying this!”

“None of us think she betrayed us, Val.” Zack said. “But we need to be sure.”

“I am sure.” Val told him, her voice deathly low before she turned and gave Eliza a desperate look. “Tell him to let her in, Eliza. He’ll listen to you.”

Eliza sat there, feeling everyone’s eyes burning into hers. Val had put her between a rock and a hard place, and she hated it. If she told Zack to let both Brian and Michelle back in with no questions asked, he would do it because she’d asked him to. But the turnaround would be that he would shut himself off from her, and she knew it. If he was questioning whether or not to let them in, then he was going to ultimately decide against it. On the other hand, if she told Zack not to let them in, she was jeopardizing her friendship with Val. She didn’t want to do that, either.

Finally, Jacoby stepped in and intervened. “Don’t put her in that position, Val. It’s not fair to her. She doesn’t know Michelle. She can’t really decide, now can she?”

“Jacoby’s right.” Nicole said quietly. “And I think Matt has a very legitimate concern. We don’t know where they’ve been or what happened while they weren’t here. We have to clear them first, and you know it in your heart, Val.”

“Guys!” Brian banged on the door again, pulling them all out of the heated discussion. Zack sighed, shaking his head at Joel.

“No. We have to clear them first.” He said before walking away from the group, not turning around as Val screamed angrily and attempted to hit him. Eliza closed her eyes and turned away from the scene playing out in front of her.

The people she’d started to view as a family were slowly but surely turning on each other, and she was powerless to stop it from happening.