NOTE: This is the last chapter in the Bound series. If you would like me to continue it from where it leaves off, let me know in your reviews and I'll come up with something.

Bound

Pt 5

Dale huddled against the side of the door as Quinn drove wildly for a few blocks. Deacon finally got him to slow down and they all adjusted themselves in the car.

"Where to Dale?" Quinn asked.

Dale told him and Quinn took them there. The building appeared to be nothing but red brick and broken glass, surrounded by ruined junk heaps and ghostly buildings. Quinn pulled over to the curb across from the building. All three vampires gazed at it with skeptic eyes. Dale got out and waved with her right arm from the top window there came movement. Dale stepped around the car and crossed the street. Her movements were stiff and she walked with pain in her stride. Quinn got out after her and followed leaving behind Deacon and Mercury.

"So who's this Jake guy?" Quinn asked as they moved up three broken steps.

"A family friend you might say." Dale rapped with her knuckles against the door. It opened a moment later and a young man of seventeen smiled at her, "Hi Jake."

"D." Jake looked her up and down and then to Quinn. "So you really did kill Paul."

"No. Frost had that pleasure."

"Who?" Jake peered out at the two vampires that were crossing the street. "Oh your-"

"My new boss." Dale countered and Jake looked at her a moment.

"Right, the new boss." Jake closed the door once all the vampires were inside. "So what brings you to Detroit?"

"Evelyn." Dale said as she made her way down a set of metal stairs.

The building housed a large area of computers, screens and various other bits of technology. A black mesh screen sectioned off an area of the floor from the computers. There was a white cloth strung across another part of the room.

"I like the changes." Dale commented as she wandered through the floor.

Jake followed the vampires down the stairs and shrugged. "You always had good taste."

Dale turned and caught the look Jake was giving Deacon's backside. She caught the young man's eye and shook her head slightly. Jake shrugged again. "Got any supplies here? They've had a long flight."

"Sure." Jake stepped behind the white curtain and came out minutes later with three bags. "Sorry about the bags, but that's all I could snitch."

Neither one of the vampires complained as they took the offered bag and sucked it back. Dale busied herself with setting up a computer. "Mercury the discs, please?"

Mercury tossed her the bag, her attention focused on getting the last drop out.

Jake sat next to Dale and eyed Deacon from time to time. "He's stunning. How did you manage to snatch him?"

"We bumped into one another." Dale inserted the first disc. "I'm glad you like him."

"Who wouldn't," Jake muttered. "But I am not a blind fool, I see the resemblance between you two. I also see the way he looks at you."

Dale didn't comment as she worked with the discs. Setting up the machine she reached across the desk and plugged the machine into another one. The jumbo screens that were strung up flashed and fluttered to life as the information flowed. Dale watched as the image clarified and four years of work took shape on the screens.

"It's incredible Dale." Jake remarked.

Deacon turned his head and felt his eyes widen as he grinned. "The Red Stone translations."

The images were lines of text that appeared to be an ancient Sanskrit or something close to it. Endless lines filed into neat columns and the image would change. Becoming a graphic presentation of what the text had meant. Then it would start over again.

Deacon approached the screens and held up a hand to one of them. His fingers pressed against the surface and he stood quiet for a moment. Slowly he dropped his head and turned to face the room.

"We are only months away now." Deacon laughed softly. "La Magra will reign yet."

Jake shot a look to Dale. "Did he say La Magra?"

Dale nodded.

"Didn't Paul want La Magra?"

Dale nodded again. "Deacon beat him too it."

"Or you gave it to him." Jake countered coldly. "Did you really think it would be so easy?"

Dale lifted her head and stared at him. "What are you talking about Jake?"

Just then the door to the building was blown inward and a flood of people in black came down the stairs.

"These aren't Paul's people." Dale remarked as they leveled a sub machine gun at her.

Jake stood up and stepped into the crowd of black, he moved until he came to the stairs where a man in gold stepped down.

"PAUL!" Dale gasped.

"Hello Dale." Paul slid his arm around Jake and kissed the boy's cheek. "Good of you to bring me the translations."

Dale looked at the screens and hung her head. "So it was a set up."

"Yes. Although I hadn't planned on Blade being part of it, he helped me a great deal."

Deacon frowned. "I ripped your heart out."

Paul smiled, "I have the first half of the La Magra translations." Paul reached inside his shirt and pulled out a brown metal disc. "Evelyn."

"Eveyln was a chunk of metal?" Mercury frowned. "What gives?"

"Didn't Dale explain it to you?" Paul asked as he laughed softly. "Evelyn was the code name for the project. I had a group of scientists working to transcribe the power of the Red Stone into this." He wiggled Evelyn. "I can't die."

Deacon crossed his arms and stared at the vampire, "So what are you going to do?"

"I see no need to punish you Deacon, I mean it wasn't your idea to betray me after all." Paul looked at him, "However you did cause me a great deal of discomfort. So I will return the favor and rip out something of yours."

Dale lifted her head just as the gun fired into her chest. The blast threw her back into the air and crashing against the black screen. Deacon kept himself from running to her but only barely.

"Now we can talk a deal." Paul smiled brightly. "I have the translations you need to finish my work. So I suggest-"

"Your work?" Deacon snarled. "I started this project first Paul, without my work you never would have gotten this close."

"Yes my work, La Magra belongs to the Pure Bloods Deacon. Not some turned vampire." Paul countered as he glared at the three of them.

Deacon opened his mouth when he caught sight of something in the upper windows. A figure in black moved against the windows. He saw the glint of a scope and dove for the floor as bullets shot through the room. Jake hit the floor followed by Paul and some of the people in black.

"Mercury, get the discs!" Deacon crawled his way along the floor. "Quinn, the car!"

Keeping low he made his way to Dale and found she was still alive, albeit barely. "Dale, I can help you, but you have to make the choice now."

Her eyes were slow to fix on him; her breathing was ragged and blood oozed from her mouth. Deacon saw the answer in her eyes and smiled.

**

Dale's body woke up without the rest of her for the fist few minutes, making her feel like she was hanging in some warm fuzzy space. After a moment she surfaced in her mind and was aware of her surroundings. Opening her eyes she felt the room spin around her for a moment before she could concentrate on the figure next to her. It was a large black man with cornrows, dressed entirely in black. Dale vaguely recognized him from somewhere.

"Hey there."

Her head turned and the room dipped and swung around her. Finally she was able to zero in on the source and felt something inside. "Brandon!"

Brandon grinned as he sat down next to her, "Hi Dale."

"But that guy shot you in your kitchen," Dale reached a hand up and touched his face.

Brandon glanced over to the large black man. "Mateo was there to help."

She looked again at the black man as he stood and left. Her attention went back to Brandon. She honestly didn't know what to say to him and so could say nothing, all she did was smile.

"Speaking of help."

Dale looked over Brandon's head to the man that owned the voice. Deacon strolled in easily and sat down in Mateo's chair.

Brandon rose, "I'll talk to you later."

Once alone Deacon took her right hand and kissed it. "I was hoping you would wake up tonight."

"Why?"

Deacon smiled. "We have combined the two items and the computer is working on the complete translation."

"What about Paul?"

Deacon reached in to his shirt and drew out Evelyn. "Brandon relieved him of this." He pressed it into her hand. "Consider Evelyn yours now."

"Brandon? How could he do that?"

"He was the sniper." Deacon chuckled when he saw the look on her face. "That boy has many skills."

Dale let out a breath as her body began to feel more normal. "So what happens now?"

"You have to make a choice." Deacon sounded sad and a bit annoyed. "Either stay here and work with me or leave with Brandon and never come back."

"Why do you sound sad by that?" Dale lifted her right hand and touched his face. "The choice is easy."

Deacon took her hand and pressed into in the bed. "No Dale, it's not easy. I won't deny that I feel something for you. But I don't know what it is and consider our past…Brandon is a very lucky man."

"Up on the roof you said it didn't matter anymore." Dale was surprised by the tears in her voice.

"I know and I thought maybe it wouldn't. But when we were standing there and I saw you shot, the first thing I wanted to do was help you. I forgot about La Magra and everything I am working for. I can't afford that." Deacon sat back and looked at his shoes. "I wanted more then anything to bring you across and have you with me for ever. But I can't have that and continue my work."

"Why not?" Dale asked, tears prickled around her eyes. "Why can't we work something out?"

"Because what I feel and what I know you feel can't be denied if we are together." Deacon sighed. "I just don't-"

"No don't say anything." Dale closed her eyes to keep from crying. "I will leave with Brandon."

**

Dale paused as she opened the car door and looked up to the top of the tower. A party was raging and she wasn't there. Brandon got in and the car engine growled to life. Dale bit her lip to keep from weeping and got in beside him.

"He loves you and it scares him." Brandon said lightly before they started off.

Dale looked across at Brandon. "The most painful love is that of family and vampires are no different."

Brandon said nothing as they started toward the horizon and a new life.