by Rye Brewer
Nivia let out a cry of joy.
“Whoa,” Gage whispered, holding a cloth over his wrist to help with the bleeding.
It wouldn’t last long. We healed quickly.
Nivia bent to stroke Valerius’s face. “My love. You’ve come back to me after all this time. Speak to me, please.”
“I’m here.”
Only the voice didn’t come from the body in the roots. I jumped up, away from Vance, when I realized the rumbling voice came from him.
It was like seeing Mom for the first time all over again—the body was his, even though the face looked slightly different.
The features were the same, but the way he held his head wasn’t the same at all. He stood, and the shackles around his wrists and ankles released without his doing a thing.
“No,” I whispered. “This isn’t real. This is impossible!” Rage boiled over as I threw myself at Nivia. “Get him out of Vance’s body! Now!”
Fane caught me and pulled me away just before I had the chance to sink my claws into her.
“Easy,” he said. “Don’t do something that will get you killed.”
“But Vance!” I screamed. I struggled against his arms but Fane was much stronger than me.
Nivia’s expression didn’t change. She didn’t even flinch. “I can’t remove my love from this human body until I bring together a witch and a necromancer to reverse the spell.”
I collapsed against Fane. It was too much to handle, all of it. Like a nightmare for the first time in all the years I had been a vampire. If I could still sleep, I would swear it was a terrible dream.
“Do not lose sight of what is important,” Nivia said. “The body I’ve chosen for Valerius is the perfect vessel for the tasks ahead of him. Do not worry—I don’t like this body at all.” She went to him, running a hand over Vance’s shoulder, then down his arm.
Bile rose in my throat.
She smiled eerily. “I can be patient. So can Valerius.”
Vance—no, Valerius—looked at her.
“I liked your old self better,” he said in that unsettling voice that didn’t belong to Vance, but was coming from his mouth. “I don’t know how I feel about this new body of yours.”
“As long as it allows us to be together again, my love.”
The two of them gazed adoringly at each other while the rest of us looked stunned, disgusted or angry. An overwhelming aura of power surrounded them.
Fane’s arms relaxed and I broke free.
I ran to the old body, the one Valerius had been trapped in for so long. It was still surrounded by roots.
“Please, wake up!” I screamed. “Please, get out of Vance! Leave him alone! We’ll get you out of here so you can use this body instead!” I pulled at the roots, thinking I could break them, but they were stronger than steel.
It didn’t matter, anyway. He never flinched.
“He’s not in there,” Nivia called out. “Your words are wasted.”
I turned to her with a snarl and flung myself at her. If I couldn’t hurt Valerius, I would hurt her. Before I could reach her, she held up a hand and a force like a shockwave hit me and knocked me to the floor.
“Fine! He can’t stop me, can he?” I scrambled to my feet and went back to the unresponsive body. I would show her how it felt to watch somebody she loved getting hurt.
“You can’t!” she cried out. “If you harm his body, his soul can never re-enter!”
That stopped me.
“You’re lying,” I spat, claws raised. I couldn’t reach much, but I could reach his face if I needed to.
“Philippa, stop this. What if she’s telling the truth?” Fane’s voice was low and soothing.
He thought he could calm me down that way.
All he did was stop me. I was not calmed.
I couldn’t hurt Vance, either, as much as I wanted to. Anything to get the Ancient out of him. Where was Vance in there? His soul had to still be inside. He had to be aware of what was happening. Just thinking about it was excruciating.
I stepped away from the roots. There was nothing I could do. I had to watch Vance being used.
It seemed Allonic didn’t feel the same way. He pushed past me and attacked the root tomb.
I had no idea he was so strong—his hands tore at the roots around Valerius’s throat and threw them in every direction.
“Stop that! What are you doing?” Nivia screeched when Allonic’s fangs appeared.
He plunged his head down to meet Valerius’s neck and started drinking.
Everything happened at once after that.
“No!” Vance roared. He clawed at Allonic, but couldn’t pry him away. “Get away from my body!”
Nivia jumped on Allonic’s back to help. “Get off him! Stop this!”
She and Vance attacked Allonic, who wouldn’t let go no matter how hard she kicked and he clawed.
Gage and Jonah took hold of Vance, pried him away, and slammed him into the wall. He bounced back, hissing and snapping his jaws with his fangs extended.
Gage swung at him and made contact with his jaw while Jonah went for his midsection. Vance laughed and threw them away from him. They hit the floor, but leaped to their feet and attacked again.
Vance flicked Gage from him like he’d flick a fly, but Jonah was stronger. He couldn’t shake him, so he did something else.
Vance sank his fangs into Jonah’s neck. Jonah slammed his fists into Vance’s face and shoulders, but there was no freeing himself.
“No!” Anissa screamed. She ran, jumped, and landed on Vance’s back.
I wondered for just a split second what she could do to someone so strong before she slid the silver blade from her boot and plunged it into his back.
Vance let go of Jonah, who slid unconscious to the floor.
“Get it out!” he shrieked, but he couldn’t reach the blade—and even if he could, he couldn’t touch the silver handle without it burning him.
I watched in horror as he started withering before my eyes—his face contorted into a mask of pain and horror, frozen that way, as a strange almost gray color started spreading over his skin.
“What’s happening?” I realized he was petrifying, and it had something to do with the blade in his back.
I reached for it before I could stop myself and closed my hand over the handle. The metal seared my skin, making me scream, but I still tried to hold on. Only I couldn’t get a strong enough grip to pull the blade out. It was eating my skin away and not allowing me to keep a firm grasp on it.
“Help him!” I shrieked at her. “Get it out!”
She was on the floor with Jonah, cradling his head in her lap. He was still unconscious from the effects of being bled.
“Forget it! I don’t care what happens to him!” She looked down at Jonah, stroking the hair back from his forehead.
“No, no!” I took Vance’s face in my hands and wept as he turned to stone in front of me. Then I searched the room for Fane. “Make her help! Please!” I begged.
In that moment he was my father, and I was his little girl, and I was begging for him to help me.
“What am I supposed to do?” He looked completely out of his depth. “I can’t make her do anything!”
Nivia’s roar of rage and terror when she stopped fighting Allonic long enough to see what was happening with Vance split the air in two. “This must not be!” she roared. “If he dies, Valerius dies with him! Lucian will be unstoppable!”
Fane’s eyes met mine, then darted down to Anissa. “Take out the blade. Please.”
I was surprised when he said please, but it got through to her.
She rested Jonah’s head on the floor with a heavy sigh and did as she was asked, pulling the blade out and dropping it to the floor with a look of disgust on her face before going back to Jonah.
His eyes opened and he looked up at her.
Nivia went back to Allonic, who was still crouched over Valerius. “You must stop. Please. Before it’s too late!”
/> Allonic rose with blood dripping from his lips.
I wondered why he’d done it, but didn’t have time to think much about it since the petrification was reversing and Vance started sliding to the floor.
I caught him and lowered him along with me, holding him tight. He was still in there somewhere. I knew it. I didn’t want to let him go.
“Vance. Come back to me,” I whispered as I stroked his face with the backs of my fingers. “Please. I need you. Come back.”
His eyes flickered open. For just the splittest of split seconds, he was Vance again.
I knew him.
Then, his expression shifted.
“Nivia?” It was Valerius’s voice.
I winced and looked away. He still wanted her.
My love, calling for my mother. No, not my mother—a creature who was using my mother’s body.
I let him go.
Nivia didn’t hear him.
Even though Allonic had finished bleeding Valerius, she attacked him with claws bared.
He ducked her swinging arms and picked up the blade Anissa had dropped to the floor. With one swift motion, he plunged it into Nivia’s chest.
“No!” Four of us screamed at once.
Seeing her… her body… getting stabbed… even though it wasn’t her, it was still her. Just as seeing Vance with the blade in his back was too much to take.
Fane rushed to her and took her in his arms as her knees gave way. She scrambled to pull the blade out, but couldn’t.
“Elena,” Fane said. His body shook. He stroked her face the way I had just stroked Vance’s.
Seeing them together, even the way they were, was like going back in time. I had wished with all my heart to see them like that again. Just like quite like that—still, it was something.
Jonah got up with Anissa’s help. “She’s not Elena. Remember that.” He touched Fane’s shoulder. “It’s not our mother. It’s not Elena.”
“I know,” he muttered. But he wouldn’t let go of her as she sputtered and struggled.
I was so busy watching that I didn’t notice Vance getting to his feet. With a shredded piece of his shirt wrapped around his hand, he went straight to them and pulled the blade from Nivia’s chest.
Then plunged it into Jonah’s back without a word.
Fane let go of Nivia as he turned to Jonah.
Vance caught her and lifted her in his arms.
He was a blur as he coursed out of the chamber.
23
PHILIPPA
Anissa’s horrified scream rang through the chamber.
Just the way Vance did, Jonah’s body started to petrify. It must’ve had something to do with where the blade slid home—I had never seen anything like it happen before.
I struggled to my feet and went to him.
Anissa pulled the blade from him, but it was too late. He was already dying.
He dropped like a rock, frozen from the waist up.
Anissa’s eyes were wild as she looked up at Allonic. “Help me!” she sobbed. “I can’t let him die!”
“Give him your blood,” he ordered. “Quickly!”
She reached into her boot for another blade and slid it across her wrist. Like magic, the thin red line pumped rich, red blood. She held it to his lips.
At first, he didn’t move. The blood ran down his chin.
“Drink!” she urged. “Come on! Drink!”
His mouth moved. His throat worked. It was happening. He was drinking.
I let out a cry of relief as I watched—but then nothing changed. He was still immobile.
“Why isn’t it working?” Gage asked.
“We have to do something else,” Fane growled.
“Wait.” Allonic held out his arms to block the rest of us from going to Jonah. “Just wait.”
Slowly, slowly, he started coming back to us. His skin went back to its normal color. His face moved. His shoulders. His arms and hands.
I closed my eyes and leaned against Gage for a second.
The way he trembled showed me he was just as overwrought as I was.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Jonah roll onto his side and start gagging. Thick, black blood poured from his mouth as he vomited. His entire body clenched as he expelled it. Once it subsided, he sat up and opened his eyes.
“Oh, Jonah.” Anissa threw her arms around him, while the rest of us gathered close.
“Are you all right?” I asked. Fane helped him to his feet.
“I think so?” he murmured. “That was… different.”
Anissa stepped back and took Allonic by the arm. “Why did you do that?” she whispered.
I was sure she thought none of us were paying attention, but I was.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Feed off Valerius. You don’t need to do that to survive, the way I do. Why did you do it?”
Good question. It didn’t seem to make a difference on the surface. It didn’t change anything.
“Valerius’s blood is concentrated, more powerful than any other vampire’s.”
“Right…” Anissa prompted.
“He’s an Ancient, and a fae. That’s a special combination, especially strong. And I’m descended from the Archein.”
“Yes? And?”
I glanced over at them.
Anissa’s hands were on her hips as she glared at her brother.
He shook his head. “Now’s not the time. We can talk about it later.” He looked at me—he knew I was watching—and I looked away.
They rejoined us.
As usual, I had more questions than answers.
I turned my attention back to Jonah, who was looking more like himself. “My brand is almost gone,” he said, lifting his arm.
Gage did the same. They were barely visible anymore.
“Do you feel them?” Fane asked.
They shook their heads.
“I wonder if that’s really all Valerius wanted from us,” Gage muttered. “I feel like we got out of that too easily.”
Jonah snorted. “Maybe you did.”
“You know what I mean.”
Fane broke in. “I have to wonder if sharing your blood with him tied you together somehow.”
He looked over at Allonic, who shook his head.
“I don’t know the full repercussions, especially when dealing with an Ancient—the original Ancient, at that. He probably knows enchantments none of us have ever heard of.”
“I hope it’s not the case,” Fane said, but there was no hope in his voice.
I looked around at all of them. They were all forgetting one very important thing. “What about Vance?”
“What about him?” Fane asked.
The rest of them just stared at me like I suddenly started speaking another language.
“Well—I mean, what do you think I mean? We have to go after him! We can’t let Valerius inhabit his body that way! We need to go after him!”
“No, we don’t,” Fane said.
“We do! Somebody has to help him! I’ll go by myself.”
“No.” Fane stood in front of the doorway, blocking me.
Allonic spoke up. “There’s another way.”
“Oh, what?” I whirled around with my arms crossed. “You didn’t know what we were getting into when we got here, but now you’re going to tell me what’s going to happen in the future? That makes a lot of sense.”
It didn’t seem to phase him. “Valerius will come back for his body. When he does, Vance will be free.”
“I don’t understand. If he wants his old body, why did he take Vance?”
Allonic shrugged. “Who can say? Maybe a younger, stronger body would work better. Maybe Vance’s body is specific to his goals.”
“Maybe they know who he is to Lucian,” Jonah mused. “They’re using Vance to get closer to Lucian.”
That made sense, at least. And I wanted to see Lucian pay for everything he’d done. That would take an eternity.
“What about my mother?”
I asked Allonic. “Will Nivia leave her body? What happens when she does?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged again, looking sorry. “Since I don’t know what happened to her, I can’t say.”
I thought back. The only thing Fane had ever said was that she was gone. Not that she was dead. Maybe something else had happened besides death?
He stayed silent on the matter. Instead, he said, “We should go. Who knows what else is down here?”
I looked back at Valerius, still entombed. “What about him? His body is unprotected now.”
“So?”
Fane’s tone surprised me.
“So? So somebody should protect it.” Why was that not as obvious to him as it was to me?
Fane sneered. “Both he and Vance can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.” He sounded like he meant it, too. “We’re leaving, right now.”
“No. I’m staying with him.” I went over to the body. “I won’t leave him here.”
“Are you out of your mind?” He looked at me like he thought I was. So did the rest of them. “You can’t stay here. I won’t leave you so far away, alone. You must be kidding.”
“I’m not.”
His eyes hardened. “I forbid you to do this.”
“Forbid?” I laughed. “Who are you to dictate policy to me now? You think you can walk back into my life, tell me you’re not my father anymore, then tell me what to do? You don’t get the right.” I hardened my face to match his. “You don’t lead the clan, and you don’t lead me.”
I didn’t know what to expect from him—so when he rushed at me and took me by the wrists, the surprise gave him an advantage. I struggled, baring my fangs and hissing.
“Stop it, both of you!” Jonah’s voice was strong, but it was only in the background of my mind.
I was too busy wishing I could hurt Fane the way he’d hurt me.
“Let go, damn you!”
But he wouldn’t. He was too strong for me, no matter how I kicked at him. It didn’t take long before I was exhausted, out of breath.
I stopped fighting.