by E. M. Knight
“I… I thought I lost it.”
“And now it’s found.” He takes a cautious step toward me. “Let Victoria go.” He holds out his hand. “Let her go, and come with me. I’ll get you out of here. You will be safe.”
I hesitate. I have to feed…. but it’s an instinctual desire. Rationally, feeding repulses me.
“Fools,” Victoria laughs. She glares at me and Raul, defiant now. “You think she can ever be safe? She’s a witch, and now amongst the most powerful vampires alive.” She turns her head up to me. “Do it! Feed on me, kill me, take my blood!”
“No,” Raul says. “Come to me, Eleira. Take your ring. It can’t protect you from us anymore, but it will help.”
I’m torn. Never before have I so desired two polar opposite things.
Victoria’s taunts continue unabated.
Raul’s hand is held out for me.
I look at the vampire in my grasp. I can end her, I know I can. I have the power, I have the strength —
“Please,” Raul says. “Don’t lose yourself. Please.”
With a staggered lurch, I let go of Victoria and grab Raul’s hand. He pulls me into him. He holds me tight. Such warmth flows from his body… and I know, I just know, that it’s fuelled by love.
He strokes my hair. I fall into him. In his arms, I feel safe. I feel protected. The vampiric instincts are still raging inside me, but I can temper them down.
He takes my hand and slips the ring on. Right away it all becomes easier. The lust for blood, the craving to feed, to feast, to kill… it all eases.
The scent of evil fades. Had I mistaken it before? Was I projecting it onto Victoria, whereas in reality, it did not exist?
I look into Raul’s eyes. He’s staring at me as if he’s found a long-lost lover.
“You are the same,” he whispers. “And I’ve been waiting so long for you.”
And then he moves his head down, and his lips touch mine. And all my inhibition fade, all my uncertainties vanish, as I share in that life-giving kiss.
Chapter Fifty-Two
RAUL
I let Eleira go. She stares up at me, looking so sweet and endearing, with her lips red and puffy from our kiss, that I can’t imagine how I’ve managed to resist her for this long.
She is the one. I fought it before, fought the knowledge buried deep inside me. But she is my love, reincarnated in this life just as the celestial charts predicted.
I’d saved Liana from her fate. She would have been my Mother’s pawn if Morgan knew the truth of her birth. I tried to do the same with Eleira…
But some things are not meant to be. Or rather, maybe this is how it’s meant to be, and I’m supposed to share in this life with the woman I love.
I don’t know. Yet I’m sure Eleira has feelings for me, maybe not to the extent of mine for her, but that’s because she doesn’t know yet.
We have a lifetime to uncover them.
“What happens now?” she asks me softly. She glances back at James and Victoria.
“They defer to you,” I say. “The vampire hierarchy makes it so. They won’t do anything that you prohibit.”
Her eyes widen in wonder.
“But I suggest,” I say, “that we escape this place and go back to The Haven. What I said about Phillip —”
“Yes,” she nods. I can see the gears turning in her head. “Yes, I don’t want anything to happen to him. Then there’s April, and the others…”
James perks up at the mention of his human lover. Victoria casts him a nasty frown.
“You’re in no threat from The Hunt,” I say. “Not as a vampire. But there are other threats lurking. I won’t be able to protect you from them all.”
“I don’t need your protection,” she says harshly. But then her eyes soften. “Yet… I wouldn’t mind your guidance.”
“I’ll give it,” I promise.
Then I bring her into my arms and kiss her once more.
The End
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