by Nicola Rose
“I finally got a glimpse of it in your own thoughts, after you’d plundered it from Constance’s—”
“Losing you will kill me,” I sobbed against his chest.
“You said that to me once,” Zac’s voice whispered in my mind.
“Zac—”
“Save it. I hate to break it to you, but there’s a damned war going on outside your shitty forcefield, and you’re losing. Deal with the emotions later. End this now.” Zac continued to speak into my head and Alex hissed.
“He’s right.” He pulled from my grip and grabbed Constance like she was a ragdoll, holding her up before me. Unconscious, still bound and gagged. Beatrix had been draining her all along, and we never knew. I mean, I thought she’d seemed distracted, and tired, I just assumed… I don’t know what I assumed. I should have looked deeper into it. Jesus, was that why she’d taken to wearing that silk scarf? Covering bite marks? Fuck.
And she hadn’t been at Danny’s death with Orion’s Descent. I’d bet my life she’d been there with Beatrix and Zac, unaware of what she was even doing. Now I was supposed to take her out? I was supposed to believe she wanted that?
Lies. It wasn’t right. How could I claim her life with her head lolling about and no word from her. Not to mention the fact she was my great-something-grandmother! She never said—
“Jess won’t be strong enough. The magic will surge once it’s released and in all likelihood it will kill her. If I sacrifice myself to her, there’s a chance she’ll survive. Be sure to make this happen, vampire.” Constance’s voice clanged in my head, but not just her voice, I could see her – talking to Alex, who was pacing around his place in Dallas.
Then it was gone, just as soon as it had come.
“What was that?” I gasped, my mind stuttering from the invasion.
“That was me projecting a memory into your mind. My memory of the moment Constance asked me to ensure she was sacrificed today.”
I shook my head. Let it kill me. I’d rather die than do this.
“For fuck’s sake!” Alex groaned, taking a savage bite from her neck and thrusting Constance into my arms. I caught her and the smell hit me instantly. Who knew she smelled so amazing?! Was I that starving? The heavenly scent shot through every sense I had.
With a deafening growl, Zac broke through my barrier and was blocked by Alex. I sank my fangs into Constance’s neck and drank until there was nothing left.
I think her blood made me drunk. Giddy. I felt as if my body was no longer my own. I was flying, somewhere high above, looking down upon the carnage at the de Monsos estate. I could see it all, everything at once – the Elwood army advancing upon the meagre remains of the Unaligned. Separating them and picking them off, one by one.
Alex and Zac brawling—
Laurance and Francis approaching. I was back in my body, watching them come closer, but more fascinated by the way my blood seemed to be alive. Electrified. Whooshing through my system with greedy intent, devouring any sense of self.
Alex was on the ground, Zac looming over him. I figured I should care, I should do something, but the magic was singing in my ears, caressing me, whispering sweet nothings about bringing death to them all. Telling me how the Elwoods would suffer. They would all pay a heavy price. That was my destiny.
Laurance and Francis grabbed Zac and yanked him away, yelling something about how he couldn’t kill him or the bond would be broken. They pivoted him around and pushed him in my direction. “Finish her, now!” Laurance barked.
And I laughed.
I laughed so loud and free that my chest hurt.
The moment Zac touched me, I exploded.
37
Jess
There was light.
Blinding and beautiful.
Pure. Free from anything other than the desire to put things right.
I was Morena. And the Morena had a score to settle. We’d waited for centuries and now we would rain down our fury on the Elwood scum.
My magic rallied around me, rushing to steal the energy from all the Elwoods – pulling on their very life essence and swallowing it up.
I couldn’t see anything other than light and fire. But I could hear the sound of Emory’s mansion as it exploded and crumbled to dust. I could feel the ground shaking beneath my feet. And I could smell the fear.
Fear from a hundred cloned bodies in Zac’s army, once immortal and rife with power, now… weak. Subdued. And from those who should be the strongest, from the Elwood bonded vampires on the scene, now… mortal.
Alex…
Alex…
Alex!
His name crept into my mind and the light cleared. Panic dug its icy claws into my heart as I felt myself returning.
A brief moment of silence fell over the bloodied grounds. The blinding light cleared and I surveyed the scene. Gradually, everyone realised what had happened. They took stock of the fact that the winning team were now on their knees, struggling to breathe, let alone fight.
Those of the Elwood army that were still standing attempted retreat and were cut down by Syn’s men in a matter of moments. A few bloody seconds of slashing and snarling and complete decimation of Emory’s ranks had occurred.
What followed was an eerie sort of calm. A breath against the darkness. The world stopped. Taking stock. Heaving in relief.
Syn trudged over, dragging Beatrix by her hair.
Beatrix. Not human, but barely any strength to stand. And looking utterly enraged.
“Another gift for you,” Syn said. “You actually did it. Alex was right. The Unaligned are at your command.”
With that he shoved Beatrix to my feet, but I didn’t have a chance to react because Zac scrambled over and placed himself between us.
The power of speech left me. There was too much to take in. Too much to digest. But right then, the one thing I couldn’t put aside was how much my heart broke to sense his new heartbeat, his new smell…
“She’s mine. Give me that one thing and then I’ll leave.” He wouldn’t look at me. That haunted face had changed.
I needed to see his eyes.
I stepped forward and took his hands, urging his gaze upwards.
Golden eyes. No longer black, but no longing shining with immortal power. Broken, defeated, and yet, hopeful?
I dragged him into an embrace and he stiffened momentarily, before softening and wrapping his arms around me.
“I didn’t mean to do this, it just happened—” I cried into his neck.
“It was the right thing, you’ve set me free.”
“Do I get to join in this cuddle-fest?” Alex’s voice had my heart soaring and my body inadvertently twisting from Zac and right into his waiting arms.
“You look like shit!” I laughed into his shoulder as he crushed me.
“Impossible, and you know it.” I felt his smile against my forehead. But I could tell he was looking at someone else. At Zac.
I slowly turned and we all faced each other. Alex draped a protective arm around my shoulder. Perhaps a claiming one. I should have moved away from it, but I couldn’t. I never would.
They eyed each other for eternity. I was vaguely aware of Beatrix trying to shuffle away and Syn growling and holding her back. Other than that, anything could have been happening around us. I don’t think any of us would have noticed. Something niggled in the back of my mind about why Beatrix was so subdued, when she wasn’t an Elwood twin, but I couldn’t think on it.
Suffocating tension boiled in the space between us. No one wanted to speak first. So we stared, and stared. And stared some more.
For the first time ever, Zac broke the silence. “I’m leaving, but it doesn’t mean this is over.”
“I would expect no less, brother,” Alex replied.
“Jesus H, would you two give it a rest for once and quit the pissing contest? This is monumentally fucked up! I’m some crazy witch-vampire with ridiculous power, you’re both human, and I’ve switched sides on the Elwood pitch. We deal with
this now!” I yelled.
Their eyes widened in surprise as they shuffled on the spot like awkward boys. Fuck me, had the loss of their immortality taken their balls with it?
My attention caught on a figure staggering our way. Swaying on her feet, tripping over herself. Bobbed hair covered in blood.
“Anna?!” I gasped, pulling away from Alex to catch her before she fell. Her gorgeous face turned up to mine, tinged green, a sheen of sweat coating the skin. Eyes wide with fear.
I stroked the hair back from her eyes and she flinched like I’d burned her.
“Jess… I can’t… don’t touch me…” she yanked herself away, landing on her knees in the bloodied dirt.
Beatrix started laughing. High pitched. A childish giggle.
I whirled on her, ploughing fire energy right into her chest. She immediately found her feet, protected from my magic. It wasn’t touching her, but it was hurting. The strain on her face was something I’d never seen before. Her suppression had lost its potency. I carried on blasting her, revelling in the way her eyebrows knitted down, a worried frown replacing the laughter.
“What’s wrong with Anna?” I growled.
“The same as what’s wrong with me,” she shrugged, an attempt at casualness, but it was jerky, unsure.
I intensified my efforts and the blinding power gained ground, the skin on her face turning red with effort. “Which is?” I pressed.
“Stupid girl. You don’t even have any comprehension of your own power. You’re here, blindly playing with ancient, powerful witchcraft, without any idea what you’re doing.” Gasping for breath, she cried out as I realised that her face wasn’t red from exertion. Blisters appeared over the skin. Smoking and scorching. She was burning.
“Looks like I’m doing a pretty good job so far. How are you feeling? You don’t look too great.” Something in me found excitement at the sight of her bubbling skin. At the sound of her increasing groans of pain. “And how about Laurance and Francis? How are they holding up?” I pushed.
“You’re draining us,” she whimpered, and I pulled my fire back a little to let her continue. “All Elwood twins have become human, but the rest of us, everyone else sired by an Elwood – you’re sucking the strength from every drop of our blood in the vicinity.”
Wait. What?! “But I’m sired by an Elwood—”
“You’re stronger than ever. The energy you’re draining from us is being siphoned into your own body. You gain strength as Elwoods lose theirs. When you first started getting stronger, you increased their power, and now you reclaim it.” She coughed, and I watched as her hair turned to black ash from my heat. Skin blistering further. She couldn’t hold me back for much longer.
“Constance lied,” my voice came out in a frustrated whisper. “She told me Anna would be OK. That only Elwood twins would be effected by my magic.”
“Oh, she will be fine,” Beatrix tried to laugh. “Just as long as she’s nowhere near you. You’ll continue to drain her whilst she’s nearby. You always will. You can’t stop it. You’ve opened a dark hole in your soul, and it’s greedy for more.”
“Jess,” Zac yelled. “Drop the magic assault on Beatrix, let her go, I know what to do—”
White-hot fury pulsed through me. Was he still enamoured by her? Her flimsy protection gave way and Beatrix screamed as she collapsed, skin now so bloody she looked like raw meat.
Anna cried out too. I could feel it now that I looked for it – I could feel myself draining her essence.
“Zac, please,” I spun round, grabbing his shoulders. “Please, get Anna out of here, away from me—”
“I’m human,” he stated. “I don’t think I can offer her much protection any longer.”
“Just get her somewhere else. Please!”
“I’ll take her,” Alex stepped to my side.
No! I needed him with me.
Selfish. But I couldn’t let him go. He was human too.
“Beatrix!” An anguished cry broke us from the moment, as Laurance hurled himself at us. Alex shoved me behind him protectively, which made me want to laugh and scream at the same time. Then Zac moved toward Beatrix, except she wasn’t there.
She was standing behind us, and when we turned, she drove a blade straight into Alex’s chest.
“Nooooooooooo!” Anna’s wail pierced the air. She careened across the space between us, legs acting on impulse as the rest of her body struggled to keep up. Clutching at Alex, she slumped back to the ground.
Everything happened all at once, and yet in slow motion. Syn ripped Laurance’s head from his shoulders. Zac took another step toward Beatrix, in the right direction this time, and yanked something from round her neck. Her face dropped. How the hell was she even standing, functioning, looking like a barbecued freak?
I moved in on her, but she’d managed to throw up the fucking protection again, her blistered skin beginning to repair itself. Bitch was fucking powerful.
“You think no one ever noticed the way you covet this thing? The way you unconsciously hold it when you’re casting magic?” Zac spoke. “When you created that compulsion spell, you didn’t just take control of me, you let me into your own head. You bound us, briefly. Now I know that this contains blood droplets from hundreds of bonded Elwoods – that when you became a vampire it robbed you of much of your magic power. But you found this way to claim it back. Taking from us to bring back your strength. Except you can’t control me now I’m human. That spell was broken. And so I wonder, Beatrix Morena, what will happen to you when I smash this vial?”
She was too late, even though she leapt for him. He dropped the amulet, stomping it under his boot. Her protection snapped away and I was on her in an instant, tearing out her throat and draining her dry. No magic, just my teeth and my blistering fury.
Then my legs gave out.
I pulled Alex’s head into my lap, his face already ashen. Running my hands down his bare chest, I took hold of the knife. His hand caught my own and stopped me from pulling it free. It felt familiar in my grip. I looked at the handle and cried out in horror.
My silver blade. The one Constance had given me.
“Fuck, Jess!” Anna groaned. “I’m so sorry. I found it at your place after Zac took you, I’ve been carrying it around everywhere, it helped me feel closer, like I hadn’t lost you entirely… she grabbed it from my waistband when you were all distracted.”
“This is ironic,” Alex whispered, smiling up at me. “If anyone was going to kill me with this knife it was supposed to be you, darlin’.” He coughed and blood bubbled on his lips.
“No one is fucking dying! Vampires don’t die!” I screamed, and he snorted.
“For what it’s worth, I’d have happily taken a few years of human life to be with you.”
Tears streamed down my face. I looked around helplessly. Why wasn’t anyone doing anything? Eva and Leon had appeared, even some of Alex’s own men, and Zac — everyone just fucking stood there looking at his feet.
“No!” I yelled at them all. “He’s worth more than this. He was always worth more. Why are you just standing there?!”
Alex reached up to brush away my tears. “Don’t go all weak on me now. I saw Emory slipping past the crowds, I think he got away. He’ll come for you again. You need to be strong, promise me, you need to keep fighting—” He spluttered again and blood dribbled down his chin. Chest heaving with laboured breaths.
I stared into his blue eyes and my whole world shattered. Every part of me died. If I lost him, I’d be alone again. I didn’t even want to be a fucking vampire without him by my side. He had made me into this. His blood woke up the magic, set it cascading free on its own path. If he’d never turned me, if his blood had never entered my system, this wouldn’t be happening.
His blood. It was my salvation and my destruction.
But what if my blood was now the only hope?
If he was human, could I not give him my blood and turn him back into a vampire?
“Drink!” I
shouted, nipping at my wrist and shoving it to his face.
His eyebrows knotted together and he coughed up more blood.
“It’s worth a try,” I urged.
“You know I would never turn away the opportunity to drink from you.” He forced a grin onto his face, it looked like it took momentous effort. That smile! Sly, seductive, raw power. I was so accustomed to it being an almost permanent feature on his face, always free and easy.
He took my wrist and sucked, euphoria sweeping through me. My blood was like a thousand sensitive nerves, tickling every part of me.
When he couldn’t take the effort any longer, he flopped his head back into my lap and closed his eyes. “It tastes like shit now, being human sucks balls. Thank God I’m dying, there’s no way in hell I could start eating your disgusting food,” he mumbled and took an almighty breath, his body shuddering.
“I need these lips,” I sobbed, reaching down to kiss them and tasting my own blood mixed with his.
“And I need your eyes,” I spoke against his mouth. “The way they watch me like prey one minute and like a Goddess the next… but mostly I need what’s in here.” I placed a hand to his trembling chest. “Alex Elwood. The man who believed in me all along, the one person who understands me. The man who set me on fire, in my body and heart.”
His body took one final, gasping breath, and then he fell still.
And we all held our breath in response.
38
Jess
Nothing happened.
We waited longer. Still nothing.
Zac stepped forward, then back again. Eva took hold of his hand. Anna cried into my hair.
If this was what the end felt like, then I wished with every fibre of my being that we had never begun. I’d have done anything to take away that pain.
He was part of me. Not only did Alex own my heart, but his very life essence pulsed through my own veins. We were connected. I was bonded to him. If I lost him, the void inside me would be far deeper than the one I’d been left floating in by Beatrix. There would be nothing left.