Eternal Reign

by Melody Johnson

  Nathan let his arms drop, too, but he didn’t laugh like I thought he would. His expression was deadly serious. “I love you, too.”

  I watched Nathan walk away with Greta and Rowens, back to their cruisers and what remained of their task force, and my throat tightened uncomfortably.

  “He’ll be fine. Dr. Chunn wouldn’t deliberately harm him, and if anyone tried,” Dominic glanced at the dead Damned behind us, “he can defend himself.”

  “I know,” I said, but my voice was nothing but gravel. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I know.” But knowing a thing and feeling it in my bones were two entirely different things.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, taking my hand.

  “What about me?” Ronnie asked in a small voice.

  Chapter 28

  Ronnie’s question cut through the illogical grief of losing Nathan. I’d forgotten she was even there, but refocusing on her was startling. I hadn’t had time to really take note of her appearance in the panic and chaos when she’d first arrived to save me, but what I saw now didn’t look capable of life.

  She was very nearly completely bald now, the straggles of remaining hair on her scabby, emaciated skull pathetic and dull. Her cheeks were sunken. The hollows beneath her eyes made them bulge, and even her sad little fangs were too big for her mouth. Every bone, every rib, every knobby joint was shrink-wrapped with, pale, nearly translucent skin.

  Ronnie had been beautiful when I’d met her. She was concern-ingly skinny even as a human, but she’d hidden her disorder behind a pretty smile and beneath baggy sweaters. She’d made the best banana nut pancakes I’d ever eaten in my life, and even though she’d never had a bite of them herself, she’d fed an entire household. She’d been suffering even then, but to the unobservant eye, she did a fabulous job of faking it.

  She couldn’t fake it anymore. She needed help, and she knew it.

  And she’d come to me.

  I’d failed her when she’d been attacked and turned into a vampire, and by the looks of her, I was continuing to fail her. Ronnie was another anomaly I didn’t know how to fix, but unlike Nathan, Ronnie needed a solution now, before she crumbled into a pile of ash at our feet.

  My mind came up blank.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Dominic squeezed my hand, reminding me that I needed to respond.

  “Well, what?” I asked.

  She stared at me like I was demented. “Well, Nathan is going to help Greta and Rowens find the Damned’s weaknesses, if they have any. Rafe and Sevris are going to cover up the evidence of vampires at the crime scene. And you and Dominic are going back to the coven to pretend to rest while you devise a plan to save us, right?”

  I gaped. I couldn’t help it.

  “Right,” Dominic said, and by the faint lilt to his tone, I could tell he was amused.

  “Well,” she said, looking back and forth between the two of us, “what do you need me to do?”

  My God, Ronnie didn’t want help. She wanted to help.

  Rafe snorted. “What can you do?”

  Dominic sliced him in half with his gaze.

  Rafe cleared his throat. “Sorry. But look at her.” He waved his hand at Ronnie as if she were on display, and she shriveled in on herself. “She can barely stand.”

  Despite the horror of Ronnie’s existence, or maybe because of it, I snapped. “Shut the fuck up, Rafe. She can more than stand. She saved my life.”

  Ronnie’s expression brightened. She might have even smiled. Her lips thinned and pulled up at the corners, exposing her needle-sharp fangs.

  Rafe snorted. “And tried to leave Lysander for dead.”

  Her expression froze. “I didn’t leave him for dead. I thought he was dead.” She met Dominic’s eyes and then quickly looked away. “You looked dead,” she whispered in her defense.

  Dominic’s voice was gentle when he spoke, the voice with which one speaks to a person flirting with the ledge. “It’s okay, Ronnie. I’m not angry with you. I’m proud of you.”

  She looked up and held his gaze this time. “You are? But I’m”—she looked down at herself, and the movement caused the few remaining hairs on her head to fall and flutter to the ground—“pathetic.”

  “In the face of adversity, and despite your lack of strength, you tried to save Cassidy. I commend you for that.”

  “She left you for dead,” Rafe muttered under his breath.

  “I can live through trauma that Cassidy cannot. Ronnie chose to save Cassidy over me, and that was the right decision,” Dominic said, his voice brooking no argument. When he spoke to Ronnie again, his voice turned soft and sweet, like he was speaking to a child. And I suppose in a way he was. “Now, Ronnie, why are you not eating? I know you must feel the burn to feed. The scent of Cassidy’s blood must scorch your every breath.”

  Ronnie nodded. “It does,” she admitted softly.

  “Then why haven’t you fed?”

  “I never received my lesson,” she said softly.

  I closed my eyes. Shit, I thought, as Ronnie unwittingly threw me head first under the bus.

  “Her lesson?”

  I peeked up at Dominic at his question. He raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to enlighten him.

  Ronnie wrung her hands nervously. “You didn’t tell him. I thought you’d tell him. He knows everything.”

  Dominic made a noise in the back of his throat, almost a growl, but the sound wasn’t menacing in the least. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was quelling a laugh.

  I glared at Ronnie, but I couldn’t remain stern for long in the face of her deterioration.

  “Let me help you, Ronnie,” Dominic said. “I’m your Master’s ally, and my night blood is your good friend. There’s no reason to be frightened. We are all in this together.”

  “You’re not angry that I’m here, in your territory, without your knowledge or permission?” Ronnie asked.

  Dominic sighed. “I’m more angry that Bex has allowed you to remain untrained, unfed, and uncared for.”

  “It’s not just me,” Ronnie said softly, and something in Dominic’s expression must have encouraged her, because she took a deep breath and continued. “I’m not the only newly turned vampire who’s starving. We all are. Jeremy and Logan didn’t want to come here for help, but I knew Cassidy would know what to do. She always seems to know the next step.”

  Dominic blinked. “Jeremy and Logan are here, too?”

  “And Keagan and all the night bloods that Bex transformed that night,” I murmured. “She abandoned her coven for the Day Reapers, and the coven hasn’t helped much with the transition.”

  “They’re angry and grieving and lost,” Ronnie said, her voice pleading now. “Bex attacked, transformed, and abandoned us. If I don’t find someone to help us, they’ll go off on their own to help themselves.”

  Dominic’s face hardened. “Newly transformed vampires finding their way alone never ends well.”

  I sucked in my breath. “Your brother.”

  Dominic inclined his head deeply. “He set out on his own after being transformed, and without the guidance of other vampires, he lost his way.”

  Sevris, who had been silent until now, nodded his agreement. “To build a better future, we can’t allow history to repeat itself.”

  “It’s already repeating itself with Jillian,” I reminded them.

  “It’s up to us to break the cycle,” Dominic said.

  I glanced at Sevris and Rafe to my right and Ronnie in front of us, and sudden inspiration hit.

  “Your lessons are important, Ronnie, but I don’t think I’m the best person to give them. I’m not even a vampire.”

  Ronnie’s face fell. “But you promised.”

  “Yes, I did,” I said quickly, before Ronnie could crumble, “but I’m not the best person for the job. Rafe and Sevris can take over your lessons.”

  “We can?” Rafe asked.

  Dominic nodded. “You will.”

  “Ronnie, I’d l
ike you to meet Rafe. He’s a member of Dominic’s coven, has a wicked sense of humor, and can tell time without a watch.” I glanced back at Rafe and grinned. “You’re welcome.”

  Rafe glanced at Ronnie and then back at me, and I knew the moment he put the puzzle together. He shook his head frantically. “Oh no. I don’t think so. This does not count as an introduction. She’s not a night blood anymore. And she looks like hell.”

  Dominic rolled his eyes. “She needs our help.”

  “Ronnie is female, my friend, and she will remember your existence. Those were your stipulations,” I argued. “It counts.”

  Rafe crossed his arms, petulant.

  “Introduction?” Ronnie asked warily.

  “Never mind that.” I waved her concern away. “Make allies. Make friends. Forge alliances and all that. It’s a predator-eats-predator kind of world out here, and let’s face it, Ronnie, you’re prey.”

  “You’re not much of a predator yourself,” Ronnie grumbled.

  “No, I’m not, but I’ve surrounded myself with friends and allies who are. Right now, all you have is me,” I said, looking down at my own prey-like body. “Make friends with people your own species, okay?”

  Ronnie crossed her arms and glared at Rafe, looking pretty petulant herself. “I don’t think—”

  “You wanted my help, right? You wanted to know your next step, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yes, but this isn’t it. Not with him,” Ronnie said, still giving Rafe the stink-eye. “He’s an asshole.”

  “Yes, he is. But he knows how to entrance and feed without killing anyone. You can learn from him, Ronnie, and be stronger for it. Dominic wasn’t a picnic when I first met him, either, but now, we are better for having taken the time to know one another.”

  “Thanks?” Dominic asked, his grin lopsided.

  I shrugged. “I only speak the truth.”

  “I wanted your help, Cassidy. I trust you,” Ronnie insisted.

  “Then trust me when I tell you that I can’t give you the help you need. But they can,” I said, pointing to Rafe and Sevris.

  Ronnie glanced at them. Rafe glared back, and Sevris, bless him, just stared, stoic and unreadable as usual.

  “Okay.” Her voice was a small, hesitant whisper, but her expression was resolute. “I’ll try.”

  “Wonderful,” I said, feeling a small measure of accomplishment that I’d solved one of my unsolvable problems. “Now, I can go back to my apartment to grab the rest of my weapons and—”

  “Excuse me?” Dominic interrupted. “You’re coming back to the coven with me.”

  “Yes, I am,” I said calmly, despite the crazy suddenly lighting his eyes. “But I can’t face the Leveling with only three pen stakes and two silver nitrate sprays. Give me twenty minutes to pack some real weapons.”

  Dominic shook his head. “I need to return to the coven without delay, for my own safety as well as the safety of the coven. When Lord High Chancellor Henry returns, I am the one he will be returning for.”

  I nodded. “I know,” I said softly.

  “Do you?” he asked, and his tone was more challenge than question. “If I’m not present in the coven before the Day Reapers arrive, they will torture whomever they deem necessary to find me. I can’t come with you to the apartment and risk destroying the coven with my absence.”

  “I’m not asking you to come with me to my apartment. I can pack a bag of weapons on my own.”

  “If I’m wrong, and the Lord High Chancellor comes for you instead of me, you are the one who will be tortured in my absence. And I won’t be there to stop him.”

  I shook my head. “Even if you were there, you’re in no condition to stop him anyway.” I shot him a look. “Just twenty minutes. I’ll be fine.”

  He cupped my jaw gently. “You’ve got five.”

  I rolled my eyes. “The elevator ride to my third-floor apartment takes five minutes.”

  “Five minutes,” he repeated in no uncertain terms. “You do what you need to do, and I will send Sevris to get you.” He stepped closer. “If he doesn’t return with you in five minutes, I will come for you myself.”

  I groaned. “You just said that you couldn’t leave the coven to come with me. It’s too much of a risk for you and the coven.”

  His thumb brushed over my cheekbone. “Then don’t make me risk it.”

  Chapter 29

  I looked over the clothes, bathroom accessories, and weapons piled on my bed, and then at the TSA-approved luggage next to said pile, and thought, I need a bigger suitcase.

  My hip protested as I squatted to reach for the large duffle under my bed, but since being healed, I could actually squat. I could walk, climb stairs, and pack a bag without help, without a scooter, and I couldn’t have been happier, protesting hip or not.

  I took that back, sobering. I’d have been happier if the Damned and the Day Reapers weren’t hunting us, but the relief of being mobile again was making me uncommonly optimistic.

  Even mobile, however, I was still moving at my typical, snail-slow pace. Five minutes had already come and gone sometime between packing my toothbrush and my silver-threaded gloves, but I wasn’t the only one who was late. Sevris hadn’t arrived to pick me up, either.

  I should have been worried, except that I wasn’t ready for him. If he showed up late and I still wasn’t ready . . . I shuddered and tried to speed up the packing process.

  Ten minutes later, someone pounded on the door. I quickly dumped an armful of tuna cans and ammo boxes into the side pocket and zipped the luggage, fully intending to rip Sevris a new one for making me wait, until I peeked through my apartment door’s peephole; the person pounding on my door was none other than Dominic himself.

  “Sevris never came to pick me up,” I shouted through the door, neatly throwing Sevris under the bus. “I’ve been ready for over ten minutes now.”

  “I don’t care if you’re ready. We need to move. Now,” Dominic said. He was looking down the hall as he said it, and I sucked in my breath at the worried planes of his profile. He was scared, nearly panicked, even. “Open the door!” he shouted at me.

  I unlocked and opened the door.

  “What’s going on? Why didn’t Sevris show? Where—?”

  Ignoring my barrage of questions, Dominic reached out to grab my arm. “Less talking. More moving.”

  A flare of heat burst between us. Dominic’s arm dropped to his side, and my face felt fried from the sudden backdraft. A rotting sizzle lit the air; the putrid smell reminded me of Dominic’s allergic reaction to silver.

  I wrinkled my nose. “What is that?”

  Dominic frowned, looking puzzled, but when he raised his hand toward me again and the same burst of heat and rotting sizzle flamed the air between us a second time, Dominic lost his composure. He pounded the air with both fists and cursed in frustration as punches of heat and putrid steam clouded the hallway.

  I stared at him, confused at first by his antics and misplaced anger, and then in wonder at the doorway between us. Dominic couldn’t cross the threshold.

  I’d succeeded in vampire-proofing my apartment.

  I would have danced in glee if I could dance without my hip giving out, but at that exact moment, when all my efforts and hopes and dreams had blossomed in sweet fruition, Lord High Chancellor Henry stepped out from the shadows behind Dominic.

  I opened my mouth in warning, but my words weren’t fast enough. The Chancellor knocked Dominic aside and lunged for me.

  He must not have witnessed Dominic’s inability to cross the threshold, because logically, if he had, he wouldn’t have tried to cross it himself. Or maybe he thought, being the Lord of all vampires, he’d be exempt, but the moment he came into contact with the threshold, he blew back from my doorway in a sizzling blaze of flame and fireworks. He smashed into the opposite hallway wall, knocking Dominic back with him. I didn’t have time to think or reason or weigh the pros against the cons. My mind filled with Lord High Chancellor Henry’s unyie
lding expression as he glared at Dominic with death in his gaze, and I just reacted.

  “Dominic Lysander, I give you permission to enter my apartment,” I commanded.

  I reached out to drag him across the threshold with me and safely away from Lord High Henry’s wrath. Dominic tried to help, but he was still stunned from the blowback. I scooped him up beneath his arms and yanked him into my apartment with all my strength and body weight. He tumbled on top of me on my kitchen floor, our legs tangled, my knee catching beneath his ribs, his face smothered in my chest, and I lost my breath from the double hit of his weight and proximity.

  Over Dominic’s shoulder, I watched as the Chancellor rose from a heap of broken plaster on the hallway floor. He bared his fangs at me in a furious sneer and charged. I braced myself for his impact.

  Dominic shifted his body over me, covering me from head to toe with his own.

  The Chancellor attacked, battering my threshold. Dominic and I both tensed at the violence of it, but the harder the attack, and the more violent the Chancellor became, the more explosive the blowback.

  I gaped at the damage to my doorframe and hallway, at the impressive display of power and rage from the Chancellor, and at the fireballs, sparkling firework explosions, and billowing clouds of rank steam from his assault. A slow, smug smile curved Dominic’s scarred lips.

  Henry could unleash the full pent-up fury of his unimaginable, unnatural long life on that threshold, but no matter his strength and power and rage, no matter his Lord High Chancellor status, or perhaps because of it, he wasn’t getting through.

  The silence that followed his attack was punctuated by the staccato barking from a few of my neighbors’ dogs. The man across the hall, kitty-corner to my apartment, had the gumption to not only look through his peephole, but to actually open his door. Henry didn’t even glance behind him. He didn’t speak a command or break eye contact, and he didn’t need to. One nonchalant wave of his hand, and the man’s gaze dulled to a glassy stare. He stepped back into his apartment and shut the door.

  But Henry’s expression was anything but nonchalant as he stared at me through the threshold he couldn’t cross. Dominic kicked the door with his foot, slamming it shut on the Chancellor’s red, rage-filled face.