by Callie Rose
“Bas… Bastian,” I breathe. My words are slurred and come out in a whimper.
Something changes around his eyes, but I can’t tell if he’s pleased or concerned. I pull myself together and force my gaze to meet his, anchoring myself to his eyes.
“Bastian, please. I… don’t… want this.”
His face doesn’t change, but one of his hands curls into a fist.
Yes, hit me. Hit me hard enough to break my neck and kill me before the change makes it harder. Before it becomes almost impossible.
But I don’t think his gesture is aimed at me. He’s holding tightly to his self-control. I don’t know what brought him down here, whether it was pure curiosity or the urge to gloat at my discomfort, but I’m hoping I can convince him to finish me off. He’s a killer by nature, after all.
“Help me,” I plead, the words coming out harshly through my raw throat. “Kill—me. I can’t be—this.”
There’s a flash in his eye, a glint of anger.
Shit. I’ve offended him, dammit.
I can’t afford to offend him. I need him. He needs to understand why I can’t live like this. No, that’s wrong. “Live” isn’t even the right word. I’m already dead. I can’t come back, not from the kinds of injuries Tyresius gave me when he tore into me. Not from that much blood loss.
There are only two options in front of me now.
Oblivion or eternity.
I grope around inside my addled mind for what to say, some way to bargain for the right to my own death. I need Bastian to see me, just like I see him.
“You told me that the thing you remember most is your parents being slaughtered in front of you by vampire hunters,” I tell him quietly. My voice has grown stronger. That should be a good thing, but I know what it means. It won’t be long now before my mouth sprouts fangs, and I become the one thing in the world I hate the most. I suck in a breath, but it doesn’t help.
“I know what that feels like,” I continue, my voice shaking.
Bastion frowns at me, the offended look on his face deepening.
I shake my head. “You don’t believe me, but it’s true. My parents were torn apart. Drained dry. They were killed by vampires while I watched through the slats in the closet. I was a child, Bastian. Barely old enough to understand what I was seeing.” I laugh bitterly, choking a little on the air that rattles from my lungs. “So you see—we have something in common. Losing the people we love to violence and not being able to do anything about it.”
He takes half a step into the small dungeon cell, and I realize that tears are streaming down my face.
“I couldn’t save them,” I rasp, my throat closing around my words. “I couldn’t save Nathan.” I look up at the tall, coldly beautiful man before me, pleading with everything in me. “But you can save me. You can keep me from doing any more harm. Please, Bastian—don’t let me be both of our worst nightmares.”
There’s a hint of pain in the prince’s eyes as he comes a little closer. He’s hesitant, tentative, almost like he’s afraid of me. I want to throw myself at him, want to scream and cry and force him to do what I ask. But I swallow it all back. I can see him thinking, can feel his resolve weakening. A sharp pain slices through my gums, traveling up to my eyes, and I cry out.
“Not long now,” I choke out, pressing my palm over my mouth. “Please. Please. Kill me. Quickly, before I forget why I need to die.”
He hesitates for a moment longer, just out of reach. His eyes hold storms in them, and although his body isn’t moving at all, there’s nothing still about him. Then, finally, he sighs and nods, stepping toward me.
I brace myself for attack, my survival instinct flaring despite what I just begged him to do. I hope it’s quick, whatever it is. A snapped neck would be good. Bleeding out wasn’t too bad, but I don’t know if it will work now that I have Tyresius’s vampiric blood in my system. The bruises on my arms are already fading.
But Bastian doesn’t grab me or strike. He doesn’t twist my neck or crush my skull. Instead, he puts a small flask up to my lips.
“Drink,” he murmurs hoarsely. “This will end it.”
I do. I clutch at his arm and drink greedily, clinging to him as I tilt my head up to reach the flask better.
The liquid is bitter and pungent, thick enough to feel like wool in my mouth, but I force it all down. It tastes like death, which makes sense. I open my eyes after I empty the flask, and the edges of my vision have already gone dark. Bastian’s warm, sad eyes are all I can focus on.
He pulls me into his arms, cradling me close and stroking my hair. His touch is tender, even though his chiseled features are still set in a mask.
“Thank you,” I whisper quietly as the feeling runs out of my fingers and toes.
I rub my face against his shirt, breathing in his scent. He doesn’t ask what I’m thanking him for, and I’m glad. Even now, at the end, I have too much pride to tell someone that I’m grateful they took pity on me. I always thought I’d go out stronger than that.
“For death,” I say instead, pushing the words past my lips even as my lungs begin to give out. “For letting me go. Thank you for… proving me wrong about you.”
He kisses the top of my head, ignoring the fact that the strands must be crusted and tangled with blood and sweat. I tilt my head back so I can look into his beautiful storm-gray eyes one last time. With numb hands, I reach up to pull him down to me, threading my fingers through the silky hair at the back of his head.
I don’t know why I do it, exactly.
I’m grateful, but that isn’t the whole of it.
All I know for sure is that the last thing I want to do before I die is kiss Bastian.
His lips meet mine, and he kisses me back with more feeling than I expected. It feels like a goodbye kiss, just like Rome’s did, full of unsaid words that neither of us will ever get to say now.
His arms crush me close, but soon, I stop feeling them. I stop feeling anything except his mouth, then I stop feeling that too.
My eyelids fall shut as the world goes black.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I’ve never been dead before, but I’m surprised it feels like this.
My skin is cool. I’m pressed against something rough, and it takes me a moment to realize that I’m lying on my back.
It takes me even longer to realize that I’m… breathing.
Every movie I’ve ever seen where someone is buried alive rushes through my head all at once, and I panic, breaking out in a cold sweat. I force my eyes open, expecting to see the inside of a coffin a few inches from my face. Instead, there’s just the rebar-crossed concrete ceiling of the lowest level.
I’m in the same dark, dingy dungeon cell. Someone took the time to lay me on the flimsy cot in the corner, but I’m definitely still here.
I sit up and close my mouth, which has been hanging open. I instantly regret it as I bite my lip. I don’t bite it hard, but even so, blood wells up around my teeth. I lick my lip, then lick it again. The blood tastes… good.
It tastes like blood, but it’s making me salivate.
Confused, I lick my lip again.
This time, I scrape my tongue against the offending teeth—newcomers in my mouth, sharp and vicious and unwieldy.
Fangs.
No.
No, no, no. Please, no.
“That son of a bitch,” I growl. My voice is hoarse, giving out before I even finish the words, but I don’t know if that’s because my throat is still ragged from all the screaming I did earlier, or because I can’t seem to find my breath.
I can’t breathe. A kind of horror is washing through me that I’ve never experienced before, something that seems to creep into my bones and chill them from the inside out. I’ve only felt like this once before, and it was the day I watched helplessly as my parents died.
I should’ve died today.
This should’ve been over.
“Goddammit,” I whisper brokenly.
I want to be furi
ous at Bastian for betraying me, I really do, and I will be… as soon as I’m done being heartbroken over it. I really thought he took pity on me. I thought I could make him understand.
But he lied to me.
Whatever I drank, whatever was in that flask, it was clearly never meant to kill me. Instead, it just knocked me unconscious for the last bit of the change.
Even though we never even spent that much time together, Bastian clearly knows me well. I’m used to fighting. If he had fought me, I would have forced him to kill me, even in my weakened state.
But he beat me with the one thing I could never fight against—tenderness.
And now I’ll have the rest of my very long life to regret it.
***
To Be Continued…
Mikka’s story will continue in Dark Legacy, book two in the Kingdom of Blood series!
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Want to read a completed paranormal romance series while you’re waiting for Dark Legacy? You can check out Fallen University: Year One, the first book in my fast-burn paranormal academy series. Turn the page to see the description and cover. Free to read in Kindle Unlimited!
AMAZON TOP 100 BESTSELLER
Did you know ordinary people can be turned into demons? I sure didn’t. Until it happened to me.
One day, I was a regular college student, working a boring job and studying for finals—and the next, I was transformed into some strange creature of the night.
Now I’ve got powers I don’t understand, I can change my appearance with a thought, and I’m having all kinds of odd… cravings.
If I thought all this bullshit was gonna get me out of going to college though, I’ve got another think coming. Nope, I still need an education. Except the classes at Fallen University are on things like “Curses and Hexcraft” and “Magical Combat”.
It’s not all bad. There are these four hot as hell guys I keep bumping into—Kingston, Jayce, Xero, and Kai. I’m not sure if I should trust them; they’ve each got secrets of their own, and they’re definitely dangerous.
But that craving I’ve been having?
It’s pulling me right toward them.
Yup, things are about to get real interesting at FU.
**Available now on AMAZON and AUDIBLE.**
Acknowledgments
Alice Best, thank you for helping me find the perfect name for my heroine!
Books by Callie Rose
Boys of Oak Park Prep
Savage Royals
Defiant Princess
Broken Empire
Kings of Linwood Academy
The Help
The Lie
The Risk
Ruthless Games
Sweet Obsession
Sweet Retribution
Sweet Salvation
Fallen University
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Claimed by Wolves
Fated Magic
Broken Bond
Dark Wolf
Alpha Queen
Feral Shifters
Rejected Mate
Untamed Mate
Cursed Mate
Claimed Mate
Kingdom of Blood
Blood Debt
Dark Legacy
Vampire Wars