by Nicola Rose
I’d destroy the entire world before letting him slip away from me. I was born to be his. I found him. Or he found me. Fate. Destiny. Whatever it was, it would take a force greater than death to separate us now.
I screamed into the night. I screamed and the earth shook, and fire consumed us. Anna leaped away, patting out the flames. It was just me and Alex, cocooned in the warmth, in the brightness. I couldn’t stop it, even if I’d wanted to. But I didn’t want to.
This way, I didn’t have to look at any of them. Didn’t have to speak. Didn’t have to accept any of this bullshit.
So I held him, lost in darkness and yet burning with light. And I let my heart fizzle into nothing but dust.
Eventually my eyes closed and my mind wandered. Thoughts bombarded me. Various visions from my life. All the magical outbursts that made no sense at the time. All the time I’d spent chasing this, chasing the power. And for what? Was it some sick joke all along? I finally got the power, and everything good was ripped from me in the process?
I didn’t give a shit about saving humanity. Emory could do what the hell he wanted. In fact, so much darkness had awoken with my magic, that I wasn’t even sure I cared about humans at all. They were my food now. What did it matter if I killed?
What does any of this matter?
I didn’t even care when I felt the presence of Emory beyond my fire, scooping up a bled-out Beatrix.
“I’d love to stay and chat,” he purred, his voice as silky smooth as always. “But it seems you’ve royally fucked over my plans here. I’ll look forward to our next encounter.”
Then he was gone. Taking the witch-bitch toasted corpse with him.
“You know, it’s getting a little hot in here, darlin’,” Alex’s voice snapped me round.
His crystal eyes sparkled. My hand patted down his chest and found no wounds. His perfect skin, bloodied, but undamaged.
And that was when I cried. The relief came pouring out in a torrent. He flipped us round and choked me with kisses. Deep and lingering. His groin pressing between my thighs whilst his tongue claimed my mouth, my neck, my shoulders… nipping and sucking and licking.
I fumbled with his belt, needing him naked, needing him inside me.
We were everything that was right. And everything that was wrong.
Wrong…
I didn’t care. Right and wrong barely registered in my brain. Yet, something still niggled.
“Wait!” I pushed him back. “It worked! You came back, you’re a vampire again. You know what I need to do.”
I dropped the flames in an instant.
“Zac!” I shouted. “I can turn you back, I can make this right again—”
But he was gone. They were all gone.
39
Jess
The carnage at the de Monsos estate was a sight to behold. The scale of bloodshed was staggering. Picking our way through the grounds, it was impossible to go more than a yard without having to sidestep around a body, or a pile of gore, remnants of whatever remained.
The victors had long since departed. Syn had led Alex aside for a few hushed words and then left with what still stood of the Unaligned. We’d not even had a formal introduction, but I had a feeling I’d like Syn. I also held the conviction that I’d be seeing him again soon. Probably sooner than I’d like.
We located the missing body of Francis, which meant both the Elwood Legacy initiators were dead. But Emory had taken Beatrix. I was sure I’d killed her. Maybe not, but Zac had destroyed something vital to her powers, and she would be forever weakened around me. I should have felt relief, happiness, satisfaction? I guess I did, somewhere under the other feelings. One minute I felt absolutely nothing, I didn’t care about a single thing except my own dark desires. Then, the next, I’d be swamped by a heaving mass of emotion. Love, passion, hate, anger, guilt, fear, hunger… it was debilitating trying to keep my head above it all.
This new vampire-witch thing was a rollercoaster. And here I’d hoped that the release of my magic would finally eradicate all that. I thought I could put the bipolar labels, and the rest of it, behind me. Evidently I still had some way to go before my mental health could be considered ‘normal’.
Maybe that day would never come.
“One day at a time,” Alex squeezed my hand as we continued on our way. We passed by the rubble of the mansion. Part of me wished it was still standing, so we could go inside and snoop around, check out this lab that Emory spoke of. But the bigger part of me was just revelling in the smugness of having destroyed his pad. Right from the moment I saw his blazing, red eyes and he petted me like his dog, I swore I’d end him.
This was a pleasing start, but I couldn’t bask in the glory for long, because he’d got away. Coward had barely even involved himself in the fighting.
A few of Alex’s men lingered near the entrance, awaiting orders.
I turned to him, wanting to know those orders too. “What now?”
“Now we clear away this mess, or at least, I tell them to.” He nodded to his men.
There would need to be an almighty clean-up operation here. Despite the remote isolation of these grounds, it couldn’t have gone unnoticed, especially since Alex said the Feds had already been circling. I was relieved Alex was delegating the task, because he looked like he needed to sleep for a week. Becoming a human had not agreed with him, no matter how brief the period was.
“What about all the people? The blood slaves?” I asked. How exactly did one go about ‘cleaning’ that up? Many had died during the fighting, but there must still be hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands. They couldn’t just be dumped back into the real world. Most looked half-dead anyway. Maybe euthanasia was the kindest option? We could drink them…
I tried to force my fangs away, but they seemed to have a mind of their own.
Alex chuckled. “Syn can help. I’ll have them transferred to a facility. It’ll be slow work with all the brainwashing required, but maybe some can be reintegrated back to society. Or maybe it’ll just be easier to keep them.”
“Keep them? Forever? How is that any better than Emory?”
“It’s better because we’ll treat them right and won’t take any more. Emory planned to expand the operation. We’ll gradually eradicate it. It’s the best I can offer.”
“Seems barbaric. Worse than Zac with his murderers in the basement…” I frowned, and pretended to care. Like saying the words out loud would force the feelings that should accompany them.
As if I could fool him. Alex sired me, but then I sired him. His blood had awoken the deepest part of my magic, but then I had used that very magic to negate his own powers. Our bodies were a fucked-up concoction of blood and power, shared and taken, lost and found.
The strands that bound us together were so interwoven that I could barely tell where his thoughts ended and my own began. There could be no more games, no more hiding from truths. We were laid bare to each other.
“But,” he continued, his fingers still laced with mine, that seductive smile illuminating his face, “…before I start dealing with any of that shit, we’re going home for a shower, food, and sex. Not necessarily in that order. Maybe all together?”
His wicked smile shot adrenalin straight to my core, and my blackened heart skipped with joy.
The following weeks passed in a haze. Dark, deadly, and delicious.
It turned out that some of the Bael had escaped from the estate early on in the fighting. Not the clone army who were moulded to Zac’s will, but others, true Bael loyalists. Well, that was a joke, they’d run at the first sign of trouble.
We tracked them down – myself, Alex and Syn. The trio sent from hell. It didn’t matter that their blood was vampire, we still drank it. We drained them all. At least, those that I didn’t obliterate with my magic. It was hard to decipher which was the most satisfying – burning them or bleeding them. Both sent wave after wave of power-hungry euphoria through me.
Alex was disappointed to click his finger
s and find his own special powers gone. The Elwood Legacy magic had completely abandoned him. But he was still vampire, one sired by a powerful hybrid, who he had sired… ugh, it was fucked up. But he was strong. And mesmerising. And mine.
After a while I lost track of the number of people we’d killed. But it wasn’t just Bael deserters. Those were fun, but that was work. For pleasure, we found ourselves some human delicacies. We fed, and fucked, and sometimes let Syn join us for both.
I wished Anna could join us. The fun we’d have.
We will have.
I’d find a way to stop this draining shit. I had to. In the meantime, she was with Zac. He got her away, just like I asked. Now, I wasn’t sure which one of them was protecting which, I was just happy they were still with each other.
I think Alex was too. He didn’t like the idea of a human Zac being out there either. He really did care about him, and appeared to feel some level of remorse, in as much as he was capable. Perhaps it was simply that he could feel my own level of guilt, and it merged into his own being. Despite my varying emotions flying around all over the place, the constant pull to fix things with Zac wouldn’t shift.
It felt like unfinished business. Not enough words had been said. None of it was enough.
Mostly, the fact that I’d let him walk out of there as a human was what galled the most. It was wrong. So wrong. I knew it couldn’t have been any other way, the Morena Legacy needed to happen, but I had turned Alex back, and it seemed only right that I return the favour to Zac. He was too important to be out there in such a vulnerable condition. Human. My stomach turned at the thought.
I don’t know why my ego insisted it had to be me that sired him back to life. Of course, any vampire could probably do it. Eva or Leon, they were still with him, they could do it. Perhaps I was more like Beatrix than I ever dared admit. Did I still want both the Elwood boys for myself?
No.
Alex was everything now. Zac had faded away into something… less.
Still important, but squashed down somewhere deep inside where I couldn’t feel it too much.
And there it would stay. Because standing beside me, covered in blood and singing a dark melody right to my heart, was the man who made me whole.
He smiled that smile, and I completely forgot that anything existed outside of ‘us’. I ran my finger up his abdomen, clearing a lazy path through the slick, red blood, following the trail of my finger with my tongue, lapping over his nipple and smiling as his cock pressed eagerly against me.
The way the shadows fell under the hard contours of his abs was fascinating. I pulled back to observe all that was him. The muscle, the raw power, the sinful smile… everything took on a new wonder in my vampire form. Every minute detail magnified, every feeling intensified.
“Are ya’ll fixin’ to kiss me, Ma’am?” Alex grinned, pulling me into him.
I laughed, possibly for the first time since…
“That’s the most southern thing you’ve ever said,” I spoke, cutting off thoughts of Emory, Anna, Danny, all the unfinished shit. It was so easy to turn it all off now. The emotions would start to come, then I’d shove them aside and sink into the bliss of indifference.
“I know it drives you crazy when I go all cowboy, thought I’d pile it on thick.” He pushed me onto the bed , spreading my thighs, burying his face between them. His tongue swept and swirled, lapped and drove inside, over and over until I was screaming his name.
After I climaxed he crawled over me, predatory, wicked intention emanating from him. A whimper from the corner of the room drew my attention. The hooker we’d picked up earlier was huddled up, puncture wounds decorating her pretty flesh…
Alex hooked my chin with a finger and pulled my face back to him. “I’m not sure there are any words in existence that can adequately convey how much I need you. It was always me and you, Jess. It was never going to end any other way.”
His solid cock pressed to my opening and I thrust my hips up. He slid in, painfully slow, rocking into me with increasing desperate need. Our bodies were already merged through our shared blood, our minds were connected, but when he was inside me, when I had his solid shaft filling me up, that was when I lost my mind entirely.
Hours passed, pumping in and out of my slick heat. Lapping and tasting and biting. Exploring every inch of skin, then starting all over again. Sex as a vampire was pretty much indescribable. How to explain the sensation of total, utter feeling. No thoughts, no anything… there was nothing beyond the feel, the taste, the smell. I was so absorbed by him that weeks could have passed for all I knew.
For a while, I thought Zac was the man to show me how to swim, instead of pulling me under like the others, but I was wrong. He had never let me soar. He dragged me down harder than anyone – always blaming me, trying to change me, holding me back or pushing me away. He’d never accepted me for what I was. I caused him constant pain. And as much as he loved me, he also hated me.
Zac eyed me with torment, Alex with peace.
“I love you,” I breathed, and an overwhelming rush of relief burst free.
There, I said it. Out loud. No going back.
I sank deeper into his passionate hold and melted. Of course I loved him. Had it always been so?
40
Alex
Emory escaped. Ran to his allies where he could regroup.
Other factions were hearing about what had gone down. Some would join us with the Unaligned, others would rally to Emory.
Zac was human. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around what that meant.
But none of it really mattered.
Like a whirlwind of death and destruction, Jess cut a path right through anyone and everyone who got in our way. Unstoppable. Beautiful. Mine.
She was a burning force of nature, and I finally understood why I feared her so much. Not because I was afraid to love, but because I was afraid to lose. She could take my heart and soul into her palm – I’d give them freely – and she could burn them to hell.
She owned me, not the other way around. It had never been us owning her. I’d fall at her feet and let her devour me.
The Legacy bond screwed with my mojo, made me confused and anxious. But that bond was broken. I was back, and this time with the girl by my side, where she belonged. It was time to find my own Beast and set it free.
The world better brace itself. It was time to start playing by our own rules.
Also by Nicola Rose
Free the Dark - book three in the Elwood Legacy - coming soon
Also by Nicola Rose
Breaking the Gladiator (An Alpha Attraction novella)
Amazon
A tale of forbidden love – passion, deceit, blood, anger and hope. Will it all come crashing down around them? Or will love find a way to conquer the hate instilled in them all? Who will be left standing when a gladiator falls for his Domina?
Cassian
I’m trained to kill… for the amusement of others.
Slave. Fighter. Beast.
Emotions are a weakness, so I have none; except anger and hate. All the good ones were beaten and starved out of me long ago. I barely even feel pain anymore.
But when she touches me? Feelings thrash to the surface, and in my world those are dangerous. She’s poison, feeding off my rage for her own sick pleasures. I hate her. She keeps finding cracks and opening them up, squeezing herself inside my chest.
She’s going to get me killed.
Livia
I’m Domina of the Atticus ludus, where we train gladiators to compete for victory.
Wealthy. Attractive. Powerful husband.
It appears I have it all… and I wish I could make myself feel that way. But I’m numb. Too broken to even care. The only time I feel alive is when I’m with my husband’s champion gladiator. My slave. In the arena, and the bedroom.
It's disgusting for a woman of my rank to sleep with a man like him. He's a dirty, worthless animal. His touch should feel repulsive. His g
aze upon me should make my skin crawl.
But he's mine. And I want more.
Note to readers: Dark Romance!! This novella contains blood and action, and steamy scenes between characters battling with dominance and consent issues. Expect a lot of heat and darkness. Because romance isn’t always sweet.
“I didn't know what to expect out of a gladiator romance, but I can't imagine it being any better than this.” — Jessica, Chatterbooks Book Blog
“Dark and twisted, fiery hot and bloody, but I couldn’t get enough!” — Ania, The Stars Listen
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Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading Burn the Dark! I hope you enjoyed the direction this story has taken! Not going to lie - the bad boys are always my favourite!
Huge thanks to my beta readers for picking up the silly mistakes, and for saying ‘nah, that bit’s shit’ - Chelle, Cindy, Karen & Sarah. And to my developmental editor Mat - you really don’t hold back, and I appreciate it, even if I don’t always agree! Haha.
Massive puffy hearts to the Bookstagram and Indie Author community - your support for one another is inspiring. I’ve made some wonderful connections, I love you guys.
And, of course, thank you to my husband for having the patience to support me in this dream. For giving everything to our family. We love you so much.
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