by Ciara Graves
“Are you looking for a fight?”
He sniffed derisively. “Vampires killed our parents. I never pass up a chance for revenge.”
“You and me both, friend.”
Marlie and I spoke with the three brothers for a while longer. We filled them in on what knew of Rudarius and how our only plan now was to gather lost surviving members of the coven. Once I had them back, I would approach the rest of the vampire covens who turned away from Rudarius once and see if I could get them to stand against him this time around.
“Would others be willing to join you?”
Ash, Ember, and Finch exchanged a quick glance then looked to Marlie. “If Marlie comes with us, I think we can convince many to join the cause. Rudarius is an evil that should’ve been destroyed a long time ago.”
“Agreed.” We hadn’t told them about the rings yet, and as soon as I did, the brothers flinched. “They’re gone, all of them.”
“How’s that possible?”
“The mages. He’s channeling their powers and is feeding off them somehow—” I hissed as sharp stabbing pain exploded in my chest. I clutched at my heart as it came again. I snarled. It was as if someone dug around in my chest with a stake.
“Draven?” Marlie rose with me, keeping me from falling over as a third stab blurred my vision. “What’s wrong?’
“Seneca,” I breathed, blurring out of the bar.
Another stab sent me careening into a stone wall on my way out of town. I paused long enough to stop my vision from spinning, then blurred the rest of the way to the cottage. I burst through the front door, glancing around wildly.
“Draven?” Helena and Lark were on their feet in a shot. “What’s wrong?”
“Seneca, where is she?”
“Her room. Why?”
I ignored Helena and blurred into Seneca’s room. The light was off, but I saw her easily enough. She was lying in bed. I thought she was merely sleeping and wondering what the hell drove me to think she was in trouble until she whimpered. The sound was so quiet I waited to hear it a second time then turned on the light.
“Helena!”
By the time she entered the room, with Lark behind her, I was on the edge of the bed holding Seneca in my lap, shaking her gently to try and wake her up.
“By the gods, is that blood? No one’s been here,” Helena exclaimed.
“Seneca.” I shook her shoulders harder as she whimpered. Warm blood covered her neck and my hands as I moved my fingers around, searching for the source of it. I found a puncture, followed by a second. I pressed down to stop the steady flowing stream of blood. “Helena, I need bandaging, quickly.”
“What happened?” Lark stood at the foot of the bed as Helena went to find what I needed.
“She’s been bitten.”
“What? By who?”
“I don’t know.” I pressed my hand harder, smoothing her hair back with my other hand. “Come on, Seneca, come back to me. Wake up.”
Helena returned, and we wrapped Seneca’s neck the best we could. She shifted in my arms, baring her fangs and hissing.
I held her close, whispering her name repeatedly, calling her back to me, but nothing I said seemed to get through.
“Rudarius,” she breathed. Her body shuddered then went completely still.
“No. Seneca?” I shook her harder, laying her back on the bed as her eyes danced wildly behind closed lids.
She gasped for air, her back arching off the bed, and flailed against my hold.
“You let her go,” I shouted to Rudarius. “I’ll kill you. Do you hear me, you bastard? I’ll rip your heart out. Let her go!”
Seneca’s mouth fell open, and Rudarius’s cackle spilled out. She choked and thrashed, the harsh laughter cutting off. Her eyes shot open, completely black. Shadows poured from her fingertips, wrapping around me.
Helena yelled at me to get back, but I wasn’t leaving her side. Not a chance.
I planted my feet as those shadows wrapped around my legs, my arms, my stomach and higher. I had no idea how her magic was manifesting without rings, but I also didn’t have time to question it.
Footsteps stomped into the house.
Marlie and Shane were there asking what I was doing. I ignored them as Seneca’s black gaze shifted to me.
“You come back to me right now, Seneca,” I demanded as those shadows constricted around my body. “You are not his. You are mine. You belong to me and you. To us. Come back to me.”
Brow furrowing in anger, she fought against the evil inside her that was striving to get free. She slammed her hands into the bed and screamed. The shadows shattered like glass, releasing me as she sat up, her eyes lightening.
“Draven?” She blinked furiously then collapsed into my arms.
She was ice-cold to the touch, and I quickly tucked her beneath the blankets as she held onto me with shaking hands.
“You’re alright. You’re with me. You’re safe.” I said it over and over, amazed my voice sounded as steady as it did, when inside, I was shaking with rage.
Rudarius had dug his claws in deep enough to cause her physical harm, all the way from Otherworld. It shouldn’t have been possible, but with the captured mages, it seemed his power was only going to keep growing. Her hand reached up to her neck. I tried to stop her, but too late. Blood covered her fingers, and she scrambled back from me into the wall, shaking her head.
“I thought it was a nightmare.” She held up her blood-covered hand as her fear-filled eyes found mine. “Draven.”
“You were bitten,” I told her, not about to lie.
“No. That wasn’t real.”
“Where were you?” I took her hands and held them loosely in mine, sensing the others watching her from the doorway. “Seneca, what did you see?”
She shook her head, sending her messy red hair flying.
“Seneca, you can’t keep lying to me.”
“I haven’t been.”
“That’s bullshit. What happened tonight in the garden? It’s not the first time. I’ve sensed it each time you’re afraid, sensed it as if it were me facing Rudarius down. What did you see?”
She bit her lip so hard it bled, and I brushed the drops of blood away with my thumb.
“I can’t keep you safe if you don’t tell me what you saw.” I scooted closer then she fell into my arms as I held her. “You are everything to me. You know that, right? I am not about to lose you to that monster.”
“What if you don’t have a choice?”
The words were quiet, but I heard them all the same.
“There’s always a choice.”
“No there’s not.” She sat up suddenly, wiping hastily at her face, a wild look in her eyes. A look I hadn’t seen since she learned it was Rudarius who turned her. “He can get to me anywhere.” She covered her wounded neck with her hand. “Proof, that’s what he said when he… when he…” She gulped and dug her nails into the bandaging until I pulled them away. “I was back in his dungeon, chained up, trapped. He can get to me any time he wants to. He’ll turn me, Draven. He will.”
“So what do you expect me to do, huh? Just turn my back on you? Walk away?”
The second she diverted her gaze, a fist closed around my heart. I stood and closed the door, giving us privacy. She didn’t need anyone looking at her now. Resting my hands against the door, I took a second to get hold of my emotions, but it was too much. With a hiss, I slammed my fist into the door over and over, denting the solid, thick wood.
Seneca’s hand closed around mine as she spun me around. “What are you doing, you moron?”
“What do you want from me?” I shouted, unable to keep myself calm. “What? Just tell me so I can tell you how wrong you are.”
“Why is it wrong for me to try and keep you safe?”
“And what am I doing? Standing here twiddling my thumbs? If I could get to Rudarius, I would tear his heart from his chest and set him on fire. I’d take his head and put it on a pike. I would rip him apart with my
bare hands, but I can’t.” I stormed around the bedroom, fists clenching and unclenching at my sides.
When my coven was taken over, I was sure I knew what helpless felt like. I had no idea. Now I did. Rudarius threatened the one thing I held dear in this life, the only person I ever loved, and I couldn’t do a damned thing to protect her.
“Draven, I won’t put you through unnecessary agony.”
“Unnecessary agony,” I repeated, then scoffed. “That’s what you’re trying to save me from? And what do you think I’m feeling now, knowing you’re trying to push me away?”
“You’re the one refusing to admit the truth,” she shot back.
“What truth?”
“That we might not win this fight. At least not both of us.”
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” she raged, her eyes darkening.
“Turn everything around like there’s no hope, like we’re all going to die no matter what we do, so what’s the point? Why? Do you truly have no faith in me or yourself at all?”
“I’m broken, remember? You can’t have faith in me.”
“Seneca—”
She slashed her hand through the air cutting me off. “Don’t. I told you what I saw, and as much as I want to believe there’s a chance you won’t end up driving a stake through my heart, that’s the only future I see now.” She tore the bandage from her neck and threw it at my feet, then tilted her head.
The punctures were easy enough to see, red and angry. Blood dripped from the cuts my nails caused in my palms from clenching my fists so hard.
“This is a warning don’t you get it? He won’t stay trapped forever, and as soon as he can, he’ll come for me. If you get in the way again, he’ll kill you. If you survive, you’ll eventually have to kill me. I’m not strong enough to fight him and the evil inside me.” Her knees shook then buckled as she sank to the floor. “I can’t keep fighting him off. I’m exhausted.”
I knelt in front of her, reaching toward her shoulder. My fingers had barely touched her bare skin when she threw herself into my arms. I hugged her to me. “I know you are, but you can’t give up. Not now. And you cannot push me away. I won’t let you.”
“Stubborn old man.”
I laughed quietly, running my fingers through her hair. “The harder you try to push me away, the more I’m going to stay, and you know it. We need each other. Don’t be afraid of what we have.”
“How can I not be? It’s going to destroy us.”
“So what if it does?”
She sat up with a confused look on her face.
I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her, trying to tell her everything I could never find words for with that gesture. “I’d rather go out knowing I gave our love everything I had than live my last few days on this earth miserable and away from you.”
Her arms wrapped around my neck as she situated herself better in my embrace. “Your optimism is going to be the death of me before Rudarius ever gets here.”
I gave her another kiss in response. She ran her hands through my hair, pulling me as close to her as she could. She shoved at my leather jacket, and I shrugged out of it. My t-shirt came off next, and she tossed it across the room, tracing the scars on my chest and shoulders, down to the brand left by Rudarius. Those dark green eyes smoldered with heat as her cheeks reddened. Her skin had warmed as she sat with me, but the wounds at her neck pissed me off all over again.
“Don’t,” she whispered against my lips. “They’ll heal.”
“It shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did. What happened to being optimistic?”
“Good point.”
There was a quick knock at the door, then it opened.
“Seneca? Helena said there was—oh, um,” Macron muttered, quickly covering his face with his hand. “Sorry, I uh, never mind. Well, we need to talk. Out here,” he added then shut the door in a hurry.
Seneca and I burst out laughing. I kissed her one more time, willing the moment to last, but if Macron had something to tell us, it was probably important. I hugged her hard, breathing her in and telling myself she was alive. Gingerly, I ran my fingers over the wounds at her neck.
“They hurt?”
“Not so much anymore.”
I kissed around them then we stood, and she handed me my shirt. Her hand slipped from mine as she ducked into the closet. I pulled my t-shirt on and left the bedroom to find every set of eyes giving me various looks.
“I need to speak with you both,” Macron said.
“Good news?”
“Very,” Minnie’s voice came from the kitchen. She sat down beside me, patting my leg hard as her blind eyes lingered on me. “My, my, you really have stolen away our sweet Seneca’s heart and not a moment too soon.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Once she’s here, I’ll tell you all we’ve learned. Patience, Lord Draven. Patience.”
Lord Draven? No one had called me that since our coven fell. The title was foreign to me, but it was mine by rights.
Minnie continued to stare at me.
Fun conversation indeed.
Chapter 3
Seneca
The puncture wounds on my neck stood out, fresh and red. I gripped the sink hard as the sensation of Rudarius biting me rushed back. Proof that he told me of how easily he could always get to me. How no magic, not even my own, would keep him away from me forever.
A warning that if Draven tried to protect me, Rudarius would ensure he suffered before he finally let him succumb to death. And I’d be there, forced to watch every second of it.
Who knows, you might even enjoy it by that point, my dark fae princess.
I hissed at my reflection as my eyes opened. They were nothing but black pits of onyx looking back at me. Draven, I just had to think of Draven. My nails left rivets in the ceramic, as I focused my thoughts on Draven’s protective arms around me and nothing else. Rudarius’s voice faded away. The shadows cleared from my eyes and the punctures on my neck stopped hurting. I considered covering them up, but there was no point. They’d heal eventually. I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and after ensuring there were no shadows in my eyes, I exited my room to find everyone gathered in the living room.
Macron’s face was blank, but I sensed his uneasiness when I sat on the other side of Draven, putting him between Minnie and me.
“You finally going to tell us what you two have been up to?”
Macron sniffed loudly, glancing from me to Draven then folded his hands, resting his elbows on his knees as he studied me closely. “Helena, can you place the ring you have on the table, please.”
She did as he asked, sliding the broken ring from her finger. She spun it around so it faced Macron. “There’s no magic in it,” she said quietly. “I’m not sure what you plan on doing, but nothing remains but a bit of old jewelry.”
“That is true,” Macron agreed.
I sighed. “And here I thought you found a way to fix it.”
His scowl of disapproval was one I was used to from my days of training, but it wasn’t going to do him any good, not after all the shit I’d been through these last couple of weeks.
I raised a brow. “What’s that look for?”
“We need more than one mended ring to ever stand a chance against Rudarius.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
“And if you recall,” he continued, louder now, shooting me a glare that did resonate with me and I bit my cheek to curtail my sarcasm, “these rings will not help you without hurting you.”
“Then what do we do?” Draven studied the ring on the table. “Marlie said we can’t simply make more.”
“Can’t we?” Macron countered.
The silence that fell in the cottage was heavy enough to smother me. “I’m sorry,” I managed to whisper, “what did you just say?”
“The rings, we can make new ones.”
I stuck my finger in my ear and wiggled it hard, pushing
my tongue against my cheek. “Could you say that louder? I’m not sure I heard you the first time, Macron.”
“Seneca,” Draven said, trying to get me to sit back down.
I shoved his hand aside. “You’re telling me we’ve been sitting on our asses for five days thinking there’s no way we’ll be able to stand against Rudarius and you pull this out of your ass, just like that? Oh, don’t worry guys, just kidding about that whole we can’t forge new rings shit. What the hell, Macron?” I was shouting by the time I finished talking, my chest rising and falling quickly with ragged breaths. “How long were you going to keep this to yourself, huh? Another week? A month? Maybe let Rudarius gnaw on my neck a while longer? Don’t worry. I handled it fine the first time. Good thing I don’t have another set of wings for him to rip out.” I kicked the coffee table on my last word and stormed away from his penetrating glare.
“Seneca, stop,” he commanded, and as much as I didn’t want to, my feet froze where they were.
I whirled around to find him standing, but he kept his distance. “What?”
“We can’t remake all the rings.”
I threw my head back with a groan. “You’re a very confusing old man. We can’t forge rings, but then we can, but not all the rings. Make up your mind.” I stomped toward him and realized the second my eyes turned black.
A collective breath was sucked in. Shane merely frowned. Draven stood and slowly approached as if making ready to restrain me if I tried to hurt Macron. Assuring him I wouldn’t was a stupid idea, because at that moment, punching my old savior and mentor sounded like a brilliant plan.
“Minnie and I have been searching for any information we could on the forges. All but one has been destroyed.”
“And where is this one?”
He hesitated.
I looked behind him, to Minnie, when he took too long to answer.
She smiled softly. “Always so impatient, Seneca. The only forge remaining resides in the lost fae kingdom of Sa’ren.”
“No,” Marlie snapped from the corner of the room.
“Yes, it does,” Minnie corrected, her tone gentle. “It is there, though it has been dormant for many centuries.”