Before long, Kira heard a rustling in the trees. Luke did too and he sat up from the hammock, instantly alert. They moved as one person to the edge of her porch, four hands resting on the white painted banister, searching the woods at the back of her house for any movement.
Out of thin air, Diana appeared in the middle of her yard. She was dressed in a sequined, black party dress, one that reminded Kira of the pictures she’d seen of flappers in her history books. Her black hair flowed freely in the breeze, and her skin was like harsh marble, starkly white in the sunlight. Her sudden appearance struck Kira more like a magic trick than a natural movement. She had little experience with the special powers vampires possessed, and Diana seemed faster than even the wind. Luke’s muscles tensed beside her. Diana was far quicker than they could hope to be, but Kira knew a lot of it was for show, to intimidate her and Luke before the real fight even began.
"My dearest little Kira, how are you on this fine winter’s morning?" The words rolled from Diana’s tongue. She knew she had complete control over the situation, and she lazily walked forward, trying to stir fear in Kira’s heart.
"Diana," Luke said tersely. Kira remained silent, not wanting to give Diana the satisfaction of a response.
"Well, what a welcome. I hardly think you’re even excited to see me."
"What gave us away?" Luke let the biting remark out evenly. Kira recognized his self-defensive sarcasm and used it to give her strength. She would resist for as long as possible, just like Luke planned to do.
Kira let a small flame rise on her palm, letting her power heal any weakness Luke and she carried, before firing it at lightning speed toward Diana’s face. It struck before Diana had time to move, and she was thrown backward as if punched. Kira let herself have a moment of satisfaction. She and Luke knew some cool tricks, too.
Diana stood slowly, her hand to her cheek and malice in her eyes. Kira watched her battle to keep her emotions in check, and Diana’s weakness became all too clear. She wanted to draw this out and make Kira suffer. So Kira wanted to make it as quick as possible. She fired another shot, a long stream of fire she knew in her bones was meant to kill. She heard Diana whimper in the onslaught and watched as Diana retreated back into the trees and out of Kira’s range.
"Bitch!" Diana yelled from the forest. "Do you have a death wish? I’m here to kill you, you know. Do you really want to egg me on?"
"I think I’m the one who almost killed you, Diana. Care to come out for another go?" Kira found her voice and her defiance. She was ready to fight, eager for it almost.
"I hope you don’t think your boyfriend is going to save you, little Kira." Diana rushed out again, her calm demeanor returned but her hair clearly worse for the wear. The imperfection gave Kira a jolt of pleasure.
"I can handle myself, thanks."
"And what about when you can’t spit that little flame of yours and chase me away? What then?" Kira shrugged, playing it cool, but was actually wondering the same thing herself.
As if on command, Jerome and John walked out of the forest slowly, with Tristan chained between them. Kira gasped. She couldn’t help herself.
Tristan was shirtless and covered in blood. The streaks started at various points of his chest and arms, flowing from wounds that had since closed up because of his quick healing. Only another vampire’s nails or teeth could have caused that damage. Jerome and John had broken his arms, the same way they had in the auditorium so long ago, and Kira knew they had only been able to catch him with those cheap tricks. They had twisted Tristan’s limbs free of their sockets, tying his forearms to the stick they were using to carry him forward. His feet were chained too, but he still tried to put some weight on them, refusing to let his former friends drag him helplessly along the ground. He was trying to be strong, even though his face was the only thing not trapped in constraints.
When his eyes met hers, Kira wanted to rush to Tristan. They were full of pain, both physical and emotional, and Kira knew he was killing himself over his failure. He had been her last hope and though she hated to admit it, the will to fight left her a little bit.
Diana saw the opening. "What? Did you think he would come in and save the day? I told you already, you stupid girl, he is going to kill you, and he is going to like it. Isn’t that the promise I made?"
Diana walked in front of Tristan and held his chin in her hand, forcing him to look at her. With her other hand, she slapped him across the cheek, and Kira heard the crunch of his neck breaking and saw his limbs go fully limp. Jerome and John didn’t even flinch. Tristan groaned, trying hard to clench his lips together to keep a scream from escaping. Even vampires could feel pain, especially at the brutality of their own kind.
A minute later, his neck snapped back in line. Diana leaned back for another slap.
"No!" Kira yelled. Diana stopped her hand, just barely. More than anything, Kira wanted to throw her fire like a huge blanket, smoldering them, but it was too risky with Tristan so weak and so close to the others.
"How sweet. A lover’s plea." Diana clapped like a little child playing with her favorite toy. Everything was working out just as she had planned.
And as if on cue, the sky darkened just one shade, but it was enough. All six of them looked up, despite the blinding light, to take note of that small sliver of black piercing the sun's surface. There wasn’t much time before her powers would be useless. Five minutes, maybe. Kira started forward, but Luke grabbed her hand, stopping her.
"You can’t save him now. We have to get out of here," he whispered.
"Yes, run. It’s so much more exciting that way," Diana responded, hearing Luke’s request and playing off of his fears. Kira looked up again; already more of the sun had been covered. She needed to use the time she had.
With all the control Kira could gather, she shot flames at Diana, John, and Jerome and amazingly pushed them back. Jerome and John dropped Tristan in their shock, and Kira broke free of Luke to run to Tristan’s side. He managed to get onto his knees and she sunk down to her own, all the while keeping her arm outstretched, creating a wall of flames behind the two of them—one that was weakening with each passing second.
"I can’t hold it for long. Undo the chains now, Tristan!" She cradled his face with her free hand, trying to split her attention.
"It’s no use. I can’t. I’ve been trying. You have to run, Kira, now, before Diana has the chance to grab you. Go to your car and just start driving as far away as possible."
Kira shook her head. Tristan opened his mouth to argue, but she covered it with a kiss, breaking it off when her power weakened further. She pulled Tristan into a hug instead, looking past his shoulder at the three cowering vampires waiting for her shield to fall so they could pounce. Kira shifted her gaze to the sky, where the sun was now more than half covered by the black hole of the moon. The earth was being steeped in shadow, and even her light was dimming in the process. Slowly, like a ticking time bomb, the power seeped from her, until finally it winked out.
The total eclipse had come.
"I love you," was all Kira had time to whisper before hands grabbed her shoulders, throwing her like a rag doll away from Tristan. She landed, hearing the crunch of her ankle as a fierce shot of pain traveled up her spine, and let out a scream. Kira was satisfied that she at least had a moment with Tristan, a small sliver of time to say goodbye and to tell him she loved him. It was the first time those words had passed her lips, and Diana could never take that away.
"Kira, Kira, Kira," Diana purred and stomped her foot down on Kira’s chest, holding her to the ground and crushing her. "You should have listened to them both, because now it’s too late to escape."
Luke ran over and jumped at Diana, reaching out his hands to strangle her. Diana backhanded him like a fly. He sailed away, smacking into the porch and landing on the ground with a thud. He didn’t stir from the spot where he landed, and Kira screamed again. She stared transfixed at his immobile body, flailing her limbs like a mad woman tryi
ng to escape Diana’s hold. Luke was dying, she was sure of it. She needed to hold him, to help him somehow.
Kira used all her strength, but she couldn’t budge Diana’s foot. It was useless, and instead of helping Luke, she was just hurting herself. Kira prayed, for what seemed like her first true prayer in ages, that Luke was alive—knocked unconscious, but alive.
Diana seemed to sense Kira’s fading hope, because she reached down for a fistful of Kira’s hair and used it to drag her across the yard, dropping her in front of Tristan. Kira refused to make a sound even though it felt as though her head were ripping free of her body. The pain was excruciating, but even still, she wouldn’t let Diana win.
Jerome and John were holding Tristan again, but this time Jerome’s hand was clenched over Tristan’s mouth to stop him from uttering a word.
"Time’s up, Kira," Diana whispered.
And before Kira could move, Diana’s teeth sank into Kira’s neck and her blood flowed freely into the vampire’s system. She heard the gurgling of her own blood, felt the warm liquid seep down her spine where droplets spilled free of Diana’s lips. She heard Tristan struggle and scream protests even through Jerome’s hand, but Diana wouldn’t stop.
"Enough." Jerome’s deep voice startled Kira from the pain and the weakness spreading through her body from blood loss. Diana’s head jerked up, freeing Kira. "The time for games is done. We must use her to fix Tristan."
Fix him? Kira thought. He doesn’t want to be evil!
She wanted to scream the words at them, but Kira couldn’t find the strength to speak. Her limbs felt like butter. They wouldn’t do as she commanded, and Diana held her still.
John pulled a glass cup from his pocket and Diana took it. Kira barely registered the cool touch against her skin, but when they pulled the cup away a minute later, it was full to the brim with her blood. Jerome reached his hand down, soaking one of his fingers, and licked it clean with a flash of pleasure.
Kira’s only hope was that they would lose control, that one of them would end her quickly before they had a chance to change Tristan. If all hope was lost for her, she wanted him to at least be spared.
But as quickly as that thought came, it passed, because John took the cup, jerked Tristan’s head back by his forehead and let her blood flow freely into his forcibly opened mouth. Kira saw him struggle, shaking his limbs against the chains, trying desperately to escape, and she wondered if he could fight the pull of her blood. Maybe all this time, Diana had been right—Kira would be Tristan’s undoing.
His body started to slump as the glass emptied. Jerome refilled it, passing it back to John, and this time, Tristan didn’t move while it was poured. When the third cup was filled, Tristan strained his head up, arching to get all of Kira’s blood, swallowing it willingly, and even in her weakened state, Kira knew a change had occurred.
Diana let Kira fall to the ground and walked over to Tristan’s side. They undid his chains and he stood quickly, faster than Kira’s eyes could process it. Her blood had strengthened his body. He stretched his arms over his head, the muscles of his stomach flexing with the movement, and he cracked his neck bones before leaning forward to look at Kira. All the fight left Kira’s body the moment their eyes met.
Tristan was gone.
A sob escaped her lips and tears dropped quickly from her eyes the longer she stared into his, which had become as hard as stone and colder than ice. She had never seen him look at her that way, like less than food, like vermin, even since the first time they had met. His pupils dilated, so the blue of his irises were almost paper thin. His fangs were extended, blood dripped from his lips and he licked it away, smiling the entire time. He hugged Diana, gave her a deep kiss, bit her, and then shoved her away, chuckling at her hurt expression. Quick as a bullet, he ripped Jerome’s T-shirt free of his body and used the rag to wipe the blood from his chest.
Then, as an afterthought, Tristan leaned over Kira, licking her open wound. With her blood fresh on his lips, he said, "Aren’t you going to run?"
Kira found the strength to back up. Diana she could handle, Jerome and John she could handle, but this Tristan was more than she could stand. How had her blood changed him so much? He was more than animal. He was evil and she was the reason he had changed. Kira stood, swaying on her woozy feet, trying not to feel stabbing pains in her heart as he laughed at her struggles.
"Tristan?" she asked meekly, reaching her hand out as if she could recover some trace of the man she had lost.
"Yes, honey?" Tristan smiled, blood staining his white teeth. The word honey felt like a slap in Kira’s face.
The sky confirmed what she felt in her bones. The eclipse was still complete. There would be no refuge in her power. With one last look at Tristan, one final gaze to see if he was acting, one final search of the lines of his face for some sign, Kira turned and ran away from the sound of the man she loved laughing in the face of her death.
"I’ll give you a head start, little Kira," Tristan called. She winced as he used the name Diana had condescendingly called her but charged on into the woods beyond her neighbor’s backyard, into the darkness where the eclipse had stolen every hint of light that ever previously existed.
Kira limped on the ankle she was sure she had broken. With each step, a knife seemed to pierce her leg. She was dizzy from the blood loss and her vision receded, warping into a tunnel, letting her see only the leaves directly in front of her. Kira tripped on tree roots and leaned against giant trunks to stabilize herself. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath before pounding forward again. Self-preservation was all Kira thought about. Her instincts had taken over because her thoughts had become too much to handle. All she could do was concentrate on running as far as she possibly could.
And then she heard the cackling—a shrieking, high-pitched noise, right behind her. A finger, one she knew must belong to Diana, poked her back, sending her flying forward, and Kira kept running. A hand gently caressed her cheek, another slapped at her arm, another pulled on her hair, and Kira knew there was no escape. She felt like millions of ghosts were pawing at her, invisible but tangible, and Kira just stopped, tired of all the games, ready to see if this Tristan was so changed that he was willing to kill her.
"I’m done," Kira said to the empty clearing she stood in the middle of, knowing all four of them were close enough to hear. To keep herself going, she had to think of Tristan as a thing. Not as the human she knew, but as the vampire she needed to kill.
"That’s no fun." Diana pouted and emerged from the shadows.
A hand clenched down on Kira’s shoulder and spun her around. She stared directly into Tristan’s face. He fangs popped out and he leaned down to her neck to finish the job. Kira pounded her fists against his chest, trying in vain to hurt him, but he stilled her easily.
Kira waited to feel his teeth puncture her skin and drain the life from her. She knew that the real Tristan would never go through with it and hoped he was in there somewhere, fighting the bloodlust her cells had created within him.
Her body involuntarily jerked when instead of teeth, his cheek gently caressed hers and he breathed in the smell of her hair—something he loved to do when they were lying side by side in her bed and he thought she was asleep. Kira bit her lip to keep from smiling. If this was a trick, it was the cruelest one of all, because before she even realized it, Kira let herself believe Tristan had been fooling them all the entire time.
When his lips brushed against the sensitive skin just below her ear and she heard him say, "I love you, too," Kira allowed herself to smile.
A moment later, Tristan pushed her to the side to punch the now charging Diana in the face.
Kira’s legs collapsed and she sank down to the ground, all her strength gone. For the next minute, all Kira could do was watch as Tristan, rejuvenated and fortified by her blood, threw three vampires around like rag dolls. They all ignored Kira, too caught up in their anger at Tristan for tricking them. Thunder sou
nded every time one of their bodies flew into a tree trunk, snapping the bark and causing the forest to wobble on its foundations.
Kira looked up, past the tallest branch, through the swaying leaves, at the sun. An ebony circle covered the suns surface, but a halo of light stretched past the shadow, fighting to touch back down to earth. After the excruciating wait, the few minutes of total eclipse had passed. Kira felt more than saw the moon move a fraction to the side. No visible change had occurred, but with Kira’s connection to the sun, everything had altered within her.
With her hands behind her back, Kira brought a flame to life and used her power to heal her. The electric current raced through her veins, multiplying her blood cells, closing the cuts that streaked across her skin from the branches she had struck while fleeing, reconnecting the bones that had shattered in her ankle. And, most of all, the two little puncture holes at her neck sealed shut without a scar.
Kira jumped up, bringing her hands forward, and shot flames at John, who had failed to taste her blood. He would not be immune in the slightest, and quickly, Kira let the stream arch up in the sky and circle down, encasing him from above. For John, there was nowhere to run. Kira stopped paying attention to Tristan’s fight, letting John have her full attention. She still lacked the control over using her protective powers versus killing powers, and before Kira knew it, John had collapsed into a pile of burning ash.
Kira looked at the sky. There was no evidence of an eclipse anymore. As usual, she had lost track of time when using her powers and she assumed Tristan had kept them away from her. When she turned, Tristan and Diana had hold of each other’s necks and were squeezing, racing to see who would be decapitated first.
Kira started forward to help Tristan but tripped over the body she hadn’t noticed at her feet. Jerome lay still, with a gaping hole in his chest, next to the crushed remains of his heart. Kira stifled a scream and jumped over him to escape the gruesome sight.
Diana squeezed free of Tristan, realizing he would have killed her first, and Kira used the open opportunity to shoot a blaze right at Diana’s heart, crushing her against a tree, not letting her escape. Kira wasn’t sure if enough time had passed. She feared that Diana’s immunity hadn’t waned, but Kira’s emotions put extra force behind the punch, and Diana had nowhere left to run. The fight was over, but Kira was not playing nice this time. Diana was evil, pure and simple, and evil needed to be destroyed. Kira stepped closer, slowly, until her palm laid flat against Diana’s chest, killing her all the faster.
"You don’t want to kill me, Kira." Diana forced the words out, struggling to make a sound.
"Why not? You tried to kill me. You tried to turn my boyfriend against me. You might have killed my best friend. Give me one good reason." Kira leaned in with each word, staring into Diana’s clear blue eyes, letting her meaning sink in.
"Your mother is alive, and I know where she is."
Kira jumped back, too shocked to maintain her control, and in that split second, Diana disappeared.
"No!" Kira screamed, trying to run after her. Tristan grabbed her around the waist, picking her up off the ground.
"It’s useless. Don’t hurt yourself. Diana has the gift of speed, even I couldn’t catch her."
"But, my mother?" Kira let Tristan hug her close to him.
She had given up on her parents ever since she learned of their existence, but now Kira felt the loss all over again. She imagined the woman in her vision, with long golden hair that almost sparkled in the sun, and she wanted nothing more than to know her. She still wore the locket and ring around her neck, and even now its weight seemed heavier, seemed to weigh her down, until Kira broke free of Tristan’s hold and reached into her shirt to bring it out. She opened the picture, the sole image of her real family, and felt like she had been punched in the gut. That was the most horrendous trick Diana had played, because now Kira would never stop wondering.
"Come on." Tristan lifted Kira up as if she weighed nothing and started walking through the trees back toward her house.
"Tristan?" she asked, trying to push thoughts of her mother to the back of her mind. He looked down at her, waiting for the question she had prompted. Hoping it wouldn’t hurt him, she said, "That was all an act, right?"
He stopped walking, set her down, and cupped her face in both of his hands. Staring into her eyes, he said, "I swear it was. I hated every second of it, I promise. Never, ever doubt that. For thirty years, I did evil things under Aldrich’s control. All I did there was show you a part of my past that I never wanted to let resurface." Tristan wiped her cheeks clean of the salty tears she had let streak down and kissed her softly. "I love you. If I had lost you, I don’t know what I would have done."
"I love you, too." Kira reached her arms up around his neck as he picked her up again. They both knew she could walk, but it was much more comfortable this way, she thought as she played with the short hairs at the base of his neck.
When they emerged from the forest into the freshly cut but now blood covered grass of her backyard, Kira told Tristan to let her go. She surveyed the damage, wondering how she would clean it up, when she noticed the body, Luke’s body, slumped under the porch where he had fallen from Diana’s throw. She screamed and threw her hands up to cover the sound as it escaped her mouth.
Instantly, Kira darted forward, dropping to her knees beside him, leaning her ear down to listen for a heartbeat.
"Tristan, on my god, Tristan! Is he dead? I can’t hear his heart. I can’t hear his heart." Kira was yelling, but she couldn’t stop. Tristan forcibly moved her to the side, leaning down, listening.
"I forgot about him," Kira said, hardly understanding herself.
How had she forgotten about Luke? Her guardian, her best friend, her protector for all of these months? Kira couldn’t breathe. She tried to suck in a breath, but she was hyperventilating from the shock. His eyes were closed, and the normally healthy tanned glow of his skin had been replaced by the ash gray now covering his body. She cradled his face in her hands. His body felt warm, but cool compared to the normal heat of a conduit’s skin. She pushed open one of his eyelids, but his pupil had rolled back into his skull.
"Tristan!" she yelled again, and he sat up, shaking his head.
"He’s not dead yet, but Kira, it’ll happen any moment. His heart stopped. I don’t know for how long."
"No!" Kira wailed, and then repeated the word over and over again, cradling Luke in her arms. He couldn’t be dead. It wasn’t possible.
Kira thought of how he jumped on Diana, risking everything to try and help her. She wasn’t worth it, she realized, and she hugged him to her, letting tears fall freely.
Without even meaning to, her whole body began to glow, not just her hands, and Kira encased herself and Luke in her power. Tristan was catapulted away, thrown onto the other side of the yard and Kira kept her eyes closed, chanting, "No, no, no, no," as if it were a prayer.
Her power seeped out and melted into Luke’s body. She was draining everything she had into his corpse, her very own life force.
"Kira!" she heard Tristan shout, distantly. "Kira! You’re killing yourself. Stop!"
Hands grabbed at her, but she resisted, not allowing anything to move her from Luke. She kept her eyes closed, swaying back and forth, using all of the power she possessed.
Time passed without her realizing and before Kira even had the chance to let her power go, she was long gone. Her body fell back, and hit the ground next to Luke’s—burned out, limp and lifeless.
Epilogue
Ignite (Midnight Fire Series Book One) Page 16
