I turned around as well, pressing my back to hers.
Seven Vampires stared back and three of them had dark eyes.
The Born.
Bile rose in my throat as I looked at faces that felt too familiar. One of them had been subjected to enduring Lily’s darkness the night she had almost killed Nikita. They weren’t the highest ranking Born, but they were high enough to be in the Council chambers that day.
I remembered.
“The Dark Prince should have sent a letter; instead he sends a party of Vampires large enough to kidnap or kill.” I swept my hand out and the tree limbs moved, revealing the others that had carefully positioned themselves out of sight. They forget that I don’t need my eyes to see. To know. “If he meant for this to be a peaceful endeavor, he has failed, and unless you wish to start a war with the Shifters, I would leave now.”
One of the Born stood directly in front of me, not three feet away. A single step and swipe of my hand was all it would take to behead him, but I would not start this war. I would not make that decision for the Shifters. Even if his dark eyes and crop of hair so light it shined unnaturally beneath the trees gave me nightmares.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Much as you and I might wish. My liege has asked that I retrieve you, so that you both may speak freely. If you decline to come nicely . . .” He left the statement open-ended. Kidnapping it was.
Mentally I started calculating how far we’d gone from the residence and how fast Keyla was able to run. She could beat almost any Shifter, but a Vampire? No. Not even she was that fast unless she had a head start.
Would they leave her if I feigned coming with long enough to kill them? What if I went all the way . . . what if I could somehow find and save Lily myself . . . what if . . .
A presence brushed against my mind. I pulled away, trying to hide it from him. To keep it under control, but I’d already let Ash in, and there was no way for me to close him out if he chose to see.
“What’s wrong?” he projected across the bond.
I felt it, the moment he realized the situation I was in. The very second he put together what and who I was staring at.
“You do not get to go with them. Do you understand me—”
I blocked his voice, focusing on the Vampire in front of me. It was my choice. Not his. “If I go with you, you let her go. Right now. I watch her leave and none of you follow her—”
“No,” Keyla gasped. “No, Selena, you can’t do that.”
“Agreed,” the Born said. His face made it clear it meant little to him either way. “The child is without use to us.”
Without use. I froze, struggling against the pending inferno that was building. My demon was angry. So very angry at what these people had done to Lily. Ash’s own animalistic fury was beating through me as he started to close the distance between us.
“Leave me,” I told her. Ordered her. Maybe I shouldn’t have demanded it. Maybe it was too much to ask.
Keyla’s only response was to scream.
“Vampires! Help! Somebody help—”
One of them moved behind me, and I was only a fraction of a second faster in turning and grabbing Keyla’s arm, pulling her behind me. She tripped, and her knees smacked the forest floor in the same instant a wicked crack filled the air.
My head spun far enough back I was staring at the Born now behind me. He sighed and began tugging at the cuffs on his dress shirt. I reached up, cupping the back of my head and holding my chin, forcibly turning my head back while my neck rapidly healed itself.
The Made blinked, realizing his mistake. He’d meant to strike Keyla, but hit me instead. In a way, they were unlucky that I couldn’t die so easily. While the High Council wanted me, losing me would be less of a pain than what came next. A troubled expression was only beginning to grace his face when I back handed him hard enough that black blood sprayed my face. He toppled to the ground, a fourth of his head caved in. It wouldn’t kill him, but for attempting to hurt Keyla I was saving his death for last.
“Are you the chosen messenger?” I asked the Born who had spoken.
“I am,” he answered warily. He was worried where this was going after seeing his slave’s brain splattered on the forest floor. He should be worried.
Power filled the air, thickening it with a deadly tension. I reached out, preparing to wipe them from existence all in one go when—
It vanished. Every speck that was oozing from my pours and seeping into the world around me simply . . . disappeared. I looked around, searching for the source, but Ash wasn’t here and the Born had no powers. I examined the Made, all thirteen of them. I turned in circles, but not a single one of those thirteen stepped up. Their faces were blank, not mocking.
If not them then . . . slowly I looked down at the girl kneeling by my feet. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, and her skin gave off the slightest hint of a glow . . .
“I’m—I’m sorry—I don’t kn-know how t-to control it—” Her voice shook as the glow continued.
Somehow, a latent half-breed and a second child of a forfeit Supernatural had a power strong enough to subdue even mine. I stored that information away for later and turned back to the seventeen-person problem at hand.
I didn’t have my powers to keep us safe.
No matter.
There was only one being on this planet that was both stronger and faster than a Vampire. One that was infinitely harder to kill.
I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent of blood, magic, and dirt. She came forward without me needing to think or ask. After what they’d done to Lily and what that Made would have done to Keyla . . . there would be no mercy.
She would show them that I didn’t need to be a matter manipulator to make them pay. I opened my eyes and smiled cruelly, knowing that it was the face of a demon that stared out.
They didn’t even have time to scream.
Chapter 142
I grasped two daggers from my belt and threw them at the two other Born. The metal blades hit hard enough to shatter the bone of their rib cages that protected their unbeating hearts. Wind whistled in my ears as my heart began to race.
Both bodies fell backwards from the impact of the throw and hit the ground with a hard thud.
I was already reaching for the last dagger in my belt and the other in my boot. Without my ability to summon them back, two daggers and my own bare hands were all that would keep us alive against the fifteen Vampires that were now baring their fangs.
Fourteen of them would die this day.
Their bodies would stain the forest floor a shade of obsidian, and I would revel in it. I may not want to be a senseless killer, but I could be a justified one. The difference between being a monster and being someone’s savior, was not what you did. It was which side you were on. The motivation that made you do something so dark it would stain your soul.
My motivation was simple.
Justice.
Survival.
I held onto that—onto the picture of Lily’s face as I ducked under the swinging arms of one of the Made. I turned and stabbed him through the back, ripping his head off for good measure. Just to be sure.
“Watch out!” Keyla screamed. Without my power telling me where they were, I was at a bit of a disadvantage. I’d denied that same ability for years though, and this was not all that different.
I ducked, twisting around in the same motion. The Made behind me faltered as I came back up with my dagger outstretched. It slid straight between his ribs, and into his dead, rot-infested heart.
His skin darkened, turning gray—ashen—as he dropped to his knees and slumped over.
I cut the next Vampire down, pushing my hand holding the dagger straight through his chest. My other hand wrapped around his neck to hold him still as I pulled back out. The gaping hole oozed a sickly-scented ichor. I was already turning before the body hit the floor.
Eleven Made swarmed me as I searched for Keyla. Their red eyes fixated on my arms, painted black with Vampire blood. I hel
d them both up as I parried in a circle, distracting them with pretty moves.
“Keyla!” I called out.
The only answer I got in return was her scream. A tendril of fear ran through me.
I moved in the direction it came from, and the horde moved with me, changing position to continue our dance, even as my attention moved toward the trees. In the very back a girl with reddish-brown hair and ivory skin stared intently at the ground before her. Her hands were wrapped around something—no—they were wrapped around someone. Keyla’s voice choked out and without waiting another moment, I struck.
Moving faster than any Vampire could, I flung out my hand, and the dagger in it began spinning. It whirled horizontally as it sped through a gap not eight inches wide. A splatter of black exploded where the Made woman’s face was. I wheeled back, slashing a wide arc around me before throwing the second dagger.
It landed true.
Her head was nailed to a sycamore tree, right between her dull, dead eyes. Uneasy glances flitted between me and the corpse as Keyla let out a choked gasp, her tanned skin turning a tinge redder. I ran through the gap of Vampires between me and her, but I didn’t dare get on my knees to help her just yet.
“Breathe,” I whispered. Her eyes locked on mine. Gold flecked with black. She tilted her head forward a fraction and then back. A subtle nod as her nostrils flared and she inhaled slowly.
The golden tint of her skin winked out of existence and power swept into the forest and through the trees with a frightening headiness. My power. My strength. A slow smile crept up my face.
I may be down my daggers, but my true strength was something that could not be seen or stolen. Perhaps temporarily smothered by a girl far more remarkable than the world knew. But not taken.
Every single Vampire took a step back and turned to look at the Born who was shaking his head. One messenger. That’s all I needed to send my sister and her keeper a note.
“Next time one of yours steps on Shifter land with the intention to use force, I will not be this merciful. Tell your liege if he wishes to talk, a letter will suffice.” I waited for the Born to tip his head. Those dark eyes unfathomable as they were undammable.
Ten heads exploded in a shower of blood.
It stained my clothes and soaked my hair. It permeated the cracks of my skin and settled in the crevices of my nails. Every inch of me was coated in the metallic scent of the undead’s vitals, tinted with a sweetness that wasn’t natural. My demon blinked at the Born, and he seemed to understand that was his final warning.
“Allowing you to return is a kindness. You have ninety seconds before the Shifters will reach me and begin hunting. Tread lightly. You may have just started a war.” With that send-off, the Born hightailed it out of there. He was over a mile away before I let down my guard enough to turn my back on his retreating form and help Keyla. Her breaths were thin and her face a molten red, tinged purple, but she was breathing. Her heart pounded in my ears as I knelt down before her. She inhaled sharply, her features fracturing as her face fell and the heaviness of what happened finally started to settle in.
“Shhh . . .” I whispered, pulling her to me. Her arms wrapped tight around my neck and waist, vice-like as she clutched me and began to unravel. Broken gasps and silent sobs racked her body as I held her.
“You—they—you tried to leave me!” she stuttered, her voice rising. “You tried to—” She gulped in air, swallowing hard.
“Shhh . . .” I repeated, trying to calm her. Using the palm of my hand, I started to rub rhythmic circles between her shoulder blades. The black blood that stuck to my skin like tar smeared over the back of her jacket. I grimaced as the Shifters’ footsteps became known. Just a crinkle of leaves in an otherwise quiet forest. A whisper on the wind.
They spread out around us, moving in quick, even though there was nothing to find. Nothing but bodies and blood and broken innocence.
Ash came forward first. I sensed it as he stepped out of the woods and into the blackened hollow that was so seeped with blood that his footsteps squished.
Next came a gasp. Then another. And another.
Quiet descended. A silence so still that their heartbeats were thunder and I was the eye of the storm. Keyla shuddered against me.
“Selena,” he said softly. There was a wary note in his voice as he stopped a few feet away. Keyla only cried harder.
It was then when her choked sobs rocked us both and her blood-smeared face popped over my shoulder that the Shifters started to come forward.
A primal urge filled my demon. Keyla was vulnerable right now. Breakable. She didn’t need them poking and prodding at her.
They came closer. Circling the hallowed ground. Words drifted from the edges of the trees. That coldness that had thawed for Keyla resettled as the people around us became threats. Targets.
The moment someone stepped around Ash to approach I turned my head and bared my teeth, letting out the slightest growl. Face painted, clothes soaked, and black ichor dripping from my chin and the ends of my hair, they paused.
“Stop,” Ash commanded. “Her demon is protecting Keyla.” The power of the Alpha ran strong and every Shifter inclined their head. His presence slid into my mind, brushing against my being. “Selena,” he said with the same gentleness I used to rub Keyla’s back while she cried. “They’re not going to hurt her, I promise.”
Hurt her.
Hurt her.
Hurt her—
A soft hand touched my sticky cheek. Keyla pulled back a fraction, her palm cupping my face. “It’s okay,” she said hoarsely. “We’re okay,” she repeated, convincing herself more than me. Congealing blood smudged her face, turning to black watercolors where her tears ran. “You were going to leave so they wouldn’t hurt me but . . .” She trailed off and looked over my shoulder. Her swollen lips barely moved as she breathed, “You stayed.”
You stayed. Those words echoed through my mind, drawing my demon back.
“You didn’t give me much choice,” I told her. Her lips pressed together in a watery smile.
“I couldn’t let you go,” she insisted with more force and less fear, already overcoming the shock of what she’d seen.
What I’d done.
“I didn’t want to,” I said, barely a murmur. Her eyes softened, and she leaned in to press her blood-splattered lips to my cheek. We were both covered in gore from what had taken place.
“I know.”
My arms relaxed around her as I leaned back to brush the sticky strands away from her face as the rumors started. No one could come forward until Ash released his order, but that didn’t mean they had to be quiet while they did so.
“Did you see the bodies?”
“Could they even be called that?”
“How did they even get this far?”
“Do you think . . .”
“What if she called them?”
“She protected our own.”
“I heard she hunts the bloodsuckers for fun.”
“Doesn’t mean she—”
The rumors drifted through like leaves on the wind as Shifters went back and forth on whether I was the savior or the villain of this situation. I gritted my teeth and turned away, but Keyla caught my hand. “I get it now.”
I paused. “Get what?” I asked, my eyes falling on the decapitated head nailed to a tree stump. I think I knew.
“Why you don’t like to fight.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “You don’t like conflict . . . because in a dog eat dog world, you’re not a dog at all.” I turned my head a fraction, and her golden eyes caught mine.
“Oh?” I pressed my lips together, trying to find the words to say. To tell her that she’s right. That the conclusion she had come to in not so many words was both the one I warned her of from the beginning and the one I feared she’d one day reach. “What am I then?”
“You’re a god.”
My lips parted, and I stared.
For all the evil in the world that I’d
tried to stop, I never truly saw myself as much different. That evil and I shared many faults. While I fought it, I always knew that deep down it wasn’t what made the monster I was. I was born this way. I was resigned to that knowledge.
But Keyla looked at me, and she didn’t see a monster.
For all the dark deeds I’d done and beings I’d killed, she saw me kill sixteen Vampires and still looked at me like I was her hero. Some legend brought to life before her eyes.
“I’m not so sure about that,” I said. Rocking back on my heels and into the blackened mud.
“If you’re not a god, then what are you?”
Her eyebrows pinched together as she watched me, near oblivious to the Shifters around her as they silently judged our interactions.
I realized then it wasn’t Keyla I needed to find those words for, but for the world who now looked on with far more fear and trepidation than the girl before me.
Anastasia was dead. Vampires attacked the Alpha’s daughter. The Court was crumbling, and nobody knew what was coming next.
Above all that seemed to be the question they asked. The question many would ask when word of the attack and the slaughter that followed spread.
I took a deep breath, knowing deep down how I had to answer, because I made a promise—that I would do what was needed to end this no matter the consequences.
Fate took a turn and Anastasia’s life was stolen from me, but that didn’t change the burden I had to bear. Both my past and my future.
I looked at Keyla, then to Ash, whose black eyes were only a shade warmer than my own when my demon was in control.
They were what I was fighting for.
And so I answered her question—the question the world didn’t know to ask yet.
“Something so much worse,” I said quietly. “I’m a Fortescue.”
Ash watched as I fanned the ember that flew on the wind of whispers, where it would eventually land; the spark that lights the fuse.
The world was going to change with those words. Both his and mine.
But it was the things I left unsaid that troubled me most.
Because I wasn’t just a Fortescue, but a Konig too.
Daizlei Academy Omnibus Collection Page 85
