Rebirth - Book 1 Rogues Shifter Series

by Gayle Parness

  Chapter Forty-five

  Garrett had just left the clearing after showing Kennet his weapon, when he saw me healed and smiling. He picked me up and spun me around as our supporters in the crowd all cheered. “I’ll destroy her and our lives will be perfect.”

  “Mine is perfect already.” I kissed him quickly, pressing my forehead against his, locking gazes and sending him bursts of my love and my energy. His confidence soared. Tonight, he’d free himself of this bitch forever.

  I felt him switch to vamp mode as he turned and gracefully swayed into the ring, fangs out, lips pulled back in a snarl that raised the hairs on my arms. She matched him step for step glowering and hissing. Her sexy demeanor had completely disappeared, replaced by a violent beast; her true colors for all of us to see. Antoine’s death had perhaps surprised but not unbalanced her and I watched with fascination as Eleanor’s tremendous power charged the air, tendrils of energy reaching out toward her nest.

  My team had moved to stand beside me in support, so I took Ethan’s hand as he put an arm around Sinc who was already clutching Kyle’s elbow. We knew instantly something was up when Eleanor’s nest grew unnaturally still. Lily, Sasha, and the rest began to sink to the ground and weaken before our eyes. She was draining them of life force so she could beat Garrett. As she grew more powerful, her black aura cleared and her eyes turned a solid silver, much sharper in tone than Garrett’s.

  To distract her, Garrett held up his wrist and showed her the mark of our mating. Her eyes widened and she whipped her head around to glare at me, so I held up mine, along with one prominent finger. She answered with another hiss, her rage adding to her monstrous aspect.

  Lord Kennet’s voice rang out once more. “The duel begins now.”

  Eleanor and Garrett moved in a blur practically invisible to shifter eyes. To see them more clearly, I tapped into the lines. Garrett was already in trouble. He was barely able to defend against her attacks and could make very few of his own. I saw a few slashes across his face and arms where she’d used her blade, fangs, and nails. She was a windstorm of fury and blood lust and I quickly became afraid for him.

  The frenzied action stopped as rapidly as it had begun. They continued to circle; taking a moment to rest and adjust to each other’s fighting styles. Garrett looked worse than Eleanor, A chunk of flesh was missing from his cheek, his shirt was ripped to pieces with bloody red gashes visible through the holes, and his arms were badly bitten. In a fluid motion he removed his shirt and pulled out his knife, never taking his gaze from Eleanor, his maker, the female who’d forced him to become a vampire against his will, who’d forced him to watch his family die. I wanted to help him….

  “Jacqueline, stop!” Liam had pushed his way next to me. “If you let your energy heal him you will both die.” I kept very still, absorbing the tendrils of emerald magic floating toward Garrett. They hadn’t touched him, but they were very close. “Your ignorance and lack of control won’t matter to Kennet. You’ll still die.” I stole a glance at the fae lord. He was watching me intently as my power dissipated.

  “Thank you, Liam.” I undid the belt and handed it to him along with his blade, never taking my gaze away from Garrett.

  Liam touched my shoulder. “He has a plan. He will succeed in killing her.”

  While Garrett bled and fought, I forced myself to think about his incredible abilities.

  He’s a master strategist, I told myself. He hasn’t pulled out his trump card yet. He hasn’t used the lines. He’ll beat her. I took in a deep breath, let it out again with a shudder and forced myself to simply watch. Liam placed his hand on my shoulder, maybe needing the contact as much as me. I sometimes forgot he was half human, and had been Garrett’s close friend for over a hundred years.

  Eleanor arrogantly tossed her sword outside the ring, seeming to perfer using her nails and teeth to draw blood. She was sure she was winning, and on the surface, it looked that way to everyone. The crowd near me had quieted and some of the shifter fighters were picking up their weapons, readying themselves for the battle to come with Eleanor and her nest after Garrett’s death.

  Racing toward him again with her amazing speed, Eleanor sunk her fangs into his shoulder, ripping deeply and exposing some bone. Garrett managed to dole out a few wicked punches, hitting her stomach, ribs and then her kidneys as she turned away, but she retaliated by ripping into his chest with her sharper nails. When she swung her other arm toward him he managed to pull away at the last second, avoiding her long nails as they slashed at his throat. But a well-aimed kick to his stomach sent him flying across the clearing.

  Although the odds seemed to be in Eleanor’s favor, she was tiring. She’d grown cocky, taking more chances, expending much more energy than Garrett and leaving herself open to attack. Not a smart move around someone as skilled as my mate.

  As she raked her nails viciously across his face, she stumbled, her momentum carrying her away and leaving her back exposed. He jumped on the opportunity, using his father’s blade to slice across her flesh. A sharp growl erupted, as fury and pain distorted her features even more, turning her into more beast than vampire. The smell of burning flesh filled the air and the gash continued to bleed, not healing as her other wounds had.

  Garrett was taking what she was delivering, all the while conserving his strength. He hadn’t used the lines yet, so I held my breath in anticipation, eager to see him kick her ass with his magic.

  This time, Garrett didn’t give her a chance to recover. He ran in and grabbed her arm, twisting and breaking it, bringing a startled gasp to her lips. She ignored the pain and forced him back with a shove, snarling and attempting to bite into his neck again. Garrett jabbed her in the stomach with his fist, breaking ribs and forcing her to let go of his arm and stumble backward. His blade ripped through the air, this time slicing a burning gash across her shoulder. She hissed and the fighting stopped as they each took a moment to gather their wits and recoup. They moved in a circle, silver gazes locked together in hate.

  Eleanor straightened, drawing all eyes to her beauty, transformed once more from the feral beast into the exquisite monster who’d sucked in so many innocent victims over the centuries. When she spoke to Garrett, her voice was a silky seduction, brushing against our senses, enticing him to obey.

  “Come home to me. You’ve always been a favorite. I won’t punish you or your sweet cheetah. She and her friends can live out their lives as they please. None of us will touch them, I promise you. I only want you back where you belong. Come to me, Garrett.”

  I heard a few shifters in the crowd whisper, “He should go back. She’s so beautiful.” Her Influence was incredibly strong, spilling over into the crowd, but my mate was used to her deceptions.

  Garrett curled his lip back in a sneer, the first small vibrations strumming through me as he began to pull magical energy into his body. “Eleanor, I’ve never believed your lies. You plan to kill them all, just as you killed my family, just as you’re planning to kill me the moment I let my guard down. But tonight it will be my pleasure to end your depraved existence.” He spit on the ground at her feet and she growled in rage at his act of disrespect. “I claim my independence from your nest. I’m no longer your property.”

  I felt a change in the air as Garrett stopped moving, his voice echoing with power and his own brand of Influence. “You’re my maker, a position which should have earned my respect and obedience. But you’re only interested in your own sick pleasures. You even torture your nest.” He indicated the figures crumpled on the ground on the far side of the clearing. “You’ve taken hundreds of innocent lives and forced your nest to participate in your perversions. I’ve witnessed many of them myself. Tonight I have people to avenge. I hope you find no peace on the other side.”

  Eleanor tried to act nonchalant, but fear burned in her eyes for the first time. She was an older and more powerful vampire than Garrett, but she’d forgotten in accepting his challenge, Garrett was not only a vampire. Her voice was sh
aky when she answered, although she put on a good face. “Garrett, you and your little cheetah are quite amusing. I think I shall skin her alive when I’m through with you: like I did to your sweet little sister.”

  Enormous amounts of magical energy spun into the clearing as Garrett’s aura cleared and grew brighter. He picked her up in a blur and threw her across the ring, cracking the trunk of a tree. She jumped up immediately, but her fear and shock was obvious to all of us.

  Garrett stood perfectly still—the blue of his eyes completely hidden by the silver of his rage. His body pulsed with a power that crackled around him in a magical circuit. He reached out to her with his mind, his magic and his unbound anger, his hand tracing a shape in the air. Garrett’s rich voice rang out, “Se soumettre. Submit!”

  Eleanor was on her knees in the sand a moment later, her arms frozen at her sides. She struggled madly, but couldn’t rise. She snarled and hissed in fear as Garrett circled her, his smile devoid of warmth. Holding his knife in front of his body, he swiped his finger over the sharp blade and blood flowed down its length, dripping into the sand at his feet. He cut a shape on her forehead and rubbed his blood into it as if completing a ritual. Her eyes grew wide with terror.

  “Eleanor,” he hissed. “I will drain you slowly.”

  “You will not do this. I am your maker. Release me.” When he didn’t respond, she said, “I love you, Garrett.” Her desperation drew no pity from anyone watching. Eleanor had sent her vampires to shifter and even werewolf communities to murder entire families. No one would save her from my avenging angel.

  He laughed quietly, the sound as cold as winter. “With each minute of your pain, I’ll remind you of the innocent lives I witnessed you destroy.”

  Eleanor glanced toward her nest, only to realize she’d left them too weak to help her. She moaned and screamed, her skin tightening painfully. Garrett’s blue aura brightened with each magical pulse as her body slowly shriveled and dried up. As long as she was able, Eleanor cried and pleaded while Garrett whispered to her in French, cursing her and reminding her of past treacheries. Her skin, bones and organs burned and cracked causing her excruciating pain, but denying her death, Garrett took his time.

  At one point, he reached out to transfer small jolts of magical power into me, Francois, who stood across the ring from me, Liam, Maya, and even Eleanor’s depleted nest of vampires. We all gasped from the sudden shock, then fed on the energy, using it as we wished. I stored some, in case a battle with his nest came later, releasing the rest back into the lines. He could only share this power with those of us who could connect to the lines, but perhaps the non-magic users could feel health returning to the island, as Eleanor’s dark power was extinguished.

  Almost at the end, Garrett shifted into his magnificent cheetah, ripping her throat out with his sharp teeth. The people in the crowd who hadn’t known Garrett had once been a cheetah, were struck dumb, but soon a shout rang out in support of his final actions. The shifters and wolves who had come to see the duel, had known their families would not be safe as long as Eleanor lived.

  Garrett’s cheetah tore at her neck with his claws and his fangs until her head rolled on the ground. A moment later her dust blew into the sea and dissolved in the currents.

  He had avenged his family in a most fitting way, his cheetah delivering true death to his vicious maker.

  “Garrett Cuvier is declared the winner.” When I glanced over at Lord Kennet, I was surprised to see he was looking at me.