Sacrifice

by Anna Santos

  “Julius got us a sample a few days back.”

  “Yes, my blood. I’m a bit drained these days for obvious reasons but my friend here,” he looked at Beth, “she can provide us a sample, and then you can get my money and a place to hide for a few days. Things are going to get complicated around here.”

  “How much do you want for her? She’s pretty. Customers would pay big bucks to drink from the source.” Simon grinned, showing his yellow, crooked teeth.

  Alaric’s grin dissipated, and he leaned forward with red eyes and extended fangs. “She’s not for sale. Don’t get greedy or you’ll regret it.”

  Simon chuckled, but Alaric noticed the sweat on his forehead and the red spreading on his neck.

  “Forget that I even said that.” Simon got up. “I’ll get what we need to get a sample of her blood. If it’s the real deal, we can negotiate. Of course, that I’ll have to call Julius and tell him to get here.”

  Alaric nodded. “Of course.”

  ***

  “It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Simon said when Kiera removed the last vial of blood from Beth’s veins.

  Alaric had sold three vials. He didn’t want Beth to get too weak. The money received would be enough to pay for a hideout and transportation out of there.

  “The roads are blocked, and police officers are scanning the area. Anyone knows what’s going on?” Jack, one of Julius’ enforcers, entered the pub using the back door.

  Simon waved in dismissal. “It must have something to do with our new friend.”

  “What’s happening? Why didn’t you show up to our encounter?” Jack looked at Alaric who was seated at a table, not too far from Beth’s location.

  “Give her a glass of blood,” Alaric instructed Kiera before looking at Jack. “I had a few unforeseen problems. But I have the money now, and I have a new deal with your boss.”

  Jack sunk his hands in his jeans. “As long as I’m getting paid.”

  Alaric noticed Beth taking Jack’s measures. He was intimidating, but not very bright. However, Julius needed him for his muscles and not his intellect.

  “You are rather quiet, Beth.”

  She glanced at him. “I don’t have anything to say.”

  Jack interrupted their conversation. “I know where I’ve seen you.” He was talking to Beth. “You’re the prince’s new girlfriend.” His face became pale, and he looked at Simon. “Are you mad?”

  “What?” Simon frowned.

  It seemed that Jack wasn’t as stupid as Alaric thought.

  “You will be well-paid for your services,” Alaric said with a grin as he relaxed further into his seat.

  Beth’s eyes moved from Jack’s to Alaric’s.

  “What’s happening?” Kiera asked, arriving with the glass of blood that she gave to Beth.

  Alaric watched Beth drink the blood instead of replying to Kiera.

  Jack warned, “Simon, the police is looking for her. If they find her here, we’re fucked.”

  Simon looked at Alaric. “Is that true? What did you do?”

  Alaric shrugged and chuckled. “My bad. I still need a hideout. All will be fine if they don’t find Beth or me here. Just do your part.”

  “Or we can deliver you to the police,” Simon counteroffered. “No amount of blood is worth to cross the royal family. They turn a blind eye on us, but they will have no problem in end ingus if we are keeping one of them here.”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m a pureblooded vampire, too. Do you think you have any chance against me?” He batted his eyelashes at Simon with a smirk. “Not even Jack here can deal with a pureblood.”

  Kiera gasped and looked at Simon and Jack. “We need more men.”

  Alaric moved his head and focused his hearing. “Is this place soundproofed?”

  “Yes. We don’t want people to complain about the noise,” Simon replied with a concerned face. “Jack…”

  Before he could complete his sentence, Alaric was speeding to grab Beth and holding her from behind, while Jack’s head exploded with the shots fired by the armed men invading the pub by the back door.

  Kiera shrieked and was pierced by bullets while Simon groaned and crawled on the floor to reach the counter and protect himself.

  Alaric had recoiled into the other side of the pub where the closed sign was turned. The shades prevented from seeing inside and out, but he could glimpse the police cars arriving and parking in front, cornering him. He had no way to escape, and the team of armed men was aiming his guns at him. What had stopped them from shooting was the fact that he had Beth in the line of fire, acting as a shield.

  Beth squirmed in his arms, trying to release herself as he pointed the knife he had kept against her neck.

  “You are completely surrounded!” Outside, the voice of a man shouted through a loudspeaker. “We advise that you let the abducted lady go and come out with your hands behind your head.”

  Alaric had to duck with Beth when Simon got up from behind the bar with a shotgun in his hand. He aimed at the three assault team members still in the room.

  The bullets flew and hit Simon’s head and chest. In a matter of seconds, the fool was dead without having time to fire a single shot.

  One of the men wearing the black combat suit with protective helmet, bullet vest, and protective glasses spoke on his comm. “We got this, hold your fire.”

  “How the hell did they find us so soon?” Alaric muttered, holding Beth tighter. She shrieked in pain. “Do you have a tracking device on you?”

  “No,” she panted.

  Straightening up, Alaric’s heart hammered inside his chest when he shouted, “Tell your men to get out, or I’ll kill her. She’s still alive, and so I am. But not for long if you keep shooting at us like a bunch of bloody amateurs.”

  “Lower your weapons,” someone ordered on the street.

  “Tell the prince that if he values his girlfriend’s life, he better let me leave unharmed,” Alaric shouted to the armed guys in the room.

  “Mate,” the assault team’s leader spoke, removing his protective glasses and helmed. “She’s my mate, brother.”

  Alaric arched his eyebrows at the unexpected appearance of his younger brother. Beth tensed in his hold, and her body moved forward to leave Alaric’s arms. He held her tighter, and she shrieked.

  “Be still, or I’ll cut your throat in front of him,” he threatened.

  Eric’s eyes were on Beth and Alaric knew that she was also looking at him.

  “You lied. You love him,” Alaric accused her.

  “Of course I love him,” she spat, digging her nails against the hand he had around her throat. It hurt him, but he didn’t let go. “You lost. Let me go, and they won’t harm you.”

  Alaric chuckled and crushed her pipe. Beth stopped moving and her arms dropped.

  “What did you do to her? You hurt her, and I’ll crush you,” Eric yelled, his eyes turning purple and his fangs showing.

  The man behind him grabbed the younger prince.

  Alaric chuckled for a moment until he became serious and slightly opened a wound on Beth’s neck to prove his point. She shook and moaned in pain, but her eyes were closed.

  Eric raised his hand but didn’t move. “Stop, I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “That’s more like it.” Taking a deep breath, he spoke again. “I want you to let me leave. And to get me a bulletproofed car and money. Lots of money. When you give me that, I’ll leave with Beth and release her when I’m far away.”

  “I’m not sure how that’s a deal since you just have a hostage and I have no guarantees that you’ll honor your deal.”

  “Yes.” Alaric placed the tip of the knife against his cheek. “But if you don’t give me that, I’ll kill her, and I don’t care about what happens to me. Beth will be gone, though. She won’t be mine or yours. Can you live with that decision, little brother?”

  “Don’t trust him. He won’t let me leave,” Beth said with a raspy voice before Alaric c
overed her mouth with the hand he had around her neck.

  “What will it be, Eric?” Alaric looked at his brother.

  Eric clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. “I can’t let you leave.”

  “Are you insane? I’m going to kill your mate.”

  “I know.”

  Beth giggled, and Alaric grabbed her face between his fingers and pushed her head back. He smashed her cheek against his. “What’s so funny?”

  “Eric knows that I’d rather die than go with you.”

  “Well … Then I guess he doesn’t mind if I do this to you.” He raised his hand with the knife and stabbed her on her shoulder.

  Beth screamed in pain, and he smirked at Eric. His brother’s face was pale, but he didn’t yell.

  “Are you really willing to die so I can’t escape?” Alaric breathed in Beth’s ear. “Think about your sister. She’ll die too. What will happen to the baby?”

  “Funny that you say that,” Beth said with hooded eyes and shallow breathing. “Wouldn’t you want to live long enough to see your daughter grow up?”

  “My daughter? It was a girl?”

  Beth nibbled on her lip and nodded. “She named her Ruth.”

  “She couldn’t even give me a son. What a worthless whore.”

  Beth stabbed her elbow against his ribs. “Don’t talk like that of my sister, you prick.”

  Alaric swallowed a groan of pain but didn’t release her. “Feisty. I’ve missed that.”

  “Let her go!” Eric ordered.

  He looked at his brother and pressed the knife against Beth’s wound. She cried in pain and tears fell down her cheeks.

  “Are you willing to watch her suffer? I can keep cutting her once she heals,” Alaric spoke.

  “Beth?” Eric called with widened eyes.

  “I want a car and money. Lots of money,” Alaric demanded.

  “Lady, you can’t go inside,” someone said from behind the armed men.

  Eric looked back and rushed to place himself in front of a woman holding a white blanket.

  It took Alaric a second to register the scent of his mate and to focus his attention on the woman fighting her way to circle Eric and come forward.

  “He needs to see his daughter. I don’t care how dangerous it is. He won’t hurt me if it means hurting himself,” Marie protested.

  “Don’t let her bring the baby here,” Beth shouted, tensing with the new arrival.

  “Marie’s with you!” Alaric looked down at Beth. “Did she let you escape and lied to me when she told me that you were dead? Were you two plotting to destroy me?”

  “I wish we did. But she also thought I was dead before your family found her hiding after giving birth to your daughter,” Beth filled the blanks.

  “Your daughter,” Marie said, showing the baby from a safe distance.

  All Alaric saw was a small baby with closed eyes and wrinkled face.

  “She’s rather ugly and small. Do you expect me to feel any empathy for that power sucking little thing?”

  Marie’s eyes widened in shock and Alaric laughed with her reaction.

  ***

  Alaric’s grip around Beth’s neck loosen when he stretched his neck to look at his child. Beth’s heart beat fast as she hoped that Marie’s reckless action was enough to convince Alaric to stop the madness and release her before she got himself and her sister killed.

  Her hopes were shattered with his next words, “You’re naïve if you believed that creature would change the way I feel about you. You betrayed me. We could all have been happy together. You just had to be a bitch and try to kill your sister and incarcerate me in a bloody island with twisted sickos who enjoyed torturing me! Do you know what I had to do to escape?”

  “You had to trick and kill,” Marie replied. “Did you kill Robert’s daughter too?”

  “I tried. She escaped and stole from me. She’s probably long gone with my money.”

  Marie giggled, cradling her daughter. “You’re pathetic.”

  “Alaric, let go of Beth,” Eric requested, placing himself behind Marie. He leaned closer to her ear. “You’ve talked to him, now leave with the baby. It’s not safe here.”

  “Stop whispering in my mate’s ear,” Alaric ordered, enraged by his brother’s closeness to Marie and his child.

  “Then just give me my mate back,” Eric told him.

  “We can trade,” Marie proposed. “Let Beth go, and you can have the baby and me as hostages.”

  “No!” Beth protested. “Eric don’t let her,” she begged him.

  His eyes showed how worried he was for her, but she was proud of him for not giving in to Alaric’s requests. Eric had come for her and that was what was all that mattered. They would find a way to restrain Alaric and stop him from escaping.

  “I can’t let you do that,” Eric said, grabbing Marie by her shoulder.

  Alaric laughed. “That would be a good deal if I wanted anything to do with you.”

  “I’ve only escaped because you wanted to kill our child. She’s here now, and you are no longer weak. If you change your ways…”

  “Change what?”

  “Stop obsessing with Beth. Stop drinking from the source. Don’t you want to see your daughter grow up? You can do that. Just turn yourself to your family. They will lock you up, but you’ll be alive.”

  “I won’t be locked up again,” Alaric assured.

  She sighed and turned around to give the baby to Eric. “Take care of her for me.”

  “What are you going to do?” Eric asked her.

  “Just promise me that whatever happens, you’ll take care of her.”

  Eric nodded with the baby in his arms.

  Marie turned to look at Alaric. “Look at me.”

  Alaric focused his vision on his mate and placed the knife against Beth’s neck. The wounds stung but she did her best to conceal her pain.

  “What do you want?” Alaric asked Marie.

  “You don’t deserve the love I have for you.”

  Beth felt Marie’s disappointment vibrate in her voice and she felt broken for her sister’s pain.

  “I don’t want it either.”

  Marie placed the hands in the pockets of her overcoat and took a few steps forward. “Let my sister go. She doesn’t love you and deserves to be happy with her mate. What you did to her, to us, has been enough. I can’t let you continue with this madness.”

  “What are you going to do, Marie? Fight me?”

  “My body and mind are tired. You’ve been drinking like a mad one these past months. You have been doing everything to make me feel weak. You’ve succeeded. I almost died giving birth, and now I barely have milk to nurture our child. I have to feed her formula, and sometimes I collapse and lose my senses of how tired I am.”

  “What do I care?” Alaric grumbled.

  Marie shook her head. “You really don’t. Not even after I showed you our precious child.” She locked eyes with Beth. “Don’t cry for me, sister. I’ll be in peace where I’m going.”

  “What do you mean?” Beth asked.

  In a slip of a second, Marie grabbed a dagger from her left pocket and cut her right wrist. Alaric shouted in pain as the knife fell from his hand due to Marie’s action.

  The moment to escape presented itself and Beth stomped his foot and hit his ribs as hard as she could with her elbow. Alaric bounced back, and Beth ran from him. The men behind Eric raised their weapons.

  “No!” Beth screamed before the men shoot Alaric.

  It wasn’t necessary, though. Marie hadn’t finished yet. With her left hand still intact, she slit her throat and blood fell down her clothes.

  “Marie!” Alaric shouted before grabbing his hands to his throat.

  “No, no!” Tears streamed down Beth’s face as Marie’s blood left her body and her face became white as snow.

  Marie’s lips formed whispered words. “Protect Ruth.”

  Beth fell on her knees as Marie’s body hit the ground and she breathed fo
r the last time.

  Pureblooded vampires don’t turn into ashes when they die. They merely turn into rigid corpses with pristine white skin as if ghosts in a corporeal form. That was what remained from Marie and Alaric once they were dead.

  The sound of the baby crying reached Beth’s ears as she hugged herself and rocked her body back and forth. The shock and the pain mixed together and she didn’t know if she should scream or cry.

  Arms surrounded her and brought her against a strong chest.

  “Eric.”

  “I’m here.”

  “The baby?”

  “Killian has her. She’s safe. You are safe.” His lips kissed her cheeks and her hair. His heart drummed so fast that she could feel it against her.

  In his arms, tears fell down her cheeks and she allowed herself to feel vulnerable and hide her face against his chest.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Eric waited in bed as Beth headed his way in her sexy nightgown. Slipping under the sheets, she cuddled against him. He planted a kiss on her forehead.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I finally managed to put her to sleep.” She yawned. “She’s so cute sleeping. I can’t stop staring at her.”

  Eric smiled and hugged her tight. “You’ve been amazing.”

  “I really like the new cradle you bought to put inside our bedroom. I don’t feel good with her sleeping in the nursery all alone. She doesn’t like it.”

  “She probably misses her mother’s scent.”

  “I think so too. I try my best to hold, sing, and feed her on time. It’s so sad what happened.” Beth nuzzled her nose against his chest. “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  “Me either.”

  “You haven’t told me how you found me so fast.”

  “Didn’t I?”

  “No.”

  “We were lucky. Olivia, the girl from the coffee shop, saw Alaric taking you from the doctor’s office. She felt that something was wrong and told Dulce. Dulce went to the office and saw Brandon’s body and connected the dots. She called the police. Everything happened so fast because she did all the right things. Plus, we have cameras and followed Alaric’s movements since he left the apartment with you. I saw the ring on his bed, the one you left there when we went to look there first.”