by Nicola Rose
“What happened?”
“Zachariah happened. He was jealous, and when we became vampires he went back there and killed her.”
There were no words for that. Zac killed his childhood sweetheart?
“I knew I’d never love again because it hurt too much. Zac taught me how to be cold and callous, I was never like that before. Then, after Selena, he had his little epiphany and went all ‘I am the light’ shit – and expected me to follow him. He broke me and then asked me to turn back. But I was just doing what he taught me. It was too late. He created me, he’d have to accept me.”
Every last shred of respect that I had for Zac was slowly withering away. And in its place came a darkened yearning, a desire to see him pay. The broken thing inside me was gathering power, pulling itself into something strong, something dangerous.
“So you killed Selena for payback? And set your sights on me, for the same reason? Revenge?”
Selena was Zac’s other love. The woman he’d adored, and destroyed. Was history repeating?
“We’ve been through this, and you’ve seen inside my mind. My desire for you is genuine. I’m just as drawn to you as he is. And no, I didn’t kill Selena. That was Tobias – a drunken mistake.”
“But he… why didn’t you tell him?”
“Because I wanted him to hate me. Because I should have done it. I took the fall because I wanted it to be me and I wanted to protect Tobias.”
Nothing that I thought I knew about these two was right. Everything was backwards, mixed up.
But one thing felt absolutely certain and concrete. My link to Alex was like a knot around my heart, tethering me to him.
He was my salvation. He was everything. He was mine.
31
Alex
It had been weeks since she vanished. Fucking weeks! I’d exhausted every avenue and slaughtered every foe, even those that just looked at me wrong.
I’d spent decades hungering for the legacy power. It was supposed to set me free. Instead, Zac gobbled up all the bad energy for himself and left me a complete pussy-whipped bitch.
I’m not free, I’m chained. No one fucking warned me about that.
This girl had crawled under my skin and obliterated any misconceptions I had about love. Never in a million years did I think that I’d end up like this. So consumed, so completely in awe of another person. I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t act normal, I was losing it. And if I lost her, that would be it – I would officially lose my shit. Heaven help anyone that crossed my path.
“How you holding up, darlin’?” I asked, already knowing the lie she’d feed me.
“Great!” she beamed from within. “It’s actually really relaxing, like I’m on a yoga retreat. People pay for those flotation tanks, right? I’m getting it for free.”
Her head was a wreck. Her body was a wreck. She needed blood, and she needed to be out of that fucking void.
She was holding it together so well, despite the terror that hammered through her veins. That total isolation, the complete nothingness that she was suspended in – I could feel it, through her, and even I almost choked on the fear. It was horrific.
I failed her. I was supposed to keep her safe. I promised I wouldn’t let Zachariah hurt her and yet there she was. Trapped. Alone. And I couldn’t get to her.
My foot tapped furiously against the floor. I was never fidgety!
“Why did you have someone try to kill me on that bungee jump?” she asked out of nowhere.
“Because I didn’t know what you were, other than you being a threat. Your aura was crazy. There was an incredible energy around you, and a magnetism toward you… and it scared me.”
And because Zachariah got to you first and that cut deeper than anything…
“I’m in your head, douchebag, I can hear the thoughts you don’t speak aloud.”
“It wasn’t intentional. I have no issues owning up to the fact that I wanted to hurt him. At that moment, it was all I wanted. I tried toying with you, and him, thinking I could keep a handle on it all, but you did something to me. You changed me.”
“Destiny.”
“You believe the prophecy crap now?”
“Don’t you? It’s fits too well.”
“Maybe. I like to think I’d have felt this way regardless.”
“So you like my magical, seductive lure now, do you?” I could feel her grinning with that gorgeous big mouth.
“Yeah, it’s growing on me.” I hoped she could feel my own grin. The startling truth was that I loved everything about her – the over-sized smile, the hint of a British accent, the slender curves, the aura, the little wisps of darkness that were growing inside her.
God dammit, I needed to hold her again. Needed to breathe her in. That scent that coated her skin – she smelled of ancient meadows, wildflowers and honey… along with an ashy undercurrent of fire, of scorched earth, of underground springs in a dark, cavernous space…
“Wow, and here I thought I just smelled of motorbikes and burning houses. That was beautifully poetic for an evil vampire.” She laughed, and my chest tightened.
She was weakening. A new vampire like her needed to feed, a lot. And the magic inside her was waking up. It was taking something from her in return. Draining her, feeding off a darker energy.
“Where’s Constance?” she asked casually, trying to hide the growing desperation.
“I don’t know. She’s disappeared again, she keeps doing that. She’s up to something.”
“With the hunters?” If she went behind our backs and was still working with Orion’s Descent, there’d be hell to pay.
“No, I don’t think so. I dunno. I’ve tried stalking her, but whoever she keeps meeting up with, there’s always a magical barrier around them, stopping me from hearing anything, or even seeing.”
“Of course there is. She probably knows you’re trailing her. She’s just pissed at you.”
“It’s not right. Hasn’t she seemed different to you, over the weeks? She’s not the woman we first met. She’s tired, distracted—”
“She’s, like, 300 years old. Maybe it’s finally catching up on her?”
“Maybe.” No way. Constance was an incredibly powerful witch. She shouldn’t be having such difficulty fighting her sister’s magic. The sister who, by her own admission, lost a lot of her magic power when she became a vampire. Constance should be stronger.
“That’s true,” Jess said, sneaking into my thoughts. “How is Beatrix strong enough to hide me in this hell-hole? Did you know witches could do shit like this?”
“Not of this scale, no, I’ve not encountered it. But then, I’ve spent my life avoiding witches… avoiding everything but my own self-absorption.”
Jess didn’t respond further. She didn’t need to. It worried me too.
Although, I was relieved Constance wasn’t around right then. Every time we were all together in our little cosy, mutual head space, Jess kept sneaking into Constance’s own mind. She was incredibly adept at the mind control stuff. Now she’d realised she could do it, it was like a little shiny toy calling out to her. But every time she went into Constance, she came out scared. She wouldn’t tell me of course, but she couldn’t hide these things from me.
“Have you not noticed anything off when you’ve been in her head?” I asked. She could surely just go in and see for herself what Constance had been up to.
“There’s a tonne of ‘off’ and crazy in her head, but in relation to what she’s been doing with her time? No, there’s been nothing unusual. I’ll dig deeper next time.”
I felt her shudder. She didn’t enjoy digging in there. The things she saw in Constance had rattled her. Things that would happen if Jess carried out the Morena Legacy. The sacrifice it might take from her, and what it would do to us Elwoods. I hadn’t been able to get into Constance’s head myself, too many witchy barriers, but Jess didn’t have any problems. Perhaps due to sharing the same bloodline.
I didn’t like it either
– the possible results of the Morena ritual. But we were too far down this road to backtrack. I probably should have killed Constance the moment I met her. I’d let her live, curious to see what powers Jess could unlock with her help. I’d always planned to kill her before things got too far… Yet here we were, facing the final showdown.
Emory wanted Zac for a reason, and that reason was about to slap us in the face. I could feel the increasing tension around his estate. Even the Feds were snooping around, planning some sort of strike. Something epic was about to go down, and he had to be stopped. If that meant making sacrifices myself, then so be it.
But not Jess. What if this really did take too much from her? I couldn’t let that happen. Maybe, if we ever got her out of that void, I could just grab her and run. Fuck Emory. Fuck them all—
“I’ll get you out of there, darlin’. Stay with me.”
“Whenever you’re ready, asshole. I only have eternity in a parallel plane to wait for you.”
32
Jess
I could feel it – the weird energy that was gaining strength inside me. Constance was right; Alex’s blood had opened a door and now it was creeping through. Finally. After all the practice and frustration, all the years of chasing it down, it was emerging. Slowly but surely that euphoric buzzing was intensifying, flooding my body with an incredible high. A thousand times better than the rush from any drug. Maybe being a vampire was also helping that.
I felt incredible. I also felt like death. Whilst the magic was strengthening me, the lack of blood was weakening me. I tried not to dwell on the fact that I needed blood for sustenance now. I knew I should be feeling guilty for the atrocious things I’d done with Zac on our little bender, but somehow those types of feelings were fading. Finding the energy to care about stuff like that just seemed like more hassle than it was worth.
Right then, all I needed to care about was when Alex was coming back into my head to make me complete again. His absences left me with a hole in my centre. I supposed he was busy trying to find me. I should cut him some slack. But every time he left me I wanted to fly off into a wild fury.
Then he’d come back and I wanted to cry. Then I’d laugh.
Fucking emotions were a joke. That’s why the guilt and remorse were getting buried, it was bad enough dealing with the rest. Perhaps I should have been disturbed by how easy it was to push aside any compassion for the people I’d killed, when anything to do with Alex and, oh no – I couldn’t get a grip on that at all. I cared more for him than the lives of innocents? More than Zac?
Alex was the only thing tethering me to any sort of sanity. Every time he left I was petrified. Because I knew that if he didn’t come back, I would disappear into this darkness and never come out.
How could Zac have done this to me?
I suppose he’d given me enough warnings. Did I ever listen to his worry that he would destroy me? Did I ever believe Alex that I would need him the most?
“Of course you didn’t. You’re the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met,” Alex chuckled and the warmth blossomed through my heart.
“It felt like you were gone forever this time. Every time it feels longer and longer.”
“I’m sorry. I should think your perspective of time is getting screwed in there.”
“What have you been doing?”
“The usual. Fighting with Constance. Fighting with Syn. Pretty much fighting with everyone. It’s taking far too long to get you out and I’m running on zero patience.”
“No new developments?”
“Well, don’t get your hopes up yet, but we know your location. You never left Emory’s base. We just can’t find a way in, since you’re there, but not there—.”
Distracted by an overwhelming feeling of joy, I crept into his mind as stealthily as I could, grinning like a cheeky kid.
He laughed. Hello, Darlin’. Your ninja stealth skills are abysmal.
“They’re not that bad. I managed to catch you thinking something about Zac before you shut it down. It didn’t feel good. Tell me.”
Suddenly he pulled down every shutter and threw me out, anger bubbling inside him.
“What the hell? What has he done?” My fingers started trembling. I could tell by the snippet of feeling in his head that I was not going to like this one bit.
“Alex!” I pushed. “Don’t you dare go silent on me. That’s what he does. But you? You tell me the truth, always.”
“You’re not in the right place to hear it. I promise I’ll tell you, once I have you in my arms—”
“No, you’ll tell me now.” I pushed against his mind and tried to force my way in, but of course he was too strong.
“For the love of the Goddess, just tell her Alex,” Constance spoke, a moment after I registered her arrival. “She could do with a reminder about what absolute shits you vampires are.”
I snorted. “Constance, I’m a vampire now.”
“Hmm, I know. And if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s dislodged the block on your magic, then I’d have disowned you by now. You have to be different, Jess. I haven’t waited this long for another run-of-the-mill vampire in the world. You need to bring about change—”
“Fuck’s sake, give the girl time! Can we try one step at a time and get her free of that abyss before you give her the whole revolution speech?” Alex growled.
“So, what’s the deal Alex? What has Zac done that’s so bad?”
As if anything could be worse than handing me to Emory and getting me dumped in this hellish pit of nothingness.
Alex didn’t speak. In fact, it felt like he was pulling out from my head.
“He killed Danny,” Constance barked.
Much worse.
It could be very much worse.
This was possibly the absolute worst thing he could have done.
If he’d slaughtered an entire continent I don’t think I’d have felt as much grief as I did then.
He killed Danny.
My Danny. My silver fox. My wall of comfort. Always there, always ready to hold me together. Getting his head-fucked left, right and centre, and still managing to cling on to that little bit of love for me.
Gone. Zac took him.
I screamed into the night.
Over and over. I howled until my throat, already dry and sore, closed up with a giant knot.
“Why?” I forced the word out slow, controlled.
“Orion’s Descent were pissed off at Constance for pulling their deal. They were sniffing round the island for you. Danny was worried and trying to find out who they were. From what I can gather, Emory sent Zachariah to deal with the hunters, and Danny got caught in the crossfire. When Zachariah saw him, he remembered what had happened between you, and that he’d always planned to kill him.”
Always planned it? No.
No.
A vivid flash swept behind my eyes. An image of Zac pinning Danny to a wall… so much blood.
Danny’s blood. All over Zac’s face… tearing him apart like an animal…
I screamed and recoiled against the vision. A vision through Constance’s eyes.
“You were there?” I cried. “You saw it? Why were you there with the hunters?”
“What?” Alex snapped. He’d kill her for this. I needed her. I should have kept quiet.
“Who?” Constance seemed confused.
“You! I just saw Danny’s death through your own eyes. Don’t lie to us.”
“No, I didn’t. I wasn’t there—”
“You went to Orion’s Descent behind my back?” Alex’s voice was low, rumbling. I could feel the fear from Constance. He was right. Her powers were weak.
“Wait,” I said, taking time to delve back into her head. “I think she’s telling the truth. Kind of. I don’t think she remembers being there, but she was, she saw it.”
“What does that mean?” Alex asked.
We all paused.
“That’s nonsense,” Constance barked. “You’re confused, Jess.”
I poked deeper. Harder. Through a foggy wall in her head.
She let out a gasp, and the visions flooded us all in a shared consciousness.
“I don’t know what you are, or what you’ve done to me, but Jess means something to me. And you’re destroying her. You took them both. Anna, now Jess. I won’t let you—” Danny stood his ground in the face of the raging vampire before him.
“You won’t let me what, Danny? Fuck her up further? Own her? Kill her? Too late…” Zac stalked onwards, forcing Danny to step back.
“She’s strong. She’ll wake up. She won’t take your crap forever.”
“Wrong. She’ll take it as long as I dish it out. But I tire of that. She’s tainted goods. And we have unfinished business. I never did thank you for taking care of her that night, when she was upset and vulnerable.”
Danny’s head shook slowly. He was now pressed back into the wall. As if realising this disadvantage, he lunged for Zac, grappling and punching.
Zac merely laughed and threw him back against the wall.
Snarling. Biting.
Blood.
Danny’s blood everywhere.
A sob ruptured through my lungs.
“I don’t understand,” Constance whispered.
“Turn him. Like you did Anna?” I pleaded. “Alex, please, bring him back.”
“I can’t. He didn’t die with my blood—”
“Do fucking something!” I screamed.
I thrashed around in the void, yelling and crying, dying from the inside out.
And then it broke. That final seal inside my being simply snapped away and I was flooded. I felt Constance in there; pushing, pulling, joining her energy to mine.
My insides crumbled to ash.
I would die. I couldn’t take this pain. It was too much.
Constance gave a final surge, a shove, and then…
The shockwave travelled along my body, spreading out through my nerves and exploding against my skin. Excruciating. Agonising. Soaring through every atom of my being. Tearing me apart. And rebuilding me.
