by Eve Newton
“You’re killing him!” I cry out, struggling to get free from Axl’s grip of steel.
The second he lets me go, Mason drops to the floor, flat on his back, his eyes staring glassily skywards as the wind dies down, plunging us into an eerie silence that is broken by my wail of anguish.
“No!” I shriek, falling to my knees next to Mason and gripping his hand. “He’s still breathing. Do something! Please! Help him!”
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
I look up at Axl’s question to see Philip on the edge of the circle, looking dazed and confused.
“How? Where?” he stammers, looking around.
“Lilith brought you here with her magick,” Lloyd says quietly.
“I don’t understand,” Philip says, his eyes landing on Mason prone on the ground. “Your spell has weakened him. The black magick inside him is killing him,” he adds after a second.
“Get it out of him!” I roar.
To my utmost surprise, Philip steps into the circle and drops to his knees next to us. He holds his hand up and sucks the black magick out of Mason. It hits his hand in an oily, insidious looking gloop, which then forms into a small ball and hardens. I don’t know how he has pulled it out of Mason, but I don’t care. It’s gone.
“Here,” Philip says, holding it out to me.
The look of pure disgust on my face makes him hold it out to Lloyd instead. He also gives it a filthy look, but pulls a small pouch out of his back pocket and holds it open. Philip drops it in, and Lloyd pulls the ties to close it. He holds his hand out, and it hovers over his palm for a minute before it vanishes into thin air.
“Into the vault,” he explains, looking down at Mason, guilt all over his face.
“It’s too late,” Philip says quietly, his hand on Mason’s chest, which rises one more time and then…nothing.
“NO!” I bellow, letting go of Mason’s hand and cupping his face. “Come back to me. Don’t you dare leave me!”
“Lily,” Lloyd says, crouching down next to me.
Love is the key.
Fucking Frank’s voice is echoing in my head again, distracting me.
Love is the key.
“Lilith,” Philip says. “The Hunters are on their way here. I couldn’t stop them. I know what you do here isn’t harbor criminals like we first thought. I know you now, girlie. But they are different. They don’t care, they don’t see the difference.”
“And you do?” I ask bitterly, never taking my eyes from Mason’s dead ones.
“I see you,” he says.
“Oh, come on,” Axl snarls. “You aren’t buying this crap, are you? I say we kill him and string up for his mates to find.”
“Mason is dead,” I say softly. “We killed him by doing this spell. It was meant to be me! You all knew it and you let this happen!”
“Mason knew the risks,” Lloyd says quietly. “The spell worked, Lilith. There is no way you could have brought Philip here otherwise.”
“How do you know that was me?”
“No one else I know has pink magick,” he says, curling a lock of sweaty hair behind my ear.
I blink back the tears that are threatening to spill over. “It should have been me.”
“He wasn’t prepared to let that happen,” Lloyd says.
The ground rumbles under us, the shriek of the ward alarms resound around us.
“They’re here,” Philip says. “They have an army, Lilith. Mages trained in battle tactics. You are outnumbered.”
Love is the key!
“Dammit, Frank!” I shout, causing the other men to give me odd looks. “Love is the key to what?”
I look down at Mason, my heart breaking when it hits me in the chest so hard, my breath huffs out audibly.
“Love is the key,” I mutter, my tears falling through his parted lips. I bend down to place my mouth to Mason’s. “I love you,” I murmur. “I fucking love you, you complete dick. How dare you die for me. How dare you leave me. I love you.”
I whimper with relief when I hear him take a rattled breath, his eyes blinking rapidly. He looks at me, his face stricken. “What?”
I grin at him, ignoring the sounds of battle going on at the front gates. “Love is the key, I love you. My love brought you back.”
“Oh my god!” Axl exclaims dramatically. “What a fucking carry on. Can we go and fight now?”
“Yes,” I say, with a small laugh, standing up and helping Mason to his feet.
“I don’t understand,” he says, pulling me to him and crushing me in his arms.
“Neither do I yet, but we are Fated, inextricably linked. I can’t live without you.”
“I love you, Lilith,” he murmurs into my hair. “Thank you, whatever you did, you’ve saved my soul.”
“No, that was Philip,” I say. “He took the black magick out of you.”
They exchange a look filled with a deeper meaning, something that excludes the rest of us. “Thanks,” Mason mutters. “Why are you here?”
“Lilith brought him here. Fighting now?” Axl says, already Vamped out and raring to go. I can see that the spell has affected him as well. There is an aura around him of purple, a combination of pink and blue. Lloyd’s and my magick.
“We did it,” I giggle suddenly, which stops dead when the searing heat of the wards imploding rushes over us.
“They’re in,” Philip says, as I stop thinking and race forward, with the men close behind me.
“Then it’s time to pick a side, Philip. Who’s it going to be? Us or them?” I stare out over the sea of battle, feeling the magick come to me with ease and with far more power than I had before.
I coil an orb of pure electricity so big that it makes my eyes ache. “Us or them, Phil? You need to decide now.”
His blue eyes bore into mine, but before he can speak, he is thrown off his feet by a blast from a magickal rocket launcher that scatters the few soldiers that we have.
“You and me,” a loud voice booms at me from a short distance away. “I’m going to enjoy taming you, little bitch.”
I zero in on the enormous man, built like a brick shithouse and dressed in TAC gear. “The head of the snake,” I comment. “About time I cut you off!”
“Lilith,” Philip rasps. “Don’t…”
I lunge forward into the midst of the fighting, determined to get my hands on that asshole, sending out a wave of power that circles around me, knocking everyone, including my men, off their feet. It encompasses the Head Hunter, not scaring him one bit. But I’ll show him. I’m stronger, quicker and more powerful than I was twenty minutes ago. My Witch and Vampire sides are happy to co-exist, making me even more of a force to be reckoned with. I stride towards him, stopping about five meters away.
“Come and get me, little girl,” he goads and knowing that those are the last words he will ever speak, I hold my hand out and start to syphon the energy out of him as I would the magick out of the wards. He chokes, his hands going to his neck in shock.
“Lilith!” I hear Mason shout from a distance away.
I ignore him as I drain the life out of this beast in front of me who calls himself a man. I take a few more steps forward, the power from the spell, the triumph in knowing that his life is in my hands urging me on.
“Y-your magick isn’t that strong,” he croaks out, keeling over at my feet. “Our intel had you as young and weaker than this.”
It proves to me that he doesn’t find me a threat at all. He never did. He is hunting me for fun. It twists my stomach into a tight knot.
“Philip tell you that?” I ask archly. “Maybe I was a short while ago,” I add, bending down to speak directly into his face. “But now, oh, the Queen has risen, asshole, and you picked the wrong day to invade my property.”
“Lilith!”
I hear Lloyd struggling to get to me, but no one can. My magick is unmatched now. I place my hand on the back of this monster’s neck, killing him slowly as I drain him of his last breath. “Too easy,�
�� I breathe out and then stumble as a force so immense surges up, clutching at my essence, trying to take me.
“The power, it’s pulling her under. She’s killed, it’s taking her!” Lloyd shouts.
“Gah!” I yell, feeling the oily darkness whisk through my veins, making my stomach cramp and my head ache.
“Just hold on, Lily!” Lloyd shouts at me. “Don’t let it take you.”
As much as I want to do as he asks, I can’t. I close my eyes and let the darkness wash over me, awakening the Wolf inside me.
“There you are,” I murmur. “You feed on the darkness, don’t you, little Wolf? No wonder I never knew you were there before.”
“Dammit!” Mason roars, pounding on the force field that is keeping everyone at bay. “It’s woken. La Louve Noir is back.”
I laugh, an evil sound echoing in my ears, and shove my hands out, forcing everyone back. I feel the shift start, transforming my body into that of the Wolf. I fall to the ground on all fours. My bones break painfully and reshape. My back arches as I watch my hands turn into paws. I feel the fur sprouting on my skin and shake it out, letting the darkness of the Black Wolf, my ancestor’s evil creation, settle all around me. I lock eyes with Mason and then turn from him, bounding off through the broken gates and into the forest, feeling free and unrestrained for the first time in my life as the evil knowledge of La Louve Noir and what she was created for, courses through me, consuming me.
The End
Darkness: Vampire Queen Series, Book 2 - This can be preordered for a December 24th 2021 release, but will more than likely be brought forward. Stay tuned for news in my Facebook Reader Group: Forever Eve's Reader Group
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About the Author
Eve is a British novelist with a specialty for paranormal romance, with strong female leads, causing her to develop a Reverse Harem Fantasy series, several years ago: The Forever Series.
She lives in the UK, with her husband and four kids, so finding the time to write is short, but definitely sweet. She currently has two on-going series, with a number of spin-offs in the making. Eve hopes to release some new and exciting projects in the next couple of years, so stay tuned!
Start Eve's Reverse Harem Fantasy Series, with the first two books in the Forever Series as a double edition!
Also by Eve Newton
The Forever Series:
Forever & The Power of One: Double Edition
Revelations
Choices
The Ties That Bind
Trials
Switch & The Other Switch
Secrets
Betrayal
Sacrifice
Conflict & Obsession: Double Edition
Wrath
Revenge
Changes & Forever After: Double Edition
Arathia
Constantine
The Husbands of Forever (Part 1)
The Dragon Realms Series:
The Dragon Heiress
Claiming the Throne
A Baby Dragon for Christmas & The Dragon Empress
The Dark Fae Kingdom Series:
The Dark Fae Princess
Dark Fae's Desires
Dark Fae’s Secrets
Enchained Hearts Series:
Lives Entwined
Lives Entangled
Lives Endangered
The Bound Series:
Demon Bound
Demon Freed
Demon Returned
Demon Queen Series:
Hell's Belle
Pandora’s Box
Belle’s Hell
Anna’s Heir
Annabelle’s Apocalypse
Pandora’s Legacy
Circle of Darkness:
Wild Hearts: Book One
Savage Love: Book Two
Tainted Blood: Book Three
Dark Hearts - A Prequel
Darkest Desires: Book Four
The Early Years Series:
Aefre & Constantine 1 & 2
