Devil’s Blood: Shade of Devil Book 3

by Shayne Silvers

  I calmly reached out and snapped the nullification cuffs. They exploded into pieces and then immediately froze in midair a fraction of a second later—little clouds of chaos kissed by order.

  His Dracula guise didn’t disappear, but that was because no time passed here.

  The spirit tomahawk Izzy had thrown was buried in Bubble’s chest, and there was no question that she was dead. I knelt down and brushed her hair from her face. My tears splashed onto her cheeks. We had only just been reunited. Her vengeance had consumed her long ago, making her a darker person, but I could have helped her with that. Like I had with Lucian. And Nero. And Nosh. I gently closed her eyes. “They will pay, Bubbling Brook. They. Will. All. Pay.”

  Then I closed my eyes as I pulled the spirit tomahawk out of her chest with a sickening sound.

  I let out a breath, feeling the power of the spirit tomahawk vibrating against my palm, marrying the wild, erratic crackles of lightning dancing over my knuckles. I stood.

  I approached Artemis and studied her from inches away. I could kill her. Right now.

  But a swift, unseen death was too sweet and gentle of an eternal embrace for my dear sister. I stared at her silver bow and considered slicing the string. But weapons were not dangerous in and of themselves. The danger came from the person wielding the weapon. I stared down at the fingers holding the string. They were attached to her hand.

  I calmly stepped back and swung the tomahawk down. It severed her wrist instantly, cauterizing the wound, and ruining her ability to use her bow. I stared at her, frowning. Then a dark smile split my cheeks. “Do you think I have time for one last drink?” I called out, glancing back at Selene.

  I was surprised to find her standing directly behind me with a supportive smile. Her eyes glittered. “You have time for two.”

  I grinned back at her.

  I turned and brushed an errant strand of Artemis’ hair out of my way. Then I sunk my teeth into the soft flesh of her neck. I didn’t know how it was possible to do such a thing as a spirit, but I was hoping it hurt her more than when bitten in real life. Molten blood struck my tongue and I gasped in surprise. I hadn’t even been sure it would work, but I definitely hadn’t anticipated such raw power! The lightning around my fists stabbed down at the ground with sharp cracking sounds like snapping bones.

  I released myself, not wanting to kill her. Yet.

  The puncture wounds on her neck oozed golden blood—just like I had seen from Aphrodite. I licked my lips. They were tingling and hot, and my mouth was salivating at the heady taste of a god’s undiluted blood—significantly stronger than the blood she had once gifted to Victoria’s father to turn their bloodline into assassins aimed at me.

  I approached Apollo and stared at him for five long seconds, recalling every feature on his face from the first time I had met him so long ago—when he had cursed me so that sunlight scorched my flesh. I remembered how he had been the last one to shoot my big sister, Aphrodite, in the thigh, ultimately ceasing her interference.

  I wondered where the real Benjamin had gone. The real Hazel.

  As I pondered this riddle, I calmly sliced off both of his hands with the spirit tomahawk. Then I sunk my fangs into his neck and took a deep pull of Olympian blood. The hairs on my arms stood straight on end, and I saw tiny arcs of electricity dancing around them.

  My eyes momentarily rolled back into my skull, and I had to force myself to stop feeding.

  I stepped back, breathing heavily. Then I appraised my work, glancing from Artemis and Apollo. The tomahawk hissed in my fist, hungry for more action. I frowned after a few moments. “I feel like I’m forgetting something.”

  Selene stepped up beside me and rested her cheek against my shoulder with a contented, nostalgic sigh. She studied them in silence, and I wouldn’t have minded her taking as much time as she needed. She pointed at Artemis. “They are twins.” She released me and stepped back.

  I followed her finger to see that Artemis still had one of her hands.

  I nodded. “That’s it.” I walked up to Artemis and severed her other hand.

  Finished with my work, I glanced back at Selene with a dark smile. She was holding her hand out imploringly, her cheeks damp and her eyes regretful. “It is time for us to part…Sorin,” she said, as if tasting the name on her tongue. She had always called me Ambrogio. She was smiling wistfully.

  I nodded woodenly and accepted her hand. The lightning enveloping my hand danced over hers, making her smile. “That tickles,” she murmured.

  We walked back towards my body and I paused beside Nosh to put the tomahawk into his hand. I closed his knuckles over it and sighed. Izzy had just killed his mother to save him. That…was not going to be easy for him to accept. But I would help him.

  I walked back with Selene, savoring these precious few moments. I had so much I wanted to say to her. Hades had been right. Her presence had helped focus me. My heart was full to bursting at the simple act of holding hands with my first love—an act that had been denied us in life. No matter how many things I wanted to say to her, simply touching her flesh with mine said more than any words could have. She squeezed my hand tightly, seeming to read my mind.

  We paused over my body, both of us staring down at it. It was beaten, bloody, and broken—both inside and out.

  But it was all I had. For better or worse.

  “I love you, Selene,” I whispered. “Always have, and I always will.”

  She stiffened, squeezing my hand hard enough to hurt. She lifted my hand to her mouth and kissed it, letting out an emotional sound. “I love you, too, Sorin,” she whispered as another tear fell down her cheek. I smiled at her using the newer name.

  Then she released me and took a step back. I knelt down and touched the wound in my side. The lightning slipped into the puckered hole and sucked me down with it before I had time to shout out in alarm.

  54

  I slipped back into my body with the stealthy nature of a young man sneaking into his lover’s bedroom while her parents were asleep in the next room.

  Then I tripped over the figurative empty chamber pot, sending it clanging across the floor.

  The Olympian blood I had just consumed crackled out of me all at once in a concussive blast of internal lightning. Those wild bolts tore through my body, sewing up the hole in my blood reserves with threads of golden light, and then filling it up to overflowing with the godly ichor.

  Next, it shredded my physical wounds, scraping off the black ice to clean the inflamed flesh. Finally, it pulled the edges closed with more golden threads, leaving both wounds glowing and pleasantly warm.

  I opened my eyes and gasped to find myself back in the church. Back in the land of the living, since I saw no haunting green glow to the air.

  Power raged through me, bringing back the full extent of my latent abilities for the first time since waking up from Deganawida’s slumber. I wasn’t just back to life; I was back with every vampiric power I had ever wielded. Stronger now than I had ever been, because my blood reservoir was pregnant with Olympian blood. The golden ichor was much thicker than any blood I had ever tasted—heavier, denser, and exceptionally more powerful.

  Izzy squawked in shock. “SORIN!” she shrieked in relief, shaking me to verify that I was real. “You were just d-dead!” she stammered. “And why are your wounds glowing?!”

  I leapt to my feet without any effort whatsoever, clenching my fists at my side.

  I didn’t look down at Izzy.

  I didn’t look at my wound.

  I said four words.

  “I found my soul.”

  My eyes locked onto Apollo and Artemis in time to see them suddenly bellow in pain and shock as their bows clattered to the ground. The airborne arrows I had destroyed simultaneously popped, emitting faint puffs of dust into the air. Lucian and Nero flinched in surprise, and then turned to gawk at me. I dipped my chin and lifted a finger to my mouth, requesting their silence. They nodded uncertainly.

  I glanced to
my left as Aphrodite climbed to her feet on unsteady legs. Her maddeningly beautiful nudity was marred with ghastly wounds and copious splashes of golden blood, but as she saw me appraising her, she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin high. Her eyes were wild with dark promises and whispered secrets of unbound pleasures.

  But it was not directed at me. It was a result of her wounds—her innate powers were raw and close to the surface in order to embolden her and keep her alive. She stared at me with relief and unquenchable love. I dipped my chin and gave her a proud smile. She had saved my heart and soul. Her cheeks warmed as she flashed me a dazzling smile that made Nero begin a murmured rant about injustice and a general lack of appreciation from the opposite side of the room. Aphrodite shot him a smoky wink and his tirade cut off with an abrupt squeak. Then she slowly, painfully, made her way toward Izzy.

  I turned back to Artemis and Apollo and smiled to find them both staring down at their missing hands. Then their stumps flew to their necks, sensing my bite.

  I began to laugh. Loudly.

  They jerked their attention up and stumbled back a step to see me alive and well. I watched their eyes closely, so I saw the exact moment they mentally chose to retreat—no doubt intending to use the vaporish puff that I’d seen Artemis utilize at Lucian’s mountain.

  I had been ready for it, and I instantly lashed out with fingers of lightning, gripping onto their ankles like shackles. Then I expanded it to surround them in a cage of electricity, preventing them from using magic or any other power. I wasn’t sure how I did such a thing, but the stunned looks on their faces told me that it worked as intended.

  I realized I clutched a bundle of glass daggers in one fist—identical to Zeus’ lightning bolts. The twins blanched in horror, recognizing the glass daggers and what they signified—that I was no longer their mortal toy but a capable Olympian in my own right. Or the scariest demigod they had ever met, depending on who my mother truly was. The arcing tendrils of electricity crackling down my knuckles and forearms was icing on the cake. They couldn’t flee and they couldn’t move; their feet were rooted to the floor. And that also terrified them.

  “Leave us,” I said to my gathered friends. “Aphrodite will help you. She’s already saved my life twice tonight,” I said, shooting her an adoring smile. She’d helped me learn strength, dedication, and commitment—all forms of love, now that I thought about it. “She is my big sister, and she is my hero,” I said firmly. Aphrodite sucked in her bottom lip and she nodded fervently. As she turned to the bodies of Natalie and Victoria, I saw a heartbroken frown drift across her momentary joy, smothering it. I turned to Lucian and Nero. “I will clean up here.”

  They nodded obediently, eyeing the electricity swarming over me. They’d seen it once before on the mountain, but not to this extent.

  I turned away to find that Nosh no longer looked like Dracula, having shifted back to his true form while I had addressed everyone else. He was naked and kneeling over Bubbling Brook with a blank look on his face, although his cheeks were damp with tears. His tomahawk crackled in one fist, the blade resting against the wooden floor in a slowly expanding, charred ring. His wrists were bleeding from the shattered nullification cuffs, but it didn’t look concerning.

  Nosh slowly lifted his head to stare at Izzy across the room. My heart melted at the warring emotions in his eyes. He’d finally found his mother, only to have his girlfriend kill her. Rationally, I believed that it had been the singular moment that saved us. She had been so enraged, that she would have killed Nosh, thinking him Dracula. Then she would have begun killing everyone else in sight, flinging around the powers of Hecate and possibly tipping the scales towards Apollo and Artemis before they ended up killing her.

  Then again, who knew how it would have played out? Maybe Hades had.

  Either way, I knew that it would be some time before Nosh came to any such conclusion.

  Nosh watched Izzy for a long moment before turning back to his mother. His hand trembled as he pinched her hair between his fingers. “Mother…” he rasped. “I tried to find you.”

  I grimaced at his pain. I turned back to my friends. “We will clean up here,” I amended. “Go. Adam and Eve are waiting outside if you need their help carrying…Natalie and Victoria,” I said, biting back the sudden swell of emotion—that I was sending them away rather than carrying them myself. “There is an entrance to the underground next door.” Nero frowned at my mention of the Nephilim outside, but the rest took it in stride. I smiled at Aphrodite. “I promised Eve that you would teach them the ropes on their newfound…hobbies. I told her it was your specialty.”

  Her face split into an excited grin and she nodded. Then she scooped up Victoria in her arms, obviously refusing to let the Nephilim carry the both of them. This was a job for the big sister. Everyone shuffled out of the church where Nero would teleport them to safety, half of them supporting the others. I approached Nosh, ignoring the restrained Artemis and Apollo.

  “Izzy didn’t know,” I said after a few moments of silence. “She was trying to save you.”

  He nodded numbly. “I…know.”

  “Why did you pretend to be Dracula?” I asked gently, kneeling down beside him.

  “I got the idea from the Cauldron. Their grand plan,” he laughed bitterly.

  I grimaced. “It wasn’t necessary. You could have just left it all alone.”

  His shoulders stiffened. “No. I could not. You deserved to kill Dracula. No one else. Not the Sisters, and certainly not the Olympians,” he growled, glaring at Artemis and Apollo. “His death was yours. And…you risked your life to save Izzy from the Cauldron. I wanted to do the same for you, father.” He was trembling as his eyes settled back on Bubbling Brook. “I had no idea that my own mother was leading the Sisters of Mercy. She…was beautiful,” he croaked.

  I hung my head tiredly. “I know, son. She was,” I said, emphasizing the past tense. “But she let vengeance consume her. She let it change her. She formed the Cauldron and then the Sisters of Mercy—all to get a chance at killing Dracula,” I whispered, recalling my conversation with Selene with a sad smile. “Don’t let the fires of vengeance change you into something worse than the target of your hatred. Vengeance must be cold and rational—it must become justice.”

  Selene really had saved my heart tonight, just like Hades had intended. Because despite the emotions warring inside of me, I felt calm and detached about what would come next. They had earned their punishment, just like Hades had told me in the Underworld. I merely intended to give them a glimpse of their forthcoming eternal torture ahead of schedule.

  I was sure Hades would not mind, the sick bastard.

  Nosh nodded affirmatively. Then he slowly stood, and we walked down the aisle in tense silence. Nosh stared down the twins, suddenly twirling both tomahawks in his hands. Their edges were already blackened with crusted, Olympian blood.

  His face was utterly blank, and his pulse was lower than I’d ever felt—which was saying something for him. “Justice. Okay.” An ephemeral headdress shimmered into existence over his head, making him look twice as tall. Huge, glowing feathers fanned his face and trailed down past his tailbone. A matching, vapory set of buckskin pants covered his lower body, and his chest was suddenly glowing with war paint of the same magical hue.

  I arched an eyebrow and then turned to gauge Artemis and Apollo’s reactions. I was pleased to see the fear of the unknown in their eyes. Olympians weren’t familiar with Nosh’s flavor of badass. Neither was I, really.

  I was eager to change that inadequacy. Maybe by watching and learning now.

  A spirit bear suddenly rose up behind Nosh.

  Apollo and Artemis looked equally alarmed to suddenly remember that they had no hands to fight off the bear. Incapability was its own fear, I’d found. Knowing that even if unrestrained, they couldn’t do so much as claw their enemies with their fingernails was a poison that seeped down into their souls, murdering all semblance of courage and dignity. You couldn
’t even die fighting.

  “You will never be an Olympian, boy,” Apollo growled defiantly.

  “I agree. I will end the Olympians,” I said in a cold, flat tone, realizing that I meant it.

  They scoffed incredulously.

  “It is better than cowardly hiding behind mortals,” I said, flashing Artemis a mocking smile.

  She bared her teeth at me and then shot an accusing glare at Apollo. “I told you it was foolish to debase ourselves by associating with mortals.”

  “I’ll make it a fair fight,” I said, removing the electric cages, “but I’m not letting you run away. This ends here.” With a thought, I made it so that the electric manacles on their ankles no longer impeded their ability to move within the church, but they could not escape the building.

  Apollo did not waste time with words or threats. He flung his stumps at me and hurled the full might of the sun at me. Artemis bolted towards us, looking ready to bludgeon me to death with her stumpy arms. But she was fast and clever, so that could still be deadly.

  I spread my arms wide and my cloak of shadow and blood flared out behind me, protecting Nosh from the scorching, unbearable heat of the sun. Church pews incinerated in puffs of embers and ash, and sections of the wooden floor simply ceased to exist in its wake.

  That sunlight hit me, brushing my cheeks like a lover’s kiss, and I let out a deep belly laugh. The sun…no longer harmed me.

  That once-cursed light hit my cloak and rebounded, sending Artemis and Apollo both crashing back into the altar with a shout. I glanced over my shoulder to find Nosh huddled low in anticipation of the heat.

  Everything behind my cloak was entirely unscathed. Nosh looked up at me, realizing this fact. Then he frowned. “I was just tying my spirit shoe. Are you ready to fight yet?”

  I chuckled and turned back to our foes. Artemis was flat on her ass, clutching her side, but Apollo stood upright, eerily stiff and motionless. They both stared at us in stunned disbelief. The altar smoldered around them.