by E E Everly
His vamp out is gone.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Killian?” I whisper.
“It’s all right,” Killian mouths. His understanding makes the truth harder to acknowledge.
It’s not all right. It never will be. Korbinian’s words replay in my head. When storm sprites mate with other species, the moment always results in conception and the fetus always draws the power of the other mate. Killian is powerless. I see that now.
The world slows as my hands find my stomach. The moment of conception. A pang burns through my soul. My insides turn on themselves. This is not how it’s supposed to happen. Killian isn’t supposed to be beaten to near death. I’m supposed to keep him safe until the baby comes. I’m supposed to protect him. I won’t lose you this way, Killian.
“Why isn’t he healing?” Anya holds up a hand. “Halt, Seth.”
I want to yell curses at Anya, but I’m frozen with my hands on my stomach, with Killian’s glassy eyes fixed in my direction.
Seth ceases obliterating my vampire, hauls him to his feet, and drags him over to Anya.
Blood drips from Killian’s mouth as his head hangs. When he speaks, his voice is cracked and grating. I’m surprised he’s responsive at all. “There wasn’t… any hope for you… was there, Anya?”
“I told you, Killian. I’m happy with who I am.” Anya scrutinizes Killian, taking his face in her hand while holding me captive with her other one. “You’re not healing. We’ll take you back to Deorc Mansion and have Natalia examine you.”
“Just let us go.” Killian shudders. He coughs and spits up more blood.
I swallow, hoping to choke back my fear. He probably has internal bleeding. Watching Killian bleed to death is worse than watching him desiccate slowly. An undead body that no longer has magic to heal is just undead. And an injured undead body is soon to be dead dead.
How do I fix this?
“Anya, please,” I beg while bracing my head. She hasn’t released my hair, and my scalp stings. “I need the amulet, and we need to get Killian to a hospital.”
“Hospitals can’t help vampires,” Anya says. “Natalia can help him.”
Anya has no idea what she’s dealing with, but maybe Natalia’s magic can do something… or maybe I can siphon power from my fetus before it’s born. “Anya, please, let me use the amulet. You can have it back. I just need to use it to save Killian.”
“Nice try, Sasha. It’s not a magical amulet of healing.” Anya waves Seth on.
He drags Killian toward one of the demon’s jeeps.
“You don’t understand!”
Anya jerks my head. I whimper. Killian’s moving farther away from me. His legs work stiffly to keep up with Seth’s pace.
I flail my arms, trying to grab for the amulet around Anya’s neck.
“Stop it.” Anya shakes me. “We’re going now, if you can keep your pixie paws to yourself.”
“He’s going to die.”
Anya takes a step, with me in tow, and waves her hand lazily to the other vamps holding the demons in a chokehold. “Kill them.”
“What?” I dig my heels in to make Anya stop. “They’re human. Shock them and release the demons.”
Anya raises a hand to halt the vampires. I almost think she agrees with me until she says, “Never mind. I’ll absorb their powers into the amulet right now.”
Thinking of how my father was trapped for all those years, I struggle in her grip. “No, please. Don’t do that.” This was the original plan, to trap the demons in their bodies, but I can’t let her go through with it, not after seeing the pain in my father’s eyes.
Anya passes me into another vampire’s arms. “Take her back to Deorc. And don’t harm her.”
The vampire marches me after Killian, who’s halfway to a jeep, but he elbows Seth and makes a break toward me. I brace myself for a horrifying crunch, expecting Seth to jump on Killian, but Anya waves him off. “Let him go to her.”
Killian staggers into my arms, and my captor releases me. Killian and I sink to our knees, wrapped in each other’s embrace. I kiss his blood-streaked face, wishing I could take away his hurt and become lost in the pleasure, but Killian is determined to hold my attention.
“Sasha.” He grunts as he pins my face between his hands. “This is… it… for me.”
“No. No.” Tears blind my eyes. “I can heal you. I just need the amulet.”
“We don’t know… if that… will work.”
“I just have to keep you alive for nine months. You’ll heal from this.”
Killian’s face twists. “I’m too… injured.”
“Drink my blood.” I angle my head to expose the wound Anya inflicted. “Please.”
Killian snickers feebly. “Blood lust… gone. No craving… for blood. Won’t… heal me.”
“No. I’m your magical elixir.” I press my head into the crook of his shoulder. “You’re my vampire.”
“Let’s go.” Anya hovers nearby, bored. “I have an invasion to plan. After I siphon the powers from the demons here and give them to the vampires, we’ll be able to teleport onto Belyven.”
Killian seizes my upper arm and whispers in my ear. “Can’t… let happen. Anya… keep you alive… Drain your blood… over and over… to use amulet to give vamps demon power. Belyven… doomed.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
Killian tips his head up toward the cloud cover.
My eyes round as I take in his meaning. “You’ll die,” I croak in his ear.
“Already dead.” Killian kisses my ear as I cry against him. “Save yourself… save our child.”
He finds my mouth and kisses me through my dripping tears. I taste his useless vampire blood—blood that no longer has power to heal. I taste my own tears and open my eyes, realizing tears streak Killian’s face as well.
“Love you… Sasha,” he says between kisses. “Always. You… saved me.”
“Wrap it up,” Anya says. “Load those two up.”
Before Seth pulls us apart, Killian pushes me away. “Do it, Sasha.” He falls to all fours. “Do it!”
Somehow I find the will. Somehow I give in and do as Killian asks. A part of me has no strength left to hold the storm. A part of me acknowledges that Killian is right. To save our child and my people, I have to set the sun free.
I don’t want to watch him burn. He’s been so willing to give up everything, to sacrifice himself, and he finally knows he’s worth saving. He found salvation inside himself. I just reminded him of his worth. In the end, I didn’t convince him. I wasn’t strong enough to save my vampire on my own.
I mouth, “I love you,” as Killian’s eyes shine.
I drop my shoulders back and allow the wind to lift through me and into the sky, holding my gaze with Killian’s even as Seth grips Killian’s shoulders and shakes him.
Anya’s wise to my plan and shrieks through the whirlwind. “Sasha, stop! You’ll kill us!”
The clouds pepper with holes, tearing apart like cotton candy. Vampires throw the seed demons down and race toward the vehicles, anything really to provide an ounce of cover.
The sun rips through the clouds and dots the field. With one last push, I shred any remaining wisps. Vampires trail smoke as they streak away. Most of them are too late to save themselves, caught as they pull the jeeps’ doors open. The flames begin where their skin is exposed at their face and hands and progress like dry tinder drenched in lighter fluid. Their screams shatter my hearing.
Free from the vamps, the seed demons recognize their chance to flee. Steering clear of the vampires twisting and writhing beside the vehicles, the demons sprint to the field’s edge and the cover of trees.
Anya grabs at me, her skin smoldering. Her hair catches fire. “Stop this, faerie!” Her mouth contorts in agony as flames spread to her face.
Killian pushes her off me, and I stumble back. A Seth I no longer recognize, who’s blackening from fire, punches Killian, who drops to a knee.
That’s a
ll Seth can manage. He sways toward Anya but seizes up, unable to pull her into his arms.
Killian’s poor misguided sister. I don’t know who she was before she turned, but Killian wanted to save her. Where I had faith I could save my vampire, Killian wanted to save his.
But she burns in the beautifully glorious sunlight.
It’s way past too late.
I want to stop the horror. Screeches fill the air. The sickening smell of burned corpses fills my sinuses. I grab my head. “What have I done?” To save myself and my child. To save my people. To stop an evil vampire.
My wish to set things right is futile. Seth and Anya are blackened from fire. Their bodies fall against each other and tip to the ground.
“Killian!” The flaming wall in front of me blocks him from sight. I can’t hear him over the screams, which will haunt my dreams, as pyres burn across the meadow, leaving nothing but ash.
I stumble around Seth and Anya, tripping back when the flames flare outward.
I squint through columns of smoke. Crumpled in the grass is a glittering, black mass. Slender demonic wings, alluring in their own way, encase a stretched-out figure.
A figure who is not burning.
“Killian!” I dive for him and fall upon his body. He’s on his stomach. As I roll him over his wings, they wink out of existence. They had stayed even though Killian lost his vampire powers. “Killian, Killian.” I palm his bloody face between my hands. He didn’t burn. He didn’t burn! “Open your eyes. You’re okay. We made it. We can go home.”
Killian doesn’t move. I prod his chest and hug him. “My love, it’s over. You may have lost your powers, but it saved you from the sun. I can’t believe it.”
My ear against his chest doesn’t register a heartbeat. I shove myself back and scan him. He shows no signs of awareness.
Fear grips me as I pry an eyelid open. His pupil stares blankly toward the heavens. “No!” My hands slide down his body, patting him down. But he didn’t catch fire. He didn’t combust. I lift an arm, and it drops limply when I let go.
“No! You can’t be dead! After all this!” I thump on his chest, thinking to start resuscitation. Just because he’s a vampire doesn’t mean this ingenious human intervention can’t work.
Sasha, it won’t work. He’s undead. A dead undead.
Shut up!
I know what will work—the one thing Killian’s always wanted, the thing that gives him strength and heals him like nothing else. I fumble around for something sharp in the grass, something to slice my hand open. My fingers land on a rock. I don’t feel pain as blood bubbles from the jagged line I cut into my skin. I squeeze, hard, making the blood run, and drip it directly into Killian’s mouth.
“Come on!” I clench my fist. “You can have all of it. I don’t want it. My life is nothing without yours.”
I close his jaw and work it around, hoping to force the blood into his system.
Killian shows no response.
“Drink my blood!” I pound my fist on his chest. I lose track of how long my blood drips into his mouth. My supernatural elixir comes much too slow; I’ve lost too much of it.
Adrenaline must be the only thing keeping me conscious.
Finally I accept the truth. My blood is useless. My vampire has no more powers. He’s a useless corpse, unable to do anything.
I stare blankly at the blood coating my palm, at my blood carelessly smeared with Killian’s on his face. My words come out quiet and defeated. “Why did you come into my life and make me fall in love with you? Why did you have to be my vampire?”
I stroke his cheek with my thumb, blending our blood together. “Why couldn’t it have been just us? No demons, no vampires, no supernatural elixirs. I just wanted to be with you.” I cradle his head in my hands and angle it toward my face. “It took us too long to admit our feelings for each other. We wasted so much time.”
I kiss his stained lips, tasting my blood and his.
How can I be an elixir? I taste like sorrow and blackness. Of cold winters and bitter winds. This is not how I imagined I tasted to my vampire. This couldn’t have been Killian’s ambrosia. I never did ask him what I tasted like. Strawberries dipped in cream and sugar? Cocoa sprinkled with cinnamon? Killian would laugh and say, “That’s your ambrosia, silly Sasha.”
I collapse onto him. He’s gone. This is only his body. But his spirit is free. He is free.
My tears don’t console me.
TWENTY-EIGHT
I blink through my tears, but they aren’t what’s blurring my vision. The culprit is my hazy projection gazing at another hazy projection. “Mom?”
I don’t glance behind me. I don’t want to see my pathetic form hunched over Killian’s soulless body.
Mom’s face is lined with pity. And why shouldn’t it be? She doesn’t care that Killian is dead. She’s just disappointed I’m mourning—what she deems—a lost cause. “Sasha. I’m sorry Killian couldn’t be saved.”
I twitch. “Are you?”
“I am.”
“Why are you even here?”
“You were losing too much blood. With your heart rate slowed for a while, it will give your body time to clot.”
“Swell.” I shake my head. I’m not ready to forgive her. “It’s your fault Killian’s dead. You should have told me this would happen, that Killian would die if we had sex. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would that knowledge have stopped you?”
My projection flashes. “Of course it would have!”
“You would have sought a way around it.”
“By using the amulet. It would have worked, wouldn’t it have?”
Astra closes her eyes. “Yes.”
I hate her.
I look away from her wispy form. If everything had played out differently, he could have lived. Killian and I could have been together.
“Sasha, your relationship would have been fraught with disaster. Every time you and Killian engaged in intercourse, you’d become pregnant. Every time, Killian would lose his powers. You’d use the amulet to restore them, and then you’d have sex again. It’d become an endless cycle.”
Hello! Birth control! “Humans have this thing called birth control.”
“I suppose those precautions could have worked.”
“You suppose! Maybe you should do more research.” I’m kicking myself. I don’t suppose vampires normally carry condoms. Would Killian and I have used one? We were cross-species mating like idiots. Lost in our passion. I wouldn’t have thought, not in a million years, that one act could ruin so many lives.
I’m so disappointed in myself. I want to cry, but the most my projection does is release a wretched sob as if my heart is ripping open.
“Killian deserved more than this.” He deserves a beating heart. I glare right at my mother and hope she’s cut with guilt. “He deserved more than your unobtainable promises.”
“They weren’t unobtainable.”
“Why didn’t you come when I called you, back at the safe house? You should have told Killian the truth. Then his life could have been spared.”
My mother bites her lip, and just like that, I’m staring at the sad truth. My mother wanted this to happen.
I can’t even feel the rage I should without my body. My muscles should be clenching. My jaw should be grinding my teeth to nubs. Focus, Sasha. Blind fury won’t help you. “How was Anya supposed to be restored?”
Mom sighs. This must be a question she feels she has to answer. “When your eighteen years on Earth were up and Killian had fulfilled his end of the agreement to protect you, I would have helped his sister, had she wanted my help. I doubt she would have taken it.”
“How? Tell me how you would have saved her.”
“I would have sent a storm sprite to her with the intent to seduce her.”
“What?” Eww. That’s sick. My mother just can’t command storm sprites to have sex with whomever she wants. I doubt Anya could overcome the blood lust anyway. She’d suck t
he poor storm sprite dry.
“She’d conceive, and her child would take her powers. Then she’d die as her body deteriorated. Her undead body wouldn’t be able to carry the pregnancy. But with her death, her spirit would be free.”
A sickness wraps my spine. “That’s not restoring her! Mom, how could you make Killian such a promise?”
“It’s what Anya deserved! It was more than generous. Her spirit is free to go to whatever afterlife she earned. And that’s one less vampire preying on us!”
One less. My eyes are open to my mother’s hatred. I understand her crusade, but it’s a losing battle. Storm sprites will always contend with supernaturals vying for our blood. One less vampire won’t save our people. But demons without power and without bodies would help our cause.
Aw, dragon dung. I’ll have to wield the amulet. I’ll have a lot of work to do over the next few years, but for now, I am done with my mother’s schemes. “Put me back in my body. I’ll see you when I return to Belyven.”
TWENTY-NINE
A long time later, when smoldering patches cover the field and the sun dips low on the horizon, I pry myself upright.
I can’t bear to look at Killian. I’m weary, and my head throbs, but my mother’s visit kept me from bleeding to death. While I was a projection, ignoring the sad truth was easy. I can’t anymore. Killian’s gone, and I’m pregnant.
The meadow could be really far from demon headquarters. I might have quite a hike. I’m on their property, but the seed demons haven’t returned. I don’t know who’s in charge after Korbinian nor do I care.
My fingers stroke Killian’s thigh. What should I do now? I can’t stand leaving him. I try to roll Killian into my arms, but he’s too heavy. My maniacal laugh tears through the silence. Dead weight. He’s dead weight, you stupid sprite.
I fall over Killian as I lose grip on him. I could drag him. I scan the area for anything to help me. There’s nothing. No material to lay him on. Everything’s burned up.
A few feet beyond me is a black smoking lump—the ashes of Anya and Seth. At least she’s free now, not the way Killian wanted, but maybe she and Killian are together and they can forgive each other for everything that was ever wrong between them.
