by Anna Santos
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
PHILIPPE
Insomnia was becoming my best friend. I tried to resume my life and stop feeling sorry for myself. But my night ended with a bottle of bourbon in one hand and a lot of regrets floating around in my head. I missed her so badly; it was insane how the alcohol wasn’t soothing the pain.
Aria was gone. I’d promised to stay away. The fact that I didn’t know if she was okay made me feel restless and worried. I was staring too often at my phone, chasing away my desire to call her and listen to her voice. Her dad hadn’t phoned me back to tell me how she was. Maybe the lack of news meant that everything was okay in the angel world.
Life goes on, right? Wrong. It wasn’t that easy. I was dying here. I hadn’t felt this bad since… I didn’t think I’d ever been this down. Not even when Sophie left me for another guy, one richer than me, one who could give her the life she’d always wanted. I had wandered the streets of Paris, thinking about the things I could do to win her back. Back then, time seemed to be eternal. Grief made for bizarre company, whispering thoughts of suicide and rage. I wasn’t angry now. I wasn’t feeling cheated on or unworthy. All I was feeling was sad and empty. I’d lost a part of me when I lost Aria. I was hoping that my loss would be what was best for her. I wanted her to be happy. Truly happy. I wouldn’t make her happy. I wasn’t human anymore. I could be rich, but I was dark and damaged. Damaged beyond words. What could I give her? I would ruin her innocence and her beautiful soul.
At least, I would be part of her life. She would be the Queen of the Angels. We would see each other at parties and gatherings. I could watch over her and witness her happiness. Altruism didn’t suit me at all, but if it was to save her soul from Hell, I could hurt a bit more. Loneliness and pain weren’t strangers to me. I had learned to live side by side with them. A bottle of bourbon and my misery were the only things I needed to survive these days. The pain would eventually lessen. It wouldn’t stop, though. I knew that. But the easy way out wasn’t an option. Killing myself wasn’t an option. I had considered it. I had tried to do it so many years ago when Jo found me and saved me. But if I was gone and ended up in Hell, who would make sure that Aria had the life she deserved? I would just miss her more. The pain wouldn’t stop. I’d rather suffer near her than in Hell. It could wait for me a bit longer. I wouldn’t even complain to go there when I was sure that she had ascended to heaven and nothing or no one could hurt her anymore.
The daylight had come, and I was still awake. Too many thoughts, too much pain, and too much loneliness. I wanted to smash and break everything around me. I wanted to scream and curse my existence. Maybe I was going insane.
“Philippe.” Gerard’s voice woke me up from my troubled thoughts. “Are you here?”
It was dark inside my office. Everything was closed to keep the daylight from leaking in. I knew it was day because I was feeling weaker. I had my back to the door as I sat on my armchair. He couldn’t see me there unless I moved and his eyes were adjusted to the darkness.
“I said I didn’t want anyone to disturb me,” I growled.
“I was worried. You aren’t acting normal these days,” he said.
“I’m not the only one not acting normally these days,” I retorted, clasping the glass in my hand and clenching my teeth.
If he thought I didn’t know what he was up to, he was dead wrong. I didn’t survive this long by trusting people. He might be my number one, but I knew that he thought I was becoming weak. Everybody knew that vampires couldn’t be trusted. I was just waiting for him to stab me in the back, no pun intended, to claim my title.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he declared with his most innocent voice.
“You’ve been away all night. Where have you been?” I asked.
“I was with Margaret,” he answered. “Can’t I have fun? She’s a feisty witch.” His mocking tone implied he’d had a sexual interlude. I wasn’t falling for that. There was only one reason for him to keep that witch around him. She was foolish enough to believe him and do his bidding. It was a nice resource for a vampire to have a powerful witch on his side.
“Does Margaret live in the graveyard now?” I asked, putting the glass on the table and getting up. I folded my hands behind my back and heard his movement behind me. I was wondering if he was reckless enough to try anything against me. He probably was. “Aren’t you going to deny that you spent your night in the graveyard? That it was the first place you went once the night came? What were you doing there? Were you striking some sort of absurd deal with the specters?”
“Are you doubting my loyalty to you?”
I smirked, turning around to watch him. “I’m not a naïve girl, Gerard. I know you’ve been fooling Margaret to think that she’s your soulmate when, in fact, we both know she isn’t. She’s a dark witch. Her coven has ties to the specters. You’ve been acting rather mysterious these past few weeks.”
“So have you,” he said.
“I have my reasons.”
Gerard gesticulated with his hands, his eyes wide. “I tried to prevent this from happening.”
I arched an eyebrow at his enigmatic words. “What do you mean?”
“You rejected her, but you didn’t have the balls to sentence her to death. I told those idiots to finish her off. They were incompetent, and she escaped. I thought she would die in the river. I’m tired of cleaning up your mess.”
“My mess?”
“You’re too honorable to be a good Vampire King. We need someone with…more greed and fewer morals. You talk a big game, but you don’t do anything to get rid of the angels and gargoyles.”
“Let me see if I understand you. You were the one responsible for Aria almost dying on the night I rejected her?”
Gerard balled his hands into fists and stared at me with dark eyes. “Are you too drunk to understand the words coming out of my mouth?”
Narrowing my eyes, I muttered, “Apparently.”
“You’ve been in bed with angels—literally. What do you think will happen if you keep pushing Cedric’s buttons and chasing his mate?”
I pointed one finger at him. “My private life doesn’t concern you!”
“It does if you’re putting all our lives at stake! You’ve grown weak ever since that girl showed up in your life! She’s an angel, a powerful one if you don’t know by now. She could get us all killed!”
With his hands in the air and his deranged speech igniting the boiling rage that was taking over me, I was ready to tear him to pieces. Yet, his allegations made me wait a bit longer. “What are you talking about?” I asked, unsure why he was bold enough to accuse me. He was probably insane if he thought he could say all those things and survive. He’d tried to kill Aria. That was unforgivable.
“She’s a Red Angel. A fucking Red Angel! My master has warned me about them. They’re merciless and deadly. She’ll wipe us all out.”
“She’s harmless,” I claimed, finding his words insane.
“She may look harmless. She’s a cute little thing. You’ve been dying to fuck her.”
I clenched my teeth. I was going to kill him, but I still needed to know what the hell he had done while he was away. The sole mention of a master other than me was enough to make me want to rip his head off again. The damn prick had sold his soul to someone, and he was ignoring the bond he had with me. I was the one who had found him dying in a corner and saved his miserable life. I was his creator, and I was going to be his executioner. He had betrayed me.
“What did you do?” I asked, stepping closer and noticing his hands going to his back. He had something hidden behind him—probably a stake or a gun. The fool thought he could outsmart me and be faster than me.
“I warned them about her. If you don’t have the guts to end her life, then someone else will.”
“Who did you warn?” I sped to him, losing control and grabbing him by his neck. I held him up in the air, choking him. He put his hands around mine in a fruitless effort to stop
me. “You haven’t thought about this clearly, have you? Do you think you’re stronger than me? Do you honestly think you can kill me?”
“I would be doing you a fa-vor. You’ve been thin-king about taking your own life since you lost that little bitch to Cedric,” he managed to say.
I threw him across the room, sending him crashing against the furniture and the wall.
“And how would you manage to kill me? Since you’re clearly weaker than I am?”
“I was hoping to find you weaker,” he said, getting up and stretching his muscles. I hadn’t hurt him much. He was a strong vampire, and he could take a blow like that one. “You spent your night drinking. That’s, what, your second bottle?”
“Yes. But even if it were my third, it would take a lot more to let you win against me,” I explained as his eyes scrutinized the office for something to use against me. “Or did you think I would let you kill me without a fight?”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t fight. But I do have a plan B for this,” he said, smirking darkly as he dusted off his jacket.
“He brought me.” It was Margaret’s voice.
I turned to the door and assessed the blonde girl in the black lace dress. Her chin was held high as a clear sign she was confident about her powers.
I smirked, amused. She was a kid compared to the other witches I had fought before. She might be from a powerful line of dark magic, but she was clearly out of her league here. It was cute that she thought she could help her supposed mate kill me and take my place as king. It would make her the Queen—in her head, at least. I was sure that Gerard would kill her when he didn’t have any more use for her.
“And how are you planning to do that?” I teased.
She didn’t like my mocking tone and disdainful smile.
“Like this,” she shouted, joining her hands together and sending a spiral of wind that slammed me against the wall and broke the window.
I should have evaded her hit. The alcohol must have affected me more than I’d assumed.
My back stung once my body hit the floor. When the light came in, it burned my face. I grunted in pain as I stepped over the debris and evaded the sunlight.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gerard fleeing the sunlight and recoiling against one of the bookcases on the far end of the room.
“Are you trying to kill me, too?” he growled at her.
“I can take him on my own. Leave if you want,” Margaret shouted at him.
“He’s over two hundred years old. He can take a bit of direct sunlight!” Gerard informed the witch.
I wiped the blood from the corner of my lip. He was right. I could still fight her long enough to not be severely hurt. If using sunlight to weaken me was her plan, she was going to be disappointed.
“He’s mine. I waited too long for this,” Margaret said as she aimed her hands at me again. This time, I was too fast for her, and she kept failing every time she tried aiming at me while things around us burst into pieces of wood, glass, and paper.
“You’re pathetic!” Gerard growled.
“He’s too fast! Don’t just stand there. Do something!” Margaret ordered.
The witch, probably worn down, lowered her hands. I witnessed the moment Gerard smirked as he realized that she was defenseless and believed that I was going to run at her and break her neck. He had something behind his back, holding it tight. His right foot turned to Margaret’s side, ready to rush me once my back was exposed to him.
He was ready to sacrifice her to end my existence. Yet, I knew that I had a better chance of knowing what they were planning against Aria by questioning the witch than I did by questioning him. Thus, he was going to go down first.
Glaring at Margaret, I feigned a movement as if I were going to pounce at her. Speeding, I grabbed a piece of wood from the floor and changed my direction, stabbing Gerard in his heart. He blinked several times as he grabbed at my hand, which was lodged in his chest. His mouth moved but made no sound, his eyes rolled, and, once I let him go and sped backwards, his body fell stiff on the floor with a loud crash.
“You bastard! You killed him! He’s dead!”
Margaret’s screams reached my ears and, soon enough, her new spells hit me as incantations poured out from her mouth, preventing me from moving fast enough to get to her. The pressure held me back, and I was hit by a wave of heat that burned me. She was more powerful than I’d thought, or she was extremely mad because I’d killed her lover. Rage was a good fuel to conjure magic—a different and more powerful magic that she had shown before.
I closed my eyes, growling as I thought about Aria’s safety. She could be in danger. Getting to that witch was my only option to find out who Gerard’s new master was, and what they were planning against my better half.
I began to move, step by step, ignoring the pain and the burning flesh. Until suddenly, the pressure and the heat stopped, and I opened my eyes to see why.
“What the hell is going on in here?” Jo asked, a piece of a vase in her hand. She had knocked Margaret out and was looking at me with questioning eyes. She saved me. I had to love her for that and be glad she had slept in her old room that day.
“Gerard wanted to be king,” I said, trying to be funny about it, but she was in no mood for laughing because she narrowed her eyes. “I’m glad you didn’t kill the girl. We’ll need her.”
“We? I have nothing to do with this. I was trying to sleep.”
“Well, I was trying to be left alone and look what happened.” I pointed at Gerard’s body.
“Not funny, Philippe,” she muttered, dropping what was left of the porcelain to the floor. “I hope this vase wasn’t expensive,” she said, looking at the unconscious witch.
I tried to smirk, but I coughed, and blood began pouring from my mouth. My stomach hurt, and I felt the need to throw up.
Jo sped to my side, putting her hand on my back. “She hit you hard. Let’s get you to the corridor. We need to get you out of the sun. It prevents you from healing.”
My feet felt heavy as I headed to the corridor with my hand in front of my mouth. Blood dripped between my fingers and onto my hardwood bamboo flooring. “I feel everything burning inside me.”
“She’s cast a spell on you. I have no idea what it was, but it must have had consequences on your body.”
I clenched my jaw and motioned my free hand at Jo. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. Go tie her up before she wakes up.”
“You need blood and a place to rest,” Jo said as she grabbed my arm.
“No.” I gulped down the blood, only to cough and grab my chest with both hands. Pain pierced at my chest while weakness made my head light. I was only on my feet because I was stubborn. “We don’t have time to take care of me. We need to wake up the witch and question her about what’s going to happen to Aria.”
Jo sighed deeply before asking, “What are you talking about?”
I managed to turn around to watch my master. “Gerard spoke about following the orders of a new master from the graveyard.”
Her face became paler than it normally was as her eyes grew bigger. “A specter?”
I nodded and coughed.
Jo grabbed a piece of fabric from her nightgown, shredded it, and folded it to put in front of my mouth and nose.
“You’re bleeding from your nose now and your eyes are becoming red,” she said as she brushed my hair with her fingers. “You need to rest, sweetie. Did they drug you? It’s looking more and more like the effects of Clarity.”
“No,” I mumbled against the cloth. “I just drank bourbon and… The effects would have shown up a lot faster if I’d been poisoned. It’s a spell, something to slow me down.”
Jo’s expression grew darker. “I’m going to wake her and force her to undo what she did to you!”
“What about the specter?” I grabbed her arm before she left to deal with the witch. “You’ve always told me they were dangerous, and I shouldn’t mess with or make deals with them.”
> Jo fixed her hair, which was falling loosely about her pretty face. “Gerard was a fool.”
“Yes, but we still need to find out what his master wants with Aria.”
“Damn it,” she growled and folded her arms. “A girl can’t catch a break in this city. Let’s get you to the kitchen. You need to feed and then I’ll tie up the girl and we’ll wake her.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
PHILIPPE
I had fallen asleep. I don’t know for how long. I dreamed of Aria, romantic dreams. Dreams where I could touch and kiss her, and she loved me. Dreams that became dark and eerie because I’d lost her and couldn’t find her. I needed to find her.
Once I opened my eyes, I realized the hard truth. Aria didn’t love me, and she could be in danger. I hadn’t fallen asleep. I had passed out. Whatever spell that witch had cast on me, it was making me weaker and sick. I’d thrown up the blood that Jo had given me to feed. Everything around me swirled while Jo’s voice seemed to echo in my thoughts before I’d lost consciousness.
“I’m so glad you’re awake,” Jo said next to me. I was lying on my bed. She sat beside me, looking pale and worried. “I called someone who can help us figure it out what kind of spell the witch cast on you, but they can’t get here until later in the evening.”
“We need to know what they’re going to do to Aria.” My voice came out hoarse, and I was unable to move. I hadn’t felt this bad for ages. It was as if my energy had been drained from my body.
“You killed her lover. I doubt she’s willing to tell you anything.”
I knew she was right, but there were other ways to make her talk. “How long was I out?” I tried to sit up.
“Just for ten minutes. You should rest.” Her hands held me down. “You don’t look good.”
