CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE || COLE #2
“Ask me something else,” I ground out, glaring at Magnus. “Anything else.”
“Very well,” Magnus said. “Kill Elijah, and I will let them both live.”
Nicolas, I trust you—and I need you to trust me. Can you do that?
I shoved down my helpless rage and met Eli’s gaze. Yes.
Magnus doesn’t know I’m an old soul. He doesn’t know I can’t be compelled. We can trick him. It’s our only chance.
No! I protested, horror rising as I understood what he was suggesting. I can’t risk your life.
Sam and Harris won’t come back if we fail—but I will. Trust me.
I didn’t dare nod, but I sent my assent through the bond, and I knew he felt it.
“I’ll do it,” I said, forcing the words out and hating every syllable. “I’ll take Eli’s life to spare theirs.”
Magnus blinked, surprised. “That’s not what I thought you’d choose. Perhaps you’re of more use to me than I imagined.”
Beside me, Thierry stared, lips parted, eyes filled with outrage and disbelief.
I met my brother’s gaze evenly. “Forgive me. But what is one life compared to two? Eli is easily replaced. He’s only human, after all.”
Understanding flickered in Thierry’s eyes. It was only a split second, but eight centuries apart couldn’t change the fact that he was my twin. I saw it.
My brother stepped away, giving himself a straight shot to Magnus. His expression twisted with revulsion as he glared at me—it was just a touch too hot to be real. “You disgust me,” he hissed. “You’re no brother of mine.”
He’s a good actor, Eli commented. You need to get Magnus to release me. And you need to make it look real. You’re going to have to feed on me.
Magnus chuckled, eyes dancing as he met Thierry’s glare.
“You can’t argue with his math, Thierry.
Nor with how replaceable a single human is.
I assure you, there’s plenty more where that came from.
” He nodded toward the wooden stake in Thierry’s hand.
“Release it. I won’t have you trying something foolish while your brother slakes his thirst.”
Thierry dropped the stake immediately. It hit the carpet at his feet.
“You too,” Magnus said, nodding to the one I held.
Do it, Eli said. Trust me.
Gritting my teeth, I let the stake fall. Fear seized me—icy and total. Because I understood, through the bond, what Eli’s plan was. There was every chance it would get him killed.
“Let go of him,” I said, taking a step closer. I met Eli’s gaze, trying to fill it with regret—it wasn’t acting. It was my fault he was here. If I’d just left him alone—
Nicolas, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I don’t regret anything.
I swallowed hard. “I need him free and compliant.”
Magnus snorted. “Very well. But don’t think me foolish—I will be the one to place him under a compulsion.”
Then he released Eli.
My mate staggered backward.
Magnus caught him by the wrist and met his gaze. “You will hold very still and do exactly what you’re told. You will not scream or make a sound, but you will feel every moment of what Nicolas does to you.” His lips curled into a vicious, mocking smile. “After all, love hurts.”
Eli went perfectly still, his expression blank. Through the bond, I felt Magnus’s power crash over him like a tidal wave—but it rolled through him harmlessly.
“No,” I gasped, injecting as much horror into my voice as I could. “That’s—you can’t make him suffer! That wasn’t what I agreed to!”
See? Immune to vampire hypnotism. Eli’s mental voice was calm, but I could feel the strain beneath it.
Magnus met my gaze, his eyes pure evil. “You’re still getting a fair trade, Nicolas. His life for the other two. Now do it—before I tear his heart from his chest. I’m growing impatient.”
I took a step closer, then another. Eli’s eyes were unfocused, his face blank. He didn’t move a muscle. His trust in me was total.
“Don’t do this!” Thierry shouted as I took Eli by the shoulders and let my fangs drop. “Nicolas, no!”
Magnus’s attention was locked on us, drinking in the scene greedily, his eyes alight with glee. He hardly seemed to notice Thierry.
You have to do it and make it look real, Eli whispered.
Steeling myself, I sank my fangs into Eli’s throat. My mate sucked in a sharp breath, as though in pain. In reality, I willed my bite to feel like nothing at all for him—this was not the time nor the place for pleasure.
When it starts, drop me to the ground. Next to the stakes.
Magnus started laughing as I swallowed the first mouthful of Eli’s blood.
Just as I’d done countless times before to leave no trace, I ran my tongue across one of my fangs, drawing a bead of blood that mixed with Eli’s. Then I lapped at the wound. Through the bond, I felt his skin begin to knit itself back together.
Unlike my past victims, I hadn’t taken nearly enough blood to harm him.
In the next moment, Thierry moved in a blur, launching into Magnus with a devastating kick to the gut.
Magnus, though distracted, was still impossibly fast. He caught my twin’s foot and threw him backward, hard enough to shatter the wall.
I dropped Eli beside the wooden stakes, just as he’d asked, and lunged for Magnus. If I could just get my hands around his head—
My maker backhanded me savagely enough that black dots filled my vision, and for a moment I couldn’t feel my body.
I staggered, disoriented.
Thierry lunged again in a blur of speed. I couldn’t follow what happened next—Magnus was faster than anything I’d ever seen—but Thierry went flying past me, landing in a heap.
Blinking through the haze, I scrambled for my fallen stake—but it was gone.
“Enough!” Magnus roared, picking Eli up by the neck with one hand. My mate hung limp in his grip, still blank-faced, his expression glazed. Magnus didn’t see the stake clutched in his hand.
Nicolas, if this doesn’t work—forgive me, Eli whispered through the bond. I’ll find you again.
“You think you can trick me?” Magnus’s fangs dropped, and he yanked Eli close.
His silver eyes, filled with triumph, met mine over Eli’s shoulder as he bit down, causing Eli to let out a very real-sounding cry of pain. My mate’s agony sliced into me like a blade between my ribs. Magnus had made it hurt.
Eli’s determination and fury flickered through the bond.
“Yes, I do,” Eli choked out, making a sharp movement to jam the wooden stake upward, under Magnus’s rib cage.
The triumph fled from my maker’s eyes. Instead, they went wide and disbelieving.
He let out a surprised cry and dropped Eli, who fell to the ground in a heap.
The ancient vampire staggered backward, looking down in horror at the wooden stake protruding from his body.
“You missed the heart,” he breathed, black blood bubbling up between his lips, his skin already beginning to desiccate as the vitality drained away from it. His expression filled with dawning horror as he realized that Eli hadn’t missed at all.
But of course he hadn’t. My mate was a doctor with intimate knowledge of anatomy. He would have been able to find the heart, first try.
“No! I can’t die. I can’t—” Then his gaze dropped to Eli, who was on the ground, backing away from him, his hand pressed to his throat. Blood poured through his fingers. Magnus’s expression contorted with rage. “You! I’ll kill you!”
He took a lurching step toward my mate. I leapt to my feet and darted forward, prepared to throw myself in front of Eli to protect him.
But before I could reach him, even moving at vampiric speed, a blur swept into the room. An instant later, I heard the whistle of a blade through the air, followed by a wet sound that turned my stomach.
Godric appeared behind Magnus, a bloody axe clutched in his hands, a savage look on his face.
Magnus blinked once, his lips forming a perfect “O” of surprise. Then his head went in one direction and his body another as it collapsed to the ground.
“I think not,” Godric said coldly, glaring down at Magnus’s body. “This was for everyone I could not save.”
He spat onto the ground, his normally remote expression twisted with hatred and revulsion as he watched the remains of our maker shrivel into a mummified skeleton.
I scrambled for Eli, my fangs already out. I gathered him into my arms and bit into my wrist, not even feeling the pain. Black blood welled up in the wound.
Eli blinked up at me, his expression becoming glazed for real this time. Blood still streamed out from between his fingers. His skin was becoming ashen. His words sounded raspier than they should have. “He’s dead? It’s over?”
“Yes. He’s gone,” I gasped out, pressing my wrist to his lips. My mate was losing blood far too quickly from Magnus’s bite. He only had seconds left. “Eli, please drink!”
Eli went slack in my arms, his eyes drifting shut.
I kept my wrist steady, dripping blood between his lips, tears stinging in my eyes, praying to any god that would listen to spare him, that he would swallow so that my blood could heal him.
I would have traded everything for him if I could only be allowed to do so. I would have given up my newfound humanity, my soul, all that I was. So long as he was safe and well, it would be worth anything, any price.
Please, Eli, I begged, gazing down at his perfectly still, pale face. Don’t leave. Please—
And then my mate swallowed.