Chapter 60 Kidan #2
His words exposed him further, his need to be heard, understood. It was pervasive, almost desperate. Dimly, she knew she had to use this opportunity. Draw out as much information as she could.
“I’m sorry he did that to her, to you,” she whispered, shaking from the restrained disgust. “It was… cruel.”
Samson regarded her behind a thousand walls, but it was softening. Each one losing its fight against her influence on the house. But her finger strained, unable to keep tracing her symbol.
A little more.
Her finger locked on her, refused to draw. No. The wisps around Samson vanished.
“Where has Susenyos bit you?” he rasped, blinking awake.
“What?”
That anger returned, more thunderous than ever. Samson’s eyes colored black. “Where?”
Kidan didn’t have to fake the stammer in her voice. “My—my shoulder.”
His eyes shot to her shoulder with knee-trembling wrath. Still, his voice remained calm. “Where else?”
Kidan’s heart pumped in her throat. “That’s it.”
“He’s not a saint.” He clicked his tongue. “I know he’s done more. Tell me or I’ll assume the worst.”
She didn’t want to say her breast, so she said, “My thighs.”
Samson’s hands fisted, a show of power and threat.
His gaze dropped, grabbing her legs so roughly she was sure there’d be welts.
“Thighs… you looked into his sin. What did you see? Did you see him leave her behind like an animal?” he demanded with near manic desperation.
“No, I saw him turn you all into vampires and abandon you.”
He flinched like she’d slapped him. “That’s what he believes to be his worst sin? Leaving us?” His shout made her flinch. “We were vampires, we could survive. She was just a girl! A human girl he left behind!”
Kidan crawled away from him. He paced the room, speaking in low Amharic, a few curses here and there.
He stopped, his dark eyes traveling over her retreating form. Taj and Susenyos had to wake up soon.
If they didn’t…
“She was just like you, and he ruined her. I won’t let him ruin you.” The vow was violent, edged with all the makings of a downfall.
Before Kidan could understand, he had gathered her in his arms and vanished downstairs. The speed of it robbed her protest, the world broke away and came together in an instant when the solid outline of the couch slammed into her back. She cried out, blood climbing up her throat.
The dim flickers of flames told her they were in the lounge room.
She didn’t want to be here. This was their spot, Kidan and Susenyos’s, filled with their memories.
The house seemed to echo her thoughts. A shiver slinked down her spine and stayed there, spreading like a stain.
Samson grabbed the fire poker and worked through the coals, bringing the flames alive.
Biting down on her lips, Kidan moved her blackened fingers.
One more time.
She had to draw her symbol, enhance his trust one more time. Her finger was so stiff she was afraid it’d snap off. Tears built in her eyes but she pushed, completing the five corners of a pentagon. The golden threads returned.
Carefully, Kidan said, “Yos told me—”
“Don’t fucking call him that. Like he’s something precious to you.”
She startled at the venom in those words but recovered. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Her apology relaxed his stiff shoulders.
You sound like June, a part of her whispered.
“Susenyos told me you two found the blade artifact together. That means you must have forgiven him after what I saw—”
Samson whirled, making her withdraw deeper into the couch. “Never. I would have forgiven him if he kept his promise, but you know him. How quickly he turns like a viper.”
“P-promise?”
“Find all the artifacts and become Sage. Only a Sage is powerful enough to do what is necessary.”
Necessary. “What’s that?”
He faced her head-on, then his eyes dropped to her blackened hand. She tried not to look, afraid the pain would magnify.
“Bring Talaa back.”
Kidan’s ears buzzed. Not sure if she’d heard it right. “Isn’t Talaa dead?”
It was quiet, then in a low, biting voice, he spoke. “A Sage is capable of breaking the binds, yes, but also setting new ones. I can bring her back once I am one.”
Kidan’s mind whirled. This was never about true power for him.
It was… love. Tragic, mad love.
She concentrated on the golden wisps entering his chest.
“Is June still with the Nefrasi?” she asked in her gentlest voice.
“Yes,” he said.
She shut her eyes, taking a moment before asking, “And where is that?”
Samson went stiff, grip tight on the poker. He regarded her with a concealed expression. His attention drifting to the black tendrils spreading up her arm. Kidan did not look. She was using every atom in her body not to tremble in pain. He stared at it, a long time.
“Where is the Nefrasi hideout?” she asked, beseeching with every part of her. “Where is GK, please?”
The house dimmed around him, safe and comforting enough to tell the truth.
A gasp built in her throat, a cry but she held on to this feeling, drawing strength from Susenyos’s words.
I trust you.
Everything else was tolerable as long as there was one soul to share a burden with. Susenyos had taught her that. Kidan aimed this feeling toward Samson, erased every trace of loneliness until he regarded her with black, unquestioning eyes.
“In an estate in Drummond North.”
Finally. Dummond was a location about two hours from Zaf Haven town. Tears of relief leaked from her eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and sagged.
Her concentration broke. The veins had spread up her arm, leaving her completely immobile.
I’m done.
The room snapped back to normal, free from the pentagon.
Samson turned to her with the fire poker. And finally, she understood what he had been doing all this time. The tip of the iron glowed a bright and frightening orange. “I can help you be free of him.”
Kidan’s stomach convulsed in on itself. “No, I don’t need any help.”
Samson cocked his head, lip curling back as he trailed a line down her body. She shivered from head to toe.
“Your shoulder and thighs. Where else did he touch you?”
Her stomach plummeted as she gathered his meaning.
“Nowhere else. But even those were nothing.” Panic had set in now, and she looked toward the stairs.
God, she hoped Yos was awake. Would he hear her if she called for him?
“If his bites and touches were nothing”—Samson’s voice dipped to the earth’s crust—“you wouldn’t still be searching for him. Hoping he’ll rescue you. He won’t come.”
The way he said those last words with satisfied cruelty made her knees waver. Samson shot forward and grabbed her arm. Her ears and cheek caught fire as the poker pressed into the skin.
Her scream rattled her house. The smell of something burning, nauseating and close.
She was pinned to the couch by the fire poker melting against her shoulder.
Spittle flew out of Samson’s mouth as she writhed in agony. “I need to cleanse you of him. Is this not what you did to your poor mother? Cleansed her of her sins with cigars?”
Kidan’s flesh peeled under the searing blade as it reached her bone. When her eyes rolled to the back of her head, he removed the fire poker. She could only mumble, beg.
“Please… stop. Please.”
From her tilted vision, her gaze darted to the garden door. Her addled mind must be seeking relief because she saw the garden light flicker on, and her sister’s delicate face struck with horror. Kidan reached out to her, but the lamp flickered again and June’s ghost disappeared.
Tears leaked from Kidan’s eyes.
“You need this,” Samson shouted, truly monstrous. “We both need to be free of him.”
He brought the poker again, this time between her legs, to her thigh where she’d told him Yos bit her.
She slammed her knees shut. “No!”
Fading in and out, Kidan asked the house for strength, like she once had when June appeared on the porch. A hum built beneath the floorboards, mighty and shaking. She channeled any trace of her mother’s lingering power, begged her for protection.
Then Kidan grabbed the poker with her other hand and wrenched it from him with violent force. His pupils expanded. Kidan kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying into the fireplace.
Rage boiled in her blood as she stalked toward him.
“I should have buried that bullet in your chest that day,” she spat, and crushed his throat with an iron grip, shoving his head into the fire without a second thought.
Samson screamed.
Kidan’s shield was weakening, and she was sweating but nothing like him. His skin sizzled and burned, and soon his entire body would catch fire.
For all he did to GK, to Yos, for what he was about to do to me, I’m going to annihilate him.
Kidan ignored his screams and held him in the fire, gritting her teeth with all the strength of the house. But there was too much pain climbing along her veins, weakening her.
No, not yet.
Samson delivered a blow to her chest, knocking the wind out of her.
She fell to her knees.
Samson crawled out, squelching the flames on his clothes, face ghastly.
His hand was around her throat instantly and Kidan knew with absolute certainty he would kill her. Exhausted, she shut her eyes. There was no more fight in her.
In her last moments, Kidan thought of the girl she was when she first came here.
How she’d taken her life for granted, eager to throw it aside.
Air left her in short, painful bursts. Her vision blurred.
She thought about how much she wanted to live, deserved to live.
It was why she had fought for as long as she did.
Even when it would have been easier to let go.
The door burst open. Samson let her neck go and Kidan doubled over, gasping. The room was blackening at the edges but she saw a horde of vampires and a girl.
A girl in a large jacket rushing to the front.
Kidan’s mouth stuck together, taking in the furious expression on Slen’s face, the harsh line of her jaw, the concern in her gaze.
She came for… me.
That was the last thought that followed her into the dark before her arms gave out from under her.