18. Ambrose
Chapter 18
Ambrose
I fling my back door open and grin—the vampires and witches haven’t left yet. I roll my shoulders back, a thrill zipping through me at the impending fight. I need this so I can stop thinking about what I just did.
Without a word of warning, I leap off my deck, shifting mid-jump. The second my paws hit the ground, I’m flying through the air again at Draven.
He squats down and hisses in my direction as he prepares to launch his own attack, ignoring my warning to leave.
As I’m about to land on him, he launches his body up, and we collide in the air.
My claws dig into his back while his teeth scrape against my neck. It’s the only time I’ll let him get this close to my blood.
The impact of the ground forces us to release each other as we land. Back on our respective feet, we circle each other and prepare for our next moves. Draven smirks at me as he licks the single drop of my blood off his lip. He thinks he’s already won. Most shifters fall completely under a vampire’s control as soon as they get a taste of our blood, but I’m not most shifters.
“Tell me the truth about your mate . She can’t shift, can she?” Draven commands.
I don’t have to answer. I’m not under his control, but I can feel the eyes of the others on me. And I know if I don’t handle this perfectly the rumors are going to spread throughout the communities and they’ll keep attacking until they get her to shift or kill her. I shift back into my human form.
“For the last time, my mate can shift. But if you don’t leave my territory until the next full moon, I’ll make sure you shift into a million little pieces.”
“He fought your mind control, Draven,” Vespera says.
Draven’s face turns whiter than it already is, and now it’s my turn to smirk. I see the third vampire standing next to Emeric, but I know that he doesn’t have control over him either. Still, he’s going to need to see a healer to address the wound the vampires caused.
“If your mate could shift, then why didn’t she? Why didn’t you mark her? Why isn’t the shifter curse already broken?” Vespera asks.
I snap my head in her direction. “Nyx—he fucked with her before he brought her to the offering. But she’s mine now, and she’ll be ready by the next full moon.”
“She better be,” Draven says.
“She will, not that you’ll be alive to witness it.” I attack without another word. My muscles contract and release at the thrill of a fight as I set my wolf free on these bastards.
But of course, they are cowards and flee the second they see that I’m a worthy opponent. The vampires and two of the witches I don’t recognize vanish instantly.
But Serenity lingers behind, her blue eyes locked open as if she’s watching a movie that none of the rest of us can see. I look to Emeric, who shifts into his human form as we wait for Serenity to return to us.
When she finally blinks, I ask, “What did you see?”
Most seer witches don’t like sharing their visions or prophecies. But I hope she will if she thinks it will help me break the curse.
“Tell me,” I snap at her.
She doesn’t jump at my outburst. She calmly turns her head, her long white hair blowing gently in the breeze.
She’s not going to tell me. I’m going to have to attack her, bring her near death, and then…
“Lumi’s the one—she’ll break the curse,” Serenity says.
I freeze, knowing there’s more. There is always more to these prophecies. The prophecies aren’t set in stone. Just because she sees something doesn’t mean it will actually happen—just that on the current course that everyone is on, it will.
Her blue eyes look deep into mine as she speaks the next part, “But the heartbreak…” She doesn’t finish her sentence before she vanishes.
“Fuck,” I say.
Emeric looks at me. “Fucking witches and their inability to tell you anything useful.”
I stare at the space where Serenity just was. As much as Emeric thinks what she said wasn’t useful, it was. I know so much more than him. And the burden I carry is unlike anything he’ll ever experience. I know what heartbreak she’s talking about.
I look back at the house, and the fear grips hold of every nerve in my body as I think about Lumi locked in my basement.
Emeric studies me closely as his blood drips down his neck. “Where’s Lumi?”
I don’t answer him.
“Where’s Lumi, Ambrose?”
“Leave it alone.”
He frowns as we both walk back into the house. The second he’s inside, I know he knows exactly what happened. He can hear her. He knows exactly where she is.
“She’ll never forgive you.”
“Good,” I snap.
Emeric doesn’t flinch at my word, but I know he can feel the turmoil swirling through me—the pain and fear and loss of control.
“You won’t hurt her,” Emeric says softly.
I close my eyes as the pain overwhelms me. Flashes of thick dark curls, golden eyes, and red lips splatter across my mind’s eye.
I shut the visions out as quickly as they came. I don’t want Emeric to be any more privy to how I’m feeling. But when I look at him, I can see the softness in his eyes. He knows exactly how I feel, but he’ll never truly understand because he doesn’t know the truth of what happened.
“She’s your mate. It’s real this time. Together, you’ll break the curse. But locking her up isn’t the answer.”
It’s the only way to keep her safe, I think, but don’t speak aloud. “Go see Serenai. You’re going to need help healing from that wound,” I command as my heart thumps wildly in my chest, and I know that there is no way to keep her safe.
Lumi’s the one—she’ll break the curse. But the heartbreak…
The brown curls and her infectious laugh through her red lips flash in my mind again before I switch my thoughts to the silver-haired beauty locked in my basement.
Lumi thinks I’m a monster, but she has no idea. It’s going to happen again—the heartbreak—and I have no idea how to stop it.