Chapter 35 #2
It couldn’t end this way. And yet, it was over.
I’d come to the House of the Sanguine intending to do it all alone. Kill my targets, ascend the throne, and wet the cobblestones of every borough with vampire blood.
Two weeks ago, I’d submitted to this impossible mission. I’d acknowledged that only one vampiress would survive the trials. And not one person in the Temple of Aetherius tried to stop me. None of them cared that they were sending me into the maw of certain death.
And when they heard whispers of my death here, between the second and third trial… None of them would mourn me. I came to terms with it with a single resigned nod.
In my final moments, I closed my eyes and dismissed the slayers. They’d never had my best interests at heart.
I yearned to see the faces of the men I loved one more time. The ones who’d defended me, and stubbornly remained beside me, helping with my impossible quest. With them, it had felt possible that I would be queen.
“Say your prayers, Ilyana,” Emmeline said triumphantly.
A roar shattered the night sky. A flare of pain pierced the skin over my heart as the spearhead drove in further.
My eyes flew open as Ash’s bulk descended, his wings two shaggy flags.
His massive bearlike paw fell upon Spear with a violent crack as the rest of the tytoursus landed atop the devotee and his beak tore off the vampire’s neck.
The spear clattered to the ground, leaving a jagged puncture in my skin that pulsed with sharp agony.
Emmeline released a hideous gasp. “No!” she shrieked. “You stupid animal! He was my favorite.”
Telekinetic launched his rock while his Beloved screamed. It arced and slammed into Ash’s side, staggering the great creature. He released an ursine bellow as one of his front legs gave out. With a heavy thump, he collapsed.
“Ash!” I cried. He turned a liquid-dark eye my way, a depthless well full of pain.
At the same time, Emmeline’s expression shifted with murderous intent. She eased backward and leapt, sword angled for his head.
I rushed to intercept her, ramming her heedlessly with my wounded side. Momentum sent her crashing into a rosebush. It broke with a brittle snap. The only reason she didn’t topple fully to the ground was the stone wall behind the bush.
My lips parted with a choked scream at the agony coursing through my damaged nerves. Crimson rained from my wound, reopened from its half-healed state. My right arm hung uselessly. I still had a dagger in my left, which I threw at Emmeline. It embedded in her chest, inches from her heart.
A surprised shout and the heavy thud of another rock hitting the ground drew my attention. Telekinetic’s cry cut off halfway as tendrils of shadow dragged him off. My heart soared with hope as I spotted my mate’s face in the moonlight.
“Zane,” I breathed.
Earth turned toward the sound of a commotion and shouted as Boris and a horde of rats leapt on him. He raised his weapon just in time, and it rang from the impact of Finn swinging his sledgehammer at him.
With Emmeline’s devotees taken care of, I could focus all of my attention on her.
Ash prevented her from getting off the impaling thorns of the rosebush she’d broken.
A threatening growl rumbled in his throat.
He’d dragged his bulk to block her way, just out of range of her hand as she swung my dagger at him but within lunging distance should she attempt to escape.
Emmeline raised her palm. The soil beneath my boots trembled with a mounting, rhythmic pulse.
Ash roared in her face before the magic could crest. The force of it whipped her hair back from her temples, and a spray of hot spittle glistened on her cheek.
She recoiled, the spell shattering as she shrank into the rosebush with wide, hollow eyes.
Her sword lay discarded amidst the roots of the rosebush. I picked it up and severed her hand at the wrist. An agonized cry rose from her. Tears already stained her face, undoubtedly from the pain of her devotees dying around her. “No more. Please.”
No pity stirred my heart. It felt still in my chest, frozen from its brush with Terrigana’s hell. “Save the theatrics. It’s over.”
“You are too na?ve…to be a queen,” she said on a pained wheeze.
Na?ve. How true that was, an insight I’d only received on the brink of death. The reaper’s cold presence seemed to linger, waiting for one of us candidates to die.
“Did you sneak into my room and steal my stake?”
“No.” Her expression held bitter satisfaction. “But I wish I had. Exquisite… the hunter being stalked.”
The words landed like more stone shards embedding in my stomach.
“I’m going to tell you the truth.” I couldn’t say what motivated me in that moment. A desire, perhaps, to unwind some of the misdeeds that’d twisted my very soul. “I didn’t kill Genevieve, but I was a slayer.”
“Was,” she echoed faintly. “Lie.”
“They don’t care what happens to me.” This, she didn’t contest as a lie.
Somehow, it burned all the worse. I was cauterizing a wound that’d been leaking a long time, unseen and festering.
With increasing bitterness, I told her, “I bet they wanted me to die. All so I could cross off a few names on a list for them. I’ve always been a tool to them, not a partner in fulfilling Aetherius’s will. ”
“Your dhampir blood has always been a liability, Sidney.”
My sight swam. The truth had been in front of me all this time, wrapped in a thin layer of piety.
“Vampires kill slayers. So, slayers kill vampires. The cycle continues unbroken.” As she spoke, silver light bloomed in her remaining hand. Spear’s magic, perhaps the last piece of it she had remaining.
I nullified her attempt to create an explosion. She released a helpless cry as the light flickered and died around her fingers. Now she knew what it was like to be cornered and helpless.
“When I’m queen, there will be no cycle to continue. Things will be different.” Forehead pinching from maintaining my null, I raised her sword. With my left hand, I positioned the sharp tip and drove it down through her heart.
She died with one last word on her lips. “Lie.”
I stared down at her still body, leaving the weapon embedded through her, thrust straight into the dirt. As I caught my breath, the stillness in my chest cracked. My panting took a dangerous turn, sounding a lot like shuddering sobs. But no tears came.
Ash nudged my leg with his beak. His deep voice was stained with worry and pain. “Friend sad. Why?”
I put on a smile for his sake, stroking his head and scratching behind his ears. He’d sat and folded himself in such a way that he wasn’t putting any weight on his wounded leg. I ruffled his pelt with my left hand. “Rest, you fantastic beast,” I whispered. “You saved me.”
“I thought I saved you.” At Noir’s interjection, I nearly jumped out of my skin. I’d been expecting Zane or Finn to return, as they must’ve killed Earth and Telekinetic by now.
The scent of banana preceded the assassin as he seemed to step out of nowhere. He casually ate from a partially peeled fruit, two more dangling from their stems around his fingertip. He bounced his eyebrows. “Want one?”
“Not right now.” I actually liked bananas, but my stomach cramped for another taste of blood. My mouth was as dry as bone. I’d lost a lot of blood, and my slow dhampir healing was still mending the network of damaged nerves under my armpit.
“Suit yourself, my fascinating flower.”
“Do you have healing magic?” I was weighing the idea of using my healing serum on Ash. It wasn’t built for animals, but his injury was an emergency. Especially if it was a broken leg. He needed medical intervention one way or another.
“Sure do,” Noir answered brightly.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “I need you to mend Ash’s wounds.” This way, we wouldn’t potentially hurt him worse with the serum while trying to heal him.
“Okay. Did you save an enemy for me to kill too?” He eyed Emmeline’s body behind me.
“Plenty of those are still walking around,” I muttered.
“Well, not the inquisitor. He had a deadly accident.” His eyes brightened as he spoke with way too much enthusiasm. He hovered there, expectant, as if he waited for me to say, Good job, murder hound.
I grabbed his arm with my good hand, leaning in. “Did he talk to the regent before his accident?”
“Nope.” A broad smile cleaved through his beard. “I’m a professional. Retired, but still professional.” He leaned in too, mouth descending toward mine.
Darkness shifted around us as Zane rounded a hedge of flowers. A shadowy force pushed between Noir and me like an invisible wall. There was murder in his dark eyes as he glanced between us, and blood spattered over his face and neck.
Noir tsked. “Wow. Someone needs a banana.”
For a moment, Zane looked like he was considering wrapping several tendrils of shadow around Noir’s neck and squeezing.
But his furious gaze landed on me, and the high of battle gave way instantly.
He rushed the rest of the way over to me, hand halting halfway to my injured shoulder.
“Sidney. Fuck. I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you sooner. ”
“It worked out.” I flashed a strained smile. “Are Emmeline’s devotees dead?”
Zane nodded. “Finn is on his way. His opponent was a runner. We didn’t get your healing serum.” He loosened his collar, baring more of his throat. “So, you need blood. Take mine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. I love you. Take my blood,” he said with fierce affection.
I was in no position to argue with him, not when he bent his knees and tilted his head, exposing the traceries of veins under his tanned skin. My fangs throbbed in my gums.
“Love you too,” I murmured against his skin. I nuzzled into his neck before I bit down and drank deep. Despite the stench of death in the air around us, I pressed closer to the heat of his body, desperate to feel more.
His blood poured down my throat in a river of liquid life, soothing away the worst of my nerve pain. I could feel my right arm again. It burned as I twitched my fingers and tested my elbow. Warmth swarmed in my veins, spreading through my limbs with each pulse of my heart.
Zane drew me closer still, his hand closing around my hip. His other hand threaded through my hair, fingers pressing in encouragement.
I might’ve drunk more had Noir not stirred and said, “Oh, by the way, that regent guy is probably on the way to see all this. I got here first with one of my super-special powers.”
I released Zane abruptly with a gasp. This was quite the scene for Mathias to find.
“You couldn’t have mentioned this sooner?” he demanded.
The assassin shrugged. “I forgot.”
They continued arguing while I stooped and worked my dagger out of Emmeline’s severed hand. I pushed the hilt through her fingers, careful not to cut or damage them.
“What are you doing?” Zane asked.
He caught me turning over my last stake and admiring its polished surface. I’d gotten three upon my induction as a slayer, blessed by the priests and inlaid in silver. Fitting that I would sacrifice it now when everything I thought I’d stood for was coming unraveled.
“Removing a liability.” I wetted the tip with my blood, then slid it into Emmeline’s dead grip.
After Finn joined us, the mastiffs padding in at his heels with bloody muzzles, he embraced me carefully. I signed what they needed to know. I’d barely told them anything before I heard approaching footsteps. I dropped prone on the ground, and Zane fell into a crouch over me.
Mathias emerged into the moonlight, a specter in the pale suit he’d donned this evening. “What happened?”
His suspicious gaze roved from Ash, to my men, and finally to me.
“Oh, it was horrible.” I breathed, one hand to my forehead. “Emmeline attacked me!”
“She almost staked my Beloved through the heart.” Zane pointed to Emmeline’s body. “I’d have finished her myself if Ilyana hadn’t beaten me to it.”
Noir pouted, tossing a banana peel aside with a sigh. “I missed the fun. But I still plan to take home a souvenir. What part do you think would give me the best luck? An ear?”
Mathias inspected the body with a heavy sigh. “No desecrating corpses.”
The regent turned his attention to me and stepped closer. His inscrutable mask cracked, brow furrowing as he took in the sight of me sprawled in the blood-soaked grass with Zane hovering nearby.
“You seem to have lost a lot of blood, Lady Ilyana,” he said, his voice dropping into a register of genuine alarm. He looked at the mangled fabric of my sleeve and the dark pool seeping from my armpit. “Do you need a healer? I can send for my personal physician immediately.”
“I’ll manage, Lord Regent,” I whispered, my head lolling as I forced a brave, weary smile. “The shock is simply…heavy.”
Mathias nodded slowly, eyeing me one last time in concern. He stepped past me and bent, retrieving the stake and holding it up. The silver inlays glimmered under the starlight. Did he recognize that it was the same weapon I’d left behind in Queen Nemea’s body?
All he said was, “You’ve done well, Lady Ilyana. I’m grateful you survived her attack.”
I was thankful as well. But underneath, a great abyss of uncertainty loomed inside of me.
The air was ripe with the bouquet of fresh death amongst the cloying sweetness of the flowers. Not too far away, roses flourished in the place I’d quenched with my grandmother's blood. I wouldn’t be like her, dying amongst the corpses she’d turned into a macabre display.
I shivered from the caress of a chill breeze. Inky darkness stirred in the shadows between the roses. The cold presence of the reaper was near, eager to witness what bloodshed I produced next.
Sidney and her men will return with Deceit (House of the Sanguine Book 2)! Publishing date TBD.
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