Chapter 20 #3
I let my wings fall and like clockwork, Richard’s sword blazed to life, pushing back the darkness so I could see the Vampire King and his hungry court. So many fangs.
He gestured and his Herald came stumbling forward, dressed in red. “Why did you work to end my daughter’s life?”
Wait! Herald? Herald was the one setting up assassinations? Why on earth…
Herald managed to keep his composure instead of shriveling up in fear. “I wished her to join your court in her undying. It would be a great benefit for you to have family with you again.”
“And you personally…”
Herald licked his lips and a flash of nerves crossed his face. “You fade without purpose. My purpose is to see you strong.”
“You took my vulnerability towards my daughter and used it to blind me, to take over my will completely,” the Vampire King drawled, but then he turned to study me instead of his betrayer. “You have such power over me. That will not do. Choose. Join my court, or die.”
A golden fiery ray fell from the sky, landing in the midst of us and throwing back the shadows.
Richard's father, the Commander of the Holy Order of the Swords of Truth straightened, chin raised as he stared down the immortal evil.
“Retreat back to your home or die. I would not have our first reunion as a family stained with your blood, but if you insist. My new daughter will not be dying or undying this day.”
“And people think I’m dramatic,” Richard murmured.
I glanced up at him and his slight smile pushed me back from the edge of panic and despair to something much less dire.
This was someone who had survived three beheadings.
He’d taken some of my weakness, but he also had my strength.
I’d been strong enough to go inside the Vampire King’s head and untangle it from his old Herald. Together we could do anything.
“You’re both dramatic,” I whispered back, smiling. Was this the time? I mean, we might die, and if so, it would be better if he died knowing that I loved him, and if I died knowing that I’d told him.
The Vampire King laughed, the kind of creepy laugh that made you think of haunted cemeteries and bodies dangling from trees. “You bound your son to my daughter. I will take both of their lives. Would I be able to turn him with such a binding? I would enjoy bringing one of the angels to my court.”
No. Now was not the time. Now was the time to panic!
Richard’s dad’s voice was strong, immovable, fearless. “I would call up my armies to defend my daughter from the Vampire King and his court.”
Richard’s dad smiled at my birth dad while I held onto my angel and tried not to faint.
A war between the Vampire King’s court and the angelic host on the outskirts of Singsong City?
The angels would very likely win, because they’d pound everything until nothing survived.
But was that really a win when it would take the city and who knew how many casualties with it?
Also, if he’d flown down here to the Grand Hall, it no longer had a roof.
The Vampire King’s darkness must have dissolved it.
I liked the laws of physics to have more rational constraints, but what could I do?
I squared my shoulders and scowled at my father. “What kind of person punishes the one who saved him? I saved you from your Herald’s manipulations, and then you dissolve my castle and threaten us?”
He bared his fangs at me. Such large fangs.
Such an old vampire. His voice was ice and despair.
“I do not need saving! The one who needs saving is your pretty angel and the army tied to him by blood and will. They are life-bound to you, and you are mine!” He laughed this horrific laugh, and then the angels started screaming.
Richard’s inhale had me looking at him, and then watching in horror as he bled from his eyes. Did I look like that when I cried? Horrifying.
Richard carefully brushed his hand over my hair, eyes filled with resolve, not fear, as my father ripped him apart from the inside. I wiped away those blood tears and clung to him, guilt burning for causing this. But he’d life-bound us. Of course it would end badly. I was a monster.
“That’s right. We are bound through your daughter,” my angel said, voice slightly thin as he studied me with softness that didn’t go with the blood tears. “That makes us family. I can show you exactly how delightful it is to have me for a son.”
Wait, what?
He bent his head and pressed the sweetest, softest, purest kiss to my lips. This was definitely not the time, but in Richard’s head, I saw the spells, so elaborate, so layered, and then the heavenly fire bloomed inside my father’s veins along with his court.
The screams of vampires mingled with the angels.
It was the most awful sound. I clung to Richard, tangled my fingers in his hair, wanting to drown in him and forget the rest of the world.
His focus flickered and with that, the vampires fled, back through their portal, leaving us standing together in the remains of the Grand Hall.