Chapter 70 #2
A streak of movement above caught my eye.
Sarah’s face flashed in front of mine as she rocketed through the air, a ghost of a smile twitching on her red-painted lips.
She lifted a hand, opened her palm, and blew.
Black powder swarmed the air like thousands of bees.
The stench of something similar to burning oil clogged my nose, stung my eyes, and seared my throat.
The room twisted on a ninety-degree angle and then began to tumble. The ceiling fell away as I collapsed onto my back on the ground.
Sarah stood above me, her eyes as dark as sin. She stamped a sharp heel on my chest. Pain spiked through my body. I tried to cry out, but my throat was ripped raw and only a cracked huff of air fell from my lips. My ears buzzed, like furious bees around their nest.
I summoned my powers, called on them, but it was like looking for souls in a haunted house. Whatever she had given me had disabled them.
“Stop!” a voice roared. “Enough.” Possibly Rodney’s—it was hard to tell. With everything buzzing and whirling, I couldn’t get a grip on anything.
The fighting stopped and everything fell abruptly silent.
“Sarah, don’t,” I heard Ethan whisper, his voice shaky with fear. I’d never heard him so afraid before, and it twisted my heart. “Please, we can work this out.”
His pleading must have struck because I could feel Sarah’s heel twitch on my chest. But she didn’t remove it.
I tried to look at him, but my head flopped uselessly to the side. Through my blurry vision, I could see that the few remaining vampires had curled to opposite sides of the room. They wavered in and out; I blinked but couldn’t draw focus. My eyes fell to Karson’s watery image.
“Let it be known, I broke no laws,” Sarah cried. “You killed my brother, and now as punishment for your crime, you can use the ash blade and place it in your own heart, or I can kill the one you love.”
“I will kill you,” Karson breathed fire, his eyes glittering with a mixture of panic and rage. “If you harm her, I will kill your mother, your father, everyone you love or have ever loved. And I promise you won’t ever see the sunrise again.”
Sarah laughed bitterly. Her foot pressed down on my chest, crushing the air from my lungs. I tried to raise my hands, but my arms felt like they were made of concrete. My fingers fumbled for the handle of my blade, but they moved as fast as snails creeping along the floor.
For a few seconds, fear engulfed Karson’s face as he stared at me. Karson the indestructible, immortal vampire was scared. For me.
He lifted his gaze back to Sarah, all signs of fear gone. “Your mother is not dead. I will exchange her life for Amelia’s, the book, and your freedom. But you must leave this country and never return.”
She stabbed her heel harder against my thudding heart. Sharp pain struck my chest, my bones feeling as if they were going to break.
“It is not your negotiation to make. I have the power now, and I am within my rights. Rules you helped pen, Karson. Rules Rodney is here to see upheld. An eye for an eye. A throat for a throat.” She paused and sneered, “A heart for a heart.”
“You would betray me, Rodney?” Karson shifted his attention to him, his face hard. But I could hear the pain and hurt in his voice. “After all these years, after all I’ve done for you.”
“Not at all, my friend. You can see the bodies around the room.” His hand swept around the destruction. “This situation must come to an end or there will be more bloodshed. More deaths on both sides, more attention drawn to our kind. It is something we can sorely afford.”
Karson’s voice slipped to a low snarl. “None of you want to cross me.” His vampires tensed, ready to fight at his command.
Janice stepped up beside Rodney, her blood-licked swords drawn and crossed in front of her thighs.
Challis and Michael stepped ahead of the others, ready to attack. But Karson held up his palm. Wait.
Rodney’s eyes grazed the room. “Every vampire here understands if they go against the rules, they will lose their lives. There is no need for any more of our kind to die tonight. The truth will be exposed and this will end.”
My chest wheezed for air. The room spun so wildly, I felt sick. From the side, black blood slithered toward my face like an army of slugs. I willed my magic to rise, gritting my teeth, but I pulled at nothing other than the emptiness inside me.
My fingers still crawled agonizingly slowly toward my blade, sweat trickling down my back from the effort. Finally, I managed to curl my fingers around it. Panting for air, I closed my eyes and willed my mind to stop spinning so I could think my way out of this.
“Sarah, no,” Bob’s voice cracked from behind.
“Sarah, enough, this has to stop now.” Bob came into my line of sight, except it wasn’t the old, frail Bob I knew.
This man was much younger, his shoulders not hunched, not walking with a limp, his hair not gray.
It was brown and slicked back behind his ears.
“He killed Nathan,” Sarah barked. “Now I have to kill the one he loves.”
“He didn’t, Sarah,” Bob said gently, tears welling in his blue eyes. “He didn’t kill him, honey.” Bob drew in a shattered breath and pure agony crossed his features. He whispered, “You did.”
Sarah stared at him, frozen in disbelief. Then she visibly reeled at her father’s betrayal. “No.” She shook her head. “They’ve poisoned your mind. That’s what he does, that’s his power, Dad, his and Rodney’s. They can get anyone to believe anything.”
“We love you, no matter what you have done,” Bob said, stepping closer slowly, hesitantly, pain and despair written all over his face. “You need to think about what happened at the lookout that night.”
“No, it’s lies.” She stabbed a finger at Karson. “He lies.”
“He’s not lying, Sarah,” Ethan said, shifting closer, torment in his eyes. “I know what happened that day. You tried to kill Georgie because I slept with her, but your brother stepped in to protect her.”
A pained wail bled through the room, more horrific than the blood painting the walls. Marg stared at Sarah, tears streaming down her blood-drenched face.
Rodney looked from Marg to Sarah and back to Karson, seeking the truth.
“It’s not true, Mama.” Sarah looked at her desperately, her eyes wild with panic. “They are lying. They are lying.”
Her heel pressed down so hard it felt like my chest was about to cave in.
I didn’t want to, but I cried out. It was rasped but not soundless; my voice was working.
If Sarah realized everything was coming back, she’d kill me, or incapacitate me.
Her attention was hooked on her mother, desperate for her to believe her.
Marg stared at her daughter, devastation all over her face.
I called on my powers, but there was only a hollow, lost feeling. I flexed my fingers; they were numb but moving a tiny bit better. The powder was wearing off, but not fast enough.
“Sarah.” Karson’s voice was spiked with that quiet rage. Marg flinched as Karson’s hand fell on her shoulder. “I warned you what will happen if you continue with this.”
The vampires in the room tensed again, glaring at each other like cage fighters, ready to fight again. Rodney strode between them and held up his palms in both directions. “Let this play out, we have rules for a reason. We shall abide by them.”
“Stop, Sarah, please,” Ethan begged. “What do you want me to do, get down on my knees and beg your forgiveness? I will if that’s what you want.”
The walls twisted, flaring in and out again.
Sweat trickled down my back as I forced my hand to move.
My fingers slipped from my knife handle into my pocket.
I could barely feel them as I tried to open the sachet.
I couldn’t access my magic, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use the powder in my pocket. If only I could grasp hold of it.
Bob walked forward, his palms up, fear in his eyes as they flicked between his wife and Sarah. “Think, sweetheart. The memory is there in your mind. You only need to find it.”
“I didn’t kill him, Daddy.” Her voiced was charged with the anguish of her brother’s death, with the terrible ache of the two people she loved most choosing Karson’s words over hers. “Please, you have to believe me. I would never hurt Nathan, I loved him.”
Her heel pressed down again. I heard a crack. Pain shot through my chest like a knife’s blade. A wail rushed up my throat, but I bit down hard on my cheek. The pain sent a flare of adrenaline through me, and my muscles began to tingle. I snagged the powder in my palm and curled my fist around it.
“No, take me, take me!” Karson shouted. “I give up my life for hers!”
The entire room stilled. There was only the sound of my pounding heart. Tick-tock.
No, I wanted to cry out, no, Karson. He couldn’t give up his life for me. I would never let that happen. I’d die before I did. Tears burned my eyes as I stared at him.
No.
It will be alright, my love, I heard his voice whisper in my head. I almost gasped at the shock of it. Almost cried out his name.
No, I won’t let you.
As if you have a choice. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he tried to ease my distress.
No, I repeated. I won’t let you sacrifice yourself. Tears trickled down my cheeks.
A firstborn always has a plan B and C.
That’s a fucked-up plan! I shouted. If he buried the bone dagger in his chest, it would be an eternity of pain. It would be worse than death for him.
The light sparkled in his eyes. I love you so much and I would sacrifice my life. I’d die a thousand deaths if it meant saving yours.
No!
Sarah snorted, breaking our connection. She looked down at me with a black witch’s smile.
Then she returned her attention to Karson.
“The offer may have expired.” She wasn’t going to let me live no matter what he offered her.
She wanted to hurt him like he’d hurt her.
She had nothing left, in her eyes, because her parents had betrayed her.
All she had now was the power of revenge.
Ethan dropped to his knees and bowed his head in submission. “Sarah, I will do anything you want. I will go with you, spend the rest of my life at your side. Just set her free and let Karson go.”
Shock stormed through me. He was offering his life, his happiness, his freedom, for Karson, for me …
“No,” I wheezed. “Stop.”
Sarah’s laugh was bitter. “Look at you fools falling for a mortal girl and a fucking witch. You are pathetic.”
Ethan raised his head, blinking up at her. “I’m choosing you,” he murmured.
His words struck. I saw emotion cross her face, heard the sharp intake of breath. The firstborn had lived a lifetime of loneliness. To have someone by her side, not out of fear or rules, but because they wanted to be beside her, was something she craved, she needed.
“I’m choosing to be with you,” he said again, stronger this time.
No. You can’t, stop, I cried in my head. Stop. If he heard me, he didn’t react. He stayed on his knees, his blue eyes locked with Sarah’s.
Sarah stared at him, rage and sorrow and desperation storming across her features. But then her face hardened, and what was left was stone-cold hostility. She wouldn’t choose him. She would choose revenge and hatred over all else.
Ethan saw it too. His gaze jerked to me, and in his eyes was sorrow, an apology.
But the firstborn wasn’t the only one who could switch emotions in the beat of a heart.
Because even though he dropped his head so his long hair curtained his face, from the side, I saw rage, that pure, dark fury.
And I knew he was going to attack, and if he did, Sarah would kill him.
I couldn’t lose him. I wouldn’t, not over me.
That was a heartbreak I didn’t want to live with. I’d die to keep him safe.
Wait.
Ethan blinked as if he heard me. There was a moment’s pause, a chance I took. I slid my hand out of my pocket and moved it to my chin.
“Sarah,” I whispered, my voice squeezing painfully through the crushing weight on my chest. “I’m wearing Karson’s protection mark around my neck. You can’t hurt me.”
She leaned down, so close, I could smell her coppery-tinged breath. “Yes, about that.” Rage stormed through me as she yanked the necklace from my neck. “That’s easily removed, you stupid, little—”
I sucked in a breath, my hand flopping open as I blew.