Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Harsh klaxons echoed through the underground complex.
With the accompaniment of flashing red lights the corridors turned into a hellscape of sound and strobing illumination.
Emergency protocols activated: blast doors sealed sections of the facility, guard stations received immediate alerts, containment systems shifted to maximum security.
“Security breach in Maximum Containment Wing,” an automated voice announced over the facility’s speakers. “All personnel to emergency stations. Lockdown protocols in effect.”
Summer’s hand tightened on Rowan’s arm. “We need to go.”
In the distance, they heard running footsteps and shouted commands as Vatican security guards rushed to contain what they undoubtedly thought was an escape attempt.
They were about to face Summer Vale at the height of her power, fueled by love and lunar energy and the absolute determination to destroy anyone who stood between her and freedom.
The alarms were still wailing when Fabian appeared at the end of the corridor, moving with his usual vampiric speed. He wore the same elegant attire he always wore at Le Sang, but now Summer chose to see it as the uniform of a predator who’d never stopped hunting.
“Summer.” His voice cracked, sounding heartbroken. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”
“Had hoped what wouldn’t come to what?” Summer stepped out in front of Rowan, her power crackling. “Finally being exposed for what you really are?”
“I’m trying to save you from yourself.” Fabian’s pale eyes held pain even as Vatican hunters in tactical gear took up position behind him. “I want to protect you from the choices likely to destroy you.”
Rowan’s hand found Summer’s shoulder, his touch steadying her despite his weakened condition. “Tell her the truth, vampire. Tell her just how long you’ve been planning this. The truth, vampire. Now.”
Fabian’s gaze shifted to Rowan. He sneered at the werewolf. “From the very beginning, wolf. The pack challenge, your exile, the attacks driving Summer into isolation. They were all necessary steps to bring her safely under my protection.”
Summer turned to Rowan clinging to him. “Axel’s challenge? You orchestrated everything?”
“I gave him resources and encouragement. Alpha succession disputes are common enough; no one questioned the timing.” Fabian whispered gently, as if he were explaining to a child. “You needed to see Rowan couldn’t protect you, couldn’t provide the stability you deserved.”
“Couldn’t provide it, or couldn’t be left alone to give me stability?” Summer’s power surged, making the fluorescent lights flicker. “You removed him so you could play savior to his abandoned mate.”
“I removed him because your power was awakening. Someone had to guide you through the transition. Someone with the knowledge and resources to keep you safe.” Fabian took a step closer, ignoring the way her energy sparked around her.
“The Vatican hunters have been tracking supernatural bloodlines for centuries. When you were identified as a descendant of an ancient line, they wanted to eliminate you before your abilities manifested.”
“So you volunteered to handle the problem personally?” Rowan’s voice was filled with his alpha authority despite needing to prop himself up against the wall.
“I volunteered to protect her.” Fabian’s composure cracked for a moment, then he resumed control. “I wanted to provide her with an alternative to assassination or forced experimentation. My arrangement with the Vatican was always about keeping Summer alive.”
“Your arrangement involved capturing and torturing me,” Rowan snarled.
“As well as supernatural genocide,” Summer added. “I’ve seen the facility, Fabian. The experiments. The blood.”
Fabian spread his hands wide. “Summer, everything I did was to protect you.”
“You held me prisoner.” Summer’s power shimmered around them. “You lied to me. Manipulated me. You used my grief and loneliness as weapons. You rap?—”
“I loved you, Summer.” His words were raw, honest. “I have lived for over four hundred years, and I have never felt for anyone what I feel for you. Your intelligence, your compassion, your strength—they consume me in ways I never thought possible.”
Summer heart clenched at the naked emotion in his voice. “That’s not love, Fabian. That’s obsession. You manipulated me into—” Summer placed her hand on her belly.
“Then I am obsessed with keeping you safe.” Fabian’s hand moved to the ornate rapier at his side—the blade had ended countless supernatural lives. “Even if it means protecting you from your own destructive choices.”
The sword sang as it cleared its sheath, the metal glowed silver. When Fabian raised the weapon, his movements seemed conflicted; part of him rebelled against threatening the woman he loved.
“Stand down, Summer. Let me take you somewhere safe while we resolve this peacefully.” Fabian’s sword arm trembled. “I won’t let the Vatican hunters have you, but I also won’t let you destroy yourself with misguided rescue attempts.”
“Misguided?” Summer’s power flared, and several overhead lights exploded in showers of sparks. “I found my mate being tortured in your basement. I found evidence of supernatural murders. What part is misguided?”
“Because you don’t understand the bigger picture.
” Fabian advanced slowly, his blade raised.
“The Vatican hunters represent order, stability, control over supernatural forces powerful enough to devastate human populations. Working with them allows me to moderate their actions, protect worthy individuals like yourself.”
“Worthy individuals.” Rowan’s voice was thick with disgust. “You mean useful specimens.”
“I mean people with enough power and intelligence to be reasoned with.” Fabian’s pale eyes never left Summer’s face.
“You could help me reform the system from within. Use your abilities to heal rather than destroy, create rather than rebel. Together, we could build something better than the chaos from uncontrolled supernatural freedom.”
“Your system builds order on corpses,” she murmured. “I’ve destroyed nothing, while your so-called stability requires cages. You destroy everything that makes supernatural beings who they are.”
“Your freedom demands chaos.” Fabian’s sword weaved a lazy circle. Summer and Rowan kept their distance. “Supernatural beings can become monsters, Summer. They always have. The Vatican provides necessary constraints.”
“Like the constraints you put on my mate bond with Rowan?” Summer shuddered as her power built. “You tortured beings. Experimented on them until they became insane. Where were the constraints, Fabian?”
“It was necessary to understand and control dangerous abilities.” Fabian’s voice lacked conviction, as if the arguments no longer satisfied him. “Summer, please. Let me take you somewhere safe. Let me show you what I can offer instead of this path leading only to destruction.”
“Show me?” Summer laughed, the sound bitter even in her own ears. “You’ve been showing me for weeks. The lies, the manipulation, you made me dependent on your care. Is that your idea of love? Controlling someone while convincing them it’s for their own good.”
Pain flickered across Fabian’s features. “I never lied about caring for you. My feelings were real, are real. More real than anything I’ve experienced in generations.”
Summer stepped forward. “Real love doesn’t require cages, Fabian. It doesn’t demand ownership or need a glamour.”
“Real love requires protection. Your wolf can’t protect you from what’s coming. The Vatican hunters will never stop hunting you. Not now they know what you’re capable of.”
“Then we’ll face them together. As equals.” Summer’s hand found Rowan’s, their fingers intertwining. “That’s what love actually means: choosing to stand together even when it’s dangerous.”
Fabian’s expression crumpled. “You would choose him over everything I could give you? Over immortality, power, safety from a world that will never understand what you are?”
“I’ve told your before I don’t want your version of immortality. I choose myself.”
Fabian moved with supernatural speed. The Blood Moon awakened within Summer and she met his attack. Her power sent shockwaves through the facility’s structure, and energy hissed as it poured from her hands.
They fought through the corridor, Fabian’s swordsmanship matching Summer’s lunar-enhanced abilities and desperate determination. But his attacks were half-hearted, pulled at the last moment, as if some part of him couldn’t bring himself to seriously harm the woman he’d claimed to love.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he wept between strikes.
“Then stop trying to own me,” Summer replied.
In the darkness, she felt Rowan moving, using his alpha instincts to navigate toward the emergency exits. The facility’s alarms continued wailing, but beneath them came the sound of other doors opening, other prisoners stirring as the Blood Moon’s influence spread through the underground complex.
“Summer, please.” Fabian’s voice was desperate now, his sword forgotten as he reached for her in the strobing emergency lighting. “I can’t lose you. Not now, not when I’ve finally found someone who makes existence meaningful again.”
“You never had me to lose,” she replied softly. “You had a projection, a fantasy. You glamoured me into love. The real me would never choose a cage, no matter how beautiful.”
She drew on every ounce of lunar energy, and released it in a wave which brought down sections of the facility’s ceiling, creating a path to the emergency exits. The effort left her staggered, drained, but Rowan’s arm around her waist kept her upright as they stumbled toward freedom.
Behind them, Fabian stood, his sword raised. “Summer!”
She looked back, seeing the vampire silhouetted against the ruin of his underground empire. “Goodbye, Fabian.”
She held Rowan’s hand tightly, wiping blood from her face as she used the last of her power to force herself to move.
They burst out into the Halloween night with Vincent, supporting each other as they climbed toward the surface through the tunnels leading to freedom.