Chapter 42
Chapter forty-two
Ethan
“I don’t think we can beat her.”
“We have to win this,” Ethan snapped back at Saiden, ripping his attention away from his mate as she raced toward Renata with vengeance in her eyes. As much he wanted to simply watch her, he knew he needed to get Saiden back into the fight for them to stand a chance.
“Look, Ethan,” Saiden said, his eyes dropping to the wound that still gushed blood.
“I don’t want to give up either, but I didn’t survive three centuries of fighting by being careless.
Sometimes you have to recognize when you’re outmatched and a tactical retreat is the best option.
Just run, Ethan. She only wants you. We’ll hold her off long enough for you to get away, then regroup to develop another plan. But you have to go now.”
Ethan only half heard the urgent plea, his eyes drawn to the crimson spreading across Saiden’s shirt.
His vampire vision picked out the glistening edges of the stain wicking through the fabric, crawling fiber by fiber, reminding him of a similar image from only a day ago when his Sunflower had nearly died.
Ethan’s eyes flared wide, and he grabbed Saiden’s shoulder.
“What the fuck?” Saiden cried out as Ethan the makeshift bandage away and thin streams of sparkly purple haze began seeping out of his fingers. Just as he had with Tressa, he pressed his hand to the wound, willing the violet cloud to soak into Saiden’s shoulder and heal him.
A grimace spread across Saiden’s face, and he let out a string of curses, but Ethan maintained the contact, even as the sickening crunch of bones rearranging themselves reached his ears.
What was likely only a few seconds felt like a lifetime as he tried to focus on the purple mist and not the sound of Tressa’s pained gasps behind him.
Saiden’s litany of muttered expletives died off as the last traces of the wound smoothed over, and Ethan slumped into the sand, a sense of pride filling him.
“Lilith take me, that was the weirdest fucking sensation,” Saiden said, rolling his shoulder a few times. “I’ve seen Cora heal in less than a minute from a severe wound, but that… That was nearly instantaneous.”
A scream of agony ripped through the awe-filled moment, and both men swiveled their heads back toward the fight to see Tressa crumpled on the ground, her knee bent at a disturbing angle.
Renata stood over her, growling for Tressa to stay down, while Derrick struggled to climb to his feet behind them.
Without a further word, Ethan grabbed a fist full of Saiden’s shirt and hauled him to his feet. Twin puffs of sand flew into the air as the vampires blurred toward their targets.
Once more, Renata’s form rippled and twisted to reveal Cora flinching at Saiden’s approach.
The image didn’t slow his charge forward, but he did bobble the grab for his knife laying in the sand as he sped past it.
Bellowing in frustration, Saiden dismissed the weapon and launched into a series of sharp strikes with his elbows, fists, and knees, while Derrick gathered himself and moved to attack from the rear.
Ethan slid to a stop in the sand next to Tressa and clamped one hand over her leg and the other over the bone jutting from her lower ribs.
His eyes raked up and down her body, searching for more injuries, but he saw nothing beyond an assortment of fading bruises.
Bursts of glittering amethyst swirled about his hands, and her rib crunched into place at the same time her knee gave a wet pop as it reset itself, shredded tendons and muscle stitching back together in an instant.
Her hands locked onto Ethan’s face, her nails digging in just a hair shy of painful, and she pulled him into the softest lips and sweetest mouth he would never get used to. The kiss was fast, heated, and over far too soon, but it was everything Ethan needed to feel rejuvenated.
Releasing her grip as their lips separated, she whispered, “You’re incredible.” Then she leapt to her feet and returned to the fray.
It took an almost embarrassingly long moment for Ethan to clear his mind and spin around to reorient on the chaos behind him.
The other three vamps surrounded Renata who had returned to her own form, but she still looked nothing less than mildly amused.
“I can do this all day,” Saiden snarled, yanking another dagger from a sheath at the small of his back.
“I don’t care what you do, Enforcer,” Renata hissed as she threw out a hand to stop Derrick’s incoming charge, clamping her fingers around his throat.
“You think any of this has accomplished anything? You think you’re actually winning?
” She laughed, then tossed Derrick forward, sending him crashing into Saiden and Tressa with a force that had them all tumbling to the sand again.
“I’ve entertained this for a while as a courtesy. Nothing more.”
“A courtesy?” Saiden huffed as he spat sand out of his mouth.
“For her,” Renata said, nodding toward Tressa.
“So she could believe in the end that she truly did her best to save her mate. When the final death comes swiftly to a loved one, it eats at you over the years. The feeling that you could have done more. Should have done more. You often think to yourself how things could have gone differently. Perhaps if you fought harder, acted faster, or been smarter, then maybe, maybe, you could have saved them. I respect Tressa enough to grant her the comfort of knowing she did her best to prevent his demise. But make no mistake, all of this”—she gestured to the four of them crumpled in the sand—“this was merely a kindness. And I’m afraid that kindness has now run out. ”
She leaned down, plucked a small piece of driftwood from the sand, and cracked it in half, leaving a sharp jagged point.
“I’m sorry, Loloma. I imagine your mother would be very disappointed in me, but I have no choice.
The only thing I can offer you is your life and that of your friends.
This is the final time I will extend to you this opportunity.
Leave the botanist behind, and I will not hunt you. For your mother’s sake.”
Ethan rushed over to Tressa’s side as his mate stared blankly up at Renata for a second before giving the rogue a nasty sneer. “I don’t know what trick you’re trying to pull, but it’s not going to work. What the hell could you possibly know about my mom?”
Renata gave her a small smile. “Everything, Loloma. I did spend a century with her after all. Until you came along.”