Chapter 60
AVA
Pain.
All-consuming pain is what I feel as Damien slowly crushes my organs. The shadows get tighter as I strain to break free, to run to Valen.
This isn’t over. We still have so much we need to experience together. I refuse to let Damien win.
With an agonized cry that rivals the one Valen lets loose, I pull again on the well of power in my chest and feel it respond. Light pours from me like it did before and slices through the black fog. Not only does it disappear from me, but from the other three too.
My magic is a shaky, unstable thing, but it seems to always come through for me when I need it most.
Damien curses and seems to be overwhelmed by my magic as he backs away from the light that continues to filter out of me as if it’s shining from every pore. I run to Valen and urge him to stand. He seems unharmed by the burst of magic. Zav and Celine hold each other, free of their confines now.
“We have to go!” I shout and they scramble after me.
I’d be a fool to not acknowledge that we’re far from free. I’ve temporarily stunned Damien, but he’ll be close behind. He’s an incredibly powerful being.
Zav and Valen pick each of us girls up and sprint down the hall at a speed no human could ever hope to compete with. We’re met by a vampire barrier at the end and promptly stop.
Despite knowing this wouldn’t be easy, it’s a tad disappointing to only make it such a short way.
The boys examine them, looking for weakness in their line.
It appears to be feral vampires again, just like in the tunnels before.
Ones that seem closer to zombies than the vampires I’m used to.
I’m feeling drained from my draw on magic back in the other room and curse at the feeling of needing to recharge before I can fight again.
The light coming out of me is fading, threatening to disappear altogether.
“Your escape attempts are futile. Give it up,” one of the ferals snarls. “You can’t escape us all.” He gestures his arms wide, and I’m a bit scared of what he means by all, because I have a strong feeling he’s referring to more than the vampires in front of us.
Zav and Valen exchange a determined look, prepared to fight.
Setting us down, they push us to stand behind them, but I gasp at what I see down the other length of the hall.
Damien walks toward us with a smirk, hands shoved casually into his perfectly pressed pants pockets.
He’s unfazed by all of this, like he has all the time in the world. Maybe he does.
I feel a surge of satisfaction at a stray curl of hair that hangs out of place. For the short time I’ve been in his ugly presence, I’ve seen how perfectly coifed he strives to be.
“How frustrating it must be to be so close yet so far from escape. This is inevitable, Valen,” Damien calls out to him with his arms wide open like he’s trying to welcome an unruly son home and not the man he kidnapped and tortured for centuries—even thousands of years for all I know.
“Don’t be a fool and come with me. You know what I’m capable of more than anyone. You cannot win this.”
Without glancing his way, Valen tenses and shakes his head. “I would rather die than end up with you again.”
A slow, terrifying smirk ticks up the corners of Damien’s lips. “You’re far too valuable for that, but your friends are not. This will serve as some much-needed entertainment for me.” After yelling a word in a language I don’t understand, the ferals charge at Valen and Zav.
It’s disconcerting to have Damien at our backs, so Celine and I take turns watching him and glancing at our guys to see how they’re faring.
I can practically feel my best friend’s horror and annoyance at not being able to help.
As a human, there’s not much she can do in this supernatural fight.
I might not be human anymore, but I’m equally at a disadvantage with so little control over my powers.
Even though it feels like I’m pulling from a well of nothing, I scrape and pull at my magic to give me anything to help against the ferals.
It’s a struggle, but I take deep breaths and manage to summon a few strikes, almost like lightning, that dart out and kill ferals instantly.
Valen sends a grateful look my way before diving back in.
Zav and Valen work as a savage team to tear through the other vampires.
To some it might be terrifying to see the person they love in this light, but not me.
I’m happy to see him strong enough to fight for himself.
Once we get out of here, and we will, I’m laying the biggest kiss on his lips and not letting him leave our bedroom for a week, maybe even a month.
It seems like they have the upper hand, but I don’t dare allow myself to hope yet. Feeling a slight breeze, I turn to see Damien suddenly standing right beside me. I jump away and drag Celine with me.
“Stay back,” I warn and hold a hand out, feigning more magic than I have.
Sometimes with men, it’s better to have more bravado than you feel.
Damien holds his up in mock surrender, but I don’t let my guard down. I hear the boys winding down behind us. One of them must spot Damien close by us because I hear a savage snarl.
“I’m bored now.” He watches us with sharp, hawkish eyes. “This isn’t the entertainment I was hoping for, so I guess I’ll have to make my own fun.”
“No!” Valen shouts as more ferals pour in out of nowhere, keeping him from reaching us.
My mouth drops open. There are so fucking many of them.
Any hope I had that we might make it out of this alive melts away.
We’re fucked.
Faster than I can track, Damien is in front of me, unnaturally sharp claws extended from his fingertips.
I try to summon more magic, but it’s no use.
I’m tapped out. He reaches out to slash, and I brace myself, praying to whatever being will listen that I might make it out of this, and at the very least, that Valen will be taken care of.
The pain never comes.
Peeking an eye open, I cry out at the sight before me.
The scream that leaves me sounds inhuman.
It’s high-pitched, laced with pure, unadulterated fear.
Celine collapses in a heap on the ground, blood everywhere.
She looks like she’s been slashed and run through.
Her breaths come out in rapid pants, and it looks like any movement hurts her deeply.
“Celine!” I squeak out. She took the hit that was meant for me.
A roar of pure rage and despair echoes through the hall as Zav spots her body. He absolutely decimates the ferals left around him with spite. Valen doesn’t have to do much before they’ve cleared them out.
“Celine!” he screams with a fear that cuts through the entire room. “Celine! Hold on, baby! I’m coming!”
Damien sighs. “I missed my target, but this works too.” He talks to himself so casually it makes me sick. “Stupid human. So foolish.” He clucks his tongue.
“Are you guys here?” a voice calls from around the corner. “Ava!” I jerk my head up and see Luna and Levi charging toward us.
Thank goodness they’re okay.
“Oh my God, what happened?” Luna cries as she stops in front of Celine, looking like she’s not sure what to do. Her eyes dilate at all the blood. Levi holds her back by the wrist, scanning the area for threats.
I look up and realize Damien is gone. Weird.
He’d give up Valen that easily?
Something’s not right.
“Celine, baby?” Zav lifts Celine so he can support her against his chest, and she lets out a whine of pain, which makes Zav cringe.
“Hey, beautiful, look at me. Let me see those brown eyes. Don’t close them.
” He strokes her hair back from her pale face.
Tears coat his lashes, and I feel my own dampening my cheeks.
Valen hugs me to him from behind, and I sink into his warmth. I hold his forearm for strength, feeling like I could collapse at any minute.
“I know it’s cliché to say,” Celine coughs out. “But I feel really cold.”
Zav blanches and looks around at us with a desperation I’ve never witnessed before.
“Do you two know how to get out of here?” he asks Levi and Luna.
The demon nods. “Follow me.”
Celine groans when Zav picks her up in his arms bridal style. “It hurts,” she whimpers.
“I know, baby.” The normally humorous vampire looks like he’s on the verge of tears.
“Where does this take us?” Valen asks Levi.
Levi looks over his shoulder. “We’re beneath the hotel.”
So they didn’t move us far. I suppose that’s a good thing. We reach a door and start the trek up a set of concrete stairs. Celine begins to cry.
“It hurts s-so bad.”
“I’m so sorry,” Zavier whispers, bending to kiss her forehead. “I’m so fucking sorry, my love.”
“Am I dying?” she asks.
He doesn’t hesitate to answer her. “Yes.”
“She’s dying?” My voice echoes off the walls. “Do something!”
Zavier turns to glower at me from a few steps ahead. “What do you think I’m trying to do? I need to get her somewhere safe, assess her wounds and be certain hope is lost before I turn her.”
“You’re going to turn her?” I scream.
“If I have to,” he sighs.
“W-We talked about this,” Celine says, maybe to me or maybe to all of us. “I told Zav I wanted to wait to turn if I could, but that if something happened and he needed to turn me, he could.”
Her lips are unusually pale, and Zavier’s shirt is soaked with her blood.
It’s definitely not a stretch to say that she’s dying.
“Why did you jump in front of me?” I accuse, wiping hastily at my tears as we continue to climb the stairs.
“Because y-you’re my best friend.” She lets out a cry of pain. “I would d-do anything for you.”
“You might die,” I sob and Valen’s warm hand wraps around mine, pulling me with him so I’ll go faster.
“Zav w-will save me.”
“We need to move faster,” Zavier screams at Levi’s back.
“You’re right,” Levi says and Luna screams when he picks her up and tosses her over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”