Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
Eyes wide, I freeze, watching. Waiting. And absolutely nothing happens.
“No!” Vivian screams, shaking the little metal pendant in her hand, coating it in blood.
“It’s not going to work,” I say. “My family was very specific with that spell.”
“We need it straight from the source,” Marco says and lunges forward. Antonio catches him, shoving him back.
“Stand down,” Marco tells him, voice thick with vitriol.
“You are not touching her,” Antonio says back, squaring his shoulders as he stares right into his father’s eyes.
Marco doesn’t back down but instead goes to reach for his pistol.
With one quick flick of my wrist, I send it flying and it skids across the ashy cement floor, clattering down into the crack in the cement.
“You’re picking her over us?” Marco tries, but it does nothing.
“You picked a demon over your own family,” Antonio replies, tone void of emotion. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“We did what we had to do,” Vivian says.
“No,” Antonio counters. “You didn’t. You did what you wanted to do.”
Deciding to be safe rather than sorry, I telekinetically pull the dagger and the throwing stars from Marco’s holster as well, tossing them far away. Vivian’s eyes go wide in horror. That’s right. They didn’t know I could use telekinetic powers like this.
Or maybe they did and they suppressed them. Who the hell knows? They’re capable of way worse things than we ever could have imagined. Antonio makes one desperate attempt to snatch the key out of Vivian’s hand.
Marco pulls a knife I didn't know he had and puts it to Antonio’s throat, tip dangerously pressing into his skin.
“Don’t make me do something we both regret,” Marco says and I know Antonio is paralyzed right now, unable to act.
He has to push the emotion aside in order to act, and I don’t know if he can right now.
They’re standing just feet away from where he died, and the dark stain of his blood can still be seen beneath the pile ashes.
“Freeing a demon thinking it’ll do your own personal bidding is the thing you will regret,” Antonio says through gritted teeth. “Mom, please. Don’t do this. Give me the key.”
Marco lunges first, shoving Antonio back.
His foot catches on something and he stumbles.
I don’t even think, just react. I feel a rush of power surge through me, intense yet controlled.
I throw my right hand out, channeling all my energy into a blast of magic.
It hits Marco in the chest and I pull back the magic at the last second, sending Marco flying back instead of exploding into him.
He hits the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and the knife clatters free from his grasp.
Gasping for air, Marco tries to get back onto his feet. Using magic, I don’t let him. I push him down, again and again.
“Give it up,” I tell him and come closer, holding out my other hand and quickly shift my gaze to Vivian. “You don’t have the upper hand anymore. I do.”
For a split second, I believe it whole heartedly.
“Mom,” Antonio tries again, stepping closer to her. Vivian flinches at the sound of his voice. Is it from guilt? Shame?
Is she scared?
It doesn’t matter. We have to get the key from her and stop her before she figures out a way to free Vaelric.
“You don’t have to do this,” Antonio goes on. “You can still walk away. We can make things right.” The void in his eyes doesn’t match his words. There’s no coming back after this. She watched him die once and is prepared to do it again all for the chance a demon might give her power.
But what is the point in having power if you have no one you love to share it with?
“Someday,” Vivian says, blinking rapidly. “You’ll understand.”
“No.” Antonio’s head slowly moves and and forth. “I won’t.”
Suddenly, pain throbs my palm, radiating out from the spot where the demon quill poked me. It travels up my arm, reverberating through my whole body. Sucking in a breath, I look down at my hand. The pinprick has split open.
Vaelric knows I’m here, this close to the key. Blood wells on my palm and the pain throbs with each beat of my heart. Closing my fist, I try to hide the fact that I’m bleeding. The pain is making me weak, and I lose my grip on Marco.
Then Vivian sees that I’m bleeding. Her eyes light up and she dodges around Antonio, shoving him as far to the side as she can.
“Wren!” Antonio shouts, shifting his weight and spinning around. He counters Vivian’s attempt to knock him out of the way and instead grabs her by her shoulder. She comes to a sudden halt and the key goes flying out of her grasp. I watch it as if it’s in slow motion being played out before me.
The little metal pendant with Vaelric’s sigil engraved on it hits the floor. It bounces once. Twice. Three times before coming to a stop. It’s only feet from me, yet for some reason, I cannot make myself move to pick it up.
Because if I do, then it’s over.
Vaelric is free and there’s nothing I can do to put him back in the box. The very thing we’re standing here trying to prevent will happen and it will happen because of me.
But then something moves in so fast it’s just a blur. A gust of wind blows my hair back and Xavier appears before me. He reaches down, picking up the key.
“You can hate me all you want later,” Xavier says, emotion burning in his eyes. “You just have to be alive to do it.” He puts it in my bloody-slick palm. My fingers tremble as he curls them around the metal, trapping it there, holding my hand tightly between both of his.
The metal grows hot, burning my hands for a split second. But then it stops. Nothing happens. Everyone freezes, all holding our breath. Did it not work? Was my blood not enough? Maybe I’m not a Blackwood after all.
The ground doesn’t tremble, thunder doesn’t boom around us. No flames erupt from the crack in the earth before us.
I uncurl my fingers, looking at the pendant.
The sigil is still there. Unchanged. Etched into the metal like it’s always been.
Lips parting, I look at Xavier, but then Vivian shudders.
She stumbles back, one step, then another, her movements jerky and wrong, like something inside her is trying to remember how to use her body.
“Thank you, Florence,” she says, but it’s not Vivian anymore.
It’s Vaelric.
Unbound, Book Four in the Malus Vampire Family Series releases on July 30th, 2026