32. Alexander
32
ALEXANDER
E mily lay on the floor in a heap, unmoving.
My vision turned red as I rose from the stone floor. Ezekiel had forced me back, but the draught they had used to weaken my powers was finally wearing off, and I wasn’t going to allow this fight to continue much longer.
I had to get her out.
Fury at him having harmed Emily rose inside me, but I quashed it.
If I wanted to get rid of Ezekiel and get out of here, I’d have to control my temper.
“You’re mine,” Ezekiel growled. “You are mine.”
“Best you fetch your master,” I said. “If you want to keep me from leaving.”
“I don’t need his help,” he replied, with a savage grin.
But there was something behind it. I was mindshielded, so I couldn’t reach out and read what he was hiding from me. He had hidden something. Karn was gone, wasn’t he? He had retreated for some reason .
If he had actually bound Emily in some manner, it might have temporarily weakened him.
Ezekiel roared and leaped toward me, wielding his magic, and I sent out a weaker sliver of my own. They collided, red on red, and the explosion forced us both back, sliding along the stone, our hands contacting the floor until we came to a halt.
Ezekiel glanced sideways at Emily.
“Touch her and die,” I said.
The grin reappeared, and he darted toward her.
I closed the distance between us in a millisecond, catching him by the throat before he could lay a hand on her. Ezekiel’s hand transformed into a ghoulish, long-clawed thing, and he slashed it upward toward my throat.
The flesh there tore, but it wasn’t deep enough to kill.
I choked on blood but didn’t release him.
“You’re too weak,” Ezekiel spat, struggling to speak around my tight grasp on his throat. “You are too weak to kill me, Alexander, and too weak to do anything but fail. You should never have been Karn’s?—”
I squeezed harder, the bones in his neck cracking. “Touch her and I will separate your skull from your neck.” I tried to get the words out but struggled past the slow-healing slit across my throat.
I hadn’t fed in days. My healing was slower.
Ezekiel gargled a laugh. He sent a bolt of magic toward my chest, and it penetrated my flesh bursting out of my back in an orchestra of pain.
“Keep holding me and you will die.” Ezekiel grabbed for my ruined throat as well and started squeezing.
A second burst of magic ripped through me. I tried to form my own in response.
A third through my chest.
A fourth.
I formed a bolt of magic that fizzled out as it hit him. Their method of incapacitating me had worked too well. Physical strength was the only way out, but even now, my mindshield wavered.
“You’re dying,” Ezekiel choked. “And when you die, she will be ours.”
The thought drove me. I couldn’t allow that to happen.
I let my mindshield drop at the last second, using that last sliver of magic to form a blast that blew Ezekiel backward and sent me to the floor.
I landed hard, weakness sending me to my knees. Even though he couldn’t kill me outright, I couldn’t heal quick enough to defend myself. Or Emily.
“Emily, run,” I murmured, falling over on top of her. A last effort to defend her body from Ezekiel. To keep them from taking her. “Emily, please.”
She moaned underneath me.
“Alex,” she whispered. “Alex, I love you.”
The words were painful and sweet. “I love you,” I whispered.
After everything that had transpired, she still held love for me. Affection for me, and?—
Warmth started up in my torso and rippled through me, rapidly. The wounds on my chest knit, and my mind cleared. The shield slammed back into place in my mind, ejecting the first fingers of Ezekiel’s magic from within.
“Don’t bother,” he said, his footsteps echoing in the chamber. “I’ve already found out what I need to know, and Karn will do exactly what it takes to turn her.”
Emily’s hands were on my chest.
I shifted, my gaze locking onto hers. Those gorgeous blue eyes were focused on me, and her lush lips parted as she watched me with intrigue. “I love you,” she said, again.
I braced my arms either side of her, and then I swiftly pushed myself backward. I came to my feet, empowered, magic filling me to the brim.
Ezekiel stopped his approach, his eyes widening. “ What the?—”
I swept toward him, forming my magic into a crimson blade, and removed his head from his shoulders. Emily cried out, but the silence that followed was heavenly. Ezekiel’s body tumbled to the floor, unmoving, and then slowly evaporated into an ashy nothingness.
He was gone.
“Come,” I said, and grabbed hold of Emily around the waist. I lifted her into my arms and sped from the dungeon room and into the hall, past two vampires who were pinned to the walls.
My time in Sanguine Nox had afforded me with the knowledge of these underground tunnels and warrens, and I navigated them with ease. Dipping into hiding places whenever I sensed another vampire approaching, more for Emily’s sake than mine. With the power coursing through my body, I was … immortal in a way I hadn’t been before.
I exited into Grand Central Station, resuming a more normal speed and placing Emily on her feet. I took her hand and walked with her beneath the ceiling, past the columns and through the ebb and flow of humans.
“Alex,” she whispered.
“Pretend everything is fine,” I said. “We’re leaving. Pretend you’re human.”
“I am human.” But the response sounded weak.
She was a Guardian, albeit an unbonded one, and that meant she wasn’t entirely human and she never would be again. And it was now my task to protect her.
Because I loved Emily. I loved her even though I hadn’t wanted to. The fact was undeniable to me now. And frustrating. Not because it weakened me, but because I had no control over it.
Outside, I bundled her into my car, and we drove off.
Emily sat in silence for a while with her arms folded and her gaze focused on the city as we drove through it. “I can still feel him,” she whispered. “Karn. I can feel him getting further and further away.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Fed me his blood. He said it made me a thrall. ”
“Ah.” An illegal practice. Of course. “And the magic that came with it.”
“I think it’s gone. I don’t feel powerful any more.”
“Then those vampires you pinned against the walls will be free,” I said. “And they will be coming for you. Emily, do you understand what’s happened?”
“Yes,” she said. “I saw it. In a vision.”
There was so much for us to discuss now that I could finally talk to her, but now wasn’t the time. “We need to leave,” I said.
“Leave? I can’t just leave. What about work or Morgan or?—”
“Emily,” I said. “Life as you knew it is over. You’re never going to be human again. You are a Guardian now, and your life is always going to be in danger. Vampires, hunters, werewolves, they’ll all come for you, if not to bond you, then to use you as a bargaining chip.”
‘Well, that’s just fantastic isn’t it?” she muttered.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I found the book,” she said. “I?—”
“If I hadn’t slept with you, your powers wouldn’t have awakened,” I said.
“That’s one thing I don’t regret.”
I held back a rough growl in response. I wanted Emily now more than ever. “We need a plan,” I said.
“We could go back to my apartment.”
“Emily, that’s the first place they’ll look for you,” I said.
“That, or they’ll think that we’ll think it’s too obvious and then they’ll only check at my apartment way later.”
I laughed under my breath, enjoying being around her. Her scent. Her beauty. And her positivity. But my mirth died quickly. “Emily, we have to leave the city. And we have to figure out how we’re going to get the book back.”
“The book? Why? I feel better. I feel fine.”
“That’s because you’re a thrall. It will wear off, and we’ll need to figure out how to break the curse before then.”
“We know how to break the curse,” she said. “You bond me.”
My mouth thinned.
Emily’s stare burned into the side of my face. I kept my focus on the street.
I loved her, but I wouldn’t bind her. Back there, at Sanguine Nox’s headquarters, it had been different. I had been desperate enough to do what had to be done, but now, we had the time to figure it out.
And they had the book. And a connection to Emily.
My grip tightened on the wheel.
“We should stop by my apartment anyway,” Emily said, after a beat. “I need to get clothes, say goodbye to my friends.”
I railed against the thought. I didn’t want her in any danger, and it was my duty to protect her. But Emily needed her freedom, and this had been tough on her.
“Alex?”
“Yeah.”
“Can we go back to my apartment? It doesn’t have to be for long,” Emily said. “Please?”
I nodded. “We’ll do it, Emily, but we must be swift.”