Chapter 9
“Did we just possess the Vampire Countess?!” Star screeched.
“What happened? Are you okay?” Countess Dariah asked at the same time.
“Um… I think I got inside of you.”
“Inside me?”
“Shit. I did not have hybrid possession on my bingo card,” Vanessa mumbled.
“Yes, Antoine twirled you just as I got to you, and your body went through me. Now I’m seeing everything as if I were you.”
“So, her soul is partially there…” Dante pondered as if this was incredibly fascinating.
“Because it is…”
“How are you feeling?” Mother asked, and I took a moment to assess that while my arms wrapped around her friend’s shoulders again.
The warmth of the love she felt for him inundated my chest when they laughed, and I smiled. “I’m good. It feels a bit strange, but I’m perfectly fine.”
“Is that safe?” Isis pressed, the clear distress tightening her voice.
“She seems to be doing bloody well, Luv. But I’ll monitor her life force just in case,” Bj?rn offered, which seemed to be enough for her.
“Do you feel safe enough to continue?” Countess Dariah asked, so I nodded.
Even if I didn’t feel okay, Star and I really needed to know what the hell happened. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I promised.
A wave of concerned exhales went around the room, the tension increasing over my skin, but there was no turning back now.
“Then we proceed.”
“Okay.”
In her memory, she continued to dance with Antoine until a gorgeous woman with blue strands walked toward them. “May I cut in?”
“He’s all yours, Zoe. I’ll go steal one of my sons.”
“There is no need to fight, ladies. There is enough of me for both of you, preferably at the same time.”
“You’d think that after hearing the same joke for twenty years, I’d be tired of it.” His wife rolled her eyes, lips twitching.
“Antoine, even if we had a threesome, you’d never be as good in bed as Mathew is.”
“Now that makes it funny,” Zoe teased.
“I’d be with Zoe, though.” Mother added, making Zoe laugh.
“Ouch.” Antoine fake-cringed, touching his heart.
“You deserved it, suck it up,” his wife joked.
Their chuckles mixed as he kissed his wife’s hand and took her into his arms. Turning, the Countess left them, but when her gaze fell on Vanessa, who was dancing with her girlfriend only a few steps away, time seemed to stop.
“Are we killing her?!”
I couldn’t answer Star. Instead, I witnessed something exude from Vanessa—her ghost?
The see-through copy of her halted her dance, as if she’d heard something no one else could, and then dashed along the ballroom, looking for someone.
“What is it?” The ghost of her girlfriend asked the instant she returned, the scene somehow unfolding on top of their real selves.
“It’s Natasha…”
With the mention of her name, my being froze. No.
“What happened to Natasha?” Star urged, anxiety surging inside us.
“Down!” she ordered the crowd, and everyone dropped to the floor without question, covering their ears like they knew what would come next. Everyone except Countess Dariah.
When Vanessa’s mouth opened again, a high-pitched screech left her, sending visible waves of powerful energy through what seemed like the entire island.
Her screech pulled André and Dante to her side just when the waves returned to her—they’d been with Natasha’s father a second ago.
“They have her in the boat house!”
Horror carved the guys’ faces, and Dante’s ghost disappeared into the shadows while André’s ghost’s wings appeared before he shot through the window. It shattered into a million pieces when he flew out of the castle.
“Chérie, are you okay?” Antoine asked, standing before Countess Dariah, and holding arms at the same instant that the ghosts dispersed into nothing. Reality resumed around her.
“Future’s Ghost,” she quickly whispered, dreadful.
Antoine and Zoe’s faces became pale, knowing exactly what that meant.
When the Countess’s eyes found Vanessa again, we saw her halt her dancing, and the scene we had just seen began to play in real-time.
“La naiba! We are too late,” Mother cursed. “They took Natasha. They have her in the boathouse.”
Vanessa’s screech boomed through my being the next instant, sending my heart into a frenzy. Or the Countess’s heart, I wasn’t sure. The explosion of glass followed when André shot through the window, and the Beast jumped from a different story above us onto the gardens, running after him.
The sight outside the window was something no one expected. A horde of Vampiri and Wolf Shifters jumped from boats onto the beach, rushing toward a wooden house. The next moment, a man was thrown out of it through the roof, and a blue fire burst from it.
“My fire…”
“Natasha!”
Wings burst from the Countess’s back, and she lifted herself, facing the crowd while they stood again.
“Princess Natasha is being kidnapped!” she bellowed.
“If you value the lives and freedom you’ve gained under my kingdom, you will prove your loyalty.
Fight for me tonight or die at my hand tomorrow! ”
A chorus of war cries erupted through the ballroom, and people transformed before our eyes, an army of Vampiri following her out of the castle.
“Damn, Bitch…”
“I know.”
Mother’s transformation filled me with both exhilaration and awe. When she landed outside, she was the glorious, menacing Vampiress I’d hoped to see. Deathly-looking feathers protruded from the leathery skin of her wings, not that I knew why they were deathly.
A wolf shifter rushed her, but she didn’t even blink as she whirled around and fly-kicked him to the ground, her black claws slicing his neck effortlessly. Blood spurted out of him while his head bobbed to the side.
Shifters could self-heal, but her sharp claws had nearly cut off his head; there was no coming back from that.
“You, okay?” Antoine asked, landing next to her.
“Yah. Zoe?” She shot forward, throat-punching another shifter who came at her before jumping and kicking him in the chest—piercing his heart with her heel.
The man gripped his chest as an instant black fire rushed over his body, eyes bulging out before he burst into ashes…
“Venom-laced dagger heels?!”
“Not venom, quicksilver. It’s deadly for Vampiri.”
“Bitch, is everything she has a weapon?”
“Zoe is safe in the room.” Antoine’s claws sliced through the head of another attacker who came at them from behind, easily slicing it in half. He reached into the asshole’s chest next and yanked the heart out, the body collapsing to the ground.
“I miss this,” she reminisced.
“I know. It’s been a while since we had this kind of fun.”
Something crashed against her the next second, and I was sent flying out of her body, Star and I crashing on the frozen ground.
“Shit!” I scrambled to my feet, turning to find a huge white wolf next to me. Star. “Are you okay?”
“How am I out? Let me back in, Bitch. Let me back in!” she howled while a full-on battle raged around us.
“I don’t know how. Stay calm, we got this. Where is the Countess?” I turned to find her and Antoine surrounded. “No…”
For the first time, I was scared for her…
Her feathers began to angle outward slowly when she regained her stance, and she exchanged a single glance with Antoine.
“Now!” she roared and spun while Antoine grabbed the Vampir closest to him. Her wings snapped open as she turned, and the feathers shot through the air like daggers, every single one of them hitting their mark.
Evil Wolf Shifters and Vampiri alike fell to the ground, black veins extending all over their skin, originating where the feather had pierced their bodies. Venom. Her feathers’ quill was filled with venom.
Throwing aside the guy he’d used as a shield, Antoine joined my Vampir Mother.
The black fire didn’t come for the others. Instead, they were left on the ground, screaming and writhing in excruciating pain while the venom desiccated them alive, leaving only piles of pulverized bones in the end.
“Anastasia, behind you!” Dresden shouted amidst the growing mayhem. “No!”
Antoine and the Countess dashed toward the place where Natasha’s father fought. Her guard joined them.
“Our ride is gone. What do we do now?” Star asked while I glanced around us.
“The boathouse. Natasha is our priority. We need to see what happened to her.”
Nodding, Star and I ran through the multitude until a burning structure came into view. My blue fire raged over it, close to consuming the whole thing. We stumbled to a stop just outside the flaming boathouse, taking in the jarring sight—a severed head stained the snow-covered ground with blood.
“Is that?”
Arms, legs, and a torso were scattered around it.
“Natasha’s asshole of an uncle,” I spat, not feeling the least bit sorry for him.
“Good riddance,” Star growled, attempting to kick the body parts into the growing fire.
“Your body is not really here, remember?”
She bared her canines at me.
Junior, one of the Countess’s sons, rushed into the boathouse the next second, his green whip flying through the air. A moment later he came out, guiding Natasha to safety.
My first instinct was to be relieved that she was safe, even though her head was bleeding—I knew she was, or we wouldn’t be here but still. The second one was to worry because she was half overcome by my fire.
André and Dante came out of the boathouse on the other side at that moment, but André’s head snapped toward the mayhem near the beach when someone yelled for him. His eyes turned dark with alarm and disbelief before he glanced at Dante.
“I’ll go to Natasha,” he assured.
Without hesitation, André shot to the sky, flying toward where the Countess, Antoine, and Dresden fought.
What the hell was going on?
“She’s hurt!” Vanessa gasped, bringing my attention back to Natasha… only for alarm to grip me too.
“Don’t touch her!” I yelled, reaching for her but unable to stop her. Vanessa couldn’t hear me. So, I watched in horror as Natasha stumbled forward, and Vanessa caught her. The blue fire jumped onto her skin instantly.
“Help her!” Star whined, stomping on the ground in desperation.