Chapter 61
The moon shines brighter. I reach a small clearing where the grass sways gently in the nocturnal breeze. I stop here to rest, my back against a tree. My body aches with an intensity that almost matches the pain in my heart, but it’s bearable. Almost tolerable. The pain in my heart, however…
I close my eyes, allowing myself the luxury of grief for what could have been—what should have been.
Richard has taken so much from me already. My youth. My joy.
The attention and love of my mother.
A tear escapes from my closed eyelids, and I let it fall without wiping it away. It’s okay to shed tears for the woman who gave me life.
For she’s the reason for my grief.
I’ll lose her when I kill the demon king.
I touch my swollen belly lightly, drawing strength from the tiny life growing inside me.
“Everything will be fine,” I whisper into the silence, a promise to myself and to my unborn child. “I will never let him harm you.”
I rise and continue to walk, the weight of my victory pulling me forward. I am not the prey anymore. I am the predator. The hunter. The promise of revenge is a sweet song that sings in my heart, and it propels me further into the night.
The moonlight glows on my clothes, illuminating the stains of Eris’s blood.
A chill sweeps through me.
I’m not a killer.
But this had to be done.
And unfortunately, I’m not finished killing.
Again the chill.
It’s a validation of the change inside me, of the transformation I’ve undergone. I’m no longer just a woman or even just a vampire.
No longer a creature of darkness and seduction.
I have become something more—something formidable and resilient.
Someone with a purpose. A destiny.
Eris may have been fated to mate with Rogan, but she was not my enemy. She was another piece played by those who believed they held power over my fate.
First my father.
Then my stepfather.
But I have altered the path before me, taken control in a world where none seemed possible.
The crunch of dead leaves beneath my feet is all that breaks the silence surrounding me. I hear the gentle rustling of my clothes, the faint thump of my heartbeat. The quicker thud of his—my tiny son’s—inside me.
I feel his movements again, a small flutter that brings a smile to my face. Even in these dire circumstances, joy can be found.
So I cling to it.
To the joy in the love I have for my baby. For his father.
I continue my journey through the ether. Each step is measured, calculated like the moves on a chessboard.
The darkness within me stirs, whispers inaudible words of power and destiny. Its voice is seductive and bone-chilling at once.
And I embrace it.
I embrace my vampire side fully, perhaps for the first time ever.
I need every part of me to face the demon king.
I’m not the innocent girl who trembled before his wrath as a teenager. He holds no power over me. Not anymore.
If the loss of my mother is the price I must pay to protect my child, so be it.
You’ve become exactly what fate demanded of you. And more.
The words emerge in my mind in a voice I don’t expect.
Not in the gentle but powerful voice of my mentor, Alara.
No.
The dark, rich, and commanding voice belongs to my father, the vampire king.
Before I can determine the meaning of the words coming from him, I see it.
A shimmer.
A portal out of the ether.
And I walk through.