48. Bella Falls
Chapter forty-eight
Bella Falls
The bells now scream. Not ring. Scream. Silver sound tears through the ruins so violently it feels like it’s inside my bones.
The fog explodes with movement.
“Positions!” Darius roars.
And heavens above, the sound of him like this is powerful. Ancient and commanding. Terrifying, even. Every vampire moves instantly, obeying him.
Victor and Isabelle spread outward through the ruins while Charles drags the injured vampire behind the old, collapsed bell structure.
Lucy kneels inside the ritual circle, scattering silver powder into the carved grooves while muttering a spell under her breath in a language I don’t recognize. She points at the candles and they ignite.
The whispering in the woods grows louder.
Bella…
Bella…
My pulse spikes. He’s calling me.
“Oh God,” I whisper.
“Do not listen to it, Bella. Block it out!” Darius says next to me. “I’m here.”
The fog shifts again. Then the thing is fully between the trees. Arthur, the monster. My breath catches violently.
He’s tall and stands wrong. His limbs seem too long. His eyes are black and gleaming. Dark veins run beneath gray ruined skin stretched tight over bone.
And his mouth? Blood stains his teeth black-red.
Arthur. Uncle Arthur. The original source, the problem. The monster behind all of this. The one who was changed by magic when he was contained and broke free.
The creature smiles wickedly when he sees Darius.
“You! My boy,” it rasps.
The voice sounds almost human for a moment. Which somehow makes it worse. Darius utterly freezes. Hatred radiates from him so intensely the air itself seems to sharpen.
“You should have stayed buried. You should have died! You are a monster, uncle!”
Arthur laughs softly. Wetly.
“But then who would remind this island what we truly are? What we can be!”
The whispering intensifies around us. Arthur steps slowly towards me, the target, the prize. He steps inside the silver circle now.
The magical bells erupt violently overhead. Their sound tears through the fog as Lucy begins chanting in the old language. Silver fire ignites around the carved symbols beneath Arthur’s feet.
He recoils instantly. Snarling. His attention is diverted.
For one impossible second, the ancient monster freezes inside the circle.
“NOW!” Lucy screams.
Arthur’s black eyes snap toward me with hunger and fascination, absolutely obsessed.
“You,” he whispers softly. “You are meant for me.”
Fear crashes through me. But I move anyway. The dagger trembles in my hand as I lunge forward and slash the silver blade hard across his arm.
Arthur screams. Black blood splashes across the stones.
I now reach out with the needle and inject it. The liquid ignites instantly beneath his skin. Arthur convulses violently. More bells explode overhead.
But then, he breaks free of the magical circle. He’s injured but not down.
The vampires nearby visibly tense as Arthur screams. The scream affects the vampires who drop to their knees, clutching their heads.
Lucy’s expression changes immediately.
“He’s hurting them! And he’s calling to the infected!”
Arthur’s black eyes shift toward me. And suddenly I understand something horrifying. He’s not looking at me like prey. He’s looking at me with a claiming. Even though I stabbed him and hurt him. He wants me.
“Oh no,” Lucy whispers.
Arthur inhales slowly. “She smells like the dreams. She smells like my victims. She smells like Darius.”
Everything stops. Even Darius is on his knees fighting it. My stomach drops. Arthur starts to advance towards me, and the vampires are immobile. He’s going to take me!
But suddenly another figure crashes from the trees, fast and feral. A blur of claws and dark hair and violence.
It slams directly into Arthur with enough force to shatter stone. The ruins erupt. Arthur snarls viciously.
The second creature tears into him again with savage fury.
My pulse jumps violently.
“Drake,” Darius whispers. When struck, Arthur’s power is reduced and the vampires recover. The scream is gone as Drake attacks Arthur.
The soul fighting Arthur resembles a broken thing. And yet, there’s something heartbreakingly human in the way he’s trying to protect us.
Arthur throws Drake violently across the ruins. Drake crashes through stone pillars hard enough to crack them apart.
Arthur rises slowly again. Smiling now. Blood drips down his chin as he steps forward.
“Still pretending to be civilized, nephew?” he murmurs toward the fallen Drake. “Still pretending hunger can be controlled like your brother?” he rasps as he looks at Darius standing by me.
Lucy’s ritual circle suddenly ignites silver-blue. The bells above us shriek violently. Arthur recoils again and notices Lucy for the first time.
“You!” he shrieks.
“Yes,” Lucy snarls, standing now with power crackling visibly around her. “You remember my bloodline? You remember my grandmother?”
Arthur’s expression twists into hatred. Ancient hatred. “I should have killed all of you witches. You tried to kill me.”
Lucy smiles coldly. Then she throws some of her silver-black concoction directly into the ritual flames. The entire clearing erupts with light.
Arthur screams. The sound tears through the forest like something inhuman and furious. And for one impossible second there is silence.
We are all stunned.
But then Arthur turns toward me. His eyes lock onto mine fully. Hungry. Obsessed.
“Her. I want her,” he whispers. “No one will stop me.”
Darius moves immediately in front of me. Arthur launches forward with horrifying speed. The ruins explode into chaos again.
Darius intercepts him midair, both vampires crashing through ancient stone hard enough to shake the entire clearing.
The violence is unreal. Fast, so fast it’s hard to follow. Brutal. Ancient predators colliding. Drake joins the fight immediately, slashing into Arthur from behind with feral rage.
They move so fast, fighting and tearing at one another. I’m too close to them.
Lucy screams something in another language while the bells above us begin cracking apart one by one.
Suddenly I feel pain. Blinding pain. As something tears across my side violently.
I hit the ground hard. What happened? Warmth floods instantly beneath me. Blood. My blood.
“Bella!”
Lucy’s face goes pale immediately as the three continue to battle.
The veins beneath my skin burn and buzz instantly. Too fast. Far too fast. Lucy drops beside me and her expression changes to horror.
“No no no—”
Darius is suddenly there as Drake continues to fight Arthur.
“Bella! Hold on! What’s happened, Lucy?” he says frantically, holding me.
“Arthur sliced her!”
My vision blurs. I hear Darius roar a sound of pure rage. He’s covered in blood. And terrified.
“Bella, darling…”
The way he says my name nearly breaks me. Lucy grabs his arm hard.
“She’s losing too much blood. She might be infected. Darius…”
Darius looks at the blood soaking the ground around me and spreading.
I feel cold and I’m losing consciousness but want to stay with him. I look at his face.
I see pain, fear, love. Ancient desperate love is reflected there.
“You cannot die,” he says hoarsely as I begin to pass out.
I'm dying. Am I dead already?
The bells above us crack apart completely.
The forest screams.
And Darius lowers his mouth to my throat.
--
And now, continue the exciting story in book 2, Bells of Bloodhaven Cove.