Chapter 41 Requiem #2
“Claire.” His hand came up to cup my cheek, steadying me.
“Don’t you dare be sorry. We all die.” He smiled, and I tried to smile back at him.
“Listen, I don’t have much time. But can you tell Tansy something for me?
” I nodded. “Tell her that I love her laugh. It’s the thing that made me fall in love with her.
And that I don’t want this to be the reason why she stops laughing. ”
Tears flooded my eyes. “Of course I’ll tell her that.”
“And don’t butcher my funeral.” A grin pulled on his lips. “I want all the honors. Hero of heroes.”
A broken laugh tore out of me. “I already miss you.”
Carefully, he kissed the top of my head. “Me too. But we’ll see each other again.”
Then he was just gone. One second, I was holding on to him, the next he vanished. The doors closed and I was left with the emotions his absence left behind.
“You should be going too,” Damien said. “If you open that door just over there, I think you’ll find your way back.”
I glanced in the direction he was pointing, and found a golden door was being etched onto the black walls.
“You better hurry before I convince you to stay,” Gorrath quipped. “I know how much you like me.” I pursed my lips and the demon snorted out a laugh, but the humor quickly evaporated. “If you ever need me, you know how to reach me.”
I offered him a real smile. Then I headed for the gold door. Just before I seized the handle, I stopped. There was one thing I wanted to ask Damien. Something that I needed to know. “Whatever happened to your daughters? Where did they go?”
Damien studied me for a long moment. Then bowed his head. “I don’t know. But, perhaps, one day, you’ll be able to tell me where they went.” He forced a tight smile. “I do miss them very much. Especially my Rosa. She was such a firestorm.”
It wasn’t the answer I wanted, not by a long shot, but it was the only answer I was going to get. “I hope you do find them. The world could use more joy. The fighting, the hate, it feels endless.”
He nodded. “I know.”
Whispering started just beyond the door. Words I couldn’t quite understand called to me. I was reminded of the time when I opened the ballroom door and found Bastien standing shirtless in the greenhouse. His hands covered in dirt.
I knew, just as I had then, that I had the power to see him again. I could walk through the veil of death and return to him. All I had to do was say his name, and it would draw him to me. Touching the bloodstone, I whispered his name and opened the door.
When I awoke, it was not to incense smoke and the smell of frankincense. I was on the ground, covered in my own blood, the metallic scent filling my nostrils.
When my vision cleared, I realized Bastien was right here. And he had the woman I once called Mama in his grip. I tried to force myself off the ground, but my sluggish body struggled to bear my weight. He wasn’t going to kill her. Not before I had the chance to do it myself.
My throat throbbed with pain, torn from whatever death had done to me, but I forced the word through my lips, a broken rasp of defiance.
"No."
Bastien immediately turned toward the sound of my voice.
And when our eyes met, for the briefest, most agonizing moment, he just stared at me, like he couldn’t believe it.
Then his sword hit the ground with a clang.
Mama collapsed to the ground, weakened by the rot I’d spread inside her, and Bastien Allard, a vampire prince of the Unified Territories, fell to his knees and crawled toward me. Reached for me with bloodied fingers.
"Claire," he rasped.
He was everything. All at once. All-consuming. And just seeing him again made me feel like I was back in his gentle tide, floating down his river. At ease and safe despite the horror all around me.
I swallowed hard around the pain in my throat. “You know the truth. That she sent me. Angelina. She was the one. And I’m sorry. I know this is a betrayal of your trust.”
He cupped my face. His thumbs traced the curve of my cheekbones. “Do you remember what I said I’d do to the convent sisters?”
I blinked. Confused. “There were no convent sisters. I’m a Prideaux.”
He continued as if I had said nothing. “I told you I’d have them excommunicated from the faith. Didn’t I?” I nodded. “I explained, quite clearly, that I’d tear down the Nightfall Convent stone by stone. That I’d make them pay for daring to put ideas in your head.”
“You’d said those things before you knew the truth.”
He drew me an inch closer. “Do you remember when I made love to you on the bed of our enemies? And told you I loved you with every shred of my being and nothing could change that?”
He leaned in, his breath skimming across my lips. The space between us shrank until I could taste his fury.
“But,” I tried to say.
“My wife belongs to no one but me. Not some coven. Not some family. But to me. And only me. And no one,” he said, “no one, harms my wife and lives.”
He leaned into me and pressed his mouth against mine.
It was a claim. A resurrection of my spirit.
I fisted his jacket, dragging him closer, wanting to drown in him, in the way he kissed me like he could pull me back to life.
I tasted blood. Mine, his, ours. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was this.
He eased back far enough to look at me. I stared into the depths of his eyes, seeing him as if it were the first time.
Like I had that night we met in the ballroom of Chateau Corbin.
Except this time, I wasn’t meeting the polished vampire prince who was being asked to put on a polite smile for the courtiers.
I saw him, every dark, desperate, and unhinged part of him.
"I thought I lost you," he whispered, his voice raw, barely more than a breath. "I thought—" His hands slid down my neck, his fingers pressing against my pulse as if he needed to feel it, to make sure I was really here. His voice cracked. "You came back to me."
I covered his hands with my own, pressing them tighter against my skin. “Damien himself couldn’t keep me from you.”
Bastien kissed me again. Slower this time, in a way that truly brought me back to life. I’d choose him, again and again, over and over. It would always, only ever be him.