Chapter 41
Lila rubbed her tired eyes. She hadn’t slept more than two hours in the last week. It was finally the night before the solstice, and she’d been training hard. After her display in her hometown, Ambrose had only been training her harder. Now, he was focusing on adapting her to fighting with the crows. She may not have the mindlink with them as Ambrose did, but they listened to her just as much. And, just like Pollock, she had learned to understand them. She knew what the bobs and dips in flight meant. She knew when they’d swarm for attacks, and when they’d swarm her for cover.
She was becoming one with them. They flew to her movements, swooping around her legs as she kicked, using their strength to propel her forward. They were the dark mass blocking out the sun, and they were preparing to burn Hektor with their eclipse.
Pollock squawked loudly once, then chirped twice—indicating the crows needed another burst of juice. Lila wiped the sweat from her forehead, and kept her eyes on the aggressor as she let the warmth flood from her skin, blocking it from the him.
Ambrose made sure to come at her at that moment. He lunged, clearly aiming for her legs to swipe them from under her. Lila didn’t hesitate, she ran right at him, and leaped at the perfect time to take one step on his monstrous shoulder and then jump onto his back. As she fueled the crows, and herself, she spun, letting herself land on his back as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Then she pushed her chest against him, bringing her forearm around his neck and her other wrist barring the arm in, as her palm grazed his face.
She let the smallest amount of heat pour from her palm—and like that, the fight was over.
Ambrose slackened as Lila slipped from his back, and lay on her back against the mat Rebekkah had brought in for this exact reason. She took deep breaths that burned her lungs.
“That was great,” Ambrose huffed.
“Do you—” another deep breath “—think I’m ready?”
Ambrose sat next to her, his elbows resting on his knees. “If it were up to me, I would never send you to battle.”
She grinned, and threw her leg over his. “If it were up to you, I’d be your pet wife?”
“My pet wife, running around in that little see-through dress, and tied to my bed every morning.”
Lila closed her eyes, picturing how much easier—and how much more fun—that reality would be. But instead, she was the Sun Child. Instead, she was the only hope for the vampire lords to claim their manors once more. For her to claim her home once more.
“But, yes. As ready as anyone could be for war.” Ambrose stood, and held out a hand to her. Once she took it, he did all the work and lifted her to him, wrapping his other hand around her waist. “Now, the last thing to do is sleep. As impossible as it seems. You’re exhausted, and you need all the rest you could have before tomorrow.”
She nodded. “And you?”
Ambrose quirked one perfect eyebrow. “Me?”
“Are you ready?”
He shrugged. “I guess I have to be. It’ll be nice to see that fucker Hektor die. But . . .” He placed a hand on her cheek, and guided her gaze to meet his. “But, remember, you are what’s important. If it ever becomes more than you can bear, if there is even the slightest doubt it is more than you can handle, a moment of fear, a moment of doubt, you tell me. I will get you out of there without a second thought.”
Lila nodded, knowing she’d never ask that of him, knowing she would never abandon the others or the Crow Court.
“Shall we sleep then? Take a bath before getting filthy tomorrow?”
Ambrose caressed her cheek. “Great idea.” Then he pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
“I can’t sleep,” she said after an hour of trying. No matter how much Ambrose massaged her, pet her, played with her hair, her mind just couldn’t shut off.
“Hmm,” Ambrose hummed against her hair, still twisting his fingers in the lilac strands. In vampiric speed, Ambrose untangled himself from her and hopped out of bed. He sauntered around to her side of the bed, and Lila couldn’t help but drink him in; his low-hanging black silk pants, bare chest, his soft white hair freshly washed. He was such a sight to behold, and Lila wanted to lick every part of him.
He huffed a laugh. “Calm down, Little Crow.” He held his hand out to her, and when she took it, he lifted her from the bed.
“Mmm.” Now it was Ambrose’s turn to ogle. After bathing, Lila had only worn a short nightgown and matching panties he had gotten her. Floral lavender and emerald lace covered her breasts and sheer chiffon reached her hips, leaving her legs bare.
Lila raised an eyebrow, feeling her nipples peak under the attention.
Ambrose shook his head. “No, no. That wasn’t my idea,” he chuckled. “I mean, we can, of course, but . . .” He turned and shuffled through a small pile of things he had on the floor. When he turned back around, a glint of gold caught her eye.
It was something she knew.
“It’s not the one I’d given you in Sanktus Pernox, but I had it made again for you, to fit the dagger.”
In his hand was a brown leather thigh holster, with a golden metal sun buckle—an exact replica of the one he’d given her before.
“I thought it fitting for the Sun Child when she has her moment in the sun to have her blade at her thigh.” He stepped closer, and Lila felt her heart patter in her chest. “May I?” he asked around a smile.
This man. He had seen every part of her, touched and licked and sucked every part of her. Yet he still asked for things as simple as this. It made her chest flutter.
“You may.”
Ambrose crouched to his knees and wrapped his hand around her lower waist, pulling her to him.
“You’re going to do great tomorrow, you know.” He brushed his lips over her flesh, kissing her thigh. “And I will be right there with you the entire time.”
The leather was cold on her skin, but his hot breath sent waves of gooseflesh along her thigh, sending heat straight to her core. Whenever he got on his knees for her, it drove her wild with need.
“Tell me more,” she breathed.
He smirked against her skin. “You’re going to save our home. You’re going to be rid of your demons. And we are going to win.”
Snap. The buckle closed around her, just as he kissed the skin just above the strap.
Ambrose stood then, and reached over her shoulder to grab her wooden dagger on the nightstand.
“And you are going to burn our enemies to the ground.” He forced it in, sending an erotic jolt to Lila’s body. “I just hope I can watch.”
Ambrose took a few steps back, marveling at Lila as though she were the night sky full of stars, as if she were the first sunrise after an endless night.
“Stunning. Perfect.”
The piece at her thigh invigorated her. She was ready, she knew she was, she just needed this little extra push.
“Will you wear it tomorrow? For me?”
Lila blushed. “Of course.”
After unbuckling it, kissing all along her thighs once more, and putting it aside, Ambrose pulled Lila back into bed, back into him, as he stroked her back.
“Do you want me to thrall you?”
She threw her arm around his chest, digging herself into his side. “Yes, please.”
He smiled against her forehead as he kissed her. “I love you.”
The words were so simple, but they warmed her heart. Her nerves were trying to get the better of her, but with those three words, she could do anything.
“I love you too.”
“Sleep, love. Sleep well, and have the sweetest dreams.”
Lila felt the lilac haze fall onto her mind and she didn’t fight it. She let the mist slowly cascade around her, as her eyes grew heavy and her limbs felt limp.
Tomorrow would be the summer solstice—the day the Sun Child had to guide the vampires back into the light.
Morning came too soon.
Or rather, the morning that should still be considered night. Lila was eased awake, fed, dressed in fighting leathers, and strapped with weapons—weapons she hoped she wouldn’t need. Ambrose took a moment to strap the sun buckle and dagger to her thigh once more, reaffirming everything he’d said the night before.
Once out in the great hall, she could barely concentrate on those running around her, getting ready for the day, as her legs shook, as she fisted her palm.
Lila was nervous, yes. But a thought kept crossing her mind. The thought of her hand on Hektor’s face. The feel of his flesh burning under her palm. She thought of the vampire faces, the eyes popping before her in the Viper Morada. She had been disgusted at herself then. But now? She reveled in it. Lila couldn’t wait to feel the burn of his skin again, couldn’t wait to hear as his eyes liquified and boiled out of their sockets. She was going to torture Hektor Reinick, for all he had done to her, and there would be no mercy.
She’d thought about her home. About the strigoi currently running rampant. About her friends, Robin and Sandra and Ivan, who were either all turned into strigoi or dead. She thought about the gardens, the plants being pulled from the ground, the flowers stomped on. She thought of the books, of her book of fairytales, being burned. She thought of her bedroom being occupied by that pile of filth, of him sifting through her things, deluding himself into thinking she wanted him.
Lila cracked her knuckles. She was more than ready for this. She was anticipating it.
As Ambrose strapped the golden gorget around her neck, she met his gaze. “Are we ready?”
Her fingers were twitching, legs bouncing.
Ambrose clasped her shoulders. “Almost. Turn around.” Once she did, Ambrose pulled her hair into a ponytail and tied it snuggly. “There. Now you’re ready, Little Crow.” Then he did the same with his own hair, only leaving a strand of white falling loose. “I won’t ask you to stay close. But know, I will stay close to you.”
She grinned at him. “Of course you will. I’ll keep you safe, Crow Lord.”
Ambrose smirked, rubbing his tongue over his sharp fangs. “Such a mouth on you. I might have to punish you for that one later.”
“Promise?”
He grabbed her waist, pulling her flush to him. He kissed her deeply, leading with his tongue, then trailing kisses along her jaw, till he got to the spot she loved behind her ear. “Want to make a bargain over it?”
The morning was still just waking, but the tiny army of vampires and humans alike traveled in silence to the Crow Court. They took the path Lila had taken as she ran from the Reinicks all those months ago. The path that led her to Ambrose. She knew these trees, knew the roots sticking up from the ground, even if the season was different, even if the snow had been replaced by wildflowers and bugs, even as the cold was replaced by a heat so brilliant, it rivaled Lila’s own. But the sun was still hiding, and as it rose, it would only grow hotter, and she would only grow stronger.
Marcus walked next to her, eyeing her.
“You good, Lila? Nervous?”
“No. I’m ready to finish this.”
Marcus looked ahead. “We’ll kill him. We’ll kill Hektor, and he will never try to touch you again.”
She saw his hand fist from the corner of her eye, and knew Marcus had wanted to kill Hektor just as badly as she did, just as badly as Ambrose.
But he was hers to kill. And they both knew it.
Nostro walked between the siblings, stopping. “Do you remember what to do?”
“Marcus, Ambrose, Constance, and I will enter the manor. I will immediately activate the warmth to heal the turned-strigoi, while the others help the newly changed figure out what’s going on, and fight off remaining strigoi. Once the main floor is healed, we will work our way up as you, Rebekkah, Darius, and the rest of the Viper Morada will come in to take the rest of the Crow Court once the majority have been healed.”
Nostro nodded along. “Good. Remember, if anything goes awry—”
“We have the Concord.”
“Yes.” Nostro awkwardly put his hand on Lila’s shoulder, then pulled her into him, wrapping his long arms around her shoulders. “Working with you like this . . . it is how I wished to work with her. If she had survived . . . Well. I’m just happy I could do it now, with you, Lila, our Sun Child.” He pulled away then, and Lila grabbed his hand.
“Thank you, Nostro. For everything. For your friendship and trust.”
He gave her a sharp, toothy grin that probably would’ve scared her a few months ago, but now warmed her heart. Then he kissed her forehead. “I followed you into the light, and I now follow you into battle, gladly.”
And before she could say anything more, Nostro scurried away, between the trees, where she knew Rebekkah and everyone else waited.
It was only her, Ambrose, Constance, and Marcus now. She turned to them, and whispered, “Stay close to me.”
Constance stepped forward, taking Lila’s hand. “Promise, Lilac.”
So they walked across the forest. The manor came into view, and with it, the decrepit images Lila imagined. In the few short months Ambrose had been away, it was like the building was caving in on itself without its lord. From what she could see of the garden, the flowers had wilted, the green had turned to brown, and the color had faded completely. The stone was falling apart. People were nowhere to be seen.
The place she had so fallen in love with, her home—it was abused, and scarred.
Like her.
Heat bubbled up inside of her as rage consumed every thought. This was hers and she would take it back.
Lila stomped from the tree line, crossing the small field she battled Drusilla and the Reinicks six months ago, across the field she ran from Ambrose. She climbed the steps to the main doors of the Crow Court, and waited for the others to be by her side. Then, as she pushed her palms into the wood—as the sun rose at her back, finally touching her skin and filling every fiber of her being with strength—she released a wave of loving warmth, hoping it would heal the manor just as much as the people within.
Lila shoved the doors open, heat pooling from her hands, as her family followed behind her. It was eerily silent within. But the sense of bodies was overwhelming. Coming in daylight hours was already proving to be a good decision.
“We should go to the dining room first,” Constance whispered beside her.
Exuding heat in case there were strigoi in the main hall, they crossed the foyer and pushed the next door open. Lila’s heart dropped at the sight. All around the room—the room that had once been filled with the vampires and humans of the Crow Court alike, the room that had once broken every stereotype Lila had about Malvania—was littered with bodies.
Most were alive, writhing, but some were as stiff as the table in the center of the room. Some were already decomposing, others looked as if all of the blood within them had been drained from their bodies. Constance gasped beside her, and the young girl took a step back, into Marcus, who gripped her hand tightly.
But to her other side, Ambrose was fuming.
Click, clack, click. Heads were beginning to turn toward them. New blood, new bodies.
In the crowd, Lila spotted Sandra, the maid she’d befriended during her time here. Blood dripped from the woman’s bisected mouth, her eyes were large and vacant. And a new wave of anger and horror washed through Lila, as she clenched her fists, ready to heal everyone she could.
There were other strigoi in the room, similar to those Constance, Ambrose, and Lila fought on their way back from the Arachnid Estate after Sanktus Pernox. They were clicking their bisected jaws in the air, their eyes covered in a white film. Lila wondered if, like those, they would just be happy to feel the sunlight, or if they would be like those in the Maggot Mansion—too far gone.
Only one way to find out.
“As soon as they come to, get them out of here,” she said over her shoulder, stepping deeper into the room as warmth surrounded her.
Lila thought of her friendships with these people, and also of the horror they must have felt when Drusilla overtook the manor. These had become her people, and she wanted to protect them. She needed to save them.
Step by step, warmth pooled in the room, feeling like a soft bath of humidity on a cold night. Lila walked toward Sandra, who hissed at her but didn’t attack.
Sandra’s jaw closed, and soon, the line driving down her chin slowly mended back together, mended closed. The dazed look in her all-black eyes, returned to a deep brown Lila knew, as they sharpened on her lilac hair and charcoal wings behind her.
Groans echoed through the hall, as muffled whimpers rumbled out of others. Constance and Marcus immediately darted to those healed, helping them up, and whispering words of comfort, quickly explaining where they were, what happened, and that they needed to get outside.
But Lila’s eyes were still focused on her friend, as she dropped to her knees before her.
“Miss Lila?” Sandra rubbed her head. “Where—? What—”
She put her hand on Sandra’s shoulder. “You’re all right. Drusilla and her strigoi took over the manor, they turned everyone into strigoi as well. But you’re safe now. You’re back to your old self. But there are still others who need to be helped, so I need you to go outside, at least until you get your strength up.”
Sandra nodded slowly, then pouted. “Why, I’d like to pull all the hair from that hag’s head. I’m . . . I’m remembering that night now. She came and said the Crow Court was hers. That bitch.”
Lila huffed a laugh. “We’ll get her. This house is ours, and no one can take it from us.” She helped Sandra up, holding her arm as they stood. For a moment, Sandra wobbled, but she took a deep breath, and started walking till she neared Ambrose, who was in the middle of assisting someone else.
“Lord Draven, I don’t remember much yet, but I know Drusilla left the manor. Hektor though . . . Hektor is here. I remember him. As a strigoi, he made us go out and—” her face shifted, contorted to horror. “Dear lords,” she uttered.
Ambrose quickly placed a hand on her shoulder. “I know firsthand what you are feeling, Sandra. The things I did as a strigoi . . . they haunt me still,” his eyes flicked to Lila’s. “But that was not you. You were not in control, and the strigoi had none of your will.”
Sandra nodded weakly.
“I’m sorry to rush this, but we need to keep moving. Should I walk you outside?” Lila asked carefully.
“No, no. I’m all right. I’ll be all right.” She shuffled outside, slowly, others following behind. Thankfully, none in this room were too far gone. Marcus, Constance, and Ambrose had to carry the blinded ones from the manor themselves, but they would eventually be okay, Lila told herself. They would all be okay.