Chapter Thirty-Six
Kayden
Everything burns. My chest. My skin.
My fucking heart.
"That… that wasn't her. What the hell was that?" I grit out, voice cracking as the poison writhes deeper into my veins, scorching like fire under my skin.
"A dark nymph," Darius mutters. His first words since she stormed in and shattered everything. "And it's all your fault."
"My fault? My fault?" I push up on one elbow, snarling through the pain. "You're the one who broke her with your obsession. Your endless mindfuck games. You couldn't let her go, couldn't let her live. She was running from you, Darius."
"And yet," he replies, his unnatural green eyes locked on mine, "you gave her your blood. You made the choice. You intended her to become like you."
"I intended her to survive," I growl, and the pain spikes so hard I see stars.
"Is she a vampire now?" Asher asks, voice tight.
Darius shakes his head. "No. She's both. A hybrid. A vampire-tainted nymph. An abomination that's not supposed to exist." Then, quieter, but every word like a death sentence: "One I must eliminate."
"What?" The word tears from me like a scream. My blood's on fire, my bones are screaming, and now he's talking about killing her?
Asher steps forward, tense. "So vampire blood doesn't kill nymphs. It changes them. That's what happened."
"If they die with vampire blood in their veins, they don't stay dead. But they don't come back the same," Darius says.
"And she can walk in daylight because of that?" Asher presses.
"She can do more than that, Colonel. Your essence twisted her. It took what made her life-aligned and turned it into death. She doesn't feel remorse. You saw it. She shot him and walked away smiling." He turns to the window like he's already eulogizing her. "And now the duty falls to me."
"Don't you fucking dare," I snarl, pushing up again, but the pain rips through me and slams me back down.
Asher steps between us, palms up. "Whatever duty you think you have, she's not lost. Not completely. I know how to bring her back. I've seen it done. We can reach that part of her—the empathy, the love. It's still there."
Darius turns. He looks tired. Worn in a way I haven't seen before. For a split second, he actually hesitates.
"The powers that ordained this task are beyond you. Or me," he says.
"What about her?" Asher fires back. "Are those powers beyond Sage, too?"
That lands. Something flickers in the bastard's eyes. Doubt? Hope? Pain? I don't know. But it hits him.
"Show me where you placed her after you found her," he says at last.
"Help my brother first," Asher demands without flinching.
Darius's gaze shifts to me. The look he gives is like I'm a dog turd he stepped on with his thousand-dollar shoes.
I grin through bloodied teeth. "Come on, goat man. Show me your healing touch."
He kneels beside me and slams his palm into my chest.
The pain explodes like a goddamn supernova. I scream. I can't help it.
Green light surges through me, searing every inch of nerve and bone. It's agony, like my insides are being branded.
It lasts seconds. Feels like forever. Then it's over.
Darius rises, calm again, pulling a stupid little handkerchief from his coat and wiping his hands like he just took out the trash.
Of course he'd have a monogrammed hankie. Asshole.
"Now show me," Darius says.
Asher offers me a hand, and I take it. My chest still aches, but when I press a palm to it, the wounds are gone. Only faint scars remain, already fading before my eyes.
She tried to kill me.
Again.
Third time's the charm, huh?
The laugh that slips out of me is half-mad, but real. Asher shoots me a wary look. I shake my head, muttering, "Third time isn't the charm, after all."
I don't bother explaining. They wouldn't find it funny. I'm not sure I do.
The garden looks like hell. Blackened earth, flowers wilted into ash. The spot where she once sat and smiled, kissed us under moonlight—all of it scorched. The graveyard of a memory.
"This is what I meant," Darius says, motioning to the dead plants. "Her life-giving nature has inverted. Where she once brought growth, she now brings decay."
I eye the blackened petals, then glance at him. "So she's powered by sucking the life out of trees… and blood out of people? Sounds like every ex-girlfriend I've ever had."
Darius glares. "This is not a joke, vampire."
"Maybe not to you, but my chest says otherwise." I roll my shoulders.
His eyes flash, and his voice turns to venom. "I should've killed you the night we met. Taken her like I planned."
"Oh, big words from a man whose precious second-in-command stabbed his beloved. Guess love isn't the only thing you can't keep under control."
He flinches. Good.
I step forward. "Anyway, spare me the speeches. How do we catch her?"
"We start by finding the people she hid," Asher cuts in.
"Screw the people," I snap. "If she gets too far, we lose her. And Mr. Destiny over here will start getting twitchy about his 'holy duty.'"
Asher rounds on me, cold and sharp. "The more blood she spills, the harder it'll be to bring her back without breaking her. Donna was clear—there's a line. And once she crosses it, there's no coming back."
"She's been like this for, what, a few hours? Not centuries," I growl. "We've got time."
"But she's not just a vampire," Darius says. "She's a nymph. For her, death isn't just an act—it's a wound. And that wound will deepen with every soul she takes."
So now they're aligned.
Fucking perfect.
The satyr and the soldier. Team Empathy.
While I stand here, heart bleeding out for a girl who emptied a round into my chest and didn't flinch.
I cross my arms, eyes locked on the blackened wreckage of the garden. "So what's the plan, gentlemen? Save the townsfolk, form a prayer circle, kumbaya her back from the brink? Or are we done pretending this ends in anything but blood?"
Darius ignores the jab and turns to Asher like I'm not there. "He's right about one thing—we can't let her disappear. If she spirals, the damage could be catastrophic."
Well, look at that. Agreement from the goat king.
"She's not just any dark nymph," he continues, calm but grim.
"She was forged from nature, bound to two vampires.
That fusion is unstable. Unprecedented. The harm she could cause…
it's unknowable." He pauses, eyes narrowing.
"I've eliminated others before. One brought down an entire region's harvests in Greece. Famine lasted for a decade."
My jaw tightens.
"So screw the scavenger hunt she sent us on," I say, ready to move. "Let's catch our wife."
Asher's already pulling out his phone. "I'll alert the others. Set them to search for the victims. We'll take point on finding her." Then, glancing at Darius, "Can you get your people involved? It'll go faster if we cover more ground."
Darius doesn't answer right away. His expression hardens. "No. I'm breaking every code I was meant to uphold. If my people find out, they'll turn. The few I could trust, you've killed."
His gaze slides to me.
I meet it unflinching. "Yeah, well they tried to kill me first."
Asher cuts through, his tone sharp. "Enough. We're on the same side now. And on the clock. No more bickering until she's back."
"Sir, yes, sir," I mutter, giving him a lazy salute. My voice is dry, but my insides are bleeding.
Because under all the snark and heat, there's a truth I can't shake.
What if she meant it?
What if every word she said was real?
I shove the thought down. Doesn't matter. We focus. We move.
"All right," I say, more serious now. "No more bickering. We're a team. For now."
It tastes like ash in my mouth, but I extend a hand to the satyr. He stares at it for a second, then takes it.
Shaking the hand of the smug bastard I wanted dead a few hours ago wasn't how I thought this day would go, but I'll do whatever it takes. Because this isn't just about saving her. It's about saving what's left of us.