AllFreeNovel
Share Us
While the Covenkirk stronghold had defeated Arisen Dawn in Knife’s Edge, Jarek and Nace had not been so lucky. They had arrived too late, the bulk of their target having already slipped to Earth. Still, they lost a few warriors. The gaffers were the least lucky. Trained more as police than fighters, they suffered the most losses.
Most of the Firebrands who died were newbies. A few were seasoned fighters. They had belonged to Jarek or Nace. Dax knew them, but he had not fought shoulder-to-shoulder beside them.
“I know what you’re thinking, little witch,” said Dax. “That won’t be me.”
Chiara’s lips crinkled into a frown. “You can’t guarantee such a thing, vampire. Sig was not lucky. We’ve attended so many of these ceremonies recently. The next one could be for our close friends or…”
She didn’t finish, but Dax read her fears. True. Death stalked the Firebrands. He was okay with it as long as he protected those he loved.
He nodded at Kole while he squeezed Chiara’s elbow to lead her away from the crowd gathered at the Cede. But before they escaped, they were stopped.
“Brother. Chiara.”
“Bounty. Matty,” said Dax.
Chiara smiled at the couple, her eyes still puffy.
His sister opened her mouth to speak but closed it again.
“Spit it out, sis.” Dax knew Bounty well enough to see she had something to say.
She looked to Matty, who bobbed a chin in encouragement. “Our mother lies in rest here, right?” asked Bounty.
“Yeah. So what?”
“I want to see her.”
“Why?” Dax controlled a snarl.
Bounty propped a hand on her hip. “Why not?”
Chiara, supporting her sister-in-law, rested a tender hand on her mate’s arm. “Perhaps it’s time, Dax.”
The air rippled with intensity. No one spoke. He had not attended his mother’s Cede. And he sure in hell hadn’t let Bounty go.
Since Elora had succumbed to an opiate overdose after years of being a neglectful mother, he hadn’t been too cut up by the whole dead thing. As far as he was concerned, she had been a whore at the O blud den for Bounty’s father, a perverted prick. Dax had few good memories of her before then.
By the time she passed, he was the top stud in the establishment’s line-up, renting himself out in the name of selflessness. He nobly lent his cock to the cause so Bounty’s dear old dad would keep his and his clients’ mitts off his young sister.
Fuck.
Who was he kidding? He would have sold himself anyway. He loved sex. Male. Female. Didn’t matter. All he had cared about was getting his dick serviced.
As feared, his perverted stepdaddy reneged. Bounty paid the price.
Dax had failed. Despite his deal, Bounty had been raped.
But revenge had been his. After he skinned her father and extracted his fangs, he doled out a worse fate to his sister’s rapist. The same night after his bludfrenzy subsided, Dax hauled a young Bounty out of the shithole blud parlor.
He stared at his sister. Maybe it was time. Maybe their mother had suffered enough for her weaknesses. “This way.” He led the group toward a columbarium a short distance down a tree-lined path. Inside the ancient stone structure were cubicles where funerary urns rested. Though he had never visited, the location of his mother and father’s ashes was etched forever in his mind.
He stopped in front of a bronze plaque. Dax had paid to place her and the marker here, but he didn’t care.
Bounty hung tight to his arm as if squeezing it would make her less nervous.
Maybe it was time to put the rest of his guilt in an urn, set it in a cubicle, and lay the bitch to rest along with his mother.
Grinding his teeth, Dax said, “Meet Elora, Bludclan Mortus. Mate of Firebrand Pane, my father. Mate of your perverted father. I present our loving mommy.”
