Her fighting began to falter after the eighth. She didn’t want to keep killing when she’d come here to avoid this.
“Stop,” she demanded, still fighting but switching to completely defensive.
They kept coming, and she warded them off with shields of light and non-fatal strikes.
“I am not your enemy.” She tried again to reason.
The council member, Zender, stalked toward her after she fended off another three. There was no mercy to reach in his eyes of loathing. No compromise, no compassion. Killing him might collapse the fragile pillars of union they had tried to build today with the vampire resistance.
“What can I do or say that would make you believe my dedication to your cause as much as everyone else does?” Astraea kept retreating slowly, gathering her breath back.
Until she met the edge of a cliff and there was nowhere to go but down.
“The best thing you can do for any of us is to die.”
Zender lunged for her, but before his hand lifted fully, a horizontal stroke of darkness cut right through his neck. His eyes glassed over, wide on her, before his body fell and revealed the haunting sight of Nyte.
No…Nightsdeath.
She’d never seen this part of him fully. He’d shown her glimpses, just enough for her to know what changed about his appearance, but he was always fully in his right mind. Her mouth turned dry when he just stood there, staring at her with bright gold eyes, hands clamped and near trembling by his sides. Restraining himself.
Then she understood with a slow lick of horror up her spine. He’d warned her before how he hoped to never have cause for Nightsdeath to surface fully when she was around. Because her brightness repelled the dark.
“You need torun,” he said, as if on the verge of losing his battle with the monster that wanted to kill her.
“I’m not leaving you,” she said, her voice weak and giving away her fear.
His head jerked to the side, face scrunching in pain. “You’re too… too bright, Astraea.”
“Yes, this is what I am,” she said as calmly as she could, closing the distance with slow steps.
“Stop.” That word broke from him and still he didn’t look at her again.
“You need me as much as I need you. I’m not afraid of this side of you.”
His eyes snapped to hers then, and there was nothing kind in those blazing suns.
“I don’t need you.” His voice didn’t sound like his own when a low baritone wrapped each cold word.
Astraea’s next inhale choked when he ate up the distance between them in a heartbeat and his hand lashed around her throat. She was forced back until her heels slipped off the edge, and all that kept her from falling was her hands gripping his on her neck. He trembled stiffly, refraining from crushing her windpipe.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” she said, reeling back her panic.
He was terrifying yet absolutely beautiful with the tip of his ears looking like they were dipped in charcoal. Lines of black climbed his neck, beginning to reach over his jaw as if a quill had pierced his skin and ink now flooded his veins. And those eyes… she had never been so entranced than in this moment, watching them swirl like liquid gold metal.
Nyte reached for the key strapped at her waist, and only when it answered him, transforming into a glowing dagger without harming him, did she realize the gravity of Bonding to someone with a side of pure darkness. It gave him the ability to harness the one weapon that could truly kill her.
The hum of magick from the weapon as he pressed it between her ribs sent shockwaves that felt so wrong throughout her body.
Until now there had never been a true piece of her that believed him capable of killing her. Despite all his warnings, how fearful he became when he spoke of Nightsdeath and how hard he had fought against letting him surface fully before. Yet now, with the touch of death one plunge away, she couldn’t deny the real danger of him.
“It’s okay,” she repeated, refusing to let this be something that could break them. “I love you, and I trust you.”
“How can you say that,” he said, his voice splitting between a snarl and a crack of misery. “Your love for me is deadly.”
“We’ll work through it. The darkness can learn to love the light.” Her lips parted, but she smothered the whimper in her throat when the key dagger broke through her leathers, touching her skin now. “Stay with me, Rainyte.”
Astraea let the blade cut her flesh as she pushed up and pressed her lips to his. Even the shallow wound was enough to erupt a line like fire, scattering through her whole chest and abdomen.
