Page 92 of Peacemaker

That was my sacrifice.

I fell.

As my blood sank into the earth I felt it go. The dry ground soaked it up, gobbled it up, carried it down into darkness so thick there was no such thing as light.

Or life.

And it touched the dead. All over the city, it touched the dead.

Suddenly, there was light, and there was life.

Himself was there, in that blood.

He hadn’t just masked it from the rifters, he’d added something to it. A spark. A spark of his magic, of his essence. Of Himself.

My pure blood alone couldn’t have resurrected the vampires.

I let the knowledge go, because I was dying and it would no longer matter to me, not really, would it?

But then, I felt the vampires reaching for me. I grabbed their hands, and I yanked them out of their black despair. I pulled them to the surface, to the moon, to life.

I pulled them to their master.

Even the ones I’d killed.

Especially the ones I’d killed.

I felt the absence of Silverlight, but was glad I’d released her. With her light spilling from me, with her inside me, the vampires might not have risen.

They came, hundreds of them, an army of vampires, and in the blood was their knowledge. There was no ignorance, no adjusting, no confusion.

They knew.

They burst through the earth, and they came to me. They swarmed over me like ants on a chunk of dry bread, repairing, feeding, saving me as I’d saved them.

When I came back, gasping, hurting, terrified, and stronger—so much stronger—Amias was on top of me, his voice in my ear, his blood in my body.

“I’m not dead,” I murmured.

“No, my love,” he said. “My life. My queen. No.”

I burst into tears as I sat up and watched the many, many vampires break through the crust of earth and spill from the graveyard, and it was like watching children being born. My children.

I wasn’t a vampire.

I had not died.

And my heart squeezed with joy and relief.

I was me. I was still me.

Himself hadn’t killed me. Amias hadn’t allowed me to die.

But I knew, deep down, that it was too early to celebrate. The real battle was waiting, and the only thing I could do was run as fast as I could to meet it.