Page 86 of Call of the Blood

He stepped aside as he spoke one more word. He had to be out of the way.

“Her.”

Everly launched out of the dark up the drive and slammed into Henry before he could even blink. They bounced and rolled between the two SUVs right behind him and into more darkness. Alexius waved people to make space, knowing she was lost to it. Henry was knocked through them again, rolling up the drive now. Everly revealed herself again, this time where people could see her, moving slowly enough to actually be perceived in more than a blur.

Her red eyes were narrow and full of rage. Her red hair was wild, a crazed mop that made her seem feral. Her hands didn’t end in pretty fingers. No… she had elongated, stretched black fingers that ended in very long, sharp claws. Her hands looked like something from a horror movie.

And in that moment, Alexius didn’t just see Everly’s temper. He didn’t just see her anger or despair from Henry’s betrayal. He saw her power and had to reckon with how her blood called to his, a battle cry and a siren’s song rolled into one.

He was not the only berserker. Far from it.

She was radiant in her rage.

“Everly, please!” Henry begged as she ran to close the distance. She was over him faster than Henry could comprehend.

“You killed Declan!” she roared and stabbed her nails downward. Henry rolled just in time.

In a terrible way, she was the most beautiful monster he’d ever seen.

“You killed my father!” she continued at the top of her lungs, her fangs out, her face seeming inhuman in the wash of rage. She stabbed down again, this time slicing open one of his arms.

He couldn’t look away even if he had wanted to… and he didn’t want to.

Henry scrambled to his feet, trying to get away from her.

“Everly, I don’t want to kill you!” Henry pleaded.

Alexius laughed.

“Alexius, can she beat him?” Maria hissed behind him.

“Yes,” he answered. “Witness her.”

Everly went after him again, and Alexius saw Henry make a decision. He either died to Everly, or he won and potentially got Declan. Alexius knew that Henry had listened to nothing about his own death from Alexius. He was too obsessed with the realities he was creating in his mind.

Henry’s attempt to fight back was pathetically short. He tried to hit her, his right hook looking strong. But she was fast, grabbing his wrist to stop his attempt at an attack, and ripped that arm off at the elbow. With the momentum, she swung back around and hit Henry in the head with his own arm before letting it fly off into the dark.

Henry was in shock as he staggered and recognized his arm was gone. That his own niece could do that to him…

Alexius watched. Everly was possessed. She would do this execution as quickly or as slowly as she pleased, and none of them would be smart if they tried to stop her.

Everly hissed, getting behind Henry, and Alexius didn’t see what she was planning until it happened. He heard her whisper, though. They all heard it.

“A disgusting thing like you could never kill me,” she hissed. “And now I’m taking back what you stole from me and giving Declan the only gift I can.”

A truly grotesque number of sounds and they were all left comprehending what she did to him. He saw Everly holding Henry’s heart in her hand, coming straight out of his chest.

“Like any good siblings, we’ll continue to be Orphans together,” she whispered into his ear, her fingers squeezing tighter around the heart.

She pulled the arm backward, throwing the heart to the ground. Henry dropped to his knees, his body frantically trying to stay alive without the heart to pump the necessary blood. As a vampire, he could live longer than a few seconds. He was in such a level of shock, he didn’t scream. Everly put a foot to her uncle’s back and grabbed his head from behind by the jaw. Everyone heard the crunching and snapping of bone as Everly ripped Henry’s head off with a roar.

A roar of pain. Of anger. Of sorrow. Of freedom, possibly.

Alexius felt something break a little inside. He knew the roar. He’d made it himself. Something had died inside him when he’d done it, and he knew something had just died in her.

Something none of them could fix. Something none of them could have stopped. He couldn’t deny her the right to kill her uncle. Not even Maria or Isaiah could have taken it from her.

But Alexius wished she didn’t have to live with the wound on her soul this execution was going to leave.