Page 93 of A Betrothal So Bloody

It isn’t a killing blow—Dante hadn’t meant it to be. It’s a furious, desperate warning. The wound is already stitching up.

“You still have much to learn. Just remember—you forced my hand.” With a heavy sigh, Alessandro runs a hand down his face. “Clémence, collect your brother—”

In the very same instant, she charges at Dante like the order has untethered her. With shocking strength given her willowy build, she strikes him. Dante blocks, but it’s like she knows where he will move before he does. She evades his attempt to throw his body into hers, slamming her elbow into the side of his head. He staggers, and she seizes the opening—gripping his tunic to throw him to the other side of the tunnel. Throws him, like his six-one frame weighs no more than a few cinder blocks. Dante groans, picking himself up off the musty ground—and I’m left exposed.

“And Nico, don’t bother feeding on the girl—her blood isn’t worth the trouble. Snap her neck and be done with it.”

As Nico lowers the torch, there is no time to rethink strategy, to work out how we can kill three vampires—one of them being a lord, no less. Alessandro doesn’t even lift a finger to fight, but his mere presence sends shockwaves through every inch of my nerves. Very well. He can watch me murder another of his sons.

Nico stalks toward me, long strides corralling me back. He moves to seize my body, to end this swiftly. This, at least I am trained for. Despite the advantage of the forty additional pounds of muscle he has on me, I’ve got speed on my side. I duck low to the ground, sidestepping him and lashing my blade to greet him in the same instant. The silver edge catches his right arm, slicing through wool and flesh with a sizzling hiss. Nico snarls and backpedals, circling me cautiously.

I take the next opening—diving to strike at his head while kicking at his legs in the same instant. I manage to get him on the ground, his back hitting the stone with a painful clap. With a shriek of pure, animalistic survival, I’m on top of him. I raise my wooden stake over my head, digging my knees into his waist so I can get a clean blow to his heart.

In the next blink, stars explode in my vision—Nico has landed a hook under my chin, knocking my grasp. A coppery tang washes over my tongue as blood fills my mouth. I’ve bitten the side of my cheek. With a single, powerful thrust, Nico throws me off him and scrambles back onto his feet.

Head throbbing, I stand and spit blood at his boots—watching with a sick satisfaction as he briefly shudders at the sight of it. Hungry, always so hungry, these creatures. Nico forces his focus back onto me, boots braced to ground himself from my next attempt to unseat his footing. But he has no biting remarks for me, no threats. Although he has been tasked with killing me, he regards me with those sad eyes.

I lower my stake half an inch, a whisper of hope curling through me.

“You don’t have to do this,” I whisper. I resist the urge to tear my gaze from him when I hear Dante and Clémence landing brutal blows against each other like rabid wolves. The walls of the dark tunnel quake with their fight—gutteral shouts, the wet crack of a blow to the ribs, the thud of a boot striking a side.

Nico falters for a moment—pausing to look me over.

“Sorry,” he rasps.

He launches forward with an open hand, catching the side of my head in an explosion of pain that throws me near the water. I land poorly on my ankle and crumple to the floor, my clavicle bright with pain from being wrenched.

I scramble haphazardly for my dropped weapons. Nico kicks them into the water and kneels over me. The air’s been knocked out of me—fuck, I can barely draw in a breath. Fuck!

I give a gasping cry as he locks a single hand around my throat—his expression horribly apologetic all the while.

“We need peace,” I hear Nico say, his voice stretched and distorted as spots dance over my vision, darkening, darkening. “We can’t keep enduring eternity like this.”

Dante bellows in outrage, but he sounds miles away. Everything does now. His cry is punctuated by a shriek from Clémence and the sound of something snapping hard. I claw at Nico’s hand—and my hazy vision becomes even blurrier as a burst of mist flies beside us.

Dante materializes behind Nico and wrenches him off of me, hurling him into the shallow stream.

As Dante scoops me into his arms, I wince from my injuries, but my weak voice manages to find a laugh. “You shadow-stepped!”

He staggers closer to the wall with me and falls to his knees. “Did I look heroic?” But he can’t hold his smile, looking me up and down like he can sense the pain coursing through me. “Where does it hurt?”

He brushes my hair aside to reveal the stinging wound on the side of my head where I’d hit the ground. Blood comes away on his fingers, making his jaw tighten. His eyes flick between me and our surroundings.

Clémence is closing in, looking as battered and bloodied as Dante. She’s limping and cradling her left arm like it’s been broken, but carrying herself with cold dignity all the same. The bone will take longer than a flesh wound to heal, but I have no doubt she’s still lethal. Nico is pulling himself out of the water, just as relentless.

And Alessandro…

He steps closer to us without any hurry, raising a hand for his children to pause.

Dante bares his teeth at his maker. “You will not have her.”

“Do you truly believe you have any say in what happens here?” Alessandro muses. “Your time away has clouded your understanding of reality, boy.” He sneers, appearing more disappointed than anything. But there is something brewing behind his eyes—a rage that he’s containing on a whim.

“If you would have let me be, Thomas wouldn’t be dead.” Dante’s face is set, eyes wide. “Just let me go. There’s no need for further violence. Keep your family. Keep everything. But leave me be.” His voice wavers hopelessly.

“It seems reeducation is in order.” Alessandro scoffs as though they’re exchanging nothing more than a terse family conversation. “End this foolishness now, and I’ll allow you to kill her quickly—painlessly.”

Dante bares his teeth. “Fuck you.”