AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Please don’t leave,” I whisper, the sobs throttling through me, choking on my own sobs. “Please Solon, stay with me. Love me forever.”
He licks his lips slowly, swallowing hard, wheezing for breath. “I will,” he manages to say, voice barely audible. “I will, my dear.”
And then he stills.
His eyes stare up at nothing.
The wonderful life inside him dies.
And he is gone.
20
Lenore
I stare down at Solon’s body in disbelief, tears blurring my vision. I gently brush my fingers over his face, feeling his skin, my heart ripping in half with every square inch I touch, knowing I’ll never be able to do this again.
Knowing he’s no longer mine.
I love him, and somewhere in some other world he loves me, but we won’t be together for the ages anymore.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive this kind of pain, the type that scoops you out, leaving nothing behind but this aching emptiness.
And then, somewhere deep inside me, maybe in the well, maybe in my soul, that sorrow, that cutting, piercing sorrow that stabs me from the inside out, it changes.
It morphs.
Solon wasn’t the only one with a beast inside of him.
I have one too.
And I’m about to let it out of its cage.
I slowly turn around, my blood running hot, my skin feeling tight, as anger erupts inside of me, using that sorrow for fuel, all that emptiness inside me turning to kindling.
I stare at Jeremias and get to my feet, feeling my palms burning.
“You,” I say in a low, raspy voice. “You killed him.”
Jeremias frowns, or at least attempts to with his changing faces. “I know I did. It’s for the best, Lenore. He would have only held you back. He was too…good for you.”
I swallow down the hot bile that’s rising inside my throat. “You killed him. And you used me. You let Kaleid discard me like trash.”
“I also saved your life,” he says with a sniff. “Twice now. That counts for something.”
“I loved him,” I say through grinding teeth. “I loved him, and you took him from me.”
“Lenore,” he says with impatience.
“I’m going to take from you now,” I tell him, coming toward him. My hands tingle, my fingers turning to charcoal at the tips like spent matches.
He jerks his head back and then lets out a dry laugh. “You? Take from me? You’re not even a full witch Lenore. You’re just half of one. You’ll never amount to anything whole.”
“I know I’m only half a witch,” I say, my voice low and rough. “I’m also half a vampire.”
He blinks, and before he can even focus on me, I’m moving.
I’m on him in a second, my fangs sinking into his neck, biting as hard and deep as I ever have before, my hands clawing at him, nails breaking skin. He tastes fucking awful, like pure primordial evil.
Jeremias yelps and tries to move out of the way, and I can feel him pulling power deep from within himself, conjuring up the black magic that will no doubt dispose of me with ease.
But I’m willing to burn us both to the ground.
Fire kills vampires.
It kills most witches too.
I bite harder, holding on, and then I close my eyes.
I draw from the well, the well of light, and I let it spread throughout my body, growing hotter and hotter and hotter. My heart feels like it’s on fire, my skin is starting to smoke, my veins sparking like firecrackers.
And just when I think I’m going to explode, I erupt into flames.
I become a human fireball, every part of my skin alight.
The flames spread from me to Jeremias, and he’s starting to catch on fire too.
He chuckles ruthlessly as the fire engulfs us both like torches. “Fire doesn’t hurt me, my child. You know this.”
“I know,” I tell him as the flames lick the roof of my mouth. “It merely distracts you.”
Before he can blink, I take the witch’s blade that I’d hidden in the folds of my dress after I removed it from Solon’s heart and I unhook my fangs from Jeremias’ neck, pulling back just enough to take the blade and plunge it right into his eye.
He screams, his eyeball bursting, and I push the blade in deeper until it sinks into his brain. Then I take the blade out and do it to his other eye.
Right in. Deep.
A sickening squishy sound.
Then I stab him in the forehead, breaking through bone.
In the heart.
Then kick him over until he’s on the ground, still burning, and for once I see the fire is starting to char him, singe his flesh, his magic leaving him.
I take the blade again, dripping now with his blood, then swipe it across his throat with all the vampire strength I can muster.
It slices his head clean off.
I stare at it, watching it burn, waiting for there to be nothing left of him.
