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Before anyone else can react, I’m racing toward Seleme.
I see Seleme on the floor at Alberto’s feet, her eyes flicking to me as the tears stream down her face. I grip the wooden handle of the knife in my fist as I take the last four steps, then I roar as I drop into a crouch and barrel toward them.
Alberto growls, and there’s yelling behind me, but I have tunnel vision, my eyes focused on his neck, where I intend to plunge my knife in the next two seconds. There’s chaos all around, but she’s my only focus.
I lunge at Alberto as Maltese repeats his attack, only this time his leap lands him on Alberto’s thigh, rather than his head. But it helps, providing a much-needed distraction. Alberto is faster than his father. His hands find my throat even as my knife falls toward his neck.
I’m not fast enough. Maltese is tearing into the black fabric of his pants, but Alberto is oblivious. I gather everything I have left, wildly slashing my knife toward his neck.
“Maxim!” Seleme’s scream echoes in my ears as I feel the bones in my neck snap. Indescribable agony turns my vision white, and my legs crumple beneath me, but not before I drag the blade of my knife as deep into the fucker’s neck as I can, somehow slicing through like he’s made of butter, until his head hangs to the side and he crumples to the ground a few feet from me.
As I fall to the floor, it’s Seleme’s face I see. The clock’s chimes begin to echo around me, and as they ring in my ears her blue eyes turn red, the pink in her cheeks dissipating as her skin begins to glow iridescent like a pearl.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I manage, knowing my life force is draining away. Knowing her face will be the last thing I ever see.
Our mouths meet in a kiss of such hunger, my heart lurches in my chest.
“Don’t go,” Seleme whispers in my ear. “I won’t let you go.”
The pain surges through me as she brings her teeth to my neck, sinking them deep. My gut twists with anguish as I feel the teeth tearing into my flesh. As she feeds, though, acceptance washes over me. At least I’ll be able to give her this one last piece of myself.
I don’t know how much time passes.
It could be a split second, or it could be hours. The only sensation I have at this moment is weightlessness.
A laser focus, as though time has slowed.
When I open my eyes, my vision is sharper.
It’s like I’m seeing in four dimensions.
I watch Seleme dart across the landing, then down to the foyer in a single leap, snapping the neck of the first guard then tearing his head from his shoulders an instant before he gets to Dimitri, standing dumbfounded in the doorway.
Then, together with her father, she takes out the vampire that’s holding her mother, ripping his head from his shoulders in a flood of gore. Anna flings her arms around Seleme, then crosses to Dimitri, catching him in an embrace of pure joy as he looks on in disbelief at what’s going on all around.
Dimitri’s eyes are wild his mouth hanging open before he finally speaks. “What the hell…”
Feeling somehow stronger than ever, I push myself to my feet and turn, in a kind of haze and bounding to Seleme, running my hands down her cheeks, marveling at the cool of her skin where there used to be warmth.
“I…” she starts, and I see the doubt in her eyes, but there’s something else, too. I feel the life inside her. The life we created.
I press my hand to her belly, and she rests hers on top of it as our eyes meet.
Her parents come toward us, and I brace myself for her father’s wrath.
“We are bound.” Seleme looks to me, then to her father. “I’m sorry, Papa.” But she isn’t. I can feel her joy. It’s mine, too.
He lets out a long breath, shaking his head. “No, my precious daughter. I am the one that is sorry. I did what I thought was best for you. For us all. I was wrong.”
He looks to me and extends his hand. “Welcome to the family.”
Thirteen
Maxim
SNOW SWIRLS AROUND Rudolf and I as we walk the back of the family estate, just as we have every day since that night. We talk, man to man, and piece by piece he is helping me acclimate to my new reality. He teaches me how to use my new powers, how to control them, and also how to adjust to the infinite amount of changes to both my body and my mind.
Sometimes we hunt as well, leaving the property for the miles of forest land that are abundant with wildlife. I thought the hunting, the feeding would repulse me.
