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She bit her lip and nodded. We didn’t have time for more than that.
Slipping away from her, I crept into the bedroom. Instead of the intruders I’d expected, all I found was a rock lying in a pool of glass and water, the wind whipping the curtains as it wailed outside. A flash of lightning illuminated the room, revealing it to be empty save the furniture and me. Foreboding gnawed at my gut, and even as I turned to head back to my wife, my everything, I knew I was too late. I’d fallen for the oldest trick in the book.
A crash from the living room had my pulse pounding, sending me barreling through the door and into the pitch dark space. But I was a vampire; I should be able to see even in the darkest of rooms. Faint shadows moved toward me, inky stains in the air. Shadow Court fae. They must be using some kind of glamour to keep me from seeing clearly.
But my sight wasn’t my only asset. I just needed a hint of where they were, and I could blur to them before they finished taking a step.
Thankfully—if not surprisingly—Sunday had taken my request seriously. She hadn’t made so much as a peep since I’d left her to investigate the room. Her silence would come in doubly handy now, as it would allow me to isolate the threat against us before they could get to her.
There.
The hitch of a breath and the barest scrape of a shoe over wood. I had the bastard in my hands, his throat at my lips, and my fangs tearing him apart before he could look at me. He was nearly drained in a matter of seconds. With a clatter, his weapon fell to the floor, and I dropped his now limp body. He wouldn’t survive.
A sharp burn slashed across my back, the silver blade searing my skin as another fae warrior attacked me. I barely had a chance to do more than wonder why the fuckers were coming after me instead of her before he sank his blade into my side.
I grunted in pain. Shoving him away as I pulled the dagger free and turned it on him, ending the fae’s life with no remorse in my heart. Freshly fed, my wounds healed almost instantly, but the sting from the silver remained and would for a few nights.
Adrenaline raced through me, sending my pulse spiking, and I turned to the spot I’d last seen Sunday. As I stared, a distinctly human shape materialized behind her.
“Sunday, look out!”
Her eyes went wide, hands turning to claws as she spun around, attacking even before she could see the threat.
There were muffled cries. Hers and his. The sharp scent of blood accompanied a soft gurgling sound as her attacker stumbled back, hands holding his entrails. I tore his head clean off his shoulders with a feral roar and watched him fall. But the blood in the air wasn’t only mine or the fae’s. I knew her scent better than anything, and the instant the last fae died, whatever magic they’d used to steal our light went with him.
I was at her side in a heartbeat, but it was too late. She sagged in my arms, her head tipping back, exposing the slash at her throat. Precious blood coated her, spilling to the floor. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. Reaching for me, hands already transitioning back to her human ones, she cupped my face as a tear slid down her cheek.
“No. Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare leave me like this.”
I cradled her head and lifted my other hand to my mouth, ripping the skin at my wrist and shoving it up to her lips.
“Drink, damn you.”
She was cold and still, not latching onto me, but I held my arm to her and willed the blood I was offering to do its job.
“You can’t die, not after we finally came together,a stor. Please, please stay.” My chest constricted as a deep ache built there, already feeling the loss I couldn’t bear. “We have to write our story. Don’t you remember it? Once upon a time...” I couldn’t stop the sob from escaping, breaking my voice into shards of raw emotion. “You promised me. You said you would do whatever it takes. So live. Live for me.”
Hope flickered as a faint tickle feathered over my wrist. I couldn’t be certain the touch came from her, and I held my breath, terrified of moving in case it was only my desperate imaginings. But then it came again. More insistent this time. Intentional.
“That’s it. That’s my good girl. Take what you need. Take it all if you have to.”
As she began slowly healing, I brought us both to the floor, cradling her to me and watching the life come back to her face. Her pulse filled my ears, along with the constant thrum of the baby’s heart. They were both going to survive. I hadn’t lost them.
Something in the back of my mind whispered, dark and sinister.
Yet.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
SUNDAY
The stench of death and rot hit my nose, and I gagged, my stomach cramping as it tried to rid my body of the vile assault. I held my hand over my mouth, fighting the urge to vomit. My other hand pressed to my belly, heart lurching as once again, it was flat. Loss washed over me.
Where was she? Not safe inside me any longer. Someone had taken her.
A low laugh rolled through the air, and I felt its echo in the earth beneath my feet. Lifting my head, I took in the burnt orange sky, little streaks of light falling as if even the stars themselves were trying to escape the wasteland the heavens had become. And across the charred remnants which had once been my home stood my mother, her eyes swirling like galaxies, dressed as I’d never seen her before.
She wore blood-red armor, a cloak the color of midnight that flowed behind her on an invisible breeze, and a helmet with two black horns curving up and back, my infant daughter clutched in her arms like a trophy.
