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He edged back at the sensation, but at the sight of something behind me, his smile faded as horror replaced it. “No—” he shouted.
My spirit magick reacted instinctually, lashing out with protective magick while I ducked. It wasn’t a moment too soon as the arc of the Slovenian steel blade I dropped suddenly reappeared, nearly meeting the flesh of my shoulder.
Behind me, Alistair roared. I turned to face him, and his eyes widened at the silver glow emanating from my skin. The talisman’s corrupted magick sensed the Vampire King and longed to enact its own vengeance, fed from the original spirit witches of Bled.
Though I longed to tear the Vampire King limb from limb, he wasn’t my kill to make. Like Killian offering the final blow of Carreau to my family, it was Alexei who deserved the chance to end his father’s evil reign for good.
I glanced at him and nodded. “He’s yours to do with what you will.”
Alexei’s gaze hardened, clutching his own dagger as portals opened around us. To my horror, I watched Silas enter the melee from the ballroom entrance. Alexei’s second had clearly awoken and continued with his plan, contacting Killian and what appeared to be several demons who frequented the city. In their arms were witches from the Salem Coven, including Liliane and Willa.
“Go, Jade,” Alexei ordered.
Gaping, I looked between Alexei and Killian, the demon slicing through vampires at an alarming rate. Homesickness and familiarity struck through me as I stared at his dark hair and the silver scar gleaming in the moonlight. I ran from Alistair and Alexei’s showdown, fear for my family returning.
“Slovenia could rival the Realm of Pride as far as beauty goes,” he muttered to the demon next to him, “but gods, I do not miss the cold.”
“Killian!”
He turned at the sound of my approach and caught me, his frenzied eyes taking in the sight of blood, gore, and grime from my time in the dungeons. “Holy Hell, your sister is going to murder me.”
Around the room, the vampires’ screams of torment rose in volume as demons took up the fight. A snarl of grey curls and a forest green cape caught my attention, and I froze, watching Liliane’s magick surge towards the vampires.
Killian turned to look at the Salem High Priestess and winced. “As soon as she heard about Rebecca’s agreement with Silas, she forced her way into the rescue mission. Something about dues for the attack on the witches on the Winter Solstice?”
I sucked in a pained breath, the effects of my magick usage taking effect. “We have to help the Coven. My magick is weakening and the exorcism spell will wither, too. They’ll get killed!”
“Don’t worry about your great aunt,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “I’m more concerned about my hide when Rebecca and Ember see the state of you.”
“But Alexei and the spirits,” I rasped, “I promised to help them pass to the Beyond.”
Killian ignored my muttered excuses, only pausing when we heard Alexei’s pained roar. “Sorry, Jade, but I’m under strict orders to get your ass back to New Orleans.”
“No!” I shouted, using my magick to zap Killian’s hands.
He dropped me with a curse, but I was already running back for my mate.
32
When the amulet’s power wavered in the early morning sky, I felt it like a ripple moving through water. Blackened blood dripped from my nose where my father broke the bone, but I felt none of the pain as we circled each other.
I could hear the surviving vampires being corralled by the witches and demons portaled in according to Silas’s plan. With the daywalking talisman gleaming on my father’s finger, I knew he would fight vigilantly until the bitter end. I hoped Killian squired Jade away to New Orleans before it came to that.
My father circled me, and I adjusted my stance.
“You were always too susceptible to the feelings of other creatures, Alexei. I did my best as your sire to dissuade such sentimentality in you, but your mother’s hold was too great,” he said cuttingly, angling us closer to the window overlooking the lake.
The last vestiges of moonlight cut across his face like silver flames.
He sighed. “Now I can see my interventions have been for naught. If you haven’t learned loyalty to the family yet, you never will.”
I felt my gut tighten with the long-suffering resentment that lived within me since I was a boy, steeled into the very marrow of my bones after Bled. “You don’t understand the meaning of that word, Father. Loyalty, trust, love. Those are concepts foreign to you, bereft from your soul after the centuries of your terror.”
He lifted his Slovenian blade towards me with a disappointed sigh. “Surrender now, and I will only keep you in the dungeons for a few decades until you learn to trust my judgment. Otherwise, there is no future for you beyond this night.”
For a moment, I imagined my future if I agreed to be taken by my father. Alistair would never allow Jade to live after the witches’ show of force and the power she held over me. Even if he let her live, my mind rebelled at returning to the darkness once more.
Not now, not ever again.
