AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Diana, ancestor of mine. Sister in arms. I call on you now to help me. Your mate, Erik, is in great need. His pain is palpable. He needs answers. Only you have the answers that will settle his soul. Please, Diana.”
I waited but felt like there was more to say.
“I read your diaries. Probably not what you wanted, but Erik had them all this time. He kept every piece of you that he could. Your love for him comes off the pages and warms my heart. I know you wouldn’t want him to live in pain. Diana, please.” I was begging a little, something Circe didn’t like, but I was desperate.
“Come on, Diana. It’s Winter Solstice. Help a sister out.”
A great whoosh filled the room, blowing out some but not all of the candles. I knew it was her. The smell of lavender filled the air.
“Valentina, my sister. You called me.” It wasn’t a question. The woman now standing in front of me was wearing a sapphire-colored dress, fitted and with a neat belt across the waist. Last time, she had been wearing a more flapper-style dress. I guessed there were fashion choices in the afterlife.
Good to know.
“You heard me. Erik…”
Diana’s face evolved from surprise to utter sadness. Her eyes darkened. Her lids shut halfway. Her sigh held nothing but lament. “Is he okay? I didn’t…when we were in battle, we spoke. I wished I could’ve talked to him more. But we were with you and Onyx for a purpose. For that fucker…Dean. He’s not alive again, is he?”
I laughed. Dean had a reputation no matter where you looked. “No. He’s gone. But Erik is here and…he’s hurting, Diana.”
“Appearing to him again would only prolong that pain, Valentina. Is that why you asked me here? Believe me when I say it is very difficult not to be his haunt. Not to follow him no matter how this universe has chosen to separate us.”
“Can you tell me who killed you?” I asked, feeling like I was invading her life and privacy even more than I already had and hating it.
“Does Erik know you’re doing this?” She whispered the question.
“Yes. No. Not tonight. I told him I would try. He still loves you, Diana. He mourns you even today. He was here. A few hours ago.”
Her legs moved, walking in my mind, but the movement was more of a floating, a graceful dance. “It’s been decades, Valentina. Decades.”
I nodded. “You didn’t think a love so true would end, did you?”
A tear fell down her cheek. “I don’t know a lot. Do you think it would ease him? I always thought the knowledge of who killed me would be a plague on his heart.”
“Why? He wanted to avenge you. You could understand, couldn’t you? A lover always wants vengeance. It becomes their best friend, the thing they live for. Tell me, Diana.”
She blew out a breath. “What I remember was the smell of death. It was all over her.”
“Her?” I asked and stood. The information wouldn’t let me sit.
“Yes. Her. It was… Erik knew her. I’d met her once. Didn’t want to meet her again.”
I wrapped my arms around my chest. My mates stepped into the room, but Diana’s gaze never left mine. “Who was she?”
“It was one of his own. The woman who killed me—drained me—was a vampire.”
Chapter Sixteen
Raven
I didn’t make it far before the insanity and cowardice of my flight shamed me into stopping. Just outside the ballroom in fact, and so suddenly, my mates who must have been following careened into me, and we had to cling to one another to remain upright. It could have been comical, except none of us was laughing. Not now. As soon as we were stable, they turned me into their embrace, filling me with the love and courage that they had to share.
“We are going home,” Asher asserted. “This is not fair to you. You two wait here, and I’ll go let my parents know. Or maybe it would be better to leave them a note.”
“That’s right,” Onyx agreed. “We’re not staying here with them, not after what they put you through over us, over me.”
“That’s the part I can’t forgive,” Raven said. “The things they said about you just because you’re not one of their crowd. It wasn’t even so much because you’re not a wolf, no matter what they claimed. They are such a stuck-up bunch of social climbers that they needed me to mate just people on some list or something.”
“Exactly.” Asher pressed a kiss on each of our foreheads. “I’ll go see if I can find my folks and say goodbye. No need for either of you to come back in at all.”
