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“Did you kill Diana or not?” The young female who once thought she was human shot right to the point.
“Ugh, not this again. Yes. I was in a bit of a jealous phase. I said I was sorry.” She did not. “I killed her in a rage. Erik, you can’t be so upset about this, can you?”
Sela’s coven was all around us, but they had made the mistake of taking us to her inner office, one that had a back door that led to the outside. They probably had her there for a quick exit.
It was a huge mistake on their part. That door was about to make way for her demise.
“I am. She was my mate. Taking another’s mate is against the rules. This was no ordinary human. You knew what she meant to me. You knew she was the love of my life, and yet you took her from me with no word—leaving me clueless for decades!”
Sela had the audacity to roll her eyes at my honest declaration. It was true. Diana was it for me. Most vampires didn’t get to meet their mates. I had mine. I had her and we were happy. “It was a woman, Erik. That’s all. Let’s not turn this into something it’s not.”
“You lied. You never apologized. You killed her, and you don’t regret it.”
Sela’s eyes turned to Valentina. “Let’s talk on other things, shall we, Erik. This descendant of Circe is a friend of yours? Both of them?”
Asher, Bishop, Storm, and Fox all let out an Earth-shattering growl. “She is my friend. They are all my friends, Sela.”
“They could be very…useful, given the right direction.”
“This bitch is not suggesting she make me and Onyx a vampire. What’s a girl got to do to be left alone?” Valentina scoffed.
“Are you threatening our mates?” Asher stepped forward as did the other males.
“Not threatening. My forces are large and we could take them easily. Not really a threat when the ending is guaranteed.” Sela had become a monster and more than a vampire usually was. She had become power hungry. As we learned from Dean, power-hungry people came to a swift and bloody end.
“That’s it.” Bishop shifted into his wolf as did the other males. They snapped at Sela, herding her into the corner where the door was. I already knew their plan. It was so obvious, but apparently not to her.
Bishop pushed the door open with his paw while Asher got on his hind legs, forcing Sela into what was now the breaking of the light—the beginning of the day. The sun shone down on the vampire I’d once thought of as a mother, singing and burning her body.
She screamed out and the wolves grunted. While they had done it more for their mate’s safety, my vengeance had been served.
That night, all of us went home vindicated.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Diana
“Diana?” Erik featured in the dreams of this unnatural slumber, as always. I held tight to sleep, not wanting him to go away. “Diana, awake.”
“No. If I do, I lose you again.” I lost him in every cycle, never quite seeing him but always hearing, wishing for more. “Let’s stay asleep this time forever.” I couldn’t think what that meant. He still walked the Earth, I knew on some level, still haunted the night, and slept during the daytimes. I’d made that such a problem for us. Worried about my aging putting him off. Why would he want an old woman full of wrinkles and aches when he would still be the porcelain god I’d fallen in love with?
“No, Diana. You have to wake.” He stroked my forehead, his breath cool on my cheek. He didn’t need to breathe, he’d told me, except for talking. “Darling, I’m here for you.”
“You’re always here, but not really.” I held my eyes closed tightly, sighing. “You’re only a beautiful dream. But if I try to peek, you’ll be gone.” Tears squeezed out from under my lids. “Sometimes I almost think you’re real.”
Strong arms enfolded me, lifting me from the satin-lined coffin where I rested. I never came entirely awake, but I remembered when Circe brought me here. She’d tucked me in like a child, promising to try to bring me back, but it had been so long. Maybe I should tell her to let me fade, rejoin the Earth’s minerals as I should have a century before. The spark of hope that lit my breast each time Erik spoke to me was too cruel.
Did he know I lingered? That I hadn’t truly disappeared from the world when I was drained? Circe had taken me with the others when we helped in one battle, but we had all been in ethereal form, and the rest of them, to my knowledge, had been truly dead, their mortal forms decayed into their graves.
I didn’t tell him because why give him false hope?
This dream was different from the others. Usually I just heard his voice, only seeing him that one time. But I’d never felt his touch. Why now? His hands stroked my arms and back, caressed my cheeks, toyed with my hair. His breath…that was also new. Feeling it…
Hope. Shouldn’t I have lost that by now?
He tapped my eyelids, soft as a feather but distinct. “Diana, don’t make Circe think you don’t want to be with me. She’ll send me away if you find me a bother. At least open your eyes and look at me. Tell me to go away yourself.”
My eyes flew open. “Never. Erik, never go. Please.” And there it was, his beloved face in front of me. I cried out and reached for him. “If this is a dream, it is the cruelest of all.”
