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The words played over in my head. Similar to the ones Roccurem had spoken in his realm.
“I’ll tell you nothing more unless you promise I can at least stay with my wife while you have us.” Ethan’s demand shook me from my thoughts.
Energy burst from me, shattering the remaining lights in the mansion. I clenched my fists, cloaking the entire house in darkness. The guards let go as I hefted Ethan off his feet. I held him high, his arrogant demeanor long gone. He was no longer a king but a broken man. I wondered what Kaden had done or said to make even Ethan cower into himself.
“Deals are done. There are no more. I will make no more bargains, no more alliances. You will tell me what you know—”
My skin prickled, and my words stopped, the hairs rising on the back of my neck. The world went still with fear. I heard the wings of several birds flutter into the sky and the retreating footsteps of small and large animals moving swiftly away from the area. Then I felt it.
Her.
My heart thudded rapidly against my chest, the sound competing with the noise of weapons firing outside. A savage howl ripped through the night air, followed by ear-splitting screams. Celestials yelled orders to one another, and light flashed every time a trigger was pulled. I dropped Ethan to his feet, not bothering to see if he would run or follow. I rounded the corner, taking the stone steps three at a time. Logan raised his ablaze weapon, turning from side to side, instructing his men to stay in line. They were yanked into the thick forest one by one, followed by any vampire not detained in one of the vans.
Drake’s hands pressed against the window of the van. He stared through the glass at the darkened forest, fear lurking in the depths of his eyes.
Headlights spotlighted sections of the forest, but an unnatural stillness had consumed it. Not a single living thing remained in the surrounding trees. Only the heartbeats of my celestials echoed here. Every living creature in a fifty-mile radius had fled for their lives.
I stopped beside Logan. “Werewolves?”
Logan shook his head, keeping his eyes on the forest’s edge. “Not werewolves. Only one wolf.”
I shook my head. The scent I caught was not of a beast. “Not a wolf. An Ig’Morruthen.”
“She’s here,” Logan whispered.
I heard footsteps behind me.
“Where’s my wife?” Ethan asked.
His answer came a second later. Dianna emerged from the darkness, her crimson gaze sweeping over the celestials and holding on me. I felt Ethan shift behind me, and her eyes flickered to him, her expression twisting. I knew two things with absolute certainty. First, when she came out to fight, she wore her hair back from her face as she did now, her long ponytail swinging behind her. Second, this cruel creature wasn’t my Dianna.
Years of war had steeled my stomach to gruesome atrocities, but seeing her so casually holding the head of Ethan’s wife in her palm had my gut twisting.
Everyone stopped and held their breath. My body pulsed, the power inside me rushing to the surface. It wasn’t in lust, but in fear of her, my body preparing to act, to protect. Power swirled around her, her magic so much more than when we first met. It bent and coiled, encasing her entire being, the strength of it multilayered and rich. I felt my power coalesce in my hands, light bursting to life on my palms. I snuffed it out almost immediately, but I could tell by the grin that tugged at the corner of her mouth that she had caught it.
She was different. We all sensed it. Even the forest acted as if it wanted to retreat. Her energy rubbed against mine, almost abrasive. Logan shifted next to me as if he were willing his own power to calm down and not react because this was Dianna. She wasn’t dangerous. She wasn’t deadly or a threat to us. I knew it in my soul. She was Dianna. My Dianna.
Dianna cleared the edge of the forest, moving with the easy grace of a predator. She was on the hunt, the vampires her prey. She tossed the fleshy mass from one hand to the other, and I heard Ethan’s knees crash to the ground beside me.
“Was this all my sister was worth?” she asked, her gaze flicking between Ethan and Drake where he still sat in the van. “A pound of flesh?” She stopped, holding the severed head on one palm. The skin cracked, red embers showing through the fractures before it burst into flames. It burned, true death taking what had once been Ethan’s wife. Dianna leaned forward, blowing the ashes from her palm. The act was as cruel and sadistic as I had ever seen.
Ethan’s cry of anguish cut through the pounding of my heart. Feet shuffled as the vampires attempted to flee.
“You don’t listen.” Dianna wiped her hands together and turned toward me. “I told you to stay out of it.”
She took another step, and the celestials closest to her took one back.
“And you know how I respond to threats.”
“Well, like I said.” She stopped, her eyes scanning me from head to toe. A smile tipped up the corner of her mouth, a single fang making its appearance. “It was a warning.”
My body reacted almost violently as she stopped near me. Her power, how she smelled of blood, the scent radiating from her told me one horrid truth. She had been feeding gluttonously. Every cell screamed danger even as my soul whispered what a lie it was. My heart skipped a beat, and I’m sure they all heard, but I couldn’t help it. No matter what, Dianna stole the very breath from my lungs without even trying. I was a fool to have denied what I had felt for her. A complete and utter fool. I could never lie about that again, nor did I plan on it, and right now, regardless of the bloodshed, one simple truth rang true. I missed her so godsdamn much.
“Where have you been?” Not the question I had originally wanted to ask, but my concern and worry for her bubbled up, overriding the rational part of my brain.
“Sorry, I took a few days off. I had a funeral to deal with.” She shrugged, and my heart sank, a cold realization hitting me like a tidal wave.
“You found Gabriella.”
