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“Run!” Sirus bellowed before he lunged at Nestra. The dark priestess raised a hand, and Sirus seized like Niah had before. His body was rigid and tense with pain, but he held his swords and strained against her hold.
Gwen stood, her breaths short, her heart aching at seeing him in pain. “Stop! Please, just stop!”
Nestra dropped her hand, and Sirus slumped down to his knees. His breathing was ragged, and he was shaking. Only his swords, which were dug into the ground, kept him upright. He couldn’t even lift his head.
Gwen wanted to go to him. To hold him, but she stayed. “You came for me,” she managed to say.
Large flurries of snow began to fall as Nestra turned to her. “All these years, you’ve eluded me,” she admitted, looking Gwen over. “Such power hidden in such a pathetic creature.”
The priestess’s smile turned wicked as Gwen felt something scrape at the edge of her consciousness. Like sharp claws trying to sink into her mind. Her magicks hummed inside her, recognizing the intrusion, and Gwen pushed the claws away, glaring the evil woman down.
“Impressive,” Nestra declared, her smile faltering slightly.
Gwen seethed with fury but kept her cool outwardly. It was obvious the vile woman was toying with her. That she thought she’d already won.
“Leave them alone,” Gwen told her. “Leave them alone, and I’ll give you what you want.”
Nestra smirked and turned back to Sirus, who had managed to push himself up to his feet. His black eyes found Gwen’s, but they didn’t show emotion. He was calculating, she knew. Trying to figure out what to do.
She hoped he could sense her apology. That he could understand why she was here. Why she was about to do what she was. Tears threatened, but she willed them back.
“You will give me what I want either way, child,” Nestra replied assuredly. “But I am not without benevolence.”
Gwen knew she couldn’t fight her one-on-one. Nestra’s dark, oppressive power was too strong. It hovered around her like thick black smoke, and Gwen’s breaths were already growing shallow as she fought against its suffocating presence.
“Drop your swords and kneel,” Nestra told Sirus. “Kneel to your new mistress, and perhaps I will show mercy.”
Sirus did not look away from Gwen. His eyes stayed on her. He hesitated for only a fraction of a moment before he dropped to his knees and tossed his swords into the snow. Watching it made Gwen’s stomach turn in shock. He would have never done it if not for her. Guilt clawed at her, but she stayed strong.
Nestra laughed darkly, shifting to stand beside Sirus. “I wondered why he would refuse my offers to join me,” she mused. “He was quite determined to die instead.” Gwen’s heart lurched. “Do you know why he would do such a thing?” She brushed two long, pale fingers along Sirus’s cheek, and he recoiled at her touch.
The dark priestess tutted. “You think this dog cares for you, don’t you?” she went on, her voice like sweet venom. Her black eyes turned up to find Gwen, and she smirked. “I know why he defends you. Why he wishes to have you all to himself. It has nothing to do with care. In fact, quite the opposite.”
Sirus’s eyes never left Gwen.
Nestra circled around behind him. “To him, your blood tastes like the essence of life. Nothing will ever compare. Isn’t that right, vampire?” He kept his black eyes still on Gwen and said nothing. “You see, you hold magick unlike any other. The magick used to breathe life into the dead. To wield the shadows and bend the darkness. Magick no vampire can resist, as it is the same magick that flows through their veins. You taste like candy gifted by the gods themselves.”
Gwen felt suddenly hollow. She searched Sirus’s cold expression for some denial of what Nestra claimed, but instead she found a hint of guilt. It pierced her heart, and her surprise must have shown, because Nestra gave a pitying laugh.
“Vampires do not feel,” she went on. “They are only capable of hunger.” She ran the back of her hand over the side of Sirus’s head. “They are true monsters, as they were bred to be.”
Maybe it was true, but Gwen knew in her heart it was not the whole truth. Sirus had held her, touched her, comforted her, and encouraged her. He had made love to her, had cuddled her. What they’d shared hadn’t been just because of her magick. It had been more. So much more.
Gwen kept her eyes on Sirus when she spoke. “He is not a monster.”
Nestra laughed. “Oh, he is a monster,” she replied. “Just as your father was a fool who thought himself clever enough to hide what he stole from me in you. I am not surprised to find his child just as foolish.”
The whispered voices from her dreams echoed through her mind. Child of Shadows. Daughter of Darkness.
“He died just as you will,” Nestra told her, meeting her gaze with a wicked grin. From the shadows a dagger appeared in her pale hand and she plunged it into Sirus’s chest. “Just as you all will.”
Chapter Twenty
Gwen stood frozen, waiting for the world to open up at her feet and swallow her whole.
No.
Sirus’s eyes widened as he kept them on her. He gasped in a harsh breath, the black fading from his irises until they returned to their icy blue. Gwen ran over and fell to her knees next to him, catching him as he slumped forward. She struggled to hold him up, but she managed to turn him onto his side as he slid to the ground. Gwen held his bloodied face in her hands as he tried to keep his eyes open and on her. “It’ll be okay,” she told him shakily. “I promise.”
