Page 98 of Resurrection
The footsteps are now clear as day and coming closer, the chattering voices much louder to my ears. The four of us don’t make a sound apart from Andrei’s low, menacing growl, but he must’ve been making all sorts of sounds while hanging hurt and bloodied if this didn’t warn whoever was nearing. The wounds all over his arms and chest are nowhere near healed, but they are almost closed, and no more blood is seeping out of them. My heart does a painful lurch when his eyes snap open, locking on my face.
“Bentornato, amico mio.” My sharp nod makes him release April’s wrist.
“Sire.” A low, shocked rasp.
That one word says more than if he gave me an entire speech. We have been best of friends, longer than many countries haveexisted, but more than that … he is mine, I gave him his immortal life, but by taking April’s wrist, he feels he has done a great offense to me. I can see the remorse in his feverish gaze as he stares at me, but he is unable to stop himself from sticking his tongue out and gathering every last drop trying to escape. When he realizes what he is doing, his eyes scrunch closed as if in pain.
“Never forget, Andrei. She is mine.” Keeping my stare level, I let him see the truth of my words when his eyelids open. “That will always make you mine, as well.”
With a deep, relieved sigh, his head drops on the ground.
I can feel Marcus is full to bursting with things he wants to say, but wisely he keeps his mouth shut.
A startled shout comes from the three idiots who come through the entrance only to stop and gawk at us when I turn to face them. We must be a sight.
“Welcome,” April chirps cheerfully, climbing to her feet with a big grin on her face. “It’s a surprise party.” Clapping her hands, she almost makes me turn to see if she’s lost her mind.
“Sur-surprise?” one of the mages stutters, the stench of his magic burning my nostrils.
“Oh, yeah.” The happy grin on April’s face shifts into a sinister one. “A surprise death party, just for you.”
With that, she pounces on the mages before I can stop her.
Chapter Eighty-Seven
SEBASTIAN
I have never seen anything like it.
I knew she would be powerful when all the memories returned to her and her soul settled as it always should’ve been inside her. All the ancient texts I’ve read in my pursuit to find her and awaken her true nature pointed out that the world trembled at her feet when she was displeased. But this …
Whatever this was, it was never mentioned anywhere.
I knew she had always been fair and just, showing compassion to everyone, including those who didn’t deserve it. Practically the polar opposite from what I am witnessing at the moment.
April does not need help from any of us, the three deadly male predators in the small open space is feeling her wrath. Her small form moves as if gravity has no hold on her, as if she exists in a time and space where none of us are allowed. The mages stand no chance. Not even I can track her as she spins, darts, and twists around them, elegant and precise, a controlled anger she hones into a bloodthirsty killing machine.
Razor sharp claws slice through skin with swipes of her hands, which look for all the world as if she’s caressing them.Gashes open all over the bodies of the mages, deep enough to make them bleed, but not deep enough to kill them. April is not trying to end their lives. No. She is making them suffer, and she is doing all that with a smile on her face that turns the blood in my veins to ice.
The shortest of the mages manages to pull himself away from the other two, and his hands start moving in front of him as he calls on the magic to retaliate. Before he has time to release the fire building in his palms, I’m standing behind him, my hand wrapping around his neck. The crunch of his neck breaking joins the screams and shrill bellows coming from the other two, and everything stops as if I pressed pause. April’s head snaps in my direction, and she frowns at me, her kissable lips pouting.
“You are such a killjoy, Sebastian. Leave my toys alone,” she chastens me like a spoiled youngling.
Marcus chokes, then coughs to cover his slip up where he is standing as sentinel to protect Andrei, who is still recovering on the floor. While my love takes the time to reprimand me for taking away her fun, the other two mages try to slip away. They both make it a couple of steps to the entrance when April descends on them, yanking them both back by the collars of their shirts.
“Where do you think you are going?” Her tone is joyful, and it does not belong in this space where hurt and torment hang heavy over my shoulders, and where the stench is brain numbing. “The party is not over yet.”
“We should go, Tesoro,” I try again but my words fall on deaf ears.
As things stand, I am lost as to what to do. Perhaps if Eshe was here she would know how to stop this insanity, albeit no such luck at the moment. As if summoned, the ancient vampire fills the entrance, one hand wrapped over her cocked hip.
“Eshe.” The relief in my voice is palpable, and April arches an eyebrow my way.
I can’t help the twitch at the corners of my mouth. I might not like what’s becoming of her, but there is no denying how glorious she is, all primal and bloodthirsty. My cock hardens, pressing against the zipper of my pants, and the knowing smile on April’s face just fans the flames licking at my loins.
Tonight is a night to test my own sanity when I see the horror flicker across Eshe’s penetrating gaze, though she covers it quickly. All the bravado drains from her posture, and she steps toward April like she’s approaching a dangerous animal. It irks me. Yes, my mate is rage-filled and she wants nothing more than to inflict upon them what they have done to one of our own. But she is not a monster, and I will personally kill Eshe if she makes her feel that way.
“What are you doing?” I murmur low at the ancient vampire, warning clear in my tone.
