Page 53 of Betrayed In Crimson
She runs, a battle cry ripping from her throat as she disappears into the fight.
I turn back to Silas, and there it is. The truth in his eyes. The one I’m not ready to face.
“Even if you free me…” he pants, his voice thinning, “you can’t save me. I’m already turning. That doesn’t stop. It doesn’t reverse.”
His skin is pale now. Lips are draining of colour. No. No, no-. I grab him and crash my lips to his. The kiss is desperate. Broken. Everything I never said, everything I never let myself feel, I pour it into him.
Then I pull back, breathless. He stares at me, confused. I let out a weak, shaky huff. “Just… checking. Works in every fairytale, right?”
A faint smile touches his lips. “This isn’t a fairytale,” he murmurs. “Too many monsters.”
My chest caves in. “There has to be something I can do.”
“There is.” His gaze locks onto mine. “You just won’t do it.”
My voice breaks. “After everything… You can’t ask me to kill you.” I curl into him, pressing my face against his chest, trying to memorize the feel of him. He strains against the chains, trying and failing to hold me.
“I wish…” His voice cracks into my hair. “I wish I could hold you. Just once more.”
I wrap my arms around him tighter, as if I can make up for it. As if I can keep him here. Then he jerks. “Get back!” he snarls suddenly. I spin, my heart lurching.
A vessel approaches. Slow. Wrong. Not just any vessel. “Cara…?” I whisper. She moves strangely, crouched low, glancing over her shoulder. Then she reaches out, hand closed. I extend mine without thinking.
“Don’t,” Silas warns. “You don’t know what she-.”
“She won’t hurt me,” I say softly.
Her cold fingers brush mine, and something presses into my palm. A key. My breath catches. “Thank you.” She’s gone before I can say more. I don’t hesitate. I unlock the chain. It falls away with a heavy clang, and Silas collapses forward. I catch him. He’s so weak, but he still wraps his arms around me, pulling me in with what little strength he has, burying his face in my neck like he’s trying to memorize me.
“You’ve given me more than you’ll ever know,” he whispers, voice raw. “I held you while you were dying once… I can’t survive that again. All I ever wanted… was for you to be happy.”
My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
He leans back just enough to look at me, that sad, broken smile on his lips. “Love…” His voice falters. “Love isn’t a strong enough word for what I feel for you.” His body trembles. “I can’t exist… not like this. Not without my mind. Without my memories of you. I can’t-.”
He chokes as black ichor spills from his lips.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CAIN
I raisemy blade high above the creature’s head, bringing the wrath of a thousand vampires down upon them. Their snarls are feral and rabid. One tries to bite my leg. I stomp my booted foot down so hard on its head, crushing it like a watermelon.
“This wasn’t part of the plan!” Clutch yells as he severs a vessel’s head clean off, black liquid splattering across his face. “Fuck, it went in my mouth!” He spits. “Tastes like shit.” He spits again.
“Behind you!” I yell in warning as a vessel crawls along the table like an animal ready to leap and devour its prey. It launches at him. Clutch spins, holding his sword up. The vessel lands on the end, body slumped and dangling. “Ha, like an appetizer on a stick!” He laughs, waving it around, the head lolling back and forth as he shakes it. “Won’t come off.” He rears his sword back and hurls it forward, flinging the vessel’s limp, lifeless body across the room. It collides with the wall before falling to the ground. “That worked.” He grins. More and more vessels descend on us. “We’re never going to defeat them. There are too many!” I yell as I slam my dagger into another’s skull.
“Of course we will! We’re the Crimson Covenant, brother. Just embrace your inner Edwin!” Clutch grins as he slashes another neck.
“My inner Edwin?” I question.
“War! Sing it, brother, it gets the blood pumping.” Clutch grins as he kicks a vessel away. “War! Huh! What is it good for?! Absolutely everything!” Clutch sings at the top of his lungs as he launches himself, taking out three vessels. “Pretty sure you got the words wrong.” I heave as I slash my daggers, from left to right. Flicking one of them to land between the eyes of some approaching vessel.
“Who cares? It’s the empowerment of the song, brother,” Clutch yells as he moves further in, making his way through the vessels, yanking one off, crawling off the back of Hex. Something catches my eye. I turn to the left, and everything stands still. My entire body freezes, not believing the sight before me. My feet move, my focus completely consumed.
“Fiadh,” I call the name, a name I haven’t spoken in hundreds of years, a name that haunts my dreams.
As if in slow motion, she turns, her skin even paler, it’s almost see-through, the dark circle under her sunken eyes. Eyes that once brightened the darkest of days. She stares at me, blinking. Her face was void of any emotion. Clutch launches at her, his sword raised high, ready to end her. I move quickly, tackling him out of the way. We both land on the ground, the marble floor cracking beneath us.
