Page 40 of Absolved In Death

Bain picked up the knife, examining the handle. “The blade is spelled with some kind of malevolent magic. I don’t think her wound will heal.”

Diana’s sobs pierced my heart. Desmond gathered her in his arms, but she pushed him away, kneeling next to Azazel at Angela’s side. Her magic swirled around her, pulsating in an erratic rhythm.

“Honey, you have a minute to say goodbye, tops,” he gently said, as if she was a live grenade.

She was more than a grenade. She was a fucking magical tidal wave waiting to drown everything in her path.

“I don’t have to say goodbye! Bain, bring her back!” she demanded.

“Diana, bringing Desmond back was a risk. Angela may not come back the same person?—”

“Shut up!” she shrieked. “If you don’t bring her back right now I swear to Lucifer himself I will find a way to make sure you go with her!”

If anyone could destroy a bone whisperer, it would be Diana or her father. And if they teamed up on him, he was done.

I knew my old friend well enough to know he felt the change in her magic. I also knew Diana well enough to know that although she was a beautiful person inside and out…she had no qualms about becoming a villain to be the hero for someone she loved. She’d doanythingfor her people.

Bain shook his head, like I knew he would. The only option left to save her was to change her. To take her soul away and make her a creature of the night.A vampire.

As if he had read my thoughts, Quelier said “Please, save her,” to me in a desperate tone, his usual bravado gone.

I knew Angela didn’t ask for eternal life. She didn’t ask to have me as her sire—or to have the connection a sire has with their progeny. She didn’t ask for the deadly obsession I had with her.

But she needed it, and I wanted her way too much to let nature take its course.

My fangs elongated in anticipation of what I knew I had to do. Of what I had craved to do since the first time I tasted her sweetness. I plunged them into her neck and drank.

“Judas!” Lucifer shouted. He knew how many laws I was breaking, how I was violating the feeble trust Angela had in me. He created vampires, after all. He gave my sire’s sire the rules of creation. Rules I was willingly disregarding for the woman I didn’t want to live without.

I drank until I lost control of myself. Every drop of her blood turned me into an insatiable beast who should be locked away for everyone’s safety. After I drained her, I could feel her soul leaving this world. Bain saw it, too. He stared above her, and then followed whatever he saw as it floated away.

The Undead that resided in me multiplied and divided into two equal parts. One half stayed in me, and the other slithered to where her soul had resided and took root. This wasn’t how creation happened. Each vampire was supposed to create their own dark force…

If we shared the same darkness, then the suspicion I had for the past few months was correct… I sat up, Angela’s blood dripping down my face and onto my Section Leader’s uniform.The ramifications of what I had done crushed me like Sisyphus’ boulder.

How unfortunate was I? I sired my fated mate without her consent, and now she was going to hate me for eternity.

13

BASH

The emotional turmoil in the training facility was so thick, I could bludgeon someone to death with it. I knew Angela wasn’t dead, but the imagery was enough to make me second guess what I saw. Her face was slack, eyes closed with no expression, as if she was sleeping. Her normally warm skin was pale and waxy. Judas held her lifeless body in his arms, threading his fingers through her dark brown, almost black hair. Apollo and Quelier knelt next to them, the latter touching his palm to her forehead. A milky white magic illuminated her face, and I wondered what he was doing with his Fae magic.

Bain tensely stood off to the side watching her, his features tight and eyebrows slanted with disapproval. Bone whisperers had a complicated relationship with death. They were neither living or dead—they just existed in the veil between worlds, trying to keep the balance. I suspected thisdevelopmentin Angela’s life undoubtedly concerned him.

I had the feeling Lucifer didn’t approve of what happened, either, even if he was smart enough not to say it aloud. Judas broke the rules of creation, and the consequences of his actionswould eventually bite him in his ass. Even if Lucifer wasn’t the one who dished out the punishment. Karma always came to collect her due.

Diana stood a few paces away, wringing her hands together. I could feel her anxiousness and a twisted sense of dread coursing through our claimbond. She was barely holding herself together.

“What happens next…” she asked the trio of men crowded around her aunt.

“She won’t be herself for a long time, it depends on her,” Quelier rasped, his usually chaotic voice thick with emotion. “This process isn’t easy…”

A tear slipped down Judas’ cheek. I felt her dueling senses of relief and worry through our bond, and it clouded her ability to see how much pain he was in.

Yes, he saved the woman he refused to admit he was in love with---everyone saw his feelings plain as day. But his actions came with undeniable conflict. One one hand, he got to keep her for eternity now. As an incubus, I definitely understood destructive obsession and the urge to claim ownership of your obsession. On the other hand, her salvation wasn’t a fairytale ending---he created her without her consent---and thrust her into a life and partnership she’d never be able to leave. He signed her up for a painful transition that could destroy her if she wasn’t properly guided through it.

Eventually, after the initial bloodlust wore off, she’d get out of the woods. Maybe she'd be the same Angela at her core, but she would never live the same life.

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