Page 200 of Dark Souls

An array of blinding colours surrounded Belladonna, causing her to float above the ground, her whole body strained and shaking painfully as an invisible force held her captive. The magic that surrounded her was suffocating. The energy rippled off every surface and made my throat tight with its power. My eyes moved to the man who was projecting it with his outstretched arm, palm upwards, and a deep scowl on his striking face. I realised he was the only member of Ilaria’s family I didn’t recognise, which meant he must be Leif Anderson. The warlock brother.

A sweep of red hair and bright green eyes full of unshed tears hurried towards me. Arms flung around my neck and her head buried into my shoulder as her body shook against mine. I blinked, breathing hard as my arm slowly lifted to run my hand down her soft hair.

“Hana?” My deep voice cracked with emotion as she tightened her grip on me. I could feel Luka’s relief flooding through us as I wrapped my arms around her body and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I looked over her shoulder at all the faces of Ilaria’s family staring down at us.

“Arius, l-let me e-explain,” The Devil stammered with undeniable fear in his blue eyes. He was being restrained by King Ezra and Ilaria’s wolf brother, Lorcan, while Arius Romano stood in front of him, holding his hand in front of his face as a purple glow expelled magic to stop the vampire from being able to transport himself away.

“Which part?” Arius sneered, glaring at his face with a terrifying calm but deadly glint in his eyes that I had only ever seen one other person achieve so effortlessly before. Ilaria herself. “The part where you tell me how you came to runThe Undergroundwhile also working for me? The part where you explain why you hid and used two Demonski Upirs as your pawns, forcing them to kill for you, work for you against their will and be your slaves just so you didn’t have to get your own hands dirty? The part where you abducted and tortured an innocent Romano soldier?” Arius stepped closer to his face, grabbed Mitchell by the throat and lowered his voice to a haunting tone. “Or the part where you tried to murder my granddaughter?”

The Devil’s head snapped back and a cry of suffering echoed around the walls as Arius did something unseeable to him with his magic.

‘Heathen. Give me control.’There it was again. Luka’s voice. I hadn’t been imagining it.

‘Luka? Am I going crazy or can I really hear you?’

‘You mean crazier than you already are?’There was a touch of teasing in his tone and unexpected laughter lodged in my throat and came out as a choked cry, causing everyone’s attention to turn back to me on my knees with Hana still buried in my chest. A strange sensation, a feeling I wasn’t accustomed to, made my skin tingle, and an odd prickling appear behind my eyes.

‘Fuck. I think I’m feeling emotional. Don’t make a demon cry in front of his new family, Lukas. I’ll never live it down.’

‘I missed you too, you fucking melt.’I could feel Luka’s joy and relief radiating through me as I realised we were finally whole again. Heathen and Lukas. Sinner and Saint. Us against the world and now we have our Snow Angel too. Ilaria’s eyes met mine and all the darkness that stirred within her wilted away as a stunning smile appeared on her face. She could feel it, too. We were all together. ’Share control with me, Heathen.’

I closed my eyes and searched for his connection. For years, all I had felt was emptiness where he was supposed to be. But not this time. As if I could physically feel his hand reaching out to me, I gripped it. I held on with all my might and tugged, pulling him to the surface. My body shuddered. We smiled.

A few gasps around us made us open our eyes, sharing our vision and control of our body for the first time in too long. When they found Ilaria’s face, she had happy tears running down her cheeks as her fingers pressed against her lips in shock. I knew what she was seeing. We were half-shifted. Luka’s body, face and hair had returned but my horns, wings and black eyes remained. The vines and demonic tattoos across our skin were still visible but not as dominant, mixing with his own tattooed, scarred skin.

‘Christ, what the fuck have you done to us?’

’I lost my vines and demon symbols,’ Luka explained in our mind. ’I had to make my own.’

Hana removed her head from my chest for the first time, sensing that I had shifted. I peered down at her, taking in her beautiful face.

“Lulu?” Hana’s voice, still so sweet and innocent, took us back to a time we had long forgotten. A time when we had only ever had each other. A time when she had looked up at us with those terrified, bright green eyes like she was right now, and made us promise we would never leave her. That we would always be with her.

“It’s me, little one.” Luka’s voice was deeper than normal, as I was still partly in control. She burst into tears, flinging herself back into our chest as we held her tighter and buried our face in her hair. “We never left.”

After a few moments, we stood to our feet. Hana released the chains around our ankles and hands and as soon as we were free, we sprinted across the damp ground towards our mate. Ruby let go of her daughter, who ran into our arms. She jumped up, wrapping her legs around our waist, and slammed her lips against ours. Our claws delved into her hair, pressing her against us. Our kiss turned passionate and fierce in seconds, neither of us giving a fuck about the audience.

A loud cough interrupted us and we broke apart. We turned our heads to see all the women in her family smiling but all the men looking extremely uncomfortable.

“That is really going to take some getting used to,” King Ezra grumbled, meeting our black eyes. “Best you ease us into the PDA slowly.”

Ilaria giggled, pressing her forehead against mine as I ignored the wolf and looked back at her. “How are you okay right now? That was a hellfire stake.”

Ilaria lifted her hand from our neck and wiggled her fingers at me, showing me a black skull ring with a pink diamond in one of the eye sockets. “Leif enchanted this ring so any vampire who tried to kill me would fail. He didn’t think to spell it against witches, though. Thank god, Belladonna had been turned, otherwise that stake would have killed me.”

“Bloody hell, ungrateful much?” Leif scoffed, turning his head to stare at us both while maintaining his magic shield around Belladonna effortlessly. His face transformed into a cheeky grin when Ilaria rolled her eyes and I could sense that he was joking. “She will probably have a scar, though.” I could tell from the look on his face as he said that the thought pissed him off.

“Thank you,” Luka pushed through and spoke for us both. The warlock’s unearthly eyes cast over our face, horns and wings slowly, taking in our body before he looked back at our face.

“Damn, you’re a good-looking motherfucker.”

“Leif!” Ruby scolded him.

“You’re just trying to make me forget you’re an Anderson,” I said, which made him laugh.

“Is it working?”

“A little. Keep the compliments coming, and I’ll let you know.” I dropped my banter and turned serious for once in my life, holding my claw out to him. “But like Luka just said. Thanks for saving her life.”

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