Page 96 of Love Lives
For all he cared, Leandra could fuck right off with all the stupid artifacts she'd found on the second floor of the house. None of them mattered now. Not while Vlad was sucking Remy dry.
"You've lost!" Leandra called as he dodged her blade once more. She was tenacious, but he was quick.
"Shut the fuck up," he gave back, even as his attention flickered back to Vlad... and Remy. Remy who was going limp now.
Fuck.
Aldrich glanced out over the battle field, but of course Jared wasn't even here. If Vlad took too much blood from Remy, there would be no way to save him.
"I didn't think you cared about anyone," Leandra noted.
Aldrich wanted to spit in her face, but of course there wasn't any time for that. He stepped forward, closer to Vlad's shield, and something dug into his shoe. Distractedly, he lifted it to see shards of the marble. The thing that Remy had pinned his hopes on, believing that Vlad would regain his memories and stop this madness.
Obviously, that wasn't going to happen now.
Instead, Aldrich would have to stand here and watch Vlad kill the one mortal he had ever truly cared about in all his time as a vampire. The one man he had sworn himself to protect, who'd cared about him too... who hadn't asked him to transform into some weird beauty standard or to satisfy an odd kink, but who had instead looked at him, the way he really was, and embraced all his flaws. All his sins.
And now he would die just like Liam.
Unless... unless there was some way he could prevent this. He could scream at Vlad all night and Vlad would never listen to him. But there was one person he would listen to, according to Remy.
Aldrich felt in his pockets for the crystals. They still held some of Elena’s magic, and summoning worked better on vampires, hadn't Caspar said that? Aldrich's lips curled into a bitter smile. Who would have thought that after everything, becoming a vampire might have been the right choice after all?
He pulled the crystals out of his pocket.
"What do you think you're doing?" Leandra demanded.
Aldrich didn't spare her a glance as he scooped up a still shining shard of the marble and pressed the crystals to his forehead. "Saving the man I love, that's what I'm doing."
* * *
Vlad filled his mouth with blood that was almost too good to be true. He'd known this dhampir would be delicious when he'd first laid eyes on him. Back when he'd still played nice with the dhampirs for reasons that he couldn't fathom now. Why would he cooperate with people who were trying to bring about the extinction of his whole race?
No, they had to be eliminated. It had to be done.
No matter how good this one tasted, or how he struggled.
Or how odd his memories appeared. Those people by the river. Why did Vlad get the feeling that he knew them? That he had known them once, a long time ago.
Vlad pushed the feeling aside. It wasn't relevant.
It was best if he simply disposed of this dhampir.
Shortly after his victim had gone limp in his hold, though, a blinding light filled his vision. It came from Remy. For some reason, the man was glowing. Knowing that it was better to be safe than sorry, Vlad let go of him, and the dhampir sank to the ground, pale and motionless but still glowing.
He wasn't the only source of light, though.
When Vlad looked up, the red-haired vampire who'd been trying to interrupt his meal had lit up like a Christmas tree too. Even so, he wasn't what most caught Vlad's attention. It was the image of a man projected above him, a ghostly figure hovering in the cool night air.
It was the man Vlad had seen in Remy's memory. "Atlus." The name fell from his lips before he was even aware of speaking it.
The ghost offered him a soft smile. "You recall my name. Do you recall your own?"
What did he mean by that? Of course Vlad knew his own name.
"You didn't used to look like this," Atlus spoke on. "Why don't you dispel that illusion?"
Illusion? Vlad had worn these looks, this body for so long that he hardly even remembered that it wasn't his natural shape, and he wasn't sure why he should give in to this stranger's demands now, except... He got the strangest feeling that he always had. For a moment, he closed his eyes and let go of the magic changing his appearance.
