Page 87 of Fated to the Vampire Prince
“Not without you.”
He gave me an exasperated look that melted into something more tender. “Does this mean you’re starting to like me?”
My cheeks warmed, and it wasn’t because of the fire I’d conjured. “I suppose I’ve gotten used to your face.”
It was a ridiculous thing to say, but I had gotten used to his face. To him. But for the first time, I was starting to understand him. Bastien wasn’t just an evil vampire who loved Dark Witches. He was… complicated. No. He was mine. My mate.
“I’ve grown very fond of your face too,” he admitted, then drew our mouths together. The kiss was soft and slow and greedy.
The white wolf whined, which made me chuckle against his lips.
“You might be warming up to me, but she isn’t,” Bastien said, eyeing the beast warily.
He was probably right, but I didn’t say as much. Not now. Not when everything was starting to make sense. It had gotten eerily quiet, and the sound of their frustration outside the circle of fire had stopped. “Do you think they’re gone?” I asked.
Bastien pressed his lips into a hard line. “Hera is not going to leave you alone. I need to kill her. And then I am going to get you as far away from here as possible.” His thumb stroked against my cheek again. “Don’t worry. I have a plan. All we need to do is?—”
He froze mid-sentence, and at first, I thought he was being silly. But after a few moments, I realized Bastien wasn’t playing around.
“Bastien! Bastien!” I shouted, tapping the side of his face. “Come back to me. Come back!”
My wall of flames parted, revealing Hera. In all her wicked glory. Her wand pointed at his back. He was under a wicked spell. Hera whirled her wand in the air and pulled him backward, closer to her.
“The vampire said I could take you over his dead body. I plan to make good on that.”
Chapter 41
Tenter
CLAIRE
The words “dead body” tugged at something sealed inside me—a trunk in the attic of my mind. It shuddered, lid lifting just enough for a single, brittle memory to fall into view. A shallow river ran as red as wine, choked with dead bodies. In the distance, a woman screamed while a small child cried. An icy chill racked my bones. There was so much blood.Everywhere.
As quickly as the memory came, it left. I wasn’t sure if it was mine or the old witch whose power now lived inside me, but I didn’t have time to make sense of it. My fire was shrinking, and without Cora or Bastien to help me, there was no one to stop the swarm of witches with wands raised and spells on their lips. They wanted me dead. They wanted to take the only power I’d been deemed worthy to wield. If I was going to survive, I was on my own.
The wolves growled and scratched at the frozen ground, restless for a fight, and determined to remind me that I would never be alone again while they drew breath.
Hera twisted her fingers in Bastien’s pale blond hair like alover might, devilishly grinning at his frozen form. Feral magick flowed through me. I opened my palm and welcomed the heat coursing through my veins. The magick pounded against my flesh, waiting to be unleashed. My body vibrating with the power.
“Let him go!” I shouted. “Or I’ll burn this graveyard andeverythingin itto the ground!”
Cackling, Hera said, “Vampires might be hard to kill, but even they aren’t above a good beheading.” She removed a short dagger from her belt. “And with this little thing, I’ll be sawing at his neck for a long time before his pretty head pops off.”
She pressed the blade against his skin, and I sucked in a sharp breath as a bead of red welled up. I wanted to hurt her for hurting him. I wanted to hurt them for turning me into this…thing.
“You’ll surrender yourself to me,or he dies.” A few witches inched closer, and my wolves snarled. Growling and showing their teeth.“You know you don’t deserve the gift you’ve received.”
The tiny hairs along my arms stood on end. Her voice carried the same cruel edge as my mother’s. The same dismissive tone. Designed to make me feel small and stay small because I wasn’t like her. It was a weapon. It had always been a weapon. And in a single sickening instant I felt every childhood lesson sharpen into a blade aimed at my heart.
I tightened my jaw and let something colder than fear settle into me. This was not the night to be small. This was the night to be terrible and whole. I whispered to my pack, “Kill them all,” without a shred of remorse.
I wasn’t sure what I’d done to bind such powerful beasts to me, but I was glad for them when three attacked, their teeth finding purchase in soft flesh. Witches raised their wands, but the beasts were already inside their fear. Screams rent thenight; the sight and smell of blood made me dizzy, but I didn’t swoon.
The big gray wolf crouched, and I vaulted onto his back, fingers digging into his mane. He already knew what we needed to do:get to Bastien.He cut a path through the chaos, slamming into a witch’s ribs and sending her skidding across the grass. He bit another’s sleeve clean off from shoulder to elbow.
A witch flung her wand in the air and cast a crimson spear at us. My wolf pivoted. The bolt smashed into his muzzle with a wet crack. He yelped and staggered, but still his jaws found her boot and dragged her down, shaking her like a rag.
A witch slipped past the white wolf at my right, and she shot a spell in my direction. A jet of angry light hurled toward me. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain that would surely come, but at the last second, my wolf reared back on his hind legs, knocking me off his back. I landed on the cold ground with a thud, my lungs unable to pull a breath in, just as the bolt struck him in the chest.
