Page 71 of Rose and Shadows
No hybrids to speak of.
This wasn’t Victor’s army, the one he’d told me he’d been building through saving hybrids from extermination atGenexis.
When my dad and I had mind-linked earlier, he’d warned me not to freak out when he went in for the kill with Victor. Sylas had found a way to neutralize the death tether between my dad and Victor, meaning my dad would survive if Victor was killed.
But if my dad took his life now we’d never know where that army was holed up.
As my mom leapt toward me, barreling through the broken and half broken walls to get to me, I cursed as Victor ripped the stake from my dad’s shoulder, then kicked him into a column.
He jarred against it, but before he could recover, the holy water now in his system causing him trouble, Victor was there in his face, snarling.
Then he licked his cheek.
My dad hissed, gnashing his fangs, but Victor swept his wrist across them, cutting himself open.
Then he spread his own blood across my dad’s lips, shoving his wrist against his mouth and making him splutter.
Urgh.
A burst of Sylas’s magic neared me and I looked to see my mom shifting back, Sylas clothing her in the next instant. Then she was there, grasping hold of me. “Let’s go.”
“Mom, I—”
I saw my dad zoning out from Victor’s depraved display as he continued playing with the blood and grinding against him—I mean, he wasn’t affected at all, not one little bit. Victor’s actions were merely an annoyance to him.
Because he was focused on something else.
I saw what in the next moment as he very craftily removed a stake from his pocket, while letting Victor distract himself with his twisted actions and mockery. Trying to degrade the likes of my dad—not fucking possible. He was just… detached from it.
My mom moved to drag me away.
I couldn’t… I couldn’t let this happen.
“He has an army!” I cried out across the space. “A hybrid army spared fromGenexis!”
My dad stilled and swung his head toward me.
Victor registered the stake.
The one that could kill an Ancient.
He went to snatch it.
Sylas dropped and rolled from his surrounded position with the magic-wielders, then thrust his magic out, calling the stake to himself. He dematerialized it with his power for safe-keeping.
But in having to do that, it cost him big, and those dozens of magic-wielders drove him down to the ground.
Victor swung my dad to the side of them and hauled him out through the building.
“Keep him down!” Victor roared at his army.
Vampires swirled around Sylas, keeping him trapped. He kept firing but missing because of the transcending speed.
The magic-wielders fired their power at the hole in the wall my dad had been thrown through, and I saw him pushing against it, fighting to get back inside, while others started surrounding Sylas.
No!
In the next second, I burst forward, headed for Victor.
