Page 46 of Vampire Sins
When I went to grab her, the next sin in my belly filled me with raw heat. Nate’s envy. He’d overcome his helplessness and his envy had turned into strength. He knew now that his strengths were cunning, wit, and understanding of what made people tick. My world flashed as I saw right through the witch, her skin turning translucent and revealing the shadows that bound her black heart. This was Nate’s power he offered me, to understand what fueled this witch. It was darkness, evil, and hatred, but there was something else there, something the witch had managed to keep alive and buried deep her in her heart. I paused as I stared at the tiny glimmering red gem.
A Blood Stone shard.
I reached for it, my hand going right through her chest and the witch screamed. She tried to move away from me but my vampiric speed easily kept up with her as I invaded her spirit. My mother was right. The physical body in this realm was just an illusion, one she could discard and reform. But her spirit, that’s what I attacked now. I saw what kept her out of hell’s grasp and allowed her to create this realm where she kept my mother prisoner. A witch of her nature worshiped the power of the Blood Stone, so it made sense a shard would rest inside her soul protected by writhing shadows.
When I wrapped my fingers around the cold shadows that tried to resist me, my third sin kicked in. Greed. Jet’s dragon wanted this power for us. Greed could be used to fuel ambition, and I let the power of dragonfire burn through my body, lighting up my skin like a beacon and disintegrating the witch’s shadows under my fingertips.
Screams and shouts broke my concentration. Derek, Sarah, and Vikki were all yelling at me and pointing at my feet, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I was too immersed in sin and power.
Just when I was about to pluck the glittering red shard from the witch’s soul, excruciating pain ran up my legs. I looked down to find myself trapped in a hellish device made of iron and fire. Giant jaws clamped around my thighs and dug into my flesh until it hit bone. My blood poured out over the infernal devices and made me dizzy.
I loosened my grip and the witch stumbled to the ground. She choked and ran her fingers over her chest, but I’d damaged her shadows.
The prison that had been keeping Derek blocked off from me disintegrated and he rushed forward just as stars sparked across my vision. He cupped my face and ran a finger over one of my fangs I didn’t even realize I’d extended. They seemed to come out of their own accord. “Sonya. You need to overcome this witch.” He leaned in close until the sweet musk of him wrapped around me. Even though I’d taken a resistant against his powers, the smooth perfection of his throat that throbbed with his pulse made my own heart quicken. “Drink,” he commanded. “Take what you need to win.” When I didn’t bite, he glared at me with a gaze that said I’d better drink, and I’d better take every last drop. He had no intention of staying in hell—and neither did I.
Fuck. The bastard wanted me to drink him dry? I was happy to grant his wish.
Without any further hesitation, I opened my mouth and sank my fangs into his glistening skin. The sweet burst of his life-force spilled down my throat and I sagged against him as the pain in my legs went numb. Xavier’s sin of gluttony could come in handy when it came to blood. His approval swept through me, making my fangs seep magical pleasure into my victim. Derek was not one easily seduced, being the king of sex and my very own unresolved sin of lust, but even his mouth parted and his pulse quickened under my tongue.
“Fuck,” he whispered. “When I get out of this, I am hiring some vampires.”
I twisted, biting down harder, making him groan as his pleasure mixed with pain. I wasn’t going to forget who he was, and if I had anything to say about it, he was going to be staying right here in hell where he belonged.
“Keep going, Sonya!” Sarah shouted from behind and I unlatched from Derek’s throat and turned to find her and Vikki helping my mother. My eyes went wide when I spotted a rip in the veil back to the real world. A dark room with a pedestal with an open book atop it waited on the other side. I squinted at a woman who chanted, but she didn’t look like a Witch of the Shadow Coven. After a moment recognition jolted me as Luke’s soul told me who’d opened up a portal to hell. This was Renee, Luke’s mother, and a fucking powerful Seer. Damn.
“Get her through the portal!” I commanded and turned back to the witch who’d managed to amass a writhing ball of shadows.
She ignored me and continued her spell. Her lips moved but no sound came out. The flames all around us leapt higher and Derek started to crawl past me. I slammed my foot against his back and flared my new wings to keep my balance as he struggled under my weight. “You’re not going anywhere,” I told him. “I’ll be back for you.” When he growled, but flattened himself against the ground in submission, I used him as a stepping stool as I went towards the witch.
The ball looked like it was about ready to explode and I assessed the situation. Nate’s power gave me a few options of what this could be. One: the witch was summoning something, but we were already in hell, so I imagined if she could have summoned any demons to fight for her she’d have done that by now. No soul to bargain with… no demonic power. So that left option two: a self-destruction spirit bomb.
“Great,” I muttered.
The witch stopped chanting and opened her eyes. Midnight shards swirled in place of her irises and she gave me a malicious grin of triumph. “It’s over,” she hissed. “If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”
The Blood Stone I’d absorbed what seemed like eons ago finally broke its silence and spoke in my mind.Sonya. This is it. This is what your nightmares have been preparing you for. If you fail now, the echoes of calamity won’t be able to be contained. They’ll spread across the skies with the black fingers of your terror and consume the world. You must cleanse hell and take your place as its rightful ruler.
I curled my fingers into fists. “How do I fight her?” I hissed under my breath.
A long sigh unfurled in my mind.You don’t.
I shot up one eyebrow in surprise, but then I realized what my Blood Stone was talking about. What really resolved sin was painfully simple.
Forgiveness.
The witch’s eyes widened just before I closed my own and spread my wings. I’d forgiven my four mates of their sins, but had I forgiven Sarah, Vikki, and Derek? Hardly. It wasn’t easy, but if I wanted to make it out of this alive, that’s what I had to do.
Sarah’s pride had come between us, but could I really blame her for wanting me all to herself? Even if I wasn’t built that way, she was loyal to a fault. I couldn’t live in hatred for her being the way she was. I had to do what I’d always wanted her to do for me: accept. So I accepted Sarah in my heart, all her good and bad and felt the small rune on my left side twinge to life. Darkness seeped from it and swirled over the left side of my body, spreading tattoos over my skin.
It was working.
The witch lashed out at me as flickers of her time bomb sparked dangerous whips into the air, but magic had already enveloped me into a cocoon of safety. Vikki was next. I’d grown to feel compassion for her because she loved Sarah, even if Vikki was a siren and would always be married to her sorrow. It was in spite of her sin of sloth and languishing in her misery that she still found a way to stand up for Sarah and to protect her as best as she could. She even followed her all the way to hell to make sure she was safe. I had to forgive her of her faults, just for that.
Her rune swept new power through my body, leaving fresh black spirals across my skin in its wake, and I readied myself for the last sin that would be the most difficult to forgive.
Derek, king of sex, and mirror to my own faults. Lust had come close to destroying my life, but it’d also brought me closer to my four. Without lust, I wouldn’t have bonded with them and I wouldn’t have learned that lust could go hand-in-hand with love, make it stronger and impenetrable. Without Derek, I wouldn’t have filled my Blood Stone with renewed power and I never would have bonded with my four. In spite of all the terrible things he’d done, I was truly grateful to him for that.
And so, my seven sins were complete, resolved, forgiven, and the witch screamed as the fires of forgiveness, hotter than hellfire or dragonfire, poured from my body in merciless waves and turned my hair black as it flung about my face.
