Chapter 64

“Nothing's impossible.” But even as Lynda said the words, her gut clenched. A vampire with no weaknesses and magic? How could she defeat someone like that? Someone who had centuries of knowledge and expertise on how to defeat any foe. And since his ritual had worked per se, Lynda was certain he'd spent his time learning about magic as well.

“You have any pointers?” Lynda asked.

Ekaterina gave her a soft smile. “You’re a necromancer like me. Stay here with me forever and allow your body to die. As long as you do not return to the living then neither can Boris. Everyone will be safe.”

Panic erupted inside her. “No, I can’t stay here.” What would happen to her princes? Her heart squeezed inside her chest so hard she thought it would shatter. She’d never see them again. Never smell fresh spring flowers or feel her men’s arms around her. She'd never eat chocolate again or be able to lick her fingers after eating extra-spicy chicken wings. Or laugh until she couldn’t breathe as Pierre, Mihnea, and Andrei tickled her. Did they feel the same way about her? And she couldn’t leave Andrei and Mihnea in the state they were in.

“Dracula's sons...two of them are in trouble.” Lynda stopped walking and faced her ancestor. “Will the magic counsel be able to heal them?” Even though they hadn't helped Andrei at all and he'd been unconscious for days with them.

“Both of them will perish in a month or so because a wedge has been placed between their spirit and body.”

“How do we fix them?” If her ancestor knew how to heal them, then there had to be a way they could get a message to one of the magical seers or diviners and explain what to do.

“No, there is nothing to be done for them.”

Lynda’s heart felt like it shriveled and turned to ash. “Why? There has to be something. When I was alive,” God, it was hard to think of herself as dead. She felt alive like she had before just not tied down in a physical body. Like a dream-state. “I was going to give Andrei my blood. It hadn't worked on Mihnea, but I thought my blood would bring Andrei back and break the magical coma they put him in and break the link with Mihnea.”

She covered her mouth with her hand. This was what Boris had wanted. To trap Lynda here but put her lovers in danger so that she’d be compelled to return to the land of the living and thus bring him back to life too along with his unblocked powers. She shook her head as realization tumbled thoughts in her mind. Since he knew Lynda had magic, he’d purposefully told the witches to have a curse that would counter any magic she’d use to try and heal Andrei to snap onto another of her princes. Maybe even both of them and only Pierre not being near them had saved him.

Then, she was distracted from the real source of the spell because of the blood-lust controlling Mihnea. And when her blood didn’t heal him, like it had the others, she hadn’t know what to do. She wrapped her arms around herself. God, if the snare had taken all of her princes, she’d have been so desperate to save him that she might have done anything Boris asked. Didn’t help that the elders had treated her so badly and she’d have believed Boris’ lies if there had been no one else to tell her otherwise and her grief of losing her men would have been three-fold.

Lynda paced back and forth, thinking. Her stomach knotted with every step.

The ancient vampire knew she’d come to Andrei but the other witches found them instead. Boris and his vamps must have fled, but discovered where the counsel had taken Andrei and once Lynda activated the trap, Natasha and the Russians came to collect her during the skirmish.

Lynda let out a bitter laugh that scrapped her throat raw.

At the time, she’d thought Natasha and the others had come to rescue her from being executed at the hands of the magic counsel. What a fool I’ve been.

The Russians weren’t out to save her at all, but to use her to gain power. Was that why Sofia had tried to throw Lynda off the skyscraper? Lynda chewed on her fingernails. What had the woman said on the rooftop?

“If you remain alive, it's only a matter of time before you usher in a whole new set of monsters.”

The woman had known about what Boris had planned and wanted to stop him. She believed that only Lynda’s death was the answer.

It all clicked into place now.

Lynda stopped pacing in front of Ekaterina. “So, am I right? Will my blood break the curse on Andrei and heal Mihnea if I give Andrei my blood?”

Ekaterina turned away from Lynda, and her shoulders sagged slightly.

Lynda got a feeling that the woman was holding out on her.

“Am I right? Would giving Andrei my blood have worked for both him and Mihnea?” Even though she'd given Mihnea her blood and it had done nothing to cure his blood-lust like the others, she hadn't tried Andrei since he was unconscious.

When Ekaterina didn't respond, Lynda touched her shoulder. “Please, if there is any way I can help them, tell me.”

“There is a small chance that with your magic and blood, you can heal them, but if you return to the living—"

“I know, so does Boris.” But Lynda would never find peace in the afterlife if Andrei and Mihnea were left to suffer. They’d wither away slowly and never smile or laugh again. The thought of them in misery made bile burn the back of her throat. No, she had to go back and somehow send the vampire leader to hell.

“Tell me everything you can about the necromancer magic and how I can harness it.”

“Not that simple,” Ekaterina said. “Every necromancer is different. Each magic unique. While I had the power to alter lifeforms, make them different, you do not possess that trait.”

“But my magic healed the blood-lust in Andrei and—”

“No, your blood returned them to their former state, it did not change them.”

“Then it’s simple, I just get Boris to drink my blood and presto, he’s back to being an ordinary vampire.”

Ekaterina clasped Lynda’s hand and gave her a small smile. “If only it were that easy, descendant of mine. Before, your blood only cured him from burning in the sun, and even that was temporary. With the ritual, he has returned to his previous form—the one that I originally created—a vampire with no weaknesses. Remember, I placed those restrictions on him afterward.”

Her gut clenched and she pulled away from Ekaterina. This was madness. She couldn’t stay here and do nothing. Couldn’t allow two of her men to slowly perish. “Wait, can we change Pierre, Andrei, and Mihnea back to their true forms then? They could help us fight Boris.”

Her brow furrowed. “I’m afraid not. They were turned after my magic transformed the vampires so they do not have the ability to become more.”

Nausea waved through Lynda. There had to be something she could do. She wracked her brain for a solution. A spell or incantation to weaken his power temporarily, long enough for Lynda and the others to kill him. Keep Boris from creating any more indestructible monsters like himself. All of whom would side with him as their master at least until he established himself as king of the new vampires.

Wait. There was someone who had been a limitless vampire at the same time along with Boris. Dracula.