Chapter 47 47. Chapter
Elijah
The heavy oak door of the House slammed shut behind us, sealing out the choking damp of the swamp and the smell of death. Outside there was silence, but inside the walls seemed to echo the savagery Aurora had just unleashed.
As we stepped into the flickering candlelight, she faltered. The daggers slipped from her hands, the silver blades striking the stone floor with a sharp clang. She did not look at me. Her shoulders trembled, then the body that moments ago had been a precise instrument of death simply gave out.
She collapsed.
Not slowly or gracefully, but as if her support cables had been severed. I moved instantly, catching her by the arm before her knees hit the stone, but I did not force her upright. I sank down with her into the dust.
“Aurora,” I said, my voice deeper than I intended.
Through the bond something slammed into me with brutal force. Pain. Not physical pain, but the kind that tears open when the foundations of a mind collapse.
“Defective,” she whispered. Her voice was raw, barely audible. “They said there was no power in me. They said I was a burden. That only their mercy kept me alive.”
She lifted her hand and stared at her fingers in disbelief as the Hunters’ blood slowly seeped down toward her wrist. Her pupils were still wide, but the predatory light was gone, replaced by naked terror.
“They lied to you, Aurora,” I said bluntly. “They did not keep you out of mercy. They kept you out of fear.”
“Fear?” She snapped her head up, her eyes cutting into me. “They mocked me. I was the lowest of the low. Even the youngest apprentice outran me in drills. Even the weakest Hunter showed more magic than I ever did.”
“Because they suppressed you,” I shot back, gripping her face and forcing her to look at me. “Think with that sharp new mind of yours. Why didn’t you develop? Why did you always feel slow? Because you were trying to exist as a human in a system built against your true nature. The Clan knew what you were. A dampir does not fit their world. You are too dangerous. Too unpredictable. If you had understood your power, they never could have kept you on a leash.”
I saw the first spark of realization flare in her eyes, but bitterness smothered it almost instantly.
“All my life…” she broke, a sob tearing out of her as her body began to shake. “Every blow. Every humiliation. It was all because they were afraid of me? And I believed them. I believed I was nothing.”
Her pain nearly crushed me through the bond. I felt her rage burning in her gut, her grief for the years stolen from her. A dampir strong enough to tear through the swamp’s hounds before they even caught her scent, and they had treated her like an animal.
“This is your fault too,” she hissed suddenly, shoving against my chest. “You did this to me. If you hadn’t bitten me, if you hadn’t given me your blood, I would still be who I was.”
“You would still be living a lie,” I replied, pulling her to her feet with me. I did not let her remain in the dust. “Yes, my blood was the catalyst. Royal blood awakened what slept inside you. But the ability, the strength, the speed, all of that was always yours, Aurora. You did not get it from me. I only unlocked it.”
She gasped for air. I saw the battle tearing through her. The old Aurora, the disciplined Hunter, struggled to impose order, while the new self, the predator, demanded its due. A low, strangled growl rose in her throat. She noticed it and recoiled in fear from her own sound.
“I’m hungry,” she said at last, the words sounding like a confession. “But not for food.”
Her gaze drifted to my neck. Beneath my skin, life pulsed. She could hear it now. Hear my blood moving, feel the heat, and her dampir instincts knew exactly what would calm the storm raging inside her.
“I know,” I said quietly.
I stepped closer, and her body tensed at my proximity. There was no fragility left in her now. She was a drawn bowstring, ready to strike or to cling.
“Don’t be afraid of it,” I whispered into her ear, my hand cradling the back of her neck. “The Clan called you defective because they could not control you. I call you my equal, because you are the only one who can follow me into this darkness.”
Aurora rested her forehead against my chest. I heard her rapid heartbeat, and through the bond I felt the desire surging now from both of us. She was no longer the victim I had dragged from the forest.
She was the key to my vengeance. And she was my most dangerous addiction.
“Drink,” I said, pulling aside my collar and baring my neck.
I felt her shudder. Then, without hesitation, Aurora surrendered to the song they had hidden from her all her life. When her mouth touched my skin, I knew it with absolute certainty.
The world we had known was gone forever.