62

Lucian

“Trinity?” Mark called. I watched her. She didn’t move for a long time. It was as if she couldn’t hear or see us, but then she shot to her feet and went running into the forest.

“Fuck!” Mark yelled, running after her. I took the lead and grabbed him before he ran into her line of attack. She lunged at one of the vampires nearby, tearing into his throat. Another screamed and tried to attack her. Mark fired on him, turning him into a burst of blue flame.

“Traitor!” They sneered. “We’ll kill you here!”

One of them ran at me. The other ran toward Mark, and the third was trying to get Trinity off the vampire she was currently devouring. I dodged the one that lunged after me and rushed toward Trinity. I snatched the other out of the air and slammed him into the ground, recognizing him as a member of the royal family. I caved in his chest with a vicious sneer, glad to be rid of him and hoping to be rid of the rest of the royal family by the end of the night.

I couldn’t help but think that this had to be part of the Blood Ancestor’s plan: purging the royal family.

“Get him! By the Blood Ancestor’s order!”

I cursed. I expected him to send people after me, but I hadn’t expected them to be here. I couldn’t focus on them. For every one that rushed at me, trying to subdue or kill me, Trinity grabbed another, draining them dry. The frenzy of it felt familiar, like a vision I should remember, but I couldn’t quite access it.

I tasted blood in my mouth, vicious and dark. It didn’t have the sweetness of human blood.

My heart quickened at the thought that maybe it had been vampire blood, but I couldn’t recall ever feeding on a vampire.

I turned and ripped a vampire’s head off her shoulders as Trinity shrieked and tore into another vampire’s neck.

Finally, we were alone. It was just me, Mark, and Trinity in the clearing, but we were too close to a portal for it to remain that way for long.

More would come, and though Trinity had drank so much blood, it wouldn’t end. I looked over at Mark, who looked a little queasy. She turned to him slowly, eyeing him, staring at him.

“Trinity, don’t you recognize me?”

“Don’t,” I whispered.

She turned her head stiffly and looked at me. Her eyes had not taken on a glow just yet. Maybe there was still time. With our child still inside her, perhaps all the blood she had been drinking was feeding it. There was hope, maybe.

I walked towards her slowly, offering her my hand. She bared her fangs at me. Her eyes started to swim, but she didn’t attach me.

“Trinity,” I said softly. “Come here.”

Vampires rushed towards us. She turned her head in their direction as Mark started firing at them, trying to keep them away.

“That’s her! Kill her!”

I growled, conjuring a spear of darkness and launching it at the man who had spoken. He choked on his next words and burst into flames as I reached Trinity. She pulled against my grip and struggled. She screamed and fought against my hold, but I held her arm, keeping her away from the vampires who were now turning their sights on Mark. He started to run out of bullets. He roared and rushed forward, slamming his fist into one of their faces. Their jaw disintegrated under the silver on his knuckles. He pulled out a blade and started swinging it at every vampire that came closer, battling through the vampires that seemed to stream out of the forest.

The royal family had always had plenty of minions, but I had never imagined them to mostly still be alive.

Trinity tore away from me, rushing towards them and leaping on the first one she reached, tearing into their necks.

I went after her, trying to keep her from being overwhelmed by them. I killed vampire after vampire. Then, I felt the Blood Ancestor’s presence in the world, like a ripple of power through the air. I ground my teeth and quickly dispatched the last two vampires before I grabbed Trinity.

She snarled at me, but she didn’t raise her hand. Her eyes had taken on a dull red glow, and I realized that it really was too late now. The only thing I could hope to do is bring her back into her mind by force. I grabbed her by her face, pressing my signet ring into her face. It warmed as I felt the blood-slave bond start to heave with power. The blood pact that had settled at the core of it every time I drank her blood shimmered in my mind. I felt my power waning, but it would be enough to fix this.

She twisted and shrieked as I stared into her eyes, pushing through the blood lust and confusion. I felt her desire to survive, her thirst for life, and the need to protect herself. Even now, she seemed to know that she was pregnant. I clawed through it, listening to her shriek and yell. She didn’t say a word, just kept howling until I broke through the haze of the turn into the fragments of her memories. I saw the dungeon of the castle. I felt her desperate need to escape. Then, I felt the love that I had been cultivating in her. I felt the way it bloomed and overrode her good sense. I felt every tweak and change I had made in her mind and gathered them all within the power of the pact.

Her mind was a mangled mess, but still, she recognized me as her master.

“Yield!” I roared, pressing her with the last of my strength.

She pushed and shoved. Fear took over, then, her resistance dropped. She went slack in my arms. The glow didn’t fade, but the screaming stopped. I felt my legs trembling as I lowered us to the ground and continued to guide her mind back together, using my strength to bolster her and keep her together.

Slowly, I saw her eyes start to clear, and she looked at me as if she recognized me.

“Luc…ian?” She whispered as I felt her mind starting to come back together.

I pulled the fragments of her mind together, slotting them together, mending them with bits of my own power in the only way that was possible now. I kept the blood lust contained, suppressing it as I worked.

I didn’t have enough time to do a perfect job, but it would do.

Tears overflowed the banks of her eyes and streamed down her face. Then, she smiled at me, and for a moment, I was kneeling on that battlefield with my wife in my arms, watching her fade away into nothing. I could almost smell the blood in the air and the rage that would consume me for years after. This time, she smiled. Had she smiled then too? Had I simply forgotten that in all my grief and rage? I didn’t know, but I wanted to hold that image in my mind.

My wife smiling at me.

Trinity smiling at me.

“The baby…” she whispered. “I’m—”

“I know,” I said softly. “Take care of him.”

Her eyes widened as I felt the rest of my strength fading. I released her as the last piece of her mind fell into place. I heard her gasp, and more tears started to stream down her face. I could see in her eyes that the wall that she had put up between her mind and her memories of everything I had done to her was gone.

Yet, she didn’t care, just as I thought she wouldn’t. I had possessed her completely. She loved me, and that was enough.

Then, the world tilted, and I crashed to the ground.

“Lucian!” She yelled as the world started to grow cold and dark. “Lucian!”

She rolled me over and lifted me into her arms, looking down at me.

“Just hold on! Where are you hurt?”

I smiled a little, seeing how much she fretted. Our child would live. Perhaps, the Blood Ancestor would turn him into an evil version of himself. Perhaps, he would kill Trinity if she stepped out of line, but I couldn’t believe that would happen.

She was a vampire, but she was still Trinity. Mark wouldn’t be able to kill her like this, and if the Blood Ancestor was on his way, he wouldn’t even have the chance.

“Tell me what I can do!” She gasped. “Please, what about our child? You can’t leave! You can’t!”

My lips twitched, and I started to tell her that she was wrong, but I couldn’t get the words out. Slowly, she began to fade.

I heard nothing.

Then, I saw nothing.

Then, I was gone.