Chapter 62

Let the boy go,” Lynda requested even though she really wanted to tear Boris into a million pieces. How dare he harm a small child for his own gain. “You have me. Release everyone else, and I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“Funny.” Boris circled her and rubbed his white beard as though in thought. “Ekaterina said the same thing to me when I sacrificed her daughter before the ritual was broken.”

“No one has to get hurt.” Lynda licked her lips and her body shivered. “If you stop this, I’ll stay with you. Even do a blood oath like Natasha had. Give you blood to walk in the sun as often as you need it.”

“Lynda, no!” Pierre growled.

Nearby, a vampire rushed to him, then slammed his fist into Pierre’s face.

“That’s very admirable of you, but I want it all.” He grinned down at her. “I won’t depend on anyone. I want the power, the magic, everything I once had. No magic component, like when Ekaterina turned me into a vampire to help fight Dracula.” His face shifted into a scowl. “Then she had to ruin everything by placing her limitations on us. No sun ever, a simple stake can slay us, etcetera.”

Realization flooded her. “So it wasn’t just for Dracula that Ekaterina put the weaknesses into your kind.” She’d done it for all vampires because she saw how dangerous they could be. Which made sense why all vampires were affected when a witch like Ekaterina could’ve merely hindered Dracula and not all of them. She must have known Boris and others wouldn’t stop with the abilities she had given them and yet, she spared killing them. If she hadn’t, then Pierre, Mihnea, Andrei, Natasha, and many more who were good wouldn’t be here.

He snorted. “If it wasn’t for her foolishness, we’d be the superior race and rule the world. She let love ruin her. She let mercy rule over sound judgment. All she had to do was destroy Dracula and no one could’ve stopped us.”

“Ekaterina didn’t want this. Don’t you see?” Lynda tugged against her chains, but her body still felt like she’d been run over several times. “She wanted peace.”

“She wanted what she couldn’t have...Dracula groveling at her feet. Only I was strong enough to face the truth.” He nodded to a vamp behind her. “Enough talk. Prepare the sacrifices.”

“No! Stop, don’t hurt them. No!” her screams scrapped her throat raw. She couldn’t allow them to harm an innocent child. Using all her strength and will, she forced her magic out. Her entire body reeling with pain. But a vibration radiated through the magical sphere she and the others were trapped inside, shattering it. The gush of wind whipped through and extinguished all the torches. She’d done it! Except neither she nor the others were free.

“Hurry! Kill the boy then the others,” Boris’ voice sounded panicked.

Lynda gritted her teeth and used all her strength to break the binding at her wrist. Blood coated her skin making her flesh slick but she couldn’t get her hand out.

Wearily, the vampires walked a wide circle around her to the young boy.

“Stop, don’t harm him or I’ll roast you all where you stand.” Lynda hoped they didn’t hear her heart beating triple-time against her breastbone. Would they believe her bluff?

One vamp winked sarcastically and blew her a kiss but proceeded to the boy with tears streaming down his face.

A movement behind him caught Lynda’s attention. Natasha rose like a demon from the darkness and slammed a wooden plank into the vampire’s throat. He fell in a gurgle of blood.

Natasha yanked out her gag and rushed to Lynda’s side.

“Promise me you will help Nickolas, my son,” Natasha said squeezing Lynda’s hand.

“Wha—of course, but what are you going to—”

Before Lynda could finish her question, Natasha grasped the metal binds holding Lynda’s wrist and said, “Rimer ala vinxtra.”

Lynda’s entire wrist burned for a split second, but the cuff fell off.

“You did it!” But her joy dried in her throat at seeing Natasha turn gray and fall to the ground. “No!”

One arm free, Lynda strained to reach her friend.

“Hurry, she’s nearly free, slay the boy then the others representing the elements in the circle,” Boris shouted and moved in behind Mihnea. “Now!”

Natasha had given her life to break the spell and save her son and Lynda was going to do everything in her power to save him. Gritting her teeth, she yanked as hard as she could on the other band holding her wrist. But it wouldn’t budge. Her gaze drifted to the vampires creeping closer to the others. Why hadn’t all the bindings broken?

Her breaths froze in her chest as she jerked and twisted but couldn’t budge the metal off her. Why hadn’t Natasha’s spell worked? She’d said the words, but why didn’t both my shackles break off, instead of just one?

Wait. Grace had said it was death magic linking her chains. Did that mean that there needed to be three more sacrifices before she was completely free? And that would give Boris the opening to drain her magic from her and take over all the vampires. She couldn’t allow a maniac who would slaughter whoever he could including a child to succeed and gain unlimited power as a vampire.

“This is why I never permitted my sons to date a witch.” Dracula leapt down from the statue’s head. “What have you done, Lynda?”

“Me?” Of all the arrogant, self-righteous pricks. “It’s Boris. Stop him.”

Boris hissed and picked up a wooden plank. “This time I will kill you and you’ll not have Ekaterina to bring you back again.”

Questions swirled in Lynda’s mind. She’d thought Dracula had slain Ekaterina and her daughter and spent his life hunting any descendants.

Instead of charging Boris, Dracula circled her. His eyes were dark and menacing as if he would rip out her throat. Why did she think he would ever help? “Don’t make me come after you from the otherworld. I trust you’ll know what to do with the magic.”

What the hell was he talking about?

Behind him, Boris snarled and thrust the wooden piece into Dracula’s heart. Her scream gasp echoed through the night. How was it the vampire hadn’t heard Boris coming or fought back? Dracula fell forward, his black blood spilling across her arm. The lock on her arm clinked open.

For a moment, she stared at her free arms. Dracula had given his life to help her in a selfish act she could never have believed. Each shackle represented a life and according to Grace, couldn’t be unlocked without an individual sacrifice for each latch. As if realizing what Dracula had done, Boris’ eyes widened as if in shock.

“Neyt!” He bellowed. “Kill them all before the magic escapes!” Turning to Lynda, he snarled, his hand holding her arms down as his other grasped an obsidian-looking dagger. “I will kill you now, whore!”

Rage and defiance shook her. She would fight him for life and love with every breath she still had.

He shoved his blade toward her heart, but Lynda shoved the fragments of power building up behind her breastbone and into Boris. Wide-eyed, he stared at her. The magic continued to burrow into him.

Then, his body convulsed as though he’d touched an electric current. He jerked. White froth dribbled from his mouth. When he crashed to the ground, she let out a shuddering breath. She’d done it.

The chain holding down her left ankle snapped open. One more to go.

“Lynda!” Pierre yelled. But when she sat up, he wasn’t looking at her but where the boy was chained.

The vampire who had winked at her stood with the boy between them. A silver blade in his hand and at the boy’s throat. If she hit him with her magic, she’d strike the boy too. And she still had one chain locking her down and hindering her magic a fraction. She could feel it surging through her like barely contained lightning. There was no way she could get the bad vampire and avoid the child. Her magic was too unpredictable and her confidence shaky at best.

She glanced around to find one of the witches or someone who could help. But they were all fighting the enemy or lay bleeding out on the ground. Their lives were not close enough to the marble altar she was on to trigger the spell and release her. She met Pierre’s gaze and he gave her a smile and a nod.

He trusted that she could do this. A miracle. His faith in her humbled her. For him, Mihnea, Andrei, and their father, she had to do this. Had to save the boy by whatever means necessary. There was only one way. She had to sacrifice herself to save them.

Focusing on her magic, she drew it deeper into her. Allowing it to build up like a volcano, but not letting the power escape. She closed her eyes. Imagined her heart slowing, her breaths growing shallower, then stopping. Panic clawed at her lungs and she willed herself to breathe. She pushed down the fear. Instead, she focused on images of her three princes. Of them being healed and whole. And the little boy growing up with a zest for life and making his mom, Natasha proud.

Multi-colored spots danced under her eyelids as she felt her soul drift away from her physical body.

Just as her body spasmed, lungs screaming for air, a primal roar surged from within Lynda. It wasn’t a sound, but a raw force that ripped through the final binding, a psychic explosion that detonated around her. The shockwave tore through everything within fifty feet.

Allies and innocents must have felt it as the chains on their power loosened, snapped, then vanished. But for the hostiles, it was a totally different story. Their very souls were scoured clean, leaving behind empty husks that crumpled to the ground like broken dolls. The stench of ozone and sourness filled the air, a horrid testament to the raw power she’d unleashed.

She’d done it. Saved them.

But why couldn’t she move? Her eyelids fluttered closed and she couldn’t even open her eyes.

“Lynda!” Pierre shouted her name but he sounded so far away. Like he was at the other end of a tunnel from her that was miles apart. “Breathe!”

Wasn’t she doing that already? How did she draw air into her lungs anyway? Then a jerk broke her free and she floated above Pierre. He was giving someone on the altar CPR.

Wait, no, it was her. Well, her body anyway.

She tried to touch him. To tell him she was okay just outside of her body. But she couldn’t reach him. A light drew her away every second. This was her time. Peace settled over her. She’d saved them all like she’d been desperate to do.

Except...

Andrei was still unconscious. And Mihnea chased after the remaining survivors to drain them of blood, forever unsatisfied. Forever a monster.

No! She wasn’t ready to die yet. Her life had just begun and she wasn’t going to surrender without a fight. Or let the higher power or whoever was in charge in the afterlife try and stop her.