CHAPTER 170
CHAPTER 170
DARIUS
The second Lazarez’s eyes settled on Selene, something ancient inside me went utterly still.
Not fear. Not uncertainty. Instinct. The kind that had kept me alive for centuries.
His gaze lingered on her a heartbeat too long. That was his first fucking mistake.
“Hand over the fae girl.”
I almost laughed. Bold request. Stupid, but bold.
Did he honestly think I’d survived centuries of bloodshed, betrayal, and war just to hand over the one person I’d bound my soul to because some washed-up relic asked nicely? Some people really did wake up every morning and choose delusion.
I stepped forward without hesitation, placing myself between them. The movement was automatic. Like breathing.
If Lazarez wanted Selene, he’d have to get through me first. And judging by the look in his eyes… he seemed eager to try.
A pity for him. I was in a particularly bad mood today.
“Over my dead body,” I said, voice quiet enough to make the threat land harder.
Lazarez’s smile spread slowly, deliberately, like a man who already thought he’d won.
“That,” he said softly, “can be arranged.”
I tilted my head, shadows coiling lazily around my arms like they had all the time in the world.
"You're welcome to try," I replied, voice dry as dust.
"Though I should warn you-the last idiots who tried, are currently decorating the lawn as ash. You're welcome to join them. I hear it's very exclusive."
From the shattered doorway behind us, Morgana’s voice rang out, sharp and thoroughly fed up.
“Oh, for the love of every dead god—again?” she snapped. “I haven’t had a single night of peace since you lot showed up on my property. First the binding nearly cracked my foundation, then the windows, and now this undead circus. Do you people ever take a night off, or is ruining my life just your full-time occupation?”
Roxy snorted mid-combat stance. “We’re consistent, if nothing else.”
“Consistently infuriating,” Morgana shot back. “One of these days I’m going to hex the entire bloodline and take a very long nap.”
Lazarez’s smile didn’t fade, but something colder flickered behind his eyes. He turned his head slightly toward the cottage, looking more irritated than threatened.
“Would you shut the fuck up, witch?” he said flatly. “Your constant screeching is giving me a headache. Some of us are trying to conduct business.”
Morgana’s magic flared bright green in the doorway.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she called back, voice dripping with false sweetness.
“Did my trauma interrupt your little negotiation? How inconsiderate of me. Tell you what—come a little closer and I’ll fix that headache permanently. Free of charge.”
Lazarez’s jaw tightened. For a second he looked like he might actually take the bait—then he clearly decided she wasn’t worth the effort.
He turned his full attention back to me, expression smoothing into that same cold, confident smile.
“Eron grows impatient,” he said. “Hand over the fae girl, Prince. Or we stop asking nicely.”
I stepped fully in front of Selene, the bond between us pulsing steady and strong.
"Then stop asking," I said quietly. "And start dying."
The night exploded.
Rogue vampires poured from the trees in a coordinated wave-more than the three we had first seen. At least a dozen. Maybe fifteen.
They moved fast, hungry, and disciplined in a way the earlier attacks had not been. Eron had stopped sending disposable strays. These ones knew how to fight.
I didn't wait for them to reach us.
I launched forward.
The first rogue met my claws mid-air. I tore through his throat before his feet touched the ground, spinning the body into the next attacker hard enough to shatter ribs and send him crashing into a third. Blood sprayed across the grass in a wide arc. Shadows lashed out from me like living blades, cutting two more down before they could close the distance. One tried to circle behind me-I caught him by the spine and snapped it cleanly, dropping the body without a second glance.
Behind me, Selene's power flared-bright, wild, controlled in a way it hadn't been before the binding.
A rogue that tried to flank me burst into ash mid-leap, the light from her hands searing the night. The bond carried her fierce satisfaction straight into my chest, sharp and electric.
Roxy was already in the thick of it, laughing that sharp, reckless laugh of hers as her blades carved through undead flesh.
"Come on then, you ugly bastards! I've been bored for hours!" She ducked under a swipe, drove a dagger up through a chin, and kicked the body away before spinning into the next one.
Xander fought like a force of nature-silent, brutal, efficient. He ripped one rogue's arm clean off and used the severed limb to cave in another's skull with a wet, sickening crunch.
His eyes burned with the kind of violence that only came when someone he cared about was threatened, even indirectly. Every movement was precise, economical, and utterly without mercy.
Morgana's magic lit the clearing in violent green bursts. Vines thick as tree trunks erupted from the ground, impaling two rogues and dragging them under the soil while they still screamed.
"Get the fuck off my property!" she snarled from the shattered doorway. "I just fixed those wards, you undead insects! Do you have any idea how long blood-ink runes take to set?!"
Lazarez came for me personally.
He was fast. Older. Stronger than the average rogue.
Our clash sent a shockwave through the clearing-shadow against shadow, power against power.
The ground cracked beneath our feet. He smiled even as I drove him backward, fangs bared in something that was almost delight.
"She's changing you," he taunted, blocking a strike that would have taken his head.
"The little fae spark. Making you soft. Predictable. Eron said she would be your undoing."
I didn't answer with words.I answered with violence.
My shadows wrapped around his arm and pulled. Bone cracked with a sharp, wet sound. He snarled, twisting free, but the opening was enough.
I drove my fist into his chest hard enough to cave it inward, ribs folding under the force, then followed with a slash of pure darkness across his throat. Black blood sprayed. He staggered, one hand flying to the wound. Not dead.Not yet.
"Selene-left!" I barked.
She didn't hesitate. A concentrated burst of her light slammed into a rogue that had gotten too close, turning him to ash before he could touch her.
The heat of it washed over my back. Pride and something darker-possessive, almost feral-ripped through me at the sight.
She was magnificent. And she was fucking mine.
The fight stretched longer than I wanted. Every second Selene remained in the open felt like a blade pressed to my throat.
Lazarez recovered faster than he should have, the wound at his neck already beginning to close as he rallied the remaining rogues with sharp, barked commands.
They pressed harder, trying to separate us, trying to isolate her. One nearly reached her-I took his head before his fingers could brush her sleeve.
I cut a path back to her side, shadows exploding outward in a wide arc that forced three attackers to the ground hard enough to leave craters.
My hand found her waist, pulling her tight against me for a brief second. The bond surged between us, steady and fierce.
"You stay with me," I growled against her ear. "No heroics."
"I'm not the one who just tried to punch a hole through an ancient vampire," she shot back, breathless but fierce.
Despite everything, the bond carried a spark of her sarcasm straight into me. It almost made me smile. Almost.
Lazarez came again, faster this time, fury finally cracking his calm exterior. We collided in a brutal exchange of blows that sent both of us skidding across the blood-soaked grass.
He got a claw across my ribs, deep enough to burn. I repaid him by nearly taking his arm off at the shoulder, shadows sawing through muscle and bone until he wrenched free with a snarl of pain.
Around us, the tide began to turn.
Roxy took a rogue's head clean off with a spinning slash, the body collapsing in a spray of ash and blood.
Xander crushed another against a tree hard enough to splinter the trunk, the impact echoing through the clearing.
Morgana's vines dragged two more under the earth, their screams cut short as the ground sealed over them.
One by one, Eron's forces fell. Lazarez realized it too late.
I caught him by the throat as he tried to retreat, lifting him off the ground with one hand.
His feet kicked uselessly above the grass. I could already feel the satisfying give of his spine beneath my fingers. One sharp twist and it would be over-
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
The voice came from the tree line, calm and almost conversational.
I froze.
A second rogue stepped into the clearing, and the world narrowed to a single, terrible point.
Elara.
She was limp in his arms, tears streaming down her face, her simple dress torn at the shoulder and stained with dirt.
Her eyes were wide with pure, uncomprehending terror as she struggled weakly against him.
"Monsters!" she sobbed, voice cracking.
"You're all monsters!"
The rogue's fangs were already pressed against the delicate skin of her throat, just hard enough to dimple the flesh without breaking it.
One wrong move-one twitch of resistance-and she would die before any of us could reach her.
Xander's roar tore through the night, raw and broken.
"Fuck-no!"
He lunged forward on pure instinct, eyes wild. I threw out a wall of shadow to stop him before he could get them both killed, the force of it slamming into his chest and driving him back a full step. He snarled at me, but I held the barrier firm.
"Don't," I snarled.
Lazarez, still dangling from my grip, let out a wet, choking laugh that sprayed black blood across my wrist.
The rogue holding Elara smiled slowly, eyes gleaming with vicious satisfaction.
"Eron wants the fae girl," he said calmly. "Hand her over... or the little human dies screaming. Your choice, Prince."
Elara's terrified gaze found Xander's across the clearing. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. She mouthed his name without sound.
The bond between Selene and me pulsed hard with shared horror and cold, rising fury.
And just like that, the entire night changed.
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