Page 54 of Vampire Runner

“Is she, though?” Lan’s voice is cool. “Or is she playing him?”

We’re a captive audience to the fight above us. All we can do is watch and speculate.

“She’s baiting him,” Malachi agrees. “She’s stronger than she’s letting him believe.”

“But not strong enough,” Ashe growls, the arm around my shoulders tightening. “She’s getting weaker.”

My gut churns, conflicted. Aeternaphiel swings his sword, the movement too fast to see. Eris blocks it, but only barely. Aeternaphiel’s sneer is visible as he leans in and shouts words I can’t hear. Eris shouts something back, using a language I can’t understand or recognize.

Whatever she’s said to him sends him reeling back, retreating out of arm’s reach. He looks horrified for a moment, stunned at whatever she told him. She laughs, the cackling sound belonging in the worst of nightmares. It snaps him from his daze, but Aeternaphiel is too late.

Eris launches herself forward. I slap my hands over my mouth, a scream trapped in the back of my throat as she arrows herself directly at the archangel. He manages to raise his blade in time. She doesn’t slow, even as the blade pierces her body and bursts from her back. She grasps him in her talons, the black tendrils wrapping themselves around Aeternaphiel, binding him to her.

He struggles against her hold, his wings hampered and unable to move. They begin to plummet from the sky.

“She never planned to survive,” I whisper, my hands sinking from my face as understanding dawns.

As if the wind carries my words to her, Eris turns her head towards me. Aeternaphiel still struggles against her hold. I swear our eyes meet across the distance. That second of time stretches into eternity.

Then, before they slam into the devastation of the barn, a burgundy light explodes from them. It barrels towards us, the wind so intense it pushes us backwards. I’d have fallen had Ashe not braced me against him. Even Kasar is forced to a knee to stay upright. Scorching heat and sulfur envelops us when the light reaches us. Echoes of hellhounds and tortured screams blend with the rush of the wind.

As quickly as it appeared, the light is gone. The sounds have disappeared, the silence left being ear-piercing. Multicolored spots float across my vision and a primal, animalistic part of me sighs in relief. Whatever that was, that part of me is grateful to have avoided that fate. Even the once noisy insects have quieted, unwilling to emerge from hiding for now.

“They’re gone.”

Ambrose’s voice is quiet, more unsteady than I’ve ever heard from the vampire king. I blink rapidly, trying to peer through my spotty vision to where I’d seen Eris and Aeternaphiel last.

All of us stare at the ruined barn, the world finally settling around us. Slowly, one cricket begins their performance, others quickly following. Collectively, we seem to take a breath and collect ourselves.

Distant sirens wail, growing closer. We turn back towards the front of the estate, the house now swallowed up by violent flames. Any trace of magical fire is gone, leaving the house and all of its treasures to be devoured by the blaze.

Ashe leans heavier against me, and I catch him around the waist. “Ashe?” Concern replaces everything else.

He gives me a pained smile. “Nothing a bit of rest won’t take care of.”

Ambrose waves Kasar and Josephine towards us. “Get back to the house,” he orders us, the strong, stoic vampire king of the Barrows once more. “Malachi and I will handle the authorities. Have Deidre ready to manage the newspapers. Lan, monitor the police lines and chatter. We need to know who, if anyone, knew that William Egress was an archangel. We need to be ready for any fallout with those justicars.”

“Oh, what fun,” Lan drawls but Ambrose ignores him. He shifts his attention to me.

“Heal your mate. Then I want you to record everything you know about demons and what may have occurred tonight. I need to know if there will be potential consequences of Eris’s and Aeternaphiel’s disappearances and presumed deaths.”

I manage to jerk my head in an approximation of a nod, my mind already oscillating between caring for Ashe and deliberating over what Eris’s fate is. My mate distracts me when his breath tickles the shell of my ear just before he speaks.

“You can solve that mystery tomorrow. I know exactly what I need from you to heal.” His words are warm and smooth, promising pleasure.

I turn my head towards him, our faces inches apart. “Behave,” I chide him before prompting him to walk towards the SUV Kasar has started. Josephine sits in the front passenger seat, watching us with amusement.

“Why?” Ashe’s question is thick with humor. “It’s so much more fun to tease you.”

Something about his words breaks something tense inside of me. Relief and understanding that it’s finally over, that I’m finally free and we’re both alive, has me tossing my head back and laughing bright. I feel so light, so much happiness, I swear Ashe is the only thing keeping my feet on the ground.

I reach to open the backdoor for us and peck a kiss against his smiling lips. “If you be good for me, I promise you’ll like the reward.”

“Well then,” Ashe says, suddenly completely serious. He releases me and gets into the back seat on his own. He reaches forward between the seats, slapping Kasar on the shoulder. “Let’s get going, brother. I’ve got to prove that I can be the perfect patient to my mate.”

Rolling my eyes, I get in the other side. Kasar meets my gaze in the rearview mirror as he pulls out. Amusement and camaraderie fill them, and I grin before buckling in and looking at my mate.

Goddess, I’m so glad to have tripped over my own feet in front of this male so many years ago.

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