Page 95 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

“End it!”

“Kill her!”

Jacqueline held her position. She didn’t look away.

“Do it,” I said softly enough that only she could hear.

I took a step forward, and the blade fully pierced my skin. Searing pain shot through me, but before I could take another step, Jacqueline spun. She caught my arm, pinning it behind my back as she brought the sword’s edge to my throat.

She was close enough that I felt her heat against me, smelled her sweet scent. Despite the futility of my position, my body responded, pressing against hers, searching for contact. Maybe it was always going to end like this. I’d never been able to resist her before. How could I in my final moments?

“Do it,” I said again.

“Shut up,” she snarled softly in my ear. “You made this choice. Do you regret it?”

I started to shake my head but, considering the sword at my throat, decided against it.

“No,” I murmured.

“You would kill me then?”

“For my children?” I asked. “Yes.”

My heart splintered even more as I admitted it. But I owed them that.

“Why?” she whispered.

“Because I failed them.” Pain cracked my words. “And I will not fail them again.”

“And would you die for them?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. “And I will not live another day without them.” Reaching up, I grabbed the blade, barely processing the sting as it cut through my flesh. I pushed it into my own throat and felt my warm blood spill. Jacqueline’s grip faltered.

“Camila.” My name whispered from her lips like a prayer. “Don’t.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but there was only the gurgling, hideous sound of wet violence.

The hand pinning my arm behind my back moved, and her fingers clasped mine, and I finally knew this was how I wanted death to come to me—in her arms. It didn’t hurt. Not with her here. I wondered what this death might bring.

I hoped it would be peace.

“No mercy,” Selah shouted.

“Trust me,” Jacqueline whispered, her lips brushing my ear as she pushed the blade deeper.

I do, I wanted to say. I always had. I always would. And if she was my death, I welcomed her with open arms. I closed my eyes.

“Stop!” Sabine’s scream shattered my peace. “Stop! I surrender.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

JULIAN

We were alive, despite finding the Mordicum. But for how much longer? The day faded into night. Stars winked on in the deep, midnight blue sky overhead. In the dimming light, rose vines turned into shadowy tendrils that reached above us like a warning.

“What now?” Lysander asked as we trudged through the court. A few vampires turned to stare at us, and I glared at them. I wasn’t sure what it said about these particular courtiers that they were shocked over seeing one of their kind post-fight.

Maybe Berit had been right when she’d said that my kind did nothing. There was a time when every pureblood vampire had seen a dozen battlefields. Now, not so much, and many seemed content to forget it ever happened.

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