Page 42 of Fallen Heirs

I jolted.

“Impossible,” Alena said, when I couldn’t speak for several moments from the shock of such a thing being put out there. “Even Elliot Sabre tried and he couldn’t produce a cure.”

“He went about it the wrong way. Not being vampire himself, he discounted the power of the bond between sire and sireling.” The guy stared at me. “Constantine regrets abusing your sire link and wishes to make it up to you.”

“To what end?”

“To give you a legacy that’s been denied you since he turned you.”

I scoffed. “You really expect me to believe that he could achieve thatandalso that he’d gift that to me out of the goodness of his own heart?”

“He has a bond to you as his sire. With the black magic out of his system, he can feel it deeply now in a way that was cut off for him beforehand. All he needs is a vial’s worth of your magic to complete the spell.”

“There it is,” Alena spoke. “The price. He needs Xavier’s magic for something.”

“It’s merely a requirement of the spell,” the guy insisted.

“Enough of this nonsense,” Alena ground out. “You don’t get to fuck with my love’s mind like this. Tell us where Constantine is.”

“So eager to go back to him, are you?”

I snarled, starting forward, and the vampires closed in with those accursed weapons.

The guy raised his hand with an amused smile. “It was merely a question, brother.”

“I’m not your brother.”

“You are one of us. At least for now, until Constantine cures you.”

“Is that why you’re following him? He’s promised you the same?”

“Absolutely not. Why would we want to be cured of being powerful beings? That’s only your desire, because you also have your magical side. Besides, the cure only pertains to your specific situation as a hybrid, not all vampire kind.”

“Why are you carrying weapons that can also kill you?” Alena demanded, clearly trying to veer away from the cure track, knowing how much it was getting to me.

“To root out those who are misguided, of course.”

“Murdering your own kind in the name of Constantine Vale? That’s sickening on so many levels,” she told him.

“It’s also a necessity.”

“Don’t you see? He’s using you to do his dirty work, to wipe out his competition.”

“Not just us, Nephilim. Many just like us. And it’s happening right underExemplar’snose. The fools see very little these days. They also have fewer supporters than ever. People don’t trust in them to keep them safe. What happened here to this wolf pack is just one case that served to prove their inefficiency. So we protect ourselves. We take power for ourselves.”

“That’s not what will happen,” Alena warned them. “He will use you up and spit you out. He has no sense of loyalty. You’re just being used and then you’ll end up also being cannon fodder for him.”

“You’re very wrong about that. Now he’s free of black magic, he’s changed. He’s only set on doing what’s needed now.”

“Really?” Alena said in disbelief. “And what is that?”

“Creating a better world order, of course. None of us are safe with the way things currently are. He’s proven that to us and to many others. That will all change soon.”

“You realize you’re defending a being who did this? All this devastation? A fucking massacre,” Alena said.

“Better them than us. And, like I said, they were fools.”

Alena stepped forward, making half of them train their guns on her.

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