Page 43 of Tainted Blood

“Sucaria, Dago,” he called out. “Your Master is dead. I know this means you two will have issues to resolve about Berlin, but we need to ignore them for a moment. I need you to help me get this body upstairs.” Isaiah pointed at Samas. “Maxwell, Aelia is safe and alive. I will talk to my staff about getting blood ready for her. While that is prepared, it’s best she stays where she is. You can burn his head in the fireplace while we’re waiting for it.”

Maxwell jumped into action as Alexius pulled Everly away. They were close to the head, and he didn’t want her to have to smell what was about to happen. Isaiah would never usually burn anything like this indoors, no vampire would, but this wasn’t a normal burning.

Isaiah was on his phone, texting people, but Alexius didn’t care. He pulled Everly out of the room, going into the family wing. He took her all the way to Isaiah’s private suite, knowing the man well enough to know it was the best place, and he wouldn’t mind.

“Take a deep breath,” he ordered as soon as he got her alone in that room.

It was shaky, but she did as he asked.

“You did really well. It was dangerous, and I want to strangle you for taking those risks, but you did really well,” he said, making sure he was holding her gaze. Her green eyes were wide, almost blank, but when she blinked, he saw the emotion crash over her expression. She suddenly sagged in his arms, and he got her to sit down.

“That was terrifying,” she finally said.

“Yes, it was. Stay in here for a moment to collect yourself. I would prefer it, truthfully.” He knelt in front of her, hoping he wasn’t overstepping his boundaries by saying it.

“What about you? If you’re out there, I need to be,” she countered. “That’s why I went back in. I couldn’t not help. I couldn’t sit and hide while you were fighting that…thing. I can’t sit in here and have a breakdown while you’re out there.”

“I need to help Isaiah, and a lot of the vampires are going to be on edge now. The wounded are going to be dangerous, and I don’t want you getting hit by anyone lashing out in pain.”

“I can’t sit in here all night. I won’t do it.” He saw the fire come back to her eyes. “He just killed at least two people and injured at least three. We should be jumping into action and figuring out what happened. The longer I sit in here and try to feel better, the longer it will take to understand—”

“Then give me five minutes to collectmyself,” he grumbled, getting back to his feet as he ran a hand through his hair. “Between how powerful Samas was and you deciding to get in the middle of things,I’mrattled, Everly.” He turned away from her, going to the fireplace. He leaned over it, his hands on the mantle as he closed his eyes.

“I couldn’t have beaten him alone. I have lived a very long time and have never seen anything like what he became. I don’t know what caused it, I don’t know how. He was powerful and fast, unlike anything I have ever seen. Everly, in the thousands of years we’ve been paying attention, no creature has ever been able to do what he just did. To erupt into violence and kill several vampires over two thousand years old and injure older ones… There’s never been a single thing that could do that.” He pushed away from the mantle.

“The fact that we had to resort to distracting him by setting him on fire before two of us could remove his head?” He met her stare. “I have to go out there and somehow explain that we just faced something that could have killed everyone in this building if it weren’t for you taking a massive risk by using fire. Fire in an enclosed area with other vampires who could have easily been hurt by it or it could have torched the building, potentially dooming everyone inside it.”

“They’re alive,” she said, looking away from him.

“They are, but it’s not that you might have killed them that will scare them. It’s that without you attempting what you did, we might have lost. We probably would have. We couldn’t get close enough without him turning on us. We couldn’t stop moving long enough to properly strategize without him launching an attack and injuring or killing someone. A room of the fastest and strongest vampires in the world against one enemy, and we were failing. I haven’t been in a fight where I believed I was facing my own death incenturies. Standing here on the other side of it, I know that tonight I faced one of those fights.”

He didn’t think anyone could have a proper way to respond to what he had just said, so he wasn’t insulted by her silence. It dragged on, though, making him wonder if he had gone too far.

“Then we have to stop it from happening again.”

He frowned when those words broke the silence.

“We’re going to find out what caused Samas to turn into a giant monster and start killing everyone, then we’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And if it does, we’ll be prepared for it. I’ll get to work right now. I just need access to Isaiah’s security. If he got footage or anything from the lounge, then I can try to put together a timeline. I’ll work on that while you help Isaiah with the other vampires.”

It took Alexius a moment to properly register what she was saying, then he nodded. She hadn’t been silent because he had terrified her. She’d been processing everything, then decided on a plan that worked for both of them.

“That’s a reasonable plan. We’ll talk to Isaiah. He’ll understand why I don’t want you near the others until the injured are tended to. You’ll need to be fed if you’re going to be in the staff areas, but that should be easy to do.”

“You would have come up with it eventually,” she said as she stood.

“But you came up with it while I’m still…” He was distracted. He was distracted by Samas and his fear of what Samas had just become. He was distracted by his need to keep her safe and make sure she was okay. He rarely had an issue with pressing forward when faced with dangerous situations, but he was faced with a problem he knew could change everything, especially for vampires like him.

I can’t think about that yet.

Slowly, the fear of being as old as he was curled around his very soul. If Samas could become that monster, what did that mean for the others? What did that mean forhim?

He said nothing as he opened the door and headed back to the others. Checking the lounge for Isaiah, he closed the door when he didn’t see him. The smell didn’t need to spread beyond the room. When he saw Everly, she looked a bit green, as if she had caught it, and he could sympathize.

Upstairs, Alexius saw some of those who had escaped when the fighting had begun. He didn’t hold a grudge against them. While it might have been faster to kill Samas with everyone involved, it would have led to more casualties as well. The best had fought, and the ones who felt they couldn’t add anything had left before they could inevitably get anyone else hurt. Only one in the entry hall had fought, and she was unconscious, finally succumbing to her injuries. Sheba wasn’t dead, but after so much damage, it was unreasonable to think she would still be on her feet. He didn’t know how she got out of the room after the injury he’d seen her take. He also didn’t have time to hear the story.

“Where’s Isaiah?” he asked those in the room.

“He, Sucaria, Dago, and Idir went out the back of the mansion with the body,” Conall answered.

---