Page 104 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

Nzinga! Help me. I know you think the First People are your family. But they are not. I have the goddess of the realm within me. These people are using you for power. Greenlee sent you in here. Do you think this thing will let you live, let your sisters live? Think of it. There is no time. Do you serve Greenlee or do you save your sisters from her? From this!!

The lassoed energy snaked around Charmaine’s dangling body until it covered her face and mouth. It slammed her to the ground and knocked her unconscious. It then dragged her to the scarab.

Greenlee had told her that the guardians were the sacrifice. But Nzinga had known Sonya and Charmaine before they were seduced into accepting the power. She had seen the rage of Kaida and Liora when resurrected and how they yelled at the audacity of Greenlee’s plan to become gods. Torn between loyalty and duty, she remained frozen. She watched in horror at the end of her guardian.

Dolly and Darleneentered the chamber together. They looked at the shapeshifter, the woman across from them. She was the same build and was similar in features.What would it mean to be separated? To not be whole.It was a question both sisters asked themselves.

“I don’t want to do this, Darlene,” Dolly wept. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t appreciate you as part of me before. I didn’tknow how we could be one. I don’t want to lose you. I need you with me. Always.”

“I am still here. I am one with you. But I want to be free of you,” Darlene said. “Give me this. I swear I’ll never abandon you or Russell. Never. I swear it.”

Dolly closed her eyes and nodded.

Greenlee smiled as the professor gave the signal to begin the transformation. An icy wave of energy that was liquid instead of fiery hot filled the chamber. Darlene faded. Only Dolly remained as it slowly consumed her. She had flashes of Darlene’s memories.

From the womb, where she could hear for the first time her mother’s voice. To the many times, Darlene cared for Russell when he was a struggling toddler. To the passion and defiance Darlene experienced in her love affair with Lucio. She felt every bit of her sister’s essence fill her, then fade away.

Chapter 44

Rebirth

Mojave Camp Ground Zero - Nevada

April 19, 2018

(2 Days Before Death)

Nzinga’s griptightened on her bladed baton as she charged at the monstrous tendril that had ensnared Charmaine, suspending her above the gaping maw at the center of the scarab. Time slowed, each second stretched into an eternity as Nzinga calculated her next move. She could almost feel the frigid breath of the abyss reach to consume Charmaine, and with it, the hope of those who depended on her.

Closing her eyes for the briefest moment, Nzinga sought to calm the storm within. Greenlee’s training whispered in her mind, but it was the memory of her fallen sisters, slaughtered by the guardians in the swamp, that truly fueled her. The women and children in the camp—helpless, vulnerable, and forgotten—flashed before her eyes. If this living nightmare of a scarab devoured Charmaine and absorbed her power, what fate would befall them?

The thought ignited a fire in her veins. Nzinga’s eyes snapped open, her focus razor-sharp. In one fluid motion, she sprang into action, her body a blur of lethal precision. She lunged at the flailing tentacle legs, her baton’s hidden blade deployed with a metallic hiss. Each slash was a calculated strike. She severed the limbs with surgical accuracy. The tentacles thrashed and multiplied in their fury, but Nzinga was faster. She ducked, spun, and leaped, her movements a deadly dance as she cut through the swarming appendages. Every time her blade connected, the tentacles dissolved into sparks of light, their threat extinguished.

But the scarab was relentless. Its tendrils regrew and flailed in every direction, desperate to reclaim its prey. Nzinga’s muscles burned, but she pushed herself harder, each breath a battle cry as she fought her way toward Charmaine. Finally, she reached the tendril that held the guardian. With a swift, powerful slash, Nzinga severed the limb at its base. Charmaine fell, her descent arrested only by Nzinga’s quick reflexes, as she leapt into the air and delivered a forceful kick that sent Charmaine tumbling out of harm’s way.

Nzinga’s momentum carried her forward, right into the mouth of the scarab. As the dark void threatened to swallow her whole, she acted without hesitation. She raised her baton. She drove the blade with all her might into the heart of the beast. The dagger tip, enchanted and forged for this very purpose, pierced the scarab’s core. The creature shuddered in a violent surgency, its malevolent energy recoiled from the purity of the blade.

Nzinga felt the darkness close in, but she held firm, drove the weapon deeper. The scarab let out a deafening shriek, its death throes shook the ground beneath her. For a moment, everything was silent, save for the faded echoes of the creature’s agony.

Nzinga, her strength nearly spent, remained standing, her blade still buried in the heart of the scarab. She had savedCharmaine, but the price was steep. She could feel the life force of the scarab pulling at her, trying to drag her into the abyss along with it. Though Charmaine could not witness this, Nzinga was able to take to one knee and give a final bow of service to the guardians who had taught her more in their brief moments shared than anything she’d learned from her cult. She truly felt worthy of her death. The scarab seized her and dragged her to the shadowy realm it came from. Its darkness was extinguished in defeat.

“You don’t haveto do this,” Shakespeare said.

Sonya’s gaze volleyed between him and Phoenix, then swiveled up to the sky where the first hints of dawn began to bleed into the horizon. “Do you really think it will work?” she asked.

“Yes!” Tristan’s voice sounded off with certainty.

“No!” Shakespeare’s protest was immediate. His hand reached to touch her, but then dropped. He knew it was not wise. But he ached to force her to deny the request, to protect her in some way. Keep her safe from what was to come, instead of failing her like he had done with Camille and Sophie.

Sonya’s pretty lips curved into a gentle smile, one that spoke of acceptance, and inevitability. “We don’t have time for this debate. Unless you two want to face the sun, the car is our only choice.”

The barrier of energy before them pulsed with an ominous intensity. Its power grew stronger, almost alive. Sonya studied it, aware of the vampires around her doing the same. Their instincts screamed to stay away. But she knew better. They all did.

“We do it,” Sonya said, her voice firm, sealing her fate.

Before Shakespeare could voice another objection, Sonya pulled him to her, her lips captured his in a kiss that transcended time and space. In that instant, she was lost to the universe, embraced by the man she loved, her soul entwined with his. She savored the taste of him, the way his powerful arms protected her, offered both comfort and courage. In his embrace, she found solace, a momentary refuge from the agony that lay ahead. She drank deep from his love and felt the purity infuse her with strength, even as she suffered the echo of his pain—a pain that mirrored her own since her brother’s death. But now, it was a pain she could bear, one she could face because they shared it together.

With great effort, she broke the kiss, her breath escaped in soft gasps as she smiled up at him, her eyes reflected the depth of her feelings.

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