Page 98 of Bound in Blood

Proving me right almost before I have finished forming the thought, Ashe and his minions swarm my father. But I move faster than they can, with Ophelia and Osiris on my heels. I throw two of the Onyx soldiers, and their heads crack open against the brick exterior wall of Zeus Hall, spattering the tan brick with vibrant red.

Ophelia reaches my side, standing like she is ready to fight.Stay by my side and handle the warlocks with Enora and Cadence, agápi mou. They will try to block us with magic, but you are stronger.

She voices her agreement, and soon the air is filled with static electricity as she blocks all of their spells, one after the other. As I tear out the throat of an Onyx vampire, I realize I have never been more proud of her. Sienna proves herself a strong young wolf as she fights alongside her father. An Onyx vampire pulls her back by her hair and is about to sink his teeth into her neck when she drops to her haunches and throws him over her head before crushing his windpipe with her boot.

Ophelia and the witches go on battling the warlocks, countering their spells as Osiris, Sienna, and I lay waste to the vampires. But where are Ashe and my father?

I scan the quad, and then I see them. My father is on his knees with another half dozen vampires surrounding him. Nicholas Ashe holds a sword above his head.

“No!” I roar.

“You can have me killed, Giorgios, but I have already named your brother as my heir,” our father bellows.

I sprint across the quad, but I am not faster than Ashe’s blade. I am unable to stop it from slicing off my father’s head.

Ashe turns and smirks at me, brandishing the blood-stained weapon. “How about I take yours next?”

I growl, my fangs protracted and every sinew in my body alive with anger. My father and I have had our differences, but he did not deserve to die like that—on his knees at the hands of a man with no honor.

Ashe does not have time to raise his sword again. I pin him to the ground and tear out his throat with my teeth, shrugging off his minions when they jump onto my back. He chokes on his own blood, coughing and sputtering.

“Are you expecting this will heal soon?” I taunt as I tear out another chunk. “I should have taken your head when I had the chance.” I wish I had, but I had taken so many souls by that point and was too weary to take another, so I agreed to let him live.

But I swear no such truce today.

The vampires surrounding me are suddenly set ablaze. Their flesh melts from their bones, and I recognize it as the work of my elementai. “I guess I will take it now.” I shove my fingers into the open wound of his throat and shred his neck apart until his head is no longer attached to his body. He stares up at me with blank, lifeless eyes.

Ophelia crouches beside me and lays her head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, and I take a deep breath and allow myself a moment to absorb her love and strength.

If I have learned anything from the many battles I have fought in during my long life, it is that my father will not be the only loss we suffer today.

Chapter

Forty-Seven

MALACHI

89 MINUTES BEFORE THE LIGHT GOES OUT

Giorgios cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes. “Did you hear that?”

I shake my head. I heard nothing.

“I think they have finally come for you.”

Please let it be true. I’m not sure how much longer I can stand this.

The wraith’s answering screech is ear-piercing and bloodcurdling. During the last however many hours or days I’ve been here, watching the wraith float in and out of here while Giorgios remains frustratingly nearby at all times, I’ve learned that is how the creature communicates. The despair is still overwhelming, but it lessens when the wraith isn’t here, and I have somehow nurtured the tiny flicker of hope in my chest into a small flame. That’s the only thing keeping me from trying to tear off my own head.

“I have deployed them now,” Giorgios says and follows it up with a cruel laugh.

Deployed who? What the fuck is going on?

“Welcome home,” he says as he opens the steel door to the basement. “I expected you sooner. Poor Malachi here has suffered so in your absence.”

“Where is Kai, you evil piece of shit?” Xavier’s voice echoes through the room, and it makes the flame inside me burn a little brighter.

“Where is Ophelia?” Giorgios sneers.

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