Page 97 of After Darkness Falls

“But I’m also Chloe Miller. Barely trained. With no understanding of my powers or my limits. And no control over my thirst.”

She drank from Levi’s throat, and from the countless bags of synthetic blood he made available to her everywhere. But she was hungry. Thirsty. Always.

“Moving onto the hill will say to the world that I’m ready. That I’ve claimed my house. And that they can come knocking if they want to challenge me. I don’t think I can do that yet.”

Levi pulled her in closer.

“Not yet,” he agreed. “But soon.”

The End

Next in After Darkness Falls:Blood of a Huntsman.

Untitled

Two thousand years ago

The creature observed the witch from the darkness without a single word, its penetrating gaze as bright as a star in the darkness. A weaker witch might have fallen for it.

"I'm not afraid of you," Aurora lied. "You cannot reach me." This was said with a little more conviction. "I may not be able to kill you, but these walls will be your tomb."

"How poetic. And these markings…" His hands touched the stone on either side of the open doorway she'd spelled. "They're positively artful. Tatiana evidently didn't waste her aureus when she sent you to study the ways of the great wizards of Alexandria. But you're smarter than this, Rora."

"Don't call me that," she spat.

She'd fallen for it once. His beauty, his harsh and melodious voice. His spells.

He was dangerous, to her and to the rest of her kind. To all humanity. She was doing the right thing. For once in her life, she'd made the right decision.

"Fine. Aurora, then. You don't want to do this. These walls will never keep me. We both know it. You're doing nothing except delaying the inevitable."

"I am protecting my race from a monster," Aurora yelled.

She'd seen what he'd done. The hundreds of bodies, defiled, drained. Finally, she saw him for what he was.

"You're doing a coward's dirty work and turning your back on the only person who's ever been on your side," said Eirikr Primus, bastard of Markus Aurelius.

The first of his name, the first of his kind.

Not the last.

Hundreds of vampires now roamed the lands. She'd find them, too. This wouldn't end until they were all ashes.

"I don't want to see you waste your life on a fruitless endeavor. Let me go. I won't hurt you. I will never hurt you or let any of mine lay a finger on you. You know this."

She'd never doubted it. Even now, she was certain that the monster wouldn't harm her.

But his gentleness wasn’t about her. Aurora looked remarkably like her grandmother, which she knew was the only reason she hadn't been drained of blood the moment they'd met.

“Trust me, Rora.”

Aurora straightened her spine.

"You will remain here, in the company of the only thing you’ve ever loved—yourself. Rot in hell.”

She turned her heels, heading up the stairs that led out into the sunlight.

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