Page 69 of Beast of Blood and Roses
A cry escaped me as I watched the magic tear through him. Then I smelled it: something burning, acrid and terrible. The stench of flesh being consumed from within.
Oh god. It was Beast himself, burning from the inside out.
He’d saved me once again, and it was destroying him. The sight of his agony broke something fundamental inside me. I threw myself toward him, tears streaming down my face, a wail of grief and rage tearing from my throat.
“Beast!” I dropped to my knees beside his writhing form, my hands hovering over him, afraid to touch him and cause more pain. “You’re going to pay for this!” I screamed at Volaris.
Pure hatred flared in his eyes as he began forming another deadly blue arrow between his palms, rage twisting his features into something monstrous.
But he was so focused on me and Beast, so consumed with finishing what he’d started, he didn’t notice the real danger stalking up behind him. I looked up through my tears to see Trystan’s body begin to shift and change with fluid, terrifying grace.
His expensive clothes tore apart at the seams as bonescracked and reformed, his human form giving way to something far more primal and deadly. The sound of ripping fabric filled the air like sharp gunshots as muscles bulged and stretched beyond human limits.
Within seconds, an enormous snarling white wolf stood where the man had been—easily twice the size of any natural wolf, his ice-blue eyes blazing with supernatural intelligence and fury. A low, rumbling growl filled the room, so deep it seemed to vibrate through the floorboards and into my very bones. His massive head swiveled toward Volaris, lips pulled back to reveal fangs as long as daggers.
Part of me registered the massive wolf preparing to attack Volaris, but all I could think about was Beast dying in my arms. I couldn’t just hover helplessly. I pressed my hands against Beast’s wounds, trying to stop the bleeding, but blood seeped through my fingers anyway. “Stay with me,” I whispered desperately, watching his breathing grow shallower. “Please don’t leave me.”
Chapter Forty
Rosalie
Beast groaned, a sound so weak and pained it shattered something inside me. Despite the pressure I was applying to his wounds, more blood slipped down his chin, and I felt my stomach drop into an abyss. With my free hand, I gently pushed his sweat-soaked hair back from his forehead. “You’ll be okay,” I whispered. “We’ll get The Witch’s Heart back. You’ll be fine.”
The thought of losing him made it impossible to breathe. When had he become so important to me? When had this fierce, damaged man become the center of my entire world?
I wanted to help Marcel, who was still crumpled against the wall, but I couldn’t leave Beast, not when he was bleeding to death because he’d thrown himself in front of a killing blow meant for me. Not when every labored breath might be his last.
His glazed emerald eyes struggled to focus on my face. “You’re...safe?” Each word seemed to cost him everything he had left.
“Yes.” A lump clogged my throat. “I’m safe because of you. Because you’re...” I stopped myself before the words could spill out. Because you’re everything to me. Because I can’t imagine a world without you in it.
I looked around desperately for Tinker Bell. She could save him—she had to be able to save him. The alternative was I’d lose the only person who truly cared about me.
Then the man I’d called father for twenty years raced toward The Witch’s Heart that lay just inches away from Marcel. His movements were desperate, frantic, like a wild animal going for its last meal.
Marcel reached for the amulet with trembling fingers, but Volaris was faster. He raised his hand and tossed a crackling energy bolt that struck Marcel full in the chest, sending him flying backward into the wall with a sickening thud. Marcel crumpled to the floor, groaning in pain.
“Marcel!” I cried out.
Volaris stretched out his greedy fingers toward The Witch’s Heart, triumph gleaming in his eyes.
Trystan pounced with deadly precision, his massive white form crashing into Volaris like a freight train. The impact sent the murderer flying across the room, his body slamming into the leather couch with enough force to send it sliding backward.
I kept both hands pressed against Beast’s wounds while watching the man who’d destroyed my family scramble desperately to get up. Horror and savage satisfaction warred inside me.
Colette, tears streaming down her weathered face, raced across the room toward The Witch’s Heart. But just as her fingers were about to close around it, the amulet slid across the floor as if pulled by an invisible force,coming to rest at the feet of the woman who emerged from the shadows. Tinker Bell stepped into the light.
She bent down gracefully and picked up her lost treasure, the dual-colored stone pulsing with power in her pale hands. Her green eyes were unreadable as she looked from the dying Beast to me.
“No,” I whispered desperately, fresh tears sliding down my face as I clutched Beast’s hand tighter. “Please, please let him have it. He’s dying because he saved me. Please.”
My voice broke completely on the last word. I was begging the woman whose sister Beast had murdered, pleading for mercy I had no right to expect.
Tinker Bell slowly shook her head, her expression unmoved by my tears, and my heart shattered into a thousand pieces. She was going to let him die. She was going to let the man I loved…the man who meant everything to me...die right here in my arms.
Volaris managed to get one bloody hand on the couch, trying desperately to pull himself upright. But then Trystan lunged again with predatory precision, his massive jaws clamping down on the man’s throat with a wet, crushing sound.
Blood sprayed across the leather couch in crimson arcs as Volaris weakly tried to push the great white wolf off with his remaining strength. But his hand trembled, then went completely slack.
