Page 9 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness
Kylo stopped his soothing strokes through my hair. He kissed my forehead. “Of course, angel. You’re following the cosmic signs from the otherworld.”
“Who the hell is Hekate?” Blade whispered to Harmony, who shrugged and shook her head in frustration.
I ignored them, my lip trembling as I searched Kylo’s eyes for the truth. In the end, it didn’t matter if he fully understood. His words of support comforted me anyway and eased the tightness in my chest enough to turn my back on Harmony and Blade completely.
“Kylo—”
“Enough,” Kylo said, staying by my side. “I understand your concerns. I told you my decision. I’ll find you as soon as we’re done.”
He believed in me.
After everything that happened, Kylo choosingmestill affected me deeply.
But the temporary warmth in my heart snuffed out the moment I entered the morgue. The moment my gaze collidedwith Idris’s pale, lifeless body, his soft brown eyes that saw nothing at all.
4
EVIE
Icouldn’t help the sob that crashed from my lips seeing Idris like this, confronted with the brutal reality that he wasn’t here anymore.
No aura. No heartbeat. No jokes at my expense. No warm laughter.
I froze up completely as I stared at his motionless form on a cold porcelain table. They’d cleaned him. They’d been preparing him for death rites.
Kylo took over. He lifted my brother into his arms with mournful tenderness.
The room’s chaotic, deadly energy swarmed me. I could sense there were some extremely unhappy spirits haunting this space—no doubt captured and tortured born vampires.
I shuddered at the oversized drawers in my periphery, housing more bodies.
Kylo cradled Idris to his chest and followed me out of the room.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Kylo asked curiously.
“Yes,” I half-lied. I’d figure it out as I went.
Since the block on my power had melted, everything was heightened. Even despite my poor, depleted body.
I’d always been tapped into energy, the layer of spiritual reality that existed atop our physical one.
But now, it was a far more powerful connection than what I’d become accustomed to. Colors were brighter, the world more alive and open to be bent to my will.
Princeton. Hekate.
I invoked them both, tethering myself to hues of purple, black, and green. Healing, death, destruction.
Rebirth.
An invisible thread of connection tugged me forward, showing me where to go. I sensed Princeton’s power that still weaved through the halls, growing stronger the closer we got to his spell room.
Each vampire who passed us in the winding underground halls stared at us in utter confusion. I wondered what they assumed from the sight—Kylo holding a dead human boy, a witch covered in ash at his side.
The healers had cleaned me up the best they could, but I was still in the same stained white and floral dress.
I found Princeton’s spell room without even a hint from Kylo.
The relief was evident in Kylo’s face, even if it was coupled with that same terror that had never left him.
