Page 99 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
He smiles. The way he looks in this moment, with that dark hair wet from sweat and snow, those tattoos that climb up his neck, the radiance in his skin, it will be one of those memories that’s a beacon in darkness when so many sorrowful years try to pull me beneath the sea of time.
“I love you too, my Lu. Always,” he says.
I thrust the needle into my jugular and press the plunger down. The moment I feel it start to burn through my veins, I rip out Semyon’s throat.
I was right, timing is everything.
I just wasn’t fast enough.
CHAPTER38
The only way to control a pack of werewolves is to be the Alpha.
And the only way for an Alpha to become an Alpha is either to inherit the position or to kill for it. Until the Alpha’s dying breath leaves their body, their thoughts and their rules are obeyed. Only then does the power shift to the next in line.
But you have to be a werewolf first.
Or a hybrid.
I feel Semyon’s orders scuttle into my brain as my transformation spiders through my veins.
Take the vampires alive.
Kill the rest.
Only it’s too late for him. There’s no coming back from the damage I inflicted before I injected the serum into my neck. Semyon’s last breath shudders through his throat as I grip his flesh between my teeth.
But it’s just a fraction of time too long to stop the hybrid that clamps down on Ashen’s shoulder.
Semyon’s last, rattling breath is muted by my scream.
Everything around us stops.
The hybrid releases Ashen’s shoulder as though she’s just bitten hot iron.
The werewolves that are closing in around us go still, their glowing eyes blinking at us in the wind and snow. They watch us for a long moment before they point their muzzles to the sky and howl. The hybrids add their wraithish calls into the storm.
I feel all their thoughts at my command.
And it hurts. Like there’s not enough space for them in my head. Like all my blood is turning from liquid to solid. All my muscles are growing stiff. All my joints are made of points of glass sharp enough to cut the bone they bind together. I claw at consciousness as the battlefield spins around me. Every move I make to crawl toward Ashen is agony. But all I care about is getting to where he kneels with his hand over his torn shoulder, panting in the snow.
I raise my wrist to my lips, shuddering with a sudden feeling of ice beneath my skin. I bite down as I drag myself closer to Ashen. My teeth quiver within my flesh as I watch him fall to his back.
“All right, vampire?” he whispers through rapid, painful breaths. He reaches for me as I draw near. I know he can feel the panic that burns the mark on my chest, just like I can feel his sorrow and resignation. My shoulders quake but I refuse to answer when I pull my wrist away.
“Gasaan… tiildibba me… zi ab…” I say, shivering, so cold, freezing cold in every cell. I hold my arm above his wound as blood drips into the marred skin. “Tirrama salutti… sa kassapti sa… ruhi ipusu… supii arkis ups…”
Ashen’s color is draining away before my eyes. I hear his heart pounding the venom through his veins. He raises his hand to my cheek. It’s so much colder than it should be. “My Lu. I’m sorry, my vampire. I’m so sorry. You were so brave.”
I feel every tear that flows across my skin. This can’t be all we have. It can’t be all we get. After all we’ve suffered, apart and together. This can’t be it.
“No, Ashen. I… can do this…Itti memes sa zu… sa sumri… Ittis memes sa…”
“Lu,” he whispers as I falter on the spell. The fire in Ashen’s eyes is dimming. Bursting blood vessels color the whites red. A cough rattles in his chest and he pulls me down for a last embrace. “There is no great risk left to take. We have taken them all.”
I lay my ear to his chest and shudder within Ashen’s embrace. His heart sings its last desperate song to me in a broken, stuttering rhythm.
No great risk left to take.
