Page 143 of The Vampire's Mercy
Betrayal.
There is betrayal.
“He’ll kill him,” Medusa hissed, running toward the cauldron.
“Death will set you free,” Aidan said, talons poised to kill the elf.
Body moving of its own volition, I rushed the rotten thing before he drove those filthy things into Paris’s chest. He grunted as I threw him into a wall, both his arms falling off from the impact.
He landed on his knees, more bones breaking. His eyes blazed with golden fury, part of his face collapsing inward.
Vile.
“You!” I spat. “You betrayed me. How did you betray me?”
He snarled, opening his mouth to allow more maggots to pour forth.
“Answer me!”
The filth chortled. “The broken vampire king begs me?”
Rage clawed at my soul. “I’m not begging you. I’m commanding you.”
His laughter became a death rattle. “You command me? I think not. You’re a weak creature, Silvanus. But a gift I’m thankful for.”
A growl thundered in my chest. “What are you saying to me?”
Medusa joined me, hissing at the vile mess of a figure. “I remember you,” she said. “I remember you were always in the palace of…of…shite!”
Chortling again. “Such broken minds. All because of the vampire’s mercy.” He spat maggots. “Do you hear that, elf? The vampire king showed me mercy and doomed you all.”
Unsure of what he meant, I surged forward to grab him by the head. It came off his neck, maggots and dead blood slopping over my hand.
“I will be free of this! I will be free!” his head bellowed.
I dropped it, the wretched thing exploding on impact, spraying blood and dead matter up the wall, across the floor, and onto my boots.
The rest of him collapsed into a grim pile of body parts. Maggots crawled over the remains, the stink of death rife on the air.
“Out I go to wonder and see…”
“Paris?”
“Oh how magnificent to be a leaf be so full of glee!”
His song.
The petals fell, taking us into the dead forest. I saw him there as before, but this time he was speaking with an elf woman with hair as white as snow.
“Paris?”
He faced me, tears flowing down his face, singing, singing, singing. And one memory came into the light.
Aidan had killed my brother.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
PARIS
