I’ve been around the world, Mama,
But all I want to do –
All I want to do is come home.”
Holding on to all of their love for me, every hug, every kiss, every moment of laughter we shared these last few decades, I use it to strengthen my resolve.
As Aleric’s cock slides horizontally between my pussy lips, I make a choice I can never come back from. One that will mean I’ll never see Caden or Ryo again.
“Alakim vera k’arr,” I murmur, usingdarkmagic for the first time. Opening myself up to it completely, I let it take whatever payment it wants. It strips off the flesh on my breasts. It disintegrates one kidney. It’s killing me, but I don’t care to restrain it.
“Stop!” Aleric hisses, but I don’t.
“The sun is only rising,
The dew’s not even burned,
The colors are all enticing,
But,Mama, I’m ready to come home.
Sucking everything into my shadows, killing every last fucking thing in this room, I scream out all my rage and pain. Powerflows through melikenothingI have never felt before. The world turns darkasI’m sucked into the very vortex I’m damning them all into, down into the Plane of Monsters where I willsurelydie. I cannot come back to this world on my own, and Ryo does not know where to lookforme. But I do not care.
I will bring peace tothis city formy family.
I will gladly sacrifice myself for that.
“Oh,Mama, I’m ready to come home.”
PARTFOUR:
FUCKED-UPBOSSES
Forty-Three
ALERIC
13OCTOBER1961
Icollapse to the ground, my legs giving out. My body is shaking. My breathing is strained. Born vampires are built for phasing. We don’t have to learn any spell. We didn’t have to make a deal with any djini. It was a gift from the gods.
And yet, phasing hundreds of times, one after the other to keep myself in the air while Sau’s shadowscovered the floor, eating everything, has utterly wrecked me. My body in chills, I barely manage to roll over and vomit. I spit a couple times after, trying to rid myself of the acidic burn in my throat.
I reach for a vial of blood inside my jacket, but my hand is shaking too much to find the pocket. I’m going into shock, my foot still bleeding out. If I were a human, I would’ve been dead a long time ago, but phasing helped to keep the blood where it was, momentarily freezing it so Icould jump.
My fingers manage to find the small tube of glass, and I pull it out. Popping off the cork, I raise it to my lips and drink Jonathan’s blood. A witch’s essence works so much better than a human’s.
It isn’t enough to regrow the entire part of my leg that I hacked off with the knife, but I regain a few inches, and the bleeding stops. That is good enough for now.
I look around the empty gym. All the equipment is gone. I am utterly alone. It was filled with sired vampires for a tournament to see which ones would get promoted up the ranks. All of my “children” were once here, and now they’re all dead. Not even dust remains.
Nor does Sau.
I smile at that, having expected to find her body, the dark magic she unleashed having killed her. But it looks like she got away. Lives to fight another day.
My grin widens at the thought of our next fight.
The door to the gym opensslowly at first, then it’s swung wide with a bang. “Where the hell is everything?” Vlad asks.