Page 44 of Fated Blood

“The only thing I will fill you with is the blades of vengeance if you hurt her!”

“Are you saying that if I let her go, you’ll come with me?” Angel grins, passing my son to some winged soldier beside her. Slowly, she drops her robes and reveals her body to me. “If that is true, come to me here and now. Take me here on this hill, while your whore watches. I will let her live, but she will see what a vampire like you deserves. An equal, intimacy without the worry of destroying the life of a weak human.”

“Let me say goodbye?” I plead.

Angel’s chest heaves with excitement. She pulls her foot off my wife, stepping away and waving her hand in acquiescence.

I rush forward, falling to my knees and pulling Arria into my arms. I kiss her hard on the mouth, tasting her as if I’ve never kissed her before in my life. When the kiss breaks, I crush her to my chest and whisper in her ear as her desperate sobs drown out everything I’m saying.

“Remember what we talked about?” I whisper fiercely, and I feel the almost imperceptible nod from the woman who is my entire world. “It’s now or never, my love. We find out here and now…”

She nods again, ready to try.

My heart races, my mind screaming at me not to risk this. I found historical scrolls saying Vlad’s first wife was a human, that he changed her, but it’s never worked since then. I need to know if I can change Arria if I can make her strong enough to stand by my side. She trembles in my arms, fear wafting off her, but she nods again.

I sink my teeth into her neck, sucking her blood harder and faster than I ever have. The scrolls said you must drain the human, they have to have your blood in their system when you do it. I’ve made sure to have my love drink a vial of my blood every day since our wedding, a way to protect her. A way to keep her human body strong. If the scroll is correct, I’ve done everything right. If the scroll is correct, within moments, I’ll discover if Arria is bound to me by fate, forever.

Angel laughs, watching me drain her. “What? Did you ask me to spare her just so you could be the one to kill her? How heartless! We’re so evenly matched, I cannot wait to have you inside me, I can’t wait to carry your children…”

She will bear nothing but the seeds of demons. She will die today, if I have anything to say about it. Arria will rise from death, powerful beyond everyone’s expectations. We will defeat this army and then go after Vladimir himself. His reign of terror ends with me, ends with a bloodline created from his own.

Arria kisses my shoulder once before her body goes limp. Slowly, I lay her to the ground. Angel has to think this is real and to believe I’ve chosen her. I stand, turning toward my enemy, and walking into her embrace. I kiss her, hard and loveless on the mouth, revolting against the feel of her bare flesh against my chest. My lips are sealed as my hands roam her body, turning her around so I can watch Arria on the ground.

Internally, I beg whatever god will hear me that my love will rise. Beg that she will see the opening I’ve made her and come kill Angel while she has her back turned. Angel moans against my lips, lost in her assumed victory, and begins to kiss down my neck. I bend my head for her, revealing my sensitive artery, and letting her bite. She’s attempting to form the marriage bond, here and now. The exchange of blood. What she doesn’t know is my own soldiers are closing in around hers. Surrounding the enemy.

What she doesn’t know is I just saw Arria’s hand twitch.

She’s coming back.

The sounds of screams pierce the air, and Angel raises her bloody mouth from my skin and looks around. I hold her tightly, even going so far as to lift her thigh and grind against her core to keep her distracted. My soldiers have started butchering her men, and I need her distracted. She moans, going back to my throat.

Arria sits up slowly, eyes ablaze with hunger. First, her eyes fall on the man holding our son. She rises with a flurry of shadows and rips the man’s head from his shoulders. Before his body has a chance to fall, Arria snatches our son and cradles him to her chest. Our eyes meet, both filled with unshed tears. Our men are closing in, but not fast enough. Angel will realize soon what has happened. Time is short.

Arria opens her robes, slipping our infant son inside them and tightening the belt around her waist to carry his weight. Her eyes leave me, focusing on the naked women in my arms. I nod to her, it’s time. Time for this bitch and her whole army to die, time for Arria and me to live a life together for eternity. Forever Bound to one another from this day on.

I stroke Angel’s hair away from her neck as if I’m going to bite her back and solidify the bond, but it isn’t my teeth that sink into her neck. It’s Arria’s.

As one, Arria and I coordinate without words; she rips Angel from my body and throws her down the hill. I step forward and pull our son from her robes the instant before Angel rises back into the sky with a roar. She descends on us, and I use my body to shield both my wife and my son. Angel slams into my back, her screams like that of the legendary banshee.

Arria falls to her knees, slipping between my legs, and snatching Angel’s foot from underneath me. She yanks, pulling Angel to the ground, and I watch with pride as she jumps on the older vampire and bites her savagely in the throat. Angel’s wings are bent behind her, bones breaking from the pressure of Arria as she slams her viciously over and over into the ground. Blood is pooling around my enemy. My wife is killing her.

I cradle my son over my heart and rub his back as I watch his mother murder our enemy. My men are slowly replacing hers, throwing their slaughtered bodies down the hill until only myself and my army are left standing. All that’s left is for Angel to die, and once she does, we’ll fly to Romania and destroy the line of Vladimir once and for all.

I bow my head over my son, kissing his forehead. It’s about to be over, we’re about to live in peace.

A sickening squelch breaks me from my peaceful thoughts of victory and something hits me in the shins. It’s hot and wet, and part of it sticks to my legs as the rest of it rolls down the hill. I look down, over my son, and see blonde curls stained with blood and a scrap of scalp splattered against my shin. I stare, unbelieving, until my eyes rise to where Angel and Arria were battling. Arria is sitting up straight, but it isn’t her head I see above her shoulders.

Angel is standing over her, bent over in the middle and bathing her face in the spurting blood that sprays from where Arria’s head should be. Shocked, my eyes turn to look down the hill. There, on a pile of bodies, is the severed head of my wife.

“No…” I whisper, falling to my knees in denial. Hot, angry tears burn down my face, my ears ringing with the sick laughter coming from the jagged hole in Angel’s throat.

“Did you really think that would work? That she would change and be strong enough to kill me, the daughter of Dracula?” Angel scoffs, kicking my wife’s body down the hill. “Don’t worry, poor little Zarius. She is your bound mate, yes? Or that wouldn’t have worked? That’s right, cousin, I’ve read the ancient scrolls as well. If she is truly yours, there’s a chance she will be reincarnated someday. It’s too bad you won't be around to see it…”

Angel flies at me, screaming. Her fangs are out, talons extended. She’s going to kill me. I hunch my shoulders over my son, protecting him, as she hits my body.

“I told him you were not worth my legacy, but he insisted!” Angel screams as she stabs me with her talons again and again, biting every inch of flesh as she can. My men are closing in, surrounding her, but it’s too late. I wave them back, they didn’t save Arria, they won’t be able to save me either. I only have one chance at this. “He said you had powers, that your bloodline was laced with the blood of witches! I have seen nothing of this, this was a waste of my time!”

My face slowly splits into an evil grin. Vladimir wasn’t wrong, and Angel is about to learn first-hand what the Cadell line is capable of. I close my eyes, letting my shadows seep around me. Angel curses, jumping away from me in surprise. Arria’s blood runs through my veins, the bond, although short lived, igniting my hidden strengths inside.

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