Gunshot. Then another.
Kayden drops, groaning, blood blooming in twin starbursts across his chest. "Not this," he pants, voice breaking. "Not again."
I shift, but her aim cuts to me. In her other hand, there's a familiar weapon, metal twined with wood—the satyr-killing blade.
Darius's expression shifts to despair, and then the beginning of resignation.
"I hope neither of you ex-lovers wants to test my new resolve," Sage says, voice oddly light.
"Why are you doing this?" I ask.
"Why?" She smiles, thin and bright. "Because I'm done with you. Love was a weight. Now I'm free." She points at Darius. "You. Darlene was right. I make you weak. You let your empire wobble chasing me like a wide-eyed puppy. Pathetic."
Darius turns away, jaw tight and silent.
She swings to Kayden. "And you…"
He groans. I kneel at his side, hands moving, finding the wounds. He breathes shallow.
"All that snarl and swagger? Little boy noise," she says with a mocking scoff. "Chasing big brother's shadow, yet coming up short. Newsflash, you're not worthy and you never were. I should've left you to die in that container."
Her words go in like hooks, I can see it in Kayden's expression beneath the pain wrecking him.
She grins. "But hey, a poetic turn of events—now you'll die slow, like you promised everyone else." Then she turns to me. "Colonel."
I brace.
"Stoic statue man," she murmurs. "Is that how you survive it? All the bodies you 'protected' into the ground? Wife—wives—Winston." She leans closer, conspirator-soft. "Let me give you something useful, a hint for your little scavenger hunt. Three people are bleeding out in Briar Hollow: a boutique lady, a bus driver, and some poor guy walking his dog. The dog is fine. They're hidden, but you can save them if you hurry. Or you can choose to chase me. Your call. But if you come after me, I'll end you."
She flicks her fingers as if dismissing a waiter. "Do everyone a favor and don't."
And she's gone, leaving the room full of silence and that bright, terrible aftertaste of her voice.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Kayden
Everything burns. My chest. My skin.
My fucking heart.
"That… that wasn't her. What the hellwasthat?" I grit out, voice cracking as the poison writhes deeper into my veins, scorching like fire under my skin.
"A dark nymph," Darius mutters. His first words since she stormed in and shattered everything. "And it's all your fault."
"My fault?My fault?" I push up on one elbow, snarling through the pain. "You're the one who broke her with your obsession. Your endless mindfuck games. You couldn't let her go, couldn't let herlive. She was running fromyou, Darius."
"And yet," he replies, his unnatural green eyes locked on mine, "yougave her your blood.Youmade the choice. You intended her to become like you."
"I intended her tosurvive," I growl, and the pain spikes so hard I see stars.
"Is she a vampire now?" Asher asks, voice tight.
Darius shakes his head. "No. She's both. A hybrid. A vampire-tainted nymph. An abomination that's not supposed toexist." Then, quieter, but every word like a death sentence: "One I must eliminate."
"What?" The word tears from me like a scream. My blood's on fire, my bones are screaming, and now he's talking about killing her?
Asher steps forward, tense. "So vampire blood doesn't kill nymphs. It changes them. That's what happened."
