Viktor’s teeth violently ripped out of my neck, doing even more damage as he was thrown off me. Stinging pain enshrouded the right side of my neck, where he had pierced my skin. There was no heat or prickle of healing, just gaping flesh unable to be put back together.
A far-off splash from Viktor landing in the water of the swimming hole sounded. I could only hope Hell’s gate swallowed him.He fucking deserved it.
I crumpled to the hard ground, soaked in my own cold, black blood as Thaddeus sunk down in front of me.
“Love? Talk to me. Please, talk to me.” His hands cupped my face, stopping my head from rolling back and forth.
I blinked at him through misty eyes. His voice was fuzzy.
Everythingwas fuzzy.
“You really think pushing me out of the way will stop me?” Viktor asked, apparently back to finish me off. “Her blood is as sweet as tree sap.”
“Shut your bloody mouth,” Blaise growled out.
Kai and Aziel were fighting the vampires. I could hear the hyperspeed collisions of bodies smacking into bodies. A head soared through the air off toward the treelines, and I could’ve sobbed in relief that it wasn’t anyone I recognized.
“The battle is over. Look at her,” he spat, his gaze cutting into me. “She’s almost dead as it is. No vampire can survive being drained that low.”
“She’s not just a fucking vampire, you idiot!” Aziel shouted before one of the vampires knocked into him.
What?
Burning, prickling pain zipped through my head, and the pain from my injuries started to become noticeable again. I gasped, placing a hand over my ripped flesh where thick blood was oozing out of the wound.
Viktor blurred forward, pushing Blaise toward the fight with the vampires, knocking him into them like bowling pins before he lunged, teeth sinking into Thaddeus’s neck without hesitation.
Thaddeus let out a gurgling noise that caused my synapses to fire again.
My pendant lit up a glowing orange and burned the skin it rested against before the fire opal shattered to pieces. The very universe flashed in my mind like fleeting moments, weaving together the fabric of my past life I couldn’t have previously fathomed.
The significance of my father.
The first time I was created.
The second time I was born.
What I was.
Who I was.
A force from within me detonated. Scorching hot energy coursed through my body as hellfire encircled me, bigger and brighter than Aziel’s had been. It was as if the hellfire seared me from the inside out, but instead of destroying me, it healed me—stitching together my open wounds in seconds.
I snarled, focusing on controlling my hellfire. This body had never invoked its natural-born powers, so the amount of control I had to use took a toll. I had to be careful, my vampires were as vulnerable to hellfire as Viktor was.
Putting out the blue flames around me, I was on my feet, colliding with Viktor before I knew it. My fingers dug into Viktor’s rough skin and convoked hellfire to my hands, charring him. Viktor screeched, hissing as his left arm burst into flames before it disintegrated into ash.
The smell of seared, rotting flesh hit the air, and I sneered at his frantic form stumbling back from me. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Ayla from the Brune clan overpowering both Kai and Aziel with one of Viktor’s lackeys.
I glanced behind to see Blaise at Thaddeus’s side, helping him get back on his feet. Thaddeus was in no shape to continue fighting after Viktor’s teeth pierced his skin. I’d hoped there wouldn’t be any lasting effects.
Oh fuck.
By the time I’d turned back around, Viktor’s back was already vanishing into the fog.
A groan caught my attention from the fight, and I watched Ayla grab hold of Aziel’s horns and flip him onto his back.
My vision throbbed red as rage streaked through me.How fucking dare she touch what’s mine?
