“But I’m not the leader of the coven yet. I wouldn’t be able to provide you with an immortal life without regrets.”
Ambrose approached, tears coating his cheeks to show he had been crying for a while. I reached out to him, brushing away a tear with a weak smile. “Ambrose shed tears for me. I’m honored.”
“I will give away my power to her,” Ambrose announced. Erie rushed at her brother when she heard what he said. She grabbed him fiercely, turning him to her, but he pushed her hands away. “No. Erie, do not change my mind. I’ve grown tired of people comparing us with you drawing the short end of the stick. I want us to be evenly matched as well as on equal ground. I never had a desire to learn magic, only learning at father’s behest. However, she needs it way more than I. I willingly give my power to her.”
Lucien reached over to the male twin, reminding him what this sacrifice meant, “You can never reclaim this power once it’s been freely given. Are you prepared to live for eternity without your own magic?”
“It’s only earth magic, Lucien. I can still have my vampiric ones like Erie, but with my magic and your blood, Mel will be reborn as a pureblooded vampire. This is my gift to both of you. Be a good leader, Lucien.”
“With her at my side, I will,” Lucien vowed.
Ambrose nodded before cutting his wrist. Blood did not come from his wound, but instead a green light. It flowed from his wrist, towards me. The very moment it touched me, Lucien’s teeth sunk into my flesh to draw the last amount of blood from my system.
He put his bleeding hand against my parted lips, right before I could die. His blood was intoxicatingly sweet and I consumed every drop he gave me until both Ambrose’s magic and his blood stopped flowing.
A silence fell over the world before an even worse pain radiated through my nerve endings. Lucien held me weakly as I cried out in agony, writhing in his lap at each tremor of pain. It was as though every bone was being crushed and every organ failing without reprieve. No one helped, no one stopped. They only bowed their heads solemnly.
What was only minutes felt like hours in the torment of my body changing.
Then once the pain subsided, I became aware of the slowed beating of my heart.
Thump
Thump
Thump
Then there was only cold darkness.
Chapter Twenty-One
Melinda
Waking up was a different experience.
Every sound, every smell, every sensation, it was as if I was experiencing them for the first time unfiltered. I could hear someone pacing downstairs while someone else was running water over a plate. I could even hear the food slide from the plate into the sink.
The dust in my room danced above me through the sunlight coming through the curtains, like a flurry of snowflakes. I honestly should have dusted more, I thought to myself as I followed the flurries in the sunlight.
I could feel the warmth of the sun and the soft wind that blew the curtains around with each passing breeze. Moving slowly felt foreign, but I pushed through the uncomfortable sensation to walk over to the mirror in my bathroom instead of running.
My gray eyes were gone, now replaced with a similar gold to Isadora’s. My freckles seemed lighter and stood out more against my perfected skin. I moved my upper lip up to stare at my teeth, but saw no difference beyond how much whiter they appeared.
“Your fangs will descend once you’ve first fed. From there you can retract them at will,” Lucien informed me. I had heard his footsteps as they delicately passed over the wooden flooring, which had kept me from being startled by his sudden appearance. He was no longer able to sneak up on me and I chuckled at the realization.
When he stepped into the bathroom, his fingers brushed against my cheek and left a tingling feeling in their wake. “I thought I was too late.”
“You were exactly on time,” I assured him, reaching up to cup his cheek. “ My mom, she took over for me. She knew I wouldn’t be able to kill him and she made sure it was done for me.”
“I wish I could have had the chance to meet her. To thank her for bringing you into this world so that I could stand here with you. Now and for eternity.”
“Do you believe in a heaven and hell in Shadowhaven?”
Lucien pursed his lips in thought before nodding with an answer, “There is a similar notion for us. You die and can either ascend to a higher plane or descend to a place where your sins will be done unto you threefold. Everything you give comes back threefold, it’s the very foundation many Shadowhaven inhabitants live on. Your mother is no doubt in a better, higher plane with those who also ascended. She is watching over you as she always has.”
I nodded, glad that there was a better place for her. That there would be a place for me to return to find her after I lived all the life that was meant for me. In my thoughts, the sound of a car pulling into the gravel entered and pulled me from my mind.
We exchanged confused glances before making our way downstairs. Isadora was standing in the doorway with a familiar suited man on the other side. He was the one Gene had pulled a gun on a few weeks ago. He noticed my golden eyes and his business facade fell away to a more casual appearance.
