Blood Rose (40 page)

You…you didn’t want me?

Of course not. I made love to a man I believed was mortal. But he was not, and then I found I
could not destroy you, not without bringing about my own death.

Drake glared at Lady Draycott, radiating hatred. He spoke aloud, his voice a growl. “Do not listen to her poison, Serena.” He swung one arm up and pointed the crossbow at her mother’s chest.

Jonathon reached over and lowered it. “The truth,” he said with brutal calm. “Give your daughter the truth.”

Lady Draycott, her mother, snarled and showed long and deadly fangs.
Silence. You men are
insignificant. I could destroy you with a snap of my fingers.

Serena darted forward.
No!

Both Jonathon and Drake grasped her arms and pulled her back.

Lady Draycott sneered at Jonathon, then at Drake.
Men are so pitiable. As for you, Serena, I
had no idea how important or how valuable you would be. You will be the most powerful vampiress.

You wish to know who I am? I am as old as creation. I was fashioned by the hand of God,
fashioned before the eyes of the man I was made for. And he was appalled by what he saw. He
refused me—me, the gift of God! I was the first wife of Adam, and I was banished from Paradise.

“Lilith?” Jonathon’s deep voice broke the stillness.

You do not believe me. You think I am merely mad. I am not Lilith. I am Eve. The first Eve,
the forgotten one. Adam saw me created from the earth, fashioned from dirt, and he was repulsed.

“And you lured Serena here to give her to Lukos. Why?”

I would never give my powerful child to that stupid, arrogant male. Lukos wishes to populate
the world with vampires. I cannot allow him to gain so much control. We, the vampiresses, rule the
world of the immortals. We cannot allow a monster like Lukos to possess such power.

Serena gripped a tree trunk. She would rule the world of immortals? That had not been in the Society’s books—books that had, of course, been written by men—

Pain sliced suddenly through Serena’s belly. Stunned by it, shaking in crippling agony, she almost sank to the ground. Jonathon caught her, and she saw his horror as nausea hit her stomach.

Sparks shot before her eyes, and her vision blurred.

“It has begun,” Lady Draycott said. “You must go to the standing stones, Serena.”

“Lukos is there,” Jonathon argued. He held her tight.

Serena clung to his shoulder. Hot pain raged through her, as though her blood were on fire.

She wanted to claw her skin off; she wanted to let her burning blood pour out of her body. She wanted to die.

Drake shouted through thought,
What in blazes is happening to her? Stop it!

Dimly, she heard her mother’s voice in her mind.
There is no choice. It must happen at the
stones. There is much to be done. First, we must destroy Lukos. We haven’t much time before the
power consumes her—

Blackness closed in on her vision, and Serena fought to stay conscious. But her mother lifted her hand and a globe of violet light floated toward her. It surrounded her, enveloped her.

She tried to touch it, but it faded before her shaking fingertips made contact. Warmth coursed Blood Rose ©Sharon Page 2007 Email: [email protected] 169

through her limbs, her heartbeat steadied, and she felt strong once more.

Through the dappled purple mist, she saw Jonathon. Jonathon running toward the standing stones, like a madman pursued by demons.

“Bloody lunatic.” Drake hoisted her over his shoulder and followed.

Jonathon had acted like a madman, throwing aside logic to save her, Serena realized. Drake let her down just as Jonathon charged forward with stake raised—he’d thrown aside his useless crossbow. Standing in the middle of the circle, white robes dancing in the wind, Lukos lifted his hand.

Serena choked on a scream, but she could only watch, helpless, as Lukos smashed his hand at Jonathon like an angered bear. Jonathon’s stake drove into Lukos’s arm, blood spurted, and Lukos shoved him back. He tumbled head over heels and slammed into a stone.

But he was up in an instant.

Serena felt a warm hand in hers—her mother’s.
Come back with me, Serena. Allow the foolish
men to fight.

She tried to wrench free from her mother’s grip but couldn’t, and her mother towed her to the edge of the circle. The touch of her mother’s hand eased the pain racking her limbs and her heart, but her legs and arms were trembling uncontrollably. She didn’t trust herself to fire the bow she still held. She could hit Drake or Jonathon.

From the periphery of the stone circle, Serena held her breath as Jonathon charged again and her heart pounded as she saw him leap aside to avoid the bolt of violet light shot at him. Drake attacked with a stake, but Lukos simply grabbed Drake’s arms and threw him away. His body sailed back through the air, arms and legs splayed wide, and he smashed back against a stone altar.

His back cracked, seemed to bend in half backward.

The fall must have broken Drake’s back.

Fear roared through Serena’s body, screamed in her skull. Could even a vampire survive that?

Drake wasn’t moving…dear heaven, he wasn’t moving…

Fury raged then, and her pain vanished. Fingers shaking, she aimed her bow, fired immediately. But the bolt arced over Lukos’s shoulder. Jonathon leapt to his feet again, and he fired a shot. His bolt slammed into Lukos’s gut, and Lukos yanked it free.

Lukos lifted his hand, and Jonathon staggered back and fell in the dirt.

There had been no bolt of light, but the monster still had the power to drive Jonathon down.

It was hopeless. Only her mother had to the power to stop him—

No, Serena. I do not. Not alone
. Her mother pulled her crossbow from her hand.

What are you doing—?

Lukos fixed his gaze on her. No! He took two steps to her, his fangs glinting as a grin of triumph came to his handsome face. She felt drawn to his strength. To his commanding smile and the allure in his gleaming eyes—golden eyes that burned like the sun.

The thought popped unbidden into her head—with Lukos, she could rule the world…

Serena, you are mine.
Lukos’s low, accented voice vibrated through her, and her nerves sizzled in response. No…she had to fight—

Serena bit back a cry as Jonathon appeared out of the mist once more and jumped at Lukos’s back, his hand slicing toward the demon’s chest. Lukos flung Jonathon over his head. The demon tossed Jonathon’s enormous body as though it weighed nothing. His boot stomped down, and with his victim pinned, he reached for Jonathon’s head. The monster’s hands clamped Jonathon’s jaw and twisted as though to break the neck—

Then heat engulfed Serena. Burning heat. It shot up her arm to her hand, and the skin of her Blood Rose ©Sharon Page 2007 Email: [email protected] 170

palm screamed as though on fire. Her entire hand seemed to become molten, like malleable wax.

Even as she gasped in shock, a white force poured from her hand and became a shimmering light. It hit Lukos in the face. He released Jonathon and fell back.

“Your power!” her mother cried in delight.

Serena felt drained. She was shaking. She hadn’t consciously done that. It had just happened.

Help me, Serena. We must banish him. You have the power now; your rage has brought it into
you. Take my hands—otherwise the power will be too strong for you.

She must hold the hands of the mother who had hated her. She looked to Drake, fear in her heart. He had known this pain—his mother had wanted to kill him, and he had found the courage to survive. He was struggling to get up, his hand on his back. Groaning and in great pain, she guessed, but alive!

She reached out, slipped her hands into Lady Draycott’s—into Eve’s—and closed her eyes as power surged through her veins.

Say this word with me,
Eve urged.
Paradise.

Lukos charged forward and Serena’s vision became his; suddenly she saw the world from his view, as though she were inside his head, looking through his eyes. She saw herself and her mother, their hair whipping in the wind. She saw their clasped hands and the white glow that surrounded their fingers.

Desperately she chanted the word in her head.
Paradise.
Paradise. Paradise
.

Open your eyes, Serena!

A green glow seemed to come from her mother’s eyes. It engulfed them and radiated out like ripples on still water.

Serena…no…you are mine! Serena!
Lukos’s last plea flooded her mind, but the green light flowed around Lukos like fog, silencing his voice. He punched at it, twisting and writhing within its grip. It swirled around him like a maelstrom, while he gave one last desperate scream.

Then, in a wink, the lights vanished, leaving her blinded as though a hundred candles had flared, then extinguished at once.

Drake! Jonathon!

“No. Damn you, Eve.” A man charged out from behind a stone. A man with a crossbow.

“You were to give her to me!” he shouted.

Ashcroft. Dear heaven, it was Ashcroft.

Serena watched, stunned, horrified, as Jonathon lunged at Ashcroft. Jerking wildly around, Ashcroft pointed the weapon at Jonathon’s chest. “Sommersby! You betrayed me!”

No!

She jumped, springing across the ground like a lion, but she hit something—a force struck her and if felt as if she had smashed into a wall. Her chest seemed to crumple, as though a weight crushed it, as though her ribs had been broken like kindling. The fire came after, a fierce burning through her chest. Her heart exploded—the pain seared her.

She fell to the ground like a sack of stones. Blackness roared around her, swallowing her whole.

Serena! Jonathon ran forward. The bolt had ripped through her chest and sent her plunging to the ground. Ashcroft held a sword above his head as he raced toward Serena’s fallen body.

Decapitation. Sever the head from the body. The vampire would never rise.

No! Jonathon leapt, knowing he didn’t have enough time—

Magic! He lifted his hand, praying he possessed enough power. Scorching fire raced down his arm, and a miraculous circle of red fire grew in the palm of his hand. It streaked forward and hit Blood Rose ©Sharon Page 2007 Email: [email protected] 171

Ashcroft’s arm. The sword tumbled backward, and Ashcroft howled in pain.

Before he could fire again, Jonathon saw a bolt of white light streak toward Ashcroft—it struck him directly in the torso and exploded in concentric circles. Pure white, the light hit Jonathon’s eyes, and the pain screeched back into his skull. It blinded him and knocked him back—he stumbled and fell onto the ground. His hip hit, his shoulder bounced, and agony shot through his body.

A scream burst from the center of the light, unearthly and high pitched. A shriek of agony.

Hell, was that Ashcroft? A sound rose, as though the air were thick with bees, and the drone shut out the screams.

As Jonathon blinked and could begin to see, the sound stopped, and the light sucked in on itself, like a vortex, until it became a pinpoint. Then it vanished on a breath of wind.

Ashcroft was gone.

Jonathon forced himself to his feet and staggered to Serena’s fallen body just as Drake reached her. Jonathon’s breath rushed from his chest, and he sank to his knees at Serena’s side. Ashcroft’s shot had been perfect, piercing her below the left breast. It must have destroyed the heart.

“A crossbow bolt cannot destroy her,” Eve said. “I who was fashioned from earth, piece by piece, know that. What is a wound but that which can be healed?”

Serena’s mother pushed him aside, and Jonathon fell back to let her kneel by her daughter’s wounded chest. Eve lifted a slim velvet rope from around her neck and opened the small pouch that dangled from it. “This is the soil of paradise. That from which life was created.”

The pale hands rolled the dirt into a ball. It smelled of richness and earth. Jonathon’s nostrils flared, and his body drew in the scent. Warmth rushed through him. Instinct begged him to touch the sacred earth that brought life—

Jonathon fought that urge, and he leaned forward. All he wanted to do was protect Serena, and goddamn, he didn’t trust Eve. She had rejected Serena, why help her daughter now?

But he had to let Eve work. They couldn’t waste precious seconds.

Eve pulled the crossbow bolt free, and Serena did not move. Fear and pain lanced his heart.

His gaze wavered. Was it too late—?

Have faith.

He heard the word in Eve’s lovely, enthralling tones. Could he have faith?

He glanced to where Ashcroft had been, but the blackguard had vanished completely. Ashcroft had paid the ultimate price, for what purpose? To destroy a woman he simply did not understand?

Eve pressed the ball of dirt into Serena’s wound from the front, and Jonathon flinched. Dirt packed into a bleeding chest wound?

“And thus the dirt becomes a new heart,” Eve whispered. “It beats with strength, and it allows life to endure. Life—the miracle, and the most precious gift. Life—the cross we bear to know the sweetest pleasure.”

Eve bowed and held her hands together in front of her, as though praying. Uncertain, heart pounding, Jonathon did the same. From the corner of his eye, he saw Drake dip his head.

Eve dropped her hands. “Now you both must touch her, for it is love that gives the miracle.

Life springs from love and pleasure. You—” Eve pointed at him, then pointed to Drake. “And you have given her both. You must touch the dirt and give it the power to become the heart.”

Eve paused. “But—”

“But what?” Drake snapped at Eve, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“You must love her absolutely and completely. It is the power and depth of your love that will save her.”

Drake’s hand already rested on the cool earth pushed into Serena’s chest. Serena’s face bore no expression, not even the contentment of sleep. Her lips were a simple line, her eyes shut, her Blood Rose ©Sharon Page 2007 Email: [email protected] 172