Rogue (Relentless Book 3) (44 page)

Nikolas?
Filled with new hope, I called to him as we approached the French doors.

Sara,
he answered, his voice full of agony and regret.
I don’t want you to see this.

I sent him my love through the bond.
Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.

We passed through the doors into an empty room. I looked around in confusion as Ava led me to the wide glass doors on the other side of the room that led to a large snow-covered courtyard. A blast of frigid air hit me when she opened the door and pushed me outside. I rubbed my arms and tried not to trip in the too-large shoes.

Night had fallen and dozens of gaslights had been lit to illuminate the courtyard. I could sense Nikolas, but I couldn’t see him because dozens of vampires blocked my view.  Cold blossomed slowly in my chest until I could barely breathe. I struggled to maintain my composure. If my radar was working, then my power was coming back.
Please, don’t let me be too late,
I prayed as the vampires parted to let us through.

“Oh, God.” My knees weakened when we emerged from the crowd.

A raised stone platform sat in the center of the courtyard, and on top of it lay Nikolas, unshackled and dressed in a black tuxedo. A female vampire stood on either end holding his legs and arms down. Standing beside the platform and facing me was Elena, dressed in a white bridal gown and veil that made her look like a little girl playing dress up.

Nikolas turned his head to look at me as we approached, and I could see blood staining the collar of his white shirt. His eyes had a glazed, pained look, but they softened when they met mine. “My beautiful little warrior,” he rasped as, if speaking was painful for him.
Look away, Sara. Please.

Elena clapped her hands sharply. “My children, we are gathered here for a very happy event. Tonight, I will take a mate.” Applause erupted from the vampires surrounding us until she raised a hand to silence them. “The transformation has begun, and in a few hours my mate will be born.”

Begun? I shook my head as I saw the horrible truth in Nikolas’s eyes. A scream tore from my throat. “No.”

Nikolas’s face twisted in pain and shudders wracked his body. I struggled in Ava’s grip and she released me, allowing me to run to him. I took his cold face in my hands and crooned softly to him. “I’m here, Nikolas. I won’t leave you.”
Fight it. Your Mori is strong. You can defeat this thing.

Sweat broke out on his brow as another wave of pain hit him. I wiped it away and my touch eased him. Through the bond I felt some of his pain, and I realized he was blocking me from the worst of it. Even now, he was trying to protect me.
Listen to me, Nikolas. I’ve seen vamhir demons, and they’re weak. They control through pain. Fight the pain, and you’ll beat it.

He grew still and his eyes opened. “I’ll fight until my last breath for you. But if this thing takes my body, I want you to remember that my soul belongs to you. No matter what the demon does or says, I love you. I will always love only you.”

“I’ll fight too. I promise.” I tested the barrier, and my pulse leapt when more power slipped past it. It wasn’t enough to use as a weapon, but it meant the barrier was failing. We just needed a little more time.
Nikolas, my power is coming back. Just hold on a little longer, and I’ll be strong enough for both of us.

You can’t save me and fight Elena. Use your power to get away from here.

No. I won’t leave you.

His eyes pleaded with me.
Get out of here, Sara. Get help and come back for me.

I shook my head. “It’ll be too late.”

Elena’s hand gripped my shoulder painfully. “You two have had plenty of time to say your goodbyes. It’s time to get on with my wedding.”

“Wait, Elena, please.” Nikolas begged and her grip loosened.

“Yes, my love?” she asked sweetly. I could hear in her tone that she liked hearing him beg.

“One kiss before you take her.”

Elena snarled, and I was glad I couldn’t see her face. “You’re
my
groom, Nikolas. You don’t kiss another girl on your wedding day.”

“Just a goodbye kiss. You will have all the rest.”

“Oh.” She let out a girlish giggle that made me grit my teeth. “Very well. One kiss.”

“My arms?” He gave her a beseeching look.

She huffed then ordered the vampire to release his hands. “Fine. Get on with it.”

“Nikolas, what are you doing?” I whispered. He’d said he would fight, but he sounded like he was giving up.

I nearly wept when his arms wrapped around me. He smiled tenderly as he brushed aside the hair that had fallen on my face.

The first brush of his lips against mine was so achingly sweet I couldn’t stop the whimper that rose in my throat. It felt like weeks instead of days since the last time he’d kissed me, and I pressed close, needing more. His mouth parted under mine and he deepened the kiss, drawing me in until I forgot everything but him. For one blissful moment, there was only Sara and Nikolas, and there was no world outside of his arms. The bond between us expanded as we opened ourselves completely to each other and shared our love and fear.

I didn’t realize I was crying until I tasted my tears on my lips. Nikolas kissed the tears away and whispered that everything would be okay. I buried my face against his throat and wept.

“Time’s up,” Elena snapped.

I lifted my head, but Nikolas tightened his arms around me. “Be strong, Sara,” he said against my ear. “Live – for me.”

I gasped when a tidal wave of energy surged through the bond, overwhelming me in its intensity as it coursed through my body. Never with my own Mori had I experienced such raw power or felt the kind of strength that was saturating every cell of my body.

Nikolas’s arms fell away and I staggered back from him. “What have you done?”

His face was gray and clammy, and his eyes were clouded when they met mine briefly before they closed. A violent tremor shook his body, and the vampires had to restrain him to keep him from falling off the platform. The episode passed and his head lolled to one side.

My Mori wailed. Every part of me froze, incapable of accepting what I was seeing and feeling.
Solmi!
my Mori cried, freeing me from my paralysis. The bond was still there, but already I could feel it weakening. I threw my arms around him and pushed the strength he’d given me back into his body. “You promised you’d fight!” I screamed. “You said you wouldn’t leave me.”

Nothing.

I beat on his chest. Beneath my fists something moved, and my power surged around the weakening barrier to get to the vamhir demon growing inside him. I pushed desperately into his chest, but I already knew it was too late.

I sagged against him and stared down at his lifeless face. “No. No, no, no, no.”

“Nikolas?” Elena ripped me away from him, and I fell to my knees in the snow, gasping for breath.

He wouldn’t leave me. He’s not gone. He’s not gone. He’s not gone.

Elena’s scream of rage penetrated my shock and sent vampires running from the courtyard. “You killed him.”

Her words sent a shockwave through my body, and I felt something fracture deep inside of me. Out of the fissure poured grief unlike any I had known before, and it burned through me, consuming me until I knew there would be nothing left but an empty shell. My Mori roared its own agony, and I called to it. It joined with me and our pain became one. I hung my head and let the grief take us.

When Elena’s hands wrapped around my throat and squeezed the air from my lungs, I didn’t fight her. When she threw me across the courtyard and I lay in a heap in the snow, I didn’t try to get up. When she screamed all the ways she was going to torture me, I didn’t flinch. She had taken the only thing that mattered to me. There was nothing else she could do to hurt me.

Then Elena stalked over to the platform and picked up Nikolas’s body.

My head lifted from the ground. My vision tunneled on the vampire holding the most precious thing in my life.

Blood roared in my ears. I trembled as the demon’s energy suffused my body until I didn’t know where I ended and it began. I stood and the snow crunched beneath my bare feet.

A growl rumbled up from my chest and echoed through the courtyard.

Elena turned and shock crossed her face before she snarled. “Ava, I need to tend to my mate. Deal with that until I’m ready for her.”

“Yes, Master.”

Ava blurred across the courtyard and grabbed my arm. “Let’s go.”

Blue static erupted across my skin, and she hissed and dropped my arm. “That’s not possible,” she uttered as my body began to glow and my hair crackled and lifted off my shoulders. She took a step back.

I captured her wrist. She screeched in pain and tried to pull away, but my hand was fused to her. A jolt of power took her to her knees.

“Ava Bryant,” my Mori and I said in one voice. “You hurt our mate.”

Her eyes rounded and she shook her head. “I didn’t. She wouldn’t let me touch him.”

I tilted my head to one side and studied the fear in her eyes. Her fear turned to shock when my hand blurred and punched straight through her ribcage. She made a wet choking sound as my hand reappeared holding her demon-encased heart. I squeezed and they both turned to dust.

“Piece-by-piece,” I said as she toppled into the snow.

I turned to face Elena as she laid Nikolas on the ground. Seeing him lying at her feet intensified my rage until there was room for nothing else inside me.

The world slowed down. Elena moved, and I raced forward to meet her attack. We collided and she grabbed for my throat while I went for her chest. My strike was not enough to disable a Master, but it tore her away from me and sent her flying backward. She landed easily on her feet and came at me again. Her claws scored my chest before I struck again. This time she stumbled when she landed.

Hands grabbed my arms from behind. Elena sneered triumphantly as two vampires held me for her.

Flames erupted on either side of me. Screams tore at my eardrums before the two vampires exploded. Burning gore spread across the snow and splattered Elena’s white wedding dress. She shrieked and smacked at the fire licking at her skirt. At the same time, an explosion came from inside the house, followed by screams. It sounded like Grigor’s lab had blown up.

Elena stared hard at me. “I think, niece, that it is time to end this little tantrum of yours. Now, stop this and come to me.”

I felt a soft push against my mind, and I batted it away as if it was an annoying gnat. “Your weak little mind has no effect on me.”

She started to circle me, visibly agitated by the discovery that I wasn’t such easy prey after all. “I can’t believe Nikolas took a half breed for a mate,” she sneered. “Look where it got him.”

Pain lanced through me, but it was quickly consumed by my rage.

“Don’t say his name.”

“It’s your fault he’s dead, you know. He gave you his strength through the bond, didn’t he? He would have survived the change if not for you.” She shook her head. “How does it feel to know you killed your own mate?”

I knew she was baiting me, but the truth in her words flayed open my soul. Nikolas had sacrificed himself for me. He was dead because of me. I would carry that with me for the rest of my life.

Her words served their purpose. I didn’t react fast enough when she flew at me, and she was able to pin me to the ground.

“Looks like old Azar was wrong about you,” she gloated as her fangs extended.

Shouts from inside the house tore her attention from me, and I sent another powerful blast into her. She flew backward and landed a dozen feet away. Smoked curled from the ends of her blond hair, and her fair skin had taken on a slightly gray pallor. Her movements were slower when she got to her feet this time to face off with me.

“Oh dear God. Elena!”

The two of us turned our heads to look at the blond warrior standing near the door. Tristan’s face was etched in shock and pain as he stared at the sister he’d lost many years ago. Behind him stood Chris and Desmund. I should have felt joy at seeing them, but all I felt was anguish and rage. They were too late.

“Tristan,” Elena simpered, giving him an angelic smile.

Her brother stood frozen as a dozen warriors spilled into the courtyard and fanned out around us. Chris and Desmund moved toward Elena with their swords raised.

My voice resonated through the courtyard. “She’s mine.”

“Sara,” Chris began.

The grief tried to surface again, but the rage smothered it. “She killed him. She is mine.”

Chris looked past me to the body lying in the snow. Sorrow filled his eyes, but he didn’t speak. He nodded and stepped back.

Desmund hesitated then did the same.

Elena let out a girlish laugh. “It’s like a family reunion. My beloved brother and cousin, and of course my darling niece. If you’d only arrived a little earlier, Tristan, you could have given me away at my wedding.”

Everyone stared at her, but I knew what she was doing. She was stalling, trying to throw them off while she recovered from my last attack. When Elena’s eyes shifted to me, I saw her real intent. My body buzzed with electricity as I coiled to attack.