CHAPTER 25
Braith couldn’t keep his astonishment hidden as his father took another step away from the ruined wall. It was a sight he’d never even imagined he would ever see, never mind actually experience. There was a part of him that felt like a child again, cowering beneath his father’s heavy hand, unable to defend himself from the repeated blows, unable to escape the abuse that his father so jovially inflicted upon him.
Another part of him, the adult one, the king one, the one shielding Aria, wanted to rip the entire barn down and shred the man looking at him with such delight. Red shadowed his vision as the scent of Aria’s blood drifted up to him and a snarl curved his lip. He’d dared to touch her again and Braith was going to make him pay for that. After everything this man had done to Aria, to him, and countless other innocents, Braith knew that he could not let him survive this. There was no way he would allow this man to touch her again, to be in charge again; no way he would allow him to unravel all of the good they had already created here.
Braith just wasn’t sure there was any way to stop him. His father had taken a stake to the heart, and with no sustenance to sustain and revitalize him, the wound had still somehow managed to heal itself. It was obvious his father hadn’t had much nourishment before returning to the palace, but Braith suspected he’d looked far worse than this when he’d first crawled from his grave. Braith didn’t know how long he’d been wandering around, but the fact that he’d returned here meant he thought he was strong enough to be a threat to Braith, and anyone else he came across.
He looked like a decomposing corpse, but beneath the rotten exterior, Braith felt the vibrant pulse of power that he still possessed. His body was rapidly healing itself, his shoulders were straightening as he thrust them back and quirked an eyebrow in amusement. His upper lip curled to reveal long fangs that glistened in the murky light of the stable. Even though her chin was raised and her eyes narrowed, a small shiver ran through Aria and into him as his father leveled her with his gaze and licked his lips.
A low growl rose up Braith’s throat as he pushed Aria back a little. The tension in his body notched higher, bloodlust began to curl through him as he shielded her. He had far more control over his more primitive instincts now, but even so he would slaughter the creature across from him before he ever allowed his father to touch a hair on her head again.
“Xavier!” His father’s head tilted to the side as Gideon’s startled cry echoed through the stable. Braith had seen Xavier’s prone figure in the shedrow, but he hadn’t taken the time to learn if the vampire was alive or not. Judging by the marks on Xavier’s neck, and his father’s rapid healing, Braith suspected that Xavier was gone. Aria’s blood alone couldn’t have caused the changes that were rapidly transforming his father.
“He was delicious,” his father murmured.
Aria shuddered; a small sound of distress escaped her. “Xavier,” she breathed.
“Almost as good as your whore here,” his father purred.
Aria’s hands tightened on his arms, he refused to rise to his father’s baiting as he pulled her closer to him. Pressing her flat against his body, his hands splayed across the hollow of her lower back. He stood for a moment, savoring in the feel of her while he still could.
Aria’s gaze darted behind him at the sound of feet skidding to a halt outside the stall door. “Holy shit!” William blurted.
“Atticus?” His father’s head swiveled to the side, a smile twisted his lips at Calista’s disbelieving question.
“You look just as beautiful as I remember Calista, perhaps when this is over we can reunite,” he said suggestively.
Braith’s grip on Aria eased slightly. If there was one thing he knew for certain, no vampire came back from having their head ripped off. Her eyes were wild as they came back to his, her fingers clenched around his arms before her grip reluctantly loosened. He stared at her for a long moment before she gave a subtle dip of her head and her fingers stroked briefly over his biceps.
She let go of him as he sprang into motion. His father turned toward him, bracing for the impact as Braith lowered his shoulder and collided with him. His father’s hands came down on his shoulders, his fingers dug into his skin as Braith propelled them both backward. They crashed through the already ruined stall divider and into another wall.
He was disgusting, everything about the hideous creature that had once been a king, was repulsive. Yet the strength in his hands was even more than Braith had been prepared for, even with knowing that his father was stronger than he appeared. The walls gave out and he lost his balance as they tumbled into the shedrow. They rolled over top of each other as they each sought to gain the top.
Braith managed to get a few blows into his father’s lower ribcage but it felt just as spongy as the rest of him. He’d actually been decaying when his body came back to life, Braith realized. He hadn’t just become starved and emaciated like his pitiful trophies, his body had actually started to breakdown before coming back to life.
Braith’s nose wrinkled, his lip curved in a sneer as he lifted his father with his feet and flipped him over his head. He jumped back to his feet, but even in his state, his father was faster and back on him in an instant. They had been about the same size once he’d hit maturity, but he had a good thirty pounds on his father now, even still he was knocked backwards by the force of his weight and momentum.
They slammed into the back wall with enough force to crack the wood. Dust rained down as bits of the beams fell over top of them. A loud grunt escaped Braith as his father dug his fingers into his stomach and tore through his flesh. He struggled to unhinge his father’s hold upon him, but he continued to tear and dig until fire erupted within Braith’s gut and rapidly spread through his limbs.
A bellow of fury erupted from him. He drove his elbow into his father’s nose hard enough to knock him slightly loose. He seized hold of the hand working its way steadily into him and yanked it harshly back. His father screamed in his ear, his fetid aroma washed over Braith as bone and skin cracked within his grasp. Braith took advantage of his father’s slackened hold to get his legs in between them and thrust him off.
He crashed into the wall, but Braith didn’t take time to recuperate as he charged at him, grabbed hold of his throat, and propelled him into the wall again. It gave way with a loud crash as they plunged out of the barn, bounced across the ground and bounded back to their feet.
He was dimly aware of screams and shouts as humans and vampires scrambled to get out of their way as they ran full speed at each other. Braith felt as if he’d run into a brick wall as his shoulder dislocated with the reverberating crack of a bat hitting a ball. His teeth clenched as a low hiss escaped him.
Braith tried to seize hold of his father’s throat but his father grabbed his hand. Before Braith knew what he intended, he sank his fangs deep into the meaty part of his palm. Braith grunted at the unwelcome invasion, and reacting on instinct he delivered a crushing blow that caused his father’s eye socket to collapse. It only made him bite down harder.
Infuriated, Braith released a rapid series of punches on him, but he clung like a dog on a bone as he gained strength from Braith’s blood. Gritting his teeth, Braith ripped his hand back. Skin and sinew tore but he was finally able to extricate himself from his father. Lowering his head, he charged at the man, wrapped his arms around his waist and propelled him back a good fifty feet before they hit a house.
It shuddered from the impact but held firm as his father somehow managed to get him turned around, and underneath him. Braith didn’t see the piece of wood in his father’s hands until he was plunging it downward. He managed to get his arm up to deflect the blow somewhat, but his father’s weight continued its downward trajectory. It slammed into his upper chest and dislocated shoulder, and tore through flesh and bone as it burst out the other side.
A grunt of pain escaped him, his legs reflexively kicked up as his body instinctively tried to curl inward to protect itself. Red filled his vision as he swung his arm up and caught his father harshly under his jaw. Knocking his father aside, Braith managed to push himself up with his good arm. Reaching up, he snapped the end of the board off and tossed it aside. He rose into a crouch as his father launched at him again. Braith’s hands grasped hold of his back as they fell into one of the newly constructed houses.
***
“Let go of me!” Aria shouted as she tried to rip her arm free of Gideon’s hold.
She didn’t know what possessed her, or perhaps she did, but she’d never experienced it before as a ferocious snarl ripped from her and her teeth elongated instantaneously. A strange shimmering rattled through her as the line between light and dark seemed to spread out before her. A line that made her realize what it was that Braith had been so fiercely struggling with all this time. She could take one step over that line and let it all go, she could embrace the power lurking just beneath the surface and let the darkness take over. Destroy, as she so badly wanted to destroy the man that had hurt Braith.
How had Braith controlled this so well? She felt like she was going to fall apart, as if she wasn’t herself anymore. Her skin was crawling with the energy that sizzled up and down her body. She wanted to rip it from her body and she knew the only thing that would make it better was death.
“Easy Aria,” Gideon urged. He released her and held his hands up as he backed away. “Easy.”
She spun away from him and took a step forward before she stopped abruptly. Braith and his father had disappeared into the house; the walls were shaking from the force of their fight. She started to run forward, but faster than she could blink, Jack appeared in front of her. She didn’t know where he’d come from, he hadn’t been in the stable with the others, but he was here now and he wasn’t letting her go as he grasped hold of her arms.
“Let go of me Jack!”
Jack bent so that he was eye level with her. “You are of no use here Aria. Stay out of the way, you’re only a distraction.” He pushed her gently back as he released her arms. Hands seized hold of her and it took everything she had not to kick Ashby in the shin as he gripped her. Jack turned and ran toward the house. Aria fought against Ashby, but the harder she fought the tighter he held her.
“Aria please, stop,” he pleaded against her ear as he pulled her down to the ground and enfolded himself over her.
A scream swelled up her throat, tears burned her eyes as she continued to struggle against him but it was useless. Gideon and Calista ran past her, followed by Daniel, Max, and William. A low moan of anguish escaped her; she rocked forward as Ashby kept her on the ground.
A loud crash echoed from within the house. It sagged precariously for a minute before collapsing completely.
***
The boards caught him hard in the back and drove him to his knees. Braith threw his good arm up as he tried to protect his head from the roof crashing upon him. He was buried beneath the weight, pushed down under the force battering his already bruised and broken body. It took him a moment to recuperate as the last of the beams fell with a dull clatter upon the heap. Gathering his strength, he pushed back some of the boards as he drew upon his determination to end this once and for all.
He crawled out from under the boards, shoving them off as he surveyed the ruins of the house. The front of the building was still standing, but a stiff wind would knock it over with ease.
In all of the confusion he’d managed to lose his father. Pulling himself free of the jumbled mess surrounding him, Braith spotted him. He’d already extricated himself from the rubble and was trying to make an escape when Braith launched to his feet and raced after him. If his father was able to get free now, he would bide his time, and grow stronger as he tried to recruit an army. Braith suspected that he’d come here with the intention of claiming Aria, and trying to control Braith.
It didn’t matter what he’d expected, all Braith knew was that he wasn’t going to leave here alive. He was never going to have the chance to touch Aria again. Drudging up some of the last remnants of his strength, he surged forward, grabbed hold of his father’s shirt and yanked him back. Braith didn’t realize his father was holding a board until it smashed against the side of his face. Stars burst before his eyes as his cheekbone cracked and his jaw broke. Blinking away his blurry vision, Braith wrenched the board from his father’s hands, spun it around and swung it against his father’s side. He staggered sideways from the force of the blow; his hand flew to his collapsed ribs.
Jack appeared on the other side, encircling their father as a cruel smile curved his lips. Braith had never seen that look on Jack’s face before, never seen that vindictive gleam in his eyes. “Father,” Jack greeted, moving to intercept him as he tried to go in another direction.
Gideon was grinning as he stepped forward, blocking another pathway as Calista moved to block another. Max, William, and Daniel blocked the other side. His father’s eyes spun crazily before focusing on something in the distance. Braith followed his gaze to Aria as she slowly approached the circle. Ashby was hot on her heels, looking chagrined as he rubbed at his reddened jaw. Braith had never seen it before, but Aria’s eyes were glistening rubies as they met his, and then his father’s. He sensed the unraveling beneath her outwardly calm exterior and moved to intercept her as she reached the circle.
“I’m fine.” Her crimson eyes focused on the board still protruding from his shoulder. His fingers brushed briefly over hers as he looked to soothe her. “Really Aria.”
William and Max flanked her. They wouldn’t be able to hold her back, not anymore, but their presence seemed to have a further calming effect upon her as her fingers wrapped briefly around his hand.
“What was your plan here Atticus?” Gideon inquired with a tilt of his head and a quirked eyebrow.
“He planned to recapture her or kill her,” Braith answered flatly.
“I plan to do many many things to her son. All of which I will truly enjoy.” A gleam on the other side of the circle caught Braith’s attention. Jack had managed to retrieve a honed ax from one of the building sites. He twisted it in his grasp as he met Braith’s gaze over top of their father’s head. “You can’t kill me!” Their father began to laugh hysterically as he flung his arms wide and spun in a circle. “Look at me! I’m invincible! You can’t stop me!”
His father was still laughing as Braith lurched forward. His father wasn’t fooled though, instead of meeting Braith head on, he spun to confront Jack. Jack’s fangs flashed as he threw the ax to Braith and dove at their father with unrestrained glee. Braith had expected the action as he leapt into the air and seized hold of the handle with his good hand. Jack rammed his shoulder into their father and shoved him back. On his descent, Braith swung the ax downward with the full force of his might.
Atticus turned toward him as the ax whistled through the air. Braith had to grab hold of it with both hands as his arm was jarred by the impact of metal against flesh and bone. Atticus’s mouth parted in an O, his crimson eyes widened as the ax cleaved his neck. Braith took a step back as the head bounced across the ground and the body collapsed. There was no satisfaction in the deed, but rather a strange sense of completion and relief as the ax slipped from his fingers. Disgust coiled through him as he wiped the splatters of his father’s blood from his face.
“Not that fucking invincible,” Jack spat as he nudged the head away with his foot.
Braith’s shoulders sagged; now that his adrenaline wasn’t pounding, and the threat had been removed, it took everything he had to stay on his feet as blood loss started to take its toll. Aria was beside him in an instant, her arm wrapped around his waist as she pressed against his side. He grabbed hold of her hand as she reached for the broken piece of board jutting from his shoulder. He couldn’t be weak, not here, not in front of so many.
He pressed her hand flat against his chest. His broken bones and wounds were throbbing and he desperately needed some blood, but there was something he had to do first. “Caleb,” he grated. “We have to make sure Caleb and Natasha are still in their graves.”
“Braith, you need blood,” she whispered.
He glanced down at her, relieved to find her eyes back to their crystalline sapphire color. “We can’t take the chance that Caleb may be out there right now.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He started to protest but decided against it. He’d feel better having her with him just in case his siblings were out there. His hand tightened on her arm as Saul emerged from the barn with Xavier’s arm draped around his shoulder. Xavier was pale beneath his dark complexion as he held a hand to the still bleeding wound on his neck.
“He’s ok.” Tears shimmered in Aria’s eyes as she watched Xavier. Braith had to admit he was relieved to see him still alive, Xavier still managed to irritate him once in awhile, but he was an asset and had become Aria’s friend.
Melinda rushed up, pushing past the crowd as she arrived at the edge of the circle. Her mouth dropped, her eyes flew wildly around before landing on Ashby. A small cry escaped her as she raced across the circle and threw herself into his arms.
Aria went to take a step toward Xavier but stopped as she glanced nervously at Braith and wrapped her other arm around his waist. “Saul, gather the remains and place them in the stable. We’ll burn them later.” Saul nodded agreement to Braith’s command. “The rest of you grab shovels, something to light a fire with, and come with me.”
Aria’s fingers dug deeper into his skin as the crowd that had gathered during the fight parted to let them pass. “I think there is no longer any doubt that you deserve to be king.”
He glanced down at Aria’s murmured words as the crowd bowed their heads and began to kneel around them. At least something good had come from this awful mess, he realized as he pulled her closer against his side. Though he couldn’t understand how it had happened to begin with. “It appears so.”
Aria eased against him as they moved past the gates and into the town beyond. When they entered the woods she released him and turned to face him. “Let me look,” she commanded.
“We have to check on Caleb and Natasha.”
“They’re either still dead or they’re already roaming the earth again. A few minutes isn’t going to change that outcome either way. Now, let me see.” He could behead his father and take on twenty men at once, but he still found it difficult to say no to her. He forced himself not to wince as her fingers gently prodded at the wood embedded in his shoulder. “We need to get that out.”
“Later.”
Her eyebrows drew together as she frowned at him. “If Caleb did crawl out of his grave you’ll be in better shape to face him if you’re already healing.”
“Fine,” he relented, knowing that she was right. “Jack.”
He released her as he grabbed hold of the trunk of a tree. With clenched teeth, he braced himself as Jack stepped beside him. Jack placed a hand briefly against his back before seizing hold of the board and pulling it free in one hard yank. A low groan of pain reverberated off Braith’s teeth as he stood with his head bowed and his shoulders heaving. His fingers dug into the bark of the tree as he fought against the bellow that wanted to erupt from him.
Aria rested her hand on his arm, but it was a few moments before he could open his eyes to look at her. Ducking under his arm she stepped in between him and the tree. With nimble fingers she pulled back the tears in his shirt to examine the jagged wound. Blood still seeped from the hole, but with the beam removed he could already feel his body working to heal itself. The jagged tear in his stomach was already almost completely closed.
“You need blood,” she murmured.
“It can wait.”
Aria pressed her back against the tree as she unwaveringly met his gaze and pulled the collar of her shirt down. His gaze latched onto the marks his father had left, an involuntary snarl escaped as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. Using his body to shield her from the others, he bent his head to the side of her neck that wasn’t wounded. “It’s ok, I’m fine,” she told him when he hesitated.
He briefly nuzzled her before sinking his fangs into her. Her hands curled around his arms as she melded against him. He took just enough to regain some of his strength before pulling away and offering his wrist to her. She took it eagerly, her eyes closed in pleasure as she bit into him. Releasing him, she lifted her eyes to his. “How was that even possible?” she asked quietly.
Braith shook his head as he released the tree and stepped away from her. Though he would still require human blood, he could already feel the strength of her blood healing his broken bones and other injuries. “I don’t know.”
“He told me he was almost fifteen hundred years old and that a stake wasn’t enough to stop him.” Braith’s jaw clenched, his hands fisted at the reminder his father had even had a chance to tell her such a thing. “Has anything like this ever happened before?”
“I have never heard of such a thing.” Xavier was starting to regain some of his color and the bites on his neck had almost completely healed as he stepped closer to them. “But Atticus was the oldest of our species, ever, and his line is the purest. He must have been far more powerful than any of us realized. I never heard him coming, I didn’t even know he was there until he was on top of me and by then it was too late.”
“He tracked me,” Aria murmured.
Braith wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. “He’ll never be able to do that again.”
She nodded as she tilted her head back to study him. “You might also be able to survive such a thing?”
“It is a possibility,” Xavier said.
“I’m not willing to find out,” Braith told them.
“Neither am I.” Aria shuddered against his side.
“We will probably never know what you’re capable of, or Jack and Melinda.” Xavier’s gaze landed on Aria as they made their way steadily up the hill to where Caleb had been unceremoniously buried. “Though it’s obvious that it’s more than the rest of us.”
At the top of the hill, Braith led the way toward an area of the woods that was barren and dark. Nothing grew beneath the high bows of the pines shadowing the forest floor. The inhospitable environment had seemed like the perfect spot to place his father and siblings. Dirt had been heaved up around the hole that his father had pulled himself from but the other two graves appeared to be undisturbed.
Calista smiled as she handed the shovels to a scowling Gideon and Ashby. “Dig away boys.”
They didn’t protest as they broke ground and began to uncover a creature that Braith had never thought he’d see again. Caleb’s hands appeared first, and then his chest and face. His face was sunken in, his skin grayish and missing in chunks. Aria’s hand tightened around his, she shuddered and turned away as they began to uncover Natasha.
“Burn them,” Braith ordered gruffly, unwilling to take the chance that a month or two from now they may just reemerge also.
Calista and Gideon lit the torches and tossed them into the graves. Braith didn’t care to see the end result; he didn’t want Aria there for any longer than necessary. “If they’re still in their graves does that mean that you wouldn’t survive a stake?” she quietly asked as he led her through the woods.
“I don’t know. It may have been my father’s age that allowed such a thing to happen, it may have taken more time for them to rejuvenate, or it may have simply just been my father’s bloodline.” Aria nodded as she leaned against his side. “Are you sure you’re ok?”
Her hand absently fluttered to her neck, her eyes darkened as she nodded briefly. “I’ll be fine. The darkness Braith, I don’t know how you handled it.”
He kissed her temple briefly, inhaling her sweet scent beneath the hay, blood and sweat. “Because of you.”
“Yes, because of you,” she murmured.
“I understand the darkness Aria. It will never rule you though; you don’t have to fear that.”
She glanced at him from under lowered lashes as he squeezed her shoulder. “Unless something happened to you.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he assured her. “Apparently there’s a chance I might be even harder to kill than any of us thought.”
A small laugh escaped her. “Apparently.”
He fought against the waves of anger that suffused him as he brushed the blood from her neck. “This will never happen again.”
“I hope not. If he comes back from a beheading I think we can just give him his crown, throw him a party, and admit defeat.”
“Thankfully that’s not a possibility.”
“Good, there are only so many shocks my heart can take, beating or not.” He chuckled as he kissed the top of her head and they reentered the town.