Braith

Braith cradled Aria against him, her back pressed to his chest as she ran her fingers over and through his. “I did something,” she whispered. “Or I allowed it to happen.”

He propped his head on his hand and gazed down at the unmarked side of her face. Color had crept back into her cheeks and her skin glowed with vitality once more, but she was still far thinner than he liked seeing her. Shadows circled her eyes and the knowledge of things one shouldn’t know shimmered in their depths.

He didn’t care what it took, he would do everything he could to make it better for her again.

“What did you allow to happen?” he inquired.

Her hands stilled on his. “We had to learn more about Sabine. Had to know her plan and who she was. Had to know if she had any weaknesses. Xavier, Max, and I tracked her to another town and a house there. I was going to try to get into the house with her, but I didn’t think I could do it without being caught. And I couldn’t get caught,” she grated through her teeth.

His hands clamped on hers at the possibility of such a thing. She wouldn’t be here now if she’d been caught. She wouldn’t be in his arms again, and the clawing sensation would still be tearing at his insides, driving him mad. Now, finally, it had been silenced by the renewal of their bloodlink.

“So instead of trying to get into the house, we lured away the vampire who worked in her stables there.” She rolled over to look up at him; her haunted eyes searched his face. “What I allowed them to do to that vampire was cruel. It was brutal…” Her words trailed off as her gaze slid passed him to the ceiling.

“You watched this.”

Her eyes were defiant when they came back to his. “I couldn’t condone it then walk away and leave them to bear the burden of carrying it out. I would never do that to Xavier and Max.”

Despite her show of defiance, he sensed the sorrow within her. “We do what we must in war,” he told her.

“I’d do it again.”

He traced his finger over her lips before kissing where he’d touched. “What did you learn from the vampire?”

She told him everything they had learned, the amount of recruiting they’d been able to do, and the plan to move in on Sabine in the next couple of days. He’d always been proud of her, always admired her strength and determination, but as he listened to her now, he realized she truly had grown to become a queen. A leader who did what was necessary despite her anguish, her struggle to keep from going insane, and her reservations about certain things that had to be done in order to protect her people.

He, personally, would have done to the vampire the same things she revealed Xavier and Max had done to him in order to learn more. “I tried to warn the palace about Sabine. I can only hope someone received one of the messages we sent them,” she said.

“I’m sure someone did,” he replied. He gently grasped her chin. “I’ve never been prouder to call you my wife, never been happier to have you as my queen. You are my everything, Arianna.”

“Even with knowing what I allowed Xavier and Max to do?” she whispered.

“You are fierce, loyal, proud, and do what is necessary to protect those you love and our followers. You’re more than I ever could have hoped for in my life.”

She rested her hand against his cheek. “She had your head, Braith. Or at least I thought it was your head, and I’m sure those in the palace believed the same thing.”

“Someone else’s head, someone who looked like me.”

“When she lifted it…” Aria broke off when her voice hitched. “Until then, I’d been trying not to, but I’d secretly hoped you would come back to me. That somehow you would find a way. When she revealed the head, it all fell apart. I fell apart. It was worse than when I felt the severing of our bond.”

She rested her hand over her heart. “Then, I tried to tear my heart from my chest. When she held up what I thought was your head, I thought I would go insane. All I wanted was to die. Then all I wanted was to kill, and I didn’t care who I killed in order to make it all just stop, if only for a second. I wasn’t sure I could make it back from that madness or control myself. I didn’t know how to at first, but I knew the others still deserved happiness and peace and I had to get it for them. It’s the only thing that has kept me going since then.”

His fangs slid free at the image of her consumed by a suffering so extreme that all she wanted was to destroy herself by tearing her heart from her chest. “I know the disconnect you felt, the emptiness. I felt it too when I first woke to find you gone.”

“I had to go! I couldn’t stay in that cave no matter how much I didn’t want to leave you!”

He grasped her chin. “I know. I didn’t mean gone from there. I meant from inside of me. You were no longer within me. Our bond no longer existed. I would have destroyed everyone around me if Max hadn’t told me you were safe. I did destroy some of Sabine’s vampires in the forest when we came across them on our way here. What I did to them was something that should never have been done to another. I was out of control. I craved their blood and relished killing them. I didn’t think I’d ever come back from the bloodlust engulfing me while I tore them apart.”

Her head tilted back so she could gaze at him. He’d half expected to see fear or condemnation in her eyes, but he saw only love and understanding there. “And now what do you think?”

“Now, I can think again. The insanity has been eased, the emptiness filled with the renewal of our bloodlink. We will defeat Sabine, but I will be in control when it happens. I won’t be a monster again, not like that.”

“You’re not a monster.”

“Yes, I was with those vampires. If you hadn’t been here when we arrived, I have no idea what I would have done. I may have slaughtered everyone here before regaining control of myself, if I ever regained control of myself.”

“You think that now, but you would have kept control and not hurt them. You would have done what needed to be done to protect your loved ones and your followers.”

His fingers worked through the ends of her braid, unraveling it to spread her hair around them. The golden and blood-red strands in her deep-auburn hair shimmered in the dim light filtering around the edges of the door. “How can you have so much faith in me?”

“Because I know you and your heart.” She rested her palm over it and shuddered. “Even when it was pierced, you still protected and fought for everyone else, and me. You would have done the same for all of those in this place who need you.”

He wasn’t so sure she was right, but he would never argue with her unwavering confidence in him. Lowering his head, he kissed her chest over where her heart had once beat so strongly within her. “I much prefer your heart where it is,” he said against her skin and she actually chuckled.

“Tearing it out was all I could think to do when I felt you die, but William stopped me until I could regain control of myself.”

“I understand,” he said as he smoothed the lose strands of her hair back from her face. “When I first woke, I nearly killed Daniel and Jack.”

“Are they all right?” she demanded.

“Yes, but I do owe them an apology.”

She smiled at him as she cuddled closer. “That might shock them more than you rising from the dead did.”

“I think you’re right.”

“Braith, how is it possible you and your family are able to do such a thing?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure Sabine has some knowledge of it, but I don’t think Atticus had any.”

“I don’t either,” she said. “Goran is your uncle, but he’s not as powerful as you.”

She’d already revealed that to him, but a small kick of shock still went through him when she said it again. He had an uncle, who was just as malicious as many of his other family members had been.

“No, he’s not,” Braith replied. “He may be around my age, as I feel he is old, but whatever is in Sabine, was in Atticus, and is in me, is not in Goran or Jack. I think that whatever it is that makes the three of us different than other vampires, is why I was able to see you that day on the stage without having tasted your blood first.”

“Hannah can’t walk in the sun without sharing Jack’s blood on a regular basis,” she said.

“Exactly, but something in my blood allowed me to see you, and to regain my vision without your blood.”

“It’s because you are the first born of your line,” she murmured and stifled a yawn.

“You have to rest.”

“I’m afraid if I close my eyes, I’ll wake to find this really was all only another dream of you.”

“It’s not,” he promised.

“You came back stronger,” she said as she curled up on her side again and her eyes drifted closed. Her lids popped back open at once and her hand clenched around his as if it were a lifeline. “I can taste it in your blood. It is more powerful. Your vision and scars are completely healed.”

“Yes. I also heal faster and move a lot faster. There were fourteen vampires in the woods. I killed them all.”

She burrowed closer against him. “They couldn’t have been allowed to live.”

“No, they couldn’t.”

When you d-died,” her voice broke on the word. “Did you know?”

“I knew I was dying,” he said as he recalled those last moments of coherency before he’d woken again in the cave. His hand rested on her shoulder, and his fingers slid over her silken skin as she rolled over to look at him. “I tried so hard to stay with you, to not go, but I couldn’t stop it.”

“You lived for a while after you were shot. I had to take out the arrow that was in your heart.”

“You will never have to do something like that again.”

“We don’t know what the future holds.”

“I will do everything I can to make sure you never go through such a thing again. No matter what happens, not even death will keep us apart.”

She started beneath him, her eyes widening as she gazed at him. “I had a dream about us in the garden, all the roses turned black around us, and you said those words to me then too.”

“I am wise even in death,” he whispered and bent to taste her lips once more.

She smiled at him when he pulled away. Her fingers ran over the stubble lining his cheek as he watched her. “You are.”

“Rest, love,” he whispered and kissed her nose.

She rolled over to stare at the wall for a minute before closing her eyes again. This time, they didn’t reopen as sleep finally claimed her.

***

Braith

Braith closed the door behind him as he stepped from the room and into the main area once more. There were far less humans in here now; in fact, the only ones remaining were Daniel, Timber, Max, and the girl.

He didn’t know who she was, but he may have to kill her, he realized as he studied her pale face. The knowledge of him being able to rise from the dead was best kept under wraps. There was no way of knowing how others would react to it, how many would try to kill him because of it, or worse, how many would go after his and Aria’s child while they were still young and vulnerable.

They all knew Atticus had come back, but many believed Atticus hadn’t actually been dead when they’d placed him in the ground.

Jack lifted his head from Hannah’s hair as she slept against his chest. Tempest sat up in William’s lap, her brown eyes following his every move when he walked over to the table to stare down at the crude drawing on it. Xavier watched him with his arms folded over his chest and the light of the lantern behind his shoulder flickering over him.

“I am sorry about your throat and what happened in the cave,” Braith said to Daniel as he lifted his gaze from the table. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, or you,” he said to Jack.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Jack replied.

“The bruises will fade,” Daniel said.

“Aria informed me of everything that has been going on here,” he said.

“Hopefully the storm breaks soon,” William said. “It will slow down the runners we send to gather the troops and we have to send them soon. We can’t take the risk of the palace walls being breached and those within being unable to protect themselves from Sabine.”

There had been many times Braith had envisioned throttling William over the past couple of years, but staring at him now, he knew William was a big part of the reason Aria still lived. He could never again imagine thrashing his brother-in-law.

“We’ll send the runners tomorrow and make our move against her to end this soon.” Braith glanced around the mostly empty room. “Where has everyone gone?”

“There are fifteen rooms down here. The humans spilt off into them, and some have gone to keep watch in the woods. Aria has rarely slept in the room you were just in, but they continue to let her have it to herself,” William replied.

“Has she slept at all?” Braith asked.

“Here and there, but not much.”

Braith’s teeth ground together as he contemplated what he would do to Sabine once he got his hands on her. He would thoroughly enjoy destroying the woman for what she’d put them all through.

Tilting his bead back, he gazed at the beams running across the ceiling. “Ingenious place this is,” he commented.

“Daniel designed it years ago,” William said. “We never had the chance to implement these safe houses before the war, but the rebels did after the war was over. Good thing they did too.”

“Why did they build them?”

“There may have been peace, but for a people who have been abused and mistreated by vampires for a hundred years, distrust isn’t easily buried. They felt they were better safe than sorry, and if Sabine wins, they’ll have been right.”

“She won’t win,” Braith said. He focused on the girl between Daniel and Max. “What do we do with you?” he inquired, and she lifted her chin.

“Nothing,” she replied. “Your secrets are my secrets.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Braith continued to gaze at her as Max rose to his feet. “I’ll keep an eye on Maeve, but I do believe we can trust her.”

“What makes you say that?” Braith asked.

“She hasn’t told anyone what she’s seen and heard yet, and it’s not like she couldn’t blurt it out before any of us could stop her.”

“They’d all think I was crazy anyway,” she said. “Who would believe me?”

“There are those who would,” Braith replied.

“Perhaps, but you have all worked to give us freedom. Why would I betray that? I’m a rebel.”

“Hmm,” Braith murmured. “We shall see.”

“You will see.”

He wanted to believe her. He admired her spirit, but he’d break her neck at the first sign she might betray them. Maeve held his gaze unwaveringly, refusing to back down at the same time she tried to convey she spoke the truth.

Braith turned from her. Only time would tell with her, and for now, he intended to trust Max. Max had helped to keep both him and Aria safe; he’d more than earned that trust. “Aria told me about what happened with Sabine’s stable man,” he said to Max and Xavier.

“The man was very stubborn,” Xavier replied, and Max paled.

So it was bad then. Braith rested his fingertips on the table as he rubbed his neck with his other hand. They’d done what was necessary; he just wished Aria hadn’t been a part of it. “It needed to be done,” he said.

“It did,” Xavier agreed.

The others all exchanged looks and he got the impression they didn’t know the extent of what had happened. Even with everything Aria had revealed to him, he wasn’t sure he knew the full extent of it.

“You appear more in control,” Jack said quietly.

“I am,” he replied crisply.

“I’ve been informed we have an uncle too,” Jack said, seeming to realize he was walking into treacherous territory and deciding to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“We’ll welcome him to the family by killing him,” Braith replied.

“Killing family members has become a tradition.”

“That it has. How many troops have been recruited?” he asked.

“There are well over twenty-five hundred now,” Daniel said. “There will most likely be more as those people are also recruiting others, and by now word has spread of the missing humans and the villages where vampires are brutalized and tortured. Where the children are murdered in cold blood. More will join the fight.”

“They will,” Braith murmured as he studied the x’s on the map.

They’d all been busy while he’d been dead. Fury slid through him at the reminder of all he’d missed and all they’d been left behind to try to accomplish.

So many things could have happened to Aria while he’d been gone. So many things had happened to her while he’d been dead. She’d been beaten and her soul battered, yet she’d also been steadily working to create an army.

“Easy, Braith,” Jack said.

His head shot up; he stared at his brother as his muscles flexed and his fangs pricked. He was far more in control of himself now that their bloodlink was reestablished, but the reminder of what Aria had endured rattled him. However, he hadn’t realized his control had slipped to the point where they would notice it. They all looked between him and the door to where Aria slept as if they were debating on waking her.

“If anyone wakes her, I’ll kill them,” he promised and their eyes shot back to him. He removed his hand from the table and stepped back. “Who is going to gather the rest of the troops here?”

They glanced nervously at each other. “Timber, Max, and Daniel will go,” William answered.

“I’ll go too,” Maeve said.

“We’re not giving you a chance to escape,” Daniel said.

She gave him a scathing glance. “I am a fighter. I don’t back down from that, ever.”

“Take her with you,” Braith said. “Give her a chance to further prove herself, and kill her if she tries anything.”

Maeve gave a brisk nod. “Fair enough.”

“Will the humans be ready for this fight?” he asked.

“We never stopped being ready,” Maeve replied. “We always suspected one day we’d have to fight again. It’s all we’ve ever done.”

“That’s true,” Timber said as he rocked back in his chair.

“They follow Aria. They like and trust her. She was once one of them, and even when she was teetering on the edge, she managed to put up a strong front for all of them,” William said. “They’ll fight for her, for themselves, and for their children.”

A shimmer of distress radiated over him. He turned toward the room where he’d left Aria as the door opened. Her reddened eyes turned blue when they latched onto him, and she took a step forward.

“Even if the storm is still raging, leave at dawn,” he said to them over his shoulder as he strode over to her, lifted her up, and carried her back into the room.