Chapter Forty-seven
Helena’s eyes went very wide at William’s last words. She couldn’t believe he’d actually said them. In fact, she’d stood there behind him, still stunned at how fast he’d moved her, and grown more and more sick with each phrase he muttered. It was like he was trying to piss Cain off. And Cain didn’t need any more pissing off!
But then she felt him take her hand, and she glanced down. He squeezed twice gently and in quick succession. It reminded her of the beating of a heart.
And just like that, her head snapped back up and she realized what William was doing. This was it. There was no time left to decide. There would be no more foot dragging. This was her one and only chance to end the game once and for all and this time – this time – come out ahead.
It was literally now or never.
Cain waited a beat, a tense filled-with-malice beat that she could feel abrade her skin like electric sandpaper. And then he attacked.
Despite the speed with which William had moved her behind him earlier, Cain was faster. That became clear when he appeared to blink out of one place on the field and reappear in front of William and the two collided in battle. William had been expecting it, of course. This was part of the plan.
Some plan, she thought in mounting panic as she scrambled to get out of the way. Out of curiosity again, she tried to stop time. She failed. But then she’d known she would. This really was the only way to get the job done.
William and Cain appeared to be locked in a choreographed combat. Nearly every punch was deflected, almost every kick blocked. The few blows either man managed to land sent his opponent flying. At one point, Cain crashed into a nearby tree, uprooting it. He came back hard, and a second later, William hit the roof of Helena’s car, shattering the windshield and denting the hood.
Again they met one another in a one-on-one crusade, until it at last appeared that William was tiring. Helena swallowed hard and nearly choked. Her throat was closing up in fear. No matter how hard she tried to prepare herself for this, she knew she wouldn’t be ready. So she just watched in jagged silence as the two wound up on their knees and the man she loved –
The man I love.
– And the man she loved at last lost the upper hand. Cain spun him around on the ground in front of him, and a hard fist in William’s hair yanked back his head, exposing his throat. “You should have moved the hell out of the way,” Cain growled in red eyes and rage. And then his fangs formed fully in his mouth, and Helena’s heart stopped beating.
Cain sank his fangs into William’s throat, piercing his jugular with violent disregard to the Time King’s comfort. William gritted his own teeth and refused to make a sound. But she could tell it hurt. She could see that Cain was draining him mercilessly.
For just a split second, she had doubts. She wondered if the First Vampire might actually kill him. She wondered whether William was strong enough to take the attack. Maybe he was still too human? Maybe he hadn’t returned fully to the ultra-powerful immortal he’d been before?
Maybe I should –
But William’s eyes flew open and locked onto her, hard and determined. They were glowing like green searchlights, all magic and resolve. His willpower infused her from a distance, and just like that, she was reassured. He was far from dying.
She needed to see her end of the plan through.
William had known that there was no way for him to exchange blood with her before Cain could get to her. Cain was not only a Nomad, but a vampire now. He was fast, and only Fate knew exactly what he was capable of in his solid form. So William hatched a plan, one he’d shared with her by secretly taking her hand and reminding her that hearts pumped blood.
Blood was what he’d told her she needed from him. She needed his blood in her veins.
If Cain went after Helena first, it wouldn’t work. He would either get to her and kill her or get to her and hurt her. Either way, he and William would probably wind up in fisticuffs, and after sinking his fangs into Helena, he might sink them into William. But in that order, it did no good. Helena’s blood would coat Cain’s teeth and inadvertently mix with William’s blood when the vampire bit him. But William didn’t need her blood.
However, if Cain bit William first, then William’s blood would be transferred to Helena upon the second bite.
The plan needed two things to work. William had to bait Cain and then let him sink his fangs into his throat. And Helena had to let him bite her too.
That sounded simple. But the fact was, it was terrifying. What was more, Helena had been created in the alternate dimension with all kinds of wards and safeguards against Cain, the mark on her arm not the least of them. He couldn’t hurt her, and she couldn’t hurt him.
To let him win, she had to drop her defenses entirely. It was very difficult to do in the face of real, hard fear. But William had obviously managed it. The mark on his arm was no longer glowing. It was no longer protecting him from Cain. And Helena knew it was because he’d willingly shut it off.
So Helena had to do the same thing.
As Cain drained the Time King and the glow began to fade from William’s eyes, Helena rushed forward, not really needing to act in order to convey exceedingly real concern. “Please!” she pleaded desperately. “Cain, please stop!”
Cain’s eyes snapped open, and he looked up at her through the tops of them. They were red as the coals beneath Maelstrom’s branding iron. He watched her for a moment, a limp William wrapped securely in his strong arms, and Helena felt the yawning of a real ache inside. “Please,” she repeated softly. So softly. It was a whisper, a fitting sound to accompany her distress.
She took another step forward on shaking legs. “Cain, please don’t.” She shook her head and silently begged the vampire to grant her this boon. “Please don’t kill him.”
Cain considered her a second more before the red suddenly flashed away from his eyes, returning them to their previous vivid blue. He kept them on her as he pulled his fangs from William’s throat and straightened, allowing the King to fall to the ground.
Helena forced herself not to look at William. She forced herself to keep her eyes on Cain as the man stood and rose to his full impressive height. He turned his full attention on her, slowly closing the distance between them.
“Because you asked so nicely,” he said, “I’ll allow him to live. Now come here.” He stopped a few feet away and held his hand out to her.
His voice was deep, almost grating, and thick with anger, need and a grave impatience.
She hesitated. Of course, he would expect her to hesitate, so this wasn’t a bad thing. But it wasn’t even voluntary. The truth was, she was scared out of her wits. His presence was just that potent. He was a strong and beautiful Nomad, he was the First Vampire, and he was Death. To make matters just a smidgeon more frightening, his lips were covered in the blood of his greatest enemy. She was losing her mind just staring up at him.
Cain lifted his chin and blinked. As if he suddenly realized how menacing he must appear to her, he took a deep breath. “I could never hurt you, Helena.” He shook his head. “Never.”
Some of the impatience had slipped from his tone to be replaced with something akin to kindness, if that were possible. “It won’t hurt. I give you my word.”
Helena licked her dry lips, and her eyes unwittingly slipped to William. He was still on his side, and his face was turned away from her.
“But if you don’t come to me right now, I will finish him off.”
Helena’s head snapped back up, and she met Cain’s gaze once more.
“And him, I will hurt.”
He was serious. Boy was he ever serious.
Helena closed her eyes and forced her legs to move. This is it. As she walked toward him, she reached up and pulled her mass of long black hair away from one side of her neck, tucking it over the opposite shoulder.
“That’s better,” said Cain softly. Oddly enough, he didn’t sound nearly as smug as she would have expected. Instead, he sounded well and truly relieved.
When she knew she was right in front of him, Helena stopped and opened her eyes. She was staring at Cain’s chest. The son of a bitch was exactly the same height as William. The two of them were giants.
His finger came up, and he gently curled it beneath her chin to raise her face to him. The fact that he could touch her at all must have signaled to Cain exactly what he was looking for, because he smiled at her. She could swear there was actual happiness in that smile. Despite the fact that it was covered in William’s blood.
“You’ve dropped the wards,” he said, confirming her suspicions. “You’ve accepted your place at my side.”
Helena said nothing. But no words were needed anyway.
Cain’s hand moved from her chin to cup the side of her face, drawing her closer. Helena closed her eyes again as his arms encircled her and she was wrapped in an unforeseen tenderness. It almost hurt, this tenderness. It was somehow worse than being treated roughly by the man who had come so close to destroying the one she loved. But it was also just confusing enough that it made sense. It made sense because this was how he always held her.
In her dawning confusion and mounting surrender, Helena Bonaventure Dawn once more remembered.
She remembered all of the instances throughout time in which Cain had ever managed to get this close to her. And this right here was what she’d felt from him every single time: Desperation. Infinite care. Unending hope. Tenderness.
There was something more to the entity that was Julian Cain, Victor Hush, Charles Montgomery… and Death. There was a loneliness and an emptiness so vast it was rivaled by only one other man in all the cosmos.
Cain and Solan had a lot in common.
In the newly forming universe of two colliding dimensions, in the field of shining classic cars, and in the cage of Cain’s hard but tender embrace, Helena felt the First Vampire’s teeth pierce the taut skin over her vein and sink deep. She inhaled sharply, but there was no pain. As he’d promised, the sensation was anything but painful. It was hard and strong and all-pervading, but not because of him. It was because the moment the ancient blood coating those teeth made it into her artery and mixed with hers, two more dimensions collided.
And when they did, everything changed.