Blood Awakening (39 page)

He stared right back. “I look forward to the day when you truly accept who you are.”

“Enough.” Zyris moved between us. “We must go, now.” She turned her attention to Chance, who had stood idly by while I broke my heart over and over again to my friends. “Come,” she said to him, her voice stern and unwavering. He walked toward us, that same zombie-like expression on his face. He stopped mere inches from me.

“Chance?” I kept my eyes locked on his face as he stared out into the open darkness of the Hudson River. I couldn’t understand how the seemingly unbreakable connection between us had failed, what had happened to sever it. All night long, I had been trying to recapture that feeling, to re-establish the lost link we’d once shared.

Now, for the first time, I felt even the tiniest hint of it, weak but still alive.

And I think he felt it, too.

“No more time for talking,” Zyris said. She laced her arm into Chance’s and smiled. Sebastian did the same to me, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me to him. I tried to push him away, but he was far too strong. “Children!” Zyris shouted, her eyes on me, her face as hard and lifeless as stone.

Just as before when she had summoned her minions to their deaths, the shadows surrounding us began to pulse and move, glowing points of light emerging from the darkness. Within seconds, we were surrounded by vampires.

The rest of Zyris’s coven.

What was left of her children.

“I thought you killed them?” I said to her, shocked and scared.

“Don’t be foolish,” she stated dryly. “I would never leave myself completely defenseless.” She removed her arm from Chance’s and slid it around his waist.

“But it’s over,” I said. “You’ve won.”

“That I have. But I am smart enough to know that your friends will not simply let you leave without a fight.”

“No one’s going to fight you, Zyris.” I looked to Erik and Kayla, begging them to hear me. “They know this is what I want.”

She ignored me. “As I’ve said before, I must do what is necessary to ensure our success.”

Fear swept over me once again, gnawing at the broken pieces of my soul. “What are you saying?” Sebastian gripped me even tighter.

“I am certain you already know the answer to that, Ava.” She lifted a hand into the night sky, and her legion of vampires began their descent.

That paralyzing fear consumed me, slowly ripping me apart as I realized what I was powerless to stop. “Zyris, no. Please, don’t do this.”

An evil smile lifted her mouth as she stared out at the teeming undead.

“Please,” I begged, struggling against Sebastian’s strength. A low thrum of energy pulsed in my head. “You don’t have to do this! You got what you wanted!” I felt like the smallest of particles, completely unable to control my surroundings, forced to witness the unthinkable.

With an unsettling calm that sent shivers to my very core, Zyris turned to the vampire holding Erik. “Make sure no one survives,” she said, before shooting up into the air, disappearing into the darkness with Chance at her side.

I screamed harder than I ever had before as I tried to break free from Sebastian. His grip tightened and he dragged me even farther away from the impending maelstrom as the horde of vampires closed in on my friends. I could do nothing more than stare in devastating agony as the realization of what was coming settled behind their faces, as the once-radiant lights behind their eyes slowly began to darken with defeat.

As Sebastian lifted me into the air, carrying me away to what I knew would be a certain death, the deafening silence of the night was shattered by the terror-filled screams of those I loved.