Bloodcraft (40 page)

“He killed Aliya.”

“But it’s
you
he wants,” Christian shot back.

“Then let him have me.” Victoria raised her hands and pulled herself into relentless focus. The beast had already been unleashed. It was time to become what she loathed the most.

Christian grasped her shoulders. Tension radiated along his arms—having just been in her head, he knew intimately what was at risk. “Tori—”

“I have to.” She lifted a hand to stroke his mouth with her fingers, edging over the razor sharp incisors just visible beneath his upper lip. Leaning into him, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss where her thumb had traced. “If I forget to tell you later, I love you.”

There in the middle of that blood soaked common with her lips joined to the man she loved, Victoria understood her purpose. She may have been born to destroy, but she was also meant to protect. She was the daughter of a demon and a witch and her magic was
hers
. Her power was an extension of her,
not
the father of her line. Releasing Christian and striding away to the line of rogue vampires, she faced Leto.

It was time to become the demon.

She waved a hand, and the vampires and witches in her path collapsed, creating a gap. She stared him down, even as the severed tentacles sourced new hosts.

“
Cruentus devoro,”
she snarled, invoking the blood magic within her. The spell amplified a thousandfold. It sucked greedily and dark power coursed into her, rippling along her veins like an incoming tide.

Leto’s eyes snapped wide as he tried to stop the outward flow, but he couldn’t do that
and
keep control over the bodies at the end of his phantom arms. Victoria was merciless, focused only on absorbing what she could. The blood magic bucked and rolled within her, but she held it under unbending control. She would release it when the time was right.

Leto growled and bellowed. “You can stop this, daughter.” He nodded to the creatures around him. “Their lives for yours.”

“There’s only one more life to take,” she said. “And I already told you—I’m not your fucking daughter.”

She flew at him then, magic crackling from her fingertips as she barraged him with spell after spell. He dodged, shoving his minions in front of her to take the brunt of her attack. They didn’t die because the spells were not fatal. Victoria didn’t mean to wound him. She wanted to distract him.

At the last moment, she twisted and ran straight into the dark energy. She felt it sink into her, making her gasp. God, it was powerful.
Leto
was powerful. More than she had imagined. Victoria swallowed hard. Which meant that she was strong, too. She pushed into the remaining tentacles until the dark magic sizzled between them.

“You think to defeat me, child?” He wrenched against the connection, drawing her toward him in a burst of midnight blue light. “With my own power?”

She eyed him and held her own. “Yes.”

“You would save
them
over your own blood? Their souls have been corrupted and dishonored by the actions of their revered ancestor. Yet you would call them family?”

Victoria nodded, hearing an odd note in his voice. “What do you mean, them?”

“Witches.” He spat the word. “This plane must be cleansed of the taint of the Goddess. She and her descendants must be punished for what they brought upon me.”

“You stole their daughter.”

A spasm of pain rippled across his face. “Thaia came willingly.”

“You
killed
her.”

Something undulated between them. “She knew they were coming for the babe. She tried to defend against those the Goddess sent.
They
killed her, not me.”

“You lie, demon,” someone—one of Aliya’s priestesses, maybe—screamed from behind them. “She died in childbirth.”

Leto’s eyes slid to hers. “She died at the hands of your own. You were fed a concocted story. This is the
truth
.”

Victoria’s body trembled with the force of his pain ricocheting along the link between them. She would know if he was lying. And he wasn’t. Understanding filled her—he’d been punished for an eternity after his child had been stolen from him. No wonder he hated the witches.

“The actions of one doesn’t define an entire race, Leto,” she said. “You taught me that.”

“They must be cleansed.”

“Then I must also be cleansed, as I, too, am part witch.”

“You are part of my Thaia, not these diseased creatures,” he snarled.

Victoria drew a long breath. His bitterness and anguish consumed him and deep down she knew she would not be able to talk any reason into him. But she could not allow him to eradicate an entire species just because he was wronged by one of them a thousand years ago. Still, a part of her couldn’t give up on him.

“Let go of the past, Leto. Forgive and leave it behind. It is done and nothing can change that.”

“The past—and the pain—are all I have.”

“You have me.” She felt him waver then, but the moment was brief. He was too riddled by his own acrimony. No, Leto only wanted vengeance, and he wanted her to be his right arm. “I am sorry for what you have lost, but they do not deserve the cost of your anger. They are innocent, too.”

His gaze hardened as he released his hold on the blue-black energy. “If you are with them, then you are against me.”

“So be it,” she whispered and braced herself.

Leto whispered an ominous chant. Dark magic swirled from the portal, surrounding him and starting to take shape. Victoria felt the breath steal from her body as she realized what he was doing. He was summoning demons.

“Close the portal, damn it,” she heard someone shout dully. But she knew that the portal would only close if something—or someone—went through it. She took a deep breath. She was the closest. It would mean leaving the rest of them here to face Leto, but at least he would be alone. They would have a fighting chance. She did not know what lay on the other side of that glowing sphere, but she would survive. Her demon blood would protect her, she hoped. She moved toward it.

“Tori, no!” The scream was feminine. She heard the thud of darts as they sank into Leto’s corporeal body. They wouldn’t hurt him. Unlike vampires or witches, demons weren’t susceptible to silver or poison. But Angie wouldn’t know that.

“Angie, stay back.”

But it was too late. A tendril of darkness snaked toward Angie, quick as a striking cobra, and gathered her close. Victoria halted in her tracks. Leto’s eyes glittered in triumph. “You care about this one. I will spare her if you give me your loyalty.”

“Leto,” she began. “Release her.”

“Your bond.”

“Don’t do it, Tori,” Angie shouted. “I’m nobody.”

“You have ten seconds to decide.” Leto held her body aloft. Angie, for her part, didn’t give one inch. She struggled against his magical hold even as more demons materialized around them.

Victoria glanced over her shoulder. There were only a handful of them left, and if he continued at this pace, they would be outnumbered ten to one in a matter of minutes. She had no choice.

“Tori, no.”

She met Christian’s eyes and then each of the others in turn. Her silent message was clear. Seal the portal at any cost. She would do what her ancestor Brigid did before allowing Leto to have any control over her or the blood magic.

“Fine, you have my bond,” she said, walking forward. “Release the girl.”

She waited until she was within inches of them before her right hand balled into a fist at her side—the signal to bring down the portal. Movement filled her vision as bodies rushed the gateway. Leto snarled in rage, his attention drawn to protecting his means of escape. He did not release Angie as Victoria had hoped he would. So she threw herself between them, severing the demonic tether. Angie fell in a heap to the grass and rolled to a stop directly in front one of the spectral shapes.

Leto growled, unleashing the demon wraith toward Angie. This would not be like the dark energy he had cast forward before. The wraith would consume her soul and take over her body. Angie scrambled to her feet, her face contorted. There was no way she could get away and no way for Victoria to reach her before the wraith did.

Impotent rage flowered like an explosion in her chest. “Angie!”

A blur streaked in front of the wraith, catching it squarely head-on an instant before it connected with Angie’s body. Lena twisted and convulsed as the specter shuddered through her. She was immortal, but the pain would be agonizing. It wouldn’t consume what was left of her soul. Instead, the possession would incinerate them both. Within seconds, a hot red glow spread like a stain over her alabaster skin and she fell to the ground, writhing as her vampire nature fought the demon writhing inside.

Victoria reached her contorting body at the same time that Christian did. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Freyja fall to her knees at Angie’s side, her face wracked with concern. She tried to draw her away, but Angie shook her head as she crawled to Lena’s side.

“Lena.”

But Lena’s unseeing ice blue eyes shone with pain. They turned to Christian. Blood flecked her lips. “You were right about them. The humans.” Each word was a gasp of agony, but she had more to say. Her gaze slipped to Angie. “Out of all my years as a vampire, I never wanted progeny. No human was worthy.” Her smile was pained. “Never, until now.”

Angie inched forward. “Then fight, Lena.”

“My fight is over.” Her body arched as the heat scorched brilliant crimson that streaked into amber. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream, her skin graying to the color of burnt ash. Her eyes met Christian’s as something passed between them. “You know what to do.”

The sounds of the battle raging on behind them drew their collective attention. David, a vampire Elder, stood battling four of the wraith demons, while Roan and the other warlocks took on a half dozen others. Sezja and the other two Reii had sequestered Leto’s attention, and from what Victoria could see, they’d gotten in a few good strikes. Nothing lethal, but every little bit helped.

Christian stood with the dying vampire in his arms, and without a sound, he tossed her body toward the portal. Leto’s shriek pierced through the silence as Lena hurtled through the space between them. He struck out an arm of dark energy, but it was too late. She sailed through the glowing disc and the portal winked shut. The demon spawn he’d conjured faded as the power tethering them to the earth disappeared.

“
Confuto
,” Victoria said.

The Reii converged then as Victoria held Leto still. “You gave me your bond,” he said, his eyes glittering with malice as he shrugged off her spell and sent the vampire ancients sprawling with a burst of power that came directly from her body. “Your blood magic is mine to command.”

“Maybe she did,” a voice said from behind them. Eyes swiveled toward where Angie stood wielding her crossbow. She had Leto in her sights at point blank range. “But if there’s one thing I know about, it’s being forced into involuntary bondage to tyrants, and it never ends well. People don’t like being controlled and, well, some bonds are meant to be broken.”

“Your puny little darts won’t work, little one.”

She arched a cool eyebrow. “This one’s special.”

Leto grinned. “I’ll tell you what. Take your best shot. I’ll give it to you. I’ll come back from anything you’ve got.”

Angie didn’t hesitate. Her shot was true, piercing him right above his black heart. Victoria summoned her magic to her, expecting that Angie’s strike would do nothing—Leto was impervious to human weapons. What she did not expect was the look of incredulous shock on Leto’s face as he fell backward, clawing at the dart’s point of entry in his body. His body shriveled as a black dust coated his skin and then liquefied into a greenish black ichor. His death was instantaneous.

“Come back from that, bitch,” Angie muttered.

Christian exhaled, and once more, a dozen pairs of incredulous, disbelieving eyes fell upon Angie. “What the holy hell was in that dart?”

“Dead blood magic.”

TWENTY-SIX

The Beginning of Everything

As it turned out, Angie had saved the bit of blood that had tried to possess Christian back in New York.

“I didn’t want to leave it there,” she’d explained later inside Christian’s château. “You know, in case someone found it. It was alive, after all.”

“What do you mean?” Victoria had asked, amazed by her foresight.

She shrugged. “I could see it shimmering with my other sight. It wasn’t quite dead, so I scooped it up and meant to bury it or throw it into the river or something. When I started making the darts, I made it into one. I never thought I’d actually use it. I just kept it as a … memento of what could happen if I didn’t protect myself.”

When Victoria asked her how she knew that it would work, Angie had explained that she didn’t. She’d hoped, but she didn’t know. Turned out that blood magic had transformed into the worst kind of venom when it’d been exorcized—the demon side of it anyway. And thanks to Angie, Leto had met his end from the very blood he sought to control. Victoria felt hollow at the loss of her best friend and mentor, but he’d been too consumed by his hate to let it go. It had festered for too many years.