Traitors' Gate (6 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Edward lets go of
my hand. “Now,” he shouts, “you must act now!”

I push the princes
aside and kick out at the nearest lion. It yelps as my foot connects with its
jaw. Teeth fly out of its mouth like a sharp cascade. It shakes off my initial
blow and launches at me, claws extended. I step back and raise my sword. Its
chest is pierced instantly, but its weight takes me off balance and I lose my
grip on the blade. The big cat falls back, my sword still in its chest.

“My, my, you are
spirited!” St. John starts to send his green mist toward me. I look down at the
lion, who is trying to bite the sword out from its chest.
 
I kneel down and grab the blade’s handle. I
yank it out and the cat looks almost relived.

“Lucinda!”
Nicholas pushes out. They are fighting the enchanter’s influence, but now their
swords are beginning to draw blood on each of their necks.

Out of the corner
of my eye, I see another lion has stalked toward my back and is poised to leap
on me. I twirl round and thrust my sword forward and take off the end of its
nose. It lets out an unholy cry and backs away.

The green mist is
all around me now. St. John has realized that I’m not a vampire. He looks
surprised, with a measure of annoyance. I push forward, sword in hand, and run
at him. He stumbles backward away from me and falls over the discarded pile of
jewelry.

“Don’t!” he pleads
with me, hands up. But the gesture is hollow. There’s still green mist oozing
out of them. He’s going to have the vampires kill one another any minute…

I’ve never killed
anyone before. The thought of actually taking someone’s life had never
seriously crossed my mind, so when the blade slips through his layers of
clothing and fat and skewers his heart, I immediately vomit. Rich red blood
erupts out of chest and his eyes go even paler.
 
I don’t want to see him die, so I turn away to make sure Nicholas and my
friends are safe. As I do, a flash of gold bowls me over. I feel the lion’s
weight on my chest and smell its rancid breath. It ducks its head out of my eye
line then slumps like a piece of meat off me to the ground. St. John Swan is
dead, and his undead pride is now just rotting corpses.

“Lucinda!” I hear
Nicholas shout my name and I try to get up. Warm blood is pooling around me,
and my hands slip in it, propelling me back down. Pain shoots through my body.

“Don’t move!” I
see him above me. His hands go to my throat, and I realize it is my blood that
is gathering around me.
 
I try to speak,
to ask what has happened, but all I can do is gurgle.

“I need to do it
now, Philippe. Hold her neck!”

“The lion bit her.
She’s infected, brother. If you put your symbol on her and raise her as a
vampire with an enchanter’s spell still in her veins, who knows what unholy
creature you’ll create,” Tolliver says.

It’s so odd. I
feel no physical pain, no sensation, nothing. I stare up at Nicholas and the
look on his face breaks my heart; this, I feel.

“I’m so sorry.”
Nicholas pulls me into his strong embrace, cradling me against his chest. My
blood has stained my white fur cloak and is now smothered around his pale face
as he kisses me over and over.

“Don’t let her die
in this place,” Philippe whispers from behind us.

Nicholas gathers
me up in his arms and carries me out of the Tower and into the fresh night air.
He lays me gently onto the ground and tucks my cloak around me. I look up at
him, but find my eyes wandering to the bright night sky above us. The stars
tonight have never seemed so close; so near. I feel that, if I had the
strength, I could pluck them from the sky like shiny plums from a tree. And
give them to my love to remember me by.

Nicholas nestles
his head in the crook of my neck and sobs. I try to bring my hand up to stroke
his hair, but the strength I need is lost to me, flowing out of my body with my
blood.

“The Elders are
coming. Leave her; we have to get the princes to safety. We can tell the Elders
that we found them dead, eaten by revenants.” Toliver pulls at Nicholas’s
shoulder, but he shrugs him off.

“I can’t leave
her,” Nicholas whispers.

I can no longer
feel his arms around me or his tears tumbling onto my skin. My whole body is
numb, my limbs no longer responding to my thoughts. I wish they did. I want to
kiss him one last time, tell him that this wasn’t his fault and urge him to
live enough for the both of us. But I can’t.

A small hand
enters my line of sight, Edward. “Nicholas, you will meet her again,” he says.
Nicholas stares at the little boy.

“I’ll hold my
Lucinda again? Make her a vampire?” he asks.

“Yes. She will be
a great champion, but she won’t be called Lucinda. Her name will be Brianna.”

The stars are so
bright that now their light is all I see.

The End

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