Page 40 of Beast of Blood and Roses (Dark Ever After Fairytales #1)

Chapter Forty

Rosalie

Beast groaned, a sound so weak and pained it shattered something inside me.

Despite the pressure I was applying to his wounds, more blood slipped down his chin, and I felt my stomach drop into an abyss.

With my free hand, I gently pushed his sweat-soaked hair back from his forehead.

“You’ll be okay,” I whispered. “We’ll get The Witch’s Heart back. You’ll be fine.”

The thought of losing him made it impossible to breathe. When had he become so important to me? When had this fierce, damaged man become the center of my entire world?

I wanted to help Marcel, who was still crumpled against the wall, but I couldn’t leave Beast, not when he was bleeding to death because he’d thrown himself in front of a killing blow meant for me. Not when every labored breath might be his last.

His glazed emerald eyes struggled to focus on my face. “You’re...safe?” Each word seemed to cost him everything he had left .

“Yes.” A lump clogged my throat. “I’m safe because of you. Because you’re...” I stopped myself before the words could spill out. Because you’re everything to me. Because I can’t imagine a world without you in it.

I looked around desperately for Tinker Bell. She could save him—she had to be able to save him. The alternative was I’d lose the only person who truly cared about me.

Then the man I’d called father for twenty years raced toward The Witch’s Heart that lay just inches away from Marcel. His movements were desperate, frantic, like a wild animal going for its last meal.

Marcel reached for the amulet with trembling fingers, but Volaris was faster. He raised his hand and tossed a crackling energy bolt that struck Marcel full in the chest, sending him flying backward into the wall with a sickening thud. Marcel crumpled to the floor, groaning in pain.

“Marcel!” I cried out.

Volaris stretched out his greedy fingers toward The Witch’s Heart, triumph gleaming in his eyes.

Trystan pounced with deadly precision, his massive white form crashing into Volaris like a freight train. The impact sent the murderer flying across the room, his body slamming into the leather couch with enough force to send it sliding backward.

I kept both hands pressed against Beast’s wounds while watching the man who’d destroyed my family scramble desperately to get up. Horror and savage satisfaction warred inside me.

Colette, tears streaming down her weathered face, raced across the room toward The Witch’s Heart.

But just as her fingers were about to close around it, the amulet slid across the floor as if pulled by an invisible force, coming to rest at the feet of the woman who emerged from the shadows. Tinker Bell stepped into the light.

She bent down gracefully and picked up her lost treasure, the dual-colored stone pulsing with power in her pale hands. Her green eyes were unreadable as she looked from the dying Beast to me.

“No,” I whispered desperately, fresh tears sliding down my face as I clutched Beast’s hand tighter. “Please, please let him have it. He’s dying because he saved me. Please.”

My voice broke completely on the last word. I was begging the woman whose sister Beast had murdered, pleading for mercy I had no right to expect.

Tinker Bell slowly shook her head, her expression unmoved by my tears, and my heart shattered into a thousand pieces. She was going to let him die. She was going to let the man I loved…the man who meant everything to me...die right here in my arms.

Volaris managed to get one bloody hand on the couch, trying desperately to pull himself upright. But then Trystan lunged again with predatory precision, his massive jaws clamping down on the man’s throat with a wet, crushing sound.

Blood sprayed across the leather couch in crimson arcs as Volaris weakly tried to push the great white wolf off with his remaining strength. But his hand trembled, then went completely slack.

Finally, justice was done.

The murderer.

The child torturer.

The soul trader who had destroyed my family and stolen my entire life was dead .

Beast released another agonized moan that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul.

I glanced down at his pale, pain-twisted face, then locked my gaze on Tinker Bell’s cold calculating look.

Anger and desperation pounded through me like a drumbeat.

“You can save him!” I screamed. “Why won’t you help him? He’s dying!”

But she didn’t say a word, just stood there holding The Witch’s Heart like some cruel goddess of fate, as if she was waiting for something I couldn’t understand.

I raised my palm, ready to fight Tinker Bell herself if I had to, ready to tear the amulet from her hands with my bare fingers. But then Beast’s trembling hand weakly clasped my wrist, his claws barely able to grip me. He shook his head with tremendous effort. “No. Don’t.”

“But the heart will save you,” I pleaded, my breath coming in ragged gasps. “It can heal you, protect you?—”

“Too late,” he whispered, blood staining his lips. His fading eyes followed my gaze to where Tinker Bell stood watching us. “Forgive me,” he said to her, each word costing him everything. “I shouldn’t have...killed your sister. She was...innocent.”

“Beast, no,” I whispered, leaning closer to catch his weakening words. “You can’t leave me. Not now, not when I’ve just found you.”

“You’re free now,” he breathed, but his breathing was growing fainter by the second. “Go to your family. Your uncle Tobias...they’ll care for you like I...like I never could.”

His eyes fluttered shut, and it felt like a sword stabbing my heart.

“No, you can’t leave me. We’re together now.” I clutched his shirt desperately, unwilling to let him go. “You promised you’d protect me, remember? ”

A single tear rolled down his cheek, and his breathing became so shallow I had to lean close to feel it against my skin.

I was losing him. The man who’d saved me, protected me, shown me what it meant to be truly cared for. The man who’d looked at me like I was precious, worth dying for.

I bent over him and brushed my lips over his still ones, pouring every ounce of love and desperation into that gentle kiss. “I love you,” I whispered against his mouth. “I love you, Beast. Please don’t leave me.”

I pressed my ear to his chest, listening as his heartbeat grew fainter and fainter, each weak thump another crack in my breaking heart.

Tears streamed down my face, falling onto his blood-soaked shirt.

The spaces between beats grew longer, more agonizing, until I could barely detect the rhythm at all.

“No, no, no,” I whispered frantically, my tears falling onto his still face. “Please, Beast. Please don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”

But his heartbeat continued to fade, becoming nothing more than a flutter, barely a whisper.

And then...silence.

The most terrible silence I’d ever heard.

A sob escaped from my throat, raw and desperate. “I love you,” I cried, shaking his shoulders as if I could somehow call him back. “Do you hear me? I love you, and you can’t leave me alone. Not now. Not ever.”

Suddenly, a strong wind blew through the broken doorway, glittering with tiny sparkles of light, warm and gentle despite its power. It brushed over me with an almost intelligent touch, as if invisible hands were gently pushing me away from Beast’s lifeless form .

“No!” I fought against it, clinging to him desperately. “I won’t let go!”

But the wind was insistent, and despite my struggles, Beast’s body was lifted from the floor as if by magic itself.

A brilliant blue aura began to form around him, growing brighter and more intense with each passing second.

I watched in stunned silence as his horns slowly dissolved into nothing, the coarse fur covering his face vanished completely, and his deadly claws transformed back into human hands.

Even the blood—his blood that had covered my hands—vanished as if the magic was erasing every trace of his suffering. My heart ached with bittersweet wonder.

The curse was breaking, but was it too late?

He was gently placed on the ground. Once again, he was the handsome man I had kissed before. I shook his shoulders. “Beast, wake up. Wake up.”

“My god. It’s Fierro Bastia. Enzo’s missing enforcer,” Trystan said.

I glanced up briefly to see Trystan standing next to us—naked and shocked as he gazed down at Beast.

I kissed Beast on the lips again, pouring all my love into the kiss, hoping it was enough. But he lay perfectly still. The kiss felt hollow, meaningless. “Why won’t you wake up?”

Colette knelt beside me, her weathered face creased with worry and something that looked like fear. “This is only half the curse, ma chérie,” she said gently, her French accent thick with emotion. “Fierro is a vampire. To break the curse completely, you must give him your blood willingly.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. Blood. Of course. The one thing I’d never considered, never been told about.

She clasped my arm with trembling fingers, her grip desperate.

“But if you do this, you must remember that he hasn’t drunk blood for almost a year.

The curse kept his vampire nature suppressed, but now.

..” Her face darkened with concern. “He’ll be starving for it.

Ravenous. He could drain you completely without meaning to, without being able to stop himself. ”

Her words settled over me like a dark shroud. I faced an impossible choice. I could die. I could save him only to have him kill me in his desperate hunger.

I glanced over at Tinker Bell, who still held The Witch’s Heart in her pale hands. Her gaze met mine and held my gaze steadily, as if she could see straight into my soul. There was no cruelty in her expression now, no vindictive satisfaction, just patient waiting.

Then I understood with crystal clarity. This had always been the test. Not just for Beast, but for me too. It was my turn to save him, my turn to risk everything. He’d thrown himself in front of dark magic to protect me, had been willing to die for someone he loved.

Now I had to discover the truth. Was he truly the monster everyone believed him to be, or was there something worth saving beneath the curse?

The choice was mine. Let him die, or trust him with my life and blood, knowing he might not be able to control himself.

I looked down at his peaceful, human face and knew there was really no choice at all.