Page 57 of Cursed Lifeline (Eternal Love)

Fifty Six

Felix

song: love is a battlefield | j2, chelsea caroline

The crowd cheers louder as I take my last step into the center of the ring. Turning around, I catch the eyes of my brother. Beside him, a brunette with light brown eyes grins mischievously. Viktor looks at the woman and swallows hard before giving me a curt nod.

Ignoring the warning in my gut about the girl at his side, I give him the same in return.

This ends tonight.

For all of us.

A flicker of movement catches our eyes across the arena, and Ember steps into the light like royalty, ready to hand out a final decree.

Viktor’s underworld proved successful in tempting her here.

Once word spread that he planned to set up a match between myself and the slayer in his underground coliseum, we hoped the witch of darkness wouldn’t be able to stay away. We played the arranged fight off as a penance, an atonement I needed to pay for loving the enemy to our kind. As we venture further into this controversial plan, my heart slightly settles noticing it worked.

Ember’s presence isn’t entirely shocking, seeing as we planned for and hoped for as much. But what startles all of us, is the company she keeps as Evangeline flanks her right side and stands confidently next to the enemy.

I look at Viktor and see his confidence slip for a moment. We didn’t prepare for this. Not only that, but I sense the oath, the pull on my brother as both women glance across the way and lock eyes with him might prove fatal for at least one of the parties involved this evening.

Viktor raises his glass of bourbon in a cheers to Ember and Evangeline. The laughs, ridicule, and screams of excitement over Esme’s impending death make me sick as Esme starts to step into the center of the ring. She eyes me timidly, moving slowly to meet me in the middle.

Once we are toe to toe, the vampire who ushered her in says, “Pick your choice of weapons.”

Esme stares at me with wide eyes.

Playing his part well, Viktor keeps up the persona that he’s still a threat to Esme and says, “No. No weapons. I want to watch as he tears apart the woman he’s cursed to love with his bare hands.”

The crowd laughs and Esme’s eyes fall to the floor.

“Hey,” I whisper, her hesitant gaze lifts momentarily and locks on mine. “I chose you, remember?”

For all she knows, Viktor could still be a threat to us.

“This wasn’t what I had in mind,” she laughs nervously, “But, it’s like you said, believe none of us, right? Because of that, I trust you, Felix.”

My heart fills with hope.

“This time we win,” I tell her confidently.

“But not without a fight,” she challenges as a look of mischief fills her eyes.

A loud bell sounds in the distance, signaling the beginning of the end.

“All is fair in love and war,” I grin. “If you can’t fight for love, what can you fight for?”

Esme laughs. “Finally, our story makes sense after almost three hundred years.”

Beginning to circle each other, Esme looks at Viktor and yells, “You won’t even give me a stake? A slayer isn’t much of a threat without her weapon.”

When her question is met with no response, she glances back at me and her eyes grow wild with excitement as we begin a slow waltz around what could very well be our final resting place.

Because that’s what this is right? An underground vault, a tomb, a catacomb where our love has come to die or finally be given eternal life.

“If you make it more than one round, slayer, I’ll grant you a weapon,” Viktor laughs as Esme takes off her leather coat and stands before me in a black tank top and jeans that match the ebony locks pulled up into a bun on top of her head.

“Fair enough,” she cracks her neck from side to side and I grin, watching her transform into a weapon it has taken almost three centuries to perfect.

“Do you really think you can fight me off, Esme,” I growl, finally caving and giving over to the inevitable, and growing thirsty for a taste.

My mouth salivates at the thought of that destined first bite. The boos and yells of the patrons add to the tension in the secret underground club as we wait each other out and try to calculate who will make the first move.

“You’d never hurt me. I’m safe with you, remember?” she taunts.

“What if trying to keep you safe is what I’ve been doing wrong all along?”

In a flash, the crowd parts and I have her pinned against the nearest concrete wall. The screams of the people ring through my ears as I hold her hostage by her throat, and she wildly tries to pry at my hands to let her go free.

“What if hurting you was all I was ever good for?” I growl in her ear. Her hands start to tremble. She stops fighting me momentarily.

Glancing into my eyes, I allow her a small breath of air, and she says, “Together, we held the power to change everything all along. For over a century, I’ve been willing. The time has come to find out, are you?”

Am I?

I was sure before we stepped into the ring.

Now, holding her life in my hands, I am not confident I can follow through with the plan.

Leaning forward, she grants me a small kiss that I peacefully sink into before she pushes back against me with such force I fly halfway to the center of the room. Stunned, I glance back her way and watch as she cartwheels and then somersaults into a flip to meet me in the middle of the ring before I can even reach my feet. As I rise to my knees, she barrels into my gut and sends me flying, smashing into the wall on the opposite side of the arena.

Patrons yell from all sides …

“What’s he doing?”

“This fight is rigged!”

Looking up, I meet Esme’s stare and grin.

“Are you letting me win?” she sasses.

In an instant, I have her pinned underneath me. With her hands secured at her sides, I turn her neck harshly to the side exposing her creamy white throat. Her jugular vein pulses wildly. My eyes grow wide with excitement. My lips quiver with anticipation.

“For this to work, it must be your will Esme.”

Slowly, she turns her head and our eyes lock.

Her hopeful gaze begs me to finally see the truth we’ve been running from for several hundreds of years.

“True love is only won by giving up free will, Felix.” Closing her eyes, she bares her neck and says, “If you love me, finally set me free.”

Sucking in a shuddering breath, I steal a moment to remember us like this. If all fails, I’ll keep it close to my heart until we meet again. Knowing I can’t stall any longer, I lean forward and slowly lick up the pulsing vein in her neck; she lets out a light moan, and I growl before sinking my teeth into her skin and drinking from her for the first time.

The crowd’s yells reach new heights as she screams beneath me, and her addictive, sweet, thick plasma coats my greedy tongue and slides deliciously down my throat. Time drifts away as I take from her what I swore I never would. It takes all my willpower to force myself to stop, but eventually I do. The cheers of the crowd when they notice her blood dripping from my lips peak again. Esme gasps out. Her eyes fade for a moment. Her body goes limp underneath me.

Fuck, what have I done?

A second later, her eyes clear, and she looks back up at me, blinking a few times to bring me into focus. She breathes out heavily and says, “How do I taste?”

“Like a fucking dream I don’t deserve,” I growl.

Leaning in, I close the distance between my lips and her neck and whisper, “But I’ll always need more, baby, just a little fucking more.”

Before I can sink my teeth in, she brings her knee up, and it collides with my crotch. A sick feeling spreads through my lower stomach and I tumble off of her in pain. Quickly, she straddles me and wraps both her hands around my neck.

“Do it!” Someone in the crowd yells.

“Rip his head off!”

“Kill him!”

“You are letting me win,” she taunts as her grip on my throat tightens.

She holds me there for a moment as a sick smile spreads across her lips until the venom in her veins gets the better of her and she starts to fade. Her eyes close. Her head rolls back. Her grip loosens. I take advantage of her weakness, push her off of me, and quickly rise to my feet.

She tries to shake off her frail state, then stands quickly when she sees I’m free. Once she’s steady, she starts to rush towards me. Determination is etched across her features as she ruthlessly charges forward, although she only makes it halfway before she starts to fade again and almost topples to the floor.

“How much did you drink?” she stammers as she tries to clear her head, catch her footing, and not stumble to her death.

“Not enough,” I growl as I stalk toward her, pull her into me, sink my teeth into the other side of her neck, and drink from the most prized prey I’ve ever had the pleasure of catching.

“Felix,” she pants, half desperation, half sexual lust when I finally force my lips from her neck.

Looking down at her porcelain skin stained with her blood, I run my fingers through the crimson liquid slowly oozing out of her neck and bring them to my mouth. Watching her eyes, I suck them between my lips and feel her knees give out momentarily. Tightening my grip around her waist, I hoist her in my arms.

“She’s still alive!”

“Don’t wait!

“Finish her now!”

The crowd cheers.

As she clings to me, her blood begins to soak my shirt. I hold her close as her body grows weaker from her loss of blood.

Pulling back, I study her as she blinks back a few tears.

She’s almost there. Almost ready. I can feel it.

Her eyes fall to my blood-stained lips. Smiling into the side of her maimed neck, I whisper, “I choose you. Forty thousand, not with their quantity of love make up my sum .”

Arching my neck to the side, I offer us the final link I’ve recently discovered to breaking the curse.

She doesn’t hesitate and sinks her teeth in so fast that I yell out in pain. The sound reverberates off the concrete walls of the stadium and silences the crowd instantly. They watch in disbelief, in horror, as she drinks from me, sealing a fate that’s been stopped for centuries.

Greedily, she takes, and I start to fade quickly. Euphoric. High. A feeling damn near as good as when I’m buried deep inside her begins to vibrate through my entire body. Picking up her hand, I sink my teeth into her wrist and suck down hard.

“No!” Ember yells. “He knows.”

Esme’s will wasn’t the only thing needed to break the curse. I had to be willing as well. Willing to offer her a life I feared most.

Free will, though it makes evil possible, also holds the power to break every curse in the name of the only thing strong enough to stop every immoral, wicked, sinful thing in this world.

Love.

In life, in death, I vowed to love Esme the moment I laid eyes on her. The freedom to do so, whatever the outcome, was found the moment I embraced the inevitable and any future that could be ours.

“Stop them,” Ember screams.

But it’s too late. A change is starting to take over.

As she drinks from me, and I from her, the curse breaks.

It shatters into a million horrifying pieces that quickly engulf into an inferno only the powers of hell could inflict.

The fire rages as a lifeline surges through my veins and brings my soul back to life. The burning venom in my veins instantly turns into a cool antidote that quickly floods from my resurrected soul through hers, bonding us together and keeping her mortal. Esme instantly falls limp against my chest. Unbelieving what’s just happened, I wrap her in my arms as tears fall from our eyes. She sobs against me, and I whisper, “It’s all over, baby.”

Her head rises, she looks down at me startled. In the depths of her disbelieving stare I witness the magnitude of what I just felt.

My cheeks are flushed. My heart beats a pure rhythm. My once lost soul surges to life, reaches out and binds with hers.

I’ve been turned mortal.

“Now, I get to love you honorably,” I softly cry.

But before we can rest in the triumph of our win, Esme is pulled back by two guards, and I’m quickly hoisted to my feet in the center of the stadium.

“What have you done!” Ember demands as she tries to take the ring, but she’s quickly stopped as a slender arm grips her back and a blade is raised to her throat.

The room grows silent.

Viciously severing her head from her body, Evangeline seethes, “Go to hell and take your damned curse and blood oath with you.”

Evangeline pushes Ember’s lifeless form out of her arms and stares at Esme and me. She gives us a curt nod just before a billow of smoke implodes around the princess’s feet, and she suddenly vanishes from sight.

Looking down into Esme’s eyes, I pull her into my chest, and the world around us fades.

Purple and white wisteria hang majestically from the ceiling. Roses climb the pillars at our sides. They snake around them with ease as their smell threatens to deepen the spell we’re cast under.

Sparkling light dances around us, cascading us in a cover of verboten magic.

The room is empty, except for the two of us.

Her eyes sparkle as I pull her into my chest and kiss her lips. Her blood on my tongue mixes with mine on hers and she lets out a soft moan of pleasure before fisting my shirt and pulling me closer. Savoring Esme’s kiss, reluctant to pull away now that I can love her like I’ve always dreamed I could, music begins to gently fill the air. Its matrimonial tune pulls at the strings of our hearts as Esme pulls away and looks up into my eyes.

Grinning, I say, “You once asked me, if Hamlet loved Ophelia, why did he push her away?”

“Yes?” Esme breathes out desperately.

“He saw her as a pawn in his family’s sick, twisted game. He never wised up to the fact, he was a pawn, too. And the things most seem to forget about pawns, is they’re most powerful when they finally band together.”

Understanding fills her eyes.

Resting my lips against hers, I say, “ It took me almost three centuries to realize we held the power all along.”

Esme smiles. “So, can you finally say our love was to be or not to be?”

“To be,” I grin, lowering my mouth to hers and slipping my signet ring back on her finger. “Finally, after nearly three centuries - the rest is silence .”

THE END