Page 197 of Dark Souls

Rubbing my forehead, I tried to dig deep to find some level of sympathy for the girl. It must suck to be related to monsters, but even so, it would be worse to watch them die.

“Go then,” I said, staring down at her. She blinked up at me with her mascara smeared below her eyes. “He’s a piece of shit, but he’s still your dad. Transport yourself to the Romano castle, find my family and tell everyone what’s happening. Sienna and my grandpapi should have nearly figured out the location from the raven’s journey by now, so once Leif creates a portal, they will be here any minute.”

“But.” She side-eyed the crack in the ground that led into the cave and her lips trembled. “No.” She stood up, brushing the dirt off her dress. “I need to see Hayes. I need to know he’s okay.”

“You’re sure you can handle this?” She nodded and I exhaled. “I’ll get Mitchell down there. Follow after.”

Once we were both inside the cave, sitting on the sand around Mitchell’s body, I immediately turned and scrambled over the rocks towards Luka, grabbing his face in my battered hands. His skin was pale and freezing. His lips were a dull grey colour. Moving my gaze to his wound, I felt a small wave of relief seeing his skin slowly healing itself, but he’d lost so much blood.

“Luka?” I pleaded, lifting my arm and biting into it. Pressing my wrist to his lips, I stroked his damp hair from his face as I whispered, “Come on, Red. Come back to me.”

“Oh my god!” Lia’s scream made me glance over my shoulder as she stood, staring down at something with her hands covering her mouth. She slumped to her knees as her shoulders shook. I followed her line of vision and saw a body slumped against the cave wall.

“Shit,” I mumbled, realising it was Hayes. “Lia!” She turned her head to me, her blue eyes full of tears. “Check if he has a pulse.”

She crawled towards him on her hands and knees. Carefully, she placed her fingers against his throat and leaned down to listen to his chest. A huge sob escaped her lips and I briefly closed my eyes. Fuck, he was dead.

“He’s alive!” she shouted. “But barely.”

I threw my head back, thanking the Gods. “He’s probably too weak to heal himself. You need to feed him, okay? Give his body a fighting chance.”

She nodded, biting into her wrist with her fangs and placing her skin against his lips. She lifted his head into her lap and ran her fingers through his dirty hair, pleading with him to drink. When he slowly came around, his eyes flickering beneath his eyelids, his hands gripped her arm, and he gulped down her blood. She laughed and cried, continuing to soothe him with her fingers in his hair. I moved my attention back to Luka and his expressionless face. I smeared more of my blood across his lips, forcing it into his mouth, but with every passing second that he didn’t stir, my heart felt like it was about to crack into a million tiny pieces in my chest.

“Luka, please. Come on. Wake up,” I begged, placing my forehead against his.

A groan from behind me made me spin sideways, and I cursed when I saw Mitchell getting to his feet.

“You should have killed me when you had the chance, little girl,” he sneered, popping his shoulder back in place and wiping the blood from his head wound. Turning to face him, I prepared myself for round two.

“Don’t worry. I won’t make that mistake twice.”

He lunged across the cave, slamming me back against a boulder and sending his fist flying towards my face. I dodged it and his knuckles collided with the solid surface, causing him to growl in agony. I spun out from under his arm and jumped onto his back, locking my arm around his throat and my legs around his waist. He thrashed, rolling and slamming me into the cave wall, wedging me between his body and the rocks as I tightened my arm, trying to get the right grip to snap his neck. Just when I thought I had it, a blinding light lit the inside of the cave and my blood boiled beneath my skin when I felt the impact of magic crush me against the wall. My grip on Mitchell weakened, and he fell forwards out of the way as I screamed at the illusive agony of being cooked alive from the inside out.

It suddenly stopped, and I fell to the sand, panting heavily.

“Oh, princess,” a sickly sweet voice said, laced with venom. “How completely tragic you are!”

I lifted my head to look up and every muscle in my body turned rigid with shock. Belladonna. My face must have given away my disbelief because she smiled with beautiful viciousness.

“I see, you know who I am,” she said, taking a step closer to me. “Though you may know me better as Parisa Morton.” She clicked her fingers and her appearance transformed into a familiar blonde woman who I had seen a few times at royal events.

“But it feels so good to be myself again.” She changed back to Belladonna and I narrowed my eyes.

“Mother?” Lia’s terrified voice echoed around the cave as she gawked at her. Clearly, she had no idea that her own mother hadn’t even been who she appeared to be her entire life. Belladonna had deceived her own child and just shattered the illusion of the mother she thought she knew.

Belladonna rolled her eyes with disregard before peering over her shoulder at Lia with so much disgust written all over her face. “I’ll deal with you later, Evangelia. Of course, you would be the reason we got caught.”

Lia swallowed her fear as Belladonna’s eyes cast down to Hayes’ head lying in her lap. “It seems Lukas has disappointed us yet again. Mitchell, kill the boy.”

Lia screamed, her upper body shielding Hayes as she stared from her mother to her father. “No! You can’t. He’s my soulmate! I won’t let you.”

“As if you can stop us.” Belladonna smirked. “We are doing you a favour, Evangelia. He’s a low-life. A nobody. With him gone, you will be free to choose whoever you wish for your future. Someone who can provide the life you deserve.”

“I choose him!” Lia shouted, her blue eyes shining with defiance as she glared up at her mother. “I don’t care who he is or what he has. He is mine, and I won’t let you hurt him.”

Belladonna tutted, flicking her wrist dismissively towards Mitchell. “Darling, get on with it. She’ll thank us one day.”

Mitchell hesitated, his eyes shifting from his daughter to his soulmate.