Page 35 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

EVANGELINE

T he stone walls were the same, and so was the familiar warmth. Yet everything felt different now—the very air seemed to be filled with phantom shadows, and the golden light streaming through the tall windows couldn't quite penetrate the darkness.

“ Evangeline .” Blake's voice cracked as he raced toward me, his boots pounding down the hallway, “I thought I felt you, but this asshole told me I was imagining things.” Behind him, Riordan's broad frame filled the corridor, his green eyes wide with relief and something else I couldn't quite place as his gaze skimmed over me.

Once. Twice.

Three times, then his shoulders fell, body shuddering.

My hair was tangled around my face, but Blake pushed it away, peering into my eyes as Rohr came to a stop beside us, his fingers skating across my shoulder, down my arm, as if checking to make sure I was real.

I saw the exact moment they noticed the changes—how their breath caught, how their eyes widened as they took in the streaks of black that now threaded through my blond hair like veins of night.

“It's still me,” I whispered, the words feeling hollow as I set The Book down on the closest table and threw myself against them. “I'm still me.”

Riordan stepped closer, carefully cataloguing every detail, including the dark veins visible beneath my pale skin, like ink spreading through water. When our eyes met, I knew he could see the flecks of darkness that now danced in my irises—fragments of the Underworld I’d carried back with me.

“We saw you go through.” Rohr’s voice caught in his throat, then he shook his head. “We saw you dive through that portal, Evie. Just one more second, and we would have been there to…”

“What is this?” Blake interrupted, lifting my hand, running his finger along the biggest vein, emotion turning every word rough. “This looks like…it can’t be, can it?”

I knew what he meant, because I’d spent the past ten minutes debating with myself over the very possibility. The Darkening, the way a vampire’s blood turned black, given time and sins and a myriad of bad deeds. Never did I think it would happen to me, but here was the proof.

“This started before, but it got worse in the Underworld,” I said simply, “Time moves differently there, so what was a few days here was…a month there,” I shrugged. “I guess all that darkness affected me.”

“Tell us everything.” Blake tugged me over to a chair and sat, pulling me into his lap, countering Riordan’s growl of protest with a gruff— you’ll get your turn soon enough .

I told them about the obsidian boulders, and the lost souls, the ruined, broken castle that became a majestic homage to every horror movie, like ever. And finally, I told them about The Book.

“The Wishrender is a myth,” Riordan said, with a sharp intake of breath as he ran his finger gingerly over the cover. “A fairytale my mother used to tell me when I was young. A magical book that grants wishes, but only to the pure of heart.”

“You were told…fairytales about this book?” I lifted my eyebrow. “And what do you mean, pure of heart?”

“The story goes, the Wishrender will grant one wish, but only to someone deemed worthy, virtuous in both heart and deed. The lock would remain sealed to unworthy hands, no matter their strength or magical ability.”

“I always thought the story was meant to keep me in line, like the vampire version of Santa Claus.” Blake murmured, keeping his face buried in my neck. “My mother warned me if I wasn’t good, if I ever found the book, I wouldn’t be able to open it.”

My heart began racing. “You heard this story, too?”

Blake shrugged. “Every kid in every clan knows the Legend of the Wishrender. I mean, it’s like one of our most popular bedtime stories. But in the stories, there was a magic key, cleverly called… The Key .”

“Like this one?” I pulled the chain over my head, and showed them the little gold key, nervous, now that I knew how important they were. “Malachi used this to send me back. He used his one wish to open a second portal, because I was changing. The Underworld was changing me.”

“Fine. So Draven isn’t the asshole we always made him out to be.” Blake grumbled. “Though I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth.”

“He’s not.” I murmured, picturing him amongst the shadows, all those lost souls gathering around him. “But he stayed behind, because…like that place changed me, it changed him, too.”

“More than he already was?” Riordan asked softly. “I mean…he was already pretty…” he gestured to his face .

“He has horns now. And a tail.” I couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up my neck and decided that information was on a definitely did not need to know basis.

“Anyways…making the wish—sending me back—broke the bond between us. That was the price. And he gave me The Bo…the Wishrender so we can use it to destroy Ravok. I’ll get my wish, and we’ll just have to…time things right, I guess.”

All of a sudden, I was so damn tired, as if this realm had twice the gravity and was sucking the life right out of me.

“When is the last time you ate?” Blake asked softly.

“Food, I mean? You’re too pale, Evie, and as for all of these other changes…

let’s have Fiona take a look at you. See if she can reverse some of the effects.

” I didn’t bother telling him I highly doubted Fiona could reverse the effects of a supernatural shadow realm on my very mortal body, but she was welcome to try.

“Fiona is still here?” I perked up. “What about Eldric?”

“Neither of them would leave. Fiona’s been working with Nikolai to stabilize the ley line, and Eldric’s been…”

“A complete pain in my ass. Seriously, we need to send him back to Crimson House.” Blake grumbled. “But I need to warn you, Evie, there’s someone else here who is…”

The temperature in the room dropped by about twenty degrees, and then…

“Evangeline Marie Silverwood. Where the fuck have you been?”

I pinched my eyes closed. Then decided that wouldn’t save me and opened them, staring at a glowing Angel, in a fuchsia pink jumpsuit that perfectly showed off her baby bump— and holy shit, when did she pop out like that —glaring at me with blue eyes as sharp as lasers .

She looked…good. Happy. Healthy. Pissed .

“God, Angel. Your stomach is huge . You’re going to be a mom,” I sniffled, climbing off Blake’s lap and reaching for that baby bump. “I thought I’d never get a chance to…”

Mom’s leather coat hit me full in the face, the zipper scratching my cheek.

Because my dear, sweet sister just winged it at me as hard as she could, with all the power of an angry vampire.

“Imagine my surprise when I arrived a few days ago to find out my sister—who is going to be an aunt, and promised— fucking promised me —she would help with this baby, dove through a freaking portal to the Underworld with no way back.”

I balled up the leather coat, holding mom’s jacket against my chest like a shield against the full weight of my sister’s wrath. Okay, this wasn’t going to be a happy reunion.

“If you just…”

Her stare was cold enough to freeze the words on my tongue. “I told them there is no way she would ever leave me hanging, yet here you are, looking like you were dragged out of the pits of hell itself and…” Her glare narrowed, took on the intensity of a freaking nuclear blast.

“What happened to your hair, Evangeline? And what is going on with your skin?”

“Call it the Underworld makeover. I don’t know, Angel, I’m literally still working this all out. It’s been a long fucking month…eight days… whatever .”

“Shoo,” she ordered Blake and Riordan. “I need to talk to my sister. Alone . Now, boys.”

I wasn’t sure either of them had ever been dismissed quite so abruptly, or had been called boys , not in the last fifty years or so, but Blake kissed the top of my head and told Angel she had half an hour .

Then he’d be back.

“ No way .” Angel murmured ten minutes later, holding the little carved swans, staring at me like I had five heads. “Please tell me you had hot monster sex. Like all the time. I mean, he has a tail now, right?”

“I’m not talking about this with you.” I told her stiffly. “Besides, we were trying to survive.”

“Oh sure, in his ginormous castle in his big bed with the silky black sheets.” she rolled her eyes. “So how much surviving did you do, and was there tail involved? Or horns? Or both ? What’s his tongue like?”

“Oh, dear God, shut up.” I scrubbed my burning cheeks. “You’ve been reading too many books, Angel. Besides, we’re in real danger. There’s a rift, remember? And Ravok, and Romulus.”

“Romulus is dead and Nikolai and Fiona are dealing with the rift.” She shook her head, like somehow I should already know this.

“And there is no such thing as too many books. Bex and I have been helping, you know. We’ve been doing research in the library here, which is amazing by the way.

A little light on romance, but Eldric said once we close off the ley line, the rift might collapse by itself. ”

“Eldric said, huh?” I teased, and it was gratifying to watch her blush for once. “What else did Eldric say? Has he shown you his fire magic yet?”

“Fuck off Evie, and for your information, he has.” She sniffed. “It’s an ancient magic, you know, runs in their family for thousands of years. He thinks his ancestor was a dragon shifter, or something.”

“Look at you, dropping that tidbit like it’s nothing.”

“Look at you, back from the land of the dead, looking as well fucked as a woman can be. I’m glad, you know,” her face softened. “I’m glad you’re happy. That you found them. Even Draven, who’s kind of an asshole, but I suppose he’ll grow on me. Where is he anyway? I want to see this tail of his.”

“He’s…he stayed.” Saying the words out loud was hard, a weight settling heavy in my chest. “That book right there grants one wish. Malachi used his wish to send me back. And the price was our bond being broken.” I paused, unable to meet her eyes.

“The cost is always greater than you expect, I guess.”

“Oh Evie.” Angel reached for my hands. “Does it hurt?”

I nodded my throat closing off. “A lot, and it hasn’t stopped. Not once.”

“After Tyrell, as awful as that bastard was, I still felt like somebody had carved out my insides. But things will get better. I promise they will.” She surged forward and threw her arms around me.

“You took such good care of me, came to visit, said all the right things. Told me the stories I needed to hear.”

She smelled so much like mom right now, familiar and nice, I let the tears come. For once, I didn’t even try fighting them, I just cried and cried, for Malachi and for me, for the unfairness of everything, and for not being able to just wish my life back to the way I wanted it.

“Now it’s my turn to take care of you, Evie. Not that your males won’t do a good job, but let me do my share. Because when this baby comes, you’re still going to be my number one go to babysitter-slash-diaper changer. ”

“What about Eldric? and Bex?”

“Bex has already become Aisling’s shadow, and is talking about rebuilding the Nocturne library so it’s exactly like this one. As for Eldric…” Her eyes turned hazy. “We’ll see.”