Page 66 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

EVANGELINE

T he moment Malachi's power ripped away Ravok's glamour, reality crashed back into focus with devastating clarity.

My throat was raw from screaming, my heart hammering as I watched the two ancient adversaries collide in the center of the cell block with enough force to rupture the concrete around us.

But there was no time to process my relief, or Blake and Riordan's utter shock.

Impossibly, Romulus was already on his feet after Malachi's assault, shaking his head to clear it from being tossed against the wall. He stumbled to one side, but raised his hands, red, glittering magic gathering around his fingers, his narrowed gaze focused on my mate.

“Blake,” I shouted, pointing toward the rising threat.

Blake's shadows responded instantly, but something was wrong with Romulus’s magic. Instead of mimicking Blake's power and turning those deathly shadows against us, he churned out a weak flare of pale fire. Then a puff of shadow. Then more of that crimson magic, little more than a holiday sparkler.

His gaunt, ruined face twisted in confusion as he tried again.

And again.

“What's wrong with him?” Riordan asked, running expert hands over me as he checked my face, my side, my throat, his expression filled with a kind of bewildered relief.

“His ability to copy our magic—is gone,” Blake said, realization dawning in his voice. “Something's broken his connection.”

He was right, and whatever had severed Romulus's ability left him completely vulnerable. Blake's shadows bore down on him like a storm, and Romulus fell back, shaking his hands, like that might make his magic work.

Nope. Not even a little.

“Evie, Evie, look at me ,” Riordan was hyper focused on the blood on my face, but my attention was torn between Blake's fight and the brutal dance happening between Malachi and his Maker.

They moved with inhuman speed, a blur of claws and fangs, each strike potentially lethal.

Malachi fought with a ferocity I'd never seen from him—and in this form… God, he was fucking magnificent.

Ravok was hurt, bleeding …I squinted. No, not bleeding. He was leaking black blood, like after I’d stabbed him. In fact, he was leaking ichor from the exact same place I’d stabbed him with that cold iron blade, right before I’d dove through the portal.

“Angel and Eldric,” I gasped, “Are they…”

“They’re alive. Knocked out, drugged, from the looks of things.” Riordan dragged me further away, jerked his head toward the still open cell door. “Your sister was sleeping and she looked unhurt…Eldric’s been...roughed up.”

He touched my cut cheek again, then paused, growling when he discovered my broken ribs. “If Malachi doesn’t kill that fuck, I’m going to gut him.”

“I’m already healing, don’t worry. We have to get my sister and Eldric out of here.” We both ducked as a slab of concrete crashed down, sending sharp chunks of masonry across the floor.

“Go,” Blake called over his shoulder, his shadows tightening around a flailing Romulus. “I've got this.”

Riordan grabbed my hand, tears rushing to my eyes for no reason whatsoever, then I was yanked into a tight enough hug I couldn’t breathe, but didn’t much care because there was no where I would rather be.

“You’re okay,” Rohr kept saying, face buried in my throat, body shaking. “You’re okay and you’re not dead and none of what I saw was real.”

I didn’t know what they’d seen—what horrors Ravok had shown them with his illusion—but whatever it was had shaken Riordan Graves to his core.

I held on to this male who had always been nothing but a source of steady support, then brushed my fingers over his cheek, until he shuddered, finally opening his eyes.

“I’m alright, Rohr. I’m right here, and everything is going to be okay. ”

Then, just behind him, Eldric lurched out of the cell, white acrid smoke swallowing up his hands as he gripped the iron bars for dear life, his palms scorching.

“Ouch,” he blinked down at his blistered hands. “Who put those there? That fucking hurt.”

“That’s the drugs. He’s totally wasted,” Riordan murmured. “We have to take him… get the fuck down .” Riordan roared, and slammed me to the floor.

Another plume of fire—this one neither weak nor pale—roared over our heads like a rocket blast, heat washing over me, peeling paint off the walls.

Riordan kept his hand flattened on my back, and I smelled burned skin, but that could have been from our resident idiot, Eldric, who I was seriously going to kill .

“Eldric,” I screamed— kind of hard to do with a collapsed lung —”Stop. You’re roasting us to death.”

The fire stopped, leaving behind superheated air that stank of brimstone.

“That was an accident,” he called, weaving on his feet. “I’m saving Angel. Did I win?”

Then he collapsed face first onto the concrete, and I definitely heard bones break.

Riordan and I rushed to him, flipped him over and winced. “Oh…that’s going to hurt when he wakes up.” I peered at his very broken nose. “Maybe it was already crooked?”

“Evie?” Angel's voice was so weak, I left the idiot behind to go to her, curled in the corner of the cell, looking more confused than anything. “How did you—where are we? I thought we were prisoners, but then I heard Blake’s voice.”

I crouched down, trying to block out whatever was happening outside the cell, though I could do nothing to smother Malachi’s roars. Or Ravok’s. There was another deep, resounding boom, and more dust sifted down over us, Angel coughing, pulling her shirt up over her face.

“I’m here,” I said quickly, helping her to her feet, “How do you feel? We need to get you to a healer, find out what drugs they used on you. Are you hurt?”

“Just a little bruised,” she managed, “Mostly from fighting, I think, when that thing kidnapped me.”

“Romulus?” I asked, not really caring at this point.

“No,” she whispered, “I think it looked like Uncle Dante, but…” She shuddered. “He was rotten and he stank and his eyes were gone. It was awful, because when we dematerialized, he held me up against him and….”

“Yeah, don’t ever relive that again.” I told her firmly, pulling her in for a hug. “I know I haven’t been the best sister lately, but I promise I’ll do better.”

“Stop being so dramatic, you’re always a good sister. Where is Eldric?” she peered around me, her blue eyes widening when she saw him, sprawled on the floor. “He really is here, isn’t he? I thought I was dreaming. He kept saying the nicest things, like he was here to save me.”

“Well, he nearly roasted us to death a minute ago, so…”

“We need to get everyone out of here,” Riordan crouched down beside us as a resounding crash thundered through the bunker, more cracks ripping across walls, chunks of cement falling.

“What is happening? Was that…” Angel craned her neck and I pushed her back into the wall.

“Something you shouldn’t be anywhere near.” I looked at Riordan. “I can carry my sister, can you get…him? I nodded to Eldric, arm thrown over his face, eyes squeezed shut.

The next few minutes passed in a blur of transportation and coordination. Riordan and I materialized them both outside the building, into the blazing heat, where Finn and his guards had secured the compound, herding thralls into groups as more and more backup arrived.

Nash strode straight to Angel and me, and threw his arms around us both. “I was worried. Or rather, my niece is worried and asked I come and check on the situation. I’m glad you’re unhurt, Miss Angel.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “You, too, Miss Evangeline.”

“Blake and Malachi,” I said to Riordan, already pulling him back toward the entrance. “We have to get back to them.” He nodded, and once again the world blurred around us .

We rematerialized back into the cool, damp cell block to find the battle largely over.

Blake was batting away a fading swirl of shadows, there was no sign of Romulus and I immediately went to Malachi, leaning heavily against the concrete wall, one hand pressed to his side where dark blood seeped between his fingers.

“Are you okay?” I tried peeling his fingers away from the wound, but he wouldn’t budge. “Is that deep?”

“Nothing vital was hit. I’ll heal.” He was naked, back in his mortal form, covered in cuts and abrasions, but…alive.

Himself.

“The fuckers ran,” Blake snarled, dropping his hands. “Both of them fucking ran, because they knew we were about to beat their worthless asses.”

He held his knuckles out for a fist bump with Malachi, who stared down at his outstretched fist with a bemused expression that had me snorting out a laugh.

“Fuck, you don’t know how to do anything, do you, loser?” Blake shook his head, blood trickling from a wound along his hairline. “No matter, me and Rohr will teach you to be as awesome as we are. Now…put on some of those fucking shadows or something. I’m tired of looking at your naked ass.”

Malachi’s expression changed, turned lighter, but instead of shadows, he cloaked himself in one of his elegant velvet coats, a ruffled white shirt and black pants. Even his hair was back to his old self, twisted into those war braids I’d grown so fond of.

“Fucking showoff,” Blake growled, but slapped Malachi on the shoulder on his way past and my chest squeezed, eyes burning.

“Are you both all right?” I moved toward them, concerned by the amounts of blood I could see. Neither of them looked seriously injured, but…seeing them hurt—seeing them acting so naturally together—did things to my heart I couldn’t explain.

“I will be,” Malachi said, and for the first time since I'd known him, he sounded like he believed it. “The blood oath is broken, Evangeline. Completely severed. I'm... I'm finally free. He’ll never control me again. Never .”

I shivered as those words hit me like a physical blow. After centuries of slavery, of being controlled and manipulated by Ravok, Malachi had finally broken free.

“What happens now?” I asked, looking around at the destruction in the cell block.

“Now we go home,” Blake said, “Ravok can be beat, and Romulus…I would have had him today, if he hadn’t run. We can win this. So we regroup, we heal, and we hunt those fuckers down. Then we finish this.”

“Home? You mean Laith Castle.” I asked, heart sinking a little at the thought of going back to Ireland.

But Blake shook his head. “No Evie, we’re going home .” His eyes were dancing as he gazed over my head at Malachi, something long and pointed passing between them, but I didn’t care, relaxing into my mate, my arms going around him.