Page 46 of Feeding Beauty (The Lost Girls #5)

The Corpse of Love Attacks

AURORA

I t doesn’t take long to find a horse and saddle up. I mount and take off toward the castle, keeping wide of the village chaos. Two vampires whip their heads toward me, fangs flashing as they break into a sprint, their feet pounding against the earth in a blur of speed.

I pull the power into me, grip it tight, and aim.

For once, I don’t fight it. I let it surge.

Heat builds in my chest until I can barely contain it, then I release.

The blast tears free in a rush of searing pink light, spearing into the vampires mid-stride.

Their bodies jerk, limbs contorting as if yanked by invisible hooks.

I scoop the life force out of them, devouring, feeding.

Delicious.

Patting the side of the horse, I urge them faster until we’ve raced through the gates of the castle.

As I approach, my eyes turn upward to see my mother and father standing on a balcony above the gates.

They aren’t hiding. Even from here I can see their fierce expressions.

My mother’s dark blonde hair is braided back under her crown and I see the glint of determination in her matching gray eyes.

My father holds her arm in his as he grimaces at the monster flying directly at them.

My mother finds me first. For one impossible breath they soften, relief breaking over her face as if my return alone is enough to steady the world.

My father’s arm tightens around her, his own lips lifting in the ghost of a smile.

They’re glad to see me. Glad I’m alive. The love in their faces steals the air from my lungs.

Then their relief evaporates. My mother’s hand flies to her mouth, my father’s smile twists into horror as their gaze lifts to the shadow bearing down on them.

My chest aches with how much I still love them. All the distance, all the resentment, it burns away under the fire in Mal’s wake. Whatever else I’ve become, I am their daughter, and I would die to keep them alive.

“No!” I jump off the horse as Mal sails on massive wings, with fire beneath her skin.

She looks nothing like the woman she once was. Skeletal wings beat against the night, heavy with muscle and corruption, dragging her bulk through the air like something pulled from a nightmare. Black scales stretch across her bloated limbs, glowing fissures pulsing underneath with molten hate.

I understand that kind of hate.

One moment with Talon, brief and bright and stolen, ripped away so fast it left me raw and seething at the world.

But what simmers inside me is nothing compared to the thing above me, the full-grown beast of heartbreak left unchecked, left to rot and fester in isolation until it twisted into this.

Mal is not just angry. She is the corpse of love, animated only by spite.

Ice crystallizes in my veins as I stare into a possible future for myself. What I’d become if I let this grief curdle inside me until nothing human remains.

But this could never happen to me. Hiding my secret had begun to kill me from the inside. Mal let exile and heartbreak rot her soul until she embraced it. I refuse to let that happen.

Even when I cannot control what I am or what the world throws at me, I can still choose.

I can break rules to claim my own life. And I have help, from Talon and my Lost Girls, true friends who choose to love and support me no matter what I am.

I built a rich, exciting, fulfilling life even with heartbreak and pain rooted smack dab in the middle of it.

Time crawls with painful clarity, and I can plainly see the hate and glee gleaming from the burning embers in her black eyes as she breathes in deep, her mouth open wide, fire sparking at the back of her throat.

She releases her breath, and flames spew out toward my parents. My heart lodges in my throat as panic sends a rush of white-hot needles through my brain.

I’m going to watch my parents die, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

A dark shape barrels through the sky and slams into Mal’s side with bone-shattering force.

Talon tears her from her path in a spray of black scales and shrieking rage, sending them both tumbling through the night sky.

Heart still hammering, air snags in my chest as the Dragons collide, claws tearing, teeth sinking into flesh. Blood arcs across the stars. Talon’s wings beat once, hard enough to shake the trees below, sending them both spiraling higher, locked together in a brutal grapple.

His scales catch the moonlight in brilliant flashes of obsidian and fire, but Mal—gods, Mal is wrong. Her shape keeps changing, shifting, struggling to hold together beneath the weight of what she’s become.

I rip my gaze away only when movement below draws my attention.

Vampires. More than I can count, surging from the burning village like ants from a cracked nest. Feral. Hungry. Thrall-bound and mindless as they make for the gates. For the castle.

For me.

I step forward, planting myself between them and the people I love. Between them and the threshold they will not cross.

“You better back the fuck up,” I warn. I feel my eyes light up with power and my hair lifts, defying gravity. “Because I’m a Lost Girl and I will eat you alive.” I grin, my lips curling upward without humor.

They don’t listen, rushing toward me anyway. Witchtitting idiots.

My power pours out of me like a hungry maw with fangs made manifest. Pink arcs tear free from my chest and slam into the first wave, sinking invisible teeth into flesh and bone. I rip their lives free without thought, without mercy. Souls unravel in ribbons of light, pouring into me, feeding me.

It’s not like feeding from Talon. It never will be. But it’s enough. Because I control it, it doesn’t control me.

The next wave breaks against me. I open my arms to meet them.

Power crashes outward again, cracking through the night like jaws snapping shut. Vampire after vampire drops in my wake, their bodies falling in a fast-growing pile, their souls flooding the void inside me that craves even more.

I step over a corpse without slowing.

Above me, Talon roars—louder, fiercer than I’ve ever heard him. Fire rolls off his wings as he collides with Mal again, their claws raking, their teeth sinking deep. They fight, gods above a burning earth, locked in a bloody struggle.

Smoke claws at the sky. Fire devours rooftops. Screams cut through the night, and the stench of blood and magic burns in my throat.

Rap is in motion, barking orders as she hauls villagers from burning homes, her hair wild in the firelight.

Ariel maneuvers her chair with ruthless efficiency, weaving through the wreckage, owning the terrain. Her voice rings, reassuring but sharp over the din as she drives people toward the gates where Rosari guards fight to hold line against the vamps.

Kai carves his way through the chaos with precision, shielding civilians, pulling survivors from the smoke, cutting down any vampire stupid enough to cross his path.

Cinder breaks thralls with precise bursts of blood magic, unraveling Mal’s grip on the vampires one by one. Confusion flashes in their eyes as control breaks, and then those freed turn on their captors—adding to the chaos, the bloodshed, the hope.

Snow fights like something feral. Daggers gleam. Her smile is all teeth and satisfaction as she cuts through Mal’s army with vicious precision.

My friends hold the line.

I continue to stand my ground but the frenzy of battle is already calming.

"Aurora!"

My mother's voice cuts through the smoke and chaos. I turn to see my parents rushing down from the castle gates, guards flanking them. My mother's dark blonde braid has come half-undone, ash smudging her cheek. My father's crown sits crooked, his royal robes singed at the edges.

They're alive .

For a breath, I can’t move, can’t breathe. My heart lurches, a ragged sob tearing free before I can swallow it down. I missed them so intensely. As I stumble forward on shaking legs, I become a child again, desperate for the safety of their arms.

My mother reaches me first, her hands frantically checking my face, my body, searching for injuries. "My darling girl, you're hurt," Her fingers ghost over the burns on my arms, tears streaming down her face.

"I'm okay," I whisper.

My father pulls us both into his arms, and for a moment I'm not a cursed Succubus or a Lost Girl or even a woman who's killed to survive. I'm just their daughter, held safe between them.

It’s what they always wanted. For me to be safe.

"You came back," my father says, his deep voice rough with emotion.

"I'm sorry," I sob into his chest. "I'm sorry I ran away. I'm sorry I brought this here?—"

"No." My mother pulls back, cupping my face with both hands. "This was never your fault. And you left to find yourself. Talon has kept us apprised in letters, telling us how you’ve grown, how independent you’ve become.

And just look at you." Her eyes trace my piercings, my chopped hair, the confidence that sits on my shoulders even through the exhaustion. "You found who you were meant to be."

My father's hand rests heavy on my shoulder. "We should have let you go sooner. Should have trusted you to find your own way."

Cries echoes from the village, followed by the crash of a building collapsing.

My parents' heads whip toward the sound, and I see it, the weight of crown and duty settling back onto their shoulders.

The vampire horde has dwindled, but it’s left the wounded and dead to be tended to.

"The people—" my mother starts.

"Go," I say quickly. "They need you."

My father hesitates, searching my face. "Will you..."

"I'll be fine. Go help our people."

My mother kisses my forehead, quick and fierce. "We love you, Aurora. Always."

My father squeezes my shoulder once more. "Always."