Page 114 of Love Bleeds

He couldn't die here. He couldn't justletNicolai drain his life from him.

But it was so damn tempting, anyway.

If he just closed his eyes...

No! He couldn't listen to the voice in his head that was telling him to relax. If he did that, it would be all over. And it couldn’t be, because then he’d never see Luke again. Luke, who’d worked so hard to keep him safe through the fire. A memory rose to the forefront of his mind. Not of his past life this time, but a recent memory. Luke, kissing him, ‘just in case.’ Because it didn’t matter if Luke had never loved Damian ‘that way.’ Luke loved Crimson, and Crimson was going to come back to him.

The only question was how.

He still had that dart.

If he could just...

He turned the thing in his hand. Nicolai hadn't noticed it yet, had he? But Crimson felt sluggish, and once he tried to move, his sire would be faster than him again.

But it was the only chance he had.

Willing to tryanything, Crimson angled his fist toward Nicolai's leg.

And then, a miracle happened.

Nicolai let go of him, spitting out the blood he'd just been drinking. "You poisoned yourself!" he accused. His hand went to his forehead as if he was getting a headache.

It had to be leftovers of the animal blood that Aldrich had been feeding him, some remnants that were still coursing through his veins. Now they were coursing through Nicolai too, and Crimson grasped the opportunity to jump out of his sire’s reach.

"You won't get away so easily!" Nicolai stretched his hand out toward Crimson, and Crimson was sure, if his sire had been in full possession of his abilities, he would have been thrown back against the wall, but that didn't happen. The fire, the poison, it was enough to sabotage his sire's magic. At least for now. Crimson didn't know how long that would remain to be true, so he dove to pick the knife up.

His sire overpowered him before he could touch it, pinning him to the floor. "Enough of this," he growled.

"Yes." Crimson agreed. And with that, he jabbed the dart Aldrich had given him into his sire's skin, just below his collarbone. He hadn't expected to actually make contact, but Nicolai didn't evade the attack, not this time. He snarled, obviously displeased. Crimson doubted that the small weapon would do much harm, but he had to hope that it would work to distract the other vampire for a moment.

Heart hammering, he reached out for the knife again, grabbed it, and cut into his sire's neck. There was a horrible feeling ofwrongnessblooming in his chest as he did that, but he fought against it. This man didn't deserve his mercy, or his sympathy.

Blood gushed over Crimson's hand. A gargling noise came from Nicolai as his sire stared down at him with an expression of horror that Crimson knew was going to haunt him in his dreams even as he forced himself draw the knife the rest of the way through Nicolai's neck. There was some resistance where the metal met bone, a resistance that made Crimson feel queasy, but then, the blade sliced through.

Crimson shoved Nicolai's lifeless body off him.

It was done.

He was free.