Page 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The scent of burned flesh hangs in the air long after Kade stops screaming.

Theo cups Kade’s scorched cheek. Even his eyelashes burned when that last hunter struck the match. Betraying them, just as Kade whispered they would.

Useless , Theo thinks as he rubs Kade’s ashen cheekbone, smearing the blood of the hunters he’d been able to catch while the rest of them fled into the woods. Kade was just beyond the tree when they set him alight. Even if Kade were touching the gnarled thing, it wouldn’t matter. It has to be Theo’s burn.

“This wasn’t the plan,” he hears himself say.

“Quite,” says a disappointed voice behind him.

Theo doesn’t bother looking up. He knows what he will find: Victor scowling down at him, his plan foiled.

“You are useless now,” Victor continues. “A knife without a lamb. A lock without a key.”

Theo waits for the end. It hardly matters now. He has no interest in eternity if Kade isn’t beside him. His eyes burn with black tears, ready to spill over.

Victor sighs. “Never you mind, boy. We’ll do better next time. Distract the high-and-mighty hunters. Do a better job with you.”

This is what finally makes Theo lift his gaze from Kade’s beloved, burned face. “What do you ? —?”

He never finishes the sentence.

The last thing he sees before Victor rips Theo’s head off his shoulders is a black tear dripping off Theo’s chin and landing ? —

—on Kade’s cheek.

Kade gasped in pain, his crying forgotten as he jolted back to himself. He was tied to the gnarled tree. Fire eye thorns bit through his shirt and his shins, tiny bolts of agony rushing through him whenever he dared to move.

Victor Fairgood stood in front of him. He was in his human form, wearing the same clothes Kade had seen him wear in the vision. They were moth-eaten and worn, but otherwise intact.

“Hello rabbit,” Victor said gently. “Here we are again. Are you ready?”

Kade blinked back a fresh wave of tears, Theo’s two-hundred-year-old grief looming over him.

“Am I the rabbit or the lamb?” he croaked.

“All prey animals are alike to me,” Victor replied smoothly.

A wet nose brushed his arm. Kade jerked and saw Sparky’s big red eyes gazing at him. She gave him an apologetic lick and butted her head against him.

“Heel,” Victor said.

Sparky went rigid. She walked back to Victor, paws shaking with the effort of trying to hold herself back. She sat down next to him with her ears flat against her head.

A growl reverberated through the trees. For a second Kade thought it was Sparky, but her muzzle didn’t move.

The growling grew louder. Victor stepped aside to reveal Felicity writhing in the dirt behind them. Her arms and feet were bound, her skin torn and smoking from trying to escape.

“Liss!” Kade’s cold heart sank.

Felicity’s head snapped up, black eyes boring into him. She growled louder.

“The rest are at the party,” Victor said, stroking a long line down Sparky’s back. “I kept her back. She’s a real firecracker.”

Kade squeezed his eyes shut, imagining a pack of feral vampires descending on Finn’s stupid party. Some of them had never had blood, and they’d been turned for over a week. What was that desperation like?

Victor stepped closer, watching Kade with a strange intensity. “He turned you. That’s smart. But I bet he didn’t expect all that savageness.” Victor pressed his gloved finger over the rope on Kade’s stomach. “It’s in you. Not many vampires feel it as pure as you. You’d make a lethal member of my coven.”

Kade couldn’t help it: he snarled. Gnashed his teeth like he’d done so many times at school, only this time he had the fangs to back it up.

Victor smiled. He pressed harder, and Kade’s snarl broke off into a pained gasp as the fire eye bit through the fabric.

“It’s almost a shame you have to die,” Victor continued. He cocked his head, scanning the tree line. “Honey?”

Carol Fairgood came stumbling out of the trees. Her mask was gone. A circlet of twigs and holly balanced carefully on her curls. She was wearing the dress Kade recognized from the sketches: tattered and white, with a fanged belt that would’ve made Kade jealous in a less perilous situation. The spear was balanced flat between her hands. Pink flowers were knotted around the handle, gleaming in the moonlight.

She looked like an offering, Kade realized. Like a sacrifice. All the trust of a dozy piglet in its owner’s arms, not noticing the knife in the other hand.

Victor took the spear from her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’ve done wonderfully, my love. Everything I asked and more. If only everyone was as obedient.”

Kade shivered. Something was moving behind his still heart. A pull .

Theo Fairgood blurred to a stop between the trees.

Sparky whined, jerking one paw out toward him. Then Victor clicked his tongue and Sparky stilled.

Victor petted her and turned to Theo. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to do as you’re told? There’s still time, you know. All your mistakes will be wiped clean. We can be a family, a proper one this time.”

Theo didn’t look away from Kade. They both knew what was coming next. Everyone had agreed. But none of them knew what would happen after.

Theo opened his mouth. “I’ll?—”

An arrow sailed out of the trees. It embedded in Victor’s chest.

For a moment, no one moved. Then a horrifying noise ripped out of Victor’s throat, his back bowing and his legs straining as he grew into that white spindly monster from the woods.

“Protect this,” he told Carol, pushing the flower-knotted spear into her hands.

Theo rushed forward and pulled at Kade’s bindings. He yanked, hissing as the fire eye ropes burned his hands down to the bone.

Mrs. Fletcher barreled through the trees, an ax in each hand. “Another!”

“I’m trying,” came Aaron’s urgent voice. He stepped into view, bruised and sweating, fumbling wildly with his crossbow hand.

Victor roared. His wings snapped out. He launched himself at Mrs. Fletcher, pinning her against a tree and tearing her neck open with his teeth.

Mrs. Fletcher screamed as blood splattered down her clothes. Her axes clattered to the dirt.

“MOM!” Aaron swung his crossbow hand around. A second arrow speared through Victor’s chest. He jerked, but continued to feed.

Mrs. Fletcher raked him with her fingernails, scattering white skin flakes. “KILL THE OTHER ONES!”

Aaron hesitated. He was halfway through loading another crossbow.

Theo snapped the first rope around Kade’s torso. Yanked one arm free.

“Theo,” Kade warned.

“I know.” Theo turned.

Aaron was aiming the crossbow straight at them. His eyes were huge and horrified. Kade felt sorry for him. He hated that he felt sorry for him. He had never liked the guy, even when they were sneaking around in the woods. But Aaron looked like he wanted to be anywhere else than the tail end of this story.

“You don’t have to,” Theo said.

Kade waited for Aaron’s eyes to go dead. The decision made clear. For his face to flatten out into that same aloof, expressionless mask he’d been wearing since Kade met him. But his eyes didn’t go dead. Kade had never seen Aaron more upset than when he reached for the trigger.

Theo’s voice sharpened. “Aaron?—”

“I’m sorry,” Aaron whispered. Then his eyes caught on something and widened in horrified panic.

Felicity leapt on him with a roar. Aaron screamed as she tore open his throat, biting down so hard Kade heard something crack.

“ Shit ,” Kade spat. He yanked at the rest of his bindings. His flesh burned, thorns digging into his skin.

Aaron was screaming, Mrs. Fletcher’s yells were fading into pained whimpers, Sparky was trembling at Victor’s side, Felicity was feral, and Carol was watching everything with such a look of genuine triumph Kade wanted to shake her, Felicity’s bindings still hanging from her hands. She was still clutching that flowery spear, hugging it to her chest like Victor had given her a bouquet of roses.

“Theo,” Kade whispered.

Theo nodded. It was time.

“I’ll do it,” Theo announced. “I’ll burn him.”

Victor stilled. He raised his face from Mrs. Fletcher’s neck, jagged and dripping. Everything was quiet.

“You will?” Victor rasped.

Theo nodded. His hand tightened in Kade’s shirt, which still had vines biting through it. He thumbed the fabric, the gentle touch filled with everything he couldn’t say right now.

Kade wet his lips. They had to play into it.

“Theo,” he whispered, letting every ounce of real worry bleed into his voice. “You can’t…you’re not…”

Theo took his free hand and slid Kade’s glove off. Slowly, the way he did at the end of the day: Kade already in his pajamas, ready to climb into bed with a sheet between them.

“This is always how it was going to end,” Theo said. “I’m sorry.”

Kade wanted to tell him about the secondhand grief. How huge it had been, how intensely he’d felt his love, two hundred years gone. He wanted to tell Theo they’d done this all before, that this was the party where the hunters ambushed them. He wanted Theo to kiss him properly, charred lips be damned.

Theo raised Kade’s bare hand to his lips and pressed a soft, burning kiss to his palm.

The veins on Kade’s palm flickered red. Not burning, but about to. The curse was preparing to complete itself. It would take root and spread through his whole body, burning him until he was ash and the door was sealed forever, the town saved.

Theo leaned back. The fire in Kade’s veins died, leaving only a smoking kiss at the center of his hand.

Victor snarled, letting Mrs. Fletcher’s unconscious body drop into the dirt. “What are you doing ?”

Something snapped behind Kade’s back.

Everybody went silent. Even Aaron, whose whimpers were fading as Felicity drained him. For a moment the only sound was the wet drag of Felicity feeding.

Another ear-splitting crack echoed through the forest. And another. Something inside the tree was breaking, the bark warping and bucking against Kade’s back.

Victor eyed it warily. “What did you do?”

“What you said,” Theo said quietly.

The burn on Kade’s hand glowed a sickening black. The bark behind him pulsed, heating up.

Kade yanked at his bonds. “Theo!”

Theo darted forward. Victor didn’t move. He was staring up at the tree, his face full of savage hope. His expression looked a lot like theirs, Kade noticed as Theo clawed through his bonds. Dooming the town for a chance to touch each other.

The last bond broke. Kade stumbled free just as the tree burst into flames.

Victor didn’t look at them. He curled a wing over Carol’s shoulders. “Come here, my love.”

Carol’s smile flinched as she stepped closer to the burning tree. She handed him the flower-laden spear, looking into her husband’s pale face beseechingly. “I’ll…I’ll still be me. Right?”

Victor straightened the circlet in her blond curls. “And more, my love. Let your old spear enter you and regain every memory we had together.”

Carol’s smile steadied. She stepped closer.

“Don’t,” Theo blurted, jerking forward.

Sparky blocked his way, growling dangerously. Kade watched his leg come back. Then the inevitable faltering when he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her.

“Mom,” Theo yelled. “Don’t do it!”

Victor cupped Carol’s cheek. Then he thrust the spear through her stomach.

“MOM,” Theo screamed.

She didn’t look at him. Her white dress flowed with blood. Her mouth opened on a shuddery gasp, her hands braced on Victor’s pale chest. She gazed up at him, full of pain and expectation and terrible love. Then she fell to the ground. Her heartbeat thudded to a stop.

Sparky’s growls became whimpers.

Behind them, the tree started to cave in. Bits of bark collapsed, yanked inwards. Branch by branch.

A wet gurgle tore Kade’s horrified gaze away. Aaron’s bloody hand was in Felicity’s hair. Not pulling, just cupping. If Kade ignored the gore, they almost looked like two lovers embracing.

“Come on,” Kade said shakily, and took off toward Felicity and Aaron.

Theo stumbled after him. Kade pried Felicity off Aaron and pinned her to the ground, giving Theo the far more difficult task of leaning over a bleeding body without feeding.

“Failed,” Aaron slurred. “We…we failed . You gotta…you need…”

He fumbled weakly for Theo’s collar, smearing blood over the embroidered ferns.

“It’s okay,” Theo told Aaron as the flames raged behind them. He wedged a hand over the holes Felicity had gored into him, knitting the skin together. “We’ll get you out of here, we’ll regroup?—”

But Aaron’s eyes were slipping shut, his breathing slowing. The skin was regrowing, the blood was not. Kade watched the realization dawn on Theo’s face and knew what was going to happen next.

“Aaron,” Theo croaked. He went to cut his wrist, to feed him the dead blood that would save his life.

Aaron batted him away weakly. “Don’t you dare,” he whispered. “I’d…I’d rather…”

His pale face went slack. His lifeless eyes flickered with reflected flames, staring at the one last thing he’d failed to stop.

Theo shook him. “Aaron. Hey!”

Victor raised a hand. The flames went out and the forest plunged into darkness.

“Theo,” Kade whispered, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

Victor flicked his hand. The coffin burst out of the ground. A charred body rose from its depths.

Kade shuddered, the movement so intense it jolted Felicity struggling under him. Long before he was born, Cyth had been right here. Burning. Waiting . And yet the clothes were not gone, the skin not melted. It was still a woman, if you squinted. The remains of a dress fused to the skin, patches of red, singed hair stuck to her scalp.

But only for a moment. Cyth’s hair was growing. Thick and red and blazing, sprouting in great mounds and forming a plait that wrapped around her head like a crowd. Her burns cracked and fell away, revealing pink skin underneath. Sharp cheekbones. Dark, keen eyes.

Victor’s breath hitched. A disbelieving smile spread over his face.

“My love,” he breathed. “ Finally .”