Page 25 of Tryst or Treat (Season’s Readings #3)

V lad ripped the vampire’s spine from his body and dropped the vertebrae onto the pavement with a wet thud. The vampires tasked with keeping him from his wife had surrounded him, assuming because he was outnumbered, they could contain him, but they learned the painful way what it meant to defy the angel of death. They screamed Belladonna’s whereabouts in the end, and Vlad raced into witch territory, arriving at the coven’s sacred grounds with record speed. A small army was stationed outside to protect the holy space, but the skull on his hand craved blood. Its thirst had not yet been quenched, and Vlad slaughtered every last guard, putting his name to the test.

He’d called Rowena on his drive over. Normally begging her for help would humiliate him, but he felt no embarrassment as he pleaded with the witch. At first, the woman assumed it was a Halloween prank, but when she heard the fear in his voice, she promised him the entire coven’s aid. Only it seemed he’d beaten the witches there, and something told him he shouldn’t wait for their support. He didn’t know who had stolen his wife, but the dread festering in his gut urged him to enter alone. So, he obeyed, fearing that if he waited for Rowena, Belladonna would pay the price.

Vlad slipped through the darkness, becoming one with the shadows, and voices reached his ears. He angled toward the sound, and both relief and panic overwhelmed him as he recognized the feminine voice. Belladonna was alive, but the despair in her tone warned she was running out of time.

Vlad picked up his pace, his immense size invisible as he melded with the night, and as he rounded a corner, a candlelit room came into view. Vampires obscured his wife from his sight, but her terror echoed off the cavernous walls.

“You should be ashamed of your—” she gagged as someone cut her off, and Vlad knew what had caused that sound. He’d inflicted it hundreds of times, and his vision went black with rage. Not his wife. Never his wife.

Vlad surged forward, breaking the necks of two vampires with a single blow. He then ripped out the heart of a third, and with a roar of vengeance, he lunged for the man choking Belladonna.

“I won’t kill you quickly,” he roared as he seized the vampire. “You will suffer for putting your hands on my wife.” Vlad twisted the vampire around, but the eyes that greeted him felt like a punch to the face. He stumbled backward, his voice strangled in his throat, and he dropped the man as if he were a burning flame.

“Gabriel?” He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t feel. His son. His only son. The boy he loved yet failed so many times stood before him, his handprint on his beautiful wife’s throat. “What...” Vlad choked on his own breath. “What are you doing?” He glanced at Belladonna, her small body chained to the chair, and his rage burned white hot. He couldn’t kill his son. He refused to, but Gabriel had put his hands on his wife, the woman he would sell his soul for .

“What you should have,” Gabriel snarled. “Seize him.”

“Vlad! Look out!” Belladonna warned, but he couldn’t focus on anything except the shock of his only child readying to murder his soulmate.

“Vlad!” Belladonna screamed again, waking him from his trance, but it was too late. Vampires descended upon him, and unlike the guards he’d interrogated earlier, these men were prepared. They pinned him on his knees, driving stakes into his limbs to immobilize him. It wouldn’t kill him, but the pain was overwhelming, and he spat blood onto the ground.

“Vlad!” Belladonna sobbed. “Please stop! You’re killing him.”

“My father has survived worse,” Gabriel said. “You won’t though.”

“You are my son, and I love you, but if you touch her,” Vlad growled as he pulled his broken and bleeding body over the floor. The vampires watched him struggle, but before he could reach her, a vampire kicked him in the gut, shoving him across the room.

“Stop!” Belladonna cried. “Please, stop.”

“Let her go!” Vlad roared as he forced himself to his hands and knees. “You can have me instead.”

“You would die in her place?” Gabriel asked, his harsh features contorting in disgust.

“She is my mate.” Vlad met her gaze, his heart breaking at the tears streaming down her face. “I love her. Do you hear me, little witch? I love you.”

“I love?—”

“Shut up!” Gabriel cut her off, but Vlad’s chest swelled despite the pain. She didn’t need to finish the sentence. He knew. He felt it. His wife loved him, and he would die before he let them take her from him.

“What happened to you?” Gabriel asked. “You were the most fearsome vampire known to history, but now you’ve lost your dignity to a witch.”

“No, son. I haven’t lost my dignity. I’ve done what no other vampire was brave enough to do. I learned to love the enemy and embrace peace. There’s enough power to go around. The witches aren’t our enemies. Hatred is.”

“Someone shut him up,” Gabriel said. “It’s pathetic. To think I worshipped you as a boy.” He shook his head. “Belladonna will die, and I’ll have my war… perhaps I’ll seize your reign as well. You’re too weak to lead our people. It’s time for a regime change.”

Vlad launched to his feet despite the pain and leaped for his wife. The vampires flinched at his speed, at his ability to move with so many stakes anchored to his flesh, but he couldn’t let them touch her. He would use his own body as a shield if it meant she survived long enough for Rowena to arrive. It didn’t matter if he died. She just had to hold out until her mother’s army saved her.

Vlad slammed into Belladonna’s seated form, capturing her in his embrace. “I got you, little witch. Your mother is coming for you.”

“Vlad, no.” Her voice panicked as he clung to her.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve lived a long life.”

“Please don’t leave me,” Belladonna sobbed as the stakes dug into his flesh. “I love you, Vlad, but we haven’t had enough time together. Don’t make me live forever without you.”

“But you will live forever, and that’s what matters.” Vlad spat blood as the vampires beat his body, yet he did not yield. They could not have her. “Kiss me, wife. Kiss me as I leave this world.”

“No. You’re not dying.”

“Little witch,” he slurred, his vision blurring. “I waited my whole life for you. At least I’ll die holding you. Your mother will be here soon. Tell her I loved you and make her swear to uphold the peace. Tell her you did the impossible. You made me love a witch.”

“And I love a vampire.” Belladonna’s lips crashed down on his, his blood filling her mouth, but she didn’t pull away. She kissed him fiercely, delivering him to death on the wings of an angel. Vlad could barely keep his eyes open, but he put his soul into his last kiss with his wife. He often thought he would die in battle, but dying as the woman he loved pressed her lips against his was far better. He didn’t want to release her mouth until he breathed his final breath, but then pain ripped through his back.

He roared as the killing blow struck true, but as his world faded, a shockwave of power exploded throughout the room. It was unlike any magic he’d ever experienced, and he wondered if he had died and gone to the afterlife because through hazy vision, he watched Belladonna scream so loud that heaven and earth broke apart.