Page 30 of Until the Heart Stops (The Oylen City #1)

“ W hat did you mean before? When you said he ‘turned you into a weapon?’”

We were still in the ritual room and I was checking over the now non-existent wound on Lilith’s stomach, mostly to reassure myself that the transformation had taken hold. Soon we would know for sure if the first death begun.

“Most believe I was chosen because of my looks.” The words were bitter on my tongue and I huffed a humorless laugh. “I wasn’t.”

A muscle ticked in my jaw and I finally looked up to meet her gaze. Her kindness slipped through the bond tangled with her curiosity. Curiosity she stifled for my sake. “If you don’t wish to speak of it, I understand.”

I shook my head before scrubbing a hand across my face. The temptation to look over my shoulder at what had once been my maker was overwhelming, but I fixed my attention on her face, the gentle slope of her nose, the bow of her upper lip .

“I was thirty-three and lucky to still be alive—though that was exactly why I caught his eye. In my country I had been a warrior, and a skilled one at that. So skilled many said I was blessed by the Strigun, but I wasn’t sure if I believed the god of war truly blessed me.

” Sighing, I finally gave in to the urge to look, leaning a hip against the table and staring at the pile of ash.

“Looking back, I think there was a magical element to it. I was gifted in the art of killing and whatever power I had enhanced it. That was why he chose me.”

Battlefields flashed through my mind. The scratch of the paint across my face and arms. The weight of the sword in my palm.

Magic, though I’d had no name for it at the time, slicing through my veins, tapping me on the shoulder, whispering in my ear.

And that pale, otherworldly face staring at me across a field strewn with bodies.

I’d thought it was Strigun at first, thought I was dead and he was taking me to Keryes, the king of death, for judgment.

Lilith said nothing, but I slid my palm down her arm, the connection releasing a small bit of the knot lodged in my chest. “Mateo had rebelled against him and his teachings. I was to be the example and the chain which bound them.”

Her questions slipped through the bond unbidden, but she held her tongue. I interlaced our fingers together, squeezing. “I was exactly as he’d hoped, for a while at least.”

Finally her voice, now resonant and lush with the blood, slipped through the silence. “What did he make you do?”

I turned her palm over in my hands, tracing the lines slowly.

“Unleashed me on his enemies, those Lycans and witches with whom he quarreled. For a century I was seen as wild and uncontrollable, little more than an animal running on instinct. Even now there are those who give me a wide berth, as you saw in Eamon’s ballroom. ”

Her lips pursed. She had thought they’d kept their distance merely because I and my siblings were made by one of the Covenant. But there had been plenty within that crowd who had seen the devastation I’d wrought. How, with each command I obeyed, I brought our maker closer and closer to power.

“What changed?” she breathed.

A smile curled the corner of my mouth. “Gabrielle. Henry had been made a few decades after me and he was the one who found her less than thirty years later. Her magic had pulled him through the streets and right into the tiny room she shared with her husband, who was bent on killing her. When she was changed because of that powerful magic, it took very little time for her presence to soften us, to open our eyes to the monsters we had become.”

I turned to face her fully, searching her face and the bond for any hint of revulsion, but there was only compassion. She was searching me as well, looking for signs of pain. I stroked my knuckles across her cheek.

“I suppose we have time now to get to know one another,” she mused, leaning into my touch.

My smile grew bigger. “I suppose we do.”

Yet we were not completely safe, not yet. There was still the matter of his followers, the rest of the Covenant. But for this moment I would allow myself the relief of knowing she lived, that the horror of her destruction had not come to pass.

Lilith’s face fell, brows tugging together. A flash of pain slithered through the bond and I slipped my arm beneath her legs .

“It’s okay,” I soothed as she whimpered, curling in on herself. “It is only the first death.”

She was beginning the true transformation. The first death was the worst as her body changed. But with Seth’s powerful blood coursing through us both, I hoped it would not take nights as it usually did.

I cradled her in my arms, moving through the halls and up the stairs toward our rooms. I sensed the others inside as I pushed through the doors.

“Callum,” Mateo murmured.

But it was Seth I focused on, standing beside the hearth with his hands clasped behind his back. I’d thought perhaps I’d feel a slice of betrayal when I saw him next, but there was only a sense of calm. Lilith groaned again, clutching her stomach, and Seth nodded.

“It will be quick,” he said in his accented voice. “And, with my blood, close to painless, if you will allow it.”

A primal part of me tensed at his offer, but I gave a sound of agreement, turning toward my rooms and moving to lay her gently on my bed. I smoothed her hair back from her face and Lilith’s nose scrunched as she breathed through the pain.

“Your body is dying, but it is only the transformation.”

“I… know,” she all but snapped.

Of course she did. With all the research she’d done in these last few weeks I wondered if perhaps she understood the process better than I did. I touched the bloodstained dress she wore. “Do you want to change out of this?”

Lilith nodded. With jerky movements she sat up, hissing with each wave.

I could remember my own transformation as if it happened only yesterday.

Though Mael had been powerful, it had been two thousand years since he’d last drunk Seth’s blood.

The first death took five days to finish and I writhed in agony each night .

I summoned one of my tunics from my wardrobe before helping her undo the ruined belt around her waist and tug off the gauzy fabric. She clenched her teeth as I slipped the shirt over her head and we worked together to get her arms in.

“Your…magic,” she started before pausing as another wave hit her. “It’s strong.”

Nodding, I encouraged her back onto the bed. “Stronger now than it was before I drank from Seth.”

She froze. “What?”

A knock rapped on the door. “May I enter?”

I raised my brows at Lilith in question, pulling the thick duvet over her bare legs. Her eyes, now a mix of brown, green, and gold swirling together, flicked across my face and I knew she thought I was evading the question.

“Come in,” I answered, and this would be an answer in and of itself.

Seth slipped into the room. His hair was free as it always was, but he wore the clothes of this time, down to a deep purple waistcoat and gold pocket watch. Unlike Mael’s, his face was the perfect expression of tenderness as he observed Lilith, approaching with even, measured steps.

“Hello, young one,” he greeted.

Her eyes widened as she looked at him, newfound senses pricking at the back of her neck. Lilith recognized what others of our kind had not in Eamon’s ballroom. But perhaps that was due to the fact that a fraction of his blood was now in her veins.

Then again, a fraction of his blood ran through all our veins.

“Goddess,” she breathed.

He hummed, reaching out a hand in offering to her. “She is quite pleased with you, yes.”

Lilith placed her palm in his but groaned as another pang of death pulled her in. Seth placed a tender hand on the back of her head. “I would like to give you a gift, if you allow it. A gift I have given to your mate.”

But she was already nodding, desperate for whatever might make the pain stop. Unlike when I’d found him in the woods, he did not offer her his throat. Instead, he gave her his wrist. Lilith hesitantly wrapped her hands around it.

“Drink, love, it will help,” I said, caressing her forehead.

Her teeth pierced Seth’s flesh, though it took a little more effort.

I watched her lids flutter; her body relaxed with the first pull of his blood.

As he had with me, he cradled the back of her head as she drank, leaning low to whisper in her ear.

The words were not meant for me, but I felt them through the bond. Comfort. Warmth. Safety.

Seth withdrew his arm, brushing his thumb across her brow as I helped her lie back onto the pillows. “Sleep, little one,” he encouraged and at once she fell into unconsciousness.

We stood in silence for a long moment, Seth holding her hand while I ran my hands through her hair.

“I am sorry,” he said finally, turning to look at me. “Sorry that this night caused you such terror and pain.”

My breath blew out in a gust. “Mael is dead and Lilith lives. That is what matters.”

He hummed, one of his heavy hands coming down on my shoulder. “Yes, and yet still you suffer.”

Did I? I looked deep within myself, past the bond and over the walls I’d built. There was the memory of tonight, the image of the dagger in Lilith’s womb, the blood pouring from her mouth. It was a sight I knew I would see for decades when I retired to my daily rest .

“I would endure endless suffering if it meant she was safe.” With a sigh, I looked at him. “She must be safe. I will not allow her in harm’s way.”

Seth nodded solemnly, squeezing my shoulder once. “Then I suppose the time is right for another uprising.”