Page 235 of Vampire Kings Box Set

He resolved to meet her head-on, already thrilling to the fear he was unfamiliar with, but feeling deeply. Moment by moment, time seemed to slow down. He would remember these moments forever, for they were the moments in which he realized that the horrendous creature was not there to hurt him.

Candy had a more desperate agenda, to be reunited with her favored son. Her attack was aimed at Carter, sharp claws rending the undead flesh of her stunned son, caught entirely off guard and unable to defend himself. He had once asked her for death, and now she took it upon herself to grant that wish.

“NO!’ Gideon roared, but in less than three seconds it was too late. Carter lay on the ground, truly mortally wounded in the most grievous and heinous of ways, his injuries barely conceivable, let alone describable.

“It hurts. Why did she hurt me?”

“Because she wants you to be hers forever,” Gideon said, cradling the parts of Carter he could hold in his lap. “But you are mine, and I will save you. Drink of me.”

The wraith of Candy circled them, screeching and lashing at Gideon with her claws, cutting deep into the flesh of his back, bringing absolute agony as she tried to finish her dark mission.

Gideon opened a vein and poured his unfettered essence between Carter’s lips. Carter still had the remnants of a suckle reflex, but he did not have the organs needed to process it. They were ribbons of dead flesh, and so Gideon’s blood flowed freely from his wrist, through Carter’s cold lips, and then in visible rivulets through his broken body.

“No,” Gideon groaned. If he could not swallow the blood, then…

The very last of Carter's consciousness was exhausted and he fell insensate.

Gideon’s roar was tectonic. He threw himself at Candy, no longer in the form of a beautiful male, but in his true form, something formless and yet horrific, eldritch in nature, tentacle, claw and fang roiling from a dark mass of vicious vengeance.

Candy’s final shriek was closer to that of a whimper lost in the whirling wind of Gideon’s destruction.

Gideon reformed in his human state, looking fresher and revived for having been temporarily dematerialized into a creature of nightmare. He knelt down by Carter, feeling a most overwhelming sense of regret and loss.

The feeding had not taken. He knew Carter would be unable to heal. It would fall to Gideon to destroy the very thing he now realized he had come to love.

For the first time in thousands of years, Gideon felt hot tears form in his eyes and roll down his cheeks. This seemed so deeply, personally unfair. It felt wrong, though it was not nearly as wrong as many things he had done in his life. He knew he had no right to become attached to anybody, not a fledgling or a lover, not a child, or a friend. His life was loss.

“Urggh…” a slight gasp issued from Carter.

Gideon felt a sudden rush of relief. He was strong. He was fighting. Gideon would fight too.

Carter was but a baby fledgling, and as such could not sustain the kind of damage Candy had dealt him and rejuvenate on his own. However, with many decades of rest and constant blood feeding, he might very well survive.

Gideon clutched Carter to his chest and was so glad to feel the wounded fledgling’s fangs pierce his chest, his cold tongue beginning to suckle.

By now, the other vampires of the house had arrived, too late to help, but not too late to obey. He looked up into their pale, confused faces and issued an order that many of them immediately followed, all at once.

“Call Maddox.”

18

Less than an hour ago, Maddox’s arrival was announced. Gideon was half-surprised he had answered the summons. He had retired to the dungeon of his home, where a grave had been prepared. It would be the place of his and Carter’s repose.

Maddox came down the stairs, his expression concerned. He stopped when he saw Carter’s body being held limp in Gideon’s arms. An expression of grave concern passed over his elegant features.

“Is he…”

“He was grievously wounded by the wraith. I am taking him to sleep. A hundred years should allow his flesh to knit again. He will mend. He is strong.”

“Candy did this?” Maddox seemed to know what had happened without being told, but it was possible the rumor mill was already in full force, and frankly, Gideon no longer cared.

“Whatever she is, she is nothing like Candy. She is bitter and vile, a creature I wish I had the power to destroy all over again.”

“You killed her?”

“Oh, very much so.”

Maddox seemed confused. “I thought you could not kill her.”