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ALARIC

T he pain is unending, a burning from within that’s consuming me inch by inch. I try to fight against it, pushing back with all my might, but it’s only a matter of time. I know that I’m back in my tent, having vague flashes of my men dragging me from the battlefield as the agony pulled me in and out of consciousness.

Kilgren planned this. Despite the pain making my thoughts a snarling mess of excruciating pain, I know that Kilgren planned this without a doubt in my mind. It’s why he tested the arrow all those months ago. It’s why he had such numbers with him, most of them waiting behind the lines until…until I fell. I know my army will not give up until the very last one of them breathes their last breath, but this fight will not be easy, especially without me there.

Another wave of fire burns through me and I grit my teeth, trying to stop another broken scream from tearing past my lips. I’ve been tortured more than once in my long life. I’ve been flayed, broken, and burned; I’ve had limbs cut off and regrown; I was once buried in snow for weeks, the cold slowly killing my extremities while I clawed my way out with bloody, numb fingers ( fucking Ahmed… ) . But none of that compares to this pain. This is agony on a level that I didn’t think could exist. I tried to fight past it, to remain silent and strong as I suffered, but I lost that battle far sooner than I would like to admit.

Now, I’m nearly delirious with the pain. I don’t have the strength to open my eyes any longer, but as I float on the surface of consciousness, I can hear voices around me. Elias, a few other soldiers, and then…Dahlia? I must be on the cusp, the Goddess of Death coming to collect me finally, but giving me this gift of hearing my mate’s voice one last time, even if it’s a mere hallucination.

“What do you mean nothing can be done?” she snaps.

“It’s spread too far, my Lady. There’s no way we can stop it,” Hawthorn answers.

“Bullshit!” Dahlia screams. “Bloodletting! Or…or…leeches! That’s what human healers do! Use fucking leeches to suck the poisoned blood away!”

“It’s too late,” someone else whispers, but I don’t know who.

“No. No! Don’t touch me!” she screams at someone. “There has to be something. He’s the High General. He’s a fucking prince ! You have to do something!” I want to tell her that it’s ok, that I’m sorry and that I love her, but I can’t make my body obey even the smallest of commands.

“Elias, please ,” Dahlia begs, voice breaking. What must my other men be thinking to see her like this. Consorts are not known for being this…protective over their princes. I can’t spare much effort to worry about what they’re thinking as the pain spikes again, making my body nearly give out. My heart stutters and even I wonder for an endless moment if it will start again.

“Everyone out,” Elias suddenly demands. “Now! Lady Dahlia needs time to say goodbye in private.”

“No. No, gods damn you! I’m not giving up, there has to be something! I won’t say goodbye, I won’t fucking do it, Elias, I —” Her voice cuts off abruptly. I wonder why… “Out!” Dahlia demands a moment later, the full authority of a noble Consort echoing in her voice. I want to smile as a twinge of pride swells in my chest. This really is the strangest death dream though…

I can hear retreating steps and then I sense her beside me. Her scent fills me, her presence somehow easing a bit of the pain. She’s really here? How?? No, she’s too close to the battle! She must go, she must get as far from here as she can. Should the lines fall and the Revenants break through…

“Will this work?” she asks quietly.

“It’s the only hope we have,” Elias says. I want to ask them what in the hells they’re talking about. I want to demand that Elias get my mate away from here. I want to tell Dahlia that I love her more than life itself and kiss her, just one last time. But I can’t move. I can’t speak. I can’t do anything but lie here and fucking burn.

Elias leans close to my ear and whispers, “I’m sorry, brother. I know it wasn’t my secret to tell, but…well, your life means more to me than your secrets.” I don’t understand…

“Do it,” Dahlia says, steel in her voice. A moment later, the scent of her blood fills the air just before something is pressed to my mouth. “Come on, Alaric,” she whispers. “Please.”

I want to open my lips, to do fucking anything , but I can’t. I just can’t. My body bows violently as another wave of agony spears through me, completely out of my control.

“Damnit, Alaric, I know you can do this! If anyone can, it’s you.” Elias is close on my other side and I imagine they’re sitting on either side of the furs beside me. “Come on …”

The thing against my mouth—Dahlia’s wrist, maybe?—presses harder against my lips.

“Fucking drink, Alaric. This is not a request! You will not leave me, do you understand?” Dahlia’s voice is hard and I can imagine her green eyes blazing with determination. My firebrand . “We’ve only just gotten started, you and I. We have so much more we need to do. You haven’t even fucked me properly yet, gods damn you.” I hear Elias huff out a pained laugh and I want to smile. I want to laugh. I want to pull her to me and hold her in my arms and do all manner of unholy things to her.

But I can’t. Fucking. Move.

Suddenly, her lips are at my ear, whispering low. “I haven’t even gotten to tell you that I love you yet, Alaric. But I do. I love you so much that it hurts, but in the best possible way. It’s the kind of love people write terrible sonnets about and minstrels sing awful songs about. It’s the kind of love that can move mountains and make the impossible possible. So, it’s going to fix you, do you hear me? It’s. Going. To. Fix. You. But you’ve got to drink, Alaric. Fucking do it. NOW .”

She loves me.

And somehow, I force my lips apart and my teeth to unclench. Her blood drips over my tongue and down my throat and…the pain recedes the tiniest fraction. A drop in the ocean, but still, it recedes.

“Yes, that’s it. Keep going, Alaric. Please…”

I swallow as more blood trickles into my mouth. And again, the pain ebbs ever so slightly. Somehow, I push back against it with more force now, Dahlia’s blood, her mere presence, giving me more strength to fight. Dahlia presses her wrist harder against my lips.

“Come on, Alaric. Drink!”

My fangs slide out without any actual command from my mind, some baser instincts taking over. I sink them into her flesh, tearing and sucking, blood pouring down my throat now in great mouthfuls. I drink and drink, every drop chasing the pain away little by little. I suck harder, taking more and more. The pain fades as Dahlia’s blood battles the poison in my very veins.

“Dahlia, are you alright?” Elias asks quietly.

“I’m fine,” she pants. “Don’t you dare fucking stop, Alaric. Take everything that you need. Take it all,” she whispers, “as long as you make it through this.”

I obey, tearing her flesh wider, taking more and more. Part of me knows I should stop. Part of me knows that I’m acting like an animal. But right now, those parts aren’t in charge and I can’t stop. So I don’t. After an eternity, the pain all but disappears and I release Dahlia’s wrist, collapsing back against the furs. I still can’t open my eyes. I still can’t move or speak, but I can breathe and I somehow know that the poison is gone, that I will be alright.

“There,” Dahlia breathes, relief heavy in her voice. “It…worked…” she adds, but it sounds like she’s struggling to speak.

I hear Elias gasp her name and then a soft thud, but the darkness drags me under before I can even wonder what’s happened.

I come fully awake with a choked gasp, bolting upright atop my furs. Elias is there, hands on my shoulders, holding me steady.

“What…” I croak, my voice rough—from screams, I assume. I clear my throat and try again. “What the fuck happened?” Everything is a jumbled mix of sights and sounds that aren’t making much sense.

“The bastards found silver. Coated the arrowhead in powder and shot you straight through the heart with it. Well, almost straight through the heart. If it had been a clean shot…well, we got lucky.”

I reach up automatically to run my fingers over the spot, remembering the pain of the arrow piercing my flesh, of the silver burning me from within. The wound is completely healed and I shake my head in confusion, trying to force the nonsense in my mind to fall into line, desperate for clarity.

“But how…”

“Dahlia,” Elias says simply. “She felt your pain and knew to come. I don’t know how, but she did. She rode like the devil himself was on her heels, that bastard horse of yours running faster than any should have been able to. Somehow, they made it in time. She healed you, Alaric.” Memories start to solidify in my mind like puzzle pieces clicking together. Hearing Dahlia’s voice, her demanding that I drink, her…telling me that she loves me. My heart clenches and I exhale a ragged breath. “A mate’s blood is the only thing that could have possibly saved you from this, Alaric,” Elias adds quietly. I blink and remember him whispering that he was sorry to have spilled my secret…Oh gods, she knows.

“Where is she?? Is she ok?” Ah gods, I’d taken so much. That thud I’d heard, it must have been her collapsing.

“She’s fine,” he assures me, trying to keep me in the bed. I shove him away and he flies across the room, righting himself at the last minute to remain on his feet. We both freeze, wide-eyed. I’ve always been strong, but I’ve never been able to throw Elias around like he’s a child’s doll.

“Holy shit,” he breathes. “All that blood…”

I feel it as he says the words, the nearly limitless strength coursing through my veins now. Holy fuck, how much had I taken? A mate’s blood is always more potent, but I’ve never taken more than what was necessary from Dahlia. To have so much of her blood flooding my system right now is having…interesting effects. This is one reason that mated vampires are considered so fearsome—not simply because the instincts to protect their mate are so strong that their brutality is unmatched, but because they are literally physically stronger because of the blood shared. I feel like I could take on the entirety of the Revenant army myself…

Fuck. The battle. What had happened after I’d been taken out? Are we holding on? I shake my head, trying to focus on one thing at a time. The most important is Dahlia. I can feel her easily now that I let myself focus for a moment—breathing and whole on another pallet of furs beside the fire. I rush to her side, moving faster than I’ve ever moved before (save the time that I teleported, of course). I brush the hair back from her face. She looks so pale, light bruises beneath her eyes.

“What’s wrong with her?” I ask Elias, though I try to be quiet as not to wake her.

“She’s alright, just…recovering. You, ah…well, hells, Alaric, you drained her nearly dry.” I clench my jaw, trying to hold back the bile rising in my throat. I’d almost…killed her? “Don’t worry,” Elias adds quickly, “you didn’t. She’s completely fine. Ajax was a human healer before he was turned—he’s checked her out and we’ve given her the tonic that her Keeper brought to replenish her blood. Oh, yes, her Keeper and guard arrived an hour or so after she did and Takara brought the tonic with her…” I meet his gaze, the question in my eyes. “She just said she had a feeling it might be needed…so, I think yes, she knows.”

“Fuck, I guess everyone will soon enough.”

Elias rubs the back of his neck. “I’ve been trying to spread the rumor that you’re just so gods damned unstoppable and amazing that you fought silver powder all on your own, but…there are some who will assume the truth, yes. Perhaps it’s time you write to your brother? Before word somehow spreads all the way to Astoria’s Keep.” I exhale roughly and brush Dahlia’s cheek gently.

“The battle?”

“Rages on. We’re pushing back as hard as we can but the whole of their forces attacked after you were taken from the field. It’s been brutal. Reinforcements from the camp have already arrived and are marching to the Plain now. It’s…it’s not looking good, Alaric. Between the sheer number of them and the hit your rumored death made on the morale of the men…A retreat may be necessary.”

“No,” I growl, fury burning hotly in my chest. “My armor,” I demand. “NOW.” The rage boils inside of me, every muscle tensing and bulging, my fangs and claws already sharpening and craving destruction. Elias eyes me but nods, calling for a squire to come and assist me. The blood has been cleaned away, but a hole remains over my chest, a reminder of how close I’d come to losing everything. Elias dons his own armor quickly and I bend down to place a soft kiss on Dahlia’s forehead.

“Sleep, my love. I’ll return for you soon.”

I give her guard instructions to watch over her and if they receive word from me, they are to take her from this place immediately. If it even looks like the line might fall, I want her as far from this place as possible.

“Of course, sir,” Malcom says, inclining his head. The other two are already standing on either side of the entrance to my tent, hands on their sword hilts, ever ready. I nod at them all, give Xerxes a loving pat and a thank you where he rests beside his brother. I mount Xanthus and ride into battle.

I hear my name being whispered in reverence…or yelled in terror as I cut a bloody path across the battlefield. I’m stronger and faster than ever before, though I still haven’t been able to teleport again, and I slice through the Revenants as if they’re nothing but parchment. The sight seems to energize our men, my strength seeming to flow into them as well, and they push themselves into the fray with renewed life. I stab and slice with Night’s Fury, the blade completely coated in thick, black blood and begging for more. I punch a hole through one Revenant’s chest, and tear another’s head from his shoulders with one hand. Those closest balk at the sight and retreat. I grin a bloody, blood-thirsty grin and give chase. I’ve never felt battle lust like this before, it’s like a thick, red haze has settled over my vision and I’m not sure if it will ever fade.

I look for Kilgren among the chaos—I know for a fact I saw him after I was shot—but it seems like the coward has already turned tail as word of my miraculous return spread through the lines. We push them back. Against all odds, we come back from this near defeat and push the bastards back. The Obsidian Plain is littered with bodies now, piles of them. Not only did we push them back, we fucking decimated them. Those Revenants left call for retreat, running for their lives, and we roar in victory in the middle of the carnage. Elias claps me on the shoulder and we share a moment between brothers, one that needs no words spoken. I love you. I am proud to fight beside you. I will always be here.

Now that the battle is done, there is only one thing I want. One thing I need .

My fucking mate.