Binding Ties The Sentinel Wars - Shannon K. Butcher Page 0,117
find the woman I seek. Lots of blood. And I don’t have the strength to mask the pain.”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “As much as you need. Whatever it takes.”
The glow in his eyes brightened. “Deal.”
Ronan grabbed her, bent her head back and bit her neck.
She was so shocked by the sharp sting of his teeth sinking into her skin that her control faltered. The power she’d been channeling to keep Joseph from bleeding to death slipped from her grasp.
She tried to find the strand of energy again, but there was nothing there anymore. The connection was severed.
Lyka was alone.
Without her there to keep Joseph’s heart beating, it stuttered once, then fell silent.
The luceria opened and slipped from her neck. She moved to catch it, but Ronan was in the way. She fought against his hold, using all her strength, but no matter how hard she thrashed around, she couldn’t break free of his grasp.
Sleep, he ordered as he continued to drink from her neck. He shoved the command directly into her mind, leaving her no choice but to obey.
She lasted all of ten seconds before fatigue sucked her in and stole all her strength.
Chapter 47
Vazel found his queen on the dirty cave floor. With her neck twisted at such an odd angle, she was no longer perfect, but she was still beautiful.
Her breath was so shallow, he almost thought she was dead. But the faint beat of her heart had called to him, summoning him as powerfully as any verbal command she might have uttered.
He stroked her hair, straightening the tangled locks to cover the maw in the top of her head. Why she covered herself like that, he never understood, but he knew she liked it better when no one could see what she really was.
“I can’t save you,” he said.
Her eyes opened slightly, but that was the only sign she gave that she’d heard him.
“But your blood will live on.” He cut open her gown with a knife, baring her abdomen. It was smooth and flat, but he could still sense the life that pulsed within her, struggling for survival.
The Slayer’s seed had taken root, just as Treszka had hoped.
“It should have been my child,” he told her. “And now it will be.”
There was a flicker of terror in her black eyes, as if she realized what he intended to do. He hated her fear, but he wasn’t going to let it stop him. Not when he knew this was the right thing to do. How else could she live on?
Vazel summoned every bit of power he possessed and used it to speed the flow of time within her body. Her abdomen grew with the child, but there was no pain. His mistress couldn’t feel anything below her broken neck now.
By the time he was done and felt the first contraction ripple through his queen’s belly, he was exhausted. Sweat rolled from his skin. His body shook from the strain of wielding more power than he ever had before.
With trembling hands, he carefully cut into Treszka’s body to retrieve its fruit.
The child was perfect. Beautiful.
“You should be proud,” he told his queen, but she didn’t hear him. She’d bled out from what he’d done and was gone from his reach forever.
Vazel cut the cord and wrapped the child in a strip of velvet from Treszka’s gown. A sense of pride filled him as he cradled in his arms the thing he’d dreamed about most since he’d first laid eyes on his queen.
He looked down at the remains of the woman he’d loved and smiled. “We have a son.”
Chapter 48
Lyka woke up in her suite at Dabyr as if nothing had happened. She was whole and safe. All her wounds were healed. She was clean and naked in her own bed.
Completely naked.
She reached for the luceria, already knowing that it was gone.
A deep sense of loss consumed her, driving her from her bed. She slipped into a bathrobe and made it as far as her living room before coming to a dead stop.
Joseph sat at the desk in the corner of her living room, working.
He stood up as she came out of her room but didn’t come toward her. Instead, he gripped the back of the chair like an anchor. “You shouldn’t be out of bed yet. Ronan said you’d sleep for another day.”
“Guess he was wrong.”
The luceria was back around Joseph’s neck again. It looked like it always had, like it had never graced her throat.