smell is copper. Blood.
For several seconds it’s all I can do to concentrate on my careful breathing. Trying to steady the intake of air, trying desperately to remember the way Luca looked at me when I turned on her in the woods. The fear and shock in her amber eyes was something I’d never seen before in the resilient werewolf.
A scream and a heavy thump pulls me from my anxious thoughts. As I turn, an unexpected struggle breaks out.
“Fallon …” Declan gurgles out my name, the vampire’s fist tightening with vengeance around the hybrids neck, pinning him to the cliff wall. The Eye of the Ocean stares down on them with approval.
A red glow outlines Luca’s body. Next to Luca lies the Crimson Sword … and Atticus’ severed hand. My lip curls as his bloody hand brushes against my ankle. In one swift move I scoop up the Crimson Sword. Determination blazes through me as I storm up the rocky shore.
With both hands, I raise the powerful sword above my head, my aim narrowing on the sharp curve of his spine. Declan’s dirty boots scrape against the rock, his hand grasping the sleeves of Atticus’ disheveled robe.
“Do you love him?” Atticus asks in a detached voice as he studies the struggling hybrid. Blood pools from his other wrist at his side, splattering a puddle of red against the ground.
Without turning, Atticus drops the hybrid and swings his arm, striking the side of my face and sending me spiraling to the ground.
The damp rocks slice open my cheek as I land, the clatter of the Crimson Sword circles my mind. It takes less than a second for me to leap to my feet.
But sadly that’s all the time he needs.
With unnaturally quick movements, Atticus grips the hilt of the Crimson Sword. The stillness of my heart doesn’t matter. It falls in my chest, sinking to the bottom of my stomach as I stumble toward them. Standing above my friend, Atticus raises the radiant sword high in the night like a flash of lightening just before the strike.
A scream falls from my lips remembering every single time Declan stuck up for me when no one else would. Remembering the smile he forced when I know he didn’t feel it. Remembering the fight we had just days ago.
I’m not fast enough.
Twenty-One
The Last Remaining Vampires
Asher
War and discord will never cease. Win, lose, or die, my life will be dedicated to my beliefs. And a hundred years from now, mortals and mystics will still be up in arms over whatever new and petty politics they have to shake each other up about.
The difference is I’m here. Right now. And I’ll never stop fighting for the life I know I deserve.
Someday, when Fallon has outlived me, when this war has faded into the past and I’m just a memory in her beautiful life, she’ll reminisce about the hybrid who fought for her. She’ll remember the life I wanted for us. She’ll remember the love I held for her …
The veil tears the flesh from my leg like it’s a candy wrapper, and my bloody boot kicks relentlessly at its mangled face.
Dirt clings to my tattered shirt as I scramble on the ground with the creature. Screams and fear cling to the air as mortals and mystics alike fight for their lives.
With a heavy breath, I heave the sword above my head until it cracks down on the beast, lodging into its skull with a pulsating red glow. A sigh of relief presses over my lips as I use my good leg to shove the veil off the blade.
Gabriel limps toward me, his bionic hand more red than metallic now. He offers me his hand and helps me to my feet.
“There’s just one more left,” he says, nodding to a veil that screeches in pain a few yards away.
A blue flame burns from the palms of the Infinity witch. The colors come scorching from somewhere within her, and for a moment the flickering colors have me in a calming trance. The magic that shrouds her image flickers, the face of my brother seeming to fade the more she focuses the flames on the veil at her feet.
The mortals who were so quick to storm our lands seem to be falling back. Slipping away from the fight one by one. Fae magic and the simple power of the Infinity witch burns through the air. Fear etches the mortal’s faces as they realize the mistake they have made.
“Where’s Fallon?”
“I