Linking his hands behind his back, he made his way slowly around her living room, looking at this and that while Alana stood plastered against the wall, no more mobile than the old sconce beside her cheek. She tried with everything she had to move a single muscle. Just one, so she could be in control of her body again, but she couldn’t. “Wh-who are you?”
“I’m Aric.” He turned to her and lifted his chin proudly. “I’ll be your maker.”
“No.” Her eyes burned with the realization of what he was. Of what she’d stumbled into. Vampire. No, no, no, this wasn’t happening. Alana sucked in air and screamed, “Aaron!”
Aric disintegrated into hundreds of fluttering, flapping bats immersed in a thick, purple smoke, the tendrils reaching for her.
“Help me!” she screamed.
Aric appeared in front of her, inches away, and cupped his hand roughly over her mouth, stifling her shriek. “Shhhh.” Aric canted his head and dipped his gaze to her neck. “The last leader of my coven liked pain. She liked people to scream while she drank them up, but I’m not like her. Don’t be scared. Don’t cry. This won’t hurt much. I’ll be gentle and fast, and when you wake up, you will have paid the Bloodrunner Dragon’s debt.”
Alana opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t understand. To beg him not to do this, not to hurt her, but as his lips curled back, her words died in her throat. His teeth were razor sharp, growing longer by the second.
She was going to die here, alone with this monster. She wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to her dad, Lissa, or her nieces. There would be no more breathless moments with Aaron. There would only be pain, and then nothing at all.
“You’re going to stay still for me, won’t you Alana? So I don’t hurt you any more than I have to. No screaming. Say it.”
He pulled his hand off her mouth, and she choked on the words as she repeated, “No screaming.”
Move body! Do something! Don’t just stand here and die!
An almost-human emotion flitted across Aric’s eyes—regret perhaps—before he inhaled deeply and leaned into her. She could feel the warmth of his breath and the sharp points of his fangs. A single tear slipped down her cheek as she fought off the vision of Aaron’s lips right before he’d kissed her. Her mind was trying to run to something good, but he didn’t belong here in this dark moment. She couldn’t taint her memory of Aaron like that.
Pain, pain, pain and then…nothing.
Aric blasted backward and broke clean through the sheetrock of the opposite wall. Bats poured from the hole, squeaking a sickening sound as the arms of smoke flowed this way and that. Aaron stood in front of her now, his shoulders looking even more massive as he clenched his hands and heaved breath.
Alana slid to the floor on her numb legs as a wave of bats circled Aaron. “No,” she whispered, desperate to claw her way toward him. She had to do something, but Aaron didn’t need her help. He reached into the smog with unbridled focus and precision, and then slammed something onto the floor so hard the boards shook beneath her. Aric’s form solidified, his throat in Aaron’s hand. Aaron’s muscles bulged as he squeezed.
“Please. Don’t!” Aric begged, and it was then that she saw it. Her coffee table was toppled over, and in Aaron’s grip was the fourth splintered leg, pressed against Aric’s chest right over his heart.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t give you your final death,” Aaron growled in an inhuman voice.
“I was going to be gentle. I have to avenge Arabella. Please, just let me explain. I’m trying to avoid war!”
Aaron slammed him on the ground so hard Alana could hear the sickening crack of Aric’s head. He pushed the table leg into the vampire’s chest by millimeters, and behind Aric’s gritted teeth came a pained keening sound, like nails on a chalkboard.
“If you kill me, that will be a queen and a king, and that can’t be forgiven, Bloodrunner! It won’t just be the Asheville Coven wanting revenge. You’ll have the entirety of my kind fighting over your deaths. Nothing will save you then.”
Aaron straddled the monster. Every muscle bulging and tense, Aaron glanced over at Alana with wild eyes. “Look away.”
“Aaron, listen to him.”
“Alana,” Aaron warned. “Look away now.”
“I care about human life! I wasn’t going to kill her, only Turn her.”
“She isn’t yours to Turn, Aric! I fucking tried with you, man. I tried working alongside of you after all that you’ve done. Your queen tried to break Wyatt. Your coven came for Harper. You ripped my fucking throat out, and now this? It isn’t her fate to be a monster!” Aaron roared, the veins in his throat protruding. “I’ve watched you work to save human life. I’ve seen the look in your eyes when you lose one. It affects you, so how can you do this to Alana?”
“Because we don’t work like you! We don’t have the same rules. A Bloodrunner killed my queen, and yeah, she deserved it. Aaah!” Aric made a choking sound as Aaron pushed on the leg of the table. “She deserved it! Arabella was too old to rule, was undergoing The Sickening, and she played with Wyatt to make her feel steady. I hated it. We all did, but she was our queen. The first rule for a new king or queen is to avenge the last! I have to avenge her, Aaron! I can rule my people better, but not without meeting the Rule of Vengeance. A life for a life. My people want the dragon. They want Harper, but I don’t want war. This is the best I could negotiate. A life for a life. I was going to Turn Alana, not kill her. It would’ve satisfied the blood debt. Don’t do this. Don’t start a war. No one will survive.”