Chapter 190

The world was going hazy. I felt so dizzy. The pleasure of it surged through me. It felt just like when Cillian had bitten me. Was it because Damian was attracted to me, or was it because he was older? I didn’t know. Even as I felt myself slipping away, I couldn’t help but feel warm from the sensation of being bitten. Was this part of being bitten? Could I make Candido feel like this if I bit him?

Then, I heard something.

“Hedy!”

“Candido?” I asked, hopeful. My vision was too blurry.

He was coming for me. It wouldn’t be in my death that I’d get to have him. He was here. He was coming to save me the way it should be. My eyes filled with tears and they slid down my cheeks.

I was so grateful. I didn’t want to die. I just wanted to be with Candido in this life and the next, whatever that took. Whatever I had to do to make that happen, I wanted that more than anything. The Goddess knew that. I still wasn’t sure what she had taken from me in return for my wish, but it didn’t matter.

“Candido…” I gasped again. “I… I knew…”

“Hold on!” Someone said from far away.

Damian pulled back with a gasping moan. He jerked me up and grunted, licking my blood from his lips. “We seem to always be interrupted.”

He lifted me from the ground. I tried to push his hands away. Candido was coming for me. He’d left Estella to come for me. He’d left everyone else to come for me, risking his life for me. He had to see that I was still fighting. That I still wanted to be with him. That I was still fighting like he was. And I was. I’d fight for Candido until my last breath.

Damian dragged me away huffing. “I had really hoped to be able to just leave your body here.”

“Hedy!”

“Candido,” I said, trying to fight, but he was moving quickly, dragging me along. The pleasure and the blood loss made me dizzy and unable to even get my feet under me. I couldn’t stumble or dig my heels in to slow him down.

“Candido, I can’t… my blood…”

Damian scoffed and hauled me off my feet and broke into a run. I felt the cold wind rushing past me. I saw the earth and the trees rushing by through the moonlit darkness. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t keep y mind straight, but I knew that Candido was coming for me. It was the only thing that kept me from going completely unconscious. I heard feet chasing after us. He laughed a little, jostling me as he ran.

Why hadn’t Candido just shifted? He was much faster on four legs, bigger, and stronger. I would love to see his wolf form up close. I wanted to hear him growl as he ripped Damian apart for hurting me the way he’d killed those men in the locker room. Then, he stopped in a moonlit clearing and turned me back to him.

“Two for the price of one? It’s truly my lucky night…” He drew me close and latched on to the wound he’d created in my neck. I heard myself moan weakly, then he was ripped away from me with a snarl.

I dropped to the ground and smiled, hearing the scuffle of bodies. Candido was fighting Damian for me. I knew he’d realize what I meant to him, that we were meant for each other.

I blinked, letting the sound of the fight slowly draw me back from the edge.

“Hedy!”

“Candido…”

“Hold on, just stay with me—Ah!” A high-pitched scream broke through the air and a cracking sound.

I narrowed my eyes. That was a woman’s voice. Maybe it was Estella, being put in her place for interfering with us. It would serve her right for coming with Candido to pretend to rescue me and end up being killed. Maybe Damian was going to drain her and turn her into one of those ravenous vampires that he’d been sending to kill us.

We’d have no choice but to kill her. No one in Moon Shadow, if they were really loyal to Candido and the mission, would let her live.

It would solve all my problems too. Candido might be sad for a little while, but he thought she’d been dead for years. He’d get over it soon enough, especially with me right there revealing how treacherous she was.

He didn’t mourn Sibyl. I’d make sure that he didn’t mourn Estella for long. Then, we’d get married. I’d be his luna and queen… His whole world would revolve around me the way my whole world revolved around him.

We’d be together the way we were supposed to be: fated and blessed by the Moon Goddess. I smiled at the thought. He’d save me. He’d keep me safe. We’d be together forever in this life and the next.

“You’ve made this so easy, Claire.”

Claire?

My thoughts shattered and a bit of clarity came back to me as if I had been slapped in the face.

What was Claire doing here? That couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be just Claire… I frowned and turned over, trying to see what was going on. It was Claire in the arms of several other vampires.

“You’ve even brought me Francium. How kind of you,” Damian laughed. “I suppose he does need to stay rather close to his lifeline doesn’t he?”

“You leave Francium out of this,” Claire said.

A gunshot was fired through the woods. Then, another and another. I heard people cry out and the sound of fire. Someone was killing vampires nearby. I looked up, searching for the origin, but I couldn’t move enough to really see.. I tried to roll over to see, but everything was shadowy and shifting around. Candido had come so late, I wasn’t sure how much blood was actually left in me. Everything seemed to be shifting around me as if the forest was moving me again. Was it?

“I’m not making anything easy for you!” Claire screamed. I heard Damian cry out in pain. I heard more tussling. Another gun shot was fired. Another vampire shrieked in agony. I smelled burning blood, but I kept scanning the area.

Where was Candido? He had to be here. He had to be here. He couldn’t still be with Estella. Hadn’t he felt how close I had been to dying? Hadn’t he felt how much pain I was in? Hadn’t he been looking for me when he’d finished doing whatever he’d done?

Damian tumbled over nearby and Claire growled at him. “This ends now.”

“I think not.”

I heard more people. Then, I saw them drifting closer. She pulled out a blade and I heard footsteps rushing toward us.

“Claire!”

I turned over and saw Francium heading towards us. He had a gun in his hands and Julia was at his side with a rifle. Aiming in the trees and firing. Vampires shrieked with each gunshot as Francium rushed towards me.

“Hedy? Can you hear me?”

“Candido…”

“She’s lost too much blood,” Francium said. “She’s so pale. Julia—”

“Worry about Claire not her,” Julia said stiffly.

“You…” I said glaring up at her. “You can’t … I’m … Pandora.”

“You’re Hedy,” Julia said. “And you’re an idiot. You should have stayed behind and then none of this would have happened.”

“That’s not true…” I hissed. “I’ll… prove it…”

She snorted. “Doubtful. I don’t know why Claire risked her life for you.”

“Because she’s loyal to her future luna,” I hissed. “And the first thing I’m going to is get rid of you.”

She laughed. “If he’d dumb enough to make you luna, I’m officially joining the vampire kingdom. At least, Prince Ian and the Vampire King are smart.”

“They… had a bad plan.”

Whatever they had planned to do had been compromised. It was bound to fail because I wasn’t there to help plan it. And I couldn’t wait to make Candido realize that, admit it, and ditch Estella. She might have magic and be a healer, but I’m his partner. I could plan better than anyone. I’d read all of Moon Shadow’s mission debriefs and used what I learned to put together mission briefs. I knew how Moon Shadow operated better than anyone and there was no way they had a decent plan without me.

I turned over just as Claire’s blade was taken from her. Julia fired on another set of vampires. Then another. She pivoted and shot again.

“They’re closing in. Let’s go, Claire!” Julia yelled.

“Claire!” Francium yelled.

Damian screamed, “No!”

I turned just as one of Damian’s minions took a pullet to the head and slid her dagger into her chest as I looked at her. I stared at her face, pale with unnaturally amber eyes. Francium screamed and she looked at me as her veins began to turn black.

“Run, Hedy,” she said as her skin turned hard and began to flake off.

“Claire!” Francium cried and rushed forward.