Chapter 191

Claire vanished into ash. I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t think. I heard myself gasp, but the deep sadness I had felt the first time she had died wasn’t there this time. I should have been distraught, but I wasn’t.

For the first time since I found out she was alive, I realized that our relationship had never had a chance to go back to what it had once been. We hadn’t talked about it. I don’t even think I thought about how much our relationship had changed, but seeing her vanish into a swirl of ash felt surreal.

I felt so little. I felt… almost relieved somehow. I heard Damian cry out in frustration.

“You idiot! You–”

“Claire!” Francium cried, rushing across the clearing. “Claire!”

It was too late to do anything as the ashes blew away in the wind. No more than a few seconds later, Francium turned on Damian and started firing, screaming with tears streaming down his face. His eyes were full of light.

“Francium, stop!” Julia called, firing at another vampire. It jerked back and vanished in a whirl of ashes just like Claire had. “We have to retreat!”

He didn’t hear her. When he ran out of bullets, he lunged at Damian who seemed too stunned to do anything but let it happen. Francium slammed his fist into his face. I heard the bones cracking. His eyes were filled with light, but I saw the black vein appearing in his skin. Julia ran towards them, clearing a path.

“Francium, stop!” She yelled.

All I heard was him screaming and tearing at Damian. Not trying to drink his blood, but trying to kill him. Damien’s shoulder was bleeding. Soon, Francium’s strength seemed to wane and Damian took the chance to knock him off him. He stood as more vampires appeared and blocked the path Damian took to escape. Julia fired at them, trying to get to Francium and keep him safe, but Francium kept running after Damian, screaming and roaring as if he couldn’t make an intelligent thought.

Then, his skin turned black. He staggered. Julia screamed for him, and he collapsed. His skin turned black, and his body started to crumble like the samples of blood on the mainframe had. I couldn’t understand. He seemed fine before, and now he wasn’t. he was crumbling so quickly.

Was this what Ian meant about their bond?

“Francium!” Julia choked. She aimed at her gut, warring with herself to try and collect what might be left of his body, but she pulled back, backpedaling towards me and firing at the vampires.

“Aren’t you—”

Before I could even get the words out, she was gone.

I thought the other vampires might come after me, but they slunk back into the shadows, following Damian, and I was left alone in the clearing. I heard the sounds of battle beyond the wall even as it started to shimmer and fall.

“Francium!” Francia cried. I looked up as the body of a raven shifted into Francia. She dropped from the sky as Julia came running back.

“No!” Francia wailed, dropping to her knees among the remaining pieces of his bones and his clothing. She gathered them in her arms and sobbed, screaming and wailing. Her voice seemed to echo through the night. The sounds of battle faded, and all that was left was her sobbing.

Where was Candido? I got to my feet, stumbling away from the area towards where the battlefield had been. There were bodies everywhere. The jeeps and trucks were all a mess. The air smelled of blood and death. I looked around, but I couldn’t find him.

Francia’s wailing carried over the battlefield as I searched for him. I walked across the battlefield toward where Estella and Candido had been trying to make an escape. Estella was up, leaning on her gun like a walking stick. I could see energy flickering over her skin. She looked like she was going to shift or pass out at any minute. She didn’t even seem to see me as blood slid down her face.

“Moth,” she said weakly. “Are you all right?”

The man looked up from where he’d been slumped against a truck. He nodded stiffly. “A little blood and I should be… You look like hell.”

“Where’s Candido?”

Estella turned her head slowly to look at me as I asked. Her eyes narrowed and she set her jaw.

“He doesn’t want to see you right now.”

I glared at him. “You don’t have the right to speak for him! Where is he?”

She said nothing and crutched on. “If you have so much energy, go look.”

I growled at her and stumbled after her, barely keeping pace. “You think you’re clever! You think you’re smart, but I know that you’re trying to steal Candido from me. I know that you’re just trying to get between us. Tell me where he is, or—”

“You’ll what?” Estella asked looking at me sharply. “Get more of his family killed?”

“What does that mean?”

“You know exactly what that means,” Estella growled. “If you had followed orders—”

“I’m a member of Moon Shadow—”

“Insubordinate and reckless!” Estella yelled back at me. Her voice seemed to carry across the battlefield. “He gave you an order, and you didn’t follow it. You didn’t follow any of them! You deliberately undermined him at every chance you got. And you can’t even take responsibility for what you’ve done!”

She shook her head. “Get out of my face, Hedy.”

“You—”

She lifted her gun and pointed it at my chest. “This gun is full of silver and wolfsbane hollow points. It will put down anything: werewolf, vampire, dark creature, in one shot. Do not make me kill you.”

My eyes welled with tears. “I’m telling Candido!”

“Estella,” Candido’s voice cut through the air. I turned toward him. He had a bandage across his chest as he headed toward us. “Put the gun down. Please. You need to save your strength.”

Her eyes turned glossy, and she stagged, lowering her gun and using it as a cane.

“She—”

“Hedy,” Candido said stiffly. “Be quiet.”

My jaw dropped. “You—”

“Be quiet,” Candido said again, his voice low, but there was no command in his tone. “You’ve done enough.”

Estella swayed. “How is he?”

Candido looked down. “He’s… gone to find their bodies. I sent a team with him. I haven’t… told him the rest.”

“When he finds out—”

“Who are you even talking about? What—”

“Hedy,” he growled. “Shut up.”

I burst into tears. “You can’t talk to me like that! I almost died and--”

“Would have saved us all a lot of trouble,” Moth said.

I glared at him. “Shut up, vampire! You don’t get to talk to me like that! I--”

I felt a pressure wrapping around my throat. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. I tried to cry out. I tried to pull the force from around my neck, but I couldn’t. I cast my eyes around then to Candido, knowing he would save me. That he would make it stop. Candido wasn’t even looking at me. I tried to call him.

Then, my gaze fell on Estella. Her eyes were filled with red light as she glared at me. Candido walked to Estella and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Stop,” Candido said again. “There’s been… enough death tonight. Please, Starlight… Estella…”

His voice was so tender. Gentle. It made me cry even more when the force finally released me. I dropped to the ground and stayed there, gasping for breath, pulling in breath after breath, and waiting for Candido to comfort me. He had to see how dangerous she was now that she’d attacked me.

“Get yourself onto a truck that’s repaired,” Candido said. “Please. You as well, Moth. They’re loading bodies onto the truck to… head back.”

“To Lunae?”

“No,” Candido said. “Ian’s… made it clear how he feels about werewolves of this side… and I…”

I looked up at him and saw for the first time how tired he was. It was as if he had aged several decades in the past few days. This had to be Estella’s doing. One of those potions she’d given him that was making him so tired, making him weak, making him change his mind about everything we both knew to be true. She was poisoning him against me and warping his mind about who the enemy really was.

“He’s built us a safe haven on the border. As… none of his forces are among the dead, he’s not opening the cave system for us.”

Estella looked like she wanted to say something. Then, she sucked her lip between her teeth and nodded.

I glared at her. “She’s hiding something. Look at her face!”

Estella’s eyes flashed, and Candido stepped between us.

“Please, Estella, go and get yourself seen. There should be a truck headed that way. Okay?”