Chapter 96

Daphne bent over and clutched her stomach. The scent of blood hit Nicole’s nose as Daphne began to cry in great heaving sobs. Nicole cursed as she approached and cast a spell over Daphne to get a sense of what was happening. Lights flickered and rushed around her, circling Daphne’s hands on her stomach, and fear rushed through her.

There wasn’t a lot of time.

As she thought, the strain had been too much. The baby was barely holding on to life as was Daphne from the rate she was losing blood. The twined violent red of John’s forced blood bond was cutting and tearing through her, causing havoc as it struggled with her bond with Arthur. Her magic was stronger now than it had been then, but it was so focused on preserving the baby’s life that she wasn’t healing herself. If it kept going, Nicole knew there was a chance that Daphne wouldn’t survive. She would be forced to murder most of the vampire nation if that happened.

Not that she hadn’t planned to do a lot of killing in the coming days, but not so soon.

“Please,” Daphne gasped, her hands glowing where she pressed them to her stomach.

The lights flickered red with warning and Daphne grew paler. The scent of her blood grew stronger.

Nicole’s stomach lurched in terror, “Daphne, you have to stop–”

“Please live,” she gasped, trembling. “Please…”

Nicole sheathed her sword and lifted Daphne from the ground, casting waves of healing magic through Daphne as she turned towards the rest of the vampire’s forces. It was what she could spare until they got back into the carriage and headed back to the castle.

“We retreat now! Cover the carriage!” Nicole said, forcing a wall of magic out behind her to keep anyone from attacking her from behind. “Kayley, go ahead and get my kit to her room!”

Kayley turned in a flash. Her eyes widened in shock before she turned into a flash of shadow through the trees. The wind rushed like a hurricane through the area.

She rushed forward, pushing her magic through Daphne to try and mitigate the damage. Daphne whimpered in her arms, begging and pleading for the child’s life while Nicole prayed for Daphne’s survival. Daphne babbled, delirious and fading as she rushed through the battlefield until she reached the carriage. The scent of her blood filled the air and Nicole fought back memories of losing Daphne’s aunt in a similar fashion. While that woman had not been suffering from a miscarriage, she had barely been hanging on, hemorrhaging blood, and too weak to heal herself. Nicole hadn’t been able to save her and had nearly killed herself trying to save her. She was smarter now, stronger, but no less desperate.

Daphne was the last of her family. It had been two decades of mourning before she found out that Daphne was alive. She couldn’t go back to that. She would never be able to stomach placing Daphne in the crypt with the rest of the family.

She lifted Daphne inside the carriage and backhanded a stray werewolf who rushed towards her intending to attack her, breaking her neck with a sharp crack and sending her body to the ground. She climbed in without glancing at the body and banging on the roof telling the driver to head back to the castle.

“Back to the castle at full speed!”

The carriage jerked forward and stuttered into movement as Nicole leaned over Daphne, pulling out the vials of potion she usually carried with her.

“You have to drink this–”

Daphne screamed in terror, turning violently. Her power rushed past and cut into the interior of the carriage. Nicole lifted her carefully and met her gaze.

“Look at me, Daphne,” Nicole said. “This potion will save your life. It will help you.”

“Ba…by?” Daphne whimpered.

“Yes,” Nicole said. “It’s you and his best chance.”

Daphne nodded her head and opened her mouth, allowing Nicole to pour the potion into her mouth. She swallowed weakly until the vial was empty and Nicole lay her back on the ground. Daphne’s eyes fluttered closed and her body relaxed into sleep.

She expected her magic to change priorities and start healing Daphne, but it didn’t. Instead, it started attacking John’s blood bond and the bond she shared with Arthur.

“No!” Nicole said, forcing her magic into Daphne, defending her bond with Arthur and the child as best she could manage. She nudged Daphne’s magic towards her internal injuries and looked up as the door cracked against the side of the carriage.

The guards were withdrawing behind them and she heard the duchess and the others on horses starting to run ahead of the carriage.

“General?” One of her subordinates called, “What of the human village?”

She cursed as they fell into formation around the carriage as it rattled and lurched forward. The door swung open again as Arthur staggered to his feet, a half-burnt and bleeding mess. His eyes were hazy and unfocused, his body seemed on the edge of collapse, yet he staggered after them.

Behind him, the werewolves who had come with him were running away and more turned werewolves were coming out of the brush. There was no way any of them would make it far if the werewolves who had been turned began to revive, and it was unlikely that they would be able to defend themselves against the force.

At the least, Arthur would be too weak to defend himself when they revived, no matter how impressive his healing rate tended to be. Not to mention the humans who were technically within the vampire nation’s control. With a calming breath, she cast a wave of magic across the scene, setting fire to the fallen corpses and catching the descending werewolves as well. They shrieked and fell to the ground, rolling around trying to put it out.

Her subordinates turned back briefly before looking at her in shock as she fed the fire and kept a hold on Daphne’s life. She didn’t like to use so much magic at once nor so publicly as it would raise suspicion.

Daphne’s heart slowed to a nearly imperceptible pulse and Nicole felt the illusion over her eyes break as she reached for Daphne’s life force desperately. Daphne didn’t stir, growing nearly completely still as she felt the baby’s life snap and vanish into the aether.

Despair rushed through Daphne’s body, shaking her magic and Nicole shuddered as she began to withdraw, chasing after the life force of her unborn child.

“Hold on, Daphne! You have to hold on!” Nicole cried, “Hold on! You can’t go after him! You won’t come back!”

Arthur flinched at the surge of power and the fire that sprang to life on the corpses as he growled and forced his body to move forward. The carriage hadn’t started to go full speed. He could still hear Daphne’s gasping breath as he met Nicole’s gaze. Her eyes flashed a brilliant gold and he saw swirling light around Daphne’s prone form.

What was she doing? Was Daphne safe? The scent of her blood was too heavy in the air for that to be the case. The fallen bodies were burning to ash faster than any natural fire. The werewolves who were still alive turned into screeching ash and flickering lights as Arthur watched the carriage get farther away unable to move any faster.

His fury urged him to try, but the agony made his movements stilted.

He stumbled to the ground, staring through the flapping door at Nicole as they grew farther away. He felt Daphne growing weaker, their bond was changing again. He had felt it jerk painfully and for a bright moment, he had been filled with Daphne’s grief and pain. It had alarmed him but it was fading now with the scent of the wind and the feeling in his body.

He should have never agreed to be king. He should have left when he had the chance and stuck to his instincts. Now, Daphne was gone again and he had no way to find her. Would the humans tell him how to get to the castle? Could he figure it out with time?

How many vampires would be in the castle standing in his way? Would Owen and Osborn be there as well?

He’d kill them all.

Even if it meant he died.

Nicole’s eyes flashed brilliant gold from within the carriage. Eyes like Daphne’s watched him as they rode away and the bodies around him began to disappear. The clearing fell to silence as another wave of wind drifted over him. It was warm and oddly soothing, drifting over his injuries, mending something in him.

He felt his bond with Daphne moving, strengthening again in an odd way, as if something in him was reaching out to her, reinforcing their bond. He felt it stretching as she grew farther away in some vague direction and slowly, the world around him began to fade into silence and darkness.