Caressed by Night (42 page)

one granted him honor. Tonight, he would be an animal, a beast from the depths of hell. Tonight, he would lose his pride and what honor he had. Tonight, he would force immortality onto a dying woman because he had failed to protect her. Tonight, Gabriel Erhard would give his immortality to another and, finally, embrace death.

I’ve made the devil wait for me long enough
, he thought.

He willed his fangs to drop and the sensation sent disgusted chills down his spine.

“I gave my word that I would surrender my immortality so that she may live,” he whispered as he slid his hand over her barely beating heart.

The strike was swift and her scream of shock and pain lodged in her throat. What precious blood she had left was being taken from her. She wanted to fight, to raise her hands and claw at his face, to kick out, but her body would not move. The light slowly faded from her eyes. With one last stuttering gasp for air, Kerstyn slipped into the blackness where death awaited her with open arms.

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Dimitri crumpled, his knees sliding in the mud. The white light slowly faded from his eyes as scenes of death and blood danced before him. He no longer saw the desert or Ven’s crooked, triumphant smile.

He no longer felt the agonizing pain that had spread through his chest as the dagger slid home. He saw Kerstyn. Her face was ashen and pale.

The vibrant color of her sapphire eyes was now dull, her lips moving as she struggled for air. His name. She whispered his name.

She was dying.

He wanted to scream and curse the heavens. He wanted to howl in sorrow and fury. Nothing came to his throat, but blood. He choked on the coppery liquid as Ven forced the dagger further into his chest, the blade punching through the back of his heart.

Ven’s boot slammed into his shoulder and Dimitri flew back, sliding across the damp earth.

“Tonight, the rightful king of the Volkov emerges victorious,” Ven said with a whoop.

Dimitri raised trembling fingers to the dagger hilt as a musical tone sounded.

Ven pulled a battered cell phone from his pocket. Scanning the text message, he let out a bout of rumbling laughter.

“I don’t know who this bitch was or what she meant to you, but she is dead. The outcast you left her with proved his worthlessness.” Dimitri closed his hand about the dagger. He could feel the coldness of death creeping into his body. He could not die now.

Kerstyn needed him. The image of her trembling, blue lips flashed in his mind, feeding the inconceivable fury that was building within him.

His emotional grid was out of control. He could no longer tell the hate, rage, and sadness apart. They tangled together they fueled his determination, his raw emotions consuming his entire being.

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“Shame,” Ven sighed, wiping the cheerful tears from his eyes,

“she was a pretty human. Maybe I can arrange for the two of you to be buried in the desert together. How touching.”

Dimitri focused on casting aside the invisible restraints placed upon him by the spell. He dragged in air, swallowing the blood that pooled in his throat, forcing his lungs to expand and his heart to beat.

The vital organ constricted and released, allowing him to free the dagger.

Rolling to his side, he pushed himself up. With his powers unfettered, his heart healed in an instant, every cut and bruise disappeared, and all that remained was his unholy fury and undeniable need to be at Kerstyn’s side.

Ven’s laughter slowed as Dimitri rose. His eyes narrowed as the ancient turned about.

“Impossible,” Ven stuttered, his shock and terror choking him.

“How-how can you be alive? I destroyed your heart!” Dimitri’s head tilted back, the rain falling upon his face and rolling down his cheeks to drip off the tip of his square chin. Lightning slammed into the earth creating an arch above him. His claws grew longer, his fangs burst from their sheaths and punched out of his mouth like a saber-tooth's.

The already chilled air plummeted to an unbearable degree for human life, quickly turning the rain to hail, the mud puddles turning to ice. The wind began to swirl in a cyclone around them as the earth quaked and cracked beneath their feet, creating bottomless, gaping canyons. The air was electrified and snapped with tension and power.

Dimitri lowered his gaze. Bright, glowing, insufferably pure white seemed to burn like twin fire pits of hell in his angelically chiseled, beautiful face. His jaw stretched, his fangs glistening.

Dimitri’s legs spread apart as he sank down into a war stance, his arms extended, his fingers twitching with anticipation, his claws outstretched and ready.

A bone-chilling, blood-crystallizing roar exploded from his throat. The force of the sound was like a straight punch to Ven’s face.

He was blown back, his boots sliding over the frozen ground.

This was the true demon, the untainted vampire. The bloodthirsty dealer of death and, at that moment, Ven knew he would not be walking away from this battle.

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Before Ven could take another breath, Dimitri was beside him.

Dimitri’s fist slammed into Ven’s face shattering his jaw and snapping his nose. Ven fell to his knees swaying from the pain. Dimitri drew him up by his hair, tossing him toward the boulder. The rock offered no resistance. Ven’s body demolished the stone and continued to fly until Dimitri caught him about the throat and slammed him into the ground, the earth giving way. The pair sank into a crater.

“Ha-Have mer-mercy,” Ven choked out.

Dimitri’s vise-like hold on the column of his throat tightened in response.

“That is a hell of a thing for you to ask of me,” he bit out.

With a swift flick of his wrist, Ven’s head was wrenched to the side, the bones of his neck snapping and cracking, a perfect musical.

Dimitri ripped Ven’s head free of his neck before slashing at his body.

He was overcome by the demon, his body and mind no longer his own.

His claws sliced and diced in a crazed frenzy until the vampire’s shell was reduced to strips of flesh, muscle, and bloody bones.

Kerstyn’s heart stopped. Gabriel pulled away, roughly cutting his wrist against his fangs. Tilting her head back, he pressed his gushing wound tightly to her mouth. His blood slipped past her lips, over her tongue, and trickled down her throat.

“Come on,” Gabriel whispered, “come on. You have to live, Kerstyn. You have to come back.”

Closing his eyes, he searched for any signs of life. Her heart remained still, her lungs frozen, her skin continued to lose color. Had he waited too long? Had he taken too much of her blood?

God, he wished he knew what he was doing and cursed himself for what he was doing with the same breath.

Gabriel felt an odd, burning sensation in his eyes as his vision clouded. Blinking, twin sets of tears slid down his cheeks.

Crying.

He was crying.

Never had he shed a tear. He had not wept when his village had been attacked, his people slaughtered, his wife defiled and murdered.

He had not shed a tear when he was forced into bondage or sexual
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servitude. He had failed due to his own weakness so many times in his life and now was no different. Except…now he was not only letting himself down. It was not just his own life he was ruining.

“Dimitri,” he said, his voice shaking, his body trembling, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He chanted the phrase over and over until he no longer heard his words or felt his lips move.

One agonizing moment after another crept by as Kerstyn remained still.

The rain pounded down with a newfound purpose. Lightning crashed down beside the limo, its force cracking the cement. The thunder that followed shook the vehicle and, in that moment, Kerstyn’s body arched, her back curving off the leather bench seat. A cry was drowned in her throat. Her eyes filled with light as her hands flew up, taking hold of Gabriel’s arm.

Gabriel forced her back down. A wave of shame crashed over him as he recalled how intoxicatingly sweet blood tasted when he had changed and, for Kerstyn, it seemed no different. Her lips moved greedily over his wrist as she drew on him, taking swallow after pleasurable swallow. This was the only pleasurable aspect of the transformation process. Once the vampire’s poisonous blood was absorbed, unimaginable pain would follow as the body morphed into that of a demon.

His limbs were beginning to feel heavy as Kerstyn continued to drink. Gabriel’s head fell back and he closed his eyes. He knew this feeling. He had brushed death’s cold realm more than once in both his human and vampire lives. His heart began to stammer, unevenly knocking against his rib cage while his breathing evenly slowed. The familiar feeling of lethargy settled over him as his mind calmed and the world fell away.

A strange rustling noise invaded his serene trance. He heard his name called, but Gabriel did not attempt to open his eyes. He was tantalizingly close to slipping into the bliss of oblivion. A sharp sting spread across his cheek, but he refused to respond. Another sound slap was delivered, but he held on to the fringe of death.

It was the piercing, ear-numbing, heart-freezing scream of shock and agonizing pain that severed his connection with the coming empty blackness of death.

Gannon’s mug was not what Gabriel expected to see when he peeled back his eyelids. His vision faded in and out as he re-entered the
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mortal plane. He blinked, forcing his eyes to focus. Kerstyn still lay on the seat, her mouth covered in blood, his blood. Her abdomen viciously constricted and she curled into a ball, her body violently shaking.

“Poor girl,” Gannon sighed. “As if she hasn’t been through enough, the full moon is tonight.” Her whimpers stung the vampire’s ears. “She will transition tonight.”

“She will need blood,” Gabriel said, his voice weak.

“I’ll call our blood blank. Our stash here won’t be enough for the both of you.”

Gabriel felt his face move and he hoped his expression was a frown, though he was still not fully back in control of his body.

“You would have died if I hadn’t gotten back in time,” Gannon explained. “She was bleeding you dry.”

“She needs the strength,” Gabriel countered. “Women rarely make it through the transition. She fought hard for her life, which is a good sign and I made sure to keep my hand over her heart to preserve her soul. I did everything I could―” Gabriel was unable to finish, disgusted that it had come to this. “We should get her inside.”
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Dimitri materialized in the living room of the suite he shared with Kerstyn. The coppery scent of blood was heavy in the air.

“You look like you belong in hell.”

Dimitri’s head snapped in the direction of the words.

“Where is Kerstyn?” Dimitri demanded, his deep voice vibrating the room.

“In the bedroom,” Gannon answered. He stood just behind the bar, pouring himself a tall glass of Silver Moon.

Searching the hotel room with his senses, he located her. She was in pain. The aroma of death enveloped her, laced with the poisonous odor of vampire blood.

“What happened?” he snapped, his white eyes jumping with flames direct from hell.

Gannon took a swig from the bottle before corking it and setting it on the bar.

“She was shot.”

Dimitri felt his blood freeze and his bones crystallize. His angel had been shot just as his visions foreshadowed. He should have made her leave with Dorian and Victoria.

“Gabriel,” Gannon began, dropping his head, refusing to meet the white-hot stare of the pure vampire, “he nearly died trying―”

“He gave her his blood,” Dimitri snarled.

Dimitri did not know what angered him most: the fact that Kerstyn was transforming into a beast or that Gabriel had been the one who changed her. A black storm of emotion swept through him. He was relieved to know she still lived, but loathed the fact that she was now experiencing the pain of the transition. He shivered as he
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envisioned her sapphire eyes deepening to pools of black and her incisors elongating to sharp, shining fangs. If she survived the transition, they would be together forever, but the price of happiness could very well be her humanity.

“Gabriel is taking this all really hard,” Gannon said, depression and stress rang in his voice and thinned out his face. “You know he never wanted to change anyone. He is…a mess. I’ve never seen him like this.”

Dimitri’s heart shattered for his friend. He knew Gabriel would prefer death to this existence. The last thing he ever wanted was to share his blood, but Gabriel cast aside his hate and his values to change Kerstyn. He had done this for him. Gabriel had sworn to protect Kerstyn with his life. Dimitri was honored that he would sacrifice so much for him and yet, he was jealous it had not been him.