Her struggles increased but it was like pitting a lion against a lamb as he growled low and bit down harder. Even half dead, he was ten times stronger than she was, and his strength was increasing as hers weakened. She put every ounce of power she had into her legs and arms as she gave one final attempt to shove him off of her.

A startled cry escaped, she dropped onto her butt as the king abruptly released her. She looked up in time to see Braith heaving him one handed across the stall by his shoulder. The wooden wall gave way, collapsing beneath the impact of the king’s body as it shattered around him. She stared in disbelief at the wreckage as ruined wood continued to topple down on the king.

Aria’s hand fumbled at the trail his teeth had raked across her throat as she tried to staunch the flow of blood. Braith was suddenly before her, his hands on her cheeks as he turned her head toward him. “Are you ok?” he demanded.

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’m fine.”

“Who did this?” His upper lip curled as his eyes shimmered red.

“You didn’t see?” she gasped. He shook his head as he pulled her hand away to examine her neck. “Braith it’s your…”

She broke off as the broken fragments of wood exploded outward. Braith enveloped her with his body as splinters, boards and beams rained down around them. He grunted beneath the impact of the debris as he protected her from the dangerous wood crashing against him.

Silence filled the broken stall as the last board clattered to the ground. Braith’s face was warm against hers, the stubble rough on her cheek as he waited to see if there was anything more coming at them. “Hold onto me.”

Her hands encircled his biceps; his muscles flexed beneath her grasp as he lifted her against him and surged back to his feet. Releasing her, he planted both hands on either side of her head and pressed closer as he turned his head to face the new threat.

The muscles in his arms vibrated beside her head as his fangs extended over his bottom lip. He actually did a double take as his father stepped from the wreckage with far more aplomb than Aria had expected from a man wearing rags and still missing part of his nose. The king appeared refreshed and better than he had before, thanks to her blood. He wiped the blood from where she had gouged his face but the marks were already gone. Straightening the remains of his shirt, he eyed them both with amusement.

“Father,” Braith finished for her.

Chapter 25

Braith couldn’t keep his astonishment hidden as his father took another step away from the ruined wall. It was a sight he’d never even imagined he would ever see, never mind actually experience. There was a part of him that felt like a child again, cowering beneath his father’s heavy hand, unable to defend himself from the repeated blows, unable to escape the abuse that his father so jovially inflicted upon him.

Another part of him, the adult one, the king one, the one shielding Aria, wanted to rip the entire barn down and shred the man looking at him with such delight. Red shadowed his vision as the scent of Aria’s blood drifted up to him and a snarl curved his lip. He’d dared to touch her again and Braith was going to make him pay for that. After everything this man had done to Aria, to him, and countless other innocents, Braith knew that he could not let him survive this. There was no way he would allow this man to touch her again, to be in charge again; no way he would allow him to unravel all of the good they had already created here.

Braith just wasn’t sure there was any way to stop him. His father had taken a stake to the heart, and with no sustenance to sustain and revitalize him, the wound had still somehow managed to heal itself. It was obvious his father hadn’t had much nourishment before returning to the palace, but Braith suspected he’d looked far worse than this when he’d first crawled from his grave. Braith didn’t know how long he’d been wandering around, but the fact that he’d returned here meant he thought he was strong enough to be a threat to Braith, and anyone else he came across.

He looked like a decomposing corpse, but beneath the rotten exterior, Braith felt the vibrant pulse of power that he still possessed. His body was rapidly healing itself, his shoulders were straightening as he thrust them back and quirked an eyebrow in amusement. His upper lip curled to reveal long fangs that glistened in the murky light of the stable. Even though her chin was raised and her eyes narrowed, a small shiver ran through Aria and into him as his father leveled her with his gaze and licked his lips.

A low growl rose up Braith’s throat as he pushed Aria back a little. The tension in his body notched higher, bloodlust began to curl through him as he shielded her. He had far more control over his more primitive instincts now, but even so he would slaughter the creature across from him before he ever allowed his father to touch a hair on her head again.

“Xavier!” His father’s head tilted to the side as Gideon’s startled cry echoed through the stable. Braith had seen Xavier’s prone figure in the shedrow, but he hadn’t taken the time to learn if the vampire was alive or not. Judging by the marks on Xavier’s neck, and his father’s rapid healing, Braith suspected that Xavier was gone. Aria’s blood alone couldn’t have caused the changes that were rapidly transforming his father.

“He was delicious,” his father murmured.

Aria shuddered; a small sound of distress escaped her. “Xavier,” she breathed.

“Almost as good as your whore here,” his father purred.

Aria’s hands tightened on his arms, he refused to rise to his father’s baiting as he pulled her closer to him. Pressing her flat against his body, his hands splayed across the hollow of her lower back. He stood for a moment, savoring in the feel of her while he still could.

Aria’s gaze darted behind him at the sound of feet skidding to a halt outside the stall door. “Holy shit!” William blurted.

“Atticus?” His father’s head swiveled to the side, a smile twisted his lips at Calista’s disbelieving question.

“You look just as beautiful as I remember Calista, perhaps when this is over we can reunite,” he said suggestively.

Braith’s grip on Aria eased slightly. If there was one thing he knew for certain, no vampire came back from having their head ripped off. Her eyes were wild as they came back to his, her fingers clenched around his arms before her grip reluctantly loosened. He stared at her for a long moment before she gave a subtle dip of her head and her fingers stroked briefly over his biceps.

She let go of him as he sprang into motion. His father turned toward him, bracing for the impact as Braith lowered his shoulder and collided with him. His father’s hands came down on his shoulders, his fingers dug into his skin as Braith propelled them both backward. They crashed through the already ruined stall divider and into another wall.

He was disgusting, everything about the hideous creature that had once been a king, was repulsive. Yet the strength in his hands was even more than Braith had been prepared for, even with knowing that his father was stronger than he appeared. The walls gave out and he lost his balance as they tumbled into the shedrow. They rolled over top of each other as they each sought to gain the top.

Braith managed to get a few blows into his father’s lower ribcage but it felt just as spongy as the rest of him. He’d actually been decaying when his body came back to life, Braith realized. He hadn’t just become starved and emaciated like his pitiful trophies, his body had actually started to breakdown before coming back to life.

Braith’s nose wrinkled, his lip curved in a sneer as he lifted his father with his feet and flipped him over his head. He jumped back to his feet, but even in his state, his father was faster and back on him in an instant. They had been about the same size once he’d hit maturity, but he had a good thirty pounds on his father now, even still he was knocked backwards by the force of his weight and momentum.

They slammed into the back wall with enough force to crack the wood. Dust rained down as bits of the beams fell over top of them. A loud grunt escaped Braith as his father dug his fingers into his stomach and tore through his flesh. He struggled to unhinge his father’s hold upon him, but he continued to tear and dig until fire erupted within Braith’s gut and rapidly spread through his limbs.

A bellow of fury erupted from him. He drove his elbow into his father’s nose hard enough to knock him slightly loose. He seized hold of the hand working its way steadily into him and yanked it harshly back. His father screamed in his ear, his fetid aroma washed over Braith as bone and skin cracked within his grasp. Braith took advantage of his father’s slackened hold to get his legs in between them and thrust him off.

He crashed into the wall, but Braith didn’t take time to recuperate as he charged at him, grabbed hold of his throat, and propelled him into the wall again. It gave way with a loud crash as they plunged out of the barn, bounced across the ground and bounded back to their feet.

He was dimly aware of screams and shouts as humans and vampires scrambled to get out of their way as they ran full speed at each other. Braith felt as if he’d run into a brick wall as his shoulder dislocated with the reverberating crack of a bat hitting a ball. His teeth clenched as a low hiss escaped him.

Braith tried to seize hold of his father’s throat but his father grabbed his hand. Before Braith knew what he intended, he sank his fangs deep into the meaty part of his palm. Braith grunted at the unwelcome invasion, and reacting on instinct he delivered a crushing blow that caused his father’s eye socket to collapse. It only made him bite down harder.

Infuriated, Braith released a rapid series of punches on him, but he clung like a dog on a bone as he gained strength from Braith’s blood. Gritting his teeth, Braith ripped his hand back. Skin and sinew tore but he was finally able to extricate himself from his father. Lowering his head, he charged at the man, wrapped his arms around his waist and propelled him back a good fifty feet before they hit a house.

It shuddered from the impact but held firm as his father somehow managed to get him turned around, and underneath him. Braith didn’t see the piece of wood in his father’s hands until he was plunging it downward. He managed to get his arm up to deflect the blow somewhat, but his father’s weight continued its downward trajectory. It slammed into his upper chest and dislocated shoulder, and tore through flesh and bone as it burst out the other side.

A grunt of pain escaped him, his legs reflexively kicked up as his body instinctively tried to curl inward to protect itself. Red filled his vision as he swung his arm up and caught his father harshly under his jaw. Knocking his father aside, Braith managed to push himself up with his good arm. Reaching up, he snapped the end of the board off and tossed it aside. He rose into a crouch as his father launched at him again. Braith’s hands grasped hold of his back as they fell into one of the newly constructed houses.

***

“Let go of me!” Aria shouted as she tried to rip her arm free of Gideon’s hold.

She didn’t know what possessed her, or perhaps she did, but she’d never experienced it before as a ferocious snarl ripped from her and her teeth elongated instantaneously. A strange shimmering rattled through her as the line between light and dark seemed to spread out before her. A line that made her realize what it was that Braith had been so fiercely struggling with all this time. She could take one step over that line and let it all go, she could embrace the power lurking just beneath the surface and let the darkness take over. Destroy, as she so badly wanted to destroy the man that had hurt Braith.

How had Braith controlled this so well? She felt like she was going to fall apart, as if she wasn’t herself anymore. Her skin was crawling with the energy that sizzled up and down her body. She wanted to rip it from her body and she knew the only thing that would make it better was death.

“Easy Aria,” Gideon urged. He released her and held his hands up as he backed away. “Easy.”

She spun away from him and took a step forward before she stopped abruptly. Braith and his father had disappeared into the house; the walls were shaking from the force of their fight. She started to run forward, but faster than she could blink, Jack appeared in front of her. She didn’t know where he’d come from, he hadn’t been in the stable with the others, but he was here now and he wasn’t letting her go as he grasped hold of her arms.

“Let go of me Jack!”

Jack bent so that he was eye level with her. “You are of no use here Aria. Stay out of the way, you’re only a distraction.” He pushed her gently back as he released her arms. Hands seized hold of her and it took everything she had not to kick Ashby in the shin as he gripped her. Jack turned and ran toward the house. Aria fought against Ashby, but the harder she fought the tighter he held her.

“Aria please, stop,” he pleaded against her ear as he pulled her down to the ground and enfolded himself over her.