Eclipsed by Midnight (24 page)

My body wracks with a torrent of pain clawing through me, hemorrhaging my insides, killing my will to live as thick tears muddle my vision. Voices swirl in a dull, muted fashion all around as a black hole opens up, threatening to suck out the soul from my flesh. The earth does not spin, time does not pass, and everything slows to the speed of molasses, drawing back in on itself until nothing makes sense. Nothing will ever be right again.

Allowing my broken spirit to lift from my body and be momentarily free from the suffocating pain found inside that vessel, I float up into the sky to find a breath. The crystal clear, winter’s night sky burns my broken spirit as I aimlessly suspend myself just above the house, trying to find the space to simply breathe. Searching the heavens for answers and in wordless prayer, my attention is drawn back down to a tree in the yard, just outside the boys’ window. It is there that a set of watching eyes catches my attention.

Eyes, I know those eyes. A smile that never quite touches her eyes, a set of glowing orbs that haunted me from the confines of my cell in that castle. In the span of my next breath, the past rushes up to meet the present and I am able to see all too clearly. Dropping back down into my physical form in a hurried, nauseating crash landing, I gasp for breath and fight the need to purge my insides as my spirit attempts to settle

“Etienne!” I scream as loud as I possibly can.

“I’m right here.” My mate calmly rubs my back, patiently waiting.

“I know who did this! I know, I know, I know!” I cry in desperation for something to make this right. Retribution must be served for having my heart cut from my chest. A deadly beast awakens within me, one that wants suffering—a lot of it. There is no time or room for despair.

“Tell me, tell me and I will make this right.” His oath, though verbal, is written in blood, there on the spot of my fallen boy.

“I will fucking kill her myself,” I seethe before running through all the correlating facts at a blinding speed for him. My carnal, animalistic need to hunt and slaughter has my mind working entirely too quickly considering the circumstances. I tell him of the eyes, the laugh, and the symbols on his father.

In my angst and desperate purging of facts, I hadn’t noticed the disappearing of my other kid. Panic floods me again as fear stabs me. “Where is he? Is he okay?” I cry out, anxiety rising.

“Yes, he is fine, half a day and he will be good as new. We moved them next door,” Erik pipes in, sadness filling him. There was so much of that coming off everyone. Wretchedness and gloom seeping into every molecule in this space. As I turn to look at the seemingly peaceful sleeping body, my life flashes before my eyes, but especially the last nineteen years. In a few weeks, they were to turn nineteen. Innocence lost, a chance at life now lost, and for what? Supreme power? That had to be the reason. Leaning over the cool form, I kiss his forehead. I whisper how much I love him and promise revenge as my vision swarms in red and my focus narrows in on my single-handed mission.

“Sasha, don’t go back into that darkness. Don’t you fucking flip that switch. Stay with me, mon amour, stay with me and let me be enough to take away the pain, to help you through this.” Etienne’s firm arms wrap tightly around me as he pulls me close, knowing exactly where my mind is drifting too. That deadly mode that would allow me to do what needs to be done without the burden of a conscience. Desperation lights the moment as he forcefully grabs my face and lifts it toward his eager kiss, fear inspiring the dampness in his eyes as he brings his lips to mine.

I try to throw my barrier up to block him completely from getting to me. I don’t want him changing my mind. I am a one-way freight train on a mission for bloodshed, and it will be glorious. He breaks through my barrier faster than I can comprehend, his magic blasting my defenses wide open with relentless love and passion that only we shared, a feat only he could manage.

The despair and grief immediately returns. It had almost dissipated to nothing as my mind had made itself up. Unbearable heartache takes up residence again as I collapse in his arms. Not knowing which way is up or where to turn to escape the inescapable agony, I give in to him completely and let him take my pain. A monsoon and thunderous night sky encompass the city, drowning it in my misery in a flash-winter advisory. Numbness overtakes my physical form as my mate picks up my destroyed body and pulls me in close. Completely letting go, I let him fill the void that I cannot even begin to shoulder.

Chapter 16

“Until we have seen someone’s darkness we don’t really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone’s darkness, we don’t really know what love is.”

~Marianne Williamson

Sasha

As my body clings to Etienne’s for dear life, my mind’s eye keeps tabs on my one living son as well as the new life inside of me. Adhering to the sound of their pulses vibrating in my ears is the only way I can manage to stay strong in this overwhelming storm of sorrow. For if I give up, everyone I love is doomed.

“Anu, I’m going to put you down in the hall just outside the room. I need to leave to gather the eren.” Etienne’s mirrored pain hides behind his calm and collected personality.

Dread chokes me as I cling to him with a death grip, my white knuckles fisting his T-shirt until he barely has room to move. “No, don’t leave me.” My vulnerability scares me, I hate feeling like this, but I’m certain that my being will apart in his absence. Also, Sasha is not a quitter; I will join him in this mission for reckoning. It is my right as a wronged mother.

“Okay. We have to go now. Will you be alright to leave now?” His concern for my wellbeing weighs greater than anything.

“Yeah, can you call Gabriel to come with us? I know Inessa and Vlad will take good care of my boy.” The depression threatens to drown me, but being close to Lil makes it a tiny bit bearable. We have unfinished business and I need to keep it together.

“It might be faster if you call him with your little trick.” Etienne winks in a forced attempt at humor through his tight, mourning-filled features. Bless this husband of mine as he endeavors to hold strong for me when he is clearly hurting too.

My brow pinches as I sift through the possibilities of what he may be talking about.

“Call him through the blood link.”

Finally understanding, my focus narrows in on Gabriel. It takes a moment to find that small filament he now carriers between us, but when I do, I channel it, asking him to come to me. Unsure if the message has been received, I pull again on it frantically.

“For fuck’s sake, stop, I am here,” Gabriel’s gasping voice bellows from downstairs as he thumps through the front door in a struggle.

“Damn, you all right, man?” Erik peers down over the railing of the staircase next to us at the sopping wet beast moving slowly into the atrium in disbelief as the storm rages on behind him through the open door.

“Yeah, Jesus, that is the oddest thing… and you are screwed if you try to ignore it.” He clasps at his chest, just over his heart, trying to rub away the pain.

“Sorry, Gabriel,” I meekly offer as Etienne walks down the stairs, me still clutched in his arms. Erik follows and fills Gabriel in on the current events, his handsome face gradually falling in the process. Gabriel’s giant hands come up to cradle his face before moving back through his wavy, short hair only to fall in exasperation at his sides. His dark eyes find mine in an attempt to convey all the things an eren brother might say to his sister under these circumstances. We didn’t need words. There were no words that did this justice. My head bows in reciprocal communication, our bond deepening on the grounds of our fallen family member.

“Ready to do battle when you are, My Lady.” Gabriel bows, arm fisted over his chest, his warrior’s pledge spoken.

As if on cue, in through the wide-open doorway comes more woeful faces of our brotherhood to crowd into our foyer. I hadn’t intentionally called for any of them. Antoine, Tristan, Emile, Kataya, Roman, Naveed, Hakeem, Niall, Maurizio, five of the lieutenants in training and last but not least, the great Scot Callum, all in disheveled states as if they had all come from the depths of sleep. In a ceremonious fashion, they all march in a circle around Etienne and I before dropping to one knee with a low thud in perfect unison, heads down with fists over hearts in the silent eren pledge. The message was clear—they will blindly follow me wherever I go, for I am their sister in arms.

Finding the strength to climb down from Etienne’s arms, I come to stand on shaky legs while leaning back on my mate for support. Their show of love in this moment overtakes my heart, dulling a fraction of the numbness.

“How did you all know?” I gasp, still uncertain of what I am seeing.

“You called for us, My Lady,” Hakeem voices for the group that has magically appeared out of the heart of the thundering sheets of sleet and rain.

“And we are yours to command,” Maurizio adds with deadly certainty, ready for a fight, my tears fueling the eren’s vow.

With a large sniff and swipe at my face, I try to palm the flowing saltwater away from my eyes. Love for this group floods me and a new luminescence cascades around the hunched, soaking wet figures as if a single star had descended from the sky to light the room. My gratitude to be blessed with their presence as well as to be standing here before them receiving their oaths fills me to the point that something else slides into place within my being, a true sense of belonging.

Turning to face Etienne, I realize he and Erik are also down in the eren pose, joining their brethren. My forehead crinkles as I spin around in a strange floating fashion and look up at the landing at the top of the stairs to find Molly, Vlad, Inessa, and Manya doing the same. Humbled beyond words, I call the light to warm them all, drying those who had been drenched by my emotional outpour manifested by the elements and will them all to stand. They all do so, inspired by the power coursing around them, wrapping them in adoration as their eyes now lock on me in amazement.

Etienne’s arms come to rest around my waist as his lips tenderly drop to my ear. “You’re glowing.”

Glancing down, I see that I am, in fact, glowing again in that ethereal light that doesn’t seem possible for this world. Shaking it off, I find strength in the words forming in my mind. “Thank you, everyone. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am for you all. And now isn’t the time as much as I wish it was. If I may ask, can Niall, Maurizio, Hakeem, Naveed, and Callum join Gabriel, Etienne, and me on this mission? Inessa, Vlad, Manya, Erik, Molly, Emile, and Kataya, would you please do the honors and guard this house and my remaining son and his blood partner? Roman, Tristan, and Antoine, please resume your post at Ang’s, and the five in training return to foot patrol. I will be eternally grateful.”

Everyone is standing at attention, eyes glued to me with a level of respect and resolve that I had only ever seen them show Etienne. It is awe-inspiring as well as validating on a level I hadn’t ever thought I’d care to experience.

The air shifts as the universal wavelengths on which my elemental ties exist to deliver the message that our opportunity to catch the thief of my son’s life is slipping away. Shit! I scream in my head, the fighter in me picking up its head and coming to stand strong, emboldened by those now joining us.

“Please, those who are coming with me, stand around us in a circle and clasp forearms.” Within seconds, they perfectly comply, a linked wall around us. With Etienne connected around my waist, I reach forward to touch Niall on the arm, completing the full assembly needed to transport the small group to where instinct is driving me. Allowing the pull of nature to guide me, our warp through time begins.

At the start of this mission, I was a broken mess. But as we journey on, a blur moving at the speed of light, my strength to surge forward slowly builds as my focus shifts to righting the wrongs set in motion by a forced dip in darkness that tilted the balance too far in one direction. Within a few minutes, we land almost two hours driving distance outside of Denver, smack in the mountains.

The armed circle of steely muscle falls apart when we hit icy ground, each eren falling to the side to wretch their guts out in the littered piles of snow, fighting to reclaim control over their bodies. Except for Etienne, who seems to have adapted. As much as I’d like them to have the time to recover, time is up.

Movement in the front yard pulls me toward it as a dark, cloaked figure appears from thin air. The wind rustles through the surrounding evergreens, debris loosening into the building breeze around us. Those very eyes that had tortured me for months in captivity begin to glow, matching the stone encapsulated within a strangely twisted piece of metal forged into a necklace around the figure’s neck. The same necklace I had momentarily glimpsed while under attack in the meadow and that also sat proudly around her slender neck at breakfast. How I had never put two and two together sooner, I may never know.

“Sasha, my dearest daughter-in-law, how nice of you to come for a visit,” the queen’s voice slithers out, like venom dripping from her tongue.

“Why?” is all I can manage as the warriors fan out around our circling figures.

“Why what, dear?” She laughs, like shards of glass ripping through my ears, her blue eyes dancing in evil delight. Gone is her perfectly constructed facade as her true colors shine through.

“Don’t play coy with me, you fucking bitch,” I seethe, my shoulders bunching as I temper my building hate.

“Once a trashy mutt, always a trashy mutt, I suppose.” She lifts her hand and views her long, black nails in a bored fashion.

Anger pulsates around me as the ground responds, the elemental force pulling itself close.

“Such a temper and quite the waste of bestowed power if I do say so myself. Too bad that puppet Marcos didn’t kill you and syphon your magic on that fated moon as instructed. But I guess one should never send a weakling to do a real female’s job.” Her dark robes fall back as her beautiful face comes fully into the late afternoon’s grey light, edging closer to me, luring me in for a fight.

My mind spins, piecing the details together, making my body sick under its discoveries. “And that is why you fought outside my cell… because he hadn’t killed me off yet?” I knew that wasn’t the reason, but I needed to keep her talking while I internally searched for her link to dark magic on the other side. She was not gifted enough on her own to be tapping into this much power.

“No, silly girl. That was only a matter of time. I must say our quarrel was a bit petty, stemmed in jealousy. You see, the poor fool really had tricked himself into thinking he was in love with you.” Her cackle fills our ears once more as my insides revolt. “He was mine; I do not share what is mine.” She takes another step forward, the chill of her words biting through my thin jeans and T-shirt.

“Yours? I thought he was Seraphine’s.” Her vile hiss tells me I hit the nerve I was looking for, derailing her enough to make her energy flicker, showing me the thread she had tied herself to through the veil.

“That harlot had nothing on me—nothing on the years we spent together as lovers. She be but a simple plaything to warm his bed in my absence. I took great pleasure in draining her dry, after torturing her, naturally. Where do you think your mate gets it from? His weak father?” Her screeching laugh cuts through the evening air, making the trees shiver and woodland creatures fall eerily silent. I can feel her pulling that thread, swelling herself with a surge of dark magic in preparation.

“He is nothing like you.” The wind picks up, dancing around my face in reassurance.

“Oh, you pretty little fool, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Etienne, son, why don’t you regale her with your tales of massacre? So many innocent lives lost. His hands are just as stained as mine.”

Etienne’s figure comes into my periphery, confusion and utter dismay robbing his beautiful features. The queen waves her hand, a black cloud falling over Etienne, bathing him in blood as the screaming of former victims fills the air. Etienne’s past deeds become palpable, barraging me with disabling visuals that leave me struggling, gasping for air.

Cut the fucking cord, Sasha! My psyche screams, its strength faltering under the smoke and mirrors being used to intentionally disarm. As I fight within myself to see fact from fiction and not be swayed, Sophia lets one image slip into the live stream that I don’t believe was intentional. It was that of my dead son, her pleasure over said event stuck like tar all over it. Screaming in pure agony while clutching my head against the visions she is force feeding me, I throw my power out in one blast, cutting her invisible tie to the other side and pinning her down in a vice grip in one fell swoop.

“You fucking little whore!” she screams in violent suffering, her lifeline cut, reducing her to a mere vampire once more. “Do you have any idea what I had to do for that link?” she hisses, writhing in distress under my elemental grip, her dress riding up around her flailing legs.

Drawing in a few labored breaths against the frigid air, I find the strength to straighten myself and walk over to her thrashing form on the ground, pinned and spitting nails like a pissed-off cat. “Please, do tell,” I taunt her, pleasure over her current state feeding my ego.

“I will make you pay for this! I have worked for centuries for this, and you come in and sweep it all away. A little brat of vampire, not fit for the Ina su-alal u sandu! It should have been me!” She screams again as the front door of the mansion slams opens and out stumbles a confused-looking Francois. His smoking jacket is creased in all the wrong places as the tails of his button-down shirt peek out, escaped from his once-pressed trousers.

“Father!” Etienne calls as the others circle around the queen and me, daggers drawn.

“Son? What’s going on?” Francois asks as he takes in the sight of his wife, his brow hitting the sky.