"I knew it!" Her eyes closed. "Hurry."
Jonny studied her features a moment more, fear flying through him at the one chance he had to destroy the rebellion. He lowered his head to her neck and sank his fangs into her once more. This time, he did drink like the animal he sometimes wanted to be. He drained her as fast as he could, drinking hungrily yet also aware of her heartbeat slowing. The moment it stopped, he did as well and lowered her to the ground.
He had only a few minutes before her death became permanent.
Jonny stood over her lifeless body and pushed his power outward. It started at a crawl then began to roll over everything around him, enveloping and killing everything that lived, from tree to vamp to forest creatures.
But it left Ashley's body alone.
Jonny knelt and lifted her. Immune to the destructive power, he nonetheless ducked his head as red lightning sizzled around them and arced away. Even fighting the Others, he'd never unleashed this much power at once.
"It's almost over, Ash," he said. "Hang in there." He could do nothing for her, not even Travel, until this mess was over.
Minutes passed quickly, and still his power rolled outward. Terror and anger tore through him as he held her lifeless body, fueling his power. Lightning ripped through the air, demolishing the forest and everyone in it and smashed into the sky overhead. Jonny held Ashley, too aware of the time it was taking for this magic to wipe out every last one of the mutinous vamps.
He shoved all his energy and emotion into the world around him, unable to expel the images of Ashley crumbling in Valon's arms from his mind. He'd fought loving her for too long and always lost. Now that he risked losing her forever, he began to see the truth. His weakness wasn't love but fear. The fear of losing her. The fear of not being able to control himself or his vamps. The fear of accepting all of what he was. Ashley knew and found a way to love him. He had feared being viewed as too human by his vamps and too vamp-like by the Gods.
But mostly, he had feared failure too much to ask for help when he needed it until Ashley's life was at stake.
He experienced the same sense of emptiness as he did the night he killed the last Other. Valon didn't matter. He never had. He was a speed bump, a distraction, a lesson Jonny was finally going to learn. Of all the enemies and threats in the world, not one of them was more important than his Ashley and his vamps. Not one of them rated a moment of his time or attention, and not one of them deserved an ounce of mercy or fairness.