A scream swelled up her throat, tears burned her eyes as she continued to struggle against him but it was useless. Gideon and Calista ran past her, followed by Daniel, Max, and William. A low moan of anguish escaped her; she rocked forward as Ashby kept her on the ground.
A loud crash echoed from within the house. It sagged precariously for a minute before collapsing completely.
The boards caught him hard in the back and drove him to his knees. Braith threw his good arm up as he tried to protect his head from the roof crashing upon him. He was buried beneath the weight, pushed down under the force battering his already bruised and broken body. It took him a moment to recuperate as the last of the beams fell with a dull clatter upon the heap. Gathering his strength, he pushed back some of the boards as he drew upon his determination to end this once and for all.
He crawled out from under the boards, shoving them off as he surveyed the ruins of the house. The front of the building was still standing, but a stiff wind would knock it over with ease.
In all of the confusion he’d managed to lose his father. Pulling himself free of the jumbled mess surrounding him, Braith spotted him. He’d already extricated himself from the rubble and was trying to make an escape when Braith launched to his feet and raced after him. If his father was able to get free now, he would bide his time, and grow stronger as he tried to recruit an army. Braith suspected that he’d come here with the intention of claiming Aria, and trying to control Braith.
It didn’t matter what he’d expected, all Braith knew was that he wasn’t going to leave here alive. He was never going to have the chance to touch Aria again. Drudging up some of the last remnants of his strength, he surged forward, grabbed hold of his father’s shirt and yanked him back. Braith didn’t realize his father was holding a board until it smashed against the side of his face. Stars burst before his eyes as his cheekbone cracked and his jaw broke. Blinking away his blurry vision, Braith wrenched the board from his father’s hands, spun it around and swung it against his father’s side. He staggered sideways from the force of the blow; his hand flew to his collapsed ribs.
Jack appeared on the other side, encircling their father as a cruel smile curved his lips. Braith had never seen that look on Jack’s face before, never seen that vindictive gleam in his eyes. “Father,” Jack greeted, moving to intercept him as he tried to go in another direction.
Gideon was grinning as he stepped forward, blocking another pathway as Calista moved to block another. Max, William, and Daniel blocked the other side. His father’s eyes spun crazily before focusing on something in the distance. Braith followed his gaze to Aria as she slowly approached the circle. Ashby was hot on her heels, looking chagrined as he rubbed at his reddened jaw. Braith had never seen it before, but Aria’s eyes were glistening rubies as they met his, and then his father’s. He sensed the unraveling beneath her outwardly calm exterior and moved to intercept her as she reached the circle.
“I’m fine.” Her crimson eyes focused on the board still protruding from his shoulder. His fingers brushed briefly over hers as he looked to soothe her. “Really Aria.”
William and Max flanked her. They wouldn’t be able to hold her back, not anymore, but their presence seemed to have a further calming effect upon her as her fingers wrapped briefly around his hand.
“What was your plan here Atticus?” Gideon inquired with a tilt of his head and a quirked eyebrow.
“He planned to recapture her or kill her,” Braith answered flatly.
“I plan to do many many things to her son. All of which I will truly enjoy.” A gleam on the other side of the circle caught Braith’s attention. Jack had managed to retrieve a honed ax from one of the building sites. He twisted it in his grasp as he met Braith’s gaze over top of their father’s head. “You can’t kill me!” Their father began to laugh hysterically as he flung his arms wide and spun in a circle. “Look at me! I’m invincible! You can’t stop me!”
His father was still laughing as Braith lurched forward. His father wasn’t fooled though, instead of meeting Braith head on, he spun to confront Jack. Jack’s fangs flashed as he threw the ax to Braith and dove at their father with unrestrained glee. Braith had expected the action as he leapt into the air and seized hold of the handle with his good hand. Jack rammed his shoulder into their father and shoved him back. On his descent, Braith swung the ax downward with the full force of his might.
Atticus turned toward him as the ax whistled through the air. Braith had to grab hold of it with both hands as his arm was jarred by the impact of metal against flesh and bone. Atticus’s mouth parted in an O, his crimson eyes widened as the ax cleaved his neck. Braith took a step back as the head bounced across the ground and the body collapsed. There was no satisfaction in the deed, but rather a strange sense of completion and relief as the ax slipped from his fingers. Disgust coiled through him as he wiped the splatters of his father’s blood from his face.
“Not that fucking invincible,” Jack spat as he nudged the head away with his foot.
Braith’s shoulders sagged; now that his adrenaline wasn’t pounding, and the threat had been removed, it took everything he had to stay on his feet as blood loss started to take its toll. Aria was beside him in an instant, her arm wrapped around his waist as she pressed against his side. He grabbed hold of her hand as she reached for the broken piece of board jutting from his shoulder. He couldn’t be weak, not here, not in front of so many.
He pressed her hand flat against his chest. His broken bones and wounds were throbbing and he desperately needed some blood, but there was something he had to do first. “Caleb,” he grated. “We have to make sure Caleb and Natasha are still in their graves.”
“Braith, you need blood,” she whispered.
He glanced down at her, relieved to find her eyes back to their crystalline sapphire color. “We can’t take the chance that Caleb may be out there right now.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He started to protest but decided against it. He’d feel better having her with him just in case his siblings were out there. His hand tightened on her arm as Saul emerged from the barn with Xavier’s arm draped around his shoulder. Xavier was pale beneath his dark complexion as he held a hand to the still bleeding wound on his neck.
“He’s ok.” Tears shimmered in Aria’s eyes as she watched Xavier. Braith had to admit he was relieved to see him still alive, Xavier still managed to irritate him once in awhile, but he was an asset and had become Aria’s friend.
Melinda rushed up, pushing past the crowd as she arrived at the edge of the circle. Her mouth dropped, her eyes flew wildly around before landing on Ashby. A small cry escaped her as she raced across the circle and threw herself into his arms.
Aria went to take a step toward Xavier but stopped as she glanced nervously at Braith and wrapped her other arm around his waist. “Saul, gather the remains and place them in the stable. We’ll burn them later.” Saul nodded agreement to Braith’s command. “The rest of you grab shovels, something to light a fire with, and come with me.”
Aria’s fingers dug deeper into his skin as the crowd that had gathered during the fight parted to let them pass. “I think there is no longer any doubt that you deserve to be king.”
He glanced down at Aria’s murmured words as the crowd bowed their heads and began to kneel around them. At least something good had come from this awful mess, he realized as he pulled her closer against his side. Though he couldn’t understand how it had happened to begin with. “It appears so.”
Aria eased against him as they moved past the gates and into the town beyond. When they entered the woods she released him and turned to face him. “Let me look,” she commanded.
“We have to check on Caleb and Natasha.”
“They’re either still dead or they’re already roaming the earth again. A few minutes isn’t going to change that outcome either way. Now, let me see.” He could behead his father and take on twenty men at once, but he still found it difficult to say no to her. He forced himself not to wince as her fingers gently prodded at the wood embedded in his shoulder. “We need to get that out.”
“Later.”
Her eyebrows drew together as she frowned at him. “If Caleb did crawl out of his grave you’ll be in better shape to face him if you’re already healing.”
“Fine,” he relented, knowing that she was right. “Jack.”
He released her as he grabbed hold of the trunk of a tree. With clenched teeth, he braced himself as Jack stepped beside him. Jack placed a hand briefly against his back before seizing hold of the board and pulling it free in one hard yank. A low groan of pain reverberated off Braith’s teeth as he stood with his head bowed and his shoulders heaving. His fingers dug into the bark of the tree as he fought against the bellow that wanted to erupt from him.
Aria rested her hand on his arm, but it was a few moments before he could open his eyes to look at her. Ducking under his arm she stepped in between him and the tree. With nimble fingers she pulled back the tears in his shirt to examine the jagged wound. Blood still seeped from the hole, but with the beam removed he could already feel his body working to heal itself. The jagged tear in his stomach was already almost completely closed.
“You need blood,” she murmured.
“It can wait.”
Aria pressed her back against the tree as she unwaveringly met his gaze and pulled the collar of her shirt down. His gaze latched onto the marks his father had left, an involuntary snarl escaped as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. Using his body to shield her from the others, he bent his head to the side of her neck that wasn’t wounded. “It’s ok, I’m fine,” she told him when he hesitated.
He briefly nuzzled her before sinking his fangs into her. Her hands curled around his arms as she melded against him. He took just enough to regain some of his strength before pulling away and offering his wrist to her. She took it eagerly, her eyes closed in pleasure as she bit into him. Releasing him, she lifted her eyes to his. “How was that even possible?” she asked quietly.
Braith shook his head as he released the tree and stepped away from her. Though he would still require human blood, he could already feel the strength of her blood healing his broken bones and other injuries. “I don’t know.”
“He told me he was almost fifteen hundred years old and that a stake wasn’t enough to stop him.” Braith’s jaw clenched, his hands fisted at the reminder his father had even had a chance to tell her such a thing. “Has anything like this ever happened before?”
“I have never heard of such a thing.” Xavier was starting to regain some of his color and the bites on his neck had almost completely healed as he stepped closer to them. “But Atticus was the oldest of our species, ever, and his line is the purest. He must have been far more powerful than any of us realized. I never heard him coming, I didn’t even know he was there until he was on top of me and by then it was too late.”
“He tracked me,” Aria murmured.
Braith wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. “He’ll never be able to do that again.”
She nodded as she tilted her head back to study him. “You might also be able to survive such a thing?”
“It is a possibility,” Xavier said.
“I’m not willing to find out,” Braith told them.
“Neither am I.” Aria shuddered against his side.
“We will probably never know what you’re capable of, or Jack and Melinda.” Xavier’s gaze landed on Aria as they made their way steadily up the hill to where Caleb had been unceremoniously buried. “Though it’s obvious that it’s more than the rest of us.”
At the top of the hill, Braith led the way toward an area of the woods that was barren and dark. Nothing grew beneath the high bows of the pines shadowing the forest floor. The inhospitable environment had seemed like the perfect spot to place his father and siblings. Dirt had been heaved up around the hole that his father had pulled himself from but the other two graves appeared to be undisturbed.
Calista smiled as she handed the shovels to a scowling Gideon and Ashby. “Dig away boys.”
They didn’t protest as they broke ground and began to uncover a creature that Braith had never thought he’d see again. Caleb’s hands appeared first, and then his chest and face. His face was sunken in, his skin grayish and missing in chunks. Aria’s hand tightened around his, she shuddered and turned away as they began to uncover Natasha.
“Burn them,” Braith ordered gruffly, unwilling to take the chance that a month or two from now they may just reemerge also.