Virgins and Vampires: Blood Falls (The Blood Falls Book 3)

Kris brought Rhine to me on his sword. The blade stuck straight through his abdomen from behind, blood soaking his shirt. Still alive, but so wounded he couldn’t shift away or use his gifts. Dad stood over him ready to swing his axe if Rhine tried anything else. Dray lay on the ground close by. The ground trembled each time he exhaled.

Rhine coughed up blood as he looked up at me. “Even more powerful than they foresaw. I could have made you even greater, though.” He coughed up more.

“But why? Why break the House apart? Why control me?” This wasn’t the samhain way.

He laughed. “You understand so little. Have your puppy dog remove his sword and let that one over there heal me. I’ll tell you everything.” He nodded at Rhysa, whose Axl blood had the ability to save him.

“Liar,” Dad gritted out. His hands tightened on his axe. Dray growled low in his dragon throat, reminding all of us he was one word away from eating Rhine.

“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. But it was all foretold by the Severing of Destiny. What made you,” he glared at me, “and her.” He swung his gaze back to Rhysa.

The hair on my arm stood up. “The Severing of Destiny?”

“There are those of us who paid attention when the Door opened. Who have been tracking the Severing of Destiny ever since.” His eyes turned glassy. “You see a War coming.” He shook his head. “The War has always been here. You’re losing and you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“Always been here?” I whispered.

“Heal me and I can help you.” The sword through his abdomen glistened through the blood that soaked it.

“Or she heals you and you vanish.”

“It’s a gamble,” he agreed.

I nodded at Rhysa. It might be a mistake, but it also might be the right mistake to make. She took one step and Dray was on his feet. His wild eyes glared at Rhine. But Rhysa placed a hand on his side, then pressed her forehead against his throat. Dray wiggled and shivered, but sat back down.

Rhysa kneeled in front of Rhine as Kris withdrew his sword.

“This is big fucking mistake, Rhiannon,” Dad said.

Kris kept his sword against Rhine’s throat. Blood began to gush out of the open stomach wound, but Rhysa started healing him and then it slowed, then stopped.

Rhine stared at her with pure evil. “They built that Dreg Army for you. I was glad they died—Mary and Helena. When the news came I knew it was my turn. My chance. I could control the Severing of Destiny.” His voice shone with a reverence that made the hair on my arm stand up.

Rhysa eyed him. “You knew my aunts? And their plans?”

“We’re all part of the same plan.”

Kris leaned closer, digging his sword into Rhine’s neck the same way Rhine had done to me earlier. “And what plan is that?”

Rhine hesitated.

Rhysa hummed. “Almost there.”

Rhine relaxed. “Destiny. Once broken is now no longer written. It can be controlled. If you control Destiny and power—”

Kris took Rhine’s head clean off.

I gasped as blood sprayed across the room and Rhine’s head rolled across the floor, eyes already glazed with death.

Rhysa froze, her hands still hovering over the wound. “Well, I can’t heal that. Not that I would.” She stood up and spit on the dead body as it fell to the floor.

Destiny. It can be controlled. My life was a game to him. All our lives. A way to make the world his. Rhine was so obsessed with the power and potential that he ignored the fact that Destiny still existed. Oh, it may not be what it once was, but I felt the pull of it. As did Dray and Rhysa, Gigi and Ryddyck, and so many others. Destiny knit itself back together with new threads, taking us all along whether we liked it or not.

I was willing to bet Rhine was not liking where it took him.

Dad hacked at the body and gutted it. “No coming back for you.”

The dragon laughed. At least it sounded like a laugh. Rhysa frowned as she stood beside him. I was no longer connected to them so I didn’t know what her so worried.

Kris pulled me into his arms before I could ask. “That was too risky.” 

“It worked.” Rhine was dead, his followers dead or scattered, and now we had some very valuable information.

Kris tilted my head back and kissed me deep. “Don’t scare me like that again,” he whispered.

Our minds mingled even more than our bodies. It was deeply intimate and no one knew it but us, which made it even more special. “I knew you’d stop him. I knew I was safe.”

He groaned and tucked me into his side as we turned to face the group. Dray shuddered and backed away from Rhysa. Her frown deepened. Each time she tried to touch him the dragon shuddered again.

Dad cleaned his blade, nodding toward the dragon. “He going to be okay? Doesn’t sound so good.”

No, it didn’t. It looked pretty bad, actually. I reached back out to Rhysa and Dray. Their connection was incredibly strong, but Dray’s dragon instincts were so switched on he couldn’t bring his samhain form back. He wanted to fly and eat and burn. I sent soothing feelings to him, reminding him of how lovely it would be to cuddle his mate.

Dray’s eyes locked on Rhysa and he cocked his head, making a keening noise. With a huff he settled onto the ground and drew Rhysa against him. With another shudder he began to transform. Rhysa’s relief fed back through the psychic energy and I broke what was left of our link, leaving them to recover in peace.

“The hard part is over now.” For them. “We need to find the body of the banshee. If Dray didn’t incinerate it.” I feared that the watcher would overwhelm me the moment I dropped the bubble. And even though I didn’t feel drained by everything I was doing, there were limits to what I could do.

“Banshee?” Dad jerked back. Then his eyes rounded. “Rhine has a fucking banshee? Is that what that scream was?”

“A powerful one,” Kris said. “Brought Rain to her knees. We have to be careful. I don’t know how much longer Rain can keep her bubble intact.”

“Then let’s find it.” Dad started off down the hallway that was mostly still standing. The other hallway was still in flames and definitely wouldn’t have been my first choice. Kris followed, explaining the situation as we picked our way over broken furniture and singed rugs. We pushed through room after room finding nothing and no one. Until we got to the kitchen.

Dad nodded at a door. “Basement.”

“An excellent place to store a body,” Kris agreed.

Dad went first with his axe. “Come on down.”

I went next, with Kris bringing up the rear. The stairs were old and wooden, swaying a little under our weight. “Anything?”

“I don’t see anyone. Boxes mostly. But this place is pretty big,” Dad said with a shake of his head. “Keep your guard up. There’s no telling what we’re in for.” His eyes locked with Kris and the males traded a look. Then Dad moved off to the left while Kris went right

“Stay close. And get that dagger out,” he said as he moved into a protective position.

I palmed the ancient family blade. It felt unfamiliar in my hand, but also like it belonged. I felt the same odd combination when I slipped on the delicate chainmail.

The basement was mostly empty. The walls were lined with boxes of supplies. I peered inside one. “Silica?”

Kris made a face. “That’s a weird thing to have a hundred boxes of. Another door.” He nodded to his right.

Psychic energy surrounded the door. “It’s protected.”

“Can you get around it?”

The sizzle of the channels and enchantments was all too familiar. “I can.”

“Tell Alan to join us.”

Dad. Of course. I spoke into his mind and turned my attention back to the door. Enchantments like this were common in the House of Gatlin. We all learned them quite early on as a way of creating privacy in a House of psychics. But this particular enchantment felt very familiar.

My mind fingered the edges and found all the right locks to turn. The enchantments fell away leaving only the incredible amount of psychic energy surrounding the door. “I need to drain the energy before it will be safe to enter.”

I was only vaguely aware of Dad joining us and Kris explaining the situation. My attention, for better or worse, was fully on the mystery of the energy. It siphoned off easily enough, but once again I couldn’t ignore how familiar it all felt. Like a memory I couldn’t quite touch.

“It’s safe now.” I stood frozen to the spot as Kris opened the door while Dad stood guard beside me.

Kris slipped inside, quiet and stealthy as ever. When he returned he had a deep frown on his face. “The body is in there. It’s the only thing in there. And…she’s alive.”

“The body would have to be to keep the consciousness tethered.”

He nodded. “What do we do now?”

“Fucking kill it.” Dad stormed past Kris and through the open door. But he froze with his axe dangling from his hand. “What the actual fuck?”

I stuck my head around him and froze too. “No.”

“How?” Dad whispered.

Memories of the watcher whispering and speaking echoed through my mind, suddenly very familiar. I shivered.

“Who is she?” Kris asked, joining us.

I gulped as Dad replied. “Matylda. Rain’s aunt.”

Aunt Matylda. Married once upon a time to Rhine. But their marriage ended when he challenged Shoshanna. How was she here now, helping Rhine?

Kris moved to the tank where her body was encased in a gel. Tubes ran into her arms, belly, and mouth. “It’s keeping the body alive. Feeding tubes and oxygen.” He punched some buttons and whistled. “According to this she’s been here before.”

“Before?” That…made no sense.

“The logs are all hers. Going back months.”

“I saw her a week ago. Dad?”

He shrugged his wide shoulders. “I’m no help. Matylda and I never got on. Less so when Rhine…” He didn’t finish the sentence, shrugging instead.

“She can’t be coming and going from the Plane through this method. It’s not possible.”

Kris stood up. “What about Marhysa? Her body is alive and her mind on the Plane.”

“That’s different.” And we didn’t understand how any of it worked for her yet. “This isn’t like when Rhysa and I go to the Plane, either. That’s temporary and using our gifts. When a Gatlin becomes a banshee, it’s permanent.” Or at least it used to be.

 “I think we can bring her back.” Kris tapped a few more buttons.

Dad brought his axe up. “Or I could end this now.”

Even though I appreciated his anger, even felt it myself, it was a terrible idea. “If you kill the body she’ll remain on the Plane, capable of hurting us until she runs the banshee cycle.”

“All right,” Dad sneered, pointing at the controls with the axe, “bring her back and then I’ll kill her.”

“Do it.”

Kris gave me a nod and started tapping on the control panel. The gel began pumping down a tube that ran into a drain in the wall. Her arms and legs shook and then she suddenly sat straight up, the gel continuing to drip off her naked skin.

I gripped my dagger as a defense mechanism. Even if she leapt straight at me, Kris or Dad would get to her first.

“Matylda, what the fuck are you doing?” Dad said, ever so eloquently.

She shook some more and then her eyes popped open with a very samhain screech instead of a banshee scream. “You!” She pointed at me. “You blocked me! What happened? Where is Rhine?”

I let the last of my bubble dissolve. “Why are you here?”

She began brushing gel off his skin. “Where. Is. Rhine?”

“Are you working for him?” I rested my hand on Dad’s forearm. He looked like he was breath away from swinging and ending the whole thing. “Did he kidnap you? Force you to do this?”

She laughed. “You’re all such blind idiots.”

The spy. My aunt was the spy. So close to me all these years. Unnoticed. Given access to me. Privy to confidential information. Rhine’s perfect mole. “You still love him.”

“Of course I do,” she balked. “The love of a Mate is stronger than any other bond.”

“The hell it is.” Dad swung his axe up.

Kris moved between them. “She has valuable information, Alan.”

“Out of the way, son.”

“Why?” I shouted. I had to know why.

She blinked and cocked her head to the side. “Destiny is trying to rewrite itself. It wrote you specifically for the new Destiny to come. Your power is invaluable but your ability to control the future? That’s where your true value lies.”

Kris spun around. “And you thought you could take that power and control for yourself? How could you do that to Rain?”

Matylda smiled. “For Rain. Shoshanna couldn’t see it. My sister couldn’t either. Helping her understand her Destiny isn’t a prison. It’s a gift.”

“She’s not your daughter,” Dad snarled as he finally swung his axe. Kris stepped out of the way and I didn’t stop him. She looked as surprised as Rhine when Destiny didn’t unfold the way they expected.

Which, to be perfectly honest, I found fascinating.