I was wrong on both counts.
My eyes didn’t see, my ears didn’t hear. I was pain, limitless pain. My power built on itself, boiling my blood as it did so. I blindly stared at the heavens as it drew out the damnation within me like one would a poison. But it also felt like it was killing me.
My back arched and I screamed, the sound like nothing of this earth as the siren rode my voice.
Oh God, the pain. Just a vessel, a vessel for darkness and light to battle, and either might win, but I would lose.
The power stole the rest of my thoughts. It stole everything.
For one brief second, the world came to a halt as I hovered in the air. And then the power burst through my skin, ripping me apart, and Gabrielle as I knew her was nothing more than smoke and memory.
Andre
Something was wrong. Gabrielle’s skin continued to brighten, and her face contorted.
Andre had frozen in place, just like everyone else out here.
He forced his feet into action. It felt like pulling himself from a bog, each step difficult. He sheathed his sword as he staggered towards her.
Gabrielle continued to brighten, her body arching. She opened her mouth and let out a scream. The noise brought Andre to his knees.
Beautiful anguish.
Then it all stilled. He felt the silence and the breath of magic against his skin.
Dear Lord, it was too late.
Andre roared as light consumed Gabrielle’s body. And then that light, that blinding light, blasted from her. It was so bright it lit the night sky, so bright it drained their surroundings of color.
It swept over the field, and Andre saw the demons closest to Gabrielle combust, flames ripping through them, before the light swallowed that too. He heard Lila’s shriek a moment before it consumed her.
The shockwave raced towards him, and he only had a split second to realize that the light would burn through him. He dropped his sword and opened his arms to embrace his death.
Andre didn’t even have time to scream as it ripped through his body, incinerating muscle, bone, and seven hundred years of life.
And then the curse of vampirism was finished, once and for all.
Chapter 32
Gabrielle
My skin throbbed. Each cell felt like it had its own pounding pulse.
Bit by bit, the blinding, all-consuming light drew away from the edges of my vision and color seeped back. With it came sight.
The sky had lightened since I last gazed upon it, now a dusky dark blue. In the east, pinks and purples bled into it.
My body began to descend and I dimmed. My earlier power fled, draining me of the last of my energy.
Weak. So unbelievably weak. My feet gently touched the grass, then the backs of my thighs, then my shoulders and head. Laid down by some unseen being.
I barely had energy to move, but I managed to tilt my head to the side. The grass beneath my cheek didn’t wilt or flatten itself away from me.
Bishopcourt stood off in the distance, smoldering. Around me, a field of men and women lay, some dead, some stirring awake. No one had been left on their feet. Well, aside from the angels that hovered in the sky, but they hadn’t been standing in the first place. The only beings wiped away completely were the demons. Not even their bodies remained.
Banished to hell along with the devil.
As the last of my power left me, my heart jolted, and I felt a familiar tug as my bond flared to life. I placed a hand over my chest and felt the pump of that organ.
I’m alive.
After all that I’d done, I was sure the energy would eat me up.
I heard a gasp in the distance, then, “Soulmate.”
A jolt flared through my body, and my connection throbbed.
It couldn’t be.
I pushed myself to my forearms, the air stirring my hair. Across the field, Andre stared at me, his gaze intense. Shocked.
I thought he was dead. I thought I’d lost him. But there he stood, looking very much alive.
He glanced down at the torn and bloodstained material that covered his chest. His fingers rubbed over the skin. The wound that the devil delivered, the one that should’ve killed him and sent him to hell, had vanished, and his heart—
I closed my eyes, just to make sure I heard correctly.
Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump.
It beat. His heart beat.
How was that possible?
I opened my eyes as wonder spread across Andre’s features. He strode forward, his movements somewhat stilted. I got the impression that he might be just as weak as I was.
As he got closer, our connection got stronger.
Our connection.
A sob slipped out of my mouth. I forced myself to my feet and stumbled forward. I tripped over myself, but then he was there to catch me in his arms. One of his hands skimmed up my neck and tilted my jaw up.