I glared, tasting copper as Valentin’s blood-magic pressed down on us. “Your plan? What plan?”
“The one to tear down Serenity’s father.” His smile split wider, showing too many teeth. “He’s the one that corrupted Dracula’s deal. Not something I will forget. His punishment will be his daughter hunting him down.”
“I’d never do that.” Serenity’s voice shook, but she squared her shoulders, trying to look braver than we both knew she felt.
“Ah, but you will.” Balthazar’s eyes gleamed with ancient malice. “Vlad, my friend…you may proceed.”
Vlad moved with terrible purpose, his eyes blazing blood-red as he approached. When his mouth opened, his fangs weren’t just extended—they dripped with something black that smoked where it hit the floor. His hand locked around my throat like a steel trap, and when those corrupted fangs sank into my flesh, agony exploded through every nerve. This wasn’t just feeding—he was pumping something toxic into my veins. I fought against his grip, but whatever dark power Balthazar had given him made him impossible to budge.
“No!” Serenity’s desperate scream shattered the air in the church. “Stop!”
The world crystallized. The pain vanished, but so did everything else. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. But I could hear. I could see. I would witness everything that was about to happen, helpless to stop it.
Even Vlad was frozen in place. His chin dripping with my blood and his red eyes focusing on me, his mouth pulled back in a sneer, revealing his sharp fangs, stained red.
“If you want to save your precious vampire, you must come with me, Serenity.” Balthazar’s voice was full of mock sympathy.
No! No! No! I screamed in my mind, but the words couldn’t reach her. She could send me her thoughts, but I couldn’t do the same. I was trapped in my own head, forced to watch as she sacrificed herself for me.
“Let him go.” Her voice cracked. “Don’t let Dracula hurt him. I beg you. I’ll do anything.”
“Tell you what I’m willing to do.” Balthazar circled her like a wolf stalking wounded prey. “I’ll unfreeze your lover boy and allow him time to get away from Dracula. But then you have to promise me you’ll come with me willingly. Otherwise—he’s dead.”
The lie in his words was obvious to everyone but Serenity. He hadn’t specified how much time—could be seconds, could be minutes. Just long enough to make her watch as Dracula tore me apart. The perfect torture for us both.
“I want to say goodbye to him.”
“By all means, please do.” Balthazar’s smile promised horrors to come.
“Unfreeze him.”
The ice melted from my limbs, but Vlad’s poison still burned in my veins. I tried to warn her, to tell her not to do this, but no words could escape my throat.
Serenity pressed her palms against my chest, and her power blazed through her skin, turning her ethereal blue. The throbbing pain vanished under her touch, her gift burning away Vlad’s toxin. Even now, she was trying to protect me.
She slipped her hand around my neck and pulled me down. Though my arms remained frozen at my sides, I could feel every inch where her body pressed against mine. When she kissed me, hard and desperate, her power surged between us like lightning, like she was trying to pour every ounce of herself into me.
“Time to go.” Balthazar’s voice cut through the moment like a blade.
Her lips brushed my ear, her voice breaking. “I can’t watch you die, Angelo. Stay alive. Come find me. You have my heart…always.”
Then she was gone, leaving me stunned, her sweetness still on my lips, her power humming beneath my skin. Whatever she’d done, whatever she’d given me in that kiss—it felt ancient, felt like more than just healing.
Balthazar stretched out his hand to her. The moment Serenity’s fingers touched his, they vanished like smoke in the wind.
Dracula’s paralysis broke instantly. He slammed into me with centuries of hatred, dragging me from the church into the night. “I’ve waited a long time for this, Angelo. Don’t worry. You won’t die right away.”
He would do to me what I’d done to countless victims over the centuries. But nothing he could inflict would compare to this—watching Serenity sacrifice herself to Balthazar while I stood helpless, knowing that the devil himself now had the only thing that had ever truly mattered to me.
Doyou want to find out what happens with Serenity and Angelo?
Snippet to The Crown of Blood and Vengeance?—
The church doors burst open, and we stumbled out into the night air, finally free of whatever dark magic had held us frozen. I flexed my fingers, trying to shake off the lingering numbness.
“Enzo.” Keir’s voice was rough. “What do we do now?”
I stared at the blood staining the marble steps—Angelo’s blood. My friend. My brother. The vampire I'd sworn to protect.
“We hunt,” I said, my fangs lengthening. “And we remind Balthazar why New Orleans has always feared its Enforcer.”
