Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) Page 25

  “Damn you for speaking to me in such a way.” She struck him again and he grasped her shoulders, trying to stop her. She struggled against him, her pretty face twisting in grim lines, and her black wings erupted from her back. She hit him with them, tears cutting down her cheeks. “Damn you! You said you would fight.”

  “I am fighting, Aurora. I am fighting to do what I believe is right… what I must do.” He tightened his grip on her shoulders and she stilled, glaring up at him. “Do not let your feelings and desires cloud your heart, Aurora. Not as they have before with me. Judge me how I deserve to be judged. Do that for me and for the world.”

  She drew in a shaky breath and sniffed back her tears, the fire returning to her eyes again, warning him she was ready to launch another attack because she didn’t like what he was telling her.

  It wouldn’t stop him. She could lay him out cold and he would still say these words to her when he woke. She had to hear them.

  “See me as the man I am now, Aurora, not the boy you saw that night. Look upon my history and judge me on the path I trod, the one I chose, and the acts I committed. Do that for me, please, Aurora.” He held her face again, gently cradling her jaw with both hands, keeping her eyes on his. “Please. Do that for me.”

  She was still for long seconds before she finally nodded and resolve coloured her eyes with steel.

  “I will,” she said in a low whisper and he dared to hope that she would do as he asked.

  Snow held it together and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, unable to bring himself to let her go when all he wanted to do was cling to her and keep her here with him, even when he knew it was impossible.

  He realised that the song she had sung to him that fateful night was right and that no matter what they did or what they desired, they would never be together. Destiny would always find a way to tear them apart.

  The prince and the angel.

  Snow stared down into her striking eyes, memorising them and the love they showed for him, affection he had never thought possible. His female. He had resigned himself to death again to save her, but for the first time in centuries, he didn’t want to die.

  He wanted to live with Aurora.

  He wanted to live.

  She threw her arms around him and buried her face against his neck, her tears hot on his skin.

  Snow wrapped his arms around her, pinning her against his body, holding her feet off the ground.

  The soft feathers of her wings tickled his arms.

  He closed his eyes and nuzzled her neck, breathing in her feminine scent of lily of the valley and snow, feeling his heart breaking at the same time as hers was shattering. Her pain became his pain and it was all he could do to keep standing and to stop himself from begging her to run away with him.

  They could never outrun fate.

  “Don’t try to defend me, my love,” Snow whispered hoarsely into her fall of dark hair and she shook in his arms, her sobs wracking her. “I don’t want them to punish you. Please… tell them what you must and then return to me and take me away from here. I don’t want Antoine to see… it would kill him. Promise me… let it be upon my head alone and far away from here.”

  She nodded and clung to him, her hands twisting in his hair, her breath moist on his neck. She sharply pulled away and kissed him hard, her desperation matching his as he sought to master her, savour her and submit to her all at the same time.

  He couldn’t take it.

  He set her away from him and turned his back, unable to bear the sight of her, knowing her face would be flushed with tears and her eyes filled with pain he had caused.

  “Save yourself, Aurora. It is what I want.”

  She settled her hands against his back and then pressed her cheek to the line of his spine, and he felt her shaking, felt her emotions pouring into him through that touch, and it broke him. He turned on his heel, gathered her back into his arms and held her one last time.

  Aurora pushed herself up on her toes and softly kissed him, her lips lingering against his as she spoke. “I will go, and then I will return.”

  She disappeared.

  Snow opened his eyes and stared at his black apartment.

  The room that had been his home for a century in the theatre that had become family to him.

  He blinked and tears tumbled down his cheeks, cold against his skin, and he clenched his fists, fighting the overwhelming tide of pain tearing through him.

  He wanted to live.

  He wanted to be here with his brother and Sera, and see them laugh and share in their joy.

  He wanted to watch Abby and Alistair grow up, and teach Luca how to drive Payne crazy.

  He wanted to bring Aurora here and let the females welcome her into their loving fold. Into his family. A family he didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want to die. Not anymore. He wanted to live.

  Snow sniffed back his tears and scrubbed them from his cheeks.

  He needed to see Antoine.

  CHAPTER 19

  Snow slung on a fresh pair of jeans and headed out. He paused in the black corridor outside Antoine’s room.

  His brother wasn’t there.

  He continued to the staircase and had reached the bottom of the theatre before he finally found Antoine.

  His brother stood in the double-height black-walled room, talking to Sera and Payne. Snow paused on the bottom step to look at him, his strength failing him as he thought about what he was here to do.

  He didn’t want to cause his brother any more pain. Like Aurora, he had suffered so much because of the things Snow had done but he retained an unwavering belief that he could fix Snow.

  Snow had never wished that were possible more than he did now.

  Antoine smiled at Sera, love shining in his pale eyes, the picture of their father with his dark hair and slighter build, and his elegant tailored clothing.

  Snow sniffed back the tears that threatened to fill his eyes again and Antoine frowned and looked across the room at him. The happiness in his eyes faded into worry and he moved away from Sera, his expression turning towards a blend of emotions Snow had seen many times on Antoine’s face.

  He knew why he was here. He knew what Snow needed to tell him. He had always been able to detect when Snow was thinking melancholy thoughts and seeking an end, and today was no different.

  “Snow.” Antoine halted a few metres from him and tensed, his muscles flexing beneath his charcoal grey shirt.

  Snow had felt it too. He growled and his claws extended, his senses sweeping out to map the theatre and pinpoint the intruders.

  Payne snarled and disappeared, most likely returning to Elissa and Luca to protect them from the unknown threat they had all sensed.

  “Antoine?” Sera started for him and then shrieked when a tall blond male dressed in white armour appeared between her and Antoine, his white wings furled against his back.

  Aurora must have made her decision. The angel must have come for him.

  Snow wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He had wanted her to condemn him to death but there had been a fragment of his heart that had clung to the thought that she wouldn’t do it, even when he had made her promise she would.

  The angel stared at him, cold malice in his turquoise eyes.

  Snow didn’t hate her for her decision and he could still appreciate the irony. He had found a woman who had made him feel alive, and made him want to live, and yet she had come to kill him. To save her, he had to die.

  He was alright with that. He had been waiting for death to come after all. He just hadn’t expected it to be in the guise of an angel.

  Snow stepped forwards and Antoine turned to face him.

  “What is happening here, Snow?” There were already tears in his brother’s eyes. Antoine knew what was happening. He just didn’t want to admit it.

  Snow clasped his brother’s shoulder. “I love you… I always will… but I must do this. Aurora must live. I will not let her die because of me.”

  Antoine
shook his head and opened his mouth to protest.

  The angel turned on Sera and drew a white blade from the sheath at his waist.

  Snow roared and launched himself past his brother, moving faster than Antoine. He caught the angel just as he raised the blade to cut Sera down, tackling him from behind to the ground. The blade spilled from his grip and clattered across the floor. Antoine grabbed Sera and pulled her into his arms.

  The angel beneath Snow struggled and Snow pressed all of his weight down onto his back, using his legs to pin the male’s wings.

  “She swore it would be on my head alone.” Snow gripped the back of the angel’s neck, keeping him face down on the ground. “She promised me.”

  More of his kind materialised and Snow’s senses tracked them as they appeared in corridors and rooms all around the theatre, the fury flowing through his veins increasing in intensity as he realised the angel below him was only the vanguard of a larger attack.

  They were after everyone in the theatre.

  Screams came from upstairs and Snow grabbed the male below him by the back of his head and slammed it hard into the ground.

  “What the hell is going on?” Antoine shouted, holding Sera close to him.

  “I do not know. She swore she would take only me.” Snow bashed the angel’s head against the ground again for good measure, wanting to be sure he had knocked him unconscious before he stood.

  His hands shook at his sides and he growled as he sensed more angels appearing in the building, and smelled blood. How could she have done this to him?

  She knew how much this place meant to him and that everyone here was his family now, people he cared about and loved. She had heard him defend her and swear to take responsibility for her actions. She had betrayed his trust and now his family were under attack because of her.

  Because of him.

  “She swore it, Brother.” Snow snarled the words as his anger took control of him, pain from the thought of dying and leaving those he loved behind turning into rage over the betrayal dealt to him and the danger the angel had placed his family in.

  He wouldn’t stand for it.

  The theatre was his family and he would never fail his family again.

  Payne reappeared in the room with Elissa and Luca held close to him, a nasty gash cutting across his right cheek. “The fuckers are everywhere. I need to get Elissa and Luca away from here.”

  “Worry about Luca. I’m going to kill these bastards.” Elissa broke free of Payne’s arms and black spirals of magic swirled around her hands and up her arms to caress the straps of her midnight blue halter-top.

  Snow looked at Luca and then at Antoine. A shiver bolted down his spine.

  “Alistair and Abby.” Snow was moving before he finished that sentence, bounding up the stairs to the top of the theatre. Red coated his vision as his rage seized control of him and he embraced it and the strength his bloodlust gave him. He would destroy these angels for daring to bring harm to his family.

  He had never had any faith in himself, not where his bloodlust was concerned, but he found belief as he bolted up the stairs.

  His bloodlust was rising to the fore, a dark shadow in his mind that ignited a terrible hunger for violence and bloodshed, but he didn’t fear for the safety of those he loved or cared about.

  He knew deep in his heart that he wouldn’t harm his family in the midst of his rage this time. All of his fury would be directed at the angels. He would control it and use it to protect his family.

  Snow cut his way through any angel in his path, breaking wings and tearing throats open, desperate to get to the top floor. He had to protect the babies.

  Antoine and Sera followed close on his heels.

  Payne appeared before him and grabbed him, and tossed the world into a blender.

  The black corridor of the top floor greeted him when he dared to open his eyes.

  Kristina was in wolf form at the end of it, defending her apartment from a dark-haired angel. Blood stained one of the female angel’s white wings and it hung lower than the other, clearly broken and savaged by werewolf fangs.

  Kristina snarled, exposing vicious teeth. Her black fur stood on end down her spine and she lowered her head, preparing to attack.

  Payne disappeared again and reappeared behind the angel, punching through her back to grip her spine. The angel screamed and then fell silent as Payne sliced across her throat with his claws and snapped her neck in one lightning fast move. He dropped the body to the floor.

  Snow raced forwards and Kristina growled at both of them.

  “The babes?” Snow said, ignoring her threat, knowing she only meant to protect her young and her instincts were making her view everyone as a danger.

  He could relate to that.

  The door to their apartment opened and Callum was there, his black shirt unbuttoned and hanging loose from the waist of his trousers, a wild panicked look in his red eyes. The twins wailed in his arms, wriggling in their black romper suits.

  The sight of the innocent babies and the thought of them coming to harm sent Snow deep into his bloodlust but this time he retained awareness of those around him, his rage focused on the angels with deadly intent.

  “We must move them.” They were too vulnerable up here where there wasn’t much room to move around. They could easily become pinned into one room, trapped by the sheer number of angels now spread around the theatre.

  Kristina snarled again. Snow hunkered down in front of her and stared deep into her eyes.

  “We must protect your young. This place is no good,” he said in a low calm voice and her growling subsided. He rose and faced Callum and then Antoine.

  Payne disappeared again.

  Javier came racing along the corridor, a long slash across the right arm of his black suit jacket.

  Snow couldn’t smell any blood on him. He must have evaded the blow.

  He clutched Lilah’s hand and she was struggling to keep up with him, her long dark hair falling into her eyes and her short pale blue dress fluttering around her knees. She tried to blow her hair out of her face, unable to sweep it away with her hands because both were occupied. She clutched Chica’s hand with her other one, forming a chain with her.

  Chica bounded along in her thick knee-high biker boots, her strapless boned purple corset in danger of slipping with each step and exposing her, and her short black skirt equally threatening to flash her knickers as it bounced up and down.

  A wicked glint shone in her colourful eyes. She was eager to fight and would be off in search of angels to kill if Lilah released her. Andreu brought up the rear, his suit jacket missing and a tear in his black shirt, wielding a white sword with deadly accuracy.

  He chopped the head off an angel and kicked his body back down the stairs. “We need to get our hands on more of these swords.”

  Snow couldn’t agree more. He should have taken the one from the blond angel.

  “This have anything to do with your female?” Javier growled as he came to a halt in front of Snow. He released Lilah’s hand and huffed as he yanked his ruined black jacket off and dropped it onto the wooden floor, loosened and removed his dark blue tie and dropped that too. His red eyes narrowed on Snow.

  Snow registered the threat and rose to his full height, towering over the Spaniard.

  “She is no longer my female.” Snow hated the sound of those words leaving his lips, even when they were true. He would never forgive her for this. The scent of blood was already thick in the air and he had lost track of a few of the performers, and knew they were dead, killed by Aurora’s kind. Snow growled. “Swear to me if you see her among these fiends you will tell me. I want to deal with her personally.”

  Everyone nodded, even Lilah although she wore a look that cut through him as she hastily tied her chestnut hair up into a ponytail. He never had been able to stand it when a female showed him pity.

  He turned away from her, afraid she would try to console him if he remained facing her. He didn’t want
pity. He wanted revenge. Once Aurora had paid for her betrayal, he would nurse the heart she had broken in the process.

  “Our best bet is the theatre. It will give us room to manoeuvre and it has the most escape routes,” Antoine said and everyone nodded again. Kristina growled her approval. “Snow, bring up the rear with Andreu and Chica. Javier, Lilah, Sera, with me. Keep Kristina and Callum with the babes between us. We will need to move fast.”

  Kristina took the lead, snapping at Antoine’s heels as she loped past him.

  “Fine. Kristina takes point. Callum, keep between us.” Antoine began to follow Kristina, Javier at his side and Lilah and Sera behind them.

  Sera took a band from Lilah and tied her blonde hair up into a messy knot at the back of her head, tugged her blue t-shirt down and smoothed her palms over her black jeans.

  Snow could sense her nerves and Lilah’s too. Neither of them had much experience of fighting, and he wanted both of them away from the battle, but he knew their mates wouldn’t agree to it and they were right. It was better they remained together, where they could watch each other’s backs and fight as a team. They couldn’t afford any distractions, and Lilah and Sera being out of their sight would be just that for Antoine and Javier, and Snow.

  Snow ignored his brother’s order and moved close to Callum, intent on protecting the babies with him. He wouldn’t let them come to harm. He would find a way to stop these angels before they could take any more lives.

  Chica teleported Andreu behind them and Antoine picked up the pace until they were running along the black corridor and down the stairs.

  Callum struggled with the babies and Snow took Abby from him, clutching her close to his chest, keeping one hand over the back of her head to protect it. Callum tried to smile but it faltered when Alistair wriggled, and Snow could sense his fear. It echoed within him.