Bloodspell (The Cruentus Curse, #1)(101)

As before, her body melted into the air and the last thing she saw was Lucian's enraged face as he lunged into open air just where she had been standing.

Lucian stood in the elevator, clenching and unclenching his fists. The hunger was so fierce he could barely control himself.

He had never been so deliriously happy in all his life.

"Did you see it?" he said. Lena stared at him confused.

"The blood?" she asked. When he nodded, she continued. "I could barely stand to look at it. The smell alone was like nothing else I have ever smelled, it felt like my stomach was eating itself I became so ravenous. Why?"

"It was as dark as I have ever seen."

"So?" Lucian glared at her obtuseness.

"Le Sang Noir ... it's her."





VICTORIA HOPED HER Mini would still be where she'd left it in the parking lot at 125th Street. If not, this would end up being one of those teleportation jumps gone tragically wrong. She didn't have a choice because it was the place she knew in New York that had the lowest variability risk. She couldn't go to Angie's apartment because that would be too dangerous, and there was no way she could just pick a spot in the city and hope for the best, far too risky.

"Transeo," she said.

When she opened her eyes, she was sitting in the freezing cold interior of her car, and she breathed a slow, grateful breath. She hopped on the express number five subway train and switched to the local number six train to get to the address that Enhard had given her. She hoped that Enhard would have already arrived.

Time was running out. Victoria had stayed close to Christian via the tenuous tunnel between their minds that she'd kept open despite the risk of discovery. After a time, the effort for the portal had become mindless and she barely had to think about holding it open, it was just another thing that the blood magic did naturally.

Although it had been a matter of hours, the magical wounds that Gabriel had inflicted were doing what they were intended to do, and the accelerated blood loss coupled with Christian's lack of a will to live, left him weak and floating in and out of consciousness. He was still alive but his desire to die worsened his weakened condition. He had no fight left.

The few times that Victoria had reached him when he had seemed more conscious, he had treated her voice like a figment of his tortured imagination, and kept saying how sorry he was that he hadn't been able to save her. The more she tried to tell him that she was alive and well, the more he struggled against her, convinced it was Gabriel playing some inhuman game.

Enhard was waiting in the foyer of his apartment, his face brooding.

"We have to hurry. We don't have much time," Victoria told him. "I ran into Lucian in the elevator after I saw you in Paris, and he knows who I am. I had to invoke the blood magic to teleport away from him. Now that he knows, there's nothing else standing in his way. He'll be here, I can feel it." Enhard's face whitened even though that piece of news did not come as a surprise to him. Lucian would do whatever it took to take everything away from Christian.

Realizing that the stakes were higher than ever and that there was no margin for error, they combed through the details of the plan. They would sneak in the way that Angie had brought Christian. With any luck, Gabriel would have assumed that Angie had used the first entrance. No doubt he would have already discovered that Victoria and Holly had gone, but if he hadn't, that would be an added element of surprise. Once they got in, the main objective would be to get Christian out safely. The plan had many, many holes but it was the only option they had to save him quickly and in short order.

Victoria brushed Christian's mind gently as they were leaving.

I'm coming my love, she told him, hold on. She looked around the room through his consciousness and noticed that although the room seemed similar, it was different from hers and Holly's. She had no way of knowing which room it was. When the time came, she'd have to guess which door he lay behind and hope for the right one.

They walked briskly downtown and Victoria glanced sideways at Enhard. It had been a risk going to him for help, but she really had had no other choice. There had been a fifty-fifty chance that Enhard would help, given how he felt about Christian's relationship with her, but she had bargained on the strong paternal bond that he'd had with Christian winning out in the end. And it had.

"I know you don't approve," she said, "but I love him."

Enhard didn't break his stride at her softly spoken words but she could see his face tighten and knew that he had heard her. A few moments passed before he spoke.

"My mentor was a vampire called Valerius. He met your ancestor, the Duchess toward the end. From what I have seen in his memories, you look very much like her. But you're different too, stronger ... worthy of the curse you bear." Enhard raised a hand and placed it on her shoulder, squeezing gently. "He loved her, I think, but he died for it." Victoria looked at him.

"As I would for him," she said quietly.

In the exact moment that she said the words, Victoria realized something. She hadn't been able to control the blood when she'd challenged Christian at his house because she hadn't understood it fully even then. But now, it was all so clear. It was an epiphany of epic magnitude, yet she'd known it all along—it was Brigid's legacy!

Love was the answer.