A Vampire's Christmas Carol(21)

Only Ben wasn’t in this image. He didn’t rush to Simone’s rescue.

Simone spun toward her attackers, baring her fangs.

“Hunters,” Jamison said on a sigh. “Not all humans are clueless. Especially when you kill as boldly as she’s been doing.”

The men were armed. With—cross bows?

“Simone!” Ben lunged between her and the men just as one guy fired a wooden stake from his cross bow. The stake flew right through Ben’s body, like he wasn’t even there. Fuck, I’m not.

Then Ben heard a gasp behind him.

He spun around. Simone was still standing, but the stake had driven into her chest.

“She’s hit!” Ben heard one of the men yell. “Close in! Take her head!”

Simone’s fingers curled around the stake. She tried to pull it out of her body.

“Must’ve missed her heart,” another man shouted. “I’ll get her this time.”

Simone’s fangs flashed.

And another stake sank into her chest. She fell back then, dropping to the ground.

Ben dove to his knees next to her. “Baby?”

She was choking. Trying to speak. Coughing up blood. But, even though she wasn’t supposed to see him—Jamison had been f*cking clear on that—her head turned. Her tear-filled eyes seemed to find Ben.

“L-love…” Simone whispered.

“I’ll take her head,” a man called out.

Simone’s lips curled as her eyes sagged closed.

And a machete sliced toward her throat.

“No!” Ben bellowed.

But his angel was gone. Her blood spilled onto the snow, spreading beneath her like wings. The wings she didn’t have any longer.

His breath heaved out, his lungs burned, and agony twisted Ben’s body. Not Simone. Not Simone. Not Simone.

“Let’s dump her body with the other vamp’s. She sure seemed crazy enough about him. The bloodsuckers can be together in death.”

One man grabbed Simone’s feet. Another her—her head. Ben swallowed bile as he watched a dark-haired male drag Simone’s body toward that freshly dug grave.

“You’ll want to look close for this part,” Jamison advised him.

Ben forced himself to move near the grave. He felt as if the wood had sunk into his own heart. This can’t happen. Not to her.

Jamison pushed him toward the grave. “I know…the flesh is all gone so it’s probably hard to recognize yourself…”

Fuck. Ben craned his head and looked into that grave. He saw…bones. A skull. His skull?

The humans threw Simone’s body in the grave. Her body and her head.

His eyes squeezed shut.

Why don’t you have a Christmas tree? Her voice whispered through his mind. She’d loved those damn trees so much.

And…she loved me.

She’d been so giving. So open. I want to help you.

She’d looked him in the eyes. I love you.

She had. An angel, loving the monster he’d become.

Ben opened his eyes and saw that the men had started shoveling dirt onto her body.

“See?” Jamison asked as he slapped a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “You’re together forever.”

Ben’s heart stopped beating. “I’m really the skeleton in that grave?”

“Um, yes, you are. Simone didn’t wind up saving you, but you…you sure introduced her to the darkness.”

Welcome to the darkness.

“Simone couldn’t handle the darker urges of her vampire side. Not once her wings were gone.”

The men kept shoveling dirt onto Simone.

“Christmas Day,” Jamison said. “She lost the last of her wings then. They were her gift to you, because she knew…” Jamison walked around the grave. “She knew that you’d wind up here. See, after you killed Miles—”

“I didn’t kill him!” William had stopped him before he’d taken the human’s life.

Jamison smiled. “Are you sure about that?”

Ben sucked in a sharp breath.

“After you killed Miles, you lost your hold on sanity. When it came to your prey, you didn’t care about guilt or innocence. You gave in to the darkness. You drank from anyone, everyone, leaving shells behind. You became the true monster that everyone fears, and you had to be put down.”

Simone’s blonde hair was covered by dirt.

“And without you…” Jamison’s voice roughened. “I think she was ready to die, too.”

She’d smiled at him, in that last moment. Or had she smiled because it was her last moment?

Jamison pushed a hand through his hair. “Some people aren’t made for the darkness.”

Ben glared at Jamison. “This isn’t happening to Simone.”

The shifter’s face hardened. “Then you’d better change your future, vamp. Because if you go dark, so does she.”

Ben leapt toward the shifter. He grabbed Jamison’s shoulders. “Take me to her! Not this twisted future. I want the real Simone, now!”

The wind began to howl.

The humans vanished. The cemetery vanished.

“It doesn’t work like that.” Jamison’s voice was quiet, almost sympathetic.

Ben didn’t want his sympathy. He wanted Simone. “Screw how it works. You know where she is. Take me to her.”