Unbound (The Captive #7)(99)
Sabine shook her head as if to clear it before she focused on Braith and fairly spit with fury. “Never would such a pollution of our line be my queen.”
“That’s why you’re doing this,” Aria said, causing Braith to glance back at her. “It’s not because Atticus was killed and you sought revenge for your eldest son’s death. It’s not because you want to rule. It’s because you see me as an abomination who will taint your line if we have children.”
“You have already tainted it!” Sabine spat. “Just by having our blood in your veins you have weakened us. Your children would be abominations of our pure blood.”
“Do you even care your sons are dead?” Aria inquired, and Sabine turned her nose up.
A sick feeling settled in Aria’s stomach as she realized how depraved and indifferent this woman was. She’d lost both of her children, yet all she cared about was the fact she had a turned human on her family tree.
“She’s made me strong enough to defeat you,” Braith replied, and the look Sabine gave him made it clear she would happily see him dead a thousand times over.
“Our line was created by Lucifer himself and you degrade us with a changed human. Let your brother pollute the line with such garbage, but not you.”
“So it is the first born of our line only then,” Braith said quietly, the muscles in his forearm flexing and bunching as his grip on Sabine’s throat tightened. “If I am to die again, would I rise once more?”
The fingers on the wrist Braith had broken flexed before Sabine launched a punch at his face that cracked his cheekbone with an audible thwack. Aria had seen her broken nose heal fast, but she hadn’t expected the woman to heal that fast.
Braith grabbed Sabine’s hand and bashed it into the trunk of the tree. The blood drained from Aria’s head, she took a step back when he spun Sabine’s hand around and tore it from her wrist.
Sabine screamed, her face turning red as her stumpy wrist flailed against Braith’s side and her blood sprayed him.
“I’ll tear you apart piece by piece,” Braith promised her. “Your next hand will be one finger at a time if you don’t tell me what I want to know. I can make your end quick, or it can last years, but you will not walk away from any of it with your head still attached to your body.”
A branch breaking behind Aria drew her attention to Jack as he stepped from the shadows of the forest with Hannah at his side. Their clothes were stained and torn; blood and dirt streaked their faces, but they appeared unharmed as they stepped beside her. Hannah visibly paled when she spotted Sabine’s missing hand. Jack took hold of Hannah’s shoulders and pressed her head against his chest.
Aria’s stomach twisted sickeningly when Braith grasped one of Sabine’s fingers. Unlike the vampire she’d caught with Xavier and Max, who had been unwilling to speak for hours, words tumbled from Sabine’s lips at the possibility of torture. “The only thing that can kill the first born of our line is beheading! Even fire, unless it reduces us completely to ash, is not enough to destroy us.”
“What?” Braith demanded and Aria’s mouth fell open at the revelation.
“It’s a trait that Lucifer gave to the first vampire he created. Each first born of that vampire’s line will be able to withstand that which no other vampire can,” Sabine said, her eyes darting to Braith’s hand when it tightened around her finger. “We will rise as often as it is necessary to do what must be done.”
“The phoenix was not a bird,” Braith murmured. “But one of our ancestors rising from a fire.”
“The legend was changed by an ancestor for our protection,” Sabine replied.
“Why do we rise stronger?”
“You have survived death, survived having fallen in your own way. You’re closer now to Lucifer than you ever were before.”
“Are there any other ancestors of ours out there?” Braith demanded.
Sabine’s lips skimmed back to reveal her fangs in a feral grimace. When Braith started bending her finger back, she blurted more words. “Many of our ancestors were beheaded in battle or by their attackers. Some were taken out by their own children after they were killed in order to keep the secret of our line buried, and any others have long since perished. We are the last of the first born children.”
With that, Sabine launched forward and sank her fangs into Braith’s throat. Braith placed his hand against her forehead as he tried to pry her off of him. The power of his blood caused the bones in Sabine’s arm to repair themselves almost immediately as Aria leapt forward to free Braith from the woman’s hungry grip. Sabine hadn’t been talking because she’d been defeated and concerned about losing her fingers; she’d been biding her time in order to lower their guard.
Aria punched Sabine as hard as she could, but the woman showed no sign she’d felt it as she continued to drain Braith’s blood.
“Get off!” Aria shouted. Blood spilled from her battered fists as she continued to beat at Sabine.
Sabine’s reddened eyes met hers over his shoulder while his blood spilled from her lips to soak his skin. Aria’s heart sank when she realized Sabine truly believed she would kill Braith now, if she was willing to drink his blood. Otherwise, he’d be able to track her anywhere she went.
Jack raced over to them and grasped Sabine’s hair. He tried to yank her head back, but she refused to release her hold. Braith drove his hand into Sabine’s chest. With a snarl, Sabine switched her tactics and her teeth bit at his neck as if she were chewing on him while his hand continued to work its way through her chest. Keegan growled as he waited for an opportunity to jump into the fight.