Refuge(133)

My breath caught but I did not look at him. “I’m going to kill a vampire.”

Tristan lowered his voice. “Listen to me, Sara; you don’t want to do this. Killing a vampire is one thing, but if you kill Nate, it will haunt you forever.”

My hair crackled with static and lifted from my shoulders as the power surrounding me grew. “He’s not Nate. He’s a monster.”

“Yes, he is, but you will see only Nate’s face when you remember this. Nate would not want that for you.”

“I – ”

“Sara, open the door.”

I closed my eyes at the sound of Nikolas’s deep voice. Something tugged at my chest, and a part of me wanted to run to him, to let him wrap his arms around me and chase away the evil in my life. But a larger part of me knew I would never find my own strength if I hid behind his.

My hands tingled and began to glow from the power coursing through them. I could see the light reflected in the vampire’s terrified eyes as he struggled violently in his bonds. Behind me I heard running feet and then the distinct sound of a key being fitted into the lock on the cell door.

The vampire screamed when my hands touched his chest, and he began to writhe convulsively, even though I hadn’t yet released the force of my power. Just being touched by Fae magic was unbearable to him. I stared at him for several seconds as I gathered more power and prepared to strike.

The door swung open, and I felt the air shift as someone moved toward me with incredible speed. No!

I released my power and felt the vampire jerk as he let out a strangled shriek. The smell of scorched flesh filled my nose, and I heard a thump and a curse somewhere behind me. The vampire hung limply in his chains, but I knew he was still alive because we were connected by the power flowing between us. My mind reeled from the knowledge that I was inside a vampire. I was overcome by the need to see the vamhir demon before I destroyed it, to look upon the thing that had turned a wonderful man into a monster.

Unlike Mori demons that live in the brain, vamhir demons attach themselves to the heart of their victims. My power moved through organs that looked healthy and normal until it found the misshapen lump that barely resembled a human heart. Most of the heart was encased in a thick translucent white membrane that resembled a jellyfish, with tendrils that were fused to the spine and brain stem. I prodded the membrane, and it trembled, making the heart stutter.

This was the powerful vamhir demon? For all a vampire’s power and strength, the demon was nothing more than a gelatinous parasite that needed a host to survive. Seeing this one weakened and in its natural form took away the mystery and dissolved some of my fear of vampires. It didn’t dampen the pain of losing Nate, but it gave me a deeper understanding of my enemy and showed me the demon’s true weakness.

The demon rippled, and I felt the vampire stir. I jabbed at it, and it stilled again. Enough studying it. It was time to end this. I pushed forward until I surrounded the demon without touching it. It quivered as if it knew what I planned to do. My soul wept for the heart that would soon no longer beat, but I felt no empathy or mercy for the creature I was about to destroy.

I love you, Nate, I said silently as my power enveloped the demon.

The demon let out an unearthly scream, twisting and pushing desperately against my hold. I opened myself further and more power poured out of the well deep inside me until it felt like lightning flowed through my veins. In a disconnected part of my mind, I knew I was tapping into a force I had never touched before, and I felt a tiny brush of fear mixed with wild exhilaration. I had never felt so alive or aware of the world around me. I could hear people breathing behind me and a mouse scratching behind the walls. I could feel the living earth beneath the thick stone floor. I smelled the droplets of water in the damp air of the cell and the stench of dead flesh that clung to the vampire. And inside the vampire, I saw life . . . and death.

Alien words filled my head, and I heard a hideous voice that made me want to grab my ears and scream. Something clicked in my mind, like a door opening, and I realized I was hearing the demon’s thoughts and memories. . . . good strong body . . . so thirsty . . . but I don’t want to die . . . yes, my maker . . . pain . . . so much pain . . .

As soon as it had come, the demon’s voice faded away and images began to flood my mind so fast they were a blur of color. I reached out and snatched one and stared in confusion at the face of a little girl, no older than two or three. I grabbed another and saw the same little girl, a few years older with chestnut curls and happy green eyes. It’s me, I thought in wonder, reaching for another image then another.