5 Darkness Falls (31 page)

My heart
swelled.
I’d never loved someone like I love Claire. She challenged me and protected me
; she constantly
saved me from myself.

She’d never held me back. I could see now that I wouldn’t be able to hold her back either. Lexi had become her child. No parent would ever let their child battle alone, regardless of wh
o they were.

“You can move in with the fourth team
…with
me.”

She touched my cheek gently, but there was power in her stance. “I’m ready, Augustine.” Her voice was tight,
decided.

I wanted to beg her to stay behind. That’s what she did to this grumpy old vamp. She brought me to my knees. I never feared losing my own life, but I always feared losing her.

“We’ll fight together. Have Christian load you up, just in case.”

She lifted on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across mine. Warmth spread through me; for that one millisecond,
everything stopped
around me. I wasn’t in the middle of a war zone. It was just she and I.

Damn it. Love really wa
s a weakness in the vamp world.

Chapter 28

Lexi

I heard the bustle of back up running straight towards us. My body was already growing weary from the excess physical demand of fighting off so many vamps alone.

My heart pounded in my chest. The baby’s heartbeat was
also
elevated
by
my exertion.

I couldn’t see anyone. I could only fight hard and hope they were all still alive. I had to fight to see that he survived. It was imperative that Kellan survived.

I kicked out, at the same time deck
ing
a vamp at my side. I was struggling to keep my light show under wraps. My pulse was pumping loud and hard; my body shook with electricity, with energy that surged towards the end goal of victory.

I caught Drex
el beside me. “You doing okay, B
aby
C
akes?” he asked, knocking out a few vamps.

“I’m dealing,” I replied, snapping the neck of another. “Have you seen Kellan?”

“Afraid not. I’m sure he’s okay though.”

We were pulled in opposite directions as we continued battling the swarm of vampires. It should never be one race against another. We should never fight over something that is unchangeable. The color of someone’s skin, their ethnicity, is unchangeable. No one should ever be punished for having to wear glasses, for having brown skin, for wearing ragged clothes or
for
living in a shack.
Focus on the changeable.

We have too
m
any issues in the world, vamp and human, to focus on petty items
.
We need to fight
to inspire change
that might possibly
come to fruition.
When
we unite together for a common good, we accomplish amazing things. We ma
ke
a difference. We change our futures. We impact our futures
by having the courage to
change the changeable.

I moved in and out of the crowd of vampires. I heard weapons fire
.
vampeens and vampires dropping behind me. My heart
skipped
each time.

War cries filled my ears, grunts echoed all around as we fought for what we believed in. This was about more than Kellan
and me
. This was about fighting for a better world. We would never know peace as long as we killed over th
ings that couldn’t be changed.
We had no control over whether we were a vampeen or vampire.

I elbowed a vamp, sending him backwards
,
twisted in
to
a semi-circle and shot my other elbow up into another vamp’s neck, effectively breaking it. I spun around to take out another vampire when he abruptly threw his hands up in surrender.

I looked up and out over the mayhem. It appeared that another team had moved in
,
because I saw Auggy taking prisoners. It was more than just my vampire surrendering.

I watched as many vampires tried to escape in opposite direction
s,
but
they
were
being
caught. Like a coordinated symphony, vampires started throwing their hands up in surrender.

Pride and relief surged through me. We’d done it. One by one the remaining vampires were surrendering. My adrenaline was still pumping as the last of the vampires were killed or subdued into forfeit.

As the field started to open up amidst the cluttered chaos, I got a better view of the
area.
Horror ran through me as I gazed around at the scene. There was more bloodshed than I would have liked. Hundreds of bodies lied limp on the ground. I swallowed hard. I knew it was unavoidable. There were always more sacrifices than victories.

Kai approached me, sheathing his gold dagger. He glanced around before returning his gaze to me. He withdrew an envelope from his back pocket and handed it to me.

“What’s this?” I studied my name on the front of it written in his handwriting.

As I lifted my gaze back to him, he bent and kissed me. His lips were soft, yet there was an
unyielding
urgency to his touch. The feel of his mouth against my own sent my heart into overdrive. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into him. In an instant, it was as if our souls were
intertwined. Breathing
in his scent,
I inhaled
all that was Kai as I returned his embrace. I wasn’t able to think clearly, I was only able to feel, and I felt Kai. I felt his blood pumping through him at a steady rate that matched my heartbeat. In this moment, with his lips secured to mine, with our bodies interwoven, it was as if we were one.

He slowly drifted away, lingering with a few
soft
kisses. When I opened my eyes to him again, there were red tears streaking down his cheeks. He smiled at me despite the sadness in his eyes.

He swallowed hard. “I love you, Leka. Take care.” He kissed his fingertips and pressed
them
to my burgeoning belly.

A chill ran down my spine. My pulse was racing as I watched him s
urvey
his surroundings. I looked out, but there was nothing to see. Everyone was either standing around or restraining new prisoners.

Abruptly
,
Kai took off
in an open throttle
run. That’s when I saw him: the vamp in the tree.

“No, Kai!” I cried. I dropped the letter, chasing after him.

***

Kellan

At Lexi’s scream, I instinctively turned towards her voice. I was immediately thrown backwards. Everything reduced to slow motion. I was on my feet in time to see the dart flying through the air. Kai turned to me, meeting my gaze. He nodded his head once, as if to affirm what he was doing. The dart pierced his chest the moment before Lexi reached him.

I ran to his side right as Lexi’s body started
quaking.
I checked for a pulse, but found nothing. He must have died upon contact.

Lexi’s shudders turned violent. Tears streamed down her face as her veins illuminated the familiar blue. Faster than ever before, electricity crackled over her flesh. She yelled at the top of her lungs; flares of blue sprung up and out of her every time she cried out. Her bellowing shrieks shattered my heart; I heard
the breaking of
her heart in those guttural roars.

One second she was in front of me, the next the shooter dropped out of the tree, his neck having been snapped. One by one the prisoners we’d taken hostage were withdrawn from an ally’s possession and killed. Lexi was moving so fast; I couldn’t keep up, even with my enhanced vision.

A wave of fear
rolled through me
, concerned with
her safety,
and
the safety of our unborn child. I was on my feet, trying to cut her off, but she wasn’t
slowing.
Her rage only seemed to grow.

I watched closely as she returned to the center of the small clearing. She was struggling to breathe as her lips quivered. Her thoughts were closed off to me; a protective shield around her, preventing anyone from getting close.

Tears steadily
streamed down
her cheeks with no signs of
drying any time soon.
Kalel and several others were hovering over Kai. Everyone had turned to observe Lexi though; to watch as she fell into the depths of despair.

Suddenly, she let out a cry so loud
that
it shook the surrounding timbers with its echo. Everyone leapt back as bolts of lighting, thick darts of electricity shot from her flesh. The lightning bolts hit the nearby trees, burning their trunks in seconds and sending them
crashing
to the ground. Vamps scattered, fleeing any way they could.

My chest hurt, my heart burned as I was forced to stand on the sidelines and watch her suffer. My hands were cuffed. There was nothing I could do. And for the first time, I understood what it truly meant to be helpless.

She stumbled over to Kai’s lifeless body. Everyone had stepped away from him when her outburst turned lethal. She collapsed to her knees, the light in her body beginning to ebb. Sobs poured from her
,
still
,
as she wrapped herself around Kai
.
The armor Auggy had given her for the baby was long gone. Her baby belly
was exposed, lying
slightly
above
Kai’s stomach. She yanked the dart from his chest and tossed it a
side.
She pressed
the side of her face
to his chest. Her hands shook as she gathered one of his in
to
her
own.
She gently kissed his palm, a new set of tears
deciding to avalanche
.

I moved closer, wishing she would stop glowing so I could hug
her, hold her
; so I could soothe her and comfort her the way she needed to be. I was so wrapped up in her that I couldn’t mourn Kai’s passing or honor his sacrifice
at the moment
. He saved my life.
S
ingle-handedly
,
he
beat fate, but it was at a high cost. I’d called him selfish in the past, but I could see now that he was
actually
self
less
.

I
crouched
down on the other side of Kai, where Lexi could see me.
Her eyes met mine, and
I fell back at the raw pain
that
her eyes
bared
.

She bit her lower lip, trying to hold back another swell of emotion. “He’s gone.” Her voice was hoarse; she sounded empty and hollow.

She swallowed hard. I knew her serum must have drowned her mouth
several times
by this point
.
She focused on Kai again. I could tell the fight was leaving her. Her anger had given way to pain; her rage had given way to sadness. She reverently pressed her lips to Kai’s, closing her eyes and allowing the tears to
splash
onto him.

A whimper escaped me as I saw her pull away. She rested her head on Kai’s chest again, and within a few seconds, her light disappeared as she slipped in
to
oblivion. It was then that I heard the baby’s heart
beat escalate, beating faster.
My gut
wrenched
tight, my chest
constricting from
the fear that it wouldn’t survive. I sat, paralyzed by the idea that after all of this, the baby could
possibly
not make it. I’d never heard its heart so quick and erratic.

Kalel and I reached their side
.
Tears rimmed the strong vamps eyes
,
as he stared down at the pair. His jaw
line
was
rigid;
it was taking a lot of effort to keep his emotions at bay. This was his brother, his maker, his best friend and so much more. I could only imagine what he was going through. I couldn’t help the guilt that furled deep inside me; Kai died so
that
I could live, so my baby would have its father.

Kalel placed a heavy hand on my shoulder as he bent down beside me. “I don’t blame you. It was his choice.” He looked away
, his breathing becoming haggard.
“
Damn him
for making this choice.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but this was on the ground over there,” a high-pitched
,
male voice came from my left.