Ties That Bind: The Bellum Sisters 3 (paranormal erotic romance) (34 page)

“I need to help him.”

“No!” said Rosa. “Just stay here.”

Lily jerked her arm out of Rosa's grasp and veered right to stay clear of the battle going down. Still, she flinched and stumbled at the sound of breaking silverware, crashing tables, and walls being torn down. Lily palmed her dagger as Telal staggered backwards under the force of Alrik's spell. Whatever Alrik was casting at him he was trying hard to keep it off him.

Lily took the dagger by the blade, steadied herself, then let it fly. The blade speared through the air turning end over end before landing in Alrik's stomach. The demon king stopped casting as electrical surges jolted through his body. He jerked the blade from his gut and threw it away.

Lily had only a moment before the force of his lethal gaze landed on her, making her the soul focus of his attention. Then he yelled something in demonic and several things happened all at once.

Something black and ugly struck her in the gut, lifting her off her feet, then slamming her to the ground. The pain was instant and engulfing, pushing its way inside of her and eating at her. Her lungs struggled to breathe air and blood burst from her nose and mouth. She tried to move but pain only intensified. From the corner of her eyes she watched Telal's shocked expression as he turned on Alrik with the most vicious face she'd ever seen him make.

The pain was too much and Lily let it pull her into unconsciousness.

CHAPTER 44

Telal watched Lily fall to the ground and knew she'd die. He knew the spell that Alrik had just cast upon her would bring so much pain she'd wish she were dead until finally the spell worked its magic and strangled the life from her, cutting off her airways and clotting her arteries.

Telal shook with rage. He advanced on Alrik and casted his own magic, using the bit of darkness that resided deep inside him to tear him down to the ground and choke the life from him. Alrik fell to his knees, clutching his neck, the veins on his forehead sticking out thick and hard from the blood pumping in his body.

“It didn't have to be like this.” He stood over his brother's body sword in one hand and picked up the dagger Alrik had tossed away. He came back to his brother and stabbed him in the chest, yanking the blade from him before the electrical currents could ravage his body. He wanted this to be slow, as painful as his bleeding heart.

Telal surveyed the room and found his team winning. Bleeding and hurt, but winning. Rosa was kneeling over Lily and he forced himself away from the sight. It hurt so much to look at her that it staggered him. It took every ounce of strength inside him not to fall to his knees and crawl to her, hold her one last time. Vengeance first. He needed blood.

“It was always going to be like this,” his brother choked out on bloodied lips.

Telal fingered the blades in his hand then dropped one. “You're going to suffer as you've made her suffer.” Moisture gathered in his eyes and he blinked until it went away. His chest felt so tight it hurt to breathe. He only managed to breathe by sucking in air through his nose.

Telal held his palm to the ground and called forth the dark energy of the earth, of the darkness that lay deep in the rift. His powers were weak, still sapped, but still he coaxed the dark powers to heed him and answer his call. A vibrating energy flowed over him—a sickly feeling like a cold sweat over his skin. Black, twisted, gnarled hands, then arms cracked through the stone floors. Skeletal bodies with dead skin hanging from their bodies, some with eyeballs hanging from their sockets, pulled themselves out of the floor. Clothes still clung in tatters to their bodies, reminiscent of the demonic robes of royalty.

“Do you recognize them?” Telal said, gritting his teeth between words. Sweat poured from his body with the effort it took to call the dead from the grave. His thighs and arms shook, burned, his heart pounded too fast to be healthy, and he was sure that at any moment he'd collapse.

Alrik's head lolled before he finally saw the beings coming towards him. His eyes widened with terror. “It... it can't be. I had them killed.”

“Exactly.” Telal controlled the summoned dead, previous victims from Alrik's treatment and sent them toward their new victim. “You'll pay for touching Lily.”

Telal didn't know how they died but knew Alrik had been the culprit. The undead fell on Alrik with scratchy snarls, bony fingers and jagged teeth. Then a white beam of light shone down upon them, so bright he turned away from the sight lest his pupils sear. When he turned back around Arianna stood in front of Alrik, the skeletal bodies crushed ashes beneath her sleeping robe.

“Telal Demuzi, I will not let you kill him.”

“Renege the throne and I won't kill you, Alrik.” He was glad his voice sounded steady because the room kept shifting around him. He hoped like hell he was standing still and not teetering around like a baby because that's what it felt like.

“Never,” his brother hissed.

“Step away, Arianna.”

Her soft eyes looked at him beseeching. “Please do not kill him. It's not under his control; it's never been.”

Alrik cursed then stood so fast, Telal saw two of him, and he shoved Arianna to the ground. Even her cry didn't stop him. As he squared off against him, shoulders back, legs spread, hands open and ready to cast.

“I'm stronger than you now. You can't best me.”

Telal felt himself stumble and knew that wasn't part of his imagination. Whether it was from the damage to his leg or the attacks on his body, he didn't know, but he fell to the side, catching himself on a table and pushing himself back up.

“I've always bested you and I always will.” He referred to the times when they were young and playing with wooden swords in the fields, learning how to fight under a trainer. He always won then and he had no intention of losing now.

“Your problem, brother, is that you've always been far too arrogant.”

And then both hands shot out to him and Telal's whole body seized up tight, shaking and clenching, muscles twitched with violent pulses. His breaths came in quick bursts as he fought against the magic. It didn’t work. Alrik’s powers were too strong. His throat started to squeeze shut, he could feel his neck being pinched off as if a hand was there or a thick length of rope. His body was lifted into the air until his feet dangling off the ground.

Time slowed. His eyes fell across the floor below him. He saw Arianna struggling to get up, saw her nose and hands bleeding from her fall. If he cared for her, how could he hurt her so? His eyes moved across to see the woman he wanted to see, because if he was going to die then he wanted her beautiful face in his mind before he went.

Lily lay lifeless on the floor, her eyes open and unblinking, her legs and arms kicked out from her like she'd been making an angel in the snow. What really caught his attention though—what stole his last wish of focusing on his woman, his mate, his love—was Rosa shining so brightly above Lily that it was like looking upon a heavenly angel.

Glowing luminescent light poured out from Rosa from her head to her toes. The colors swam in a mixture of bright gold and pearly white wavering and mixing in a tremulous effect. Her hands were held over Lily's heart, and in a sudden action, Lily's chest thrust off the ground as if she'd been zapped. Telal felt moisture cross his eyes.

She was going to save her. She was trying to bring her back. Telal had his own powers to do so but he still wasn't back to capacity. Telal's vision blinked out then back in, fading. It seemed like every time he sucked in a breath for air he was missing oxygen. Rosa pushed away from Lily and he had the joy of seeing her eyes blink, of her chest bursting with breath.

She was alive. Joy and love sprung from inside him and he wanted to laugh. Her life gave him hope. Some untapped strength grew inside him, gave him the power to push away the power eating at him. He felt Alrik's grip on him falter and when his feet touched the ground again he knew he'd won. He wasn't going to lose now. He had Lily and he was going to spend a long time showing her how much he loved her.

Using the last of his power, bringing it forth from the depth of his soul, he thrust all the dark magic at Alrik. Alrik fumbled over words to block the spell, but it didn't matter, because Arianna leaped into his arms. The blast of magic tore into her back, ravaging her skin, blackening her white dress in swirls of black smoke. Telal staggered towards her, stunned. Time stopped. Everyone froze.

Alrik's eyes widened as she slowly slid out of his arms and onto the floor. He dropped to his knees before her, his hands cupping her face. “No, no. Why did you do that? Why did you do that?” Black tears fell from his face, dripping onto her pale skin like wet ash.

Telal dropped to his knees his own heart burning with grief.

Arianna smiled up at Alrik but a trickle of blood spilled from her lips, marring the beauty of it. “I love you, Alrik. Please, be good. I know you can.”

Alrik’s panicked breaths sounded loud in the room. He cradled Arianna to his chest, tucking her head against him, laying his chin atop her hair. Sobs shook his big shoulders, the harsh sound of crying tearing down Telal's own defenses. Then Alrik threw back his head and screamed...and screamed until his voice turned hoarse and the sound died out. Telal breathed heavily at the sight of his brother's pain. His own heart seemed to be broken, the pain so awful.

“Alrik...” He didn't know what to say. That they should stop this already and be as brothers should? That enough blood had been lost? Alrik gently put Arianna back on the ground and leaned down to kiss her lips. At the last second, he twisted his head away and pressed a kiss upon her forehead. As if he was unworthy, wondered Telal. God, he wanted to embrace his brother, not fight him. He wanted to hold him and tell him he'd make everything better. One look at Arianna’s dead body and he knew that wasn't possible.

Alrik looked impossibly darker, more dangerous. His breaths came out in black smoke like a dragon's breath without fire. He stalked to Telal, his finger pointing hard at Arianna.

“Fix her. You can fix her.”

“I can't, brother. My powers were sapped by your
dargens
. I came here only with enough to fight and even then you've seen how weak I am.”

His brother screamed, his face contorting with anger and pain. “You can do it! I know you can do it!”

A thought struck Telal. “I cannot, Alrik. But you can.”

Alrik stopped as if slapped. He looked back at Arianna confused, deranged. “I-I used to. I don't know if I can anymore.”

Telal didn't know either, but where each of his family had the power to kill they had the power to save life. Telal just didn't know if there was any more goodness in Alrik's heart to save her.

Alrik kneeled beside her, laying his hands upon her chest. Tears splashed on her dress, darkening it in wet spots. He started to speak the words. Ones Telal had used a year ago on Alpha Lyonis Keelan. The amount of power it took to do such a spell had left him immobilized for a week, barely able to stand or feed himself. Without the help of his trusted guard Kearnyn, he might not have made it.

Alrik chanted and chanted and Telal tensed, waiting to see if the white energy would flow for him. Minutes past which felt like hours. Telal realized the room was silent save for Alrik's chanting and he looked around and found the demon assassins dead and his team behind him, waiting for him, watching Alrik with a mixture of sorrow and pain. After some time, nothing happened and Alrik sobbed, his tears falling faster.

Suddenly he whirled around, seething with rage. “You did this! You killed her!”

“I could have saved her if you hadn't sent the
dargens
after me. Relinquish now before more get hurt, Alrik. You are not right, but if you stop this now we’ll fix it.”

Alrik stood, panting like a beast. His eyes slowly trailed away from him and locked on Lily who was struggling to sit up.

“Fix it? Fix it!” he roared. “You don't deserve to have a woman!” Then he took off on a hard sprint. Telal went after him, pumping his legs hard and fast, panic guiding him. He stayed several steps behind him no matter how hard he ran. Lily screamed then crab-walked backwards in a rapid motion. Telal used a burst of energy, tapping his already nearly empty reserves and launched into the air, catching Alrik in a tackle and taking them both to the ground. He slammed his fist into Alrik's face hard—once, twice. It had to hurt him more to do it then it did Alrik to take the blows.

His head rolled to the side, his eyes slow to blink. “Do it. Kill me now. I don't want to live anymore.”

His brother's miserable voice felt like a knife in his gut. Someone nudged his shoulder and he jerked, barely pulling his fist back in time to see Kearnyn there, an enspelled dagger held hilt-first to him. Telal slowly curled his fingers around it.

Alrik sat up, his back resting against the wall, his head bowed.

“Het'emu daraganu, brut'em. Het gronna hesh.”

Telal's eyes filled with tears at his brother's heartfelt words. End me, my brother. End this pain.

“Irran tresulu.”
I can't, he replied.

His brother looked up at him with those black, black eyes, tears swimming in their endless fathoms.

“For me,” his brother said in Demonic.

Telal fell to his knees, the knife gripped so hard in his hand his arm shook. Wet streaks fell down his cheeks. He kneed his way closer, then clasped his brother’s head in his hand and pressed their foreheads together. Their sweat-slicked skin kissed and years of longing and pain flowed through them both easing and tightening the hurt in his heart.

“Alrik,” he whispered.
I love you
.

He pressed the point of the dagger against his brother’s chest then let out a harsh, unsteady breath, choked with grief. He started to push but a soft hand wrapped around his wrist, stopping him.

Blinking until tears dropped and his blurred vision cleared, he looked up into Lily’s beautiful face. Her face was wet with tears, her lashes dark from the moisture.

“Don’t do it,” she said in a soft, unsteady voice.

Her hand tightened over his wrist and he opened his fingers, the dagger falling to the ground with a metal clink. Staring into her deep eyes he said, “Alrik Demzui, I banish you from this kingdom from this day forth. You are never to return or else meet your death.”

“Please kill me,” his brother pleaded in a ragged voice.

Telal jerked himself away, unable to look at his brother, afraid he might give in to his wishes. “Get him…take him out of here.”

A flurry of movement appeared. Faces he recognized on some level but that he didn’t quite comprehend. A soft, small hand curled around his, and when Lily stepped into his arms, he held her as close as possible.