Vessel of Destruction by Kel Carpenter

Author:Kel Carpenter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kel Carpenter

Chapter 18

Silence. I’d finally heard true silence before it faded away.

My side lay against something hard and cold. Marble, my brain inserted. Liquid coated my bare skin and tattered clothes. Sticky, but drying.

Pain. It came from my chest.

I didn’t understand why it was there. Only that I needed it to stop. I couldn’t think past it. I put a hand to where it hurt, and had I needed air, the breath would have hissed between my lips as my fingers brushed over something sharp.

I opened my eyes.

It was disorienting at first. The stone block and splatter of blood, all I could see. I reached around and grasped the hilt of the dagger. My memories coming back now. Faster. Surer.

My hand still slick but stronger than ever, I held onto the hilt and pulled. A slicing sound so minute it was almost silent whispered through the Council chambers. My blood flowed again.

“You killed her,” the voice roared. It took me a moment to understand, given I’d never heard him raise his voice. Not once. Madness had him, though. I sat up, feeling eyes on me, beginning to take notice. Their expressions were horrified.

That was a difficult feat, but I’d achieved it by doing what no other had.

I’d died not once, but twice.

I’d had a true death . . . and I came back.

Again.

“She was a Made, Victor. There was never going to be more for her. You know that. She was without use.” The ancient voice slithered over me. Parched, like paper. Powerful, but not invincible. “Be done with this conversation, Son. I tire of it. There are more important matters to discuss.”

I looked down at my chest where two lines connected me and the man standing at the end of the aisle. One red. One gold.

He was my master.

He was my . . . signasti.

What an interesting turn of events. The essence in me agreed. It made things both more and less complicated.

My skin began to knit together. Muscles reattached themselves as bone fused back where it should have been. The pain receded.

I got to my feet.

And then the most peculiar thing of all happened.

My heart beat.

Just once. But it was enough.

Victor turned. His eyes widened. Black veins had crept into the white, making the silver around his pupils appear light in contrast. Blood splattered his clothes.

My blood.

“Lily?” he asked once, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

I probably wouldn’t either. Vampires didn’t come back from true death.

Perhaps I wasn’t just a Vampire.

Perhaps I was more.

I smiled, and for the first time I let him see the truth.

I let them all see the truth.

Because it was as cold and heartless as the marble floors he’d left me to die on.

“Victor,” I said sweetly. Wickedly.

With the dagger in one hand, my shirt still ripped open, chest and stomach on display, I stepped forward. My heart beat again. It was slower than a human’s but there was no denying what it was.

The sound like a battering ram to the council chamber doors.

The Born parted for me as I started toward Victor.

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