Blood and Rain by Shira Anthony

Author:Shira Anthony [Anthony, Shira]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63216-607-4
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2020-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

IN HIS room a short while later, Nicolas gazed out the window at the stars. From time to time, clouds drifted across the sky, obscuring the constellations. The moonless night reminded him of the time when the reality of battle had first touched him. The first time he had lost someone he’d cared about, the first of many loved ones the war with the Rousseaus would claim, including his beloved parents. Why did he still remember the night he had lost Richard as if it had just happened?

He remembered sitting at the bottom of the great staircase. He’d been young, not yet fully grown, and his brother had refused to let him fight in spite of his protests. And then came the news that Lily, his teacher’s beloved wife, had fallen in battle.

Grief hung in the air, thick like smoke and just as acrid. Nicolas saw fear in the servants’ expressions. They had tied their fates to the Lamberts, but they too felt the loss of Lily’s bright personality and gentle female touch—something that had been sorely lacking before her arrival.

Richard and Lily had lived with Nicolas and his brother for nearly five years. Jean himself had asked the Council of Hunters for special dispensation to release Richard from his work in order to train young Nicolas. But when the war between the vampire clans reignited, Richard had given up his commission and sworn his loyalty to Jean and the Lambert clan. Lily, a hunter in her own right, had joined her husband on the battlefield. But now beautiful Lily was gone forever.

Richard, how will you live without her?

Nicolas ran to the large front doors and flung them open to the sound of voices outside. What he saw he would not forget as long as he lived. Jean, his face dirty, streaked with blood, his eyes bleak and tired, carried a limp body in his arms. Richard was barely alive, his face gray and pinched with pain. Jean silently laid Richard down on a couch in the sitting room.

“You can heal him, can’t you? If he transforms?” Nicolas asked Jean, the terror squeezing his heart like a vise.

Jean shook his head. “He’s too injured to transform.”

“We should call for a human doctor.” Nicolas kneeled beside Richard and took his bloody hand.

“No doctor can save him, Nicolas. You may stay with him, if you like.” Jean clenched his jaw, hesitated just a moment, then left Nicolas alone in the room.

Nicolas stroked Richard’s brow with his free hand. “Richard.”

“My little prince. I am glad you’re safe.”

What good was it to be the Lambert prince if he could do nothing to help those he loved? What good was it to be an ancient if you were not permitted to defend your home?

“I can save you, Richard,” he said, hope rekindling in his heart.

“Your brother can’t save me, Nicolas. Neither can you.”

“I’m an ancient and you are a hunter,” Nicolas said. “I can exchange my blood for yours. I can give you immortality.”

“Little prince. You’re very kind….

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