Hellfire

Chapter Fifty

I flew into action, diving out of the way as Claudia came hurtling towards me. Her claws, massive, ugly things, scraped across the floor, splitting it apart in a shower of splinters as she aimed to tear me apart. She was faster now she'd eaten another witch. Alarm was shivering along my skin, my instincts roaring to keep the fuck away from her. She was out of my league. She'd kill me.

And killing me meant killing Lucius.

Adrenaline pumped through me, a desperate need to survive and protect myself thudding powerfully in my ears as Claudia laughed manically, as if her mind had finally broken beneath the witchblood she'd drowned herself in. I just needed to survive long enough to show I wasn't a witch and Beaumont would quickly slink away before Lucius found out what she'd done. That was it.

I kept flying from her, diving through the thickening mist that was beginning to climb up and up over the cage, slipping its ghostly tendrils to grasp at my feet. I quickly realised I didn't want to touch it when I landed in a thick spot and froze, a silent scream clutching at my throat. Terror clamped around my heart and eyes as Lady Beaumont coaxed me to see what I feared the most - death. Death claiming the family I had lost and the family I had to lose. I rolled out of it frantically, clutching at my chest as my pulse raged and my hellfire rumbled, only to have my face caught by Claudia's foot.

It hurt. Hurt a fucking lot - highlighting just how dangerous this vampiress was as my back connected with the bars of the battle cage, sending a crack through my bones and spine. I collapsed, hissing out in agony at the fire in my bones, and frantically focused on trying to heal them and keep an eye on the approaching mist and Claudia.

'Susan!' Claudia sang in a rasping voice from the poison clogging her throat. 'Susan, show me the hellfire!'

I won't fucking show you shit, I roared inwardly.

Lucius would die if I let even a lick of it out. She wanted him not me. Him.

I wasn't going to let either of them fucking near him.

I scrabbled forward, not waiting to fully heal my cracked ribs and just put up with the slicing pain, when I saw her blood fly from her right arm, flowing and settling into a large, jagged spear that she launched into my direction. I ducked and it shattered the moment it made contact with the floor behind me, making it so much worse. The individual shards hung in the air before they raced after me like harried birds, each one desperate to tear me apart. I whirled, dancing around the ghostly hands of mist trying to grasp at me and fill me with fear, and spread out my palm, trying to lace my control over the attack. The first one got through, punching through my palm and jolting me with a bolt of agony, but the rest I managed to divert. I glanced my attention over every shard, willing it to slide to my left or right and bury itself into the floor. I oddly found it easy all of a sudden, like Claudia wasn't as strong to me anymore. I didn't know how. It was like abruptly I had greater magic pumping through me, not hellfire but the cold, proud, pure blood magic of Lucius.

Claudia paused, hissing at me savagely. It was strange. The shiver of alarm was settling. She wasn't as much of a threat anymore, but something I stood a chance against.

'Stop taking from him! STOP IT!'

She dove for me, flashing into mist to drop from above, her claws and teeth bared. But I leaned into Lucius; his instincts and strength. I was a vampire right now. His bride. If I was going to live under the nose of the Courts and protect him, I couldn't let something like this end me. I had to show I was more than this. I had to be more.

I flicked my finger, entangling my control over Claudia and tossing her across the Belly. She skidded to a halt, her claws stopping her momentum by sinking deep into the floor, and she looked up fiercely. I said nothing as I focused on my magic, on what I'd learnt. This was another lesson, nothing more and nothing less.