Of Blood and Downfall

Chapter 43.

No one moves but my father and workers as well as guards for the event—pushing people back into the ballroom. Aiden stands next to Emilia in the corner, their eyes wide with fear. The knowledge of one's mate dying and how death can cause outrage, a killing spree—an unforgiving rage for decades, centuries...rest of immortality.

    Issy cradles Mavis's head in her hands, blood staining her pale skin.

I don't know how she's still alive.

    My eyes glow with fury as I hold back every bit of resistance I have left before I rip her to shreds. Aria's eyes grow glassy with devastation and purses her lips.

    "What." She snaps and I stand in front of my sister and my mate, protecting them from any danger.

    From either Aria or Sam who is cowering behind her or from anybody else.

    Across the foyer is Damien and our friends, as well as my mother.

    "You heard me." I tell her, nodding once. "You bring harm to my mate, and I won't hesitate to kill you."

    "That-that's not possible."

    I drop the wall, the shield I have been so helplessly holding up to protect myself and Mavis. The scent, the bond, the attachment must've hit everyone like a wave or a gust of wind. Aria flinches, as though it has punched her in the face.

    "But we are together." She whimpers and Sam looks over her to see Mavis on the ground in the arms of my sister. Valeria has rushed down in utter sickness, muttering about the rotting smell of a body on the second floor.

    She drops a bag and begins tending to Mavis's limp body, shocked to find her still breathing.    

    I shake my head to Aria, "Guess we waited too long for the unthinkable to happen."

    Narrowing my eyes over her thin body, Sam straightens quickly. I gnaw my teeth together, wishing I can relish in prying his neck open a second time.

    "I'd advise you to leave and never come back." I snap and Sam gulps, shaking his head.

"I'm not leaving Mavis, especially since you had Jenny locked up here this entire time."

"Jenny wasn't a part of my game." I inform him, throwing a look at my brother over my shoulder. "Damien fault for that one. He likes to get rough sometimes and make irrational decisions."

"Then why keep her like that?"

"She had no control." Damien says to him, shrugging nonchalantly. "I don't like helping new vampires if they can't do one simple job." I look down at Mavis, Valeria wrapping a bandage around her head that is still bleeding red.

I fumble with the words, smelling the blood etched on the marble ground. "Leave now." I almost choke, "Mavis will decide her fate. And I will let her decide."

Issy stares at me and her shoulders sag. Aria's firm, ice cold face turns, a shaking hand covering her mouth before a sob comes out. My hands curled in fists, I wait for her father to come or Lou or anybody else who has threatened me or Mavis.

I will destroy anybody who comes near us.

"Karden." Valeria mutters, hands covered in crimson. A large bandage around Mavis's skull. "Please." She adds and I pry away from Aria, kneeling down and embracing my mate's limp body in my arms.

She's feather light, unconscious and almost...dead. I could almost feel her fading, our bond straining every second wasted. Then I look up at the stairs, smelling the rotting smell Valeria mentioned.

"We need Greta." I mutter, moving up the stairs to bring Mavis to the infirmary hall.

Aiden and Emilia and the rest of my family helps escort everyone out of the estate to go home or to stay in the ballroom. Less people will cause less of a havoc with a human bleeding out.

Jenny's body laid at the top of the stairs, her skull completely bashed open, rotting blood pooling around her. I cringe at the sight and realize the blood on my mate's hands aren't hers. But Jenny's.

Guilt seizes inside me, the thought of locking this poor girl inside the cells for months without blood, light, people and communication. The thought of Mavis opening her eyes and looking at me never the same scares me.

"We need Greta." I choke out again, Valeria rushing to my side. She opens a room from the infirmary hall, the same one Issy laid Mavis after the Blood House when I couldn't do it.

"I-I'll find her." She says anxiously but I gently place Mavis on a cot then fade out of the room, leaving her behind with the nurse.

I cut a hall and down the chambers until I reach Greta's personal hall where fresh flowers from the garden have withered in their vases.

I burst through the door, "Greta!"

Whirling towards her bed, there is nothing but the divot of a small body. Turning, she sits at an armchair near the fireplace, logs glowing orange with embers. Her dark skin ashen with grey.

"Greta?" I hurry to her with urgency, but she raises a tiresome hand.

"It happened so soon." Greta rasps, her chest going up and down very, very, slowly. I kneel down at the side, her cold hand wrapping around mine. She smiles down at me, the helpless keen smile that always reminded me to keep going. Since I was a child.

"What wrong?" I ask her, more worry pooling in my chest. Greta's eyes avert to the lick of flames turning to smoke.

"I bonded my live to Mavis. So, you wouldn't go through any hardships if she ever died." My eyes soften when she lets out a raspy laugh of joy.

"And you? I-it'll kill you."

"I've done my time, boy. Yours just began." She raised her other hand and ran it down my wet cheek full of spoiled tears. I rubbed her other hand with mine as I cried and cried and cried.

"But Mavis? She-she fell—"

"Mavis will be okay. Her heart is still beating because of me." Greta shutters a shaky sigh and closes her eyes. "I shall go now."

"No, no Greta, please."

"Take care of Issy for me." She mutters, her voice fading, fading, fading.

    "What if Mavis doesn't forgive me?" I think of Jenny and Hansel, oh Hansel I haven't told her. What if she finds out before I even want to tell her the truth?

    "Nothing is stronger than a mated bond. She will always return." Greta smiles gravely, her face sunken from old age. "Even when her life lines with yours. Eternity is a grateful thing sometimes, my sweet Karden."

    With still eyes, I watch as she takes her final breaths, eyes forcing to stay open while her hand loosens in my grip. Cupping them between both of mine, I place her slender fingers to my lips and press a kiss.

    "Thank you, Greta." I mutter when her heart beats once final thud.

~*~
OMGGG insane, Greta is a beast.
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