To Seduce a Mortal |18+✔

Book 8⌇1. Come Hell or High Water

Chapter 1 ∣  Come Hell or High Water

-Maverick

"Just like before when I used my magic," Rook's voice was much quieter, "Everything comes with a price...this one is much higher than temporarily giving up your blood magic."

"What is it?" I asked, Lucette reaching out and holding one of the floating orbs in her hands, the glow seeping out between her fingers.

Rook was very quiet now, bringing his full attention to me as he stated, "Her soul will be connected to you, she'll have that pull...but she won't be the Eris you knew, she won't remember who exactly you are or anything that has happened. Her death ended her memory."

"She'll be a lost, confused, and scared human," Lucette's voice was sad, her eyes glancing down at the ground in pain.

Maybe I'd have another chance to show her the love and devotion she deserves...maybe I'd get another chance at love.

Or...maybe she'll just run away in fear, not remembering anything about me, except being drawn toward me, with no explanation. I'd risk everything for her, and I'll prove myself worthy, this time I'd protect her.

"Do it," my eyes shifted, my own black rose irises reflecting Rook's, the sudden ebony mist surrounding our forms, with it, bringing ash and fire, the flames erupting from the etchings in the ground.

**

The smell of burning flesh filled the dungeon, the mist clouding around our forms and when I breathed in deeply, it caught in my lungs. Rook's words were undecipherable, his low murmuring was followed by the orbs of light swirling around the top of the ceiling. Very quickly, they erupted. Left behind, the orbs painted the ground in different colors which quickly slipped across the stone floor. They came alive on their own, trailing over the burnt marks from the etchings on the ground, my eyes shifting away from them and staring into Rook's.

What startled me, was the sheen that glinted across his black rose eyes, what appeared to be a purplish color. It was brief, but it reminded me of when we were younger, that barrier he used in order to protect Lucette from a rogue vampire. There was no mistaking, that his was dark magic and like my own, something that should be left to the pages of fantasy books, not in this realm of reality.

His blood glowed with that same purple tint, the smirk on his face long when he spoke his final word in whatever chant he was murmuring. On that final note, the room detonated with an immense discharge of loud thunder.

That sound alone shook the entire room and I'm sure many others.

What was left behind?

A deafening scream, the pain from it searing through my bones.

I glanced to where the symbols on the ground used to be, a woman with ebony hair sat on the cold stone floor, her arms wrapped around her legs. Curdled into a small ball, her face was pressed against her knees, her naked body shaking while the symbols that remained on the outskirts of her body on the floor, faded away to nothing more but ash.

When her face lifted from her knees, I saw her eyes. Her irises were a very pale green, almost translucent.

Eris...her appearance is uncanny, the resemblance almost identical.

There was something so haunting that came through those depths, her features changing from one of slight calm, to fear. When her eyes flickered to mine, she screamed once again, her voice piercing where the silence had once settled after the loud explosions. It was then, that I realized my eyes were still shifted, feeling my fangs between my slightly parted lips.