Chapter 26

D ominic

Belinda had made good time fashioning a portal that mirrored the one my brother had used to steal Trixie away. Her portal pushed me into the disgusting crawl-hole where I was sure I'd find Sebastian and Trixie, but it wasn't working fast enough.

I could feel my form solidifying, but because Belinda had been forced to send me through a portal from halfway across the world—seeing as she was still in Egypt—it was a slower process. Too slow.

I saw the moment Trixie noticed me. I felt the moment she whispered the words I love you . I felt my brother's bite as if he'd sunk his teeth straight into my jugular. I knew I was too late.

I waited, helplessly, as my brother drank from Trixie. Her eyes shut, and I felt the moment she lost consciousness like a stab to the heart.

The day I'd been turned into a vampire, my heart had stopped beating. From then on, I'd always assumed that I essentially didn't have a heart anymore. That I'd lost my ability to feel real human emotions.

I now knew that to be completely wrong.

More pain than I'd ever endured in my entire life hit me like a tsunami as I watched the love of my life's spirit fade. My resolve to live crumbled, and the only thing I could see now was blood .

My brother turned then, his eyes widening, his teeth still taking the lifeforce from the only woman who'd made me whole again. He saw me then. I recognized fear in his eyes. He knew his death at my hands was imminent.

I fell to my knees, felt the touch of the cold, hard cement floor. I was almost there. Almost solid enough to move forward.

Before I could take a step, however, something happened. My brother's body jolted like he'd been shocked. Trixie's eyes were still closed, her body limp. But she was glowing.

The glow radiated from her core, from above her heart, and spread through her body. She glowed from the inside out as if lava made from bits of pure starlight coursed through her body, and all of it was flowing into my brother's fangs.

Sebastian jerked again, dropped Trixie, and she crumbled to the floor. I didn't know I moved, but I must have made the final leap through the portal then because I caught Trixie's limp form before she could knock against the rank floor. I wrapped her in my arms. Her glow was fading, and she was turning pale, losing her color, her heartbeat weakening.

I looked up at Sebastian, but he wasn't paying attention to us. My brother collapsed to his knees, his hands tearing at his face in what appeared to be the most excruciating pain I'd ever seen in a vampire. He was blind with it, wild with hysteria.

"Dominic," he shrieked. "What did she do to me? What is this magic? "

Then Sebastian's hands slowed, his expression went slack. His body locked up, and he went completely still. Sebastian fell onto the cement, his head cracking off the floor as he collapsed.

Belinda stumbled through the portal a moment later.

"Sorry I'm late," she gushed. "Is Trixie—oh, cheese and crackers. Here, give her this."

"My brother," I muttered. "Immobilize him first."

Belinda tossed me a vial, and I administered the potion to Trixie. I tipped the swirling black liquid down her throat, between her blue lips, and waited, praying to a god I'd never prayed to before that Belinda knew what she was doing.

"C'mon, Trixie," I said urgently. "Wake up, sweetheart. You're the only thing worth living for. If you don't make it, there's no way I will either."

I blinked, felt a tear come down my face, watched as it dropped onto her skin. I didn't know I was capable of crying real tears anymore.

"I love you," I whispered, because there was nothing left to say.

She was gone.

"I'm going to kill him," I said. "I don't care if he's already dead, I'm killing him again."

"Sebastian is not going anywhere." Belinda backed away, studying Sebastian's motionless corpse with intense curiosity. "He's not dead, but he's not waking up anytime soon. It's called the Gargoyle Curse."

"What the hell is that?"

"Did you break up with Trixie tonight?" Belinda fixed me with her gaze.

"Sort of," I said through gritted teeth. "I was doing it because I loved her, and she knew that."

"I know, but your actions still hurt her. Badly," Belinda said. "Yet it just might've saved her life."

"What are you going on about?"

"I've read about this situation, though I've never seen it in action." Belinda knelt before Sebastian, reverently surveying him like a science experiment. "It's heartbreak magic. Trixie was hurting so badly at the thought of not being with you that her body put out a defense mechanism."

"A sort of magic that protects her while she's hurting?"

"Essentially," Belinda confirmed. "Heartbreak magic is instinctive. It's not something a person can channel on purpose. I think what happened here is that she funneled it into her bloodstream, and Sebastian ingested it. It was too much for his hardened body, hardened soul, to manage."

"Trixie's pain broke him."

"That's one way to think of it," Belinda said. "Though the mechanics are far more complex."

"Not that it mattered," I said. "The only woman I'll ever love died tonight with a broken heart."

"Honey, she's not dead." Belinda gave me a soft smile. "Listen."

I listened, and sure enough, I heard the soft hitch of breath. The faint echo of Trixie's heart.

"But I heard it stop," I said, mystified as I glanced down, not ready to surrender myself to the hope that this was finally real. "I heard her heart stop. "

"The magic I gave her—black fennel—is incredibly unstable and dangerous. It puts the recipient into a deep coma and then sends magic to repair the big organs."

"You basically killed her to revive her? You idiot, Belinda."

"It was the only chance," Belinda said. "It worked. She'll be okay, Dominic. She'll be okay."

As if to punctuate Belinda's point, Trixie's eyes opened. Her hands came up, and fingers as cold as ice stroked my cheek.

"Dom," she whispered.

"Darling," I said, pouring myself fully into the stream of hope crashing around me. "Trixie. I'm so sorry. I love you more than anything. I never intended to hurt you."

"I know," she murmured. "I know, Dom. You lovable idiot."